228 FACTS AND THEORIES. 



more often the case, which seem to oppose revelation. 

 To many minds a flavor of heresy gives piquancy to what 

 might otherwise pass unnoticed. That this is true, 

 whatever its explanation, few will deny. Do philoso- 

 phers prove that our world is round, and that it revolves 

 around the sun? "That overthrows the Bible." Do 

 they say that our earth is one of the smallest members of 

 the solar system, and that the innumerable fixed stars 

 are suns? and that those worlds are inhabited? " That 

 overthrows the Bible estimate of man's importance, and 

 consequently disproves the Bible's teachings as to the 

 infinite sacrifice necessary for man's redemption." Is it 

 shown that the earth is many times 6,000 years old ? 

 " That overthrows the Bible ! " 



A few years ago, it was most confidently said that 

 under proper conditions of temperature, certain inorganic 

 substances produced living creatures by mere chemical 

 action, spontaneous generation it is called. At once it 

 was loudly proclaimed, "This overthrows the Bible 

 doctrine of creation by act of the Almighty." 



We all remember the announcement that Col. Ledyard 

 and others had found in the ruins of ancient Nineveh, 

 tablets on which were the originals from which Moses 

 obtained the first part of Genesis. There we were told, 

 he got the story of Creation, the temptation and fall, the 

 tree of life, the expulsion from the garden, the flaming 

 sword of the cherubim, forbidding all return, as well as 

 the story of Noah, the ark and the deluge. Again the 

 cry went forth, " The Bible is overthrown. In this part 

 at least, it is proved to be only a collection of Chaldean 

 Myths, and probably the rest is no better." 



I might extend this list indefinitely and show how 

 almost every discovery which could be made to have any 

 bearing on the subject, has been claimed as overthrow- 

 ing something in the Bible. Never is the claim more 

 loudly put than when the discovery is new, with neither 



