Joshua's long day. 



137 



of us can testify to the fact that God has often heard and 

 answered believing prayer in regard to the weather. 



(2) But the principal fact that makes Mr. Maunder's theory 



impossible is that the great stones from heaven which 

 the Lord cast upon the Amorites (Josh, x, 11), and 

 which Mr. Maunder interprets as "a great hailstorm 

 with thick clouds," took place before Joshua called upon 

 the sun or moon to stand still, or be silent (Josh, x, 12), 

 . and therefore could not possibly have any direct connec- 

 tion whatever with Joshua's prayer to the sun except 

 that, according to the Scripture record, the Lord helped 

 Joshua first by casting great stones from heaven upon 

 the Amorites ; and " then "' afterwards (as an entirely 

 separate and subsequent Divine intervention) made the 

 sun and moon stand still (or be silent) in answer to 

 Joshua's prayer. 



(3) However, as the late Dr. A. T. Pierson once said, when 



various interpretations are put upon a difficult passage 

 of Scripture, the simplest and most obvious is generally 

 the correct one. So here, when we read that the sun 

 stood still (or " was silent ") in the midst of heaven, and 

 hasted not to go down about a whole day (verse 13), we 

 are, I submit, driven to the conclusion that the words 

 mean that, in spite of astronomical difficulties (which are 

 not difficulties to the Almighty Creator), that day was in 

 fact lengthened (see also Hab. iii, 11), making the state- 

 ment in verse 14 literally true that " There was no day 

 like that before or after it," 



It is also a well-known fact that the three great record-keeping 

 countries of the world are Greece, Egypt and China, and these, with 

 India, have all an ancient record of a long day. 



The Chinese record, which is the most remarkable, occurs in the 

 essays of the famous Chinese Taoist, philosopher and alchemist? 

 Huainan Tzu, thus : — 



" Duke Yang of Lu (1058-1053 B.C.), being engaged in a bloody 

 battle with the army of the Han State, and fearing lest evening 

 should close in and interfere with his victory, he raised his spear 



