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historical occurrence, which has given rise to no end of con- 
troversy, and that I believe, just because theologians have 
clung to a theory of the Deluge, against which incontro- 
vertible facts protest, and in favour of which not even the 
usus loquendi of Scripture itself can be pleaded. It is vain to 
say that time will bring us additional light upon this subject. 
The lapse of years — of centuries, can never find accommoda- 
tion in the Ark for representatives of all existing species of 
animals, with a sufficiency of appropriate food for twelve 
months. The lapse of years — of centuries, can never reduce 
the number of species ; can never alter the conditions under 
which plants and fishes exist ; and can never remove the diffi- 
culties attendant upon the supposition that animals from 
every region of the globe found their way to the Ark, and after 
the Flood found their way back, over mountains, across oceans, 
thousands of miles, to their respective homes. Necessity is 
urgent, therefore, that theologians should frankly accept that 
theory of a limited flood, which satisfies science, nay, which 
is supported by science, and which does no dishonour to the 
Word of God. Every intelligent student of the Bible is aware 
of the difficulties which crowd round the theory of a univer- 
sal deluge, and surely it is not only legitimate but wise, to 
accept a solution which Scripture itself sanctions. 
In the number of the Sunday Magazine for December, 
1868, there is an article on Genesis, from the pen of one of 
the most able and cultured theologians in Scotland, Dr. 
Lindsay Alexander. It contains a paragraph which painfully 
illustrates the untenable position occupied by those who, in- 
telligent enough to understand the difficulties, are yet too 
timorous to accept the only possible solution. He says : — 
“ It is vain to attempt to make the language of Moses square with the 
idea of a local deluge ; and the impossibility of a universal deluge seems 
demonstrated by the clearest evidence of science. That there was a deluge, 
by which the race of man was nearly swept from the face of the earth, the 
traditions of ail nations assert ; but that it happened exactly as Moses 
describes, and that it spread over the whole earth, is a supposition involving 
so many difficulties, that only on the hypothesis of a series of miracles as 
great as that of creation can it be entertained. That God could have 
covered the surface of the globe with a sheet of water many thousands of 
feet in depth, without leaving any permanent traces of its action, and with- 
out disturbing the relations of the earth to the planetary system ; and that 
He could have preserved in life and health a vast multitude of animals 
under conditions in themselves incompatible with these, it would be pre- 
sumptuous to deny. But as the Bible nowhere says that God did perform 
these miracles, it seems no less presumptuous to assume their occurrence. No 
adequate solution of the difficulty has been proposed.” 
