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“ I cannot see any urgent necessity from Scripture to assert that the Flood 
did spread itself over all the surface of the earth. That all mankind (those 
in the Ark excepted) were destroyed by it, is most certain according to the 
Scriptures. When the occasion of the Flood is thus expressed 1 1 And God 
saw that the wickedness of man was great upon earth, and that every 
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the 
Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the 
earth.’ ” 
But that is not Stillingfleet’s view ; lie merely puts it as an assumption. 
He says that it is “ not necessary ” to maintain a universal deluge ; but upon 
this theory of a partial deluge he says, it would be sufficient for Scripture if 
you destroy, not Palestine only, but the whole continent of Asia. That is 
his point, and he puts a limited interpretation upon the words, remarking : — 
“ For it is said that all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl 
and of cattle and of beast and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
earth, and every man.” 
And then he proceeds to show that that might have applied only to that 
part of the earth which men inhabited. But when you give a universal 
interpretation to every man, why do you limit it in the case of the other 
animals ? I now go to what I consider to be the patent facts of science, and 
what are they ? It is admitted that there is no mountain so high upon the 
earth that it does not contain evidence of having once been under water. 
That much is admitted. I will not say what are the different theories which 
have been attempted to be set up to account for this. I only deal with the 
facts, not with interpretations. We are told that we must not multiply 
miracles. Well, but what is a miracle ? We put our own interpretation 
upon the word miracle, but when we get to the Bible that has a very 
different interpretation. A miracle is a work of God, and as much a part of 
God’s law as any other work of creation. Man’s very existence or vitality 
and God’s keeping all things in the order in which they are kept are as much 
miracles as anything else 
Mr. Reddie. — No, no. 
The Chairman. — A different kind of miracle, I grant you (hear, hear), but 
still a miracle. I say that science also comes in with its miracles, and 
requires as much from our faith as anything contained in the Bible. Look 
at the electric telegraph : is not that a great miracle ? You suppose that all 
Europe was once at the bottom of a very deep sea, and then, by some means 
or other, was raised again to the top and was depressed again, and so on ; 
and if you multiply these things and believe the miracles of science, are you 
to have any difficulty in believing that one miracle which the Bible shows in 
the universality of the Noachian deluge ? We have had a reference made to 
Dr. Pye Smith and his views. But why did he object to a universal deluge ? 
Because he thought there was not water enough to cover the whole earth. 
But when he put forward that theory we had not plumbed the depth of our 
oceans. He did not know that they were far deeper than the height of our 
