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By
S. S.
No. II.
From the Creation to the Deluge.
Having shown in our first article that no absolute
necessity existed for placing the Creation at a date
anterior to the time mentioned in the Bible, we
shall give credence to the history of events therein
contained, on the following grounds. That without
an omnipotent Creator the world could not be in
existence. That the biblical account of its creation
is perfectly in accordance with the attributes of an
omnipotent and benevolent Being. That amongst the
traditions of all the nations of antiquity there
glimmers a description of this creation. That when
the Bible was translated for Ptolemy Philadelphus
[Lagos?], had it been found to contain any false
records, their falsity could not have passed the
scrutiny of the wise men of that time, aided as they
were by a vast collection of manuscripts, covering
all the history and science known in that, the
golden age of Egyptian knowledge; for, had no
documents then existed to substantiate those
miraculous events, the deluge and the Exodus, the
Bible would have been considered fabulous, at least
in respect to these two occurrences. If it had even
contained an exaggerated account of them, would the
translators have been loaded with favours, and
presents of such immense value been sent to the
temple in acknowledgment of being put in possession
of so great a treatise as the King and his
councillors deemed this book?
And, lastly, in human construction of characters and
events, full credence in all cases is given to the
details of occurrences with which the hearer may not
be acquainted, if the relater presents a character
of unimpeachable veracity in such points as his
hearers feel or know to be true.
Thus premising, we will take up the sacred record,
and follow it through its sublime course until it
leads us to the foot of <<344>>Sinai, where, before
the sight of an assembled people, in awful majesty
was that law given, and that compact made, which
still binds the wandering descendants of Jacob with
a strength that the world has endeavoured, but in
vain, to overcome.
We
are told that after the heavens and the earth were
created, the earth remained formless and void,
covered with waters, dismal and motionless; but how
beautiful was the progression from chaos to
perfection. The formless and void earth was clothed
in a thick and impenetrable darkness. There was no
life. There was no air, no sound. The winds had not
yet left the storehouse of the Most High. When lo!
the spirit of God moved over the face of the waters,
and at his bidding light sprang into existence: the
waters separated themselves, and dry land appeared.
Quick as thought it is clothed in verdure, and the
majestic tree, the graceful vine, and the fragrant
blossom, make lovely the abode soon to be filled by
a more noble creation. The sun and moon, rejoicing
in their new existence, commence their destined
courses, and the bright stars looking down from the
distant space smile on their new-born sister. But
yet there is no life. What agitates the mighty
waters? it is the sound of that omnific voice: and
sea and air are filled with animated life. Again the
voice is heard, and the mountainside, and the lowly
and the fertile plain are no longer silent: for
animals clothed with beauty and with strength are
coursing gaily around, wondering at themselves
knowing yet naught of the fierce the fearful nature
with which they are gifted. But the capital of this
beauteous column is yet wanting. God no longer
speaks: as if to show man more plainly the dignity
of his nature, and the gratitude due to his Creator.
He moulds him from the pre-existing clay, forms him
after the likeness of his Maker, and breathes into
the yet unanimated mass a part of his own undying
essence, and man becomes a living soul. Thus formed
of a nature combining spiritual with earthly
desires, and being placed in a position where
earthly desires would hold the preponderance, what a
curse would it have been to man, had his immortality
on earth
not depended upon his obedience to God! If he
obeyed, his life would be a continual state of
enjoyment if he followed alone <<345>>the bent of
his earthly instincts, the aptitude for enjoyment
would soon become palled by satiety, and to support
an existence that has no hopes in a future, no
difficulties to overcome, no triumph to achieve,
must have been a task that a benevolent Creator
would never impose upon the creature of his hands.
But by what simple means could the dissolution of a
being destined to an immortal earthly existence be
brought about? His body was subject to a perpetual
decay and a perpetual renovation, and as long as
these two powers gained no advantage aver each
other, his present system would undergo no change.
The food which he ate returned the lost strength to
his sinews the chemical changes which it underwent,
filled his veins with new blood and supplied the
waste of his frame. There was, however, a food which
was forbidden;* a fruit that, though lovely to the
eye and luscious to the taste, contained within
itself, the seeds of death, or perhaps, though it
possessed a stimulating power, which might for a
time give more energy to the faculties, of the mind,
<<346>>yet did not contain sufficient of those
renewing qualities which the system of man required;
and thus his body gradually grew weaker, until it no
longer had the power of continuing its connexion
with that vital and volatile spirit which we call
the soul.
Still though the body of man was no longer beyond
the reach of death, to us, puny offspring of a more
degenerate age, his life even then, though shorn of
its glory, excites our wonder and our doubt; but yet
the causes which now shorten existence had scarcely
then come into play. Laws were few and simple.
Wealth or honours were neither sought after, nor
desired. The cares of life were thrown to the winds.
His food was of the field and of the tree, and the
diseases to which animals are subjected were not
inoculated into his system. But if his feelings of
responsibility as a being endowed with a soul which
could not die, lay dormant, not so the desires of
his animal nature; and vice and licentiousness
covered the young fair face of the earth with its
gloomy pall, till sin drew down upon its votaries
the just chastisement of an offended Deity. But the
earth even then was nor without a witness of the
goodness and mercy of the Most High. God would not
punish without first warning his deluded creatures,
and Noah, the man whose faith never faltered during
many continuous years, built in the sight of the
people, high on dry land, far, far from any waters
that could float the mighty fabric,* a vessel which
was to preserve the seed of a doomed race. That they
looked upon Noah as a madman; that they thought it
the height of folly to commence and finish so huge a
ship where by ordinary reasoning it must remain
until it rotted; that they listened to his
exhortations with scorn, and showered ridicule and
contumely on his head—for as yet experience to them
was as a sealed book—we may well believe.
But which of God’s witnesses have not been thus
treated: who has pointed out the unreality and
unreliability of earthly enjoyment, and portrayed
the unending delights of a holier existence, without
receiving in return the scorn and scoffs of the
unthinking <<347>> many? If we derive no other
benefit from the antediluvian world, than the
example that the character of the pious Noah
presents to us, shall we say we owe it nothing?
Where is faith like his to be found? To stand forth
alone, and, free and uncontaminated amidst a world
grown old in immorality and licentiousness, to
believe undoubtingly that the lovely valley would be
submerged and the lofty mountains overflowed, though
his mind could not have been able to comprehend the
process by which so great a visitation could be
produced; to labour unswervingly for 120 years to
prepare for the coming event of which nature gave no
indications, and that in the face of the sneers and
the ridicule of men who had lived a thousand years,
who had not heard that such had happened even in the
days of their grandfathers, was indeed a childlike
trust in God.
But alas! doubts do not change or avert the
judgments of God. The sceptic may learn to believe,
when belief comes too late for the attainment of
salvation. The day of repentance has passed, and the
sun, as if in anguish, withdraws his beams from that
doomed race which he is never more to see, and thick
darkness covers the land. Alas for those who would
not listen to the warning voice! The winds with
their mournful wail sing their dirge, and the mighty
waters, and the fertilizing rain, which until now
had been but as ministers of mercy, unite for their
destruction, till hope at last is smothered by
despair; for can they, dare they hope for a
spiritual life when the whole aim of their earthly
existence has been to stifle and trample under foot
all of heaven which their natures contained?
But safe upon the waste of waters rode the ark of
Noah, and within its capacious bulk all that was
left of the primal creation. Though the thunder
shook the vault of heaven, fear entered not within
its precincts; though the lightning in its
unrestrained grandeur flashed around them, they
feared not nor did they tremble; for the same God
whom they had faithfully served still was supreme
over all, and faith supported them through that
terrific period when nature itself seemed about to
be turned to chaos again, and darkness to assume its
ancient dominion. |
