The plumb-line laid to the wall

Dedication

This Little Volume Is Affectionately Dedicated

As a Token of My Very Great Love, and as a Proof That

I Am Not Unmindful of the Patience

Preface

This work, with its many imperfections, is submitted to the public. The story of why we selected these topics for a lifework would make our Preface too long, and be largely composed of the story of the author's self. We submit the work, asking no charity to hide its faults. We give a few broken passages, and, though the connection is in no way related to our topics, yet if you grant to the words in these passages meanings that are acceptable to-day, and without which these words would be meaningless,, you will discern even in these the tintings of in piration. The Bible is the most wonderfully illustrative book ever given to the world. We will furnish you with sentences of but a few words, that, were we to illustrate their interpretations and simply draw the illustrations suggested by the individual words and the whole combined, you would s ee that no circus was ever more abundantly or more profusely advertised or illustrated. We never refer you to the Bible or to the sciences. We give you the book, chapter, and the toxt, and, when necessary to refer to the text, we repeat it. We then comment. Then we give the teachings of our scientists. Each reader may be judge, for the testimony of both is before him. Do not understand that we hold rig'dly to the above order, but strictly to the above truths. Sometimes we make the scientific statement first; then come with our Bible text and comment afterward. We vary thii arrangement to suit the trend of the thought and to prevent monotony. Where a passage supports, unmistakably, a particular theory, and, at the same time, thoughts on some closely related topic, or even a foreign one, we deal with that first which is more closely connected with the topic under consideration. Then we invest : gate those other features. This very oTten whl give the work the appearance of a lack of unity. What we may apparently lose in unity will b3 compensated by fruit from adjoining or even distant vineyards. In referring to Job we sometimes mean the book

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for the man, or even some one else, from the fact that it is a statement found in the book of Job. We believe that all science, all human learning, is couched in the Bible. The effort is to classify Bible science and Bible learning from Bible authors, as developed from their statements, and then to orderlyarrange these statements, adopting as titles of subjects the names given by the scientific world. The plumb-line we conceive to be science. The wall is the massive masonry of God's works as seen in the things which he has created, formed, and made, from the atom to the world, to our systems, to all the systems, to the motions and forces, and the laws that govern them, from the organ to its functions, to the invisible forces transmitted by these organs to the inner receptacle where dwell immortal forces, a living combination of faculties having the image of God himself. God stands on this wall and holds out the plumb-line. The object of this work is to lay this line (science) to this wall (inspiration's statements), and ask you to see how gently it touches from top to bottom, from end to end, wherever applied. In many places I can see the wall rise high and grand, but to me the line is lost. May God in his infinite mercy and wisdom raise up one who can and will show the line, and will swing it to every angle, to every face, and to every height, and prove him ! We very often give the dates when these thoughts were sent forth by inspiration, and when first promulgated by the world. Not one time has the promulgation made by the world antedated that made by inspiration. Not one time can the simplest or most learned skeptic claim for science a precedent.

The Author.

TO THE BEADEB.

Was the Bible given by inspiration? You answer that it was. Then each sentence also was the gift of inspiration ; if that be true, then so was each clause, phrase, and word. "Words make sentences; individual words contain all the thought. Then to study this book of inspirations we have but to study each word. Inspiration never generalizes one single time. Its office is to particularize, individualize. Understand what the word means, then apply it rightly; it will always give a true Bible conclusion, and one that will conflict with no scientific truth, nor with itself. I know some good men who make — and deservedly, too — some pretensions to scholarship that when questions pertaining to science and the Bible are brought up turn off with an " 0, well," and put on a look as if to say that it is not safe for the Bible to be looking after that.

Afraid to investigate a book acknowledged by all Christian people to be the work of inspiration, from one that says He is perfect in knowledge! God says that he made the earth and all things therein, and I'm afraid to investigate the matter for fear that it may not measure up to that standard. the power of unbelief! I satisfy myself with a general old-rut use of terms, keeping up an outward appearance, with a heart full of misgivings on this matter. I asked a good man: "What is meant by ends cf the earth." He answered: "All the face of the earth." " Then," said I, " what is meant by end f " " 0, well," said he, "any one place on the earth." "Well, what is meant by breadth of the earth? " " Well, it is similar to ends ; it, too, means all the earth." This is what I call " old rutisms ; " an insult to inspiration, a dishonor to a Christian world. A strange inspiration that would use terms so recklessly, with meanings so flexible. The strongest proof of inspiration is the exactness of the words used. No ordinary writer of this day can afford to send out an art"cle as meaningless as our friend's Bible definitions. End means end, not side, nor face, but the extremity of the longer side of a thing. Find that point, and, if talking about the earth, drive a stake till the lower end of it reaches the internal fires of the earth. When end is mentioned again, go back to your stake, and you will be right, not only

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once, but every time. When it says breadth, go to the extremity of the earth's shorter diameter and let your stake down again, with every assurance that you are right; you will never miss it. How little we value inspiration when we fail to give to each word precisely what it means! Words are often sermons, very often. Give this work a word interpretation. Let your Bible study be a word work. Solomon says: "Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips. That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?" The very Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Every thought is but the kernel, of which the word is the shell. Break these shells gently, but surely, and the richness of a precious kernel is yours.

Suppose that we could find in the Bible a country named and described, the description of which was precisely that of this country, as given by our geographers ; that it lay between the same parallels and the same meridians as does this country; that the general shape of the land was as the shape of this continent; that it lay between two oceans, the one on the east and the other on the west, with a great gulf on the south; that it had a great mountain chain along its eastern and a greater chain along its western border; that it had a river system to the northeast, one in the south, another in the southwest, and still another to the northwest; that thi3 description entered into detail far enough to give the sources of these rivers, their courses, and their mouths; that it gave the positions of thousands of cities similarly situated as are many of our cities, with surroundings in every respect the same; that this account describes the people, their language, laws, and religions. If I should ask you how this came about, to explain how it came to be w T ritten so many years ago, who Could know such things? There could possibly be left to you but one solution. Inspiration alone could have done this — so we think. We have tried to make our proof of inspiration along this line, or by a similar

TO THE HEADER. IX

process. All the subjects discussed in this book are discussed from Bible texts. These texts every time antedate, very often thousands of years, any mention made of them by the world. Like the description of our country as above, who could say that the earth was round a thousand years before man knew it — any man? Who could say that the earth turned on its axis four thousand years before any man dreamed of such a thing? God alone, directly, or through his inspired instruments.

Let us first compare some of the statements made against the Bible to some strange facts found in our school-books. I am told that the Bible contradicts itself, that it does not stand to reason. Some years ago I saw in a paper a notice proposing to send twelve contradictions, found in the Bible, for twenty-five cents. I repeated: "Only twelve contradictions in my Bible.'' I was not a reader of the Bible, consequently had no extra supply of piety, and really thought that there were not only hundreds, but that the whole was a bundle of contradictions. Have you never noticed that when a man changes his Church fellowship he stills the public mind by: "I got to reading for myself." That's the plan. I repeated again: "Only twelve contradictions ! " That shocked my infidelity, and gave me faith to read for m} T self. I reasoned that if all the remainder were free from contradictions, I could find enough to boat over to the land of no contradictions. I thought again that perhaps the finder of these errors had sought for errors only; that the life of his business, twenty-five cents a dozen, was in a measure the great feature to him. Then maybe there are only eleven. The finder being soulless, it could make no difference to him if all were errors. A living soul, floundering in one, has something to do with bias in truth and morals. I thought that the perversion of truth through moneyed interest might prompt to the adding of one. This reduced the number to ten. Then could not this searcher, like other men, make a mistake to the reduction of one? This reduced the number to nine. I felt that the Bible in places, in its childish simplicity, had so far undershot this mentor that he could not reduce himself even to the loss of one. Now, then, there are in reality only eight. I thought that perhaps one of these might be reconciled by going back to the original tongue. That, you see, reduces this number fairly to seven. This, you know, is a sacred number, and I

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felt all right. I thought then of a friend's story, told when I was a boy. This friend told that on one occasion his father promised to take him and his brothers fishing when a certain piece of fodder was stripped. The boys speculated on this wise, that they could strip faster by each stripping one row at a time. They made one through; then they thought that in nearly the same time each might have stripped two rows. So the next through each stripped two rows. This was an improvement. So the next through each took three rows. This was also a success. After fanning for a moment the father said : " Boys, there are only seven rows for each ; let's breast it." So they did. Now we have our contradictions and errors reduced to seven. Breast it; we'll have time to go fishing then. Only seven errors in a book of a thousand double-column pages, written by thirty or more different authors, covering hundreds of thousands of topics; a book of sixty-six books (we omit the Apocrypha), twelve hundred chapters, thirty thousand verses, seven hundred thousand words, covering a period of five thousand years, written under every vicissitude of fortune; when favor and fear were weighed in doubtful balance ; when writing was young; an age clouded by moral and scientific superstition; before the arts were born ; before science had ever looked up or around; a book translated from tongue to tongue; sold as a curious story; stolen, a prey in war, buried, burned; its adherents and promulgators staked, stoned, and burned. Let us review the track that reason has left. We will review its simpler things and see how they harmonize. Let us go back to the history of our own country. Select from any number of authors on the history of the United States, going back to its discovery; or bring in all. Now this period will not exceed the time that Israel remained in Egypt. Is there a man so silly who will say that hundreds of contradictions can not be found? Now in the close of the nineteenth century as we look back to the days of witchcraft in our country, tell me what account given in the Bible is less inviting, and one that it did not condemn having such a nature. Do you see the pillory, the stocks, and ducking-board? Do you find the code of honor whose merchandise is death and its subscriber a wretch? An eye for an eye beats that. The wretch who had time to become skilled in taking human life stood ready to provoke that he might ply

TO THE READER. XI

his skill, and an approving country clapped hands when new victims fell. Any such contradictions as that in the Bible?

I have before me two histories written by different authors. One says: 'All of Manhattan Island, where New York now stands, was purchased for trinkets worth twenty-four dollars." The other says that it was bought for twenty-five dollars. Let us interpret the first quotation above; let us see what the people four thousand years to come will make of it. "That Manhattan Island was purchased for trinkets. That when made into trinkets these will only be worth twenty-four dollars. The magnitude of such trinkets will revive the story of giants, and we be classed among the giants. How am I to know Whether Manhattan Island was purchased with trinkets or twenty-five dollars? This is a contradiction. There is no Manhattan, nor was it ever purchased." (Reason.)

How much philosophy can you squeeze from all these histories before us? You can not find in all one-half that is found in several chapters of the Bible. Draw now the sciences of that period around the histories of that period, and all combined will not furnish the learning and philosophy offered by the thirty-eighth chapter of the book of Job; and this book was written three thousand years before Columbus was born. The writers of the Bible were the scribes of inspiration ; the writers of history are very often the scribes of interest, of sectional preferment; very often scribes for money. Either of the last would incline a pen, if it did not seriously bend it. Let us present you with a case in point, one that will not take other histories to prove. Take the moneyed provision of the Blair Bill. That was a good thing. Why did the South not accept it? Why should the North present such a bill? Why should the North ask a monopoly in telling to the rising generations the tale of our late war? Was it the only true story? Why should the South object? Was the story not fairly told? Do we have two different stories of one and the same period in which each had his part in every scene and act? In a few thousand years how can the world reconcile these varying reports from one and the same household? Every struggle has its adverse parties, and furnishes its adverse stories. Inspiration had none of this. To-day will hand down its contradictions. We suspect and are suspected ; we condemn and are condemned. We

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are a people of varying versions. Could we rid ourselves of these characteristics, then we would face a new heaven and a new earth, and the glories of a higher and a better life would stream down upon us as freely as the never-failing sunshine by day, and the lurings from the declarations of God's glory, as they ceaselessly fall upon us from the stars by night, .become inspirations more surely, and with less variations point out the line of life than the best-devised compass can direct a ship's course through the trackless ocean.

Let us examine our geographies. They say : " The rivers of Pennsylvania, contrary to the ordinary geographical laws, cleave through the mountains." I reject this because it does not stand to reason — my reason, of course. Therefore, there is no Pennsylvania. Geography also teaches that the Ohio and its northern tributaries are lower than the mouth of the Cumberland. Then the Ohio and its tributaries run up-hill to the mouth of the Cumberland ; and these streams are wilful, physical law-breakers. Is this a contradiction ? Say, does this stand to reason — your reason, not mine? This does away with the authenticity of the Ohio River or geographical laws. I am told that recent calculations vary the sun's distance from the old figures. Is it possible that this error has been kept in our oldest sciences, in our most learned books, and that for three or four hundred years? How can this be if science is inflexible and reason infallible? Let us carry this thought to the primary department, to the kindergarten; let us turn to Webster's "Speller." We find the words "center" or "centre," "niter" or "nitre," "meter" or "metre." Is Mr. Webster able to teach with certainty either mode of spelling the above words ? Can you tell the true orthography of either of these words? What would you say to the little one in the A, B, C book? This is purely an admission on the part of our best lexicographer that here is a contradiction that confronts us, even in the very beginning of a learned life. I am told that Webster and Worcester differ materially in the spelling of certain words. Does this allow the assertion that Webster and Worcester are impostors on the learned world ? Can we reject their valuable dictionaries on this fact. Let us take the spelling of "phthisic." Nowhere in the Bible are we more heavily taxed to believe its statements than are the little beginners in a literary life to ac-

TO THE EEADEE. Xlll

cept the above. If our faith had depended on the above spelling, a much larger per cent of the human family would be sacrificing to other gods than are at the present time.

A paradox is something that seems unreasonable, yet is true. Our physical sciences are full of paradoxes. This is only a fault of myself. My comprehension only makes a thing paradoxical to me, whether it be a scientific or Biblical question. A correct comprehension removes every paradox. The shades and colors from a picture do not depend more upon the colors or the Mendings made by the brush than the observer's position and whence falls the light. Put yourself in the very best position possible to see the Bible, where the light will have its highest effect; then for twelve contradictions you would not think it unsafe to offer a million dollars.

The Bible comes down through fifty centuries. It has its paradoxes that can be removed by a change of position. Science may go up through fifty more. To those improperly placed it will have its paradoxes. The center of gravity of the one is the center of gravity of the other, and will never change. Harmony will still be the law of stability in both.

One suggested that we should submit this work to critical scholars, that the original tongue be consulted, that in the revision perhaps the true meaning of the original was not kept up. The Bible is God's word, his gift to man for man's good and his glory. "We have but to casually glance over the nations of the earth to determine the truth that the most enlightened nations are Bible-reading and Bible-publishing nations. Whatever of elevation the world enjoys to-day is due to this Book. This Book has not filled its mission yet. It w r as not given to one nation nor one age. It is as much a gift to this generation, and more so, as to the first, from the fact that a new and a more recent edition has been added. The fact that it is God's Book, his gift, is evidence to me that he is able and willing to take care of it, and that he will do it as he has in ages past. Would he put into the hearts of men what to write at first, for purposes that are not yet accomplished, and then not watch his purpose through its revision? I as much believe that he supervised its revision as I do that he gave the first copies. The thought that God would lose his Book or suffer its words perversely revised is pure blasphemy.

CHAPTER I. Pagr

Selections from the Bible— Creation — Order of Earth Transformations — Time, Vast Periods — When and How the Sea Was Formed — Universal Sea at First — March of the Sea to Its Decreed Place — Appearance of the Dry Land — The Ocean the Storehouse and Library — Geology Recommended — Surface of the Land under the Sea — Waves, Waterspouts, Tides, and Their Causes — Ocean Currents. 1

Chapter II

Let There Be Light — Light a Preparation — The Sun Not a Separate Formation as the Earth and Other Planets, but a Preparation — The Sun and Its Fruits — The Moon and Stars— The Great Flight of Arcturus 32

Chapter III

The Earth Is Round — The Sea Is Circular — The Size of the Earth Compared to the Balance — Bible Illustrations by Comparison — Specific Gravity of the Earth Obtained by Our Method for Obtaining Specific Gravity — How the Lands Stand with Reference to the Seas and the Tides — ■ Earthquakes and Volcanoes — Central Fires — The United States and Britain in Prophecy 49

Chapter IV

Descriptive Geography — Frigid Zone — Arctic Circle Traced — The World's Explorations in Arctic Climes the Subject of Prophecy — By Prophecy This Region Was Surveyed, Its Bounds Were Given — Also Its Geographical Features, Its Animal and Vegetable Life — Bering and Davis Straits Noted and Located — Also Those Dangerous Ice-Bound Straits High Up in Arctic Lands — 'The Source of the Winds and the Cold Ocean Currents — Warm Currents—The Pole, 68

Chapter V

Winds, Where and How Produced — The Air Has Weight, How Determined — The Buoyant Force of the Air — The Constant, Variable, and Periodical Winds — Vapors, Rain, How Produced — Lightning — Rainbow — Ice — Storms 91

Chapter VI

Conduction, Reflection, Absorption — Steam — Steam-Engine — Cars — Express-Train — Electricity — Telegraph and Telephone 108

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CHAPTER VII. page

Indestructibility — Change of Earth's Surface — Vegetable Kingdom — Samson Burning the Wheat-Fields — Iron Chemically Considered 135

Chapter VIII

A Psalm Translated into the Law of Gravitation — The Sun's Motion Along a Circuit — David and Newton Compared 144

Chapter IX

Influence of Gravity — Result Should This Force Fail — General Ruin Will Follow the Dissolution of This Force — The Fall of Worlds Illustrated.. . 189

Chapter X

Motion — Cause of Day and Night — Sun's Place — Rotation of the Earth on Its Axis — Its Motion About the Sun — Planetary Orbits Elliptical — The Three Laws of Kepler Illustrated — Obliquity of the Ecliptic — The Sun Rises and Sets Always within the Tropics — Motion and Rest Absolute and Relative — Rest only Relative — Theory of Systems Taught — The Sun's Motion through Space — The Earth a Star — Supplement to Rotation of the Earth — The Sun and Stars Do Not Rise and Set by Their Own Motions — In Fact, Every Feature That Is Taught by Astronomers When Dispensing the Great Motions of Planets and Systems — Honor to Whom Honor Is Due 222

Chapter XI

Who We Are, and What We Are — Man — Assets of His Wealth — Circulation of the Blood — Spinal Cord — The Body before and after Death — After Death the Body Is to Be Broken Up by Physical and Chemical Forces and Scattered— Will Be Collected When the Earth Gives Up the Dead— Faith 295

Chapter XII

Joshua at Gibeon — The Miraculous Standing Still of the Sun, and the Stoppage of the Moon — The Foolishness of the World's Theory Touching This Miracle — Joshua's Knowledge Exceeded the Knowledge of the World Till the Nineteenth Century — Is Not Inferior to That — A Physical and a Spiritual Miracle — The Unsolved Question Solved — Light the Cause of Planetary Motion 324