AN APOSTROPHE ON A ANTEDILUVIAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2672, 31 May 1905, Page 82

AN APOSTROPHE ON A ANTEDILUVIAN.

By a Banker.

The spectator who views the preserved body of a. man discovered in Egypt, now exhibited in the British Museum, who is believed on good grounds to be one of the antediluvian inhabitants of th« earth, cannot fail to bo thrilled with a- strange emotion as he stands m the presence of this extraordinary relic of a far by-gone age. The complete preservation of the body is most astonishing and remarkable, his fair_, ruddy skin and bright red hair altogether different to the typ« of Egyptians during and since the reigns of the Pha-raohs, having, m parts, retained their original hue in a most wonderful degree. And a,s we contemplate this recumbent figure, perhaps wo mentally a-postrophise the sleeping form, as more and more w« realise how age after ace epoch after epoch, has rolled by since that dim far-off era in the buried past when he too was a. sentient, virile being. Though apparently not more than about 30 years of age, perhaps he was several hundred years old; for we must assume that man m those days of longevity remained in tha prime of life for centuries, and did not put on the sere and yellow leaf until perhaps he had attained to a-n age of seven or eight hun-

■t * zf ., th ° s « sightless orbs could see, and if that silent tongue could speak, how would we crowd round to hear the recital of the history of those far-off times. Perhaps he had conversed with Adam himself, and heard from his own lips the thrilling record which has- been handed down through the ages to as his descendants. Perhaps he is one in the hne between Adam and Noah, and we actually see before us our own ancestor. Or perhaps he may have heard that patriarch denounctng Ht ll V ll ™* a . of **"> «*th, and threatening the great destruction which was soon to ensue Or who .can tell but that he was one of those who, during all those long years while the Ark was being constructed? jeered to ndieule and mocking derision; though, fortiinately for him, he was not amongst those who were overwhelmed by the great cataclysm which engulphed the earth in destruction and

Or who could say— if it be permissible to give rein to the imagination, and to indulge in the nights of fantasy — that we are not m the presence of Cain, the murderer; or of, Jubal, the father of music; or of Tubal Cain the artificer; or even — startling thought that that recumbent form before us is none other than Adam himself: that we are gazing at the very form of the first of the human race, of that rebel whose fall has entailed sucbj misery and such grinding sorrow and remorse iipon untold myriads!

But no descendant of Adam dare lay the blame upon him if he fail to attain to the glory-land. For a loving -welcome to those realms of splendour and regal sublimity is assured to all who -will but accept the salvation offered by the Son of God; -who on the cross made a full, perfect, and sufficient propitistion for the sins of all who will rec'eir« it.