But we are also told that these men understood the Tao-tien, or universal laws, and were in possession of the efficacious Word, so that by their knowledge, allied to their great virtues and simplicity of life, they were enabled to withstand the assaults of cosmical forces and extend their years beyond the low average to which modern civilization has brought us. It has been suggested by some controversialists that the age of Methuselah, which is given as 969 years, should be reckoned as lunar years, that is to say, as nine hundred and sixty-nine lunations. But this would yield a period of about 78 years and 120 days merely, and by the same computation he would be just over 15 years of age when he begat Lamech, for it is said that he was then 187 years of age, and 187 lunations equal 15 years and 47 days. But this would falsify the whole of the chronology, which, although not established, is found to be consistent in itself. Thus both the Chinese and the Hebrews agree as to the date of the Flood, 2348 B.C. At that time Noah was the Patriarchal ruler in Chaldea and Yaou and Shun were joint riders in the Yellow Empire. The curious agreement of the Hebrew and Chinese records is presumptive evidence of something in the nature of a vast and probably universal cataclysm. The following is the computation from Genesis— Age of Adam at the birth of Seth, 130 years. ” Seth ” ” Enos, 105 ” ” Enos ” ” Cainan, 90 ” ” Cainan ” ” Mahalaleel, 70 ” ” Mahalaleel ” ” Jared, 65 ” ” Jared ” ” Enoch, 162 ” ” Enoch ” ” Methuselah, 65 ” ” Methuselah ” ” Lamech, 187 ” ” Lamech ” ” Noah, 182 ” ” Noah at the time of Flood, 600 ” —— Total of years from Epoch 1656 ” Beginning of the record, B.C. 4004 ” —— Date of the Flood, B.C. 2348 ”