THE KING’S BUSINESS
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ing to go into that ark. He says that this is the last year. The world is going to be destroyed. What an absurdity!”’ When we talk now about God’s burning up this world, men scoff at the idea; “God destroy the world! He is not going to do any thing of the kind. The world is improv ing, growing better all the while. What is God going to destroy the world for if the world is growing better, and if men are getting on so well, accumulating wealth and great fortunes ? Away with such a delusion! God is not going to burn up the world. There is no God r of Judgment. God is not going to judge the world for sin. To be sure they put His Son to death. But then He just winked at that. He is not going to hold them responsible for that. It is all a delusion.” That is the talk of .the world today. THAT IS THE CRY I can imagine when the last year expired —the one hundred and twenty years were up, and the day of grace was closing, those men just increased in their scoffing and their infidelity. Noah at last moves into the ark. That was just the climax of the whole thing. A most absurd thing. Why didn’t he wait until the storm began? That would be time enough to move; then to build an ark on dry land, as if the storm was going to get up there; and if it did, do you think that old thing would float? They made all manner of sport of it, and ridiculed it. Visitors came to look at it. You can see them looking around; going up into the different stories of it. If they saw Noah around, they would say, “That’s him, that’s him there!” . They would just point the finger of scorn at him, “deluded man.” The business men of that day undoubt edly said that the ark was not worth as much when Noah got it done, as the nails they put into it. If it was put up at auc tion, it would not bring any more than what iVwas worth for kindling wood. It was not good for a house to live in, you could not make a barn of it. Yet that man had put all his wealth, probably, in that ark. For years he had gathered up
all he had and put it in that ark. The world looked upon it with scorn and con tempt, but God called him in—“Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark.” And, thank God, his children went in with him. Noah lived so that his children had confi dence in his piety. I have great admira tion for Noah If a man could live in that dark day, with those scoffers and unbelievers all about him, and command his children so that they followed him, he must have lived right at home. He must have been a true man, and hexmust have walked with, God Almighty. And after they had gone, God gave the earth seven days more of grace. He added seven days more - time to s the hundred and twenty years. Undoubtedly He gave that time to repent. If they had repented then they might have been saved. B u t,they did not repent. They mocked at the idea, and they said to Noah when he told them that he had built that ark so large that he might preserve seed upon the earth, the fowls of the air and animal creation, they mocked at the idea. “How are you going to get the wild fowls and beasts of the desert into thaUarl^? How are you going to get the wild animals frpm their caves and dens into that ark?” And they went on mocking at the idea. It was a most absurd idea. l| GOD’S ANSWER I can imagine that the first thing that aroused and alarmed them was when one morning, to their surprise they saw the heavens black with the fowls of the air, coming from the corners of the earth, two by two, mated by God, and as they came' to that ark Noah took them in. And the’ animals came in from their dens and caves, from the corners of the earth, and they came up to the ark two by two. The lion and the lamb passed in side by side, and as they looked down at the earth, they could See little insects creeping up towards that ark iwo by two, as if pushed up by some unseen hand, and they cried out “Merciful God, what does this mean?” They are alarmed now! That was the first thing, probably, that woke them up. Would
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