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Flood
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the earth. Noah, by his preaching and example in building the ark,
condemned the world.
God gave all who chose an opportunity to repent and turn to
Him. But they believed not the preaching of Noah. They mocked at
his warnings and ridiculed the building of that immense vessel on
dry land. Noah’s efforts to reform his fellow men did not succeed.
But for more than one hundred years he persevered in his efforts
to turn men to repentance and to God. Every blow struck upon the
ark was preaching to the people. Noah directed, he preached, he
worked, while the people looked on in amazement and regarded him
as a fanatic.
Building the Ark
God gave Noah the exact dimensions of the ark and explicit
directions in regard to the construction of it in every particular. In
many respects it was not made like a vessel but prepared like a
house, the foundation like a boat which would float upon water.
There were no windows in the sides of the ark. It was three stories
high, and the light they received was from a window in the top.
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The door was in the side. The different apartments prepared for the
reception of different animals were so made that the window in the
top gave light to all. The ark was made of the cypress or gopher
wood, which would know nothing of decay for hundreds of years. It
was a building of great durability, which no wisdom of man could
invent. God was the designer, and Noah His master builder.
After Noah had done all in his power to make every part of the
work correct, it was impossible that it could of itself withstand the
violence of the storm which God in His fierce anger was to bring
upon the earth. The work of completing the building was a slow
process. Every piece of timber was closely fitted, and every seam
covered with pitch. All that men could do was done to make the
work perfect; yet, after all, God alone could preserve the building
upon the angry, heaving billows, by His miraculous power.
A multitude at first apparently received the warning of Noah,
yet did not fully turn to God with true repentance. There was some
time given them before the Flood was to come, in which they were
to be placed upon probation—to be proved and tried. They failed