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and that her laws are so firmly established that God Himself could not
change them. Reasoning that if the message of Noah were correct,
nature would be turned out of her course, they made that message,
in the minds of the world, a delusion—a grand deception. They
manifested their contempt for the warning of God by doing just as
they had done before the warning was given. They continued their
festivities and their gluttonous feasts; they ate and drank, planted and
builded, laying their plans in reference to advantages they hoped to
gain in the future; and they went to greater lengths in wickedness, and
in defiant disregard of God’s requirements, to testify that they had no
fear of the Infinite One. They asserted that if there were any truth in
what Noah had said, the men of renown—the wise, the prudent, the
great men—would understand the matter.
Had the antediluvians believed the warning, and repented of their
evil deeds, the Lord would have turned aside His wrath, as he afterward
did from Nineveh. But by their obstinate resistance to the reproofs of
conscience and the warnings of God’s prophet, that generation filled
up the measure of their iniquity, and became ripe for destruction.
The period of their probation was about to expire. Noah had
faithfully followed the instructions which he had received from God.
The ark was finished in every part as the Lord had directed, and was
stored with food for man and beast. And now the servant of God
made his last solemn appeal to the people. With an agony of desire
that words cannot express, he entreated them to seek a refuge while it
might be found. Again they rejected his words, and raised their voices
in jest and scoffing. Suddenly a silence fell upon the mocking throng.
Beasts of every description, the fiercest as well as the most gentle,
were seen coming from mountain and forest and quietly making their
way toward the ark. A noise as of a rushing wind was heard, and lo,
birds were flocking from all directions, their numbers darkening the
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heavens, and in perfect order they passed to the ark. Animals obeyed
the command of God, while men were disobedient. Guided by holy
angels, they “went in two and two unto Noah into the ark,” and the
clean beasts by sevens. The world looked on in wonder, some in fear.
Philosophers were called upon to account for the singular occurrence,
but in vain. It was a mystery which they could not fathom. But men
had become so hardened by their persistent rejection of light that even
this scene produced but a momentary impression. As the doomed race