Evening, November 1
Go To Morning Reading
“And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away: so shall
also the coming of the Son of man be.”
Matthew 24:39
Universal was the doom, neither rich nor poor escaped: the learned
and the illiterate, the admired and the abhorred, the religious and
the profane, the old and the young, all sank in one common ruin. Some
had doubtless ridiculed the patriarch—where now their merry jests? Others had threatened him for his zeal
which they counted madness—where now their boastings and hard speeches? The critic who judged
the old man’s work is drowned in the same sea which covers his sneering companions.
Those who spoke patronizingly of the good man’s fidelity to his convictions, but shared not in them, have sunk to
rise no more, and the workers who for pay helped to build the wondrous
ark, are all lost also. The flood swept them all away, and made no single exception. Even so, out of Christ, final
destruction is sure to every man of woman born; no rank, possession,
or character, shall suffice to save a single soul who has not believed
in the Lord Jesus. My soul, behold this wide-spread judgment and tremble
at it.
How marvellous the general apathy! they were all eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, till the awful morning dawned. There
was not one wise man upon earth out of the ark. Folly duped the whole
race, folly as to self-preservation—the most foolish of all follies. Folly in doubting the most true God—the most malignant of fooleries. Strange, my soul, is it not? All
men are negligent of their souls till grace gives them reason, then
they leave their madness and act like rational beings, but not till
then.
All , blessed be God, were safe in the ark, no ruin entered there. From
the huge elephant down to the tiny mouse all were safe. The timid
hare was equally secure with the courageous lion, the helpless cony
as safe as the laborious ox. All are safe in Jesus. My soul, art thou
in him?