Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-06-06
4flisteIIontous Grizzlies.
A PICTURE OF THE DELUGE.

slow to punish" is from DIR. Guthrie
excellent Sermons on Ezekiel.
aLook. for example, on the catastrophe
of the Deluge. Wemay have our atten-
| ton so engrossed by the dread and awful
character of this judgment, as to over
Hook all that precededit, and see nothing
ibut these devouring waters.
.The waters rise till rivers swell into |
lakes, and lakes into seas, and along fer
tile plains the sea stretches out her arms
to seize their flying population. Still the
waters rise; and now, mingled with beasts
that terror has tanned, men climb to the
mountain tops, the flood roaring at their
heels. Still the waters rise; and now
each summit stands above them like a
separate and seagirt isle. Still the wa
tiers rise; and, growing closer on the mar
row spaces of their lessening tops, men
and beasts fight for standing-room. Still
the thunders roar and the waters rise,
the last survivor of the shrieking crowd
is washed off, and the head of the highest
Alp goes down beneath the wave. And
now the waters rise no more; Gods SER
want has done its work he rests from
his labors and, all land drowped-all
life destroyed-an awful silence reigning
and shoreless ocean rolling, Death for
once has nothing to do, but ride in tri-
umph on the top of some giant billOw,
which, meeting no coast, no continent, nc
Alp, no Andes, to break upon, sweeps
round and round the world.
I'VE stand aghast at this scene and a
the corpses of gentle children and swee
infants are floating by,we exclaim, Ha.
God forgotten to be gracious-is hi
mercy clean gone for ever?' No; as
suredly not. Where, then, is his mercy
Look here; look at this ark which, steere'
by an invisible hand, comes dimly throug
the gloom. That lonely ship on a shore
less sea carries mercy on board and witt
in walls that are pitched without and with
in, she holds the costliest freight that eve
sailed thesea. The germs Of the Churc
are there-the patriarchs Of the old worl
and the fathers of the new. Snddenl
amid the awful gloom, as she drifts ov
that dead and silent sea, a grating moi
is heard; she has grounded on the top
Ararat. The door is opened; and b
meath the sign Of the olive branch tn
come forth from their baptismal buri
ike life from the dead-like souls passi
from nature into a state Of grace-like
saints when they shall rise at the su
mons of the trumphet to behold a n
heaven and a new earth, and to see
sign, which these grey fathers hail
encircling the head that was crowned W
thoms.
'Nor is this all Our Heavenly Fatht
- character to us; and must remind J
that ere mercy flew, like the dove, to t
The asylum, she had swept the world with
ual," wings. Were there but eight, only eli
raph saved? There were thousands, MILL
I'm of sought. Nor is it justice to God to
get how long q period of patience,
n the preaching, and warning, and compass
r, sets preceded that dreadful deluge. L
ance- before the lightning flashed from an
In heavens; long before thunder rolled al
lation dissolving skies; long before the Gle
be of rained down death; long before the
lually and solid pavement of this earth, u
es the the prodigious agencies at work, b
10 diff up, like the deck Of leaking ship,
{ of a the waters rushed from below to l
K into the waters from above, and sink a e.
night world long before the time when the
pherd foated away by tower and town,
% was those crowded hill tops, where IF;
see, in groups had clustered, and amid pra
'ential and curses, and shrieks and shouts, l
taking out their signals of distress-very
russell before this, God had been calling al
Well penitent world to repentance. Had
fairest no warning in Noah's preaching?
a poor there nothing to alarm them in the
IN his sight of the ark as story rose upon ST
lying and nothing in the sound of those c.
gospel, less hammers to awaken all butthe de
,d-tOil- 1t was not until Mercy's arm grew W
w hat ringing the warning bell, that, to US
me IN words Of my text, God poured on
great fury on them. appeal to the sto
Its as this awful Judgment. True, for
ELL I'M days it rained necessarily, and fol
Is nave hundred and fifty days more 'the W
can al prevailed en- the earth ; but Will
o'''he period of Gods justice is reckone.
10 the days, the period of his long suffering
'iiu SIN drawn out into years; and there v
1t was truce of one hundred and twenty
lines to between the first stroke Of the bell
assem- the first crash of the thunder. Noah
III ueny grey preaching repentance. The
ny man stood useless for years, huge lau
priest stock for the scoher's wit 1t stood