The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1876-02-24
BY REQUEST.
MOODY AND SANKEY.
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. Goth, 1878

want to call your attention to a verse
that you will find in the seventh chapter
Of Genesis, first verse: "And the Lord
said unto Noah: Come thou and all thy
house into the ark" You that heard last
Thursdays sermon will remember | was
speaking from the text Behold | bring
you good tidings Of great joy; and many
of you that We're here last Sunday after
noon remember that have also been speak
ing on the Lords invitation to you to be at
the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now l
Just want to follow right along on that line.
and | have got another invitation for you
this afternoon Come thou and all thy
house into the ark" As said the last
time, | brought you good tidings to day
bring you good tidings. 1t is u loving in
vitation from a loving God, and it is ! per-
Sonal invitation to every one i'll this CON
gregation. To be sure that text was ad-
dressed to Noah but to-day the Gospel is
to be proclaimed to every creature, and the
ark has been provided, and all can go in if
they will. 120 years before this commu-
nication came to Noah he had received
word from God and it WAS really the most
awful tidings that ever came from Heaven
20 earth. 1t was the most awful communi-
tion ever received by any man in this world
He told him that he was going to sweep
the earth of its iuiquity that all men upon
the face Of this earth should perish that
his Spirit should not always strive with
men that at the end of 120 years God
would sweep away these workers of iniquity
Although 2,0g0 years only had rolled away
these men had torn from God, their crea-
tor They did not known him. God was
in none of their thoughts and in none Of
their deeds As he looked down from
Heaven, he could see every conceivable
wicked thing done by man. They had for
gotten their God they had forgotten their
Creator They had turned away from him.
and wherever you find Judgment you will
find before the jud gment there is always Il
warning. These antediiuvians had warn
inc. He told Noah to build this ark and
all these 120 years while the ark was being
| built it was warning to them. And you
viii find that, if you will read the Bible
carefully, warnings always precede the Judg-
ment God comes to men first and calls
them to himself If they will not come,
then the blood of their souls must be re-
uuired Of their own hands. There will be
no one to blame but themselves. You will
fad that when Christ was on the earth he
came in grace and offered mercy. Forty
wears aftcrward destruction came upon Je-
rusalem. He wept over Jerusalem; he
plead with them he begged OF them to
come to him We have had III this cOun-
try "a great and mighty revival. Half a
million Of people were brought into the
Church of God in 1857, 1858, and 1883.
A wave of blessings came over the land.
Some people mocked at the meetings some
caviled at them others laughed at them !;
many took up their pens snd wrote against
the work But it was not long before the
nation was baptized in blood and half Il
million Of men-most of them young men,
! the flower of the land-laid themselves
down in soldiers graves, most OF them in
| untimely graves. 1t was God calling the
nation in mercy first and then came the
! Judgment. And | begin really to believe
| that we are on the eve of some great crisis
| in this country. | do not know what it is;
!
! but feeling comes over me now and then
that we are on the eve Of great crisis.
God is calling his own to himself all over
the land There is great interest in re
ligion now More people are talking about
religion at this period Of the worlds his
tory than ever before. All the mission
aries tell us that there is an interest spring
ing up in foreign lands. cannot help be-
lieying that it is God calling in mercy, just
as he came to these antediluvians and gave
them l20 years warning 12O years before
! this loving Father came to NOAH and told
him to build the ark. 1t was to be 501
feet long, about 80 feet wide, and about 81
feet high. Or, in other words, it would be
high enough 50 that they could make three
stories Of or, if it were PUT on one ley,l