The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-01-16
FRIDAY AFTERNOON.


not mine, be DONE"
FRIDAY AFTERNOON.
MIR. Moody's Discourse on Jan. IL on
+ Obedience to Gods Commands.
Iwant to call your attention to a text
that you will find in the seventh chapter
of Genesis, first verse. When God speaks
you and can afford to listen. 1t is not
man speaking now, but it is God. "The
Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all
thy house into the ark"
Perhaps some skeptic has drifted in
here today, and perhaps some church
member will join with him and say, 81
hope he is not going to preach about the
ark. / thought that was given up
by all intelligent people," But want to
say that l haven't given it up. When
do, am going to give up the whole Bible.
There is no portion Of the Scripture but
that the Son of God set his seal towhen he
was down here In the world. Men say,
"T don't believe in the story of the flood"
Christ connected His own return to this
world with that flood. Men say
they don't believe the story of Lot
and his. wife and those cities
being destroyed with judgement
from on high. i believe it just as much
as do the third chapter of John. l pity
any man that is going into the pulpit and
picking that old book to pieces. The
moment that we give up any one of these
things we touch the deity of the Son of
God. have noticed that when q man
does begin to pick the Bible to pieces it
doesn't take him more than five years to
tear it oil to pieces. What is the use of
being five years about what you can do in
five minutes?
But am not here to defend the Bible.
1t will take care of itself. Iwant to tslk
about the text. One hundred and twenty
years before, Noah had received the most
awful communication that ever came from
heaven to earth. No man up to that time,
and think holman since, has ever received
such q communication. God said that on
account OF the wickedness of the world
He was going to destroy the world by
water. For 40 years God strove with
those antediluvians. He never smites
without warning, and they had their
warning. II they had repented and cried as
they did at Niniveh, God would have
heard their cry and spared them,I i believe.
But there was no cry for mercy. hive
no doubt but that they ridiculed the idea
that Christ WAS going to destroy the
world. j have no doubt but that there
were Atheists who said there wasn't
any God anyhow. i got hold of one OF
them some time ago and he said
there was no God. / said, "How do
YOU account for the formation
OF the world?n sob? force and matter
work together, and by chance the world
was created" i said, at is a singular
thing that your tongue isn't on the top of
your head IL force and matter just threw
il together in that manner" III should
take out my watch and say that force and
matter worked together, and out came the
watch, you would say was a lunatic of
the first order. Wouldn't you? And yet
they say that this old world was made by
chancel at threw itself together!"
/ met a man in Scotland, and he
took the ground that there was
no God, and said to him how do you ac-
count for creation, for all these rocks
(they have a great many rocks i'm Scot
iand)f "Why!" he said, ''any school boy
could account for that" "Well, how was
the first rock nader" "Out OF sand.n
"Well, how was the first sand nader"
"Out of rock" l have no doubt but that
Noah had these men to contend with.
Then there was q class called Agpostics,
and there are good many of their grand
children, too. Then there was another
class who said they believed there was
god. They couldn't make themselves be-
lieve that the world happened by chance;
but God was too merciful to punish sin.
He was so full of compassion and love that
he couldn't punish SIM the drunkard, the
harlot, the gambler, the murderer, the
thief and the libertine would all share
alike at the end. snpposing the governor
OF your state was so tender hearted
that he couldn't bear to
have a man suffer, couldn't bear to see
man put In Jail, and he should go and set
all the prisoners free. How long would
he be governorf You would have him
out OF Office before the sun set. These
very men that talk about Gods mercy,
would be the first to raise cry against
governor who wouldn't have a man put In
prison when he had done wrong.
Then another class took the ground that
God couldn't destroy the world anyway.
They might have n great flood which
would rise up to the meadowland and
lowland, but all II would be necessary to
do would be TO go up on the hills and
mountains. That would be hundred
times better than Noah's ark. Or IL It
should come to that, they could build
RATS. They could make RATS which would
be a good deal better than that ark, they
had never seen such an ugly looking thing.
But Noah had received his orders TO build
that ark. Some one has suggested that
Noah must have been daft, as the Scotch
say. But when God spoke, Noah heard,
and when God commanded, he just obeyed.
Noah IL of in preaching tour to warn
his countrymen OF the coming deiuge.
have no doubt but that they told him 10