The Yale expositor., 1898-12-16

|
chapter than the one which speaks
or that catastrophe of the ages, the
submersion Of our world in time Of
Noah, the first ship carpenter. Many
of the nations who never saw a Bible
have flood story-Egyptian food
story; Grecian food story, of which
Ducalion was the Noah; Hawaiian
flood story; New Zealand food story;
Chinese flood story; American Indian
food story-all Of which accounts
agree in the immersion of the con-
tinents under universal rains, and that
there was a ship floating, with a Sc
lect few Of the human family and
with specimens OF geological and or
astrological and reptilian worlds, al
though l could have wished that these
last had been shut out OF the ark and
drowned.
All of these food stories represent
the ship thus afioat as finally strand
ed on a mountain top. Hugh Miller,
In his Testimony Of the Rocks, thinks
that all these food stories were infirm
traditions Of the Biblical account, and
believe him. The worst thing about
that great freshet was tkat it struck
Noah's Great Eastern from above and
beneath. The seas broke the chain
Of shells and crystal and rolled over
the land, and the heavens opened their
clouds for falling columns of water,
which roared and Numbered on the
roof Of the great ship for a month and
/ ten days. There was one door to the
! ship, but there were three parts 10
that door, one part for each of the
three stories. The Bible account says
nothing about parts of the door be-
longing to two of the stories, and | do
not know on which floor Noah and
his family voyaged, but my text tells
us that the part of the door OF that
particular floor on which Noah stayed
was closed after he had entered. THE
Lord shut him in" So there are many
people now in the world who are as
thoroughly shut in-some by sickness,
some by old age, some by special
duties that will not allow them to go
FORTH some surrounded by deluges OF
misfortune and trouble, and for them
my sympathies are aroused, and this
sermon, which l hope may do good
to others, is more especially intended
for them. Today l address the shut
in. THE Lord shut them In"
Notice, first Of all, who closed the
door SO that they could not get out.
Noah did not do it, nor his son Shem,
nor did Ham, nor did Japheth, nor did
either of the four married women who
were on shipboard; nor did despera-
does who had scoffed at the idea of
peril, which Noah had been preaching,
close that door; they had turned their
backs on the ark and had in disgust
gone away. l will tell you how it was
done. A hand was stretched down
from heaven TO close that door. 1t
was a divine hand as we'll as a kind
hand. THE Lord shut them in"
And the same kind and sympathetic
Being has shut you In, my reader or
my nearer. You thought it was an
accident, ascribable to the careless
ness or misdoirgs Of others, or mere
happen So" No! no! God had
gracious design for your betterment
for the cultivation of your patience,
for the strengthening OF your faith,
for the advantage you might gain by
secluslon, for your eternal salvation.
He put you in a schoolroom. where
you could learn, in six months or a
year, more than you could have learn
ed anywhere else in a lifetime. He
turned the lattice or pulled down the
blinds Of the sickroom, or put your
swollen foot on an ottoman, or held
you amid the pillows of couch which
you could not leave, for some reason
that you may not now understand, but
which he has promised he will explain
to you satisfactorily, If not in this
world, then in the world to come. for
he has said, What / do thou knowest
not now, but thou shalt know here
after!"
The world has no statistics as to
the number of invalids. The physi-
clans know something about Il. and
the apothecaries and the pastors. but
who can tell us the number of blind
eyes, and deaf ears, and diseased
lungs, and congested livers, and jan
gled nerves, and neuralgia temples, and
rheumatic feet, or how many took nc
food this morning because they had
no appetite to eat, or digestive organs
to assimilate, or have lungs so delicate
they cannot go forth when the wind
is in the east, or there Is a fog ris-
ing from the river, or there is a damp
ness on the ground or pavement be-
cause Of the frost coming out? II
would be easy to count the people
who every day go through a street, OF
the number of passengers carried by
railroad company in year, or the
| number Of those who cross the ocean
in ships; but who can give us the
} statistics of the great multtudes who
are shut in? 1 call the attention oil
all such TO their superior opportunitie:
, of doing good.
Those Of us who are well and car
bee clearly and hear distinctly, ant
partake of food of all sorts and ques
tions of digestion never occur to us
/