The Tupelo journal., 1905-03-03

Olu message LOT d nuHuTcu years ouu
the flood had not yet come.
Bowed in grief, which was but a re-
Election of the great grieving heart Of
God, Noah watched them return to
their eating and drinking, their mar
rying and festive-making. The beau
tiful afternoon faded into the darken-
ing shadows of the evening hour and
still the broken-hearted preacher lin
gered by the new-made grave, which
spoke of death, and by the side of the
ark, which gave promise of shelter and
life.
Alone he stood, and night, as though
in sympathy with his thoughts, circled
him about with its blackness and
seemed to speak of the coming dark
ness of judgment. But above the stars
flashed a brighter message. They
spoke of a God ruling there, and Noah
found cheer in the thought as he
lifted his eyes upward, that though a
people were about to perish in their
sins, yet God doeth all things well,
and it was blessed to abide in His will.
The hearts of Gods children never
reach up after Him, but that in loving
fellowship He comes down and abides
with them. So that night, God came
and spoke to Noah:
Come thou and all thy house into
the ark; for yet seven days, and | will
cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days
and 40 nights; and every living sub
stance that | have made will | destroy
fro,, Nff tho fooo Ae +ho ,rtl,
Earth was just awakening to an
other day and the sun was gliding the
eastern sky with its glorious light,
when the stir in Noah's household
betOkened some unusual proceeding.
That was the beginning of sever busy
days for Noah and his sons and their
wives. Faithfully did they perform
all that the Lord had commanded them
to do, and ere the seven days were
ended they had gathered together the
beasts of the field and the fowls of the
air and the creeping things, and shell
tered them in the places appointed
them in the ark.
Gods spirit wrought nightly dur
ing those last seven days of prepara-
tlOI, anu lHdu6 every lINiuS CIedluI6
obedient to Noah's word.
When it was noised abroad that Noah
and his family were moving into the
ark. it brought curious crowds to watch
the unusual proceedings.
My daughters shall never go into
that hulk with thai old fanatic" one
notwithstanding woman was over
heard angrily to say, while her eyes
flashed bitter hatred. It seems that
some years before this the three Gaugh-
ters of this Oma had been converted
under Noah's preaching. and had found
an asylum from the persecution which
broke out against them in Noah's home.
Here an attachment had sprung up be-
tween them and Noah's sons and their
marriage had followed.
1T is an outrage that h& should have
broken up your home" ST oke up an
other who knew the history Of the FAM
lily quarrel.
well" fiercely exclaimed a young
man, evidently a son of the woman who
had first spoken, OUT sisters have got
to quit their fool religious notions. That
old man Noah is crazy, and We'll never
let him shut the girls in his old prison."
But have the girls given no evidence
of changing their minds?"
mo! In spite of all our efforts, they
stubbornly refused to yield to reason"
was the reply.
Thus IN that early day the choosing
of God and Gods people brought the
sundering of family ties as it does,
sometimes, to-day. 1t meant bitter
persecution and relentless opposition
then, as is often the case to-day. And
no amount of pleading or abuse or per-
secution could turn them from their
course.
The last of the seven days came,
clear and beautiful as the days which
had preceded it. The ark rested in the
valley and the soothing, but curious
people gathered on the hillside ada
cent. Noah and his family had come
down to the ark, and Noah and his
sons were busy attending to some of
the final details, while their wives
waited at some distance apart from
them.
Here the relatives of the three Sis
ters found them. and again they tried
to coaX and drive them to return home.
When they found that they could not
win the girls from their purpose, the
s~moldering fires of passion and hate
blazed forth. With awful oaths they
roughly seized the now frightened and
trembling girls before Noah and his
sons could interfere. They half
dragged, half carried them towards the
waiting crowds on the hillside. No pow
er but that of God could save them
now, for Noah and his sons were no
match for his angry mob. But they
failed to reckon God into the account,
as evil in it's plottings always does.
Suddenly a sound as of thunder
broke from the heavens, a flash of
/ light and low at the feet of the help
less girls their captors lay rigid in
death. Thus freed, they fled back and
quickly entered the ark with Noah and
his family and the Lord, with invisible
hand reached down and shut them in.
And by the power of that same hand
the black clouds were soon rolling up
from every part of the heavens-black,
dense. awful clouds. Without the ark
was darkness and despair, within the
ark. light and peace and safety; without
the ark, unrepentant, goddess people,
Aoaipo 10 tho mountain t0pc RI occonp