Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1905-03-01

HeSS VI JuuSIHent but ABOVE the stars
flashed a brighter message. They
spoke of God ruling there. and Moan
found cheer in the thought Is he
lifted his eyes upward, that though a
people were about to perish in their
sins, yet God doeth all things we'll,
and 1t 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 II TO rain upon the earth 40 days
ana 40 nights; and every living sub
stance that | have made will destroy
from of the face of the earth"
Earth was just awakening to an
other day and the sun was gliding the
eastern sky with its glorious light.
when the stir in Noahs household
betokened some unusual proceeding.
Ihat was the beginning of seven 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 prepare
ton, and made every living creature
obedient to Noah's word.
When it was noised abroad that Noah
and his family were moving into the
ARK, II brought curious crowds TO watch
the unusual proceedings.
My daughters shall never go into
that hulk with tina. old fanatic" one
determined-look woman was over
heard ansrily TO say, while her eyes
Mashed bitter hatred. 1t seems that
some years before this the three Gaugh-
tiers OF this woman 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 he should have
broken up your home" spoke up an
other who knew the history Of the fam
lily quarrel
Well fiercely exclaimed a young
man. evidently son of the woman who
had first spoken. Our 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"
No! 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. II 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 scofing. 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
tiers 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
smoldering 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
err but that Of God could save them
now. for Noah and his sons were no
match for this angry mob. But they
failed to reckon God into the account.
as evil in its 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.
fleeing to the mountain tops to escape
the judgment their unbelief had brought
upon them: within the ark, faith and
obedience receiving their reward In
Gods protecting care.
It is a terrible thing to fall into the
hands OF the living Cod IL is blessed
thing to abide under His wing and TO
fool His shelierinR care God rolled