Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1913-01-30


The first great fact recorded in the
book Of Genesis is that Of Creation.
which may be divided into several les
ser facts. The second great fact ia
that of the Fall, which began with the
temptation and ended with the exclu-
sion from Paradise. In this lesson we
come to the third great fact, the
Flood. the account of which embraces
the fifth to the ninth chapters, Chap
ter five gives US Noahs genealogy;
six, the history of the building of the
ark; seven, the occupancy of the ark:
eight, Noah's departure from the ark,
and nine, Gods covenant with Noah
In this lesson sin fourishes like the
proverbial green bay tree Every
Imagination of the thoughts of mans
heart was only evil continually" V. 5.
These thoughts were crystallized into
the lives of men, for we read that
the earth was filled with violence
Viewing this awful development CT
Sill, God was so deply grieved in his
heart that he turned aside (repented1
from his plan and purpose thus far. to
a determination to destroy man ".
-. Noah, however found grace in
Gods sight, as we see from V. 8, even
In the midst of these adverse circum-
stances. Environment is powerful but
not aflpowerful, and it is never a
match Tor Gods grace We must not
gather from this verse that Noah was
faultless, but rather than he sought
to conform his life to Gods will and
not to the standards of those among
whom he dwelt Noah gave himself
TO whole-hearted service to God.
We are told that the foundation of
Noah's acceptance before God was his
faith, Heb. 11:7, like his great grand
father Enoch, he had walked with
Cod (5:22l. Noah stood absolutely
alone and was thus thrown upon com
partnership with God compare v. 8
with John 1.3
Given Due Warning
God could no longer endure the
sins of men, their iniquity was full,
therefore God determined to destroy
them. He did not, however, cut them
OF, for we read that they had 100
years announcement of the coming of
the flood w. 49,, time enough in
which to repent. They also had a
faithful preacher to warn them dur
ing this time, Peter g2:5 But their
apostasy was complete and they
would have none of Gods mercy nor
heed his warning, Prov. 29:1 Noah's
obedience as he built the ark was
doll rnrr ,ir6 RR
food.
The ark was ffat-bottomed chest
$50 feet long, rs feet broad and As
feet deep, built of cyprus Gopher
wood) and coated with pitch. Under
the caves of the roof was an open
space for ventilation and its three
decks were divided into compart-
ments
AS to the eight souls" II Peter
1920 who entered the ark we need
to remember that usually children and
servants are understood without men,
ton in such epumerations. We are
not to infer thai of all created animals
two of each Suffered the ark. The
food certainly was not universal and
hence such q miracle was uncalled
for
Race Swept Away
At last the flood arrived at the ex-
act moment prophesied Its cause
seems to be twofold, subsistence of
the ground and downpour of rain.
The Euphrates valley where this
event took place fills all the necessary
conditions. Subsistence would allow
an inundation from the sea. Such an
inundation took place in 1911 in the
Yangtse valley and another in 1901
rendered more than ten million people
homeless, the water rising from SO to
80 feet. All that the account de-
mands, however, Is that a corrupt
race was swept away and that God
saved his righteous servant and his
household. 1t is the privilege Of ev-
cry believer in God to save his house
hold. See Acts 1881, 2:9; I. Cor TIA
u The only way God could insure the
purity of the race was to destroy ir-
revocably the impure.
Skeptics have read into the story
of the flood much extraneous matter.
cause nearly every race under the sun
has flood tradition therefore the
writer of Genesis is merely passing
ON 'Babylonian tradition" 1t is far
more reasonable to believe that these
traditions are corrupted forms of the
true account found in the Bible.
For the yodnger pupils get the
story of the food as told by Dean
Hodges and tell a connected story Of
what has already happened in the past
lessons and tell them that the story
will be continued next week Some
good live questions for class discus
sions would be: What does it mean to
walk with God? OF the four-igno-
rance, indifference, consent or con-
demnation of sin-which one must
God take? What is the difference be-
tmeon uapaa and q fron criff1 MA