Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1913-01-30
INTERNATIONAL,
LESSON
By u. O.. SELLERS. Director Of Eve
ming Department The Moody Bible In
stituts of ,Chicago.)
LESSON FOR FEBRUARY 2.
H FLOOD.

LESSON TEXT-Genesis s:s-12, 7:ll-2.
GOLDEN TEXT-''The wages of sin il
death. but the free gift of God is eternal
life In Christ Jesus our Lord" Rom. 6:23
r v.
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 is
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 Noah's %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 flourishes 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 filed with violence"
Viewing this awful development of
sin, God was SO deply grieved in his
heart that he turned aside %(repented)
from his plan and purpose thus far, to
a determination to destroy man ".
y. Noah. however, found grace in
Gods sight, as we see from v. 9, ever
in the midst of these adverse circum.
stances. Environment is powerful but
not all-powerful, and It Is never a
match for 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 a whole-hearted service to God.
We are told that the foundation Of
Noah's acceptance before God was his
faith, Heb. HI, like his great grand
father Enoch, he had walked with
God" (5:22). Noah stood absolutely
alone and was thus thrown upon com.
partnership with God, compare v. 0
with I 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
on. for We read that they had 120
years announcement of the coming Of
the flood ". 1877, time enough in
which to repent. They also had a
faithful preacher to warn them dur
ing this time, 2 Peter 2:5. But their
apostasy was complete and they
would have non of Gods mercy nor
heed his warning, Prov. 29:1. Noah's
obedience as he built the ark was a
daily reminder Of the impending
flood.
The ark was a at-bottomed chest
$50 feet long, rs feet broad and As
feet deep, built Of cyprus Gopher
woody and coated with pitch. Under
the eaves Of the roof was an open
space for ventilation and its three
decks were divided into compart-
ments.
AS to the eight souls Il Peter
8:20) who entered the ark we need
to remember that usually children and
servants are understood without men.
ton in such enumerations. We are
not to infer that of all created animals
two Of each entered the ark. The
Hood certainly was not universal and
hence such a miracle was uncalled
for.
Race Swept Away.
At last the flood arrived at the eS.
act moment prophesied. It's cause
seems to be twofold, a subsistence of
the ground and a downpour Of rain.
The Euphrates valley where this
event took place fills all the necessary
conditions. Subsistence would allow
%inundation from the sea. Such anV
tnundation 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. It is the privilege Of ev.
cry believer in God to save his house
See Acts 1873 80; l. Cor. TIA
The only way God could insure the
Of the rae was to destroy ir-
.revocably the impure.
Skeptics have read into the story
Of the flood much extraneous matter.
have sought to prove that be-
nearly every race under the sun
has a food tradition therefore the
Of Genesis is merely passing
on a "Babylonian tradition" It is far
more reasonable to believe that these
are corrupted forms Of the
true account found in the Bible.
For the younger pupils get the
story Of the flood as told by Dean
Hodges and tell a connected story Of
what has already happened in the past
essons and tell them that the story
will be continued next week Some
good live questions for class discus