Year: 1876

want to call your attention to a verse
that you will find in the seventh chapter
Of Genesis, first verse: "And the Lord


said unto Noah: Come thou and all thy


house into the ark" You that heard last


Thursdays sermon will remember | was


speaking from the text Behold | bring


you good tidings Of great joy; and many


of you that We're here last Sunday after


noon remember that have also been speak


ing on the Lords invitation to you to be at


the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now l


Just want to follow right along on that line.
and | have got another invitation for you


this afternoon Come thou and all thy


house into the ark" As said the last


time, | brought you good tidings to day


bring you good tidings. 1t is u loving in


vitation from a loving God, and it is ! per-
Sonal invitation to every one i'll this CON
gregation. To be sure that text was ad-


dressed to Noah but to-day the Gospel is
to be proclaimed to every creature, and the
ark has been provided, and all can go in if
they will. 120 years before this commu-


nication came to Noah he had received


word from God and it WAS really the most


awful tidings that ever came from Heaven


20 earth. 1t was the most awful communi-
tion ever received by any man in this world


He told him that he was going to sweep


the earth of its iuiquity that all men upon


the face Of this earth should perish that
his Spirit should not always strive with


men that at the end of 120 years God


would sweep away these workers of iniquity
Although 2,0g0 years only had rolled away
these men had torn from God, their crea-
tor They did not known him. God was
in none of their thoughts and in none Of
their deeds As he looked down from


Heaven, he could see every conceivable


wicked thing done by man. They had for


gotten their God they had forgotten their
Creator They had turned away from him.


and wherever you find Judgment you will


find before the jud gment there is always Il


warning. These antediiuvians had warn
inc. He told Noah to build this ark and
all these 120 years while the ark was being
| built it was warning to them. And you


viii find that, if you will read the Bible
carefully, warnings always precede the Judg-
ment God comes to men first and calls


them to himself If they will not come,


then the blood of their souls must be re-
uuired Of their own hands. There will be
no one to blame but themselves. You will
fad that when Christ was on the earth he
came in grace and offered mercy. Forty
wears aftcrward destruction came upon Je-
rusalem. He wept over Jerusalem; he
plead with them he begged OF them to
come to him We have had III this cOun-
try "a great and mighty revival. Half a


million Of people were brought into the
Church of God in 1857, 1858, and 1883.
A wave of blessings came over the land.


Some people mocked at the meetings some
caviled at them others laughed at them !;


many took up their pens snd wrote against


the work But it was not long before the


nation was baptized in blood and half Il
million Of men-most of them young men,
! the flower of the land-laid themselves
down in soldiers graves, most OF them in
| untimely graves. 1t was God calling the


nation in mercy first and then came the
! Judgment. And | begin really to believe
| that we are on the eve of some great crisis
| in this country. | do not know what it is;
!
! but feeling comes over me now and then


that we are on the eve Of great crisis.


God is calling his own to himself all over


the land There is great interest in re


ligion now More people are talking about


religion at this period Of the worlds his


tory than ever before. All the mission


aries tell us that there is an interest spring


ing up in foreign lands. cannot help be-


lieying that it is God calling in mercy, just


as he came to these antediluvians and gave


them l20 years warning 12O years before
! this loving Father came to NOAH and told
him to build the ark. 1t was to be 501


feet long, about 80 feet wide, and about 81
feet high. Or, in other words, it would be


high enough 50 that they could make three


stories Of or, if it were PUT on one ley,l