Noah's Carpenters by James White

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 20, 1866

Noah's Carpenters.

By James White

[Bro. White:—I copy the following, believing that it will be beneficial to many of the readers of the Review. P. Strong.]

"Henry," asked the elder of the younger, "do you know what became of Noah's Carpenters?"

"Noah's Carpenters!" exclaimed Henry; "I didn't know that Noah had any carpenters."

"Certainly he must have had help in building one of the largest and best proportioned ships ever put on the stocks. There must have been many ship carpenters at work for a long time, to have constructed such a vessel in such an age. What became of them, think you, when all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened?"

"What do you mean by such a queer question?" Henry replied.

"No matter what, just now. Please answer the inquiry. And you may also tell me, if you will, what you would have done in that dreadful hour, when the storm came in its fury, and Noah's prophecies were all fulfilled, and all but the family of the preacher of righteousness were ready to be engulfed in those black waters?"

"I don't know," said Henry, in a half-thoughtful, half-trifling manner; "but I think I should have got on the rudder."

"That is human nature exactly, Henry. It would 'climb up some other way,' rather than enter the fold by the only door. It will 'get on the rudder,' in its pride and short-sightedness, rather than go into the ark of safety. It will save itself by hanging on, at the hazard of being swept into the gulf of despair, instead of being saved by the provisions of infinite love.

"But I'll tell you plainly what I mean, Henry, by Noah's carpenters. You have been kindly and generously giving me your aid, day after day, in building an ark in N——, by which many, I trust, will be saved. I feel grateful for your help. But I greatly fear that, while others are rejoicing in the fruits of our labors, you will be swept away in the storm of wrath which will by and by beat on the heads of those who enter not the ark Christ Jesus. No human device will avail for you. 'Getting on the rudder' will not answer; you must be in Christ, or you are lost. Remember Noah's carpenters, and flee to the ark without delay." *

Though Noah's carpenters were all drowned, there are a great many of the same stock now alive—those who contribute to promote the spiritual good of others, and aid in the up-building of the Redeemer's kingdom, but personally reject the great salvation.

Sabbath-school children, who gather in the poor, or contribute their money to send libraries or tracts and books to the West, or to aid the work of missions, and yet remain unconverted, are like Noah's carpenters.

Teachers in Bible-classes and Sabbath-schools, who point their pupils to the Lamb of God, but do not lead the way, are like guide-boards that tell the way, but are not travelers on it; or like Noah's carpenters, who built an ark, and were overwhelmed in the waters that bore it aloft in safety.

Christless parents, who instruct their children and servants, as every parent should, in the great doctrines of the gospel, yet fail to illustrate those doctrines in their lives, and seek not a personal interest in the blood of Christ, are like Noah's carpenters, and must expect their doom.

Printers, folders, sewers, and binders, engaged in making Bibles and religious books, booksellers and hawkers, and publishers of religious newspapers, who are doing much to increase the knowledge of the gospel and to save souls, but so many of whom are careless about their own salvation, will have the mortification of knowing, that while their toils have been instrumental of spiritual good to thousands, they were only like the pack-mule that carried a load to market without tasting it; or like Noah's carpenters, who built a ship they never sailed.

Wealthy and liberal, but unconverted men, who help to build churches and sustain the institutions of the gospel, but who "will not come unto Christ that they may have life," are hewing the timbers and driving the nails of the ark they are too proud or too careless to enter. Perhaps they think they will be safe on the "rudder;" but they may find too late, that when they would ride they must swim—when they would float they must sink, with all their good deeds, unmixed with faith, as a millstone about their necks.

Moralists, who attend church and support the ministry, but who do not receive into their hearts the gospel they thus sustain, are like Noah's carpenters.

Professed ministers of the gospel, who preach the truth without practicing it, who commend the love of Christ without experiencing it, who guide the wandering to the fold of Christ without entering it themselves—are they not like Noah's carpenters? If Paul might indulge the apprehension least, when he had "preached to others" he should himself "be a castaway," may not those of us who follow at a sad distance from Paul in the Christian race, well see to it that we are not left to buffet the waves of an overwhelmed world, when some of these we have led into the ark are borne triumphantly above the billows in which we are engulfed?

Reader, the ark, Christ, is now ready. Mercy still lingers. Hasten then to Christ and be saved.