The world was sunk in darkness
That sin alone had brought.
No ray of light relieved the gloom,
And none was ever sought.
Then rose that faithful prophet,
The man whom God had sent
To warn a world all judgment bound,
And call it to repent.
That prophet's name was Noah;
That age, before the Flood,
When violent and wicked men
Made haste in shedding blood.
No fear of God restrained them,
No law could stay their hand;
Iniquity of every sort
Stalked boldly through the land.
H. F. Schopin
Antediluvian sinners
Were coarse and unrefined.
Some sinned by yielding to the flesh,
While others sinned in mind.
Full many had the knowledge
That leads to mental pride;
They spurned God's truth and prophet,
His message they deride.
The rich oppressed the hireling,
And would not pay his wage.
They had no pity on the poor,
As in the present age.
Refinement, wealth, and power
Held high their lordly head,
And cared not that the many
Were crying loud for bread.
They reasoned God entirely
Out of this world He made.
They deified poor sinful man,
Who like the leaf must fade.
Self was enthroned, and was not
God ever in their thought.
Base was the law that ruled them.
The good they set at naught.
But limit, then, there must be
To God's long-suffering care.
Vainly His Spirit strove with men
Who did not fear to dare
To grieve that faithful monitor
Forevermore away,
And so commit that awful sin
For which we may not pray.
So God commanded Noah
A mighty ark to build.
A century or more he toiled
Ere was his task fulfilled.
Full many were the sinners
That helped to build that craft;
But none believed the prophet—
They only joked and laughed:
"What is this arrant nonsense
Old Noah has to tell?
He says: 'There's going to be a flood.
Take heed and mark it well.'
"He thinks that he'll be safe for sure
Inside his precious boat
That he's building on a hilltop—
How can it ever float?
"He says the end is very near,
And to warn us he is sent.
He threatens us with judgment dire,
Unless we soon repent.
"Just let him bring his flood along;
We'd like to see it here.
He's trying now to frighten us,—
So never, never fear."
Thus they ridiculed his warning,
And heeded not his call.
They thought that he was surely mad—
They said so one and all.
They would not be persuaded
That they'd be swept away,
For unbelief forbade them
Escape that dreadful day.
Noah saw their danger clearly,
And pitied their sad fate.
But all in vain his warning;
Repentance came too late.
At last the ark was finished.
God called His creatures in;
And then came Noah's family,
Salvation thus to win.
So it was faith that saved them,
Like sinners saved to-day.
O, let the unbeliever heed
What I'm about to say!
A week, a weary week passed by;
Still wilder grew the mirth
Of sinners high and sinners low,
Through length and breadth of earth.
"'Tis plain as day," the wise men said,
"That science gives the lie
To Noah's wild, fanatic course—
Raise now the wine cup high!"
And so the feast went merry on,
And so they bought and sold.
So, too, they built them houses,
And so they coined their gold.
For Jubal's lyre then ceased not
Its merry, merry sound,
As lightly tripped they in the dance,
And passed the red wine round.
The smiling eye, the sylph-like form,
The skin so fair and white;
The diamonds sparkled in their hair
With radiance so bright.
Thus beauty charmed the hearts of men
Until that fateful day.
In marriage were fair maidens sought,
And Cupid then held sway.
They did not dream of danger,
But planned for future day.
They thought of fun and frolic,
And death seemed far away.
But soon there came a morning
That rose all bright and fair,
With sunlight on the hilltops,
With perfume in the air.
The birds ne'er sang so blithely,
And ne'er so sweet the flowers.
All nature smiled serenely—
Right swiftly sped the hours.
A short, brief span of time remained
To gladden that old earth.
Then all men's earthly treasures
Would prove of little worth.
O, why that awful stillness?
O, why that frowning sky?
Behold the frightened cattle
And birds, that homeward fly!
Still blacker the horizon,
With inky clouds o'erspread.
The lightnings flash, the thunders crash
Destruction from o'erhead.
Men tremble now in terror
They can not even name;
Their hearts all melt within them,
As prayers they try to frame.
The farmer leaves his plow in field;
The carpenter his plane;
The scholar, too, his pen and book;
The merchant all his gain.
Dire consternation now prevails,
As to and fro they run.
To Noah loud they cry for help
As they have never done.4
But Noah can not hear them—
Probation's at an end.
Too long have they neglected
Their lawless ways to mend.
God's Word they have rejected,
His law they've set at naught.
The consequences they must bear
Which they themselves have brought.
Tho sinners all of Noah's day
Made sport of Noah's ark,
Yet when they quenched the light he brought,
It left them in the dark.
Still louder pealed the thunder;
The rain began to fall;
The brooks were turned to rivers;
The rivers—oceans small.
That old world then was pregnant;
She travailed as in birth,
And brought forth floods of waters
That deluged all the earth.
The wicked sinners of that day
Now wished they'd not denied
A listening ear to Noah,
And had not said he lied.
The world with all its treasures
Would be a price too small,
If only God would listen
And hear them as they call.
But all too late their sorrow,—
'Tis not of faith, but fear.
They trembled all like demons small,
Because destruction's near.
The charming maid, the mother old,
The husband in his prime,
The doting wife, the darling child—
All crave a little time,—
Time to repent and turn to God
And make election sure.
But all in vain their useless plea—
They've spurned the message pure.
And so did God fulfil His word
To age of faith devoid.
The righteous eight were fully saved,
The wicked were destroyed.
*
"As 'twas in days of Noah's Flood,
It shall be in the end.
As Sodom and Gomorrah too
No listening ear would lend."
"Twas thus the Saviour did foretell
Just how the end would be.
Blind unbelief would laugh and scoff
And jeer at those who see
The signs around fulfilling,
All that our Lord then said—
The pious, unbelieving church
With doubt has been well fed.
The way to heaven is broad indeed,
The modern preachers say;
And it is thronged by multitudes
Who love to walk that way.
The faith of men like Noah
Too seldom do we find.
The Word of God is juggled now
To suit the skeptic mind.
Religion must be popular
To please the well refined;
And such as dare the cross to bear,
Are very hard to find.
The signs in sun and moon and stars
Have long since passed away.
And the signs among the nations
Portend the coming day.
The famines, earthquakes, plague, and pest
That devastate mankind,
All warn us that the end is near—
Yet multitudes are blind.
The peace and safety cry is heard,
Borne forth on every gale,
Altho the forge and foundry tell
Us quite another tale.
Dire weapons of destruction,
Of long and deadly range,
Are multiplying rapidly;
And so, it isn't strange
That men whose eyes are opened,
Should tremble at His Word,
And strive, as much as in them lies,
To warn those who've not heard.
The strikes and lynchings, too, fulfil
The lawless days foretold.
The rich are never satisfied
In piling up their gold.
Millions and billions, dark with rust,
Are deaf to hunger's cry.
The virtuous, needy, wretched poor
Are left to starve and die.
The baser passions, too, hold sway,
Nor safe the marriage vow.
As men transgressed in Noah's day,
So do they even now.
They will not quench their carnal lusts
That hold in bondage fast.
They want to live here as they list,
And go to heaven at last.
Thus crimes we dare not mention,
Prevail 'mong men to-day,
Just as Saint Paul predicted
In ages passed away.
Nor are men now contented
To be by prophets led.
They spurn the Bible and its truth,
And turn unto the dead.
They say that it is safer
To trust what witches tell,
And know not that all such are doomed
To be cast into hell.
"The devil is a myth," they say,
"And hell can never be.
The darkest crimes pure virtue are,
And good for you and me.
"The sins that shock humanity
Are rungs in ladder tall,
That yet shall lift us to the height
Of holy angels all."
Theosophy, and "new thought," too,
Hypnotic power, all bad;
And "Christian Science," falsely called,
Are making many mad.
They think they're revelations grand,
Both marvelous and true,
And know not that they're pagan lies,
And neither safe nor new.
The carnal heart still hates the cross,
And will not have the light.
Men harden more their stubborn necks,
And will not do the right.
Blind unbelief has come to stay
In pulpit, pew, and school.
The man who humbly trusts God's Word
Is reckoned now a fool.
So Jesus said it e'en would be
When He should come again;
For unbelief instead of faith
Would rule the hearts of men.
And Peter also prophesied
That scoffers would arise,
In latter days, in time of end,
And ask, as in surprise,
"O where, pray tell us, are the signs
That show His coming near?
Just give us now one little proof
That we have aught to fear.
"For all things still continue
As from creation's day"—
And willingly are ignorant
Of what the prophets say.
And so it is, and so 'twill be,
That signs as plain as day,
Which tell of coming judgments,
Turn few from sin away.
For now the final message
Is going to all mankind.
Its voice like sound of trumpet
Is borne on every wind.
The judgment-day is nearing.
Let all men now beware!
Heed well these solemn warnings!
Make haste! Take care! Prepare!
Batavia, Java, September 17, 1911.
