“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank,” etc. Luke 17:26, 27. The idea is not that it is wrong to eat and drink, but how were they eating and drinking?—They were banqueting, becoming gluttonous; drinking, and becoming drunkards. Giving no thought to the things of God, they were pleasing themselves with high living. I have just read of a man who gave to some friends a dinner which cost ten thousand dollars.
In the days of Noah “the earth was filled with violence.” Gen. 6:11. Now the man must be blind who, in the face of wars, strikes, murders, and suicides, can say that the world is growing better?—to say nothing of political and financial troubles. Noah warned the people, and they scoffed at his message just as they do to-day. The Bible tells again of the condition of the world just before the second coming of Christ, the disasters shall increase, and men’s hearts will fail them as they wonder what will come next. Luke 21:25, 27.
People who live along the banks of the Ohio River know how the floods have increased during the last few years. It left its banks and swept out entire towns, something never having been known in former years. This is only one illustration of many. Are men’s hearts failing them? I was in West Virginia some time since and heard a prosperous gentleman, a senator, say, “I feel that a crash is coming.” A Standard Oil man said, “The world is so bad that I can not trust one man out of ten. I believe the end is near.” This man does not read the Bible, or heed God’s Word, still he sees from the condition of things that the world can not stand much longer. Surely we are living in the days of the Son of Man. Are men’s hearts failing them? And yet the refuge of the righteous is in Christ’s coming.