Genesis 6:13, commentary and pictures

God Himself spoke to Noah declaring that the end of all flesh had come before Him because the earth was filled with violence through them, and that He would destroy them with the earth. The destruction was by a flood of waters that would destroy man with beast and all living things and cleanse the earth from its moral pollution, given after 120 years of merciful probation and warning. All flesh had corrupted its way by continual transgression of God's law, perverted use of blessings and talents, intemperance, greed and every form of violence and confederacy with evil, until guilt reached its bound. The warning was largely mocked as impossible and fanatical until mercy ceased, the Spirit was withdrawn, and the Flood came suddenly upon the eating, drinking and unprepared world, leaving only eight souls saved in the ark provided as refuge. As it was in Noah's day so shall the coming of the Son of man be, for the same corrupt and violent condition is fast returning in the last days and calls God's people now to warn without failing as Noah warned.

Verdict's Words and Setting

God Himself spoke to Noah to announce that the end of all flesh had come before Him because the earth was filled with violence through corrupt mankind, and that He would destroy them with the earth. The verdict rested on all flesh having corrupted its way, on the wickedness of man having become great with every imagination of the thoughts of the heart only evil continually, grieving God that He had made man. Had men not eaten of the tree of knowledge and practiced every kind of wickedness, God would not have destroyed them, but their widespread corruption brought declared, universal judgment while Noah found grace and was preserved with his family by covenant in the ark, as Lot also was saved when Sodom was destroyed because he had not corrupted his way. The same condition with the same forms of wickedness, men measured by wealth possessed rather than integrity and eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage unaware until sudden destruction, represents the condition of the world today and illustrates the coming of the Son of man. The verse therefore joins the Flood with a coming destruction, showing that as judgment by water followed this decree so the coming of the Son of man with power and great glory will follow the same corruption and unheeded warning now.

The destruction announced was by a flood of waters to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life so that everything in the earth should die. It would sweep away man with beast, creeping thing and fowls of the air, together with animals and abundant vegetation and the precious things of earth, leaving the earth desolate and broken up. This was to wipe out humanity along with the earth in order to cleanse the earth from its moral pollution, impurity and defilement from violence and corruption under its inhabitants. The cause was that men had turned blessings into separation from God instead of gratitude, failing to honor the Creator, using entrusted gold and silver for self-gratification, letting appetite and passion rule, spending time in dissipation and amusement and enriching themselves, eating forbidden animal food and gratifying lusts until the cup of iniquity was full and appetite controlled reason with disease and degeneracy. By resisting conscience and perverting God's gifts the people filled up the measure of iniquity until God's patience ended and He determined to execute justice upon the sinful race.

The word was declared to Noah 120 years before the Flood by the Lord through a holy angel, telling His purpose to bring a flood of water and directing Noah to build an ark. The command was to make an ark of gopher wood with rooms pitched within and without with pitch, for safety and as refuge for all who believed the message and prepared by repentance and reformation to find pardon and be saved. Noah heard and walked by faith, building the immense ark upon dry land in obedience before destruction came, and believing that warning message would have been for salvation. The decree proves there is no temporal millennium of a thousand years in which all prepare for eternity, for as it was in Noah's day so it will be when the Son of man comes again.

The generation that perished is presented as accurate, inspired history that cannot be set aside. Noah was a literal person who lived, the Flood was a fact in history, and Genesis as Old Testament Scripture cannot be divorced from the New Testament, its inspiration being affirmed by Christ. Human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God is the same in Noah's day as in this age, and the specification and character of that violent generation are characteristic of the present age before Christ's appearing in the clouds of heaven.

Noah's warning announced a real judgment, not an event made impossible by the familiar order of nature, and human arguments about natural laws could not limit God's power or cancel what He had declared. Nearly all the world thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claimed to know more than God's faithful servant, branded him a fanatic, deluded alarmist and crazy, laughed and mocked his words, said he speaks in parables and treats the message as an idle tale, explained away by false science his warning that rain would come when no sign of it had ever existed, accused him of presumption for standing alone against the great men and wisdom of thousands, and said God could not destroy the beautiful world He had made. Their unbelief, mockery and amusement at solemn warning did not hinder the predicted event or stop the judgment, for God bore long giving ample opportunity for repentance, but at the appointed time His judgments visited the rejecters of mercy and they perished drinking the waters that covered the earth and washed them away.

Causes of Corruption

All flesh had corrupted its way before God, and the wickedness of man had become great, with every imagination of the thoughts of the heart only evil continually, grieving Him at His heart that He had made man. The end of all flesh had therefore come before Him because the earth was filled with violence through them, and He would destroy them with the earth He had created and which they had spoiled. That corruption came by repetition of actions against the law of God, against truth and righteousness and His will and plain requirements, until habits became nature and evil thoughts bound men to lose free agency. Noah found grace because he had not corrupted his way, as Lot also was saved when Sodom was destroyed, while those who refused heaven's gift forged their own chains and ripened for the relentless sword of justice.

The corruption resulted from rejecting God's law and refusing to obey His commandments, throwing off the restraint of righteousness to pursue carnal indulgence, selfish pleasure and pride. Continual transgression filled the earth with wickedness, and Noah believed the warning and preached to turn the people from disobedience to obedience, but only his family accepted. Their destruction stands as warning that God punishes those who disregard His law, after His Spirit had long striven to lead them back to purity and loyalty. Men cast off restraint to gain freedom, arrayed themselves in hostility to God, violated marriage and property rights, and their corrupt influence spread until God could no longer bear it and the cries of the oppressed reached Him.

They turned blessings into separation from Him instead of gratitude and honor, using entrusted gold and silver in abundance, reason, intellect, talents and great mental and moral gifts for self-gratification, pride and glorifying themselves. Forgetting the Lord, they worked out human inventions, worshiped the things their hands had made, let appetite and passion rule, and spent time in dissipation, amusement and enriching themselves, so violence filled the land and the earth was polluted under its inhabitants. That long-lived race only one step from Eden, with greater inventions of art and human skill than exist today, constantly sought to exceed one another in devices and to contend with heaven and gain possession of Eden, supposing they improved upon God's plans. Their skill and learning, great arts and precious things of earth given in love, were thus turned to rivalry, rebellion and curse, defiling the earth by violence and corrupting works until every place inhabited was debased, and the destruction swept away them with their works.

Talented, skilled, knowledgeable men left God out of their plans and councils, became corrupt in imagination, and became wise to do evil God never commanded, exalting human wisdom above a Thus saith the Lord. Placing intellect above God's wisdom and not honoring Him by service, they supposed advancement in knowledge superseded knowledge of God, eating of the forbidden tree of knowledge on pain of death. Separated from God they fell under Satan's rule, took on his attributes, and worked out his schemes on the same false godless principles of his revolt in heaven, with the fear of God almost extinct. God took the matter in hand because their example would harm those born afterward and would pass sins to descendants, and would not allow them to live out natural life.

Intemperance in eating and drinking, carried to gluttony and drunkenness with depraved appetite without bounds, inflamed passions and fed moral corruption, ferocity and general corruption until violence and crime reached to heaven. They demanded and ate flesh meats and animal food although God had given no permission, contrary to His plan, with appetite controlling reason, giving themselves to abominable idolatry and debased passion, producing disease, degeneracy and fullness of iniquity. Money had become the measure of manhood rather than integrity, men estimated not by character but by wealth possessed. Eating, drinking, dressing, buying, selling, planting, building, marrying and amusement, lawful in themselves, were made supreme objects of life and used for selfish indulgence, dissipation, lust, theft, murder and gain, carried to satanic cruelty.

Violence included taking neighbors' wives or possessions by force or murder, multiplying wives contrary to the original order, robbery, fraud, bribery, political strife, war, crime and murder. It was also spiritual oppression producing physical suffering and control of conscience by human enactments, oppressing all who did not meet men's own measure, binding in unions and confederacies that imperiled refusers, with killings in cities, oppressive laws, dishonest business such as speculative investment and selling land far above value. Men united with Satan and confederated with satanic agencies to make void the law and lift the banner of hostility against Him, exchanging light and truth for darkness and error, which brought only bondage and wretchedness. Crimes devised by satanic agencies became too vile to trace, yet Noah stood like a rock amid pollution, unwavering in meekness and righteousness amid scoffs, crime and intrigue.

Long life did not benefit persistent sinners but made them more corrupt, for despite great forbearance they grew more bold and defiant the longer they lived. Sparing Cain showed what results from permitting sin to go unpunished, for his influence and teaching as spared murderer and tempter spread through descendants for fifteen centuries until crime and pollution flooded the earth. It manifests before the universe that the sentence of death for transgression is both just and merciful, cutting short unbridled iniquity as blessing rather than curse, and cutting off determined rebels in the few to save the many from ruin and wider judgments. Corruption defaced God's moral image, made men corrupt in body and soul by extravagance, excess, unlawful indulgence and wicked inventions, hating their Maker and steeped in licentiousness until unable to discern pure affections from destructive lusts. By sin the atmosphere became as a pesthouse and the earth as Sodom, even while men boasted of wonderful progress and enlightenment and churches sided with the apostate, with nobility, gentleness and piety bartered to gratify lust for forbidden things. Violence and crime were treated lightly and left unpunished, and that toleration spread wickedness until it brought judgment upon the whole people, warning that long patience does not prevent certain punishment for persistent rejection.

Warning Before Destruction

God in mercy did not destroy without warning but granted one hundred and twenty years of probation before the end, during which pardon was promised to all who would repent and turn to Him. The warning was preached through Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah and many others laboring to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to stay the tide of moral evil, with Enoch repeating to his children what had been shown him and Methuselah with his sons and grandsons living to hear Noah and helping build the ark. The message was sent to the large population on the earth as a solemn warning joined with direction to build an ark on dry land by exact direction, and every blow struck upon the ark was itself a warning. All who believed the message and prepared by repentance and reformation would find pardon and be saved, returning to loyalty and becoming wise to salvation. At first many were startled and some believed and died in faith, but the inhabitants did not lack warnings yet did not heed them.

The destruction announced was conditional, for had they listened to the faithful witnesses, repented and returned to loyalty, God would have averted judgment and not destroyed them. Obedience to His law would have kept them safe and preserved the divine likeness, and during the one hundred and twenty years they could repent and turn to Him. They had no faith so that Christ as atoning sacrifice and Mediator could no longer avail for them, and their refusal to heed His Spirit brought judgment near. Even in the sentence pity remained, for an ark was provided by exact direction as refuge for all who would accept it and for those who desired to be saved. Believing the message and preparing by repentance and reformation would have been for pardon and salvation, while refusal of heaven's commandments brought perishing and only the obedient found shelter. God warned Noah of the coming destruction and directed him to build and to warn the people, making a covenant to preserve Noah and his family, so their failure to heed left them unprepared.

Noah believed the warning, walked by faith, and showed his faith by his works in building the immense ark during the probation of one hundred and twenty years. He was appointed to preach more than a hundred years before the Flood so the people would have opportunity to repent and be without excuse, faithfully warning the inhabitants of the old world, instructing relatives and family, and turning men from disobedience. He obeyed implicitly without picking what was agreeable, gave the message by voice and then by example, standing like a rock in integrity, meekness and righteousness amid universal wickedness while others received his instruction and helped build. God bore long with rebellion and His Spirit strove with men, continuing to strive with the rebellious until the specified time had nearly expired. Then mercy ceased pleading and stepped from the throne no longer to intercede, the Spirit was withdrawn from the sinful race, and Noah and his family entered the ark whose door God's own hand closed. The verse thus marks the boundary line when mercy is no longer granted, for salvation depended on how the message was treated and rejection left consequence in the waters of the flood.

The warning was largely rejected, for the people regarded the message as an idle tale and parables and contradicted it by precept and example. They mocked and scoffed at Noah as deluded, fanatical and crazy, ridiculing, caricaturing, criticizing and laughing at his peculiar earnestness and intense feeling about judgments to be fulfilled, holding a carnival over his words. They talked of science and laws controlling nature, explained away rain that had never been seen, kept eating and drinking and planting and building and marrying and giving in marriage, and grew more full of idolatrous business, vileness and crime. They resisted light until trapped in deception, refusing to believe and heed until the flood came and took them all away, with only eight souls, Noah and his family, living to enter the ark while the rebellious were swept away and death was their portion. Some who worked for a time and some once enlightened fell away to become the boldest scoffers, and their not knowing the day of visitation was because they refused the message.

The preaching tested and proved the world, giving opportunity to accept, fear God, do right and be saved, while leaving the unbelieving without excuse. Only eight accepted the warning, took refuge and were saved, and Noah's message and work of faith condemned those who rejected it. God's truth for the last days likewise warns, tests and proves men, showing a warning must still be given even when many refuse it. Human arguments about natural laws could not limit God's power or cancel what He had declared as real judgment.

Judgment Executed by Flood

The destruction fell suddenly while people were absorbed in ordinary life, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building, buying and selling, knowing nothing until they were swept away. Heaven-sent rain united with waters released when the foundations of the great deep were broken up, so that streams from below joined streams from above. Only eight souls out of that vast population were preserved, and their unawareness came not from lack of warning but from refusal to believe until the waters took them all.

The waters were sent to cleanse the earth of moral pollution, impurity and defilement produced by violence and corruption. Appetite ruling over reason, excess without bounds in eating and drinking, unlawful use of animal food, idolatry, pride and self-gratification had debased the inhabitants and polluted the land under them, and the cup of iniquity being full, what could no longer be borne was washed away. That cleansing removed impurity rather than merely punishing persons, leaving the defiled order itself purged.

Punishing justice is as truly divine glory as mercy, and when guilt reaches its bound and mercy is exhausted interference becomes necessary. The sentence vindicated the honor of the law, checked the growth of unrighteousness, limited human life, and kept rebellious men from continually spoiling one another in disobedience and defiance, a principle also seen in later plagues and judgments. Men had passed the limits of grace by presuming on mercy, despising plain warnings and a known law, after a long probation of one hundred and twenty years in which the obedient were distinguished from the disobedient by the standard of the law.

The long-lived race was not permitted to live out its natural lifespan, because long life proved no blessing to the persistent sinner. Despite great forbearance they grew only more corrupt the longer they lived, defacing the moral image, until destruction was demanded. Cutting off determined rebels in the few therefore saved the many from ruin and from bringing wider judgments upon millions, as the fifteen centuries from spared Cain to the Flood showed what permitting sin to go unpunished produces.

Destroying those who will not submit is both just and merciful, serving the good of the universe toward all. The sentence of death for transgression frees the world from hardened rebels rather than cursing it, and the final destruction of the wicked likewise stands as mercy toward all. The Flood remains a testimony to every later generation of the result of sin opened by Adam's disobedience, through which the floodgates of woe were opened and the earth cursed, revealing a God who has not changed.

The judgment was the harvest of sown evil, not an arbitrary decree against people without light. Resistance to truth, disregard of commandments, choices and example produced lawlessness, crime and violence, and long patience did not prevent certain punishment when persistent rejection had filled the measure. Even while the doomed beheld the beauty of the earth they drove away fear with loud merriment and continued violent deeds, further provoking awakened wrath. Then lofty trees were destroyed, the beautiful and grand earth broken up, and animals with abundant vegetation and the precious things provided in love were swept away with men, leaving the land desolate because blessings had been turned into pride, self-glory and curse.

Type of Last Days

The corrupt and violent condition that brought the declared end of all flesh is present again, for what was seen then is seen now and the world is fast becoming as it was before the Flood. The same forms of wickedness are current with no new evils, as love of pleasure, amusements and ambitious projects that glorify and exalt man deface the moral image of God, and as judgment by water followed the decree then, so the coming of the Son of man follows the same corruption and unheeded warning now. God gave those living before the Flood a probation of one hundred and twenty years with promise of pardon if they repented and turned to Him, but they did not repent and of the large population only eight were saved, and today the Spirit of God is likewise being withdrawn while many refuse to return to loyalty though salvation has been brought within reach and eternal life given to all who accept a personal Saviour. That likeness shows humanity is living in the last days of earth's history, with corruption ripening for destruction and Christ's coming to take the unprepared by surprise.

As it was when men were measured by wealth rather than integrity and were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage unaware until taken away, so it will be at the coming of the Son of man with power and great glory at an unexpected hour. The careless disregard of principle then, when all flesh had corrupted its way and sought only pleasure and indulgence without seeking the counsel of the Creator or caring to do His will until rebuke rested upon them, is the condition pointed to as the pattern of that coming. There is no temporal millennium of a thousand years in which all prepare for eternity, for as universal judgment by flood followed the sentence to destroy corrupt mankind with the earth, so sudden destruction follows the same state now.

The return is seen in towns and crowded cities where killings, theft, murder, robbery and wickedness of every kind show the world out of harmony with God, with evil worse nearer the large cities and cruelty reaching a heart-sickening height. Men rapidly take sides under satanic generalship, with labor unions and mobs stirred to violence, with political strife, bribery, fraud, determination to rule or ruin, readiness to ill-treat and kill those who will not be ruled, and with binding together in unions and confederacies and unprecedented political transactions and increasingly oppressive laws. Youth are trained to love excitement, glorify themselves and follow evil desires, bringing depravity, cruelty, violence and crime like that of Noah's world. When perversity and cruelty reach their height and wickedness reaches its limit, judgments are poured out as in Noah's day, and in the last conflict violence will exceed even that before the Flood.

Greed, deceit, robbery and bloodshed fill the world and make it like Sodom, for selfishness and dishonest gain of wealth fill it with evil and bring retribution as violence did the old world. Riches cannot save wrongdoers from judgment, retribution and death, and those who choose evil add to a force they cannot control.

Before the Flood war, crime and murder were widespread while the overwhelming majority opposed truth and clung to falsehood, and conditions before Christ's second coming will be similar with the great multitude without Christ and without hope. The earth perished then despite numbers, showing that following the majority does not keep from judgment.

Doctrinal Lessons Taught

Continual transgression of the divine law filled the earth with wickedness, and for that reason destruction by waters was announced. Men had a plain word of command and a known law to guide them, yet they presumed on mercy, despised warnings, exceeded the bounds of long-suffering and passed the limits of grace by decided opposition to the divine will. Therefore interference came to vindicate the honor of the law, to check the growth of unrighteousness, to limit human life, and to keep men in continual disobedience and defiance from spoiling one another. During the probation of one hundred and twenty years the obedient were distinguished from the disobedient by the standard of that law, while the ark was prepared on dry land amid increasing ridicule and scorn, and reverence and love for the law were not lessened by universal contempt. The preaching tested and proved the people, calling them to turn from transgression to obedience, and only Noah and his family accepted and were preserved by miracle because of right-doing, while the evildoers outside the ark were swept from the face of the earth.

The decree closed one hundred and twenty years of probation in which warning was given through Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah and other faithful servants. Destruction came because men followed the imaginations of evil hearts, refused admonition, would not heed the striving of the Spirit, and let all service due to God pass from their thoughts until the earth was filled with violence. They had no faith, so that Christ as atoning sacrifice and Mediator could no longer avail for them and His intercession was unavailing. Had they listened, repented and returned to loyalty, judgment would have been averted and they would have escaped, for obedience would have kept them safe. The long-lived race was gifted with reason, intellect and talents that could have done marvelous things in connection with infinite wisdom, but acting as if wisdom and power were their own, triumphing in fancied efficiency, glorifying self, following Satan's lead, becoming wise to do evil, devising their own plans and refusing to accept Jesus, they were destroyed with the earth, and all who now follow the same pride, self-trust and rejection will likewise perish.

Even while men boasted of wonderful progress and enlightenment, and even while churches sided with the great apostate, working against the law filled the earth with corruption and violence seen by heavenly watchers, and the atmosphere of the world became as that of a pesthouse. The saving truths of the gospel are the ordained means to stem this tide of moral corruption, to restore the moral image of God in man, to remedy universal disorganization, and to draw men together in unity. Belief in truth and acceptance of light are the remedy for the pollution and corruption that rejected light, and only those in whom a new life is formed to be like Christ in character, contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, will live godly and enter heaven, while none who chooses to ignore truth and righteousness to follow the imagination of an evil heart will enter there.

The same rebellious principles worked out in the old world were worked out again in Sodom and Gomorrah, and sudden fates like those of Sodom and Jerusalem warn those now engrossed in business and amusement who reject warnings that the end is at hand. The old world united with Satan to throw off the restraint of the law and lift hostility against its Maker, followed its own pleasure, mocked messages from heaven, and when the appointed time came rain from above united with waters from the broken-up deep so that only eight souls of that vast population were saved. Noah found grace because he had not corrupted his way, as Lot also was saved when Sodom was destroyed because he had not corrupted his way. Widespread violence and the sins that brought fire on Sodom are increasing again, present cities grow like the earth before the Flood and like Sodom and prepare for a similar fate, and as greed, deceit, robbery and bloodshed make the present world like Sodom, riches cannot save wrongdoers from retribution. Punishing justice is as truly divine glory as mercy, for after wickedness became great and every imagination of the heart was only evil continually, the earth was cleansed of moral impurity by a flood, and as men ate, drank, married, bought and sold until destroyed, so the unprepared will be caught.

The conduct before the Flood stands as an earlier parallel to later impurity and wrongdoing, when unlawful indulgence degraded men and produced depravity like that which then existed. That condition is a warning for the present, where corrupt thoughts and practices are also increasing. The crime and immorality associated with legalized prostitution are compared to the wicked condition of the world before the Flood when destruction was announced because the earth was filled with violence.

The decided warning given to the antediluvians is the pattern of the decided warning now given to the world, calling for loyalty to the divine commands. That call requires upholding the importance of the Sabbath, refusing to conform to the world, refusing to link up with unbelievers, and keeping a separate people. The world today follows the same way and presents no signs of millennial glory, for transgression again fills the earth with wickedness, moral pollution and violence through betting, horse-racing, gambling, dissipation, lustful practices, untamable passions, bank failures ruining families and leaving widows and orphans to starve, and through lawmakers who themselves break the divine law while enforcing the first day of the week as sabbath.

Present Duty to Warn

As Noah warned then, those entrusted with truth now must warn the world of the coming of the Son of man, condemning the world by faith and works despite the same wicked resistance, without failing or becoming discouraged. The end of all flesh has come because violence fills the earth, and the condition of the world before the Flood parallels the world before Christ's return, when people disregard warning until judgment comes. God did not destroy without warning but granted one hundred and twenty years of probation in which the message given to Noah was to sound in their ears, promising that belief would have been for salvation. Noah sounded that message by voice and then showed his faith by his works in building the ark on dry land by exact direction, standing like a rock while the careless and world-loving forgot peril and mocked him as deluded, fanatical and crazy. Chosen and sanctified men and women must therefore go forth with a direct message from the Lord, for only such a message will arouse people in this violent age, doing most diligent, earnest, hard work to meet people where they are and, if they will not come to the gospel feast, bearing the last message to them in house-to-house labor and in the highways and byways.

Noah's faithfulness in warning is the example for those entrusted with present truth, who must present it even when others scoff or disbelieve, for unbelief did not stop the judgment then and will not stop it now. His warning tested and proved the world, gave opportunity to become wise to salvation, and left the unbelieving without excuse while condemning those who rejected it. The inhabitants did not lack warnings but regarded the message as an idle tale and parables, mocked the building, contradicted it by precept and example, kept eating and drinking and planting and building and marrying and giving in marriage, and grew more full of idolatrous business, vileness and crime until the Flood came and took them all away. So the coming of the Son of man will be, with the message for today likewise scorned yet still to be proclaimed.

Because Christ is soon coming and the earth is fast becoming as it was before the Flood and will again be ripe for destruction, those who believe must now take their stand fully on the Lord's side with God's loyal people. No one who chooses to ignore truth and righteousness to follow the imagination of his own evil heart and carry on work in a worldly, self-devised manner will enter heaven; only those who have a new life formed within to be like Christ in character, contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, living godly in Christ Jesus in strict accordance with law, will live. Those who have had the light must walk in the light as Christ is in the light, live the truth, increase daily in spirituality, be converted by the Spirit, and reflect true light as it is in Jesus, for Satan is working with intensity to deceive and allure souls from true paths of righteousness into forbidden paths and the way of the Lord is the only safe way. Those who value their souls must by grace guard against the first tinge of unfairness and the first approach to robbery of God, unjust and dishonest grasping from His treasury, unfairness in deal, and taking large remuneration for one's own work while denying others what is only their due and the opportunities and means Providence offered them to labor. They must store Bible truth through Sabbath schools and meetings to give a reason for hope.

The pre-Flood condition is instruction and warning on temperance for people now, for selfishness, violence and crime prevailed through excessive indulgence of appetites and passions, and the same cause produces the same result as this earth's history closes. A reform in habits of life is therefore needed now to fit a people for the coming of Christ. Solemn warning is still treated as amusement and a mere idle tale, as those who heard Noah laughed and ridiculed and said God could not destroy the beautiful world He had made, while nearly all thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claimed to know more than God's faithful servant, branded him a fanatic, explained away by false science his warning of rain never yet seen, and perished drinking the waters that covered the earth. When Christ comes safety is only on the side of the loyal and true even if the whole world opposes God's law.