Genesis 6:3, commentary and pictures

God declared that His Spirit would not contend forever with corrupt, mortal humanity, but granted a limited period of one hundred and twenty years of mercy and warning before sending the Flood. That striving is His pleading with sinners through warnings, reproofs and invitations calling them to repentance and reformation, convicting of sin, arousing conscience and offering pardon and refuge. In Noah's day corruption and violence had filled the earth through intermarriage of the worshipers of God with the wicked and through indulgence of appetite and lust, yet Noah as preacher of righteousness warned day after day and built the ark as a visible testimony until only eight souls believed and entered, when God Himself shut the door and mercy ceased. When that striving is finally resisted and rejected, restraining power is gradually withdrawn, conscience is dulled, men are left to their own inclinations and to Satan's control, and unchecked passion, delusion, violence and judgment follow. The same history prefigures the present, for as it was in the days of Noah so it will be before Christ's return, with the same rejection of warning messengers, the same withdrawing of the Spirit as iniquity increases, and a second probation closing in sudden destruction by fire as the old world was destroyed by water.

Historical Setting Before Flood

After Enoch was translated, those who worshiped God and called themselves the sons of God were the descendants of Seth dwelling apart in mountain homes to preserve themselves from wickedness and idolatry. They were drawn away to unite by intermarriage with the descendants of Cain, called the sons and daughters of men, who were set against the worship of God and despised the sacrificial offerings representing the Lamb of God. Through that mingling many lost holy character, joined in idolatry, and disregarded God's commandments, so that moral corruption flooded the earth. The same seduction of the holy seed through women enlisted to entrap souls shows the bewitching power that casts down many wounded and slays many strong men.

Those unwise marriages between those professing godliness and those not respecting and obeying God's commandments opened the flood-gates of sin to the antediluvians. They illustrate how a seemingly limited choice begins a chain with grave consequences ending in apostasy and destruction by the Flood. Love founded on no better basis than mere sensual gratification is headstrong, blind, and uncontrollable, bringing honor, truth, and every noble elevated power of the mind under slavery of passion. One so bound becomes deaf to reason and conscience, so that neither argument nor entreaty shows the folly of the course, and intimate association with those having no connection with heaven leads to falling into the same habits.

The old world became corrupt before God and filled with violence, for the wickedness of man was great in the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. All flesh had corrupted its way, proving the heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. This grieved God at His heart that He had made man, and moved His purpose to destroy man and beast and creeping thing and fowl from the face of the earth.

Conduct degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins that called forth wrath in the Flood to rid the earth of contaminating influence. Appetite bore sway over mind and conscience in eating and drinking, and in marrying and giving in marriage apart from God without counsel and without inquiring His will, to gratify loose passions and depraved lusts. There were also disobedience to parents, wantonness, refusal to bear God in thought, inclination and passion bearing sway over reason, self made god, and knowledge of the Most High nearly obliterated through selfish indulgence of corrupt passions. By controlling appetite and exciting and strengthening the passions, Satan defaced and almost obliterated the image of God in man until man bore only a faint resemblance in character and noble perfection of form to Adam in Eden.

There were always two parties in the world, and in the days of Noah there were two classes of people. On one side stood faithful sentinels for God as representatives of His righteousness, including Noah and his family and the few who remained righteous. On the other stood those opposed to God as representatives of Satan's government. It was the privilege and test for every living soul to choose which party to join.

Enoch lived in a time of extreme wickedness, yet even in that spiritually hostile age he could walk with God and develop a Christlike character. God made known to him through angels by divine instruction that He would not always bear with rebellion but would destroy the sinful race by bringing a flood of waters upon the earth. That warning belongs with the declaration that His Spirit would not strive with fleshly man forever and with the limit of 120 years, during which God worked to reform the old world. Enoch with Noah stood as righteous examples among a wicked nation, and Enoch's ascension assured the righteous that they would be saved and enter heaven.

Spirit's Striving and Withdrawal

The striving named in the verse is pleading with sinful people for a limited time through messages of warning and entreaty that call to repentance and reformation and offer pardon and refuge to all who will accept. Christ Himself spoke to Noah's day through those warnings, reproofs and invitations, giving a 120-year probation in which to repent before the Flood. That striving works by convicting of unworthiness and guilt, arousing conscience, inviting to mercy, pleading divine love, urging response, knocking at the door of the heart for entrance, and calling sin-sick, weak, weary and helpless souls to come for rest, sit at His feet, learn of Him, and wear His yoke of submission and obedience with a patience that does not weary and a love that is not repressed.

As long as a soul feels sorrow and distress over itself, conviction of unworthiness with love for truth and salvation, and desire to be saved, the Spirit is still striving and God has not forsaken it. Deep agony of mind over sin is positive evidence that striving continues and there is still hope through the love of Jesus. When striving ceases the soul is left indifferent, thinking it is well enough off, hardened in guilt without realizing the enormity of transgression, flattering itself that it is about right and in no particular danger, becoming careless, indifferent, or recklessly defiant.

God bears long with a wicked world, pitying the race even when wickedness becomes great, yet He sets a boundary line to probation beyond which it will no longer be granted. His Spirit strives but does not contend forever because man also is flesh, and after long-suffering with deep corruption He fixed the days at one hundred and twenty years as the period of warning before judgment. Continued resistance separates sinners from God until infinite mercy and love cease their pleadings and no longer intercede, showing that widespread corruption and rejection of divine influence can bring forbearance to an end.

The Spirit restrains human evil and evil passions and holds in check the cruel power of Satan so mankind is not left fully under his control. When that restraint is wholly withdrawn from the wicked because the Spirit is insulted, refused and abused, human passion and satanic wrath break out without check, conscience is dulled, and the world sees the results of Satan's rule. As withdrawal takes place Satan's power is more and more manifest, using his knowledge and exalted intellect to subordinate his fallen subjects, misrepresent God, instigate rebellion against Christ, and bring increasing delusion, cruelty, violence, and judgments by fire and flood.

When the voice of the Spirit speaking to the soul and urging response is resisted, God's restraining influence is gradually withdrawn and people are left to their own inclinations. Each resistance prepares the way for further resistance until greater light no longer impresses, spiritual understanding and conscience are dulled, preaching and hearing become vain, and appeals no longer move the person to submit to God. Those who repeatedly resist become blind to sin and are left to the delusions they chose, with light turned to darkness, to reap what they sowed with no protection from Satan's malice, and the resulting ruin comes through their own impenitence.

In Noah's day the striving continued while Noah built the ark and preached a coming flood to destroy the wicked, with God not withdrawing the Spirit without warning of the result of breaking His law. The people's continual resistance and contempt would separate them from God, and His pleadings would cease when the set period of 120 years had nearly expired. The end came when Noah and his family entered the ark and God Himself shut the door, which no man can open; mercy then ceased to intercede, hope died, the golden opportunity passed forever, justice took the sword of vengeance, the Spirit was withdrawn from the sinful race that rejected warning, and they perished in the waters of the Flood.

God does not then stand toward the sinner as executioner of the sentence but leaves rejecters of mercy to themselves to reap what they have sown, with no power left to control the soul and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem demonstrates this vindictive power of Satan over those who yield to his control, and stands as fearful warning to all who trifle with offers of grace that persistent guilt brings certain punishment and testifies to hatred of sin. Mercy will not plead for sinners forever, and when mercy no longer pleads the guilty will feel anguish over sin.

Hundred Twenty Years Probation

The hundred and twenty years is a period of probation, warning, and striving of the Spirit granted in mercy before the Flood, and it was fulfilled as a predicted time. Though men were so wicked, they would not be destroyed without warning, but were given time to hear warning, to choose to obey and find refuge or to refuse and be destroyed. The limit set on striving with a deeply wicked, corrupt race marked the period of warning before judgment, showing that growing corruption and rejection of divine influence can bring forbearance to an end.

More than a hundred years beforehand God made known His purpose to bring a flood to Noah, sending an angel to tell him, declaring His purpose to destroy people and animals and directing him to build the ark so people would not be left without warning. Noah was given the year of the Flood so he could know when to build and raise the warning to the world, and his warning based on the word that the Flood would destroy life at the end of that period condemned those who rejected it. The warning was made plain through his preaching and the ark he built, with every blow struck in its construction testifying that he believed.

The period was given for their own interest and displays mercy and long forbearance before judgment on a disobedient world. It was abundant, ample, gracious time to turn from sin, overcome bad and wrong habits, form righteous characters, cease polluting the world with sin, and find refuge in the ark, with the future in their own hands. During that time Noah, Methuselah, Enoch, many others, and Noah's helpers warned, pleaded, and labored to preserve knowledge of the true God, and the building itself was a warning. Men refused the invitation to repent and be saved, yet their unbelief did not hinder the predicted event, and the Flood came in general ruin showing wrath.

The threatened destruction was conditional and could have been avoided. If evildoers had listened, believed, repented, returned to loyalty and obedience, and turned to God, He would have pardoned, turned aside wrath as with Nineveh, and not destroyed them, because He wanted them to have eternal life and offered mercy to those who obeyed. Their future was in their own hands, and repentance would have averted judgment, but they disbelieved, would not turn from wickedness to obey, and so the word was fulfilled to the letter. As the long probation closed, the obedient were distinguished from the disobedient by the standard of the law, while many believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant.

God had long borne with the wickedness of the long-lived people before declaring He would bear with them no longer. The hundred and twenty years marked the end of the old world's probation, when Noah was sent to warn of coming judgment and give time to respond. Evil was reaching a fearful pace, with brute force as the prevailing influence as men intimidated others by threatened punishment, and when probation ended the race was swept off the earth with only Noah and his family saved.

The hundred and twenty years is also the limiting of human life because people were sinful flesh and mortal. God would not allow the corrupt to live out the hundreds of years otherwise natural to them, but brought the Flood to destroy them and afterward their lives rapidly grew shorter. Since the Flood the period of existence has been shortening under the curse pronounced upon man and earth and every living thing, with physical, mental, and moral degeneracy rapidly increasing in the last days. Flesh of dead animals was not the original food but was permitted after the Flood because all vegetation had been destroyed, and people in Noah's and Abraham's days were stronger and more comely while each later generation became weaker, more subject to disease, and shorter-lived through Satan's power to bring disease and death.

Noah's Warning and Rejection

For one hundred and twenty years Noah stood as a faithful preacher of righteousness, sounding day after day in the ears of that generation the solemn warning that a flood of waters would deluge the world because of its unsurpassed wickedness, calling men to repent and believe and find refuge in the ark. The building of the ark itself was part of the warning, visibly demonstrating his faith, with every blow struck upon it a warning message testifying that he believed what God had declared and directed him to build. Those who repented and reformed during that granted time to hear warning could receive pardon and be saved, for God would not destroy so wicked a people without giving time to choose to obey and find refuge or refuse and be destroyed.

He did not labor alone, for Methuselah and Enoch and many others warned and entreated with him, and with his sons and his family and any others who would help he built the ark on dry land where rain had never fallen, while Christ with His angels labored to bring a better state of things. Enoch proclaimed the coming of the Son of God, and Noah proclaimed without reserve the judgments of God from the first foundation of the ark to its completion. For a time the message had influence and some were converted, yet they did not stay converted.

Power attended Noah's words because it was the voice of God to man through His servant, and connection with God made him strong in the strength of infinite power. Through the whole time he stood unbending like a rock amid the tempest, distinguished by holy integrity and unwavering faithfulness while surrounded by popular contempt and ridicule and wickedness and disobedience, declaring events which to human wisdom seemed impossible. That strength held him firm when human wisdom judged a flood on dry land could not take place.

At first many were startled by the message, some received it and were deeply convicted, some appeared to be converted and were even employed as carpenters to build the ark under God's supervision, and some believed and died in the faith as saints. But the restraint of righteousness was obnoxious to them, and through association with unbelievers and continued sinning they made only half changes, uniting outwardly with the righteous while sinning all the time. They threw off everything that disturbed carnal indulgence, lost faith, backslid, failed the test, joined in mocking Noah, and continued in corruption and polygamy and sinful passions. Every particular of the ark had to be according to divine instruction, yet those who sought distinction by great ability glorified themselves and dishonored God by bringing in their own plans and devisings.

To quiet conscience men reasoned that the laws of nature had been fixed for centuries, with seasons coming in order, no rain yet fallen but only mist or dew causing vegetation to flourish, and rivers and brooks never passing their boundaries but bearing waters safely to the sea. They felt secure and reasoned as though nature was above the God of nature and He would not or could not change it, so the warning must be of none effect because its fulfillment would disturb nature's course. Giant forests and Eden-like gardens were taken as proof of nature's permanence, and men argued it was not in accordance with God's character to save only Noah and his family, eight persons, and sweep all the rest away. Their unbelief did not prevent fulfillment, for the rain came and the wicked perished in the waters of the flood.

They spent that graciously granted probation ridiculing, caricaturing, criticizing, and laughing Noah to scorn as a visionary, fanatic, alarmist, and crazy fanatic for his peculiar earnestness and intense feeling about sure judgments which God would surely fulfill. They talked of science and of the laws controlling nature, held a carnival over his words, and mocked his warning as superstitious fear. Those who professed a knowledge of God led in making His word of none effect, rejecting the message themselves, working to prevent others from believing, and accepting Satan's darkness and falsehood and lies because most in harmony with corrupt lives. When the hundred and twenty years ended, mercy and forbearance were exhausted, the day of probation was ended, and the Lord took the matter in hand.

They spent those one hundred and twenty years hardening their hearts and training themselves to reject the message of truth while minds were engrossed with the things of the world, continuing ordinary pursuits and carnal indulgence. In proportion as they resisted conviction their discernment was clouded and their desire to follow ungodliness was strengthened, until service to God passed from their thoughts. For a little time they were awed and afraid to go on as recklessly as before, then depraved habits prevailed over restraint. When the time came for God's word to be fulfilled and unmistakable evidence was given in the animals and birds entering the ark of their own accord in perfect order, hearts were so hard that men were alarmed but explained it away and laughed.

After rejecting that message they plunged into sin with greater abandon than ever before and doubled the enormity of their corrupting practices, showing that those who refuse to reform find nothing reformative in sin. Their minds were set to carry their spirit of revolt, and they are not and never will be forced to submission. The judgment of the Flood brought upon them declared their rebellion incurable.

Of that vast population only eight souls, Noah and his family, believed, obeyed, received the message, and entered into the ark. That time was a precious probationary time with light given so they might believe, and few appreciated it. Their rejection of the light proved their ruin, and the rejected message that would have saved them had they believed condemned the world. When the appointed time came, rain was sent from heaven, the foundations of the great deep were broken up, the waters from beneath united with the waters from heaven, and only those eight were saved.

Flood Judgment Accomplished

When iniquity in the infant world became deep, widespread and unbearable, God could no longer bear with it and declared His Spirit would not always strive with the guilty race. The striving had been conditional, giving opportunity to cease polluting the world and its rich treasures with sin, and the threatened destruction could have been avoided by repentance. He determined to purify the world by a flood, to blot mankind from His creation, and also to destroy the beasts of the field and the vegetation given for food and blessing. That judgment fell because men, amid giant forests, Eden-like gardens, waters, minerals and precious metals given for their good, forgot and disobeyed God and used His gifts to indulge sin instead of remembering Him with love and gratitude. The fair earth with its trees, groves, palaces and idol-places was thus transformed into one vast scene of desolation, brokenness and ruin.

God had set a limit to forbearance, granting that generation 120 years to turn from sin, and when they rejected warning and wickedness reached its full measure, divine mercy's boundary was passed, forbearance was exhausted, probation ended, and the Lord took the matter in hand. Their hearts were fully set to do evil and at the end of the allotted time they would not repent but engaged in all kinds of violence, remaining impenitent to the very close of probation. Then rain was sent from heaven, the foundations of the great deep were broken up, and the waters from beneath united with the waters from heaven. The rebellious race with its ingratitude, disloyalty and disobedience was swept off the earth and the earth washed of its moral pollution.

Their crime and violence and repeated rejection of the messages sent through Noah wore out long-suffering patience. As they persisted in sin and defied law despite warnings, restraint weakened and desire for ungodliness grew. Human beings thereby exceeded the bounds of long-suffering and demonstrated they could go so far in transgression that God would intervene, judge them, and limit human life to prevent continuing wrongdoing.

Their unbelief and mockery did not hinder the predicted event or prevent its fulfillment, for God's word was fulfilled to the letter. The 120 years had been abundant time to turn from sin, overcome bad habits, form righteous characters and find refuge, yet men denounced the messenger as visionary, fanatic, alarmist and presumptuous, scorned the warning as an idle tale and superstitious fear, and continued more eagerly in wickedness and pleasure. God bore long, giving ample opportunity for repentance, but at the appointed time when repentance was refused His judgments were visited upon the rejecters of mercy in general ruin, showing His wrath. By that fulfillment the truth of His word was exemplified, that all who would not keep heaven's commandments should drink the waters of the flood, and His patience was shown not to make punishment uncertain.

The destruction was an act of mercy to the world, because their corruption and influence led others into rebellion. It was fixed as an exhibition of His power to transgressors grown bolder in disobedience after Adam's transgression, with the ark built as shelter for the obedient until indignation was past. The years of restraint and probation, though unappreciated and met with continued wickedness and violence, thus vindicated His honor when persistent wickedness led Him to act.

Pattern and Call Today

Human nature left without the influence of God's Spirit is the same now as in Noah's time, and Noah stands as a literal person and the Flood as a historical event prefiguring the world before Christ's return. The old world grew corrupt and ripe for destruction through eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage apart from God, with hearts filled with thoughts of marriage, disobedience to parents, wantonness, unions entered without counsel or inquiring God's will to gratify loose passions and depraved lusts, and refusal to bear God in thought, and those same sins exist now even among some professing truth so that the world is now almost ripe for destruction and will bring unmingled fury as the flood took them all away then. As in the days before the flood men and women are controlled by self-indulgence, eating and drinking, perverting and defiling the marriage relation with marrying and giving in marriage and divorce after divorce, filling the land with heart-sickening violence such as killing in the cities, making oppressive laws, with evil worse nearer the large cities. Conduct then degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins, with inclination and passion bearing sway over reason, self as god, knowledge of the Most High nearly obliterated through selfish indulgence of corrupt passions, appetite ruling mind and conscience, and marriage become an all-absorbing infatuation of indiscreet lustful unsanctified unions bringing untold misery and dishonor to God, showing that as it was in the days of Noah so it is in the days of the Son of Man and calling followers to temperance and heavenly-mindedness rather than gratifying appetite at expense of health and spiritual growth. The same pattern holds before Christ's second appearing, when warnings are again met with claims of impossibility while the world is absorbed in pleasure-loving amusements, gains, traffic, moneymaking, dishonest practices, and Sodom-like iniquity, and sudden destruction breaks upon the unready.

God first made His purpose known so the antediluvians would have opportunity to turn, giving a hundred and twenty years in which the warning to repent was sounded lest wrath destroy them, and their unbelief and mockery did not hinder the predicted event, for after long bearing with ample opportunity for repentance judgment at the appointed time visited the rejecters of mercy. During that time Noah warned of coming waters and with sons and family and helpers built the ark on dry land where rain had never fallen, while Christ with angels labored for a better state, the message influencing some for a time with some converted but not staying converted, until only eight persons were saved because wickedness kept increasing till God swept the wicked away and washed moral pollution, though He gave warning because He wanted them to have eternal life. That 120 years points to a second period when probation closes as in the days of Noah when the Son of man shall be revealed and men shall again be lovers of pleasure more than of God. During those years God's Spirit strove by arousing consciences, but men quieted conscience by reasoning that fixed laws of nature made the message impossible and of none effect, and that same reasoning now rejects the warning that the world will be destroyed by fire as it then rejected warning of water. The same mercy is given again before destruction by fire, with a period of test and trial and opportunity to show loyalty and obedience to law, yet of the vast population only eight believed and obeyed while the rest rejected and despised, and that pattern of long warning followed by punishment of the disobedient with the majority rejecting the call to repent and return to allegiance will be repeated before Christ comes to punish transgressors.

God bears long with a wicked world but sets a boundary line to probation beyond which it will no longer be granted, and after long-suffering in Noah's time He fixed their days at one hundred and twenty years, while the present world is fast approaching that same boundary line. God's Spirit will not strive forever, and as iniquity steadily increases its restraint is being withdrawn and another general destruction of the wicked is coming. Growing corruption, especially adultery, shows the same warning applies as the world approaches the revelation of the Son of Man, and as wickedness, idolatry, drunkenness, self-indulgence and corruption increase the opportunity to respond and hear the gospel will not last indefinitely and judgments may fall. God gave before the Flood a probation promising pardon if they repented and turned, they did not repent and only eight of the large population were saved, and the world is fast becoming as before the Flood while today the Spirit is being withdrawn.

When disobedience became unbearable God determined to purify the world by a flood yet in mercy gave one hundred and twenty years while the ark was building, during which Noah, Methuselah and many others warned and entreated and every blow struck was a warning message, and the past repeats today as God sends plain warnings through men and through judgments in earthquake, flood and flame, and all refusing to repent will perish as the ungodly then. There are limits to forbearance and the Spirit will not always strive, and fires, floods, earthquakes, fury of the great deep and calamities by sea and land warn of this limit as God prepares to visit the earth because iniquity swells to terrible proportions with depravity and crime, the holy law made void, the Bible Sabbath transgressed and the first day exalted and enforced like Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, so that when wickedness reaches this height forbearance ends and God must interfere and act.

The one hundred and twenty years were Noah's preaching time, and though he labored that long among multitudes only eight were saved, which means workers should not be discouraged when results are not at once seen but should keep working even when hearers are many and followers are few. During that probation His Spirit strove through the warning sounding in ears day after day, Noah built the ark and showed faith by works and by faith and works condemned the world, at first many were startled and some believed and died in the faith, but with time it lost power over the careless world-loving who forgot peril and laughed at building on dry land. As Noah warned then so God's people today are to warn, condemning transgressors by faith and works though meeting the same wicked resistance, without failing or becoming discouraged. The verse means the majority will be lost and numbers do not prove truth, so those holding present truth must not follow the majority nor turn aside from duty, for following the majority leads to destruction and not to heaven, and as Christ had many hearers but few followers so workers must sow beside all waters.

One hundred and twenty years was precious probationary time with light given so they might believe, yet save Noah and his family not one believed, so only eight received the message and entered the ark, and their rejection proved ruin while the rejected message condemned the world. The same is true of the message now, which will be a savor of life unto life to all who accept and of condemnation to all who reject. Those who perished had offer of escape through repentance and shelter in the ark, and now warning invites escape and refuge not in the ark but in Jesus Christ by receiving the message, purifying the soul in obeying truth and keeping God's laws, yet thousands deride it and stay occupied with eating, drinking, dressing, planting and building as in Noah's days, while those warning transgressors to repent and return because the Lawgiver comes to punish plead in vain with the majority. The warning still had to be given though some appreciated and many did not, and now is the time to take decided stand for truth and come into the ark of safety.

The Spirit's striving is still going on with many who have not yet heard testing truth, and even the time of destructive judgments is a time of mercy for those with no opportunity to learn truth, for God looks tenderly upon them with heart of mercy touched and hand still stretched out to save. While the door is closed to those who would not enter, the Lord still gathers multitudes to fill broken ranks left by those who corrupted their way and departed, with large numbers hearing truth first time admitted as eleventh-hour workers. Even those worshiping in ignorance as Baal worshipers may still be reached, showing striving continues. Just as long as that striving continues God's people in this world are to both give and receive, giving the light of truth from Scripture and receiving what God moves worldly men including kings and rulers to do for His cause, so those interested in religious liberty must not cut off favors or withdraw from help God moved men to give for advancement of His cause.

That striving in schools calls for recognition, honor, prayer and willing response to the heavenly presence striving with youth. The striving may be at work in even one hearer leading to conversion reaching many others, and it was present at work on hearts on the camp meeting encampment and still continues during and after times of widespread religious interest and instruction, calling for meetings needing laborers without delay. Parents who respond prepare the way for the Spirit to strive with children by guiding toward holiness and teaching through example and instruction, making solemn covenant by repentance and confession, confessing past neglect, seeking the Lord wholeheartedly to cooperate in children's salvation, feeding His lambs, teaching them as younger members of the Lord's family, guiding feet in holiness, leading to God, and guarding words and actions.

God's patience gives individuals and churches time to repent and reform, but that season may be short, and if it passes without change warning of judgment stands, for the Spirit does not strive forever. When men long having light and evidence refuse to see danger and repent and opposition to pure holy principles strengthens, striving ends and judgment follows, and counting rebuke as nothing brings severer stroke as when consuming fire came upon institutions in Battle Creek, so those enlightened must move forward in obedience relying wholly upon Him. God will not always bear with perversity leading souls from the narrow way into uncertainty and falsehood through idolatry and union with worldlings, and unless the often reproved make decided change they will be left to their own way with blessings taken from those choosing darkness and false guides, light become darkness how great. His mercy has limit when light is persistently rejected and duty neglected, with record kept of blessings offered and treatment, and refusers may be given over to Satan as Jerusalem's rejection of Christ illustrates for those refusing present light, as Jews were cast off as a nation. The Spirit will not keep striving with unfaithful stewardship and unprincipled devising, and leaders grasping with selfish unsanctified hands the treasury means for new fields will be released unless they repent with thorough conversion in body soul and spirit, for striving continues only on repentance and the truly converted are filled with self-sacrifice.

Mercy still lingers urging immediate turning while now is the day of salvation, with the Spirit striving to make whole-hearted consecrated Christians through testimony and reproof and to turn the disobedient from shallow fancies and unsanctified heart to Christ who purchased soul body and influence with blood. That striving is grieved by continuing in that life, by shallow fancies, wrong spirits in home life, and flattering that abused mercies can be taken up anytime, and if grieving is not stopped by immediate turning, repentance, conversion and thorough change with self-sacrifice, the striving will cease and appeals end leaving persons in stubbornness selfishness and sin to their own ways. After all God could do with Heaven interested, those careless and indifferent slighting sacrifice and trifling with mercy bring God's frown, and showing by life that offered mercy is slighted leaves death as portion dearly purchased and dreadful, feeling the agony Christ felt to purchase refused redemption and realizing loss of eternal life and immortal inheritance. Then probation closes too late for prayers to prevail, with dark trying days under less favorable circumstances following.