ther, listen to the voice, and attend to the counsel of Him, who is your Maker, and who will soon sit. in judgment upon your souls. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your

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ways: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found: Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

"While God invites, how blest the day,

How sweet the gospel's charming sound!
Come sinners haste-O haste away,

While yet a pardoning God he's found."

SERMON VII.

THE DELUGE.

GEN. vii. 1.-And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou, and all thy house, into the ark.

THE five books of Moses were written more than three thousand years ago, and are supposed to be the most ancient records now upon earth. They give a view of patriarchal times, and carry up the history of the world to its very creation; indeed, the history opens with an account of the wonder working power of

God exerted upon "the void immense," bringing into existence the heavens and the earth, with all their rich and varied furniture. When the mighty work was done, it was all pronounced very good. Every thing was beautiful; every thing was perfect. The whole presented one unbroken scene of beauty and enchantment. It was the morning of creation, and most lovely was the morning! But, alas, too soon there was a sad change; for man, originally made in the moral image of his Maker, sinned! This withered every thing beautiful upon earth; this

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Brought death into the world, and all our woe." From the first moment of man's apostasy, the blighting influence of sin began to pass over the face of this fair creation, and its direful effects were seen and felt in various modes and forms; chiefly in the deep depravity of human nature, and in certain awful manifestations of the divine displeasure against sinning man.

With regard to human depravity, consequent upon the fall, it is remarkable, that the first man ever born into the world proved a murderer, and the second was the person murdered. This was a sad beginning; and it seemed to portend most terrible and disastrous things in time to come. It is true, that at the birth of Enos, the grandson of Adam, there was a brightening of the prospect; “For," says

the historian, "then began men to call upon the name of the Lord;" but, alas! it was only as the beaming of light in a dark day. It soon passed away, and was succeeded by a deeper gloom than ever. Yes, for not very long after that period, according to the Scriptures, man became exceedingly corrupt. Iniquity began to abound in a most frightful manner. The earth was filled with violence. "And God saw," says the historian, "that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil, continually and the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth; both man and beast.—But," continues the historian, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Here is one faithful Abdiel amid legions of apostate spirits-one righteous Noah standing alone in his righteousness, in the midst of a world lying in wickedness. But, although solitary and alone, he was not overlooked. "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord-and the Lord said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence.-Make thee an ark-and behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy

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sons, and thy wife, and thy son's wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female."

Never, my brethren, was there a more awful communication made from heaven to earth than this; and never, it seems, was any divine command more promptly obeyed. "For," says an Apostle, "by faith, Noah being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house." Many things might have tempted him to demur. The work was great. The ark which he was required to construct, was to be three hundred cubits in length; fifty cubits in breadth, and thirty in height; or, according to our measure, about five hundred feet long, eighty broad, and fifty high—a most gigantic structure., I have calculated the tonnage, and find it equal to that of some twenty merchant ships of the largest class, at the present time. The greatness of the work then might have caused him to hesitate in entering upon it. And another thing was this: Noah must have known very well, that in entering upon a work of this kind, so strange and unprecedented, he would most certainly subject himself to derision and contempt-would become the song of the drunkard, the butt of ridicule with many, and by all would be esteemed as a dreaming enthusiast,

a fool, and a madman-but none of these things moved him. He had heard the voice of God, and faith was triumphant. He staggered at nothing. He verily believed that it would be, even as God had said; and, therefore, according to all that the Lord had commanded him, so did he. And now, with zeal and determination, he enters upon this work—this strange work:-The foundation of the ark is laid; the gigantic structure rises; and, as the work goes on, he warns the world of the ungodly, of an approaching deluge, and calls upon them to repent and turn from their sins; but his words seem to them as idle tales which they believe not, and therefore his calls to repentance are disregarded. Their curiosity however is excited, and gathering around the ark in crowds, they affect to wonder what the good man means. "He says there is going to be a flood! a flood to drown the whole world! Nonsense! Who ever heard of such a thing? Methuselah, that old man who died the other day, lived nine hundred and sixty and nine years he never saw or heard of such a thing!-A flood to drown the world! It is all nonsense! Where can so much water come from? All perfect nonsense! Poor old man! Surely he has been dreaming, and his head is turned!" Thus, methinks, the unbelieving multitude derided the man of God, and made a mock of the whole affair! The hireling workmen, too, methinks,