WHEN THE FLOOD CAME AND SWEPT THEM ALL AWAY.

Genesis 6.

In referring to that coming event of which all the prophets speak, Jesus said:

"But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be " (Matthew 24: 37 and 38).

I.

It behooves us, therefore, to consider the days of Noah and see what were their leading features, and compare them with those of our own days, if we would be wise in discerning the signs of the times.

Happily we have not far to go, nor much space to cover, for God has condensed the history of the days of Noah into about three chapters of Genesis, viz.: four to six, and especially six.

To be sure, there is not an abundance of detail here, but when we recall that God is giving a historic outline, not of a few decades or even centuries, but millenniums of years, we must be persuaded that the features of the period He dwells upon are dominant, and that they are those He would have us carefully consider for that reason. Just what these features are we will see as we read in chapter 6, verses 1 to 8:

"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And GOD saw 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 it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."

SIN IN THE CITIES.

1. The first feature to which our attention is here called is the increase of population. " It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth."

Attention was called to this in the last lecture, where we saw men building cities, amassing wealth, extending commerce, multiplying the arts and sciences, and enjoying the pleasures and amusements and the comforts and conveniences of life.

Wherever men come together in large numbers there sin is not only diffused, but also intensified. There is sin in the country, but there is more in the city. As men thus get closer together they are better able to support one another in iniquity, and they grow more daring and defiant against God and His laws. As a matter of fact, all our great cities today are hotbeds of rationalism, infidelity and anarchy.

2. Another feature is the marked prominence of the female sex, since we read that " When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, daughters were born unto them."

It is not remarkable, of course, that daughters should be born, but the divine historian says nothing about sons in the same connection, which is significant, especially in the light of what was brought before us in our previous lecture. There the Holy Spirit went out of His way apparently, to mention the names of three particular women. Significant because the names of no other women are given for a period of thousands of years, and especially so considering the meaning of the names, which indicated that the physical beauty and sensual attractions of the sex were now exercising an influence in the world which theretofore had not been known.

FALLEN ANGELS.

3. The third feature is the irruption of fallen angels into the world of men, for we read (verse 3), "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."

As I have stated on other occasions, that phrase " the sons of God " wherever in the Old Testament, refers not to men, but to angels; whether good or evil angels the context must determine. In this case it determines that they were evil angels. They had already fallen from their first estate of holiness and subjection to God, following in the lead of Satan, and now they are seen entering upon a deeper apostasy still, thrusting themselves through their own habitation into this earth.

Nor are they content with influencing humankind for evil at a distance, but coming as closely as possible to men, and consorting with human flesh in what we define as the marriage relation. A great mystery is here, but were there time the declaration could be strongly buttressed by other passages in the Bible, and other historic facts. (See note on page 86). It was for this reason, and because of this crowning iniquity on the part of man, that Jehovah said: " My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh."

The text goes on to say that " There were giants in the earth in those days." The Hebrew word for "giants " is " ephilim," which means, " the fallen ones." The fallen angels were in the earth in those days. "And also after that" the verse says. This irruption of fallen angels into the world of men was not limited to the antediluvian period, in other words, but was known also at a later time.

THE LOVES OF THE GODS.

That later time, by the way, is suggested to us in the story of the Canaanites, who were exterminated from their land among other reasons because of this very sin.

In evidence of this you may recall that when Moses sent the spies into Canaan to reconnoitre it, the unbelieving ones returned, saying: " The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants " that is, the nephilim, the fallen ones, a declaration they subsequently qualify by saying, "The sons of Anak, which come of the giants " i. e. the offspring of the fallen ones "and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." (Numbers 13: 33).

To return to Genesis 6 again/we read that " After that " that is, after the antediluvian period " when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."

In this sentence we have an intimation of the source or origin whence the classic writers of antiquity obtained their notions concerning the loves of the gods and the demi-gods. Has that feature of mythology ever struck you as peculiar? Where did ancient literature obtain an idea like that? Was there not back of it an awful fact? A fact of which those authors may have been cognizant in their own time, or which had been handed down to them by tradition? Is it not difficult otherwise to explain the legends of families half human and half divine?

4. A fourth feature was a general diffusion of infidelity and atheism, for it is written again that, " God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

This also was set before us in the last lecture. Lamech, the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain, and a kind of embodiment of his period, was a polygamist, a murderer, and a worshipper of the god of forces. But it would appear also that after the translation of Enoch, who came in the line of Seth, even the Sethites themselves fell into the same wickedness. Perhaps through intermarrying with the Cainites, or some other cause, they had been seduced by the intellectual pursuits, the gay society, and the easy life of the wicked until (swallowed up in the same vortex) they disappeared as a separate people.

And so it came about that as God looked down upon the face of the earth there was only one man that could be described by him as a preacher of righteousness, and who, with his family, He saved..

5. Finally, the days of Noah were marked by an excess of riot, for we read in the twelfth verse, omitted previously, that " The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence."

ANTEDILUVIAN CIVILIZATION.

And now in noting these things, remember that side by side with them, the communication with evil spirits, the spread of infidelity and atheism, and the excess of violence and riot, that the civilization of the period was going on, advancing and progressing on every side. And little do we apprehend what that civilization may have been.

We boast of our civilization today, but ours may not be comparable with that of the antediluvian period. The men of those days were not limited in their acquirements to a period of three-score years and ten, or even four-score years, but lived to be hundreds of years old, some of them nearly a millennium; and hence had an amassing of knowledge, experience and skill to enrich their civilization, of which we can have little appreciation.

As an illustration of this, Dr. George H. Pember, an English writer, speaks of the building of the ark, which was the work of a Sethite, and equalled in size the Great Eastern, the ship which but a few years ago afforded such marvel to ourselves, and which has only just now been surpassed. He thinks also that many of the mighty labors accomplished by the earlier descendants of Noah may have sprung from reminiscences of pristine grandeur, and fragments of lore, handed down by forefathers who had passed a portion of their existence in the previous age of glory and depravity.

Among these labors he names the daring conception of a literally cloud-capped tower; the stupendous and splendidly decorated edifices of Babylon and Nineveh; and the wondrous structure of the first pyramid, involving as it did, an accurate knowledge of astronomical truth at least on a level with vaunted advances of modern science. All these great efforts it is to be remembered, were in progress during the lifetime of Shem, and probably that of his brothers also.

And so they continued amassing wealth, and extending commerce, and multiplying the arts and sciences, and enjoying the pleasures and amusements, and the comforts and conveniences of a life in sin, or, as Jesus said: " They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and knew not, until the flood came and took them all away."

II.

Keeping these lines of comparison before us, let us now inquire whether there is anything in our time that parallels them in any degree.

COMPASSING OUR OWN TIME.

1. What about the increase of population in our day? James J. Hill says that within forty years the United States will be called upon to feed a population of 200,000,000 people, and I suppose there is no man of like experience and observation who will question the fulfilment of that prediction. We ourselves see how all our cities are growing. What a marvel Chicago is, with its two millions of people within three-quarters of a century! And so far as my reading goes, I have observed that what is true of the cities of the United States is true of cities the world over.

I need not repeat what was said a moment ago, that when men thus come together they soon begin to act upon the principle, human and not divine, that " in union there is strength." Thus organizations and federations are multiplied from year to year, without the thought or recognition of God in Christ, and even in opposition to Him, until we may well begin to question whether another tower of Babel is not near, with all its direful consequences.

2. Consider the marked prominence of women in our time.

Let no one suppose that I have anything harsh to say against femininity. I have had a mother and a sister, and I have a wife; and if not blessed with daughters of my own, those furnished me by enterprising sons are multiplying delightfully. Little criticism have I to make and few comments, but I would set before you facts that are as plain as anything can be.

Consider how women are in evidence in their personal appearance. Their hats for example; the powder and paint on their faces, even in the public streets; their boldness in dress that need not be described; their brazenness on the stage, and in the audiences of such performances, where, in the companionship of the opposite sex, they gaze upon a lewdness that would have shocked their mothers only a generation ago.

WOMAN'S ACTIVITIES.

Think of their influence in society, I mean their organized influence. I do not say that it is not often, and indeed usually, an influence with a good intent, but I am speaking only of the fact. Long has woman been potent in the drawing-room as a social arbiter, but now through clubs, and committees and other associations limited to her sex, she effectually touches life in the broadest way at almost every point.

Think of her influence in business and professional life, occupying positions which until now have been thought only to belong to men, extending in their range from the pastorate to the spiritualistic mediumship, and from newspaper editing to expert mountain climbing.

Think of her influence in the political world, not only holding office, but clamoring for the ballot, that she may act directly on the legislation of her land, even the land of Turkey, by the way.

It is not so long ago, no longer than my boyhood, when it was the rarest thing to see the picture of a woman in a daily newspaper, and when its portrayal there brought a sneer to the lips of men and a blush to the cheeks of women. But today the pictures of women are as common in the newspapers as those of men, and did we include the magazine, the cigar-box cover and the bill-board, the latter are utterly outclassed by the representations of the female face and form.

Referring to woman's prominence in the professions and business life, an impish maiden recently rebuked an editor who deplored the fact, characterizing his words as " amusing."

"Why don't the men marry us and keep business for themselves? " she asked. " If you have the notion that women prefer banging type-writers, or pushing sewing machines, or selling goods over the counter, to making homes for loving husbands and prattling children, why then, you are a goose of a man, and a very unobserving editor. All this talk about the modern desire of women to be independent is absurd."

ARE THE MEN TO BLAME?

In effect the same argument or explanation is given by the suffragettes, who insist that men are no longer capable of legislating for women and children.

A working-girl is ruined by her employer, and afterwards punished for the crime of child-murder, while he escapes. This is the occasion for one of the leading English suffragettes taking the platform on behalf of the ballot for women, and even advocating the use of the brickbat to obtain it. There may be sufficient justification in the premises, but just now we are dealing only with the facts.

In the same way both men and women, including a few ministers indeed, have condoned an orgy of bloodlust unsurpassed in modern annals of human deviltry in one of the towns of southern Illinois, because of police misgovernment and the miscarriage of justice in the courts.

There may be much truth in these things. The man may be to blame for woman's interference with his prerogatives. His sinful neglect of duty to the home and to the state may have fired her with the necessity of unsexing herself, if necessary, for the general improvement of the race; but this neither mends the matter nor silences the fact.

There are good women, plenty of them, thank God! as good as men, and some of them a great deal better. And there are women better able to manage a household, a business, or even the state, for that matter, than some men that can be named. Nevertheless, we cannot close our eyes to the truth that as it was in the days of Noah, so it certainly is today, that woman is not only coming to, but is already at the front, and almost certain to remain there until the end of the present age.

3. Let us consider the relation today between evil spirits, or demons, and human beings.

What shall we say of spiritualism, and clairvoyance, and fortune-telling, and palmistry, and the related cults? That there is fraud and fake in them, I know, very much of both indeed, perhaps more than most of us believe. But I also know that there is a modicum of truth in them; and that scientific men today confess themselves baffled in the face of some of their phenomena which cannot be explained, they say, upon the natural plane of things. Nor can they ever be explained, except as the Word O'f God explains them, which tells us of a kingdom of darkness at the head of which Satan stands and who has under him myriads of fallen angels and demons whom he can use. These control human beings, and possess them, where the latter yield and surrender themselves to that end.

SPIRITUALISM IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

I believe these things are multiplying on every hand and finding their way, indeed, within the professing Church itself. Only within a few months two noted ecclesiastics in this country have spoken sympathetically concerning spiritualism, and one of them has predicted that the day is coming when the children in our public schools will be instructed how to fraternize with spirits, and to talk with the dead, just as they are being taught today grammar and geography.

I am not so sure but that this prediction may come true. Indeed there are such schools in spiritistic circles even now, where boys and girls as young as four years of age are taught about " controls " and corresponding things. But this I say, that when those " unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet," those of us who believe on Jesus Christ, and are waiting for Him, may take courage, because it is the day of which He speaks: " Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." (Revelation 16: 1315).

4. Let us consider the spread of infidelity and atheism today. You know as well as I how these things are increasing on every hand. There was a time when a reference to an infidel or to infidelity caused us to think of isolated individuals of eminence, like Goethe, or Voltaire, or Bradlaugh, or Robert G. Ingersoll, but today, through the evil influence of the rationalistic criticism, infidelity has become so common as to be found even within the Church.,

When professing Christians are denying the integrity of the Bible as the Word of God, and the deity of Jesus Christ, and the lost condition of men, and the necessity of the new birth, and even the personality of God Himself, is not that infidelity? And because of the positions some of these Christians hold, they are infidels of the most subtle and dangerous type. There is only one possible end to this kind of thing and it is coming very soon.

SUICIDE AND LUST.

5. Finally, what of the increase of violence and fraud in the day in which we live! Open your newspaper any morning or evening and determine for yourselves. Where is there a great city in the United States where the Sabbath is respected? Was there ever a period of more disobedience to parents than today? How lightly human life is considered now! For what pretexts will men take away the lives of others and even their own!

As The Living Church observes: " It hardly awakens more remark than does the ordinary way of dying, for one to read in the morning paper that some prominent banker or leading society woman has deliberately thrown life away. ' Poor man! ' or ' Poor woman! ' we say; just as though they had been taken off with pneumonia."

And passing to another thought, what shall we say of the lust and licentiousness of today. And the " tandem polygamy " as Dr. Parkhurst calls it? Do the records of our divorce courts present any evidence bearing upon this?

Indeed, an analysis of the individual cases of suicide just referred to, sustains the conclusion that "the increase in that mania affects particularly the wellto-do and prosperous, and is induced by crimes of dishonesty committed in high positions of responsibility where the only alternative to escape punishment is the termination of life."

And what about dishonesty in business?

And what of lying or falsehood in other spheres than business?

GIPSY SMITH AND THE INTERVIEWER.

Gipsy Smith tells of a Chicago reporter who interviewed him about his meetings, urging him to tell the number of his converts; and when he objected on the ground that his words would be exaggerated and do harm, the reporter said:

"Oh, I love exaggeration!"

Is not this characteristic? No, not of the newspapers but the public. The newspapers of today are not leaders but only interpreters of the people. They know what the people want and cater to it. The people must have the sensational headline; they must have a chance to lie and call other people liars, and the papers give them the opportunity. So used have we become to this indeed, that we could not easily adapt ourselves to a change.

And yet, side by side therewith our civilization is advancing: we are progressing on every hand and boasting of it continually.

To quote The Living Church again: " While it is wrong to exaggerate, it would seem that in our modern life we are developing a condition in morals similar to that of the Roman Empire in its decay. This is the day in which the materialistic philosophy of the last generation, although it has run its course and died out in the schools, would seem to have filtered through into the common mind and to have produced its legitimate fruit in materialistic living.

"And back of all this lies that great falsehood, ' Ye shall be as God ' (R. V.) or in other words, the thought that the individual intellect is supreme. That every man may think and believe as he pleases; that he owes nothing intellectually or spiritually to anything outside of himself; that he has not only a right but a duty to assert his manhood by adopting any religion he will, or no religion whatever if that pleases him better."

It was for these things that the Hood came and swept them all away.

DID THE FLOOD EVER OCCUR?

But did the flood come and sweep them all away? That is the question. How many there are today who are raising this question! How many are incredulously smiling at the silly notion that there ever was a flood?

So far as I am concerned, the Bible is evidence enough for me, but let me call your attention to its corroboration from tradition.

The Mexicans, composed of various nationalities, the Hindus, the Chinese, the Persians, the Romans, and the Greeks all tell, with varying details, the same story of the carrying away of the old world by a flood, and the repeopling of the earth by some who had been miraculously preserved.

THE TESTIMONY OF GEOLOGY.

Added to the corroboration of traditon, take that of geology. This also teaches that there has been a temporary submergence of at least a large part of the Old and New Worlds in times comparatively recent, speaking in a geological sense.

For instance, beds of mud and gravel are found almost everywhere in both hemispheres, which must owe their origin to a sudden rush of water sweeping away the soil; and yet this rush of water cannot be explained by local floods, such as the overflow of rivers, because these beds are found on elevations where rivers never flowed. Gravel and shells on mountain tops call for the explanation which the flood of Genesis alone satisfactorily supplies.

Away down in the antediluvian strata too, are whole cemeteries of skeletons, with the bones in a state of perfect preservation, indicating a catastrophe which not only slew, but buried its victims. The stretch of sea between Dunkirk and Norfolk on the English coast is called by sailors " the burial ground " because of the huge piles of bones beneath the waters. They are said to be like ants in some of the valleys of Italy, and the peasants have used them as they would stones for building their walls.

In one place in Siberia, referred to by Prof. G. Frederick Wright, of Oberlin, there is an indication that the animals were fleeing from the lower levels to the higher hills when they were overtaken, and as they were overtaken they were preserved entire; hair, skin and flesh are as fresh as if they died but yesterday. It has been found also on examination, that suffocation was the cause of their death.

THE DIVINE WARNING.

What shall we say to these things?

I can no more appropriately close this study than by quoting the inspired words of Peter, where in his Second Epistle (3: 3-10, 14) he says:

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." * * *

"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless."

THE SONS OP GOD AND THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN.

(From "Earth's Earliest Ages," by G. H. Pember.)

When men, we are told, began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of God saw the daughters of men. Now by "men" in each case the whole human race is evidently signified, the descendants of Cain and Seth alike. Hence, the " sons of God " are plainly distinguished from the generation of Adam.

Again; the expression "sons of God (Elohim)" occurs but four times in other parts of the Old Testament, and is in each of these cases indisputably used of angelic beings.

This is the view taken by Josephus, Philo Judaeus, and the authors of "The Book of Enoch" and "The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs "; indeed, it was generally accepted by learned Jews in the early centuries of the Christian era.

In regard to the Septuagint, all MSS. render the Hebrew "sons of God" by "angels of God" in Job 1: 6 and 2: 1, and by "my angels" in Job 38: 7 passages in which there was no dogmatic reason for tampering with the text. In Gen. 6: 2, 4, the Codex Alexandrinus and three later MSS. exhibit the same rendering, while others have " sons of God." Augustine, however, admits that in his time the greater number of copies read " angels of God" in the latter passage also (De Civit. Dei. 15: 23).

It seems, therefore, extremely probable that this was the original reading; and certainly the interpretation which it involves was adopted by the majority of the earlier Christian writers. Those who would pursue this subject further can do so in a recent and exhaustive treatise by the Rev. John Fleming, entitled, "The Fallen Angels and the Heroes of Mythology."