Again, we must remember that there was no law in Noah's days before
the flood, no Bible to guide them, no constitutions and acts of
parliament to bind men in the beaten track by the awful majesty of
law, whether they will or no, as we have.

This is the picture which the Bible gives us of the old world before
the flood--a world of men mighty in body and mind, fierce and busy,
conquering the world round them, in continual war and turmoil; with
all the wild passions of youth, and yet all the cunning and
experience of enormous old age; with the strength and the courage of
young men to carry out the iniquity of old ones; every one guided
only by self-will, having cast off God and conscience, and doing
every man that which was right in the sight of his own eyes. And
amidst all this, while men, as wise, as old, as strong, as great as
himself, whirled away round him in this raging sea of sin, Noah was
stedfast; he, at least, knew his way,--"he walked with God, a just
man, and perfect in his generations."

To Noah, living in such a world as this, among temptation, and
violence, and insult, no doubt, there came this command from God:
"The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled
with violence through them, and I will destroy them with the earth.
And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to
destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life; but with thee will
I establish my covenant, and thou shalt make thee an ark of wood
after the fashion which I tell thee; and thou shalt come into the
ark, thou and thy family, and of every living thing, two of every
sort, male and female, shalt thou bring into the ark, and keep them
alive with thee; and take thou of all food that is eaten into the
ark, for thee and for them." What a message, my friends! If we