Homilist Genesis 8:13-14 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month… I. He would probably be impressed with the GREATNESS OF THE CALAMITY HE HAD ESCAPED. The roaring waters had subsided, but they had wrought a terrible desolation, they had reduced the earth to a vast charnel house; every living voice is hushed, and all is silent as the grave. The patriarch, perhaps, would feel two things in relation to this calamity. 1. That it was the result of sin. 2. That it was only a faint type of the final judgment. II. He would probably be impressed with the EFFICACY OF THE REMEDIAL EXPEDIENT. How would he admire the ark that had so nobly battled with the billows and so safely weathered the storm! 1. This expedient was Divine. Christianity, the great expedient for saving souls from the deluge of moral evil, is God's plan. "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh." Philosophy exhausted itself in the trial. 2. This expedient alone was effective. When the dreadful storm came, we may rest assured that every one of that terror-stricken generation would seize some scheme to rescue him from the doom. "There is no other name," etc. 3. The expedient was only effective to those who committed themselves to it. III. He would probably be impressed with the WISDOM OF HIS FAITH IN GOD. He felt now — 1. That it was wiser to believe in the Word of God than to trust to the conclusions of his own reason. 2. That it was wiser to believe in the Word of God than to trust to the uniformity of nature. 3. That it was wiser to believe in God's Word than to trust to the current opinion of his contemporaries. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. |
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