was in store for this first fratricide, and not a word said of the awful doom?
THE ANTEDILUVIANS.
Read the detailed account of the Flood and of the multitudes of antecedent transactions for the long period of more than seventeen hundred years, and not an instance can be found in which any other than temporal and limited consequences are described as the result of sinfulness.
THE DELUGE.
The wicked people who were overwhelmed by the deluge were not threatened with endless punishment. Noah, the first great "preacher of righteousness," (Titus ii: 5,) did not say a word of it when he announced the flood. He threatened drowning, but said nothing of post mortem sufferings. Would he have spoken of this comparatively slight disaster. and conceal the enormous one of endless suffering. if he knew anything of it?
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 everything that is in the earth shall die. Gen, vi: 17. The earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth; and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. Gen. v: 11—13; 23.
Just think of charging God with describing the
