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Stories of the Bible, Volume 1: The People of the Chosen Land

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<h2 class="pb">THE FLOOD.</h2> [21] Earth shall be ocean! and no breath, Save of the winds be on the unbounded wave! Angels shall tire their wings, but find no spot: Not even a rock from out the liquid grave Shall lift its point to save, Or show the place where strong despair hath died, After long looking o'er the ocean wide For the expected ebb which cometh not; All shall be void, destroyed. —Byron. It was many, many years after Adam and Eve were driven out from the Garden of Eden that the flood came. There were thousands of people in the world now, and they were scattered here and there through the fertile valleys and along the rivers of the country far and wide. There were rich farms everywhere, and shepherds watched their flocks on the hillsides. There were towns and cities; many of them[22] where people dwelt together and made their laws and appointed their law-givers. But in all these years the people had been growing more and more away from the simple, honest life that God had first shown Adam and Eve. They had grown selfish and greedy; they were cruel to each other; they cared nothing for the rights and comforts of the community; and more than all this, they had forsaken the simple faith of their fathers and become worshippers of idols. There was one good man dwelling among these people, many, many years before, whose name was Enoch. Now, it was not the will of God that Enoch should suffer for the sins of the people; and so, when the flood was about to come upon the earth to destroy them, God came and stood by Enoch and said, "Come with me." [23]Now there was another good man upon the earth, a great grandson of Enoch's, and a man who had never forgotten God, and who had reared his children always in the simple faith which had been his own. Although God meant to send a flood that should destroy the cities, and separate the people so that the wickedness of the earth might be destroyed, still it was not his wish that the race should perish wholly. And so again God went down to the earth, and said to this good man, Noah, "Build thou an ark, and into it bring all thy family, and also two of every kind of bird and beast and animal. For a great flood shall come upon the earth, and those in the ark only shall be saved." Noah was a simple hearted man. It was a strange thing for him to be told to build an ark and place within its shelter his family and[24] two of every living thing upon the face of the earth. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/fig_008.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="422" alt="NOAH BUILDING THE ARK. (Raphael.)" title="" /> NOAH BUILDING THE ARK. (Raphael.) </div> He told the people what God had said to him; and he urged them to do likewise. But the people only laughed at him, and called him a fool. [25]But Noah doubted not the word of God and set to work at once,—his three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth helping him to build an ark, and to gather together the birds and beasts and animals of the earth. Every morning the four men set out as soon as the sun had risen, and kept at their work until darkness fell at night. At last the ark was finished, and Noah, with his wife, his three sons and their wives, journeyed to the mountain side. The people in the valley laughed at them and threw stones at them, but the trustful little band kept on their way and entered the ark, taking with them, as they had been told, two of every kind of bird and beast. Then the clouds began to gather in the south,—great black rolls of cloud. The wind rose, the clouds scattered over the whole sky;[26] and so black and thick were they that the light of the sun was shut out. It was like night. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/fig_009.jpg" width-obs="349" height-obs="500" alt="THE DELUGE." title="" /> THE DELUGE. </div> Then the rain fell. In great sheets, like rivers, it poured upon the valleys. The thunders rolled, the lightnings flashed, the rivers overflowed their banks. The winds howled, and great trees were torn up by the roots. For forty days this storm continued—forty days and forty nights. Every living thing left upon the face of the earth was drowned. But the ark, with its inmates, was borne up by the waters in safety. At last, one morning when Noah and his people awoke, they could see that the storm had ceased; the clouds were separating, and the sun was sending its rays down through the mist upon the flooded earth below. Then came the beautiful rainbow, spanning[28] the heavens in the west, and reflecting its wonderful colors in the great sea below. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/fig_010.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="357" alt="" title="" /></div> <h3>THE RAINBOW.</h3> Triumphal arch, that fill'st the sky When storms prepare to part, I ask not proud philosophy To teach me what thou art. Still seem as to my childhood's sight, A midway station given, For happy spirits to alight Betwixt the earth and heaven. How glorious is thy girdle cast O'er mountain, tower, and town, Or mirror'd in the ocean vast, A thousand fathoms down. As fresh in yon horizon dark, As young thy beauties seem, As when the eagle from the ark First sported in thy beam. For faithful to its sacred page, Heaven still rebuilds thy span, Nor lets the type grow pale with age, That first spoke peace to man. —T. Campbell. [30]Never was rainbow so beautiful! Then the voice of God spoke from out the skies to Noah, "This shall be to you a bow of promise. Never again shall the earth and the people be destroyed by water." <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/fig_011.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="422" alt="NOAH AND THE DOVE (Schopin.)" title="" /> NOAH AND THE DOVE (Schopin.) </div> [31]But nowhere, as far as eye could reach, was there any sign of land; there was only the peak of Ararat with the ark upon it, standing out above the water. Noah sent out first a raven, and it returned not. Then he sent out from the ark a dove; and the dove came back after a long, long flight across the waters and fell fluttering at Noah's feet. Seven days went by. Then again Noah sent out a dove; and this time it returned with an olive leaf. Noah knew now that the flood was subsiding, and that he might lift the cover of the ark and step out upon the mountain top. Then Noah and his family went forth, together with all the creatures that had gone into the Ark with them. And so thankful was Noah that he built[32] a great altar, and he and his family offered sacrifices to God in gratitude for his loving care of them. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/fig_012.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="435" alt="COMING FORTH FROM THE ARK. (Raphael.)" title="" /> COMING FORTH FROM THE ARK. (Raphael.) </div> <hr class="scr" /> [33] <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/deco_001.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="151" alt="" title="" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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