The Parable of the Ark

“Ajid they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wrhorein is the breath of life.” — Genesis vii. 16.

Christ always taught by parables. Hence the popularity and the power of his teaching. The masses never were, and, perhaps, never will be, able to receive instruction in any other way than by parabolic illustrations. He who would be a successful minister must open his mouth in parables; he who would win the hearts of the multitude must closely imitate his Master, and preach in parables which all men can understand. I believe there are few living men who are able to devise a parable. Those who do possess this rare ability are very scarce indeed; nor do I myself profess to belong to the honorable confraternity. I have sometimes endeavored if it were possible to fashion a parable; and though I found it easy at times to manufacture a figure, yet a parable I can by no means make. I am happy to say it is not required of me to do so, for the book of God’s word, if it be rightly used, is suggestive of a thousand parables; and I have no reason to fear that I shall be short of subjects for preaching, when I am able to find such mighty parables as I do in God’s word. I shall preach to you this evening a parable. It shall be the parable of the ark. While I do so you must understand that the ark was a real thing — that it was really made to float upon the waters, and carry in it Noah and his family and two of all flesh. This is a fact, not a myi;h. But I shall take this i-eal fact and use it as a parable. Making the ark represent salvation, I shall preach to all who are sound of my voice the parable of the ark. The ark which saved from the floods of water is a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ as the means of salvation, by whom multirades of all flesh are preserved, and saved from perishiug in the floods of eternal perdition.

I. First, then, in working out this parable I shall reraaik, that there is but one means op salvation. The ark of gopher wood in the one case, and the person of Christ in the other case, sets forth the one only means that was ever planned or provided by God. The whole world was drowned except those happy ones who were fund in the ark. The mightiest beast and the tiniest insect, the stately elephant and the loathsome reptile, the fleet horse and the creeping snail, the graceful antelope and the ugly toad — every Uving substance that was upon the face of the ground was involved in one common doom, save those only who were preserved alive in the ark. The noblest animals, endowed with the finest instincts, were all drowned, despite their powers of swimming (if they were not fish), save those only who were sheltered in the ark. The strongest winged fowls that ever cut the air were all wearied in their flight and fell into the water, save those only who were housed in the ark. The proudest tenants of the forest, those who ranged fearlessly in the broad light of day or those who prowled stealthily under the cover of night, the strongest, the mightiest, all were swallowed up in the vast abyss, Bave those only who were commanded by God to hide themselves within the shelter of the ark. Even so, in the application of my parable, there is only one way of salvation for all men living under heaven. There is only one name whereby chey can be saved. Wouldst thou be saved, rich man? There is no way but that whereby the poverty-stricken pauper is also to be saved. Wouldst thou be delivered, thou man of intelligence? Thou shalt be saved in the same way as the most ignorant. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but Jesus Christ and him crucified. There were not two arks„ but one ark: so there are not two Saviours, but one Saviour. There was no other means of salvation except the ark: so there is no plan of deliverance except by Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners. In vain you climb the lofty top of Sinai; fiA.een cubits upwards shall the waters prevail. In vain yon

TILE PAKAJJLE OF THE AUK. t

climb to the highest pinnacles of your self-conceit and your worldly merit: ye shall be drowned — drowned beyond the hope of salvation; for “other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid — Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Would those of my congregation be saved? They must all be saved by one way. Do they object to Christ as the plan of salvation? Then they must be damned, for there is no other hope for them. Do they think this too hard? do they think the revealed plan of salvation too humbling? Then they must sink, even as the sons of Adam sank beneath the mighty flood, and all flesh was utterly consumed by the overwhelming billows. There is but one way. Enter into the ark: take refuge in Christ. Thus only can ye be saved. But, “how shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation?” By what means shall ye secure your souls, or your bodies either? What plans can ye devise for your security? Your refuges shall prove to be refuges of lies; the whids, the rain, the hail, and the tempest shall destroy them. There is one Saviour, but there is only one. There is one Jesus who saves his people from their sins, but there is no other name and no other means of salvation. The ark stood alone, and even so doth Christ Jesus.

II. Proceeding with my parable, I must direct your attention to TUE SIZE OF THIS AUK; this may be comforting to you. If you read the 15th verse of the Gth chapter, you will find that the ark was of immense size. “The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fitly cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.” It is an old objection of infidels that there was not room enough in it for all kinds of creatures that lived on the face of the earth; but we know, on Divine authority, that if there were not room enough in it for all the different kinds of creatm’es which were then alive, they would have been drowned; yet of every kind some were safely housed, so that room enough was found for them all. This is not very logical, perhaps, you will say, but it is conclusive enough for us, if we believe in revelation. Yet the)”e really is no reason for any one to make the objection, and we have no room to entertain it, since the most eminent calcu i THE PAllABLE OF TUE AUK.

lators have proved to demonstration, that the lessei c&lied the ark was of immense size, and was able not meiely to hold all the creatures, but all the provender they would require f?2 the year during which it floated on the water. I use this idea, without stopping ;o expound it further. Let me but trace its analogy as a beautiful picture of the plan of salvation — Oh! what a capacious plan! The ark was a great ark which held all kinds of creatures; and our Christ is a great Refuge, who saves all kinds of sinners. The ark was an im mensse vessel — in it floated a multitude of animals who were saved j Christ’s salvation is an immense salvation, and in it there shall be delivered a multitude which no man can number. The narrow-minded bigot limits salvation to his own contracted notions, and he still says, “There shall none be saved, except they walk arm-in-arm with me,” Poor, little, miserable soul 1 he cuts his coat according to his own fashion, and declares, that if men do not all cut their coats in the same way they can not be saved. But not so the Bible. The Bible preaches a great salvation. It says there is a multitude that no man can number, who shall stand before the throne of God. Here is assembled a multitude of sinners; but if you all feel your need of a Saviour, there is room enough for you in heaven. Here is a multitude of hearers; but if every one of you this night should come to Christ witV real penitence in your hearts, and belief in Him, you would not find that there was not room enough for you. That saying is still true, “And yet there is room.” There is not room enough for a pharisee, for a man who does not feel himself a sinner, for a hypocrite, no, nor yet for a formalist; but there is room enough for every convinced sinner under God’s heaven. There has been room enough hitherto, and we have never yet heard of saints complaining that they were cramped for room; but rather, I have heard them say in the words of David, “I called upon the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me, and aet me in a large place.” They have ever found abundance oi room in Christ, and so shall you. Our Redeemer is able tt save to the uttermost them that come unto him. He is able to save all of you. If the Father that hath sent him draw you, and 7011 come unto him, doubt not there is room. D not think, beloved, because we preach election, that we preaci the election of a few. I find that this is a common mistake. Some on 3 will say to me, “I don’t like your Calvinism, sir because it says that there are a few elected, and that nobody else will be saved.”

Nay, sir, but it does not say that there are a few elected j it says no such thing; it says they are a multitude, that nu man can number, thai Gave been elected, and who knows but what you are one of them? It does not turn you out. It gives you ten thousand times more reason for hope than the Arminian preacher, who stands up and says, “There is room for everybody, but I do not think there Is any special grace to make them come; if they won’t come, they won’t come, and there is an end of it; it is their own fault, and God will not make them come.” The word of God says they cannot come, yet the Arminian says they can; the poor sinner feels that he cannot, yet the Arminian declares positively that he could if he liked; and though the poor sinner feels sometimes that he would if he could, and groans over his inability, this blind guide tells him that it is all nonsense; whereas, it is, in truth, God’s own work to make a man feel that he is unable. You must feel it; and you may plead against yourself on account of it, but you shall come for all that. “He will not plead against you;“” no, but he will put strength in you.” Ah! there is more hope for you in the pure Gospel of the blessed God, than there is in those fancies and fictions of men which are now-a-days preached everywhere, except in a few places where God hath reserved unto himself a people “who have not bowed their knee to the Baal of the age. Nay, beloved, we do not preach that a few shall be saved; wo preach that a mighty host, whom mortals cannot count, shall be the seed of Jesus. So shall he see of the travail of his soul, and be abundantly satisfied. Hear me, then, while out of this parable of the ark I draw encouragement concerning the capacity of the salvation of Christ.

ni. In the third place, note that the akk was a safs T>EFCGi£. Noah was commanded to make an ark of the best wood, gopher wood; and, lest there should bo any leataco in it, he was commanded to “pitch it within and without with pitch,” and we do not find that it ever sprung a leak while it was out at sea; she certainly never went iuio harbor to mend her bottom, for she had no harbor to go to. We never read that Noah called up Shem, Ham, and Japheth to work at the pumps, nor yet that they had any, for there was not a bit oi leakage about hei*. No doubt there were storms during that year; but we do not hear that the ship was ever in danger of being wrecked. The rocks, it is true, were too low doVTi to touch her bottom; for fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered. Rising twenty-seven feet above the loftiest mountains, she had no quicksands to fear; they were too deep below her keel. But of course she was exposed to the winds; sometimes the hunicane might have rattled against her, and driven her along. Doubtless, at another time, the hail beat on her top, and the lightnings scarred the brow of night; but the ark sailed on, not one waa cast out from her, nor were her sailors wearied with constant pumping to keep out the water, or frequent repairs to keep her secure. Though the world was inundated and ruined, that one ark sailed triumphantly above the waters. The ark was safe, and all who were in her were safe too.

Now, siimer, the Christ I preach to you is such a refuge as that. His Gospel has no flaw in it. As the ark never sank and the elements never prevailed against it, so Christ never failed, he can not fail; all the principalities and powers are subject unto him. Those who are in Christ are sheltered safely from every storm, they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hands. Remember that God gave the pattern, and Noah perfected the work of the ark, ere a single fountain of the great deep was broken up, or one drop of the desolating storm fell from the vengeful clouds. And it is not less true that our glorious Lord was set up in the couneels of eternity a perfect Christ before the clouds of vindictive wrath began to brew on account of man’s iniquity; and his mighty work of mediation was finished before thy poor soul was invited to take shelter in him. Oh, methinks as the

*ngels lookc-d out of the windows of heaven upon the swelling <*le, and saw how securely the ark rode upon its surface, they never doubted that all who were inside were as safe as the aik itself. And is there any reason to doubt that those who are in Christ are as safe as Christ? Did he not say himself, “because I live, ye shall live also?” Were the sons of Noal commanded to take their tools into the ark to keep it in reyair J And dost thou vainly think that thou canst make the matter of eternal salvation more pei-fect than it was when Jesus said “It is finished?” Oh, no; the work is done, the vessel is sea-worthy. “God can not mend it, the devil can not mar it.” It is not an Arminian Gospel I preach to you, that tells of dangers, and sounds alarms in the ears of those who are within the ark of Christ. In him — in him — oh, hear it, poor trembling sinner I in him you are —

“Beyond the reach of death’s alarms,
The source of mortal woe.”

“They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which shall never be removed, which abideth forever.” They that trust in the Lord are blessed. “They are like trees planted by rivers of water; their leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever they do shall prosper.” If you once come unto Jesus, and trust in him, there is no fear of sinking. How sweet was the precious hymn we sang just now —

“Firm as a rock Thy Gospel stands,
My Lord, my hope, my trust;
If I am found in Jesus’ hands
My soul can ne’er be lost”

Not but that there will be storms, and tempests will beat around you — these you will be sure to have; but you will be too high up ever to strike on the rocks. If you are once on board the good ship of salvation, you will be lifted up too high above the floods to be swallowed in the quicksands. Wit cheerful heart I can commend you to God, and the word of hb testimony. Christ will i reserve you.

e THE PAJiABLJK OF TUE AEK.

“Gi-ace will preserve what grace begins,
To save from sorrows and from sins;
The work that wisdom undertakes
Eternal mercy ne’er forsakes.”

Beliovei’S! could you give up the doctrine of your seov.ntjf in Christ to any body? No, that I know you could net. Touch one of my brethren or sisters in the Lord who attends this chapel on that point, and you will soon get your answer. I ha”e sometimes heard disputes outside the chapel door, when some who do not believe the truth have been disputing it, and I have felt confident that I might leave its defence in your hands. There be mighty men of valor among you, who are not ashamed to uphold the whole counsel of God, even as I am constantly anxious to declare it. Beloved, the ark is pitched within and without with pitch; it is made of good gopher wood; it can never sink so long as we are on board; if it were threescore years and ten, she will still preserve us. Salvation in Christ is a sure salvation.

IV. Now I go to another part of the parable. The creatures in the ark of course wanted light; but it is a singular thing that there was only one window in the ark. In the 16th verse of the 6th chapter we read — “A window shalt thou make to the ark.” I have often wondered how all the creatures could see through one window; but I have not wondered what was meant by it, for I think it easy to point the moral. There is only one window whereby Christians ever o-et their light. All who come to Christ and receive salvation by him are illuminated in one way. That one window of the ark may fitly represent to us the ministry of the Holy Ghost. There is only one light which lighteneth every man who cometh into the world, if he be lightened at all. Christ is the light, and it is the Holy Spirit of truth by whom Christ is revealed. Thus we discern sin, righteousness, and judgment. No other conviction is of any real value. As we are brought under the teachings of the Spirit, we do perceive our guilt and misery, and our redemption and refuge in Christ. No other means exist. There is only one window to the ark. “Why,” says one, “there are some of us who see light through one minister and some through another.” True, my fi-iend; bat still there is only one window. We ministers are only like panes of glass, and you can obtain no light through us but by the operations of the same Spirit that worketh in us. And even then the different panes of glass give different shades cf light. There you have your fine polished preacher; he is a bit of stained glass, not very transparent, made to keep the light out rather than to let it in. There is another pane; he is a square cut diamond; he seems an old-fashioned preacher, but still he is a bit of good glass, and lets the light through. Another one is cut after a more refined stile; but still he is plain and simple, and the light shines through him. But there is only one light, and only one window. He who revealeth to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit. We have only one instructor, if we preach the truth. One brother may be preaching this night in the Church of England, another may be holding forth the word of God amongst the Independents, and others amongst the Baptists; but they have only one Spirit, if they are taught of God. There is only one window to the ark; and though there were first, second, and third stories to the ark, all saw out of one window; so that the little saint that is in the first story gets light through that window; and the saint that has been brought up to the second story gets light through the same window; and he who has been promoted to the loftiest story has to get light through the same window too. There is no other means of our seeing except through the one window made to the ark, the window of the Holy Spirit, Have we looked through that? Have we seen the clear blue sky above us? Or have we known that when our eye of faith was dim, and we could see nothing at all, still our Master was at the helm, and would preserve us through all our darkness and difficulties? It is an instructive fact that the ark had only one window in it.

V. Now, if you will read the chapter attentively, you will find it said “Kcois shalt thou make in the ark.” When I read that I thought it would serve for a point in the parable, seeing it may teach my dear friends that they aie not all ta be put together; — in the ark, rooms were maco. Thore vrh lived in one room did not stand or sit with those who lived i another; but they were all in the same ark. So I have sometimes thought, There are our Wesleyan friends, some c them love the Lord; I have no doubt they are in the arl though they do not occupy the same apartment as we dc There are our Baptist friends, who love the Lord; we welcom them in our room. Then there are our Independent friend; those also love the Lord; they are m another room. And ou Presbyterian and Episcopalian brethren, — in all these variou sections are some who are called of God and brought into th ark, though they are in diiferent rooms. But, beloved, the; are all in one ark. There are not two Gospels. As long as can find a man that holds the same Gospel, it does not matte what order of church government he ado])ts if he be in Chrs Jesus — it is of little consequence what room he is in so long a he is in the ark. If he belongs to those of whom it is written “By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of you? selves, it is the gift of God,” I will call him brother. We cai not all expect to be in one room. The elephants did not liv with the tigers, and the lions did not lie down with the sheef There were diiferent rooms for ditl’erent classes of creatures and it is a good thing there are diiferent denominations, fo; I am sure some of us would not get on very comfortably wii certain denominations. We should want more liberty thai we could get in the Church of England; we should wan more freedom than we could get with the Presbyterians; W( should want more soundness of doctrine than we could ge with the Wesleyans; and we should want a little more brotherly love, perhaps, than we could get with some of the stric Baptists. We should not entirely agree with them all; an( happy is he .who can sometimes put his head into one roon and sometimes into another, and can say to all that love th< Lonl Jesus Christ, “Grace be with you all so long as you ar( in the ark.” Do not hit me condemn those that are takint refuge in the same vessel with myself. So long as you lov< Jesus, 80 long as you are attached to his person, so long ai you are called by his grace, so long as you are partakers of lii

THE PAKABI^ OF TUE AKBL. 11

mercy, take heart. There were rooms in the ark, and there we rooms in tl.e church. But one day you will be all associated together io one general assembly,

“When He presents your soul a,
Unblomiibhed and complete,
Before the gloiy of His face,
Willi joys divinely great”

VI. But though there were many rooms in the ark”, I want you to notice one thing more, there was o^.Y one ooob. It la P.xid, “And the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof.” And so, there is only one door into the ark of our Balvation, and that is Christ. There are not two Christ a preached, one in one chapel, and another in another. “If any man preach any other doctrine than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” There is but one Gospel. We take in the righteous out of all sections, but we do not take in all sections. We pick out the godly from amongst them all, for Ave believe there is a remnant according to the election of grace in the vilest of them. But, still, there is only one door, and “he that cometh not in by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” There was only one door to the ark.

Some animals, like the camelopard, whose heads are higher than other animals, might have to bow their necks to go in by the same entrance as the waddling ducks, who naturally stoop, even as they enter a barn; and so, some of the lofty ones of this world must bend down their stiff necks, and bow their proud heads, if they would enter into the church by Christ. Thus, again, the swift horse and the slow-paced snail must enter by one door; so, too, the scribes and pharisees must come in the same way as the publicans and harlots, or be for ever excluded.

AU the beasts God had chosen went in by the one door and if any had stood without, and said, “We shall not come in tLat way,” they would have been standing without till the flood overtook and destroyed them; for thei-e was c nly one door. There is only one way of salvation, and there is onlf one means of getting into it, “Believe on the Lord Jesiia Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” but “he that behevetli not,” whoever he be, must “be damned.” There is no hope of any other way of salvation. He that cometh in by the door shall be saved; and Jesus saith, “I am the door.”

VII. Proceeding in the parable, you will notice, that this A.RK HAD SUNDRY STORIES IN IT. They were not all of one height. There were lower, second, and third stories. Now, this is a figure to me of the diflerent kinds of Christians who are carried to heaven. There is my poor mourning brother, who lives in the bottom story; he is always singing, “Lord, what a wretched land is this!” He lives just near the keel, on the bare ribs of the ark. He is never very happy. A little light reaches him from the window at times; but, generally, he is so far from the light that he walks in darkness, and sees very little mdeed. His state is that of constant groaning; he loves to go and hear “Ac corruption preachers;’’’* he revels with delight in the deej) experience of the tried (amily of God; he likes to hear it said, “Through much tribulation you will enter the kingdom of heaven;” if you paint the Christian life as a very gloomy one, he ‘^dll like your picture, for his is gloomy indeed; he is always poring over texts such as these, “Oh, wretched man that I am,” or that other, “They that pass through the valley of Baca make it <4 well; the rain also filleth the pools.” He is down in the Jower story of the ark. But never mind; he is in the ark, so we will not scold him, though he has little faith, and very much doubt. “With lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.” There is one of our brethren up a little higher, and he is saying, “I cannot exactly say I am safe; yet I have a hope that my head will be kept above the billows, though it goes hard with me at times. Now and then, too, the Lord bestows” some drops of heaven” upon me. Sometimes I am like the mountains of Hermon, where “the Lord commanded the blessing, even Ufe for evermore.” He is in the second story. Well, but he is no safer than the other one. He that is in the second story is no safer, though he is happier than the man on the ground floor. All are safe, so long as they are in the ark. For ray part, I like the uppermost story best. I had rather live up there, where I can sing, “O God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.”

I love the place where the saints are always admonishing and encouraging one another with psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, —

“Children of the Heavenly King,
As ye journey, sweetly sing;
Sing your Saviour’s vrorthy praise,
Glorious in His works and ways.”

I confess that I am obliged to go down to the lower story sometimes; but I like running up the ladder to the third deck, whenever I can, and there I can say —

“Oh I how sweet to view the flowing
Of His 80ul-redeemiug blood;
With dilnae aaeurance knowing
That He made my peace with God.”

But I am no more safe when I am in the top story than 1 am when I am in the bottom. The same wave that would BpUt the ship and drown me, were I in the lowest story, would drown me if I were in the highest. However high some of us, and however low others of us may be, the same vessel bears us all, for we are one crew in one boat, and there is no dividing us. Come, then, my poor desponding hearer, is that your place, somewhere down at the bottom of the hold, along with the ballast? Are you always in trials and troubles? Ah! well, fear not, so long as you are in the ark. Do not be afraid, Christ is your strength and righteousness. The ark was in each and every department a secure shelter to all who were shut in. “Ah!” says one, “but I am down there, sir, at the bottom always, and I am afraid the vessel will sink.” Do not be so silly; why should your heart beget such senseless fears? I knew a man who went up the Monument, and when he had got half way, he declared it vibrated and was about to fall, and he would come down. But the Monument has not fallen; it is as safe as ever; and if tifiy like him, or fifty thonsandj

14 THfi PAKABLB OF THE ARK..

frent “.p, the Monument would be just as firm. But some poor nervous Christians are afraid Christ will let them sink. A wave comes against the side of the ship, but it does not hurt the ship, it only drives the wedges in tighter. The Master is at the helm — will not that assure your heart? It has floated over so many billows — will not that increase your confidence? It must, indeed, be a strong billow that will sink it now; there never shall be such an one. And where, think you, is the power that could destroy the souls who are sheltered in the ark of our salvation? Who can lay anything to the charge of God’s elect, since Christ hath died, and God the Father hath justified us? Happy assurance! We are all safe, so sure as we are in the covenant. The ark floated triumphantly on amidst all the dangers without, and when it finally rested on Mount Ai’arat, and God spake to Noah again, saying, “Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing;” then the inventory was complete, all were safely landed. So, too, will Christ present the perfect number of all his people to the Father in the last day; not one shall perish. The ark of our salvation shall bring all its living freight into the haven of everlasting rest.

“Truth is her compass, love her sail,
And heavenly grace her store;
The Spirit’s influence the gale
That wafts her to the shora

“Nor winds nor waves her progress check,
Her course she must pursue;
And though you often fear a wreck,
She’s saved with all her crew.”

VIII. This brings me to notice, in the last place, thk dtf

PERENT KINDS OF ANIMALS THAT ENTERED INTO THE ARK. —

“Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.” Listen to the statement. This great ark was meant to save both clean and unclean beasts. In like manner, the great salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ is intended for sinners of all rUE PARABLE or THE ARK. 15

.«uas, iTie clean and the unclean. There arc some people in file world that we may well reckon in the former class. They are in every way respectable; their conduct in society is beyond reproach; exact in their commerce, they were never known to erase a figure in their account books; they would not defraud their neighbors, nor would they be so negligen of their fair fame as to do a disorderly action; their charactei »fi 80 amiable, that their mothers might regard them from cliildhojd as almost without a fault; they have grown up to mature years without the hideous taint of immorality; their practice has been ever akin to piety; their zeal for the law of God has been truly commendable, so that Christ himself might have looked on them and loved them, although he tenderly and pitifully admonishes them, “One thing thou lackest.” Ay, but the desolations of the flood are so universal, that there is no escape eicept in the ark. The clean beasts must go into the ark to be saved. There is not a soul among you so good, nor a character so clean, but ye have need of Christ, whether ye know your need or not. Ye may be never so good and excellent, but ye will want a Saviour. There is something about your character not clean. Your lives require puriticalion, which ye can never find but ip Christ.

“The best performance of your hands,
Darea not appear before his throne.”

But, then, the unclean beasts went in likewise. Here ii the opposite class. Are there not some of you (we know there are such) whose education from early childhood haa been vicious — certainly not vii’tuous? From your earliest recollections you have gone into the paths of open profanity; you have dived into the kennel, and have steeped yourselves up to the very lips in the gall of bitterness. You have been drunkards, swearers, Sabbath-breakers, and injurious. You have indulged in all kinds of iniquities. You are just the sort of persons we should liken to unclean beasts. Ay! the ark was built for you — on purpose for you too. The most moral man will stand no better when ho comes before God than you

16 TIIK PARABUa: OF THE ABK.

will. He: s.tist be sa ad just the same as you are. You must both be ssived by the one common salvation, or not at all. There is but one Saviour for all who are saved — there is but one redemption for every one of you who really is redeemed. There is but one ark for the clean and the unclean. “Ah!” Bay some, “I suppose, then, you take the unclean beasts to come from the courts, the alleys, and the filthy slums of the metropolis.” Oh! no, not particularly so. We can find the unclean as plentifully in St. James’s as in St. Giles’s. There be some of what you call the “higher circles,” who fi-om infancy have revelled in vice. Soon did ye learn to break the rule of your parents’ authority. You laughed at your mother’s tears, you sneered at your father’s counsels; you drank up iniquity in your school-days as the greedy ox drinketh up water. You made a boast of your wild riots. You tell of your wickedness now with an air of impertinent triumph. You brag of having sowed your wild oats. So infamous has been your career, in spite of good example and education, that, I suppose, “Newgate” could hardly produce a class of unclean beasts more to be loathed than you are. Well, now, to each class of sinners I preach. If thou feelest and deplorest thine uncleanness, there is mercy for thee, unclean as thou art. I beseech thee, come into the ark, and thou wilt never be turned out. If God constrain thee to come, as he did those creatures, he will never, never drive thee away. The ark was for the unclean as well as for the clean — for the swine as well as for the sheep — for the poisonous asp as well as tbr the harmless dove — for the carnivorous raven as well as for the turtle. All creatures came in, some of every sort. Ah! thou swinish sinner, one of Satan’s swine, come in; thou shalt be safe. And ah! thou lamb-like sinner, gentle and mild, come in thou, for there is no other ark for thee, and thou wilt be drowned unless thou comest in by the same door into the great ark of salvation.

Let us divide these creatures once more. There were creeping things and there were Jiging things. On the morning when the ark door was opened, you might have seen in the sky a pan” of eagles, a pair of sparrows, a pair of vulture*,

TUK I’ARABl.K Ol’ THE ARK. I’J

a pair of ravens, a pair of humming-birds, a pair of all kinds of birds that ever cut the azure, that ever floated on wing, or wbisi)ered their song to the evening gales. In they came. But if you had watched down on the earth, you would have seen come creeping along a pair of snails, a pair of snakes, and a pair of worms. There ran along a pair of mice there came a pair of lizards, and in there flew a pair of locusts There were pairs of creeping creatures, as well as pairs of flying creatures. Do you see what I mean by that? There are some of you that can fly so high in knowledge, that I gliould never be able to scan your great and extensive wisdom; and others of you so ignorant, that you can hardly read your Bibles. Never mind; the eagle must come dovm to the door, and you must go up to it. There is only one entrance for you all; and as God saved the birds that flew, so he saved the reptiles that crawled. Are you a poor, ignorant, crawling creature, that never was noticed — without intellect, without repute, without fame, without honor? Come along, crawling one! God will not exclude you. I have often wondered how the poor snail crawled in; but I dare say he started many a year before. And some of you have started for years, and still you keep crawling on. Ah! then, come along with thee, poor snail I If I could just pick thee up, and help thee on a yard or two, I woulS bo glad to do it. It is strange how long you have been nih to the ark, but noi, yet entered in; hpw long you have been near the portals of the church, but never joined it.

Remark again: they all got in. Oh! do not fear, if you are in your own esteem a crawling reptile; you may have the lowest possible opinion of yourself; still come; nobody forbids you to come, however mean you are; yea! and the meaner you are the more willing do I feel to invite you, — Christ came not to call the righteous but einners to repentance. “What a strange assemblage Was there on that morn ing! But Noah was positively commanded to bring all sorta of creatures into the ark. He might have thought some too vile and worthless to preserve alive, yet his orders were to bring them in. When Peter was commanded to preach the

18 i:gtE PARABLE OP THE AKK,

Gospel to the Gentiles, God showed him in a vision “all ma» ner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air.” “Not so, Lord,” sai J Peter; and, lo! “the voice spake to him again a second tim««, saying, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” In Christ there be some out of every nation, every kindred, and every tongue, who shall be saved to the praise of God and the Lamb forever and ever. There may be some one here who objects against himself, like Agur, “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.” Thy vileness shall not disqualify thee from entering in. It does not prevent my urging you to come. Have you not heard the words of my Master’s commission, “Of every sort shall thou bring into the ark to Jceep them alive with thee .^” Oh! I want to bring you in. The Lord will not reject thee if thou comest with a penitent believing heart; he will not reproach me for having brought thee; he saith to his ministers, “of every sort bring them in.”

Moreover, it was a mysterious impulse by which God moved the creatures to come. The sight must have been imposing; the elephants, the camels, the dromedaries, the rhinoceroses, and all the huge creatures walking in side by side (as it were) with the timorous hares, the tiny mice, the lizards, ferrets, squirrels, beetles, grasshoppers, and all such insignificant-looking little creatures. So it bath been in the church, so it shall be to the end of the chapter of ber history: “As many as were ordained unto eternal Ufe believed,” though their characters by nature be various as this globe ever witnessed, rude as barbarism’s foulest sink, or polished as Grecian culture ever knew.

Now, dear hearer, I do not care about asking you who you are, or what you are. That has nothing to do with me. What I ask you is, Are you in the ark, or are you not? You are saying, perhaps, “Sir, I do not care for you; why should you inquire about my condition?” But there will be a day when you will be like those who spake to Noah, and said, “Go along, greybeard; bmld your ark on the dry land, like a fool as you are; build your ark there on the hill-side, where the

THB PAKABLK OF THli: AJIK. 1.*

watei*s cannot come. As for us, we shall eat and drink, and i( to-mono w we die, what heed, for we have eaten and drunk the merrier while we have had the opportunity.”

In vain did Noah warn them that the waters would surely come; he seemed unto them as one that mocked, and they iaughed at him. Even so, when I preached of the resurrection to you this morning, some of you may have mocked, and thought that I was but pursuing a wild reverie of imagination. Ahl but how different was their tune, when the rains fell, when “the fountains of the great deep were broken up!” They doubtless changed their notes, when the clouds began to empty themselves in iury, when the very earth did crack, and its bowels were dissolved, and the mighty fluid gushed up to devour them all. Did they think Noah was a fool, when the last man stood on the last mountain-top, and cried in vain for help? I saw some time ago, a master-picture, which I think time will never erase from my memory. It was a picture of a man who had been cUmbiug up to the top of the last mountain, and the floods were coming around him. He had his old father on his back; his wii’e was clasping him roixnd hia waist, and he had one arm round her; she held one child at her breast, and with her other hand she grasped another. In the picture was represented one child just letting go, the wife dropping, and the father chnging to a tree on the top of the hill; the branches were breaking, and it was being torn up by the roots. Such a scene of agony I never saw depicted before; yet such a scene was likely enough to have been real when the waters entirely covered the earth. They had climbed up to the top of the last hill; and now they sank. False hope a gave place to fell despair. And so it will be with you, ye careless ones, unless ye take shelter in the ark.

You ask me, how can we do it? Ye look anxious, some of you. Hearken, then, while I finish, as I have often done before, with the simple statement which contains our authority to preach, and your admonition to believe. Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and pre.*ch the Gospel to every creature. He that beUeveth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

What is it to believe, say you? It is with tny whole heart to rely simply on the Lord Jesus Christ; he is the only mediator — to look to his sufferings and his death for the forgiveness of thy sins. And what is it to be baptized? It is to be immersed in water on the profession of thy futh, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” I cannot leave out one clause, nor yet the other. I dare not transpose or change their order, as some people do. I deliver unto you that which I have received, taking the text just as it stands. Let me ask once more, have you believed? have you been baptized? If not, you cannot say that those great promises written in the covenant are yours. On two grounds you have reason to doubt your salvation. “He that believeth not shall be damned.” Where can I obtain faith, saith one? It ig given by the Holy Spirit, “Every one that asketh, receiveth j and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketb it shall be opened.”