3042. The Parable Of The Ark

A Sermon Published On Thursday, May 30, 1907.

And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two of all flesh, in which is the breath of life. {Ge 7:15}

1. 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 honourable fraternity. I have sometimes endeavoured to form 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 God’s Word, if it is properly 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 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 on the waters, and carry in it Noah and his family, and “two by two of all flesh.” This is a fact, not a myth; but I shall take this real fact, and use it as a parable. Making the ark represent salvation, I shall preach to all who are within the 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 multitudes of all flesh are preserved, and saved from perishing in the floods of eternal perdition.

2. I. First, then, in working out this parable I shall remark, that THERE IS ONLY ONE MEANS OF SALVATION.

3. The ark of gopher wood in the one case, and the person of Christ in the other case, represents the one and only means that was ever planned or provided by God. The whole world was drowned except those happy ones who were found 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 living creature that was on the face of the ground was involved in one common doom, except only those 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), except only those 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, except only those that were housed in the ark. The proudest tenants of the forests, 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, except only those that were commanded by God to hide themselves within the shelter of the ark.

4. 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 by which they can be saved. Would you be saved, rich man? There is only one way which is exactly the same way by which the poverty-stricken pauper is also to be saved. Would you be delivered, you man of intelligence? You shall be saved in the same way as the most ignorant. “There is no other name under heaven given among men, by which 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: fifteen cubits upwards shall the waters prevail. In vain you climb to the highest pinnacles of your self-conceit and your worldly merit; you shall be drowned, — drowned beyond the hope of salvation; for “other foundation can no man lay than what is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Would those in 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 is too hard? Do they think the revealed plan of salvation is 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 only one way. Enter into the ark; take refuge in Christ; for only in this way can you be saved. But, “how shall you escape, if you neglect so great a salvation?” By what means shall you secure your souls, or your bodies either? What plans can you devise for your security? Your refuges shall prove to be refuges of lies; the wind, the rain, the hail, and the tempest shall destroy them. There is one Saviour, but there is only one.

5. II. Proceeding with my parable, I must direct your attention to THE SIZE OF THIS ARK; for this may be comforting to you.

6. If you read the fifteenth verse of the sixth 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 fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.” {Ge 6:15} 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 had not been room enough in it for all the different kinds of creatures 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 there really is no reason for anyone to make the objection, and we have no room to entertain it, since the most eminent calculators have proved beyond a doubt that the vessel called the ark was of immense size, and was able, not merely to hold all the creatures, but all the provender they would require for the year during which it floated on the water.

7. I use this idea, without stopping to expound it further, to 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 immense vessel, in it floated a multitude of animals which were saved; Christ’s salvation is an immense salvation, and in it there shall be delivered a multitude whom no man can number. The narrow-minded bigot limits salvation to his own contracted notions, and he still says, “No one shall be saved unless they walk arm-in-arm with me.” Poor, little, miserable soul! 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 cannot be saved. But 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 should come to Christ, with real penitence in your hearts, and true belief in him, you would find that there was 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 for a formalist; but there is room enough for every convicted sinner under God’s heaven. Our Redeemer is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by him. He is able to save all of you. If the Father, who has sent him, draws you, and you come to him, do not doubt that there is room for you. Do not think, beloved, because we preach election, that we preach the election of a few. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 123 “Particular Election” 118} I find that this is a common mistake. Someone will say to me, “I do not like your Calvinism, sir, because it says that there are a few elected, and that no one else will be saved.” No, sir, but it does not say any such thing; it says they are a multitude that no man can number, who have been elected; and who knows if you are not one of them? Calvinism gives you ten thousand times more reason for hope than the Arminian preacher, who stands up and says, “There is room for everyone, but I do not think there is any special grace to make them come; if they will not come, they will not come, and that is the 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 it is all nonsense; whereas, it is, in truth, God’s own work. 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; but he will put strength in you. 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 nowadays preached everywhere, except in a few places where God has reserved for himself a people who have not bowed their knee to the Baal of the age.

8. III. In the third place, note that THE ARK WAS A SAFE REFUGE.

9. Noah was commanded to make an ark of gopher wood; and, lest there should be any leakage in it, he was commanded to “pitch it inside and outside with pitch.” The ark had no harbour to go to, and 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 leak in her. 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 down to touch her bottom; for “fifteen cubits upward 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 hurricane 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 the night; but the ark sailed on, not one was 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.

10. Now, sinner, the Christ I preach to you is such a refuge as that. His gospel has no flaw in it. Just as the ark never sank, and the elements never prevailed against it, so Christ never failed. He cannot fail; all the principalities and powers are subject to him. Those who are in Christ are sheltered from every storm; they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of his hands. Remember that God gave the pattern, and Noah perfected and finished the work of the ark, before 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 no less true that our glorious Lord was set up, in the counsels 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 your poor soul was invited to take shelter in him. Oh, I think, as the angels looked out of the windows of heaven on the swelling tide, and saw how securely the ark rode on its surface, they never doubted that all who were inside were as safe as the ark itself; and is there any reason to doubt that those who are in Christ are as safe as Christ? “Those who trust in the Lord shall be like Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but endures for ever.” Those who trust in the Lord are blessed; they are like trees planted by rivers of water; their leaf shall not wither, and whatever they do shall prosper. If you once come to Jesus, and trust in him, there is no fear of your sinking. There will be storms, tempests will beat around you, — you will be sure to have these; but you will be too high up ever to strike against 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. With cheerful heart, I can “commend you to God, and to the word of his grace.” Christ will preserve you.

11. Believers, could you surrender to anyone the doctrine of your security in Christ? No, I know you could not. Touch one of my brothers or sisters in the Lord who attends this chapel on that point, and you will soon get your answer. I have 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 are mighty men of valour among you, who are not ashamed to uphold the whole counsel of God, even as I am constantly anxious to declare it.

12. IV. Now I go to another part of the parable. The creatures in the ark of course needed light; but it is an exceptional thing that THERE WAS ONLY ONE WINDOW IN THE ARK.

13. In the sixteenth verse of the sixth chapter we read, “You shall make a window for the ark.” {Ge 6:16} 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 is easy to point to the moral. There is only one window by which Christians ever get their light. All who come to Christ, and receive salvation by him, are illuminated in one way. That one window of the ark may appropriately represent to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit. There is only one light which enlightens every man who comes into the world, if he is enlightened at all. Christ is the light, and it is the Holy Spirit of truth by whom Christ is revealed. By this we discern sin, and righteousness, and judgment. No other conviction is of any real value. Since we are brought under the teaching of the Spirit, we perceive our guilt and misery, and our redemption and refuge in Christ. There is only one window for the ark. “Why,” one says, “there are some of us who see light through one minister and some through another.” True, my friend; but, 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 who works in us; and even then, the different panes of glass give different shades of 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 he is a bit of good glass, and lets the light through. Another one is cut in a more refined style; but he is plain and simple, and the light shines through him. But there is only one light, and only one window. He who reveals 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 tonight in the Church of England, another may be proclaiming the Word of God among the Independents, and others among the Baptists; but they have only one Spirit, if they are taught by God. There was only one window for the ark; and though there were first, second, and third storeys in the ark, all saw out of one window; and the little saint, who is in the first storey, gets light through the one window of the Spirit; and the saint, who has been brought up to the second storey, gets light through the same window; and he, who has been promoted to the loftiest storey, 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?

14. V. Now, if you will read the chapter attentively, you will find it said, “You shall make ROOMS in the ark.”

15. When I read that, I thought it would serve for a point in the parable, since it may teach my dear friends that they are not all to be put together; — in the ark, rooms were made. Those who lived in one room did not stand or sit with those who lived in another; but they were all in the same ark. So, I have sometimes thought, — There are our Wesleyan friends, some of them love the Lord; I have no doubt they are in the ark, though they do not occupy the same apartment as we do. There are our Baptist friends, who love the Lord; we welcome them in our room. Then there are our Independent friends, those also love the Lord; they are in another room; and our Presbyterian and Episcopalian brethren, — in all these various sections there are some who are called by God, and brought into the ark, though they are in different rooms; but, beloved, they are all in one ark. There are not two gospels. As long as I can find a man who holds the same gospel, it does not matter what order of church government he adopts if he is in Christ Jesus; — it is of little consequence what room he is in so long as he is in the ark. If he belongs to those of whom it is written, “By grace you are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” I will call him brother. We cannot all expect to be in one room. The elephants did not live with the tigers, and the lions did not lie down with the sheep. There were different rooms for different classes of creatures; and it is a good thing there are different denominations, for I am sure some of us would not get along very comfortably with certain denominations. We should want more liberty than we could get in the Church of England; we should want more freedom than we could get with the Presbyterians; we should want more soundness of doctrine than we could get with the Wesleyans; and we should want a little more brotherly love, perhaps, than we could get with some of the Strict Baptists. We should not entirely agree with them all; and happy is he, who can sometimes put his head into one room, and sometimes into another, and can say to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, “Grace be with you all, as long as you are only in the ark.”

16. VI. But though there were many rooms in the ark, I want you to notice that THERE WAS ONLY ONE DOOR.

17. It is said, “And you shall set the door of the ark in the side of it.” And there is only one door into the ark of our salvation, and that is Christ. There are not two Christs preached, one in one chapel and another in another. “If any man preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” There is only 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 among them all, for we 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 who does not enter by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.”

18. There was only one door to the ark. Some animals, like the camel-leopard, whose heads are higher than those of other animals, might have to bow their necks to go in by the same entrance as the waddling ducks which naturally stoop, even as they enter a barn; and so, the lofty ones of this world must bend their stiff necks, and bow their proud heads if they would enter into the Church by Christ. 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 tax collectors and prostitutes, or be for ever excluded. All the beasts God had chosen went in by the one door; and if any had stood outside, and said, “We shall not enter in that way,” they would have been standing outside until the flood overtook and destroyed them; for there was only one door. There is only one way of salvation, and there is only one means of getting into it. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved”; but “he who does not believe,” whoever he may be, must “be damned.” There is no hope of any other way of salvation. He who comes in by the door shall be saved; and Jesus says, “I am the door.”

19. VII. Proceeding in the parable, you will notice that THIS ARK HAD VARIOUS STOREYS IN IT. They were not all of one height; there were lower, second, and third storeys.

20. This is, to me, a figure of the different kinds of Christians who are carried to heaven. There is my poor mourning brother, who lives in the bottom storey; 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. At times, a little light reaches him from the window; but, generally, he is so far from the light that he walks in darkness, and sees very little indeed. His state is that of constant groaning; he loves to go and hear “the corruption preachers”; he revels with delight in the deep experience of the tried family of God; he likes to hear it, said, “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” If you paint the Christian life as a very gloomy one, he will like your picture, for his is gloomy indeed; he is always pouring over texts such as this, “Oh, wretched man that I am!” He is down in the lower storey 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.

21. “With lower, second, and third storeys you shall make it.” There is one of our brethren who is up a little higher, and he is saying, “I cannot exactly say that 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’ on me. Sometimes, I am like the mountains of Zion, where ‘the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.’” He is in the second storey; but he is no safer, though he is happier, than the man on the ground floor. All are safe as long as they are in the ark; yet, for my part, I like the uppermost storey best. I would rather live up there, where I can sing, “My heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” I love the place where the saints are “teaching and admonishing each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”

22. I confess that I am obliged to go down to the lower storey sometimes; but I like running up the ladder to the third deck, yet I am no more safe when I am in the top storey than I am when I am in the bottom one. The same wave that would split the ship, and drown me, if I were in the lowest storey, 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 separating 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, do not fear, as 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 for all who were shut in.

23. “Ah!” one says, “but I am down there, sir, always at the bottom, and I am afraid the vessel will sink.” Do not be so silly; why should your heart foster senseless fears? I knew a man who went up the Monument; {a} and when he had gotten halfway, he declared that 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 fifty like him, or fifty thousand, went up, 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 harm the ship, it only drives the wedges in more tightly. The Master is at the helm, — will that not assure your heart? It has floated over so many billows, — will that not increase your confidence? It must, indeed, be a strong billow that will sink it now; indeed, there never shall be such a one. And where do you think the power that could destroy the souls is, who are sheltered in the ark of our salvation? Who can lay anything to the charge of God’s elect, since Christ has died, and God the Father has justified us? Happy assurance! We are all safe, so surely as we are in the ark of the covenant. The ark floated triumphantly on amid all the dangers outside; and when it finally rested on Mount Ararat, and God spoke to Noah again, saying, “Go out of the ark, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you”; the inventory was complete, and all were safely landed. So, too, Christ will present the perfect number of all his people to the Father in the last day; not one shall perish.

24. VIII. This brings me to notice, in the last place, THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF ANIMALS THAT ENTERED INTO THE ARK. Listen to the statement: “Of every clean beast you shall take for you by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.”

25. This great ark was meant to save both clean and unclean beasts. In the same way, the great salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ is intended for sinners of all kinds, the clean and the unclean. There are some people in the world whom we may well consider 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 neighbours, nor would they be so negligent of their fair fame as to do a disorderly action; their character is so amiable that their mothers might regard them from childhood as almost without a fault; they have grown up to mature years without the hideous taint of immorality; their practice has been always 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 would have tenderly and compassionately admonished them, as he said to the young man who came to him, “One thing you lack.” Indeed, but the desolations of the flood are so universal that there is no escape except in the ark. The clean beasts must go into the ark to be saved; and there is not a soul among you so good, nor a character so clean, that you do not need Christ, whether you know your need or not. Even though you may be ever so good and excellent, you will still need a Saviour. There is something about your character that is not clean. Your lives require purification, which you can never find except in Christ.

26. But, then, the unclean beasts went in likewise. Here is the opposite class. Are there not some of you, (we know there are such,) whose education from early childhood has been vicious, — certainly not virtuous? From your earliest memories, you have gone into the paths of open profanity; you plunged 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 kind of people we should compare to unclean beasts. Indeed! then the ark was built on purpose for you too. The most moral man will stand no better when he comes before God than you will. He must be saved just as you are. Both of you must be saved by the one common salvation, or not at all. There is only one Saviour for all who are saved; there is only one redemption for every one of you who really is redeemed. There is only one ark for the clean and the unclean. “Ah!” says someone, “I suppose, then, the unclean beasts 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 are some, in what you call “the higher circles,” who, from infancy, have revelled in vice. You soon learned 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 schooldays, as the greedy ox drinks 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 prison” could hardly produce a class of unclean beasts more to be loathed than you are. Well, now, I preach to each class of sinners. If you feel and deplore your uncleanness, there is mercy for you, unclean as you are. I beseech you, come into the ark, and you will never be turned out. If God shall constrain you to come, as he did those creatures, he will never, never drive you 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 for the harmless dove, — for the carnivorous raven as well as for the turtle-dove. All creatures came in, some of every kind. You swinish sinner, one of Satan’s hogs, come in, and you shall be safe; and you lamb-like sinner, gentle and mild, come in, for there is no other ark for you, and you will be drowned unless you come in by the same door into the great ark of salvation.

27. Let us divide these creatures once more. There were creeping things, and there were flying things. On the morning when the ark door was opened, you might have seen, in the sky, a pair of eagles, a pair of sparrows, a pair of vultures, a pair of ravens, a pair of hummingbirds, pairs of all kinds of birds that ever cut the azure, that ever floated on wing, or whispered their song to the evening breezes. 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 who can fly so high in knowledge that I should 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 down to the door, and the ant must go up to it. There is only one entrance for you all; and just 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 honour? Come along, crawling one! God will not exclude you. I have often wondered how the poor snail crawled in; but I daresay 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 you, poor snail! If I could just pick you up, and help you on a yard or two, I would be glad to do it. It is strange how long you have been near to the ark, but not yet in; how long you have been near the portals of the church, but never joined it.

28. Notice again, they all got in. Do not fear if you are, in your own esteem, a crawling reptile; you may have the lowest possible opinion of yourself; still come; no one forbids you to come, however lowly you are; yes, and the baser you are, the more willing do I feel to invite you, for Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. What a strange assembly was there that morning! But Noah was positively commanded to bring all kinds 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 gospel to the Gentiles, God showed him in a vision “all kinds of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and birds of the air,” and said to him, “Rise, Peter, kill, and eat.” “Not so, Lord,” said Peter, “for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And, lo! “the voice spoke to him again the second time, ‘What God has cleansed, do not call that common.’” In Christ, there are some out of every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, who shall be saved to the praise of God and the Lamb for ever and ever.

29. 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 has been in the Church of Christ, and so it shall be to the end of her history: “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed,” though their characters, by nurture, were as various as this globe has ever witnessed, rude as barbarism’s foulest sink, or polished as Greek culture ever knew.

30. 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 enquire about my condition?” But there will be a day when you will be like those who spoke to Noah, and said, “Go along, old greybeard; build your ark on the dry land, like a fool, as you are; build your ark there on the hill-side, where the waters cannot come. As for us, we shall eat and drink; and if tomorrow we die, what will it matter, for we have eaten and drunk all the merrier while we have had the opportunity.” In vain did Noah warn them that the waters would surely come; he seemed to them as one who mocked, and they laughed at him. Even so, when I preached to you, this morning, of the resurrection, some of you may have mocked, and thought that I was only pursuing a wild reverie of imagination. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 66, “The Resurrection Of The Dead” 63} Ah, but how different was their tune when the rain fell, and “the same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up!” They doubtless changed their tune when the clouds began to empty themselves in fury, when the very earth cracked, 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, sometime ago, a master-picture, which I think time will never erase from my memory. It was a picture of a man who had been climbing up to the top of the last mountain, and the floods were coming around him. He had his old father on his back; his wife was clasping him around his waist, and he had one arm around her; she held one child at her breast, and with her other hand she grasped another. In the picture, one child was represented as just letting go, the wife dropping, and the father clinging 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 hopes gave place to dire despair; and so it will be with you, you careless ones, unless you take shelter in the ark.

31. Do you ask me, “How can we do that?” You look anxious, some of you. Listen, 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 into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be damned.”

{a} The Monument to the Great Fire of London, more commonly known as The Monument, is a 202 ft tall stone Roman doric column in the City of London, near to the northern end of London Bridge. It is located at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, 202 ft from where the Great Fire of London started in 1666. It is possible to reach the top of the monument by climbing up the narrow winding staircase of 311 steps. A cage was added in the mid-19th century at the top of the Monument to prevent people jumping off, after six people had committed suicide between 1788 and 1842. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Great_Fire_of_London"

Publishers’ Note

It has been necessary, from lack of space, to omit nearly two pages; but, even in its condensed form, it is a wonderful discourse to have been delivered by a preacher only twenty-one years of age.