THE history of the antediluvian world is told in four chapters. What began in one act of self-will closed with corruption and violence filling the earth, save for one righteous man and his household, to whom God extended mercy when He sent the flood to destroy the rest of the human race. The condition of that world for centuries before the deluge is depicted graphically in a few sentences by Eliphaz in the book of Job (22:15-18). Blessed by God with all that heart could wish, so far as temporal things were concerned, they abused His gifts and turned away from the Giver. Therefore, judgment had to take its course, as predicted by Enoch, whose words are preserved for us by the Holy Spirit in the Epistle of Jude, verse 14 and 15.
“They dream’d not of danger, those sinners of old,
Whom Noah was chosen to warn;
By frequent transgressions their hearts had grown cold.
They laugh’d his entreaties to scorn:
Yet daily he called them. ‘Oh, come, sinners come,
Believe and prepare to embark!
Receive ye the message, and know there is room,
For all who will come to the Ark.’
He could not arouse them, unheeding they stood,
Unmov’d by his warning and prayer:
The prophet passed in from the oncoming flood,
And left them to hopeless despair:
The flood-gates were opened, the deluge came on.
The heavens as midnight grew dark,
Too late, then they turned ev’ry foothold was gone.
They perished in sight of the Ark.”
—Kate Harrington.