me to sign a lease they would say
with a twinkle in their eyes:

"Why, this old Noah says the world is coming to an end in one hundred
and twenty years, and it's twenty years since he started the story.
But I guess I will sign the lease and risk it."

Someone has said that Noah must have been deaf, or he could not have
stood the jeers and sneers of his countrymen. But if he was deaf to
the voice of men, he heard the voice of God when He told him to build
the ark.

I can imagine one hundred years have rolled away, and the work on the
ark ceases. Men say, "What has he stopped work for?" He has gone on a
preaching tour, to tell the people of the coming storm--that God is
going to sweep every man from the face of the earth unless he is in
the ark. But he cannot get a man to believe him except his own family.
Some of the old men have passed away, and they died saying: "Noah is
wrong." Poor Noah! He must have had a hard time of it. I don't think I
should have had the grace to work for one hundred and twenty years
without a convert. But he just toiled on, believing the word of God.

And now the hundred and twenty years are up. In the spring of the year
Noah did not plant anything, for he knew the flood was coming, and the
people say: "Every year before he has planted, but this year he thinks
the world is going to be destroyed, and he hasn't planted anything."

Moving in.

But I can imagine one beautiful morning, not a cloud to be seen, Noah
has got his communication. He has heard the voice that he heard one
hundred and twenty years before--the same old voice. Perhaps there had
been silence for one hundred and twenty years. But the voice rang
through his soul once again, "Noah, come thou and all thy house into
the ark."

The word "come" occurs about nineteen hundred times in the Bible, it
is said, and this is the first time. It meant salvation. You can see
Noah and all his family moving into the ark. They are bringing the
household furniture.

Some of his neighbors say, "Noah, what is your hurry? you will have
plenty of time to get into that old ark. What is your hurry? There are
no windows and you cannot look out to see when the storm is coming."
But he heard the voice and obeyed.

Some of his relatives might have said, "What are you going to do with
the old homestead?"

Noah says, "I don't want it. The storm is coming." He tells them the
day of grace is closing, that worldly wealth is of no value, and that
the a