And now, my beloved Christian reader, what else have we wherewith to stand, in service for Christ, in an evil day, like the present? Surely, nothing; nor do we want aught else. The word of God, and the Holy Ghost, by whom _alone_ that word can be understood, applied, or used, are all we want to equip us perfectly--to furnish us thoroughly--"to all good works," under whatever head those works may range themselves. (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.) What rest for the heart! What relief from all Satan's imagery, and man's imaginations! God's pure, incorruptible, eternal word! May our hearts adore him for the inestimable treasure! "Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually;" but God's word was the simple resting-place of Noah's heart.
"God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me.... Make thee an ark of gopher wood." Here was man's ruin, and God's remedy. Man had been allowed to pursue his career to the utmost limit, to bring his principles and ways to maturity. The leaven had worked and filled the mass. The evil had reached its climax. "All flesh" had become so bad that it could not be worse; wherefore nothing remained but for God to destroy _it_ totally; and, at the same time, to save all those who should be found, according to his eternal counsels, linked with "the eighth person,"--the only righteous man then existing. This brings out the doctrine of the cross in a very vivid manner. There we find at once God's judgment of nature with all its evil; and, at the same time, the revelation of his saving grace, in all its fulness, and in all its perfect adaptation to those who have really reached the lowest point of their moral condition, as judged by himself. "The Day-spring from on high hath visited us." (Luke i. 78.) Where? Just _where we are_, as sinners. God has come down to the very deepest depths of our ruin. There is not a point in all the sinner's state to which the light of that blessed Day-spring has not penetrated; but, if it has thus penetrated, it must, by virtue of what it is, reveal our true character. The light must judge every thing contrary to itself; but, while it does so, it also "gives the knowledge of salvation through the remission of sins." The cross, while it reveals God's judgment upon "all flesh," reveals his salvation for the lost and guilty sinner. Sin is perfectly judged,--the sinner perfectly saved,--God perfectly revealed, and perfectly glorified, in the cross.
