13,/no 
 
 ■ iuji TOCCZ 
 
No. 115. 
 
 NOAH'S CARPENTERS. 
 
 It was a late hour at night. . The city of 
 
 N" with its many turrets and spires word 
 
 sleeping under the shadow of those rocky 
 sentinels which have guarded . the plain 
 since the flood. The waves of the ocean 
 fell gently and soothingly on the beach. — 
 The'moon waded through the fleecy autumn 
 clouds, now playing with the waters and 
 lighting up the scene, and then concealing 
 her glory as if to make its revelations more 
 prized. It was. a night for pious thought 
 and conversation. 
 
 Two persons., were leaving the city and 
 passing along the water-side to a beautiful 
 villa, where one w r as a readout and the 
 other a guest. : The taller and elder of the 
 two was actively engaged in a work of be- 
 nevolence, in the blessings of whieh the 
 
 people of ?N and the students of ■ 
 
 college mutually shared. The .work was 
 "too heavy" for him, and he had invited 
 his young friend, an impenitent lad, ot 
 whom we shall' speak as Henry, to aid him. 
 Together they had spent many a weary day 
 in supplying the Christian laborers wbo eg* 
 
operates with them, with the choicest means 
 
 of usefulness, as they erotrded the deposito- 
 ry ot truth. Exhausted by their toils, they] 
 were now returning for a night's Repose, 
 Hitherto not a word had been addressed to 
 
 The fitting 
 A. quaint, 
 
 the obliging lad about his soul, 
 occasion seemed to have arrived; 
 
 hut fitting manner was chosen. 
 
 "Henry/' asked the. elder of the younger, 
 " do you know what became of Noatis car- 
 peniers f" 
 
 " Noah's carpenters !" exclaimed Henry ; 
 "I did not know that-Koah had 'any car- 
 penters." 
 
 -"Certainly he must' have Lad help in 
 building one of the largest and best pro- 
 portioned ships ever put on the stocks. 
 There must have been many ship carpenters 
 at work for a long time, to have constructed 
 such a vesselwri such an ago. What became 
 of them, think you, when all the fountains 
 of the great deep were broken up, and the 
 windows of heaven \vere opened?" 
 
 What do }'ou mean by such a queer 
 
 Henry replied. 
 No matter what, just now Please an- 
 swer the inquiry. And you may also tell 
 me, if you will, what yoi* would have, done 
 in that dreadful hour, when the storm came 
 In it-- fmy, v.nd Noah's prophecies were ail 
 
 question ?' 
 
 u "" " 
 
n^K, 
 
 3 
 
 fulfilled, and all but the family of the 
 preacher of 39 wore ready to be 
 
 itfgulied in those black w 
 
 "I dou'f kimw," sai<jl Henry, in a half- 
 fchoughtful, half- trifling manner; "but I 
 think I should have got on the rudder.*' 
 • "That is human nature exactly, Henry. 
 It would 4 climb'up some other wny,' rather 
 than enter the fold by the only door. It 
 would 'get on the rudder,' in i!s pride and 
 short-sightedness. r than co into the 
 
 ark of safety. It would If by hang- 
 
 ing on, at the hazard of being swept into 
 the gulf of despair, instead of] being saved 
 by ib< ion of infinite love. 
 
 "But I'll foil you plainly what I mean, 
 Henry, by Noah's carpenters. You have 
 kindly and generously given me your aid, 
 
 day after day, in building an ark in i\ r , 
 
 by which m*my, I trust, will be saved. I 
 feel grateful for your help But I greatly 
 fear, that while .others will be rejoicing in 
 the fruits of our labors, you will bo swept 
 away in the storm of wrath which' will by 
 and by beat on the heads of those who en- 
 ter not the ark of Jesus. Xo human device 
 will avail tor you. \ Getting on the rudder' 
 will not answer; you must be in Chnst, or 
 you are losj:. Remember Noah's carpen- 
 ters, and flee to the ark without delay." 
 
"We reached the house and parted. The 
 winter came. The Jad was placed at a 
 
 hoarding school in . He visited his 
 
 home during the winter vacation, and pre- 
 sented himself to the church tor admission 
 to its communion. He then stated that the 
 conversation detailed above had never" 
 passed from his memory. 
 
 Though Noah's carpenters were all 
 drowned, there are a great many of the 
 same stock now alive — those who contrib- 
 ute to promote the spiritual good of others, 
 and aid in the up. building of the Redeem- 
 er's kingdom,' but personally neglect the 
 gre%t solvation. 
 
 Sabbat h-schonl children who gather in the 
 poor, or contribute their money to send li- 
 braries or tracts and books to the West, or 
 to aid the work of missions, and yet remain 
 unconverted, are like iSToah s carpenters. 
 
 Teachers in Bible-classes and Sabbatk- 
 sqIwoU who point their pupils to the 'Lamb 
 of God, but do not .lead the way, are like, 
 guide-boards that tell the, road, but are not 
 travelers on it ; or like Noah's carpenters, 
 who built an ark, and were overwhelmed 
 in the waters that bore it aloft in safety. 
 
 ClirisllessjMrents vvho instruct their chil- 
 dren and servants, as every parent should, 
 in the great doctrines of the gospel, yet 
 
• 5 . 
 
 Fail to illustrate these doctrii eg in their 
 lives, and seek not a personal interest in 
 the blood of Christ, are Jike JSoab's car- 
 penters, and musk expect their doom* 
 
 Printers, folders, sewers find hinders en- 
 cagid tii making B'bles and religious looks, 
 booksellers and hawkers, and publishers of re- 
 ligions newspapers, who are doing much to 
 increase the knowledge of the gospel and 
 to Siive souls, but so many of whom are 
 careless about their own salvation, will 
 have the mortification ot knowing, that 
 while their toils have bet'n instrumental of 
 spiritual good to thousands, they were only 
 like the pack-mules that carried a load to 
 market without tasting it; or like Noah's 
 carpenters, who built a ship they never 
 sailed. 
 
 Wealthy and liber vl, but unconverted men 
 who help to build churches and sustain the 
 institutions of* the gospel, but who "will 
 not come unto Christ, that they may have 
 life," are hewing the timbers and driving 
 the nails oi the ark they are too proud or 
 too careless to enter. Perhaps they think 
 they will be sate on the "rudder;" but 
 they may find too late, that when they 
 would ride they must swim — that when they 
 would float they must sink, with all their 
 
G 
 
 good deeds, unmixed with faith, as a mill- 
 stone about their necks. 
 
 Moralists who attend, church and support 
 the ministry, but who do dot receive into 
 their hcarrs (lie gospel they thus sustain, 
 are like Noah's carpenters. 
 
 Professed ministers of the go.rpel who preach 
 the truth without .practicing it, who com- 
 mend the love of Chr"st without expe- 
 riencing it, who guide the wandering to the 
 told of Christ without entering it them- 
 selves — are they t ot like Noah's carpenters? 
 It Paul might indulge the ■ apprehension 
 lestj when he had "preached to others," he 
 should himself " he a cast away," may not 
 those of us who follow at a sad distance 
 from Paul in the Christian race, well see to 
 it that we are not left to buffet the waves 
 of an overwhelmed world, when some of 
 those we have led into the aide are borne 
 triumphantly above the billows in which 
 we are ingulfed ? 
 
 Perhaps >he Christian reader will be en- 
 couraged by this narrative to speak a word 
 in season to some of these ark-builders. 
 The/ are numerous. Their kindness should 
 he acknowledged. "These things ought 
 they to have done*" The danger is, that 
 the great thing will be ".left undone." "Run, 
 speak to that young man. Tell him that 
 
him 
 
 that "getting on the rudder" of the ark, 
 and all other human devices for salvation 
 are vain refuges of lies. Tell Lini that the 
 ark is open; that it is safe; that it waits 
 for him. The dove and the olive branch 
 arc in this ark. The Jo -»w of mercy spans 
 the heavens above it. Peace and hope and 
 salvation are there. But, if scorned or ne- 
 glected, when once the door is shut, they 
 only that are "iii the ark" will "remain 
 alive." Who can abide that storm? Who 
 can buffet those waves? Who will survive 
 that deluge. Heber. 
 
 DELAY IX RELIGION. 
 
 An "accurate examination into the periods of Iffe 
 at which #hose whose lives of godliness give evi- 
 dence of true religion, first 'began to be followers of 
 Christ, furnishes an amazing demonstration ot the 
 folly an J dange* of delay. The probability of con- 
 version diminishes as rapidly as years roll on. 
 
 Make up a congregation of .a thousand Chris- 
 tians. Divide them into five classes, according to 
 the ages at which they became Christians. Place 
 in the first class all those converted under 20 years 
 of age; second class, all those oonye'rted between 
 20' and 30 ; third class, all those converted between 
 30 and 40; fourth class, all tkose converted be 
 t\veen40anl 50 j fifth c! ass, all fchbse converted 
 between 50 and GO. Then count each of the five 
 
classes separately. Of your thousand Christians, 
 there were, hopefully converted, under 20 years of 
 age, 548; between 20 and 30 years of age, 337; 
 between 30 and 40, 86; between 40 and 50, 11; 
 between 50 and 60, 3 — between 60 and 70, 1. 
 
 Just one out of a thousand Christians converted 
 over sixty ^ears old. What a lesson on delay — 
 what an awful lesson ! What an appeal is this to 
 the unconverted of every age. To such as are 
 still in the favored season of early youth, it says, 
 Now is the accepted time. Seek early. Those who 
 have passed even the early age of twenty, have de- 
 monstrated to them the fact that the most favorable 
 season is gone already, and that the grounds of 
 hope in their case are rapidly growing narrow, and 
 more insecure, with every additional day of impen- 
 itence, to their closing hour. 
 
 Need we add a word on the solemnity with which 
 such considerations appeal to minister^of the gos- 
 pel on behalf of« the young among their hearers — 
 and to all Chri.tian fathers and mothers— to all who 
 love the Lord Jesus' Christ, on behalf of the im- 
 penitent in their families and around (hem? 
 
 j/jk Dr. Spc?icer, 
 
Hollinger Corp* 
 P H8.5