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Expositions of Holy Scripture by Alexander Maclaren
page 61 of 764 (07%)
no easy thing for him to build the ark, amidst the scoffing of his
generations. Smart witticisms fell around him like hail. All the
'practical men' thought him a dreamy fool, wasting his time, while
they prospered and made something of life. The Epistle to the
Hebrews tells us the secret of his obedience: 'By faith, Noah,' etc.
He realised the distant unseen, because he believed Him who warned
him of it. The immediate object of his faith was 'the things not
seen as yet'; but the real, deepest object was God, whose word
showed him these. So faith is always trust in a divine Person,
whether it lays hold of the past sacrifice, the present indwelling
Spirit, or the future heaven.

Noah's example teaches us the practical effects of faith. 'Moved
with godly fear,' says Hebrews; by which is meant, not a mere dread
of personal evil, for Noah was assured of safety--but that godly
reverence and happy fear which dwells with faith, and secures
precise obedience. Learn that a faith which does not work on the
feelings is a very poor thing. Some Christian people have a great
horror of emotional religion. Unemotional religion is a great deal
worse. The road by which faith gets at the hands is through the
heart. And he who believes but feels nothing, will do exactly as
much as he feels, and probably does not really believe much more.

So after Noah's emotion followed his action. He was bid to prepare
his ark, we have only to take refuge in the ark which God has
prepared in Christ; but the principle of Noah's obedience applies to
us all. He realised so perfectly that future, with its double
prospect of destruction and deliverance, that his whole life was
moulded by the conduct which should lead to his escape. The far-off
flood was more real to him than the shows of life around him.
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