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THE BLIGHTED
Life of Methuselah.
BY
H. Roger Williams, M. D.„
NASHVILLE, TENN.:
NATIONAL BAPTIST PUBLISHING BOARD.
1908.
Copyrighted by
H. Roger Williams, M. D.t
Mobile, Ala.
1908.
THE BLIGHTED LIFE OF METHUSELAH.
A TREATISE
FROM
GENESIS v:27.
SHOWING THE MANY OPPORTUNITIES WHICH METHUSELAH
HAD FOR MAKING A CHRISTIAN RECORD, AND HOW
BY GETTING THEM PASS UNNOTICED FOR
NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE
YEARS, HE DIED AND
WAS LOST.
THE TREATISE
IS TO
SAINTS AND SINNERS
AS A WARNING AGAINST NEGLECTING
THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT COME TO THEM DAILY
FOR DOING SOMETHING TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER FOR
THEIR HAVING LIVED IN IT, AND CLEAR THEIR
OWN PATHWAY TO ETERNAL GLORY.
BY
H. ROGER WILLIAMS, M. D.,
MOBILE, ALA.
(3)
H. Roger Williams.
PREFACE.
With earnest hope that this little book may lead
some sinner to repent, or arouse some slothful
Christian from the spiritual stupor into which so
many have fallen, I send it forth to all who care
to peruse its pages.
What will become of it on the great ocean of
opinions, whose thought waves, swept in billowy
masses by the winds of controversy, lash the
shores of Publication, and threaten to submerge
this generation in a deluge of paper and print¬
er's ink, I know not; but I am satisfied that "God,
who has watched while my weary toils lasted,
will give me a harvest for what I have done. In
His name I send it forth."
The Author.
(5)
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
preface 5
chapter i.
introductory 9
chapter ix.
the I<ong wee of methuselah 13
chapter iii.
the creation oe the world l8
chapter iv.
the divine purpose of creation 22
chapter v.
a vision of adam 24
chapter vi.
evidence that adam taught his posterity 28
chapter vii.
the difference between saints and sinners 33
chapter viii.
methuselah contemporary with adam 36
chapter IX.
methuselah contemporary with all who lived be¬
fore the flood 39
chapter x.
methuselah's opportunities for instructing oth¬
ers 42
chaptee xi.
methuselah's opportunities for favor with god... 44
(7)
8
Contents.
PAGB-
CHAPTER XII.
METHUSELAH REJECTED 47
CHAPTER XIII.
METHUSELAH LOST 52
CHAPTER XIV.
REASONS FOR INVESTIGATING THE LIFE OF METHUSELAH 62
CHAPTER XV.
OTHER REASONS FOR STUDYING THE LIFE OF METHUSELAH 65
CHAPTER XVI.
FACTS WORTH KNOWING . . : 70
CHAPTER XVII.
A PAGE IN ALABAMA HISTORY 75
CHAPTER XVIII.
METHUSELAH A WARNING TO SINNERS 80
CHAPTER XIX.
NO EXCUSE FOR REJECTING CHRIST 88
CHAPTER XX.
GOD'S LENIENCY WITH MEN 93
CHAPTER XXI.
THE PRICE OF THE ARK 96
CHAPTER XXII.
METHUSELAH A WARNING TO CHRISTIANS IOI
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST I04
CONCLUSION 113
THE
BLIGHTED LIFE OF METHUSELAH.
CHAPTER I.
Introductory.
The words which we use as a basis of argu¬
ment are recorded in the twenty-seventh verse of
the fifth chapter of Genesis, and read thus: "And
all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and
sixty-nine years; and he died." Statements of
a similar nature were made in referring to many
others of the antedeluvian patriarchs; but in this
particular case it ends the life history of a man
who had lived longer upon the earth than any
mortal of whom we have a record. Adam, Seth,
Enos, Cainan, Jared and Noah, all lived over nine
hundred years; (Gen. i:5-29) but Methuselah
outstripped them all in the race for longevity;
and, having reached his nine hundred and sixty-
ninth anniversary, like an exhausted ocean wave
struggling across the sea, he fell lifeless on the
shore of Time, and the Scriptures say "He died."
10 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
Now, it must be accepted as an axiom by every
follower of Christ that the Scriptures are the
revealed word of God, the various assumptions of
eminent scholars to the contrary notwithstand¬
ing. Every word, every expression, every dec¬
laration made in the dear old Book is pregnant
with truths, many of which, like the hidden treas¬
ures in the mountains of earth, are discovered aft¬
er having been passed unnoticed for centuries.
"Search the Scriptures," is the advice of the
Saviour to those who would make their way from
the city of Destruction to the kingdom of God.
(John v:39.) All Scripture is by inspira¬
tion of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for re¬
proof, for correction, for instruction in righteous¬
ness : that the man of God may be perfect, thor¬
oughly furnished unto all good works."—2 Tim.
iii :16, 17.
Almost every historic person in the Bible bears
an appropriate name, not alone to designate him
from other individuals, but the name was descrip¬
tive of the character and life of its possessor.
"Out of the ground the Lord God formed every
beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and
brought them unto Adam to see what he would
call them: and whatsoever Adam called every liv¬
ing creature, that was the name thereof." (Gen.
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 11
ii:19.) "And Abraham called the name of his son
that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him,
Isaac." (Gen. xxi:3.) "And Rachel said with
great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister,
and I have prevailed: and she called his name
Naphtali." (Gen. xxx:8.) "And Joseph called the
name of the first born Manasseh: for God, said
he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my
father's house." (Gen. xli:51.) Zipperah, the
Negro wife of Moses, for despising whom Miriam
was smitten with leprosy, and the marching army
of Israelites was forced to halt for seven days
(Numbers xii:15), gave birth to a son, and Moses
named him Gershom, for he said, "I have been a
stranger in a strange land" (Ex. ii :22); and when
the angel had made an explanation to Joseph of
what had happened to his virgin wife, he said,
(Matt. v:21), "She shall bring forth a son, and
thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save
his people from their sins" (23 verse). "They
shall call his name Emmanuel, which being inter¬
preted is, God with us."
The name of our hero is "Methuselah." It is
from two Hebrew words, "Methu," which means
"He dieth," and "Shalah," which means "He send-
eth out.v Now, the problem that confronts us
is to know whether he died and was sent out of
12 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
the world to be preserved from some approaching
calamity, or whether he died and was sent out
from the presence of God. Either might be in¬
ferred from his name, and the effort of our re¬
search will be to gather the rays of Scripture
truths, and, focusing them through the lens of
Reason, by the electrical force of the Holy Spirit,
produce a violet X-ray of logical conclusion, that
we may know for a certainty whether Methu¬
selah died and was sent out to enter the Paradise
promised to the thief on the cross, or whether
he died and was sent out to awake with Dives in
the flames of eternal burning, where it is said,
"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Imploring the Holy Spirit to aid us in the attempt
to render transparent these hitherto opaque walls,
and trusting God for the results, we turn to the
discussion of our subject: The Blighted Life of
Methuselah.
CHAPTER II.
The Long Life op Methuselah.
Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine
years, and, though many arguments have been
produced to show that a year then was not the
same as a year of to-day, the truth remains that
Moses, the writer of the statement, was the found¬
er of the Jewish religion, and nowhere in history
can it be found that a year of to-day is less or
more than the years spoken of elsewhere in the
Bible. Numerous passages of Scripture tell us
of years in such terms that there can be no shadow
of doubt as to their length. Corn crops grow only
once in our years of to-day. The forty-first chap¬
ter of Genesis tells of Pharaoh's dream concern¬
ing the seven years of plenty and the seven years
of famine. It tells of the gathering of crops and
enlarging of barns in such explicit language that
every one who reads it may know that the corn
crops grew annually, just as they do to-day. In
Genesis, Moses gives the life of Sarai, saying she
was old and stricken in age, and had reached the
(13)
i4 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
climacteric period of her life. Her husband was
ninety years old, and the statement that she had
passed the custom of women is evidence that
the years accounted to her were about the same
that we count to-day.
God inspired Moses to write the Book of Gene¬
sis, but the facts recorded are stated by Moses
in language with which he was thoroughly con¬
versant. He was educated in all the wisdom and
science of Egypt, and he was familiar with the
signs of the zodiac and their markings of years.
I believe there was no shadow of doubt in his
mind as to the truth of his statement when he
Wrote the words, "And all the days of Methuse¬
lah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and
he died." And because I find everything in the
Bible which I can comprehend is true, I believe
with my whole heart that the rest is true also,
and only regret that my understanding is so
blurred, and my knowledge is so limited, that I
cannot comprehend the depth of what I believe,
but cannot explain.
Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine
years, and if, in the length of our short life, men
born in ignorance, can grow to manhood, get an
education, change the very face of the earth, and
startle the universe by their wonderful achieve-
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 15
ments, what must have been the opportunities
afforded Methuselah for development along all
lines while living through nine hundred and sixty-
nine years? The ghost of premature death had
never been seen, for all who lived before him,
neared or passed the ninth century mile-post in
the path of human existence, except his father,
Enoch, who, walking with God, grew tired of mor¬
tality in his three hundred and sixty-fifth year,
and went to the Great Beyond.
The days of our life are three score years and
ten; his nearly a thousand. You will have some
idea of the vast period of time which his long
life covered when I tell you if he had been born
in the days of Peter the Hermit, A.D. 1050, he
would have been a man twenty-seven years old
when Jerusalem, which for a long time had been
in the hands of the Calif of Omar, passed under
the Turkman domination. He would have been
forty-nine years old when Peter the Hermit aroused
the fiery piety and chivalry of Europe and led
to that extraordinary succession of holy wars,
which restored the tomb of our Lord and the Holy
City back into Christian hands. He would have
been four hundred and forty-two years old when
Columbus discovered America; he would have
seen all the advancements of civilization since the
16 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
Mayflower landed at Plymouth. He would have
been eight hundred and sixty-three years old when
Abraham Lincoln signed the proclamation which
unbound the fetters from four and a half million
souls and banished slavery from the United
States. He could have fought in the Spanish-
American war; taken part in all the political ha¬
rangues of to-day, and still have one hundred and
forty-two years to prepare for death, which would
not be due to come to him until every person now
alive would be dead, and the calendars of the
world were showing the eclipses and moon
changes for the year two thousand and forty-nine.
From his knowledge of the past, Methuselah could
inaugurate movements which it would take him
centuries to accomplish without ever being har¬
assed by the fear that death would interrupt his
plans.
If, within the short space of time that men live
to-day, they can develop every faculty of the soul
so that the understanding can compass the earth,
measure the heavenly bodies and foreknow each
eclipse to a minute many years before it comes
to pass; yea, if within the short limit of three
score years and ten, our intellect can grasp the
torchlight of science, and, entering the halls of
nature, unlock the secret chambers of creative
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 17
skill and harnessing the fiery elements send
them on errands as swift-winged messengers; if
men born within this century have threaded the
world with railroads, taught inanimate machinery
to speak with human distinctness, and communi¬
cate with those in distant parts through the me¬
dium of wireless telegraphy; what must have
been the opportunities afforded Methuselah while
living through nine hundred and sixty-nine years!
Did he seize those opportunities as an eagle
would its fleeing prey, or did he allow them to
pass unnoticed as would swine rare gems and val¬
uable diamonds, not knowing of nor caring for
their intrinsic value? Must we declare that he
is happy with the blest simply because no broth¬
er's blood cried from the ground against him
as it did against Cain? Shall we call him a right¬
eous father simply because he is not referred to
as taking an active part in the sins of his day?
No, dear reader, God's plan has never changed
with reference to the salvation of this world.
CHAPTER III.
The Creation of the World.
Out in the fathomless ocean of immensity, God
placed the sun-dial of Love. He set it with the
energy of Omnipotence, and the shadow of time
began to move off in waves of action toward the
shores of eternity. Upon one of those waves
God launched a creation called heaven and earth,
weird and without" form; "And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. i:2),
amid the awful darkness of that mighty deep.
God spoke, and His words caused the heaven to
oscillate with tremendous ponderosity; the vibra¬
tions from which moved off through the luminous
ether in such rapid succession and at such a ter¬
rific rate of speed they illuminated the universe
when God said, "Let there be light."
At the simple command of God, the firmament
leaped forth from the womb of Time, and sta¬
tioned itself as a sentinel to separate the waters
above from those below. With the great dipper
of authority, God lifted all the waters under the
(18)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 19
heavens, poured them into the hollow places called
seas, and let the dry land appear. He breathed
on the earth, and the soil became pregnant and
gave birth to all manner of vegetation, the blos¬
soming flowers from which perfumed the air with
a sweet aroma. He touched the water of the
sea, and it conceived and bore an abundance of
moving creatures; some rising above the waters
and flying through the heavens, while others,
called fish, went swimming through the deep. He
spoke to the earth, and the dust became vivified
and, assuming various shapes, began to move
about in the form of all the different creatures
that fill the earth with animation. Some of the
creatures, though perfectly formed and given a
full set of faculties, are so small and yet so nu¬
merous that eight hundred million worlds like
ours would be required to maintain a human pop¬
ulation equal to the number of these tiny crea¬
tures that live and move in a cubic inch of space.
All the myriads and myriads of worlds that sweep
through space—massive creations in themselves—
many of them immensely larger than our own,
running wider revolutions, and drawing after
them brighter trains; these, and myriads more
of worlds that do not come within the borders
of our solar family, were all formed from an atom
20 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
of nothing by the fiat of Almighty God, and,
through all, there is evidence of a divine plan and
arrangement. Man was the crowning triumph of
creative effort. He is greater than the world
in which he lives, and there is more mystery in
the union of the soul and the body than there is
in the creation of all the systems of worlds that
make up the universe. His anatomy, his physical
formation, his intellectual and spiritual nature,
together with the fact that he was given the
power of speech and the ability to balance him¬
self and walk erect, give man a pre-eminence over
all the other objects of God's creation. He was
the last, as well as the fairest, of God's divine
works, and was not brought into existence until
everything for his comfort had been made, and
all preparations for his reception and happiness
were complete. The earth had been fashioned in
all its transcendant beauty, and Eden had been
enriched with all her stores of verdant foliage.
Then, while surrounded by all the created hosts
and the efflorescence of nature, amid anthems
of joy and jubilations of praise from beasts and
birds and flowers and fish and all the millions
of created forms that joined in the universal cho¬
rus, "when the morning stars sang together and
all the Sons of God shouted for joy," God, as a
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 21
crowning cap-sheaf to his handiwork, said, "Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness."
Why did not God speak man into existence, as
he did everything else? Why was it necessary
for the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the
wonderful Creator, to call a consultation before
making man? Why did He not rend the rocks
asunder with the thunder of His awful voice, and,
calling, as did Christ at the grave of Lazarus,
bid man come forth from the bowels of the earth ?
The only reasonable answer is this: Man
was the earthly reflection of the heavenly
glory of God, and, as such, all heaven was asked
to assist in making him, that he might be within
himself a perfect reflection of all that heaven
was. "So God created man in His own image;"
"and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul," possessing all
the attributes and graces of Deity, and endowed
with immortality of existence.
CHAPTER IV.
The Divine Purpose of Creation.
Remember, dear reader, this was not absolutely
necessary, for God is omniscient, as well as om¬
nipotent. He could have made man perfect with¬
out the aid or assistance of any of the heavenly
host. But it was in the divine purpose of God
to have all heaven interested in man, and so all
heaven was consulted before he was created. And
so also it is in the divine purpose of God to have
man interested in the salvation of man, and no
man can have hope of an eternal abode in the
kingdom of Christ, unless he is in perfect accord
with heaven's chief aim—the restoration of man
back into the image of God.
When man transgressed the law of God and
fell from his high and holy estate, his graces
and virtues, like the good things of Prometheus,
when Pandora opened the box of the Greek's
first man, took wings and flew away. All that
was left to Adam was hope, and penitently kneel-
(2i)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 23
ing upon it, he prayed to God for forgiveness.
God, who looked down in tender compassion on
the prostrate form of fallen man, as he wept and
mourned over his lost estate, graciously pardoned
him, and consoled him with the promise that "His
seed should bruise the serpent's head." Though
man had lost his physical immortality, his soul
would live forever; though he could no longer
inhabit the blissful shades of an earthly Eden, he
could become an expectant of the kingdom of God.
He could no longer come into existence full grown
and full of wisdom. The faculties are all there,
but they must be developed. Man comes into ex¬
istence innocent, but ignorant. He is physio¬
logically perfect, but he is utterly helpless. He
is capable of infinite wisdom and goodness, but
he must be instructed. He is his own free moral
agent, and must choose for himself his eternal
abode. The devil and all the hosts of hell beset
him as soon as he is born, and try by all the
subtlety of his satanic strategy to attract him
hellward. The sweet influence of the Holy Spirit
seeks, through the word of truth, to restore him
back into the image of his God. It is the divine
purpose of God that man assist in this great work.
He is eminently fitted for it, and he saves his own
soul only by seeking the salvation of others.
CHAPTER Y.
A Vision of Adam.
In a vision I can see Adam, the father of the
human race and transgressor of heaven's law.
He has been hurled from the throne of power,
and driven from the garden made for him by his
Creator. His kingdom has been confiscated. His
lordship and power of authority have become
things of the past. The beasts and birds no longer
obey his mandates, but make the woods ring
with hideous sounds, as they prey upon each
other. The soft zephyrs which gently disturbed
the sweet-smelling foliage of Eden, having be¬
come vexed and lashed themselves into wrathsome
fury, are sweeping through the land in death-
dealing tornadoes and cyclones. His children,
nourished from the breast of the same mother,
have quarreled, and Cain having slain his brother
and buried him in the soil, has fled as a fugitive
from justice, almost breaking the heart of his
mother, who weeps and mourns because her sons
are no longer where she can fondle them in her
(24)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 25
loving embrace. The angels of Peace and Happi¬
ness, sent from the courts of glory to abide with
man, have spread their wings and taken their
fight from the sin-cursed earth. Discord can
be heard in every hand, and over the whole realm
of nature the evil genius of sin is now pre¬
siding.
Year after year, decade after decade, century
after century passes, increasing the number of
Adam's posterity, and augmenting his grief and
sorrow. I can see him, with a deep-wrinkled,
care-worn face, down the cheeks of which tears
of remorse are streaming. Decrepitude has visit¬
ed him and made an exchange of age for youth.
Feeble and old, he leans for support on the prom¬
ise of God. Around him are gathered a company
of his posterity, the older of whom look thought¬
fully upon the ground, while the younger ones look
anxiously about, as if fearful of some approach¬
ing danger. As I watch the company, I behold
Adam sighing as if his heart would break, as ten¬
derly he beckons to Eve, who with feeble step
and bended form, leaning upon the broad shoul¬
ders of Seth for support, cautiously wends her way
to him and takes a seat by his side. Her face
shows signs of much bodily suffering, and her
hair is white with age, but the tender look of a
26 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
mother's love can still be seen in her sunken eyes
as she scans the group surrounding her, as if to
see that none are absent. The sun is gradually
sinking behind the western hills, the refracted
rays from which stream off among the trees,
giving a golden tinge to the verdant foliage.
Every hillside, valley and plain, as far as the
eye can behold, is a scene of such indescribable
beauty we are forced to exclaim with the Psalm¬
ist, "The heavens declare the glory of God: and
the firmament showeth his handiwork." (Psa.
xix:l.)
As the last rays of the setting sun fade into
twilight, Adam rises to his feet and addresses
the company in a low, tremulous voice. He recites
a passage from the book of his experience. He
tells them how he sinned against the law of God,
and the consequent effects it had upon him. He
tells them, as he had heard it from the lips of
God, about the war in heaven; the overthrow of
Satan and his cohorts; the creation of the world;
his stay in the Garden of Eden; the allurements
of the evil one; how he seeks to apostatize the hu¬
man race and alienate it from God. He tells
them of how the Lord God made coats of skin
and clothed them, of His promise to redeem them
from the curse of the broken law, and admon-
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 27
ishes them to serve the Lord with sacrifice, and
believe with all their heart that He will keep
His promise. He contrasts his present sorrow
with his long-lost happiness, and as the pent-up
sorrow of his soul overwhelms him, hot "Tears
of penitential grief burst forth from every eye."
Eve lifts her voice, which has not yet lost its
Eden sweetness, and leads the evening hymn,
the words of which I cannot understand, by rea¬
son of the sobbing emotions of Adam, augment¬
ed by the wails of the weeping company. Adam
lifts his hands toward the heavens, and in hu¬
miliation, every member of the company falls
prostrate in the dust to pour out the agony of
their soul in prayer to God. Prayer is over, and
all retire for the night, satisfied that God will
watch over them while they sleep, and protect
them from every harm.
Now, remember, dear reader, the Bible does
not say that Adam was ever visited by any of
his posterity; neither does it aver that he was a
preacher of righteousness; but the thoughtful
reader of God's Word will bear witness that I
have not overdrawn the picture.
CHAPTER VI.
Evidence that Adam Taught His Posterity.
In the fourth chapter of the Book of Genesis,
the second verse, we are told that Cain was a
farmer; Abel, a shepherd. The second, third and
fourth verses of the same chapter tell us that Cain
offered fruit; Abel, a choice lamb. The fourth and
fifth verses aver that God had respect for the offer¬
ing of Abel, but rejected the offering of Cain. The
eighth verse says Cain rose up against his brother
and slew him; and the seventeenth verse tells
how Cain, after murdering his brother, wandered
off in the Land of Nod, raised a family and built
a city. Now, all these actions were the result of
knowledge previously obtained; for it is an axiom
in philosophy that no finite mind can conceive an
entirely new thing. But, whence came they in
possession of such knowledge as would enable
them to know what would be the results of their
efforts? Where had they ever heard a musical
instrument? How did they know that it were
possible to take life from a living organism by
administering a blow upon the same? Who taught
(28)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 29
Jabal to dwell in tents and herd cattle? (Gen.
iv:20). And where did Tubal Cain conceive the
idea that brass and iron could be moulded into
different forms and polished to a luster? You
cannot say they happened to imbibe the ideas
which led to those various pursuits by chance or
force of circumstances. God held Cain accounta¬
ble for not bringing as a sin offering the right
kind of a sacrifice; and pronounced a curse upon
him for murdering his brother, whose sacrifice
was pleasing to the Lord. This is conclusive evi¬
dence that they had been instructed along those
very lines, and there was no excuse to offer. God
never holds any man responsible for a transgres¬
sion until he has been instructed concerning its
awful consequences. Paul says (Rom. vii:7-8),
"1 had not known sin, but by the law: for with¬
out the law sin is dead." Romans, fifth chapter,
thirteenth verse, reads thus: "For until the law
sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed where
there is no law." And Jesus said (John xv:22),
"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they
had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for
their sin." From this we conclude that these men
had been instructed, and knew the results of their
actions, and the kind of sacrifice that would be
pleasing to their God.
30 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
But who taught them these things, and whence
came they in possession of knowledge concern¬
ing things of which they had not dreamed? The
only reasonable conclusion is to suppose that they
were taught by the father of the human race, who,
having spent many evenings conversing with his
Maker, amid the shady boughs and sweet-smell¬
ing foliage of Eden, had been taught of God con¬
cerning everything pertaining to the interests of
humanity. Knowing, as we do, the delight it is
to children to visit their ancestors, and the relish
with which aged parents tell their children of the
wonderful exploits, daring deeds, hair-breadth es¬
capes and awe-inspiring scenes which they have
witnessed from time to time, we are sure that
Adam was often surrounded by eager listeners,
to whom he would give glowing accounts of the
joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, blessings and
curses, plenty and poverty that had checkered his
life from his creation. Through conversations
like these, Adam, no doubt, told them how the
transcendant beauty of this world was created
by the omnipotence of Jehovah, giving them a
minute description of the Garden of Eden, and
repeating to them, as he had heard from the lips
of his Creator, how the orchestra of heaven played
the sweet symphonies of Paradise; and the angel
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 31
choir led in the chorus, "and the morning stars
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy" when the world was created. (Job xxxviii:
7). He reiterated to them the story of the fall,
of the promise to redeem them (Gen. iii :15), of
how the Lord God made coats of skin (Gen. ii:
21), and clothed them; of how he was driven from
the garden to till the ground (Gen. iii :23) from
whence he was taken, and how God placed angels
with ever-turning, flaming swords at the gates
of Eden (Gen. iii :24) to keep the way of the
tree of life. Many of these scenes, no doubt,
were described by Adam in such graphic word-
paintings that they became as real pictures to
his eager listeners.
Thus Cain got his idea of farming, Abel of
sheep-raising, and what would be a pleasing sac¬
rifice. Through these talks, no doubt, Adam
taught his posterity how to gain a livelihood, and
thus began the branching out into different pur¬
suits, according as different ones were impressed
differently from listening to his conversations;
while those of an inventive turn of mind were
led to attempt a reproduction of some of the things
which Adam described as having seen and heard.
Thus began the imitative efforts which resulted
in the invention of the loom for cloth weaving,
82 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
the working in brass and iron, and the invention
of musical instruments. But these inventors and
craftsmen were descendants of Cain (Gen. iv:
20-22), who wandered away from Adam to the
other side of the Garden of Eden (Gen. iv:16),
and built a beautiful city in the Land of Nod.
CHAPTER VII.
The Difference Between Saints and Sinners.
Adam was deeply interested in the salvation of
men, and the characteristic difference between the
heaven-bound mortals and those destined to eter¬
nal banishment from the presence of God is a
longing interest in the saving of souls and teach¬
ing men what God would have them know. Every
man, from Adam on down to the present day,
is offered an opportunity to help in the work of
trying to redeem man from the curse of the brok¬
en law. Adam, as we have shown, was a preacher
of righteousness, Seth was called "the appointed,"
and Moses tells us that Enoch and Noah walked
with God. The plan of salvation is such that man
saves his own soul only by saving others. Every
man is expected to help, and Christ, the Captain
of our salvation, declares, "He that is not with me
is against me; and he that gathereth not with me
scattereth." (Matt. xii:30.) The man or woman
who sits idly by and allows a soul to be lost with¬
out using every available effort in the attempt to
(33)
34 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
save that soul will be required to give an account
for the same at the bar of God.
Joe Stoker, the brakeman, was ordered to has¬
ten to the curve and wave his lantern that the
coming express train might know that there was
danger ahead. He delayed, leisurely pulling on
his overcoat, then getting a drink of whiskey,
then lighting his pipe. When he heard the whis¬
tle of the engine coming around the curve, he
hastened with all possible speed to obey the com¬
mand he had received, but, alas, too late. The
fast train came bursting around the curve, tele¬
scoping the wrecked train, and hurling its cargo
of human souls into eternity. When Joe Stoker
was found the next morning, his mind was gone,
and, a wild maniac, he stood in a barn swinging
his empty lantern before an imaginary train and
crying in the agony of his soul, "Oh, that I had!
Oh, that I had!" With the world full of work
that needs to be done; with human nature so
constituted that often a pleasant word or a tri¬
fling assistance may stem the tide of disaster for
some fellowman, or clear his path to heaven; with
our own faculties so arranged that in honest,
earnest, persistent endeavor we find our highest
good, and with countless noble examples to en¬
courage us to dare and do, each moment brings
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 35
us to the threshold of some new opportunity for
improving the stock of the human race. For God's
sake, do not let them pass lest when it is too late,
like Joe Stoker, you will be heard to say, "Oh,
that I had! Oh, that I had!"
CHAPTER VIII.
Methuselah Contemporary With Adam.
According to the dates given in the fifth chap¬
ter of Genesis, Adam was one hundred and thirty
years old when he begat Seth; Seth was one hun¬
dred and five years old when he begat Enos; Enos
was ninety years old when he begat Cainan; Cainan
was seventy years old when he begat Mahalaleel;
Mahalaleel was sixty-five years old when he be¬
gat Jared; Jared was one hundred and sixty-two
years old when he begat Enoch; Enoch was sixty-
five years old when he begat Methuselah. Now,
if Adam was created in the year one, reckoning
from the beginning, then, we find, by comparing
the dates above given, that Seth was born in the
year one hundred and thirty; Enos, in the year
two hundred and thirty-five; Cainan, in the year
three hundred and twenty-five; Mahalaleel, in the
year three hundred and ninety-five; Jared, in the
year four hundred and sixty; Enoch, in the year
six hundred and twenty-two; and Methuselah, in
the year six hundred and eighty-seven.
(36)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 37
Now, the records show that Adam lived nine
hundred and thirty years; and if he were six hun¬
dred and eighty-seven years old when Methuselah
was born, then it follows that Methuselah was
two hundred and forty-three years old when Adam
died.
When Frederick, the Emperor of Saxony, was
told by a celebrated genealogist, that a copy of
his pedigree was preserved in the ark of Noah,
he neglected all the affairs of state, and wandered
about from place to place in a vain attempt to
find Noah's ark. And how can we for a moment
believe that any man could live on earth two
hundred and forty-three years and not seek the
acquaintance and companionship of Adam, the
only human being that was ever permitted to
talk with God face to face (Gen. iii:8) ?
By comparing the descendants of Adam through
Seth with those who were descendants from Cain,
we find that Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain—the
last three sons mentioned in the lineage of Cain
—were all three of the same generation, and con¬
temporary with Methuselah, who, as we have
shown, was born two hundred and forty-three
years before Adam died. That Jabal, Jubal and
Tubal-Cain were frequent visitors of Adam there
can be no doubt, for they became the world's first
38 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
inventors and craftsmen, as we have previously
shown, and Adam was the only source from which
they could have gained the knowledge necessary
to prepare them for such mighty works. But Ja-
bal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain were descendants of
Cain, who dwelt in the Land of Nod, on the other
side of the Garden of Eden. And if those who
lived in another part of the then-known world
had knowledge of Adam and visited him often
enough to grasp ideas that developed into won¬
derful inventions for the advancement of civil¬
ization, then I am certain, beyond a shadow of
doubt, that Methuselah, descending from Seth,
the appointed (Gen. iv:25), through Enoch who
walked with God (Gen. v:24), and living upon
the earth for two hundred and forty-three years
before Adam left it, was thoroughly acquainted
with the father of the human race, and knew of
sin and its awful effects upon the soul. Works
of righteousness were as needful then as now,
and any failure on his part to serve the Lord was
as noticeable then as it would be now. The law
of God has always been the same. He himself
says (Mai. iii:4-6), "I am the Lord, I change
not."
CHAPTER IX.
Methuselah Contemporary With All Who
Lived Before the Flood.
Having shown that Methuselah was acquainted
with Adam and knew his career, let us now pro¬
ceed to study his life history and see who else
he may have known among the antedeluvian pa¬
triarchs while living through nine hundred and
sixty-nine years. When he was one hundred and
eighty-seven years old, he begat Lamech; and
when Lamech was one hundred and eighty-two
years old, he begat Noah. Thus Methuselah was
three hundred and sixty-nine years old when Noah
was born.
Adam, having been created in the year one,
and living nine hundred and thirty years, died in
the year nine hundred and thirty. Seth was born
in the year one hundred and thirty, and living
nine hundi*ed and twelve years, died in the year
ten hundred and forty. Enos was born in the
year two hundred and thirty-five, and, living nine
hundred and five years, died in the year eleven
(39)
40 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
hundred and forty. Cainan was born in the year
three hundred and twenty-five, and, living nine
hundred and ten years, died in the year twelve
hundred and thirty-five. Mahalaleel was born in
the year three hundred and ninety-five, and, living
eight hundred and ninety-five years, died in the
year twelve hundred and ninety. Jared was born
in the year four hundred and sixty, and, living
nine hundred and sixty-two years, died in the
year fourteen hundred and twenty-two. Enoch
was born in the year six hundred and twenty-two,
and, being taken by the Lord, with whom he
walked three hundred years after his son was
born, he left the world in the year nine hundred
and eighty-seven. Methuselah was born in the
year six hundred and eighty-seven, and, living
nine hundred and sixty-nine years, died in the
year sixteen hundred and fifty-six. Lamech was
born in the year eight hundred and seventy-four,
and, living seven hundred and seventy-seven
years, he died in the year sixteen hundred and
fifty-one, Noah was born in the year ten hundred
and fifty-six, and, living nine hundred and fifty
years, died in the year two thousand and six.
From the above facts, it is clearly apparent to
all that Methuselah was contemporary with all
who lived from the time Adam was six hundred
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 41
and eighty-seven years old down to the time when
his grandson, Noah, was a man of six hundred
summers. He saw the death, and, no doubt, at¬
tended the funeral of Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan,
Mahalaleel, Jared, and hi&own son, Lamech, who,
living seven hundred and seventy-seven years,
died five years before his father, Methuselah.
Now, if for argument's sake, we should grant
that it were possible for Methuselah to have lived
for two hundred and eighty-seven years near
Adam, and yet not know him, is it not reasonable
to suppose that, being contemporary with all who
lived before the flood, he knew why he was forced
to earn a living by the sweat of his brow? Am
I not justified in the sight of heaven when I say
he was thoroughly conversant with God's law,
and was in possession of the knowledge which the
world had at that time? Yes, dear reader, I am
satisfied that I only speak that which is the de¬
cision of every thinking mind who reads these
pages, and to which, I believe, the angels of glory,
if called upon bear witness, would say, "Amen."
CHAPTER X.
Methuselah's Opportunities for Instructing
Others.
Age naturally awakens our respect, and Methu¬
selah must have been much revered by reason of
the longevity which he enjoyed. He could speak
as an eye-witness of the world's happenings from
Adam to his grandson Noah. Slowly the centu¬
ries had unfolded one by one before him, as leis¬
urely he walked along from his cradle to the grave.
Cedars which he planted in his youth had grown
old and rotted down. Firm rocks on the mountain,
down whose sides the waters flowed, had been
washed away, while he, unharmed by the grim
monster Death, was allowed to live on amid the
ever-verdant vales of waving palm trees and
sweet-smelling foliage of vine-clad hills.
He was infinitely better prepared to be a preach¬
er of righteousness than any man that ever lived,
for from observation he had seen the results of
sinning against God, and the advantage his father
had above the world by walking with him. He
could reason from cause to effect, and conversely,
(42)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 43
concerning many things, which to others of those
living were complicated problems.
He could have given to the world proverbs of
far more import and meaning than ever fell from
the lips of Solomon; for Solomon's life was not
longer than a life of to-day; and though he, as
an unrestrained polygamist, indulged the unsa¬
lable lust of the flesh until a thousand women
were calling him husband, Methuselah could tell
of experiences that would pale into insignificance
the most voluptuous scenes of Solomon's gilded
palace. Methuselah had seen women whose beau¬
ty was beyond the power of words to describe,
and who, in sensual lust and alluring carnality,
were such temptations that the legates of glory
—the sons of God—could not withstand their am¬
orous alkahests (Gen., vi:2-4) and married them,
producing a peculiarly large-bodied posterity
called giants. Solomon could only say (Prov.
i:8), "My son, hear the instruction of thy fath¬
er." Methuselah lived until his great-grandsons
were a hundred years old; and he must have been
often consulted for counsel and advice, for he was
one hundred and eighty-seven years older than
any other man upon the earth.
CHAPTER XI.
Methuselah's Opportunities for Favor With
God.
Methuselah's life, as we have said, was a long
one. The dark cloud of immorality, which was
no bigger than the palm of the hand when he came
into existence, had spread over the entire heav¬
ens of moral purity from pole to pole, shutting off
the refracted rays from the "Son of righteous¬
ness." Man had become so depraved that "every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually." (Gen. vi:6.) The sons of
God, through the daughters of men, had filled the
land with giants. They were a warlike people,
and became valiant for their strength and cour¬
age. Sin and immorality filled the atmosphere
with such a foul stench that the odor was diffused
through the rarefied ether of the celestial world,
and reached the nostrils of the King of Kings. The
thunder of His awful word reverberated from
the hills of Zion as the wrath of God was kindled,
and He exclaimed: "I will destroy man whom
I have created from the face of the earth; both
(44)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 45
man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the
fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have
made them." (Gen. vi :7.)
Surely a man occupying the strategic point in
the affairs of men that Methuselah held could not
have escaped the all-seeing eye of God, or the sa¬
cred historians if he did anything worthy of the
notice of God or man. He was the son of Enoch,
a man who, by the firmness of his desire to grow
better, was able, by daily effort (notwithstanding
the sin and immorality which surrounded him on
every hand) to bring under subjection every evil
desire and walk with God for three hundred years.
He was the grandfather of Noah, who, Peter tells
us, "was a preacher of righteousnessand the au¬
thor of Genesis described as "walking with God."
Doubtless, he was thoroughly acquainted with La-
mech of Cain; had held many conversations with
him, and heard him when he exclaimed, "I have
slain a man to my wounding, and a young man
to my hurt." (Gen. iv:23.)
Numerous incidents connected with the time in
which he lived prove that the actions of God to¬
ward men in the days of Methuselah were exactly
the same as they are to-day, and His law, though,
perhaps, unwritten, was diligently taught, and
thoroughly understood, and, therefore, was as
46 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
binding upon the human heart as it is to-day. When
Adam, who by his disobedience, had brought death
to the entire world, showed signs of repentance
for his sin committed, God heard his penitent
cry, forgave him his transgression, and consoled
him with a promise that his seed should bruise
the serpent's head. When Abel brought of the
firstling of his flock and offered it as an oblation
for his sins, "God had respect unto Abel and to
his offering." (Gen. iv:4.) When Cain failed
to bring the right kind of a sacrifice, it was re¬
jected. When he had slain his brother and wept
over the justly deserved curse which God pro¬
nounced upon him, mercy was shown him, and
God set a mark upon him; and the court of heaven
decreed that "whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance
shall be taken on him seven-fold." (Gen. iv:15.)
When Enoch, losing sight of all else besides,
walked with Him for three hundred years, God
took him away from the trials of this sin-cursed
earth (Gen. v:27.), and when Noah was found
righteous before God, notwithstanding, it repent¬
ed Him that he had made man and in wrath and
indignation he had decided to destroy him in a
universal overflow, he directed this, the only holy
man in all the world, how he might save himself
and his family from the Deluge.
CHAPTER XII.
Methuselah Rejected.
Having spoken at length of the many opportu¬
nities afforded Methuselah, let us now see if
any evidence can be brought to show that he util¬
ized them or not; for, unless evidence can be pro¬
duced to show that he was in disfavor with God,
then wke must confess that he died and was sent
out of the world to escape some approaching dan¬
ger, and is happy with the blest. In order, there¬
fore, that we may have a clear knowledge of the
case before us, I shall first attempt to prove to
you that he was rejected of the Lord, and, sec¬
ondly, that his death was one of soul, as well as
body.
First. As to his being rejected, we observe
that it is the nature of God to always select the
worthy ones to carry out his great plans. For in¬
stance, Moses was sent from leading the sheep
of Jethro to lead the Israelites, though Joshua
and Caleb were both in Egypt. The Levites were
chosen priests, though Simeon and Judah were
both older as tribes. The sons of Jesse looked
(47)
48 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
kingly, but the Lord touched not the prophet until
the ruddy youth David came in; then he said to
Samuel, "Arise and anoint him; for this is he."
(1 Sam. xv:12.) Esau was Isaac's first born
son, and justly loved by him as heir to the throne
of opulence and birthright of power, but he was
not a fit man to be father of so great a people
as from whom a Savior should be born, and cir¬
cumstances gave Jacob the birthright and the
blessing. David was anxious to build a house for
the Lord, but the Lord waited until he was dead
and let his son Solomon build it, saying (1 Chron.
xxii:10), "He shall build a house for my name;
and he shall be my son, and I will be his father;
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom
over Israel forever." Yea, and when we, of our
own volition, had become apostates to the prince
of darkness, aliens from God, fit subjects for eter¬
nal condemnation, our Lord, listening to the peni¬
tential prayers of fallen man, determined to in¬
augurate a plan to rescue him from his helpless
state.
Through Adam all had died, and, in order to
open a way for man's admittance into the kingdom
of God, justice demanded that some one should
die to satisfy his claims; hence the search to find
some one who was worthy to die for the sins of
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 49
the world. Many, no doubt, were willing; but,
to satisfy the claims of justice, the vicarious of¬
fering must be without spot or blemish, in order
to be worthy. A strong angel (Rev. v:2-9) was
given the Book of Redemption, and he cried with
a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book
and to loose the seal thereof?" If, then, none
but the worthy are accepted with God, it follows
that whosoever is rejected of God is unworthy.
Methuselah was, as has been shown, in a posi¬
tion to tower head and shoulders above every
other man who lived in his day. At the time
when God pronoui&ced an end to all flesh, from
point of advantages, he was more able than any
man on earth to undertake the stupendous task
of saving representatives of all the animal king¬
dom; but hear the decision of the Judge of heaven
and earth: "The end of all flesh is come before
me; for the earth is filled with violence through
them; and, behold, I will destroy them with
the earth." (Gen. vi:13.) From this we are
able to form some idea of the universality of mor¬
tal wickedness at that time; and we would be
justified to decide that there was not a single,
solitary soul upon the earth who was worthy of
the friendly consideration of the Lord, were it
not for the exceptions made in his own words,
50 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
which I now read: "Noah (Gen. vi:9) was a
just man and perfect in his generation, and Noah
walked with God." And "Noah (verse 8) found
grace in the eyes of the Lord." And the Lord (14)
said to Noah, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood;
rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch
it within and without with pitch." "And, behold,
(17) I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the
earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of
life, from under heaven; and everything that is
in the earth shall die." "But with thee (18,19) will
I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come
into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife,
and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every liv¬
ing thing of all flesh, two of every sort shall thou
bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee;
they shall be male and female."
This, therefore, excuses Noah and his sons, and
his wife and his sons' wives from being counted
particeps criminis in the wickedness of that time;
and that we may know that he was active in the
spiritual as well as the physical salvation of the
world, Peter holds him up before us, names the
surrounding circumstances, that no one might
doubt which Noah he speaks of, and calls him a
"preacher of righteousness." (2 Peter ii:5.)
But, in searching the Scriptures from Genesis to
The Blighted Life of Methuselah 51
Revelation, we have been unable to find a single
suggestion or reference that we could use as evi¬
dence that Methuselah was interested in the
salvation of men, or concerned about a hope of
heaven.
CHAPTER XIII.
Methuselah Lost.
The Bible is a very explicit book, and every
thought expressed in it is given by inspiration of
God (2 Tim. iii:16), and is made so plain (Hab.
ii:2) "that he may run that readeth it." Noah
(Gen. vii:6) was six hundred years old before
the flood came; and, lest some should err, and
say the flood came at some time during the sixth
century of Noah's life, the sacred historian has
surrounded the fact with a breastwork of expla¬
nations and references that remove all shadow of
doubt as to the exact time of the flood.
The sixth verse of the seventh chapter of Gene¬
sis says, "Noah was six hundred years old when
the flood of waters was upon the earth." The
eleventh verse of the same chapter reads, "In the
sixth hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second
month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same
day were all the fountains of the great deep brok¬
en up, and the windows of heaven were opened."
The twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth verses of
the ninth chapter of Genesis read thus: "And
(52)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 53
Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty
years." And, lest some future higher critic should
say he was only approximating dates, the writer
of the book of Genesis, sums up the life of Noah
before and after the flood, and says (in the same
verse), "And all the days of Noah were nine hun¬
dred and fifty years."
Praise the Lord for the explicitness of His Holy
Word. So clear, so definite, that "the wayfaring
men, though fools, shall not err therein." (Isa.
xxxv :8.)
If, as we have shown by a comparison of the
dates given in the fifth chapter of Genesis, Noah
was born in the year ten hundred and fifty-six,
and was six hundred years old when the flood
came, then it follows that the date of the flood
was the year sixteen hundred and fifty-six. But,
as we have shown, Methuselah died in the year six¬
teen hundred and fifty-six; then Methuselah died
the same year in which the flood came. But the
waters began to fall on the seventh day of thq
second month of that year; then it is conclusive
that Methuselah died between the first day of the
first month and the seventeenth day of the second
month—or less than forty-seven days before the
flood of waters began to fall.
But the doom of the world was sealed one hun-
54 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
dred and twenty years before the flood, and twen¬
ty years before the sons of Noah were born. (Gen.
vi:3.) And since, as we have shown, Methuselah
died the same year in which the flood came, it
was sealed one hundred and twenty years before
the death of Methuselah. No one need doubt or
be misled about the wickedness of the world at
the time when God chose Noah to build the ark.
At that time (1536) Adam had been dead six
hundred and six years; Seth, four hundred and
ninety-six years; Enos, three hundred and ninety-
five years; Cainan, three hundred and one years;
Mahalaleel, two hundred and forty-six years; Ja-
red, one hundred and fourteen years; and Enoch,
who, walking with God, ascended into heaven fif¬
ty-seven years after the death of Adam, had been
gone from the sin-cursed earth five hundred and
forty-nine years. Lamech was six hundred and
sixty-two years old, and Noah was a youth of four
hundred and eighty summers, neither married nor
burdened with children.
The doom of the world was sealed, and every¬
thing must perish in the universal ruin, except
whom God had found worthy and perfect before
him. And that no one might think he referred
to the entire family when he said "Noah, have I
found righteous," He named the persons who were
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 55
to be saved with him. Yes, thank God, their
names are all given; and nowhere between the
lids of the Bible can we find evidence to prove
that any other person was included. And we,
as teachers of God's word, have no right to ex¬
onerate any person who lived at that time from
the crime of "being corrupt before God," except
those eight persons whose names are given.
But one hundred and twenty years before the
flood, all the world except Noah and his three
sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, was cor¬
rupt before God, and doomed to die. And since,
as we have shown, Methuselah died the same year
in which the flood came, then the logical conclu¬
sion is that when the doom of the world was sealed
Methuselah was also corrupt before God and
doomed to die. But God says (Ezek. xviii:4),
"The soul that sinneth it shall die," and (Ezek.
xxxviii:9), "If he do not turn from his way, he
shall die in his iniquity;" "For the Lord (Neb.
i:3) will not at all acquit the wicked." From
this it is evident that the doom sealed upon Me¬
thuselah was effective upon his soul, as well as
upon his body; for the Psalmist tells us that "the
wicked shall be turned into hell with all the na¬
tions that forget God," (Psa., ix:17), and that we
may know something of the torture cf hell, the
56 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
Savior gives us two pictures, one in the parable
of the "wedding garment," where (Matt., xxii:
13) he says, "There shall be weeping and gnash¬
ing of teeth;" and the other in the parable of
Dives and Lazarus, where he represents the rich
man after death in the following sad words:
(Luke, xvi:23-24) "And in hell he lifted up his
eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar
off, and Lazarus in his bosom; and he cried and
said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and
send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his fin¬
ger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tor¬
mented in these flames.'"
As Methuselah traveled along life's highway
from the cradle to the grave, conscience would of¬
ten plead with him, no doubt, and urge him to
turn away from the evils of the world and follow
in the footsteps of his father, Enoch, who walked
with God until he left the world.
The funeral knell of various ones passing away
from time to eternity would, no doubt, ring for
a season in his ear like distant peals of thunder
that give warning of a storm, and urge him to
"prepare to meet his God." The sweet influence
of the Holy Spirit, striving to win him over from
the crooked way of sin and folly, often exerted
its beneficence upon him as it led Enoch away
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 57
from the carnal lusts of the flesh into the king¬
dom of God. And, though none of these things
moved him to repent, the mercy of God allowed
him to live on.
Onward the centuries pass, leaving Methuselah
at the close of each, further and further away
from God; further and further from the light of
heaven. I can see him walking along life's high¬
way. His face has been furrowed by the plow¬
share of centuries; his locks have been whitened
with the paint-brush of Time, and hang in di¬
sheveled curls around his drooping head, like moss
around the mistletoe of a leaning oak near the
banks of Bayou La Teche. The finger of infirmity
has touched his thigh, and his step is no longer
quick and agile, but slow and cautious. His sight
is dim and he has lost his way. Amid the fog
and smoke of sin that surround him on every
hand, he travels on, he knows not where. As the
huntsman, lost in the woods, is apt to wander
further away from the open path as he tries to
find his way out from among the entanglement
of shrub and underbrush, so Methuselah goes
deeper and further into the darkness of sin as
the memory of past events fades from his mind;
still, the mercy of God allowed him to live on.
Wickedness continues to grow, and God has de-
58 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
clared an end to all flesh. The time of fulfill¬
ment has been set for one hundred and twenty
years hence. Methuselah hears the King of Glory
talking with Noah about the wickedness of the
world and His determination to destroy the same.
He hears the Lord God reading the specifications
of the ark to Noah, and instructing him how to
erect the same. According to the directions given
in the sixth chapter of Genesis, the ark was five
hundred and fifty-five feet long, ninety-two feet
wide and fifty-five feet high. Noah was ordered
to build it three stories high. He could have had
on the first two stories of this wonderful ship
one thousand rooms ten feet square and eighteen
feet from the floor to the ceiling for the various
animals, a suit of twelve rooms of like dimensions
for himself and his family; and still had the en¬
tire third floor containing 910,800 cubic feet of
space as a storeroom for his food supplies. Me¬
thuselah sees his grandson and great-grandsons
preparing to undertake this stupendous task, with¬
out even so much as advising or suggesting a sin¬
gle thing worthy of notice, and still the mercy of
God allowed him to live on.
He watches them daily as they work away try¬
ing to build the ark according to the command of
God. He hears the people deriding them, and is
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 59
sufficiently able to warn them of their folly, but
he takes no part, asks no questions, offers no as¬
sistance, gives no ear to their preaching, advises
no one to believe them, benefits no one by his long
life and varied experience; and still the mercy of
God allowed him to live on.
The ark is completed, and he sees Noah and his
sons gathering grain supplies to board the animal
kingdom of the world for one year. He sees rep¬
resentatives of all the life-breathing animals
gathering around and entering the ark, as if cog¬
nizant of what would happen. He sees Noah and
his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, prepar¬
ing to embark upon a voyage that shall not end
until the entire world except those in the ark shall
have been destroyed; and, having reached the nine
hundred and sixty-ninth milestone in the journey
of his life, Methuselah fell lifeless in the arms
of death, and the Scriptures say he died.
But what profit was all his long life to him?,
What noble deed had he done? What effort had
he put forth to check the onrushing tide of the sin
and immorality of his day? What influence had
he exerted for good? What precept or example
had he set for the uplift of man or the glory of
God? Not one. You cannot say, dear reader,
that history was fragmentary, and the good deeds
60 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
of many who lived before the flood were not re¬
corded. I tell you, my friends, everything that
was done before the flood to greatly influence the
civilization of that day was recorded, and told to
future generations. Even the names of the most
important children, with date of birth and length
of life, were all made a matter of historic record.
(Genesis v.) It is hardly reasonable to sup¬
pose that the same historian who so carefully
recorded in detail all the minutiae concerning the
antediluvian patriarchs would fail to tell of the
achievements of him who enjoyed the greatest
longevity, if he had done a single thing worthy of
historic note. He lived nine hundred and sixty-
nine years, and all that the sacred historian could
say of him was, "He died." Died! What a state¬
ment to come from the lips of God! Died in rela¬
tion and influence upon future generations! Died
to the heart, and mind, and thought, and lips of
all the world! Died, and his name does not appear
again in all the Bible, except the two places,
where, for chronological exactness, it could not
be avoided. (1 Chron. i:3, and St. Luke iii:27.)
Died, to rise no more until at the last day, when
all shall appear before the judgment seat of
Christ. Well said are the words of Caesar,
"Sometimes the immortal gods allow those whom
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 61
they wish to punish for their crimes a longer ex¬
emption from punishment, and at times even bet¬
ter prosperity in business, in order that they may
feel their punishment the more when it comes, by
reason of a change of circumstances." Thus it
seems to have been with Methuselah. After liv¬
ing through nine hundred and sixty-nine years,
he escaped the Deluge by his death, only to awake
in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.
Is it to be wondered at that such a man, on the
morning of the resurrection, will cry for the rocks
and mountains to fall upon him and hide him from
the face of an angry God? I tell you, dear read¬
ers, his conscience would bear witness against
him; and, though angels should plead the merits
of a Savior's blood, Methuselah would be forced
to exclaim:
"Show pity, Lord; O, Lord, forgive;
And let a dying rebel live;
Yet, if my soul is sent to hell,
I must confess, Thou judgest well."
CHAPTER XIV.
Reasons for Investigating the Life of Methu¬
selah.
Many who read these pages will, no doubt, won¬
der why I should spend so much time and thought
to prove that a man was lost whom all the writers
of all the past have called one of the "holy fa¬
thers," and regarding his long life as only an il¬
lustration of the possibility of human existence,
have been satisfied to let slumber unnoticed and
unknown. But when it is remembered that there
is nothing in all the Bible which is not there for
a specific purpose, and to teach some great truth,
then we can see the worth of the admonition of
the Apostle who said (Acts xviirll), "Search the
Scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
Again, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished;" and many of the so-called "worthless
passages," which the casual reader and biased
(62)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 63
student would pass unnoticed, are pregnant with
far more real depth of meaning than many of the
passages upon which they write pages of com¬
ment. If God is omniscient and omnipotent, then
we must accept it as an axiom that He had knowl¬
edge to see the end of the world from the begin¬
ning of time, and power to control the thoughts
and pen of the sacred writers, that they could not
utter a word other than that which would serve
to further the ends of His great plans; and I be¬
lieve the day will come when all the higher critics,
and the worldly wise men who have done so much
to pick flaws in the various passages of Scripture,
whose depth of meaning they cannot fathom, will
bow in humble submission to the mandates of God,
and accept His Word, whether they can compre¬
hend it or not, as their only guide-book to life
. eternal.
Another reason for investigating the life of Me¬
thuselah is the fact that the God whom I serve as
the Captain of my salvation is a just God; and if I,
by investigation, could find a single one whom He,
holding up as an example, had taken into the king¬
dom of glory without making any reference to
him as being interested in works of righteousness
or the salvati'on of men, then I would, from that
day forward, erase from my Bible that passage
64 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
of the Scriptures which tells me to bring under
subjection every carnal desire; for surely the Lord
will not send me to hell for doing the same things
that others did who are happy with the blessed.
But, in searching the Scriptures, from Genesis to
Revelation, I fail to find any difference in the deal¬
ings of God toward the sons of men. Job said,
"If I sin (Job x:14), then thou markest me, and
thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity." Da¬
vid said (Psa. li:3), "My sin is ever before me."
Solomon said (Prov. xiii:21), "Evil pursueth
sinners." The Preacher said (Eccl. xii:14), "God
shall bring every work into judgment, with every
secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it
be evil." Paul said, "Be not deceived; God is not
mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap." (Gal. vi:7.) And Peter, who was
with Christ, the Author of our hope, during his
entire ministry, gives the following evidence
(2 Peter ii:4-9), "If God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and deliv¬
ered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved
unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but
saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of
righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 65
with an overflow, making them an ensample unto
those that after should live ungodly; and deliv¬
ered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of
the wicked: the Lord knoweth how to deliver the
godly out of temptation, and to reserve the un¬
just unto the day of judgment to be punished."
Not satisfied with these, I pertinently ask the King
of Glory for a statement upon the subject, and in
answer He thunders from the hills of Zion through
the prophet Ezekiel, saying (Ezek. xviii:4), "The
soul that sinneth it shall die." I study the lives
of the Bible heroes, and I find that the end of all
those who strayed away from God and did not
return is shrouded in mystery and uncertainty.
This forces me to smite my breast with my hand
and say to my sin-stained soul:
I must be careful how I live;
Lord, give me righteous fear.
For I must give account to Thee.
For all my actions here.
CHAPTER XV.
Other Reasons for Studying the Life of Me¬
thuselah.
Do not, for a moment, dear reader, think that
I have launched upon a sea of speculation in deal¬
ing with a subject hitherto unnoticed. I have not
allowed myself to use other than the Word of God
as proof of the correctness of my position upon
the subject. I am not unmindful of the fact that
my argument is at variance with all former teach¬
ings -concerning Methuselah, but I feel easy in my
conscience, because I have written what, in my
mind, seems to be the truth concerning him; and
praying the Holy Spirit for guidance, I have jotted
down my thoughts as they have come to me, from
time to time, and tried to arrange them in such
a way that all who read them will be led to search
the Scriptures.
I like the invitation given from God, through
Isaiah, who wrote (Isa. i:18), "Come now, and
let us reason together;" and I hail with delight
the mandate of heaven delivered by Peter, when
he said (1 Peter iii: 15),"Sanctify the Lord God in
(66)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 67
your hearts: and be ready always to give an an¬
swer to every man that asketh you a reason of
the hope that is in you." The Preacher said
(Eccl. vii:25), "I applied mine heart to know
and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the
reason of things, and to know the wickedness of
folly, even of foolishness and madness." Isaiah
said (Isa. xli:21-22), "Produce your cause, saith
the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith
the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth,
and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the
former things, what they be, that we may con¬
sider them, and know the latter end of them."
You cannot say that these passages of Scrip¬
ture refer to a certain people or to a certain pe¬
riod of the world's history; for Jesus said, on
one occasion (Matt. v:17-18), "Think not that
I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I
am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily
I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,
till all be fulfilled." The substance of the law is
this (2 Cor. v:10), "We must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may
receive the things done in his body, according to
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
And that no one may think it optional with them
as to their appearance at the final judgment, the
68 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
judge of the supreme court of Israel has handed
down a decision from which there can be no ap¬
peal. He says (Eccl. xii:13-14), "Fear God, and
keep his commandments: for this is the whole
duty of man. For God shall bring every work
into judgment, with every secret thing, whether
it be good, or whether it be evil."
Since, then, all must appear before the judg¬
ment seat of Christ, whether we would or would
not, it behooves us, as aspirants to life eternal,
to study the life and character of every Bible
hero, that we may know whether, from the facts
given in the Scriptures, that life is in accord
with the life of Christ, and be able to give a
reason for the hope that is in us.
There is an inexplicable intuition that causes
the human heart to know those who, by birth,
are its relatives; so also, the child of God should
study to know who are his relatives: first, by the
witness of the Spirit (1 John v:10); and, sec¬
ondly, by the kind of fruit they bear (Luke xiii:
9). For "by their fruits (Matt. vii:20) ye shall
know them."
This is in keeping with the teachings of the
Bible, which declare, and prove by numerous
illustrations, that the way of holiness is an high¬
way (Isa. xxxv :3), straight (Jer. xxxi:9) and
narrow (Matt, vii :14); and few there be that
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 69
find it. But we, after speculative theorizing
to make the sacred word of God harmonize with
our earthly wisdom, seek to point out a way where¬
by all of the patriarchs of the Bible died in the
full triumph of faith, and went sweeping through
the pearly gates into the city of God. This gives
hypocrites an opportunity to hope on through
their wrongdoings. There are those who will
lie, steal, cheat, break the commandments, and
grieve the Holy Spirit in a thousand ways, and,
pointing with injured innocence to some hero of
the Bible who did the same things, they fold their
arms in undisturbed peace and rejoice to tell you
that they are on their steady march to heaven
and its immortal glory.
CHAPTER XVI.
Facts Worth Knowing.
Some tell us that the long life of Methuselah
was of great worth to the world in passing knowl¬
edge from Adam to Noah without the interven¬
tion of another generation, whereby some of the
facts might not have been known. They say the
fact that he was with Adam during two hundred
and forty-three years of his life, and with Noah
for six hundred years causes the life of Methu¬
selah to overlap the lives of Adam and Noah in
such a way that there can be no possible chance
for a mistake in the information given from one
to the other. And, again, they say the life of
Methuselah is of vast importance, because it is
a link in the very essential chain of chronology
from Adam to Christ.
They forget the fact that the chronology oi;
Christ's earthly ancestry was no more perfect
than that of any mortal, and is given only as a
matter of history that we may trace his lineage
back to the father of the human race, and first
(7°)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 71
transgressor of heaven's law. As to the import¬
ance they attach to the life of Methuselah for
passing knowledge from Adam to Noah, I am
surprised that men of great learning should even
discuss it. From the death of Adam to the birth
of Noah spans a bridge of only one hundred and
twenty-six years, across which walked Enos, Cai-
nan, Mahalaleel, Jared, and Lamech. Enos was
contemporary with Adam for six hundred and
ninety-five years and with Noah for eighty-four
years. Cainan was with Adam six hundred and
five years, and with Noah one hundred and sev¬
enty-nine years. Mahalaleel was with Adam five
hundred and thirty-five years, and with Noah two
hundred and thirty-four years. Jared was with
Adam four hundred and seventy years, and with
Noah three hundred and sixty-six years. And
Lamech was with Adam fifty-six years, and with
Noah, as his father, five hundred and ninety-five
years.
From this it is clearly evident that the life of
Methuselah is not an absolute necessity for his¬
toric record from Adam to Noah. It serves only
to show the wonderful opportunity given him to
have interlaced his life and name like a thread of
gold into the warp and woof of all that happened
before the flood. But, alas for him, like many
72 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
of those who live to-day, he just lived, and that
was all. Disinterested, unconcerned, he lived;
and all that could be said as a funeral sermon was
"He died."
The sun sets behind the western hills, but the
trail of light which it leaves athwart the sky
guides many a pilgrim to his distant home. The
trees of the forest wither and die, but in the lapse
of ages they are dug up as coal to keep the sons
of men cheerful and warm amid the chilly blasts
of winter. The coral insects die, but the reefs
they raise break the surge on the shore of a con¬
tinent, or form an island in the bosom of the ocean
as a home for some shipwrecked mariner. But
Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine
years and died, and has never been heard of since.
Not even the Son of God, who was mindful of
the sparrow and the ant and the lily, is recorded
as having so much as even mentioned his name.
He was dead, and the sum total of his life's worth
was told when the sacred historian said, "He
died."
The text, then, serves to teach us that it is not
the length of a life, but the influence it has ex¬
erted upon those with whom it has come in con¬
tact, that determines its worth in the economic
needs of the world. Methuselah lived nine hun-
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 73
dred and sixty-nine years, and his entire life his¬
tory, with all of its achievements, is told in a
single sentence: "And all the days of Methuse¬
lah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and
he died." On the other hand, Jesus Christ lived
only about thirty-three years, and with all the
writers of all the world telling of his achieve¬
ments, not half has ever been told of the won¬
drous works of the Son of God. From the cradle
to the grave, Christ was ever looking for, and
grasping, opportunities to lift mankind to a high¬
er civilization, and make the world better for his
having lived in it; while Methuselah, with a life
of nine hundred and sixty-nine years, is not ac¬
credited by any writer of prose or poetry, fact or
fiction, as having done, or even attempted to do,
a single thing in the world but live and die.
Not a single writer of the Scriptures makes any
reference to him or mentions his name, except
where for chronological exactness, it could not
be avoided. (Luke and Chronicles.) Longevity
was the theme of every sacred writer, and yet,
not one of them mentioned Methuselah, though
he enjoyed it to a greater extent than any other
mortal that ever lived. He had opportunities
which were given to no other man, but he allowed
them all to pass, and to all time to come he was
74 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
dead. And so also to-day there are men and wom¬
en who, living amid opportunities of every kind
for bettering the stock of the human race, are
doing nothing for themselves, nothing for the up¬
lift of mankind, nothing for the glory of God.
They are just living, and when life is over, all
that can be said of them is that they lived and
died.
CHAPTER XVII.
A Page in Alabama History.
Think of the commanding position in the af¬
fairs of this nation Booker T. Washington,
a former slave, has attained by grasping the op¬
portunities as they have come to him from time
to time.
At the meeting of the last Alabama Legislature
it was the thought of many politicians that the
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, of
which he is the President, and from which no
revenue of tax was collectable, was a menace to
the county in which it is located. Attention was
called to the fact that the institution owns more
than two thousand acres of the county's land,
for which no tax was paid. It was shown by
logical reasoning that the rapid growth of the
school would soon bankrupt the county by mo¬
nopolizing the land from which the county might
obtain a revenue of tax if it were not for the laws
which prevent the taxing of school property. The
State ordered that an investigation be made and
(75)
76 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
reported, so that the Legislature might adopt
measures to relieve the county of its embarrass¬
ment.
The investigation was made by Mr. W. W. Har¬
alson, Public Accountant. He reported that he
had examined the books and accounts of the in¬
stitution as directed, and made diligent inquiry
into every department of the same. He gave a
brief history of the rise of the institution from the
rented shanty in which it began in 1881, with thir¬
ty pupils and one teacher, up to its mammoth pro¬
portions of to-day. He told of the various depart¬
ments of learning connected with the institution;
of the facilities for training boys and girls for
honorable and industrious citizenship; of the ex¬
actness with which every detail of finance con¬
nected with the school is kept, and declared that,
looking at its purely business side, "The school
is the model of perfection."
He told of the experiments with cotton, whereby
the institution is trying to improve the quality
of Alabama's crops by crossing the various grades
of cotton in the hope of increasing the length of
the staple. He said he was favorably impressed
with the condition and care of the grounds, the
excellent order prevailing everywhere among the
students, and the general air of earnestness and
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 77
industry that seemed to pervade the entire estab¬
lishment.
He said the institution owned two thousand
four hundred acres of land, which it had bought
from the county at an expense of $14,057.50,
after the land had been returned to the county
for delinquent taxes. His report showed that
twenty-nine pieces of property owned by persons
directly connected with the school had increased
in tax valuation, by the growth of the school, from
$4,320 to $27,786 for the present year. . And thir¬
ty-eight other pieces of property owned by per¬
sons not at all connected with the school had in¬
creased in tax valuation, by proximity to this
great and growing institution, from $1,050 to the
amount of $16,244. He then called attention to
the fact that the school has an endowment fund
of $1,479,150.81; has an average attendance of
1,500 pupils; employs 149 teachers; collects un¬
paid legacies, through the banks of the county,
over $633,000 each year; spends $125,000 in the
county each year; and, besides all this, owns min¬
eral lands in the Northern part of the State to
the amount of 25,000 acres, the value of which
would exceed $200,000.
The investigation showed that the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute was not a cancer,
78 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
gradually sapping the financial life out of the
county, but rather the spinal cord from which
the county receives its nerve energy of tax valua¬
tion and business and commercial activity. The
subject of taxing school property not only died
of its own weight, but I am told by one whose
veracity is not doubted that many of the legisla¬
tors were heard expressing regret that Booker T.
Washington and his wonderful institution were
not located in their county.
Now, tell me, dear reader, do you believe sucl)
a man could escape the notice of future writers
of this day and generation? No, my friend, the
men and women who have greatly aided in the
advancements of civilization and the uplift of
mankind are never forgotten upon the pages of
history, for they are the nucleus from which the
history grows. Dorcas made garments and dis¬
tributed them to the poor, and the facts were told
by the sacred writers. One woman gave the last
penny she had in a church collection, and it was
recorded. Even the woman who, rejoicing be¬
cause Christ had rid her of devils, hid under the
table and kissed the feet of the blessed Redeemer
until her tears of joy falling upon them made
them so wet they were wiped away with the locks
of her hair, will awake in the morning of the
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 79
resurrection and find that her name is recorded
in the Word of God. But Methuselah, lived nine
hundred and sixty-nine years and did nothing,
either good or bad, whereby his name might be
mentioned after saying, "He died." When I think
of the idlers and the loafers, and the indifferent
men and women about us, and consider the op¬
portunities which they have for improving their
own condition, and the condition of those about
them, I am reminded of the man whose only earth¬
ly possession was a large diamond that was worth
many thousands of dollars. On the deck of an
ocean steamer one day, while going from America,
he amused himself by tossing his diamond up and
catching it as it fell. Flushed with pride at the
attention he attracted, he tossed his diamond high¬
er and higher, until, overcome with pride at the
applause of the crowd, he tossed his diamond up
with all his might, and, to his dismay and un¬
doing, missed it; saw it bound over the side of
the ship, strike the water and sink into the sea.
The one legacy that is bequeathed to every man is
"an opportunityand, oh, the numbers who, like
the"fool with a fortune," are tossing their diamond
opportunities away in lustful pleasure and car¬
nal gratification; and when they are dead, all that
can be said of them is that they lived and died.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Methuselah a Warning to Sinners.
Methuselah is a warning to sinners. They see
signs of a coming flood, and know that "We must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;"
yet they reject all offers of mercy and pardon,
and seem utterly indifferent with reference to
their soul's eternal welfare. They know that all
opportunities for heaven will be shut off when
they leave these mundane shores, and the uncer¬
tainty of life makes it impossible for human
knowledge to even approximate the hour of death,
and yet they seem as unconcerned as though the
story of the cross were a mythical joke.
Our Savior, anxious to save men from the
thraldom of sin, even when he, of his own volition,
had become an apostate to the prince of darkness,
laid aside his royal paraphernalia, disrobed him¬
self of all the happiness that heaven offered, came
down to this sin-cursed earth, incarnated himself
in a fading robe of feeble mortality, became sub¬
ject to all the ills and afflictions to which the flesh
(80).
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 81
is heir, and, as a preacher of righteousness, be¬
came so very poor he was forced to perform a
miracle to pay his tax as a citizen. (Matt, xvii:
27.) No home, and but a few friends, he at one
time exclaimed: "The foxes have holes, and the
birds of the air have nests* but the Son of man
hath not where to lay his head/' (Luke ix :58.)
Betrayed into the hands of his enemies by one
of his bosom friends, he was dragged about the
streets of the city in chains, blindfolded, scourged,
spit upon and maltreated until almost ready to
faint from exhaustion, hunger and thirst. A
crown of thorns was pressed down upon his head,
causing the blood to gush from his temples and
dye his garments red. They led him out from the
city, forcing him to bear his own cross. Weak
from loss of blood and nerve exhaustion, Christ
stumbled and fell, but the heartless murderers,
shorn of every vestige of mercy, scourged him
until, staggering, he regained his feet and pro¬
ceeded forth "as a lamb to the slaughter." Christ
could have delivered himself, or had legions of
angels at his command; but. he suffered himself
to be crucified and die upon the shameful cross
that he might satisfy the claims of justice, and
appease the justly-kindled wrath and indignation
of an insulted Creator.
82 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
He was buried in a tomb, but arose again on
the third day, thereby proving his identity as the
Son of God. He spent forty days upon earth af¬
ter his resurrection, instructing his disciples how
to build up his church, which, like the ark of Noah,
is to save all who serve him of every nation, tribe
and tongue, from the coming conflagration when
this old world of ours shall burn as an oven.
Having finished his work on earth, Christ ascend¬
ed into heaven and took his seat at the right hand
of the Father, where he is still pleading for you
and for me. Even now he stands with out¬
stretched arms, saying to every sinful soul, "To¬
day, if you hear my voice, harden not your heart;
but come unto me, and I will give you rest."
Christ's plans for building the church, like God's
plans for the ark, are very peculiar, and full of
mystery to the unregenerated mind. He himself
said (Matt. x:16), "Behold, I send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves." "Fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell." (Matt, x :28.) "Behold,
the devil will cast some of you into prison, that
ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation:
be thou faithful unto death, and I will give
thee a crown of life." (Rev. ii:10.)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 83
The followers of Christ show their desire to
obtain the crown by doing all they can to build
up the church, and help hasten the day "when the
kingdoms of this world shall become the king¬
doms of our Lord and of his Christ." Like Noah,
they preach righteousness and warn you of the
coming flood. You, like Methuselah, stand out¬
side, and give no ear to their entreaties to you to
come in ere it is too late.
Reason teaches you that he who spoke worlds
into existence, and formed out of nothing the uni¬
verse with all its myriads of systems, must be
infinitely happy and glorious in himself. He is
omniscient in wisdom, and His power is bounded
only by eternity. His felicity and dignity can
neither be enlarged nor diminished, and think for
a moment how great must be the condescension,
and how infinite the love and mercy of God must
be that he should ask for reconciliatioji with a
poor, wretched rebel and traitor, whom He might
blot out of existence by the breath of His nostril.
Hear Him who created worlds, and caused myr¬
iads of creatures to live and move by the fiat
of his awful word, calling in tender tones and
pleading with a poor, ignorant, wayward, de¬
pendent sinner, to "Come now, and let us reason
together;" saying in tones of pity, "Though your
84 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." No matter how blackened your soul may
be; no matter how foul the deeds of your past
life; no matter how far you are alienated from
God and the light of heaven, you may come, and
are especially invited to come and be saved upon
the terms of the gospel; and yet many go on heed¬
less of God's offered mercy, like the poor, starv¬
ing, homeless wanderer who refused to accept
alms or lodging, and died without food or shel¬
ter.
When Alexander the Great encamped before
a city, he used to set up a light, and all who would
come to him while that light lasted, would be
kindly received and given quarter; if not, then,
after the light had gone out, no one need expect
quarter or mercy. God sets up light after light,
and waits year after year, and still his offers
of mercy are rejected. You get a glimpse of the
warning light from time to time, as those who
are near and dear to you are swept off from the
shores of time by the waves of death into the
ocean of eternity; and you know from the aches
and pains that haunt your life that it is but a
short time when you must follow. Ever since
Adam heard the voice of God in Eden telling him
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 85
"Thou shalt surely die," man has been vainly-
seeking some way of escape from the grim mon¬
ster, Death. Whether he make his home in a gild¬
ed palace, the drapery and fine linen of which
challenge for a comparison the apostle's vision
of heaven; or whether he dwell in a tent in the
lonely woods, where nothing save the hooting of
the owls disturbs the lonesome silence of his soli¬
tary abode, man finds himself ever and anon face
to face with the grim monster, Death, who follows
him as a cat would a mouse, to devour him as
an insufficient morsel for his hungry stomach.
In vain have philosophers and scientists sought
to free the inhabitants of earth from this dread
monster, whose gluttonous appetite devours all
that earth produces, and is still unsatisfied. King¬
doms and nations, dynasties and empires have
been erected, and labelled "Imperishable," but
the powerful claws of this merciless beast have
broken them to pieces, and he has devoured them
with relish. Constantly feasting, he is always
famished; eating without intermission, yet starv¬
ing and poor. He ravishes the world of every
object, animate or inanimate, without reference
or concern as to age, size or shape, and yet this
hoary-headed hydra is lean and bony as though
he had starved for a hundred years. All efforts
86 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
to shun him are as vain foolishness, and you
know not how soon the summons will come, "Thy
soul is required of thee." (Luke xii:20.) Like
one who sees his boat drifting down the Niagara
River towards the falls, but fails to pull ashore,
you seem utterly indifferent, though drifting fur¬
ther and further away from the moorings of
Christ, and nearing the terrible, deafening, death-
dashing rapids of a moral, or spiritual, or an eter¬
nal cataract. Will you not heed the voice of God,
and, grasping the oars of faith, pull for the shore
of a hope in Christ Jesus before it is too late?
0, that I had the voice of a trumpet, that I
might disturb the auditory nerve of your spiritual
ear and arouse you from the stupor into which
you have fallen. Like a swift-sailing vessel with¬
out helm or rudder, you are tossed hither and
thither by the mad winds and waves of thought¬
less impulses. You imagine yourself rich, great
and powerful, healthy and happy, when, in real¬
ity, you are deceiving your own soul, and your
incoherent babbling gives a lie to all you have to
say concerning your wealth and influence, "For
every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle
upon a thousand hills" (Psa. 1:10), and "the sil¬
ver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord
of Hosts." (Hag. ii:8.) In chains, you sing of
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. . 87
freedom, and while utterly helpless, you are anx¬
ious to help reform the church and assist the true-
born children of God, whom you imagine are in
a state of need.
You remind me very much of a man whom I saw
the other day while passing the guard-house. The
officers of the law were trying to take from the pa¬
trol wagon an insane man, whom they had picked
up. He was dirt, ignorance and depravity per¬
sonified; and yet, to the amusement of a large
crowd, he was gesticulating wildly with his hands,
and declaring that he was a god, and the officers
would all die if they dared to touch his holy body.
With feet and hands securely bound, and utterly
powerless in the hands of the officers, he was
writhing and calling for all those who needed
assistance to call upon him, and receive a bless¬
ing. As he was being borne into the guard-house
to be locked up in a cell, he shouted, "Hear me,
ye mortals, don't come too close, for if any of
you touch my holy body, you will immediately drop
dead."
CHAPTER XIX.
No Excuse for Rejecting Christ.
Are you delaying because you think there is time
enough? It has well been said, "Procrastination
is the thief of time." The proud Queen Eliza¬
beth rejected the offers of mercy, and on her
death-bed exclaimed in the agony of her soul, "My
kingdom for a moment of time." In the life of
Steven Grellet we are told that once, when Miss
Roscoe was in the room of Tom Paine, some of
his infidel associates came to him, and, in a loud,
heartless manner, said, "Tom Paine, it is said you
are turning Christian, but we hope you will die
as you have lived," and then went away. Turn¬
ing to Miss Roscoe, Paine said: "You see what
miserable comforters they are." Once he asked
her if she had read any of his writings; she told
him she had begun "The Age of Reason," but it
made her so miserable that she flung it in the fire.
"I wish all had done as you did," he said, "for, if
the devil ever had any agency in any work, he
had it in my writing that book." When going to
(88)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
89
carry him refreshments, she repeatedly heard him
uttering the language, "0, Lord! Lord God!" or
"Lord Jesus, have mercy on me."
In the midst of life we are in death, and, since
our life is so uncertain, and all opportunities for
correcting mistakes are taken from us when we
leave the walks of life, it is very necessary, my
sinner friend, that you accept God now, and make
him your friend, that
"When thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
Are you laboring under an hallucination that
you can escape the all-seeing eye of God ? Lafay¬
ette, the great friend of George Washington, tells
us that he was once shut up in a small room in
a gloomy prison for a long time. In the door of
his cell there was a very small hole. At that
hole a soldier was placed day and night to watch
him. All he could see was the soldier's eye; but
that eye was always there. Day and night, every
moment when he looked up, he always saw that
eye. There was no escape, no hiding, when he
lay down, and when he rose up, that eye was
90 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
watching him. And so it is with the eye of God.
It is in every cloud on the mountain; in the secret
chambers of every muttering thunder; observes
every wind that bends the forest, and sees every
ray of light that falls from the sun. Where can
you go from his all-seeing eye? And where can
you hide and escape His presence? David said
(Psa. cxxxix:8-10), "If I ascend up into heaven,
thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morn¬
ing, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right
hand shall hold me." At every step, and in every
circumstance, there is the eye of God. Even in
the central darkness of your innermost soul the
eye of God watches and knows the thoughts of
your heart. "His going forth is from the ends
of the heaven, and His circuit unto the ends of it"
(Psa. xix:6), and he says to the children of men
(Rev. iii:8), "I know thy works."
Are you delaying because you doubt the exist¬
ence of a true and living God? "The devils (Jas.
ii:19) believed and trembled." The heathen be¬
lieve, and, having lost the identity of the true
God, worship wood and stone, in the belief that
they have found that ideal for which their spirits
thirst. Did you ever notice the works of a watch?
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 91
There are large wheels and small wheels all fitted
together so as to concur in an orderly motion.
Did you ever for a moment think that the watch
came together by chance ? Did you ever go through
a magnificent building and believe it happened
there by chance? Can you think of a palace beset
with pleasant gardens, adorned with stately ave¬
nues, furnished with well-contrived aqueducts and
cascades, and equipped with everything for con¬
venience, and then persuade yourself to believe
it is all a matter of chance? How, then, can you
contemplate the world in which you live, fur¬
nished with air, light, gravity, heat and every¬
thing that is necessary for its preservation and
security; fitted with everything conducive to the
life, health, happiness, propagation and increase
of all the prodigious variety of creatures with
which the earth is stocked; with nothing wanting,
nothing redundant or frivolous, nothing botching
or ill-made, but everything, even in the append¬
ages, exactly answering all its ends and occa¬
sions; and then doubt the existence of a Being
sufficiently wise to intelligently plan and execute
the wondrous work?
The quince tree may have its true limbs torn
away, and the limbs of other trees grafted in their
stead until twelve manner of fruit may ripen there-
92 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
upon, but the body of that tree will ever retain
its identity; and every shoot that sprouts upward
from the roots will, upon examination, prove to
be unadulterated quince trees. So also with man.
He is a worshipful being, and, though he may have
grafted into his mind thoughts and teachings that
tend to allure him away from God, and give ease
from the fear of death, by filling his mouth with
argument, and his thoughts with delusive hope;
yet, away down at the root of his heart's inner¬
most soul, there is a consciousness of the existence
of a Supreme Being, and,
"A thousand stings within his breast,
Deprive his soul of ease."
CHAPTER XX.
God's Leniency With Men.
Methuselah shows us how patient and merciful
God is, even with those who oppose His will.
Henry Ward Beecher said, "The thought of the
future punishment for the wicked which the Bible
reveals is enough to make an earthquake of terror
in every man's soul. I do not accept the doctrine
of eternal punishment because I delight in it. I
would cast in doubts, if I could, till I had filled
hell up to the brim; I would destroy all faith in
it; but that would do me no good. I could not
destroy the thing. Nor does it help me to take
the word everlasting and put it into a rack like
an inquisitor, until I make it shriek out some
other name. I cannot alter the stern facts."
Methuselah was the son of Enoch, and the
grandfather of Noah: both men of such extraor¬
dinary piety that they are described as walking
with God; and, though he, as an individual, does
not appear connected with any of the movements
of his day for the uplift of mankind, he was al¬
lowed to live on.
(93)
94 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
Noah was a righteous man, and walked with
God, and, notwithstanding Methuselah's moral and
spiritual lethargy, it would have been an appal¬
ling sight for Noah, while securely housed in the
ark, to have seen his grandfather tossing on the
surging waves of the swelling flood. And thus,
for all we know, God, of respect for Noah's right¬
eousness, and to remove from him any temptation
to open the ark or endanger the safety of those
within, stayed the liquid mountains and the water-
filled cloudsi until the old man Methuselah was
dead, and his grandson had buried him with the
other antediluvian patriarchs.
And so it is to-day. Many of those who are
enemies of Christ are blessed, and their lives pro¬
longed from day to day, through the prayers and
righteousness of some relative or friend who is
walking with God. Mercy is shown to them for
the sake of Christ, who pleads their cause before
the throne of God. If, however, that sinner is
not influenced to turn to God and live, and go on
heedless of the mercies shown, heedless of the
long life given, heedless of the many opportuni¬
ties offered, though he should be spared until the
frosts of an hundred winters have fallen upon
him, yet, at the last day, the mercy of Christ will
be turned to wrath, and, when begging to be re-
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 95
leased from the clutches of the evil one, Christ
will turn away and laugh at his calamity, and
mock when his fear cometh. Instead of running
to his rescue, He will say to the prince of dark¬
ness, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him
away, and cast him into outer darkness; there
shall be peeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt.
xxii:13.)
God demands our belief in His great and sol¬
emn warnings. He calls us to fear. He has re¬
vealed to us the way. His son is the ark, the
door is open, and he urges every one to enter and
be saved upon the terms of the gospel. Upon this
your safety depends. "For there is none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved." (Acts iv:12.) Will you be¬
lieve and enter, or will you, like Methuselah, spend
your life amid opportunities for heaven, and die
without a hope in Christ Jesus the Lord ? Though
the flood was delayed for one hundred and twenty
years, it surely came, and so will your end come;
though now you appear able to withstand the
trials of years unnumbered.
CHAPTER XXI.
The Price of the Ark.
As I have previously said, the ark of Noah was
a boat of wondrous size, and as ship-building
was then in its infancy, it is not to be wondered at
that Noah and his sons were one hundred and
twenty years completing it. To build the ark, ac¬
cording to the plans and specifications given Noah,
required at least five hundred thousand feet of
beams, sills and scantlings for the framework;
one hundred and eleven thousand feet of lumber
for the side; nineteen thousand nine hundred and
sixty-five feet for the ends; four hundred and
four thousand eight hundred feet for the top, bot¬
tom and second and third-story floors, and eighty-
nine thousand feet to divide the first and second
stories into twelve hundred rooms each eighteen
feet from floor to ceiling, and ten feet square,
with a partition ten feet high, to prevent the wild
beasts of the forest from preying upon each other
and thwarting the divine plan for the preservation
of the various species. Thus Noah and his sons,
of necessity, were compelled to procure and dress
(96)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 97
not less than one million, one hundred and twenty-
four thousand seven hundred and sixty-five square
feet of lumber for the building of that wonder¬
ful ark, which was to save representatives of all
the life-breathing animals. The lumber alone re¬
quired for Noah's ark, if purchased to-day at a
minimum price of $20 per thousand, would cost
$22,495,300, besides the labor, nails, bolts and
pitch necessary to make the ark waterproof, and
able to ride the waves of a shoreless sea for one
year. All this expense and time and labor and
thought were given to save representatives of
God's creation.
And so also with the ark of Christ. Each per¬
son in the Godhead wrought in the work of build¬
ing an ark for the saving of man from the com¬
ing conflagration when this old world shall burn
as an oven. "God so loved the world, that he gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." (John iii:16.) Christ died an ignomin¬
ious death upon a shameful cross as a legal trans¬
gressor, that he might satisfy the claims of jus¬
tice and redeem man from the curse of a broken
law. (Gal. ii:16.) And the Holy Ghost, leaving
the kingdom of glory, has been wandering around
the earth ever since the day of Pentecost, seeking
timber for the ark of Christ, by establishing the
98 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
kingdom of God in the hearts of men. He, like
Noah, is ever preaching to you through the voice
of conscience. He stands at the door of your
heart even now, and, however much you try to
break away from His beneficent influence, you
are constantly reminded of the fact that you must
appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
Christ's kingdom, like the ark of Noah, is suffi¬
cient to save representatives of every kindred,
tribe and tongue.
In the twenty-first chapter of Revelations we
are told that heaven was measured with a golden
reed, and found to be twelve thousand furlongs in
length and breadth and heighth. Twelve thou¬
sand furlongs are equal to seven millions, nine
hundred and twenty thousand feet; and since the
length and breadth and heighth of the city are the
same, we find by cubing the length, that heaven
is a four square city containing nine hundred and
forty-eight sextillion, nine hundred and eighty-
eight quintillion cubic feet. Let us reserve one-
half of this vast domain for the throne of God and
the choir of heaven and the hundred and forty
and four thousand white robed elders of the courts
of glory. Then let us reserve one-half of the re¬
maining half for streets and avenues; and the re¬
maining one-fourth part of heaven will be suffi¬
ciently large to be divided into five trillion, seven
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 99
hundred and forty-three billion, seven hundred
and fifty-nine million rooms, each of which would
be nineteen feet square, and sixteen feet from
floor to ceiling. Now let us suppose that the world
always did and always will contain nine hun¬
dred millions of inhabitants. And let us sup¬
pose that the world will stand for a hundred
thousand years to come. This would give an
aggregate of twenty-seven trillion persons.
Now let us suppose that in the universe
there were eleven thousand, two hundred and
thirty other worlds equal to ours in population
and length of duration, and that all the people
from all those worlds through all those years were
righteous and destined to spend eternity with
God: even then, there would be a room nineteen
feet square, and sixteen feet from floor to ceiling
for every one of them, and yet there would be
room for millions more.
He says to you, while reading this book,
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt.
xi:28.) His Holy Spirit, even now, is knock¬
ing at the door of your heart, and asking
you to let Him come in and "teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance, what¬
soever Christ has said unto you." (John, xiv:
100 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
26.) This gives every one an opportunity to come
to Christ and be saved. He says (Isa., lv:7) "Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts: and let him return unto the
Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to
our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Why
not arouse thyself, 0, thou modern Methuselah,
and turn away from the thraldom of sin, and find
rest in the ark Christ Jesus.
Unless from your sins you return and repent,
To hell, like Methuselah, you will be sent.
Oh, turn, sinner, turn, and to Jesus now fly,
And plead for forgiveness. Oh why will you die?
The joys of earth pleasures and hopes are all vain;
And naught, in the end, can they promise but pain,
Like spectres of horror they'll glare in your eye,
Oh, turn, while the Saviour asks, "Why will you die?"
CHAPTER XXII.
Methuselah a Warning to Christians.
There are many people who boast of the long
time they have been a member of the church, and
"Remember the day and hour when God, for
Christ's sake, spoke peace to their soul." They
forget that past blessings will not suffice, and that
the getting into the kingdom of God is a result
of "working out the soul's salvation."
Methuselah was a member of the church of his
day—a righteous family—and with pride could
boast of the fact that he had been a member of
it for centuries; but what profit was it to him if,
as an individual,- he did nothing to help it in the
work of saving the world from the curse of sin?
He lived in it, and that was all; for nowhere do
we find his name associated with any movement
of any kind. Nine hundred and sixty-nine years
he was a member of the church concerning which
the poets sing, and yet not one even so much as
mentions his name. All the sacred writers of the
Bible shunned his name as though it were a loath¬
some disease. No illustration, no comparison, no
(ioi)
102 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
reference is made to him or his longevity by any
of the writers from Genesis to Revelation. The
Son of God was mindful of every sparrow that
falleth to the ground (Matt. x:29-30), and notes
the number of hairs in every human head. He
used the grass of the field, the flower of the gar¬
den, the various animals, insects, reptiles, moun¬
tains, stones and every phenomenon of nature to
make plain his way of salvation; and yet he is not
recorded as even so much as calling Methuselah's
name. He was dead from the lips of all the world,
and dead to all glory yet to come. And so it will
be with many of those whose names have been
on the church record for years. They are too
busy to attend any of the services; too intelligent
to endure the ignorance of the worshipers of
Christ; too morally pure to become contaminated
by associating with sinners saved by grace; too
cultured to drink the sacrament of the Lord un¬
less some physician can vouch for the perfect
health of all those who have tasted before the cup
is offered them; too busily engaged with worldly
pleasures to bow in prayer; too fearful of the
reproach of society to seek and to save those who
are lost; too full of self for the kingdom of Christ.
When Napoleon I. invaded Egypt he encoun¬
tered an army that defied all his military genius.
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 103
They were entrenched within a mud fort. If the
fort had been built of rock, he could have blown
it up with powder, or shivered it with his artil¬
lery; if it had been made of wood, he could have
fired it with rockets; but it was nothing but a
huge mass of mud into which his iron missiles
stuck fast, and only increased its force of resist¬
ance. So it is with many of those who belong
to the church. They are fortified within a mud
fort of church membership, and no missiles from
the preacher's gospel gun can reach them, because
they belong to the church. They take no part in
the services, attend worship only when the occa¬
sion is a rare one; they seek to make no heart
glad but their own; they soothe no brow; no one
in distress do they comfort. Their whole life
is spent for their own happiness, and, having done
nothing, there is no need to mention their names
a^-er the funeral service is over.
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Triumph of Christ.
The Christian religion is full of glory to God
and good will to men. Unlike the religion of the
heathen, which deifies wood and stone; or the
religion of those who appease the anger of their
deity by acts of violence, the Christian religion is
heavenly in its origin; heavenly in its actions}
heavenly in its tendency. Like the water which
is raised from the ocean by the magnetic water¬
spout, and borne on the wings of the wind to dis¬
tant parts of the earth, escapes from the cus¬
tody of the clouds, descends upon the earth in the
form of rain, blesses the world with its cool, re¬
freshing powers, but refuses all offers to stay, and
will not stop to slumber until, through channels,
it has reached its native ocean; so the Christian
religion, emanating from Christ, rests not in the
bosom of those who possess it, until with them,
it is safe in the ocean of Christ's eternal love.
Thus the man or woman who has the Christian
religion finds himself drawn closer and closer to
(104)
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 105
Christ, until, overshadowed by the transcendant
beauty of his personality, he shouts with the Apos¬
tle, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, because He
lives in my soul the hope of eternal glory."
The Christian religion makes its possessor a
blessing to every sphere in which he moves, for
its whole character is summed up in the love of
God and the love of man. That is all; and the
sorrowing and the suffering that the Christians
bear cause rejoicing in the heart, because of the
great love that possesses them and pales into in¬
significance any affliction borne for the object of
their affections. It was this that caused Noah
and his sons to work away at the ark amid the
jeering criticisms and unbelief of a doomed world.
It caused Daniel to count death in a den of lions
nothing, and the three Hebrew children to scorn
the heat of a blazing furnace. It has inspired
thousands of its possessors to walk cheerfully into
the throes of a violent death, and caused Christ,
the Christ of every man or woman who will be
saved, to allow himself to be crucified at the hand
of a merciless mob, that man, whom He loved,
might be saved.
It has translated the Bible into every known
tongue, and pressed civilization into the lands be¬
yond. It has changed the babbling songs of the
106 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
heathen into notes of praise, and transformed the
wigwams into houses and palaces, around the sa¬
cred altar of which truth loves to dwell. Great
buildings for scientific research it has built over
the decayed ruins of superstition and falsehood;
and the church—the home of wisdom—it has
placed on every hillside, valley and plain.
Mark Anthony drove two lions hitched to his
chariot through the streets of Rome; Jesus spoke,
and the winds and the waves were guided by the
power of his word. Alexander stood on the shore
of the Mediterranean Sea when he had drenched
the world in blood, and wept because there were
no more worlds for him to conquer; the Son of
God wept over a lost and ruined world, and shed
his own precious blood that we might have a right
to the tree of life. Achilles chased Hector around
the walls of Troy three times, and slew him with
his sword; the Son of God chased Death three
days through the voiceless silence of the dream¬
less tomb, and, forcing him into open combat,
foiled his power, wrenched from him his sting,
bound him to his chariot wheel, and liberated us
from the throes of that terrible enemy. Xerxes
led a million well dressed soldiers to battle; Je¬
sus Christ led a hundred and forty and four thou¬
sand elders, and an innumerable white-robed
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 107
throng from the domain of sin into the kingdom
of God. When Titus overthrew Jerusalem and
laid waste the land of Cainan, the Romans hon¬
ored his achievements by the erection of a tri¬
umphal arch to commemorate his conquest. The
obelisks of Egypt remind us of the reign of the
ancient Pharaohs, and a sarcophagus of Egyptian
marble was used by the French to emphasize their
appreciation of the achievements of their illus¬
trious Napoleon. In every city and town, monu¬
ments and statues are erected in honor of the il¬
lustrious sons of earth, whose conquest and vic¬
tory were in their lifetime, nor lasted longer than
a few years after their decease. The conquest
of Jesus, on the other hand, was endless in dura¬
tion, and his victory is from everlasting to ever¬
lasting. His triumph still goes on, and is fast
approaching that fullness when "the kingdoms of
this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord
and of His Christ."
When cities shall have passed away, and. we
are able only in imagination to walk their crowded
streets and admire their grandeur; when civiliza¬
tion, like a weary traveler along a dusty road,
shall confess it can go no further, and lie down
to rest neath the shade of the millenial dawn;
when the kingdoms of this world shall have been
108 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
decomposed into the smelting caldron of omnipo¬
tence, and moulded into one great kingdom for
Christ; yea, when human achievements shall have
crumbled neath the iron-clad hoofs of Time, and
Time itself, with all its possibilities, shall have
been sunk in the shoreless sea of eternity; even
then, as we sit by the crystal stream, along the
banks of which millions of the redeemed host are
chanting their song, if we listen we can hear in
ever-rippling wave and rustling leaf praises to
Him whose triumph has just begun.
As in the days of Methuselah, the religious sons
of God have married the worldly daughters of Am¬
bition and Public Opinion; and of them have begat
children called Honor, Fame, Wealth, Titles, De¬
grees, Worldliness and a host of others, who stalk
through the land with giant strength, and gain¬
say the faithful few, who, like Noah, are toiling
daily to build up the Church of Christ. Are you
like the sons of Noah helping to raise the weighty
timber of the Word of God? Are you cutting tim->
ber for the ark from the forests of sin? Are you
helping in the completion of the ark for the sal¬
vation of man? The Church of Christ, like the
ark of Noah, is built without rudder, prow or sail;
and, when launched, will take no course, trade at
no shore, make no trip, but just float over the
waters of eternity forever and forever.
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 109
You say you belong to the church, but are you
sure that you are one of those who shall have pass¬
age in the ark? You laudate the nobility of earth,
and keep festive days to commemorate the birth
and death of those who marshaled hosts on the
battle-fields, and caused thousands of precious
lives to be lost, that they might achieve a vic¬
tory; where is your monument erected in honor
of the leader of God's host? He never lost a bat¬
tle; conquered all the combined forces and allies
of death, hell and the grave.
You shout the praises of the political parasites
of your party, whose only aim is to feast upon the
appetizing morsel of an office fee. Have you can¬
vassed your district for Him who liberated the
great republic of this world from its debt, paying
the price thereof with His own blood?
You say you have been converted, and that
Christ is sovereign. Where is the emblem of
His power? What statue have you raised in honor
of His noble deeds. How many have you, person¬
ally, influenced to serve him? That a flood is
coming, you know, both from your guidebook and
from scientific research. How many have you
tried to influence to enter the ark Christ Jesus
and be saved? Like Methuselah, you have a great
deal of time, and opportunities without number.
110 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
What are you doing with them? You say you are
on your way to glory, while those with whom
you walk, confess and their works prove, that
they have no hope in Christ. "How can two walk
together except they be agreed?" (Amos iii:3.)
Can you walk and talk and live the life of a sin¬
ner, and yet be a joint heir with the spotless
Lamb of God who knows no sin, and in whose
mouth no guile is found? It has been well said,
"Show me your associates, and I will tell you who
you are; tell me the company you keep, and I
will write your history."
If then, you have Christ, put on the hope of
eternal glory; if you have been washed in His
precious blood, and made a joint heir with Him
in His Father's kingdom; if you, like Noah, would
enter the ark of his glory when the world shall
be on fire, then you must remember that it is your
abounding duty to preach Christ and Him cruci¬
fied, to every one with whom you come in contact.
For, while we do not know the day nor the hour
of the conflagration, yet we know it will surely
come; and, though we cannot prove it as a logical
syllogism, our faith gathered from the truthful¬
ness of all else that Christ has said makes us
declare this as a fact also.
The book of all human possibilities will then
The Blighted Life of r Methuselah. Ill
be closed; the Son of God will then resign His
office as mediator between God and man. Mercy
will intercede for man no longer. The heat of the
sun will have been exhausted; and, being able no
longer to influence the solar system with its light
and heat, the forces of gravity will be lost; equi¬
librium of the entire universe will be destroyed,
and excitement will reign supreme. Amid the
mighty tumult of convulsed worlds, a company
of angels will fly through the heavens. Four of
them will light on the four corners of the earth.
(Rev. vii:l) and hold the winds that they may
not blow. Another, lighting on the earth, will
offer a sacrifice of incense, the smoke from which,
mingling with the prayers of the saints, will reach
up to heaven as a sweet-smelling odor for the
King of Kings. Another shall sound his trumpet,
and cause hail of fire, mingled with blood, to fall
upon the earth. Another shall sound his trumpet,
and every volcano shall belch forth a stream of
fire and tumble into the sea. Another shall sound
his trumpet, and a blazing meteor shall strike the
earth, and cause the waters to taste like worm¬
wood. Another-shall sound his trumpet, and a
third part of the sun, moon and stars shall be
destroyed. Another shall sound his trumpet, and
a star shall fall against the earth with such tre-
112 The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
mentions force a flame shall burst upon the earth
from the bottomless pit, teeming with locusts and
scorpions of wondrous size. Another shall sound
his trumpet, and the four imprisoned angels shall
be loosed to wreak vengeance upon the already
distressed inhabitants of terra firmd. Another
will be flying through the heavens crying, "Woe!
Woe!" to the lost sinners; while a strong angel,
clothed with the cloud, and a rainbow crown, will
place his right foot upon the ocean and the left
foot upon the land, and swear by Him that liveth
that lame shall be no more. Then, away above the
din and wails of the lost host, will be heard
the triumphant strains from countless millions
of the redeemed, who, rising from their graves,
shall go in with the unexpired Christians who
have not tasted death, and, mingling the sweet
symphonies of their thousand-stringed harps with
the melody of their voices, they will rend the
heavenly atmosphere with jubilation and praises
of a new-made song of redemption's story; and
all those who have done nothing to bring them¬
selves into favor with Christ will be left to await
for the sounding of the last trumpet, and their,
names shall be called "Methuselah." which is to
say, "They died and were sent out from the pres¬
ence of God and of the Lamb."
The Blighted Life of Methuselah. 113
Conclusion.
I have written what, in my mind, seems to be
the meaning of the word "Methuselah," and the
lesson it teaches both to saints and sinners. I
have not allowed myself to use other than the
Word of God as a proof of the position which I
have taken, and I hope you have read this book
with your Bible in hand. I have tried to write
in such a way that all who read these pages will
be led to search the Scriptures. If I have done
nothing more than this, I am abundantly paid
for my pains, for I believe every traveler to the
bar of God, while on earth, must be an active
Christian, or a Methuselah to die and be sent out
from the presence of God into the outer darkness
prepared for the devil and his angels. And, al¬
though to be a member of a righteous family is
an advantage, yet it will not profit us anything
unless there is intrinsic merit in our own works.
The children of men, like an army of soldiers,
Who, leaving their homes, have gone forth to the fray,
Are l'ushing along on the field of life's battle,
Not knowiag when death all their earth hopes shall slay.
'Twas Adam who brought death, and millions have fought
death
"With science and art, whom as friends they did call;
But all of earth's treasures from death can't relieve them,
For Death is a monster, and he conquers all.
But he who on Jesus' breast is reposing,
And faithfully trying to keep God's command,
Shall triumph, though death in this life battle slay him,
And gain as a victor's palm heaven's fair land.
114
The Blighted Life of Methuselah.
I jet tis then, ray brother, like Enoch and Noah,
Live only for Jesus while earth's way we trod;
That all who may see us, and all who may hear us,
Will know by our life's work, we're walking with God.
Then, shouting and singing, we'll fight in life's battle,
And scorn the proud boasting of death and the grave;
We'll rush to life's battle, and when death shall strike us,
We'll shout honie to Jesus, who's mighty to save.