Classic Poem

When virtue, peace and righteousness
From Adam's race had fled,
When folly, vice and wickedness
Had fill'd the world with dread;
The hour of vengeance had arrived,
Jehovah's anger rose,
And justice call'd the mighty flood
To overwhelm his foes.

Then Noah form'd the sacred ark,
Ordain'd by Heaven to save
A remnant of all living forms
From nature's watery grave.
The bird of air, the beast of earth,
Its spacious rooms contain;
While all the sons of vice and guilt
In thoughtless mirth remain.

Then rushed the torrents of the sky,
And o'er the mountains spread;
The waters of the raging deep
Then rose above its bed;
And shrieks of wo—and sights of fear
Were mingled with the storm,
While o'er them rush'd the foaming wave
In death's terrific form.

The ark upon the water rides,
And every tempest braves,
Nor heeds the driving of the winds,
Or rolling of the waves,
Till on the mountain's top it stands,
Secure from ev'ry harm,
Protected in its devious path
By God's almighty arm.

His sacred word Jehovah gives
To drown the earth no more,
While ages roll or time remains,
Till time itself be o'er.
Upon the cloud he sets his bow,
A token of his grace,
And still his boundless favors flow
To all the human race.