The Forty Days’ Rain

I am going to tell you about the time when it rained for forty days and forty nights. It was hundreds of years after Adam and Eve had left the garden, and all the people living on earth had grown very bad. They never said their prayers, they never thought about their souls or about God, and they hadn’t a bit of love for Him in their hearts.

But there was one good man, and his name was Noe. One day God spoke to him and told him that the men and women and children were so bad that He was going to send a great flood to drown them all, but that he and his three sons and their three wives would be saved.

He then told Noe to build an enormous boat, or ark, and showed him just how long, and how wide, and how high to make it. It was to be three stories high.

What was the use of such a big boat? You see, God did not want all the animals to be lost, and so He told Noe that he must take with him two of every kind, and that he must also carry enough food for them and for his own family.

It took Noe a great many years to build the ark, and the people stood around and laughed at him. But he told them that God was going to punish them for their sins, and that they had better be sorry for them, and try to be good before it was too late. They only made fun of what he said, and kept on sinning as much as they pleased.

At last when everything was ready and two of every kind of animal had gone into the ark, Noe and his family went in and closed the door, and God fastened it on the outside.

At once the sky grew black, the rain poured down in torrents, and the rivers rose up over their banks and flooded all the land. The people climbed up into the trees and ran to the tops of the hills. Some of them shouted to Noe and begged him to take them into the ark.

Lions and tigers jumped to the highest rocks they could reach, and snarled and bit at the rising waves. Many little birds stayed in their nests, for they would not fly away and leave their eggs.

The waters rose day by day, until they washed over the tops of the highest mountains, and every man and beast was drowned, but the ark floated safely over all.

After forty days the rain stopped, and a strong wind blew, which helped to dry up the sea. Each day the water sank a little lower, but still Noe could not see a bit of land. One day he opened the window and let out a raven. It never came back. It stayed to feast on the floating bodies of the dead.

He next let out a little dove. It flew away, but as it could find no spot on which to rest, it came back. A second time he let out the dove, and in the evening it flew into the ark, carrying in its mouth a little olive sprig. They then knew that somewhere the trees were appearing above the water.

The third time Noe let out the dove it did not return. Soon after the ark struck the top of a mountain, and when the earth had sufficiently dried, Noe and his family, and all the animals, came out. It was good to be on dry land once more, and the first thing that Noe and his sons did was to thank God for having taken such care of them.

How different everything looked. It was so quiet and still and lonesome. Yet it was nice too, to be rid of all the bad people.

Then God told Noe that never again would He destroy the earth by water. As a mark of His promise He placed the rainbow in the sky, and told him that whenever he saw a rainbow to remember His words to him.

Every night, when we kneel down to say our prayers, let us think over the day to see what wrong things we have done. Then let us tell God how sorry we are to have hurt Him so often, and that we will try very hard not to commit any sins tomorrow, and then let us beg Him to forgive us.

You see, if the people had only been sorry for their sins, and had asked God to forgive them when Noe told them to do so, God might never have sent the flood and, although God promised never to send another flood, we must beg Him to forgive us, for burning in hell is far worse than being drowned.