The Rising Waters of the Deluge
Illustration★★★‘The waters rise till rivers swell into lakes, and lakes become seas, and the sea stretches out her arms along fertile plains to seize their flying population. Still the waters rise; and now mingled with beasts that terror has tamed, men climb to the mountain tops, with the flood roaring at their heels. Still the waters rise; and now each summit stands above them like a separate and sea-girt isle. Still the waters rise; and, crowding closer on the narrow spaces of lessening vill-tops, men and beasts fight for standing-room, Still the thunders roar, and the lightnings flash, and the rains descend, and the waters rise till the last survivor of the shrieking crowd is washed off, and the head of the highest Alp goes down beneath the wave.
Now the waters rise no more. God’s servant has done his work. He rests from his labors, and, all land drowned, all life destroyed, an awful silence reigning and a shoreless ocean rolling, Death for once has nothing to do but ride in triumph on the top of some giant billow, which, meeting no coast, no continent, no Alp, no Andes against which to break, sweeps round and round the world.
Dr, Guthrre.
The point
A vivid, escalating description of Noah's flood overwhelming the earth — rivers to seas to mountaintops — until humanity and animals alike are destroyed and an awful silence covers a shoreless ocean.