To Do Wickedness, August 21

It is as sport to a fool to do mischief [Revised Version, “wickedness”]: but a man of understanding hath wisdom. Proverbs 10:23. In the Old Testament the word “fool” is used to designate an apostate, or one who has abandoned himself to wickedness.—Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 57. In the days of Noah ... there were many giants, men of great stature and strength, renowned for wisdom, skillful in devising the most cunning and wonderful works; but their guilt in giving loose rein to iniquity was in proportion to their skill and mental ability. God bestowed upon these antediluvians many and rich gifts; but they used His bounties to glorify themselves, and turned them into a curse by fixing their affections upon the gifts instead of the Giver. They employed the gold and silver, the precious stones and the choice wood, in the construction of habitations for themselves, and endeavored to excel one another in beautifying their dwellings with the most skillful workmanship. They sought only to gratify the desires of their own proud hearts, and reveled in scenes of pleasure and wickedness.... “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.... The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” God had given men His commandments as a rule of life, but His law was transgressed, and every conceivable sin was the result. The wickedness of men was open and daring, justice was trampled in the dust, and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven.—Patriarchs and Prophets, 90, 91. The sins that called for vengeance upon the antediluvian world, exist today. The fear of God is banished from the hearts of men, and His law is treated with indifference and contempt. The intense worldliness of that generation is equaled by that of the generation now living.—Patriarchs and Prophets, 101.