years are threescore years and ten, and if very strong, fourscore years.'

But in the fourth generation after Enos, the religious efforts and aspirations began to bear fruit. Jared's son, Enoch, was an example of excellence and piety. Even now, after so many thousands of years, he is to us the type of the good and perfect man, who walked with God and in whom God peculiarly delighted. As a reward, he was spared the infirmities of old age and the sufferings of death; for Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God had taken him away.' But it is remarkable that he passed from this life into a happier and brighter existence at a comparatively early age; he died younger than any of the primitive patriarchs-to teach the lesson that a long life is not in itself a blessing, nor an early death in itself a misfortune; but that a long life may be a curse if stained by crime, as was proved by the example of Cain, and that an early death may be the highest favour of God, as was shown by the example of the pious Enoch.

4. THE DELUGE.

[GENES. VI. IX.]

The tenth descendant from Adam was Noah. At his birth, his father Lamech exclaimed prophetically: "This one will relieve us from our work and the toil of our hands, from the ground which the Lord has cursed.' The somewhat obscure meaning of these words may be thus explained. It was during the lifetime of Noah that man was first permitted by God to kill for his food the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and to eat the fishes of the sea; he was no longer to subsist merely upon the precarious produce of the land; his hard struggle with the reluctant soil was lightened; and God's first curse,

though not repealed, was mitigated. This involved indeed a sad decline of man from that state of innocence, when all the brute creation lived in happy security and freedom; therefore, remembering the harmony and beauty for which the world was designed, we should try to lessen the sufferings which we inflict upon animals either for our subsistence or our self-preservation.

When Noah was 500 years old, he had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. He was a good and pious man, fearing and loving God, and was unlike all the other inhabitants of the earth, who had gradually become more and more depraved. The disobedience of our first ancestors was aggravated in the succeeding generations. They sinned so constantly and so grievously that at last the Lord repented having created man, who had been destined to form the crown and glory of the world. Of so fearful a nature was the prevailing corruption, that God determined to extirpate all life by a universal Deluge, not only the men but the beasts also, that no trace might remain of that wicked age. Iniquity should not stain God's earth, which was to be regenerated by a miraculous act of Divine interference. For Noah and his family, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord, were to be saved from the general destruction, as the germs of the future population.

It is with feelings of awe that we contemplate God's fearful punishment. We can hardly realise the Deluge, the death of every living creature, the immersion of the whole earth, the dwelling-place of man, in the rising waters sweeping over hill and vale, forest and pastureland, and engulfing all rivers, lakes, and seas. God revealed His resolution to His servant Noah: 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.' But as Noah was not to perish with the

wicked, God commanded him to build a huge ark of gopher or cypress wood, three stories high, and large enough to receive not only Noah and his sons with their wives, but also two animals of every unclean species, male and female, and seven pairs of every clean species, whether beast or bird or reptile, with the necessary food for the sustenance of all. Thus specimens of the whole brute creation were to be saved with Noah; for God would not altogether destroy the world which He had blessed and pronounced good in all its parts.

Noah built the spacious ark as God had directed; he entered it with his family; and the animals left their green pastures, and their forest homes, and their woody thickets, and came around Noah, who took them into the ark in accordance with God's commands. Noah had attained the great age of six hundred years, when he was to witness a stupendous change, and to bid farewell to the world he had known before. The Deluge commenced on the seventeenth day of the second month. Torrents of rain descended in floods from the heavens, and the fountains of the deep gushed forth. The seas, the rivers, and the lakes, began to swell and overflow, carrying away with them stately trees, and cities, and all works of human industry. Then indeed must man's sinful heart have been smitten with bitter pangs of regret and shame. Did it at last humble itself before the merciful Creator, who had been so long-suffering, so slow to anger? Can we not see even now, after the lapse of thousands of years, those terrible scenes of despair and agony, when men struggled desperately, but in vain, to save their doomed lives by toiling up the towering rocks and rugged mountain peaks? Can we not hear that piercing wail from earth to heaven, as the floods dashed, and foamed, and roared-as the waters, stern workers of their Master's bidding, rose higher than the towering rocks,

higher than the rugged mountain peaks? At last the relentless floods covered all living things, and buried all in one appalling grave. No bird, no beast, no human being, could withstand God's judgment. But amid this scene of ruin and devastation, the ark, guided by the Lord, floated on steadily and securely. During forty days it was borne up by the increasing waters which prevailed upon the earth, overtopping, by fifteen cubits, the loftiest mountain crests.

...

Then the waters began to decrease, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, or after exactly five months, the ark rested over the peaks of Mount Ararat. The country of Ararat, bearing the same name as the mountain, is a part of the beautiful province of Armenia, one of the most fertile countries of the north. • The region around the mountain makes the impression of a dreary and devastated wilderness; it is haunted by bears, small tigers, lynxes, and lions, and is infested by large and extremely venomous serpents, which frequently impede the progress of caravans. . . . At a little distance, the summit does not appear particularly imposing; for numerous lower mountains obstruct the view; and the plateau itself, on which it rises, is of considerable height. But viewed from the vast plain which skirts its base, it appears as if the highest mountains in the world had been piled upon each other to form this one sublime immensity of earth and rock and snow. Here the aspect is overwhelming; it awes the mind with the stupendous power of the Creator; the peaks seem to reach into the very heart of heaven, and the sides disappear dimly in the endless horizon.'1

The ark, hovering over this mountain range, gradually descended as the water subsided; and on the first day of

Kalisch, Commentary on Genesis, p. 190.

the tenth month it rested on its highest peak, which, like other elevated points, began then to emerge from the floods. Here Noah, still imprisoned, looked forth upon the wide-spreading though decreasing waters; and after waiting forty days longer, anxious to know the condition of the earth, he sent forth a raven from the ark. This bird, glad to regain and to enjoy its liberty, and thriving in the humid atmosphere, returned to the ark only to be fed, flitting to and fro, until the waters had quite abated. Yet Noah, anxiously hoping that the floods were disappearing from the land, sent out another bird, and this time a dove. But the dove, more delicate than the raven, found no resting-place, and returned to the ark. After seven days it was again sent forth, and now it returned at eventime with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the earth was almost free from the flood, although still unfit for habitation. After another seven days, the winged messenger was sent out again, and returned no more. Like Noah in the days of old, we still regard the dove and the olive leaf as symbolical of peace and joy. And a feeling of gladness must in truth have filled Noah's heart, for the floods had disappeared from the earth; the Deluge had fulfilled its awful mission. In the beginning of the first month, the surface of the earth was cleared from the waters; and on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, or exactly 365 days after the commencement of the flood, the ground was perfectly dry. At the command of the Lord, Noah left the ark, and with him his wife, his sons and their wives, and every living creature that he had saved from destruction. Eager to testify his thankfulness to God for having preserved him from the universal judgment, he built an altar, and presented a stupendous burnt-sacrifice of every clean beast and of every clean fowl. God graciously accepted this offering, and said: 'I will not again curse the