This offering of the patriarch, as it proceeded from a faithful heart, was acceptable to GOD, who is therefore said to have "smelled a sweet savour," and to declare that "he would no more curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart be evil from his youth," Genesis viii. 21, 22; neither again would he smite any more every thing living as he had done, but that while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.".

The same day the Divine Majesty appeared unto Noah and his sons, assuring them of his grace and protection, renewing the blessing bestowed upon Adam, with the grant of animal food for their subsistence, with this exception, that they should not eat the flesh with the blood thereof. The Almighty also expressly prohibited murder, as being contrary to the commandment which he had given to man, to increase and multiply. And though he had interposed his authority in the case of Čain, prohibiting any one from killing him, he now gave power to men to inquire for blood, and to avenge that crime by putting the murderer to death.

GOD not only gave laws to the first inhabitants of the new world, but he entered into a covenant with them, promising no more to destroy the earth by a flood.

This was confirmed by a very remarkable sign, which, according to the sacred history, was evidently a new object to Noah; " And God said this is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh; and the water shall no more become

a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” Genesis ix. 12—16.

Some writers maintain, that there must have been a rainbow before the flood, because clouds and rain were as necessary then as they are now, for the purposes of vegetation; but the tenour of the declaration to Noah implies that it was a phenomenon, which had not been seen by him in the antediluvian world.

The ark rested on one of the mountains of Ararat, which is a chain that separates Armenia from Mesopotamia and Syria. In the plains beneath did Noah settle with his family, and from this stock issued the various tribes and nations which now people the earth; and among the greater part of whom traditionary memorials of the deluge still remain.

Nature has also preserved the strongest evidences of this revolution, in the irregularities of the surface of the globe, and the vast quantities of fossile substances which are found bedded in the strata of the earth. Marine shells and the skeletons of fishes have been discovered on the tops of high mountains, and in mines far remote from any sea. The spoils of various land animals have likewise been found in countries where no such creatures living are known to have existed, and ir. climates foreign to their nature.

Noah, when he left the ark, "began to be a husbandman," or, as the original Hebrew should have been more correctly rendered, he continued to exercise that employment which was his occupation before the flood." He also "planted a vineyard, from the fruit of which he extracted wine; but being, as it should seem, unacquainted with the intoxicating quality of the liquor, it overpowered his faculties, and he "lay asleep uncovered in his tent."

In this situation the patriarch was discovered by his son Ham, who, instead of concealing his father's shame, went forth and told his brethren without, ex

posing the weakness of his parent to public derision, and making a mock of the infirmity which it was his duty to have concealed.

Very different was the conduct of Shem and Japheth, the other sons of Noah; they were shocked at that which excited the indecent mirth of their brother, and, taking a garment, "they laid it upon their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father."

What a contrast is here exhibited in the spirit and behaviour of these brethren! No powers of description could equal the forcible manner in which the virtues of affection, obedience, and modesty, are opposed to ingratitude, indecency, and irreligion, in this interesting and instructive narrative.

We see here a son, arrived at the age of maturity, and the father of a family himself, coming out from the secret part of his parent's tent, and laying open to general ridicule the frailty which he had accidentally witnessed. None but " fools will make a mock of sin;" but to turn it into a matter of exultation, to triumph over the failing of others, shows a malevolent disposition suited only to the nature of that being who rejoiceth in evil. In the case of Ham this wickedness was aggravated beyond the ordinary degree of impudent indecency and unnatural treachery; for the object of his derision was an aged and an affectionate parent, whom it was his duty to assist in danger, and to protect from injury and insult.

When the patriarch was made acquainted with the different behaviour of his sons, he pronounced, in the spirit of prophecy, a curse upon Canaan, the son of Ham, and a blessing upon Shem and Japheth. "And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. GOD shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shal be his servant." Genesis ix. 25, 26, 27.

NOAH, having attained the age of nine hundred

and fifty years, gave up the ghost; not far, probably, from the place where the ark settled after the flood.

Having fulfilled his part, the father of the new world must give place to others, and enter into that rest which remaineth for the people of God. He was saved from the flood by an ark of Divine construction; but he experienced a greater salvation, through faith in the atonement of a mediator. That the ark was a type of that atonement, we have the authority of St. Peter, who says, "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards GoD) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

Awful as the contemplation is of the destruction of the old world, there is another revolution in prospect far more terrible. There will not, indeed, be an overwhelming flood of water upon the earth, but a stream of devouring fire, which shall burn up all the works of nature and of art. A sudden destruction will come upon the workers of iniquity, and as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be then : They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and knew not until the flood came and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

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Infidelity and immorality will prevail to an extraordinary height in the latter days; and though the prophetic signs will be clear and striking to religious minds, yet upon the generality of men they will make no impression. "Blessed are those servants, therefore, whom, when the Lord cometh, he shall find watching." When destruction shall come as a whirlwind, and vengeance is poured down from on high, they shall be safe, being sheltered in the ark of the Divine mercy. Then will come the last judgment, when all the mysterious ways of Providence shall be cleared up and vindicated, to the confusion of the impenitent and the glory and happiness of the

humble believer in the word and righteousness of God.

That solemn scene ended, and old things being done away, there will be "new heavens, and a new earth," in which righteousness only shall dwell.

Neither natural nor moral evil shall disfigure that blessed region, for "all its inhabitants shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest." "And it

shall come to pass," saith the Lord, "that before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; and the lion shall eat straw like the. bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt, nor destroy in all my holy mountain,' saith the Lord.

What a glorious prospect is here expanded to the view of the Christian! Does he look back with regret upon that paradise which was lost, through the weakness of our first parents? He turns with rapture to contemplate a paradise before him, infinitely more glorious, in which is the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of GOD and of the Lamb.

Does the Christian look with astonishment upon a world destroyed by water, and contemplate with greatful admiration the ark preserving Noah and his family, with the various creatures necessary to stock the new world? He admires the goodness of God, blending itself with his judgments; and on viewing in prospect the last dreadful destruction of the earth, he rejoices that there is a salvation appointed for all who flee from the wrath to come, and an inheritance reserved for them, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

The covenant made with Noah is typical of that made with Christ for the preservation of his church: "For this is as the waters of Noah unto me," saith the Lord; "for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor reD