should be preserved in an ark, which Noah was to build. One hundred and twenty years was the ark in course of erection. Throughout that time, Noah bestirred himself to quicken the consciences of the people and to induce them to repent. He was a "preacher of righteousness," but the vile and blasphemous would not listen. Noah in vain appealed to them-" the day will come, when the windows of heaven shall be opened and the floods of the great deep broken up-then there will be no room left for repentance, and He shall laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh." But the people would not listen; they derided the old man; the wise men possibly showed that a flood was altogether unscientific, and could not by any means occur; possibly a good deal of pungent sarcasm was elicited by the persistency of the venerable sheik; possibly we are great losers by the non-record of antediluvian humour and the profound thoughts of those men of science who lived before the deluge. All that we distinctly know is this-the flood came and destroyed them all.

We can form but a very weak conception of the horrors of the flood. We may think of the awful cataracts of water pouring from the clouds; of the uprising of the mighty deep, rushing in a wall of water-on the land; we may picture to ourselves the terror of the people, awakened but too late to a sense of their danger; we may see crowds ascending the lofty mountains as the deluge sweeps the valleys; we may see the wild beasts tamed with terror, the lion standing harmless by the gazelle, the timid hare crouching beneath the shadow of the tiger; we may see the eagles fluttering over the deep abyss, uttering shrill cries as their eyries are invaded by the water; we may see the little children clinging to the mothers' skirts, dumb with fright at the dreadful spectacle before them; we may see the wife's eyes turned in dismay upon her husband, while he in blank horror surveys the fearful scene of devastation, and with his little family around him dies a thousand deaths in dying one, but we can form no adequate conception of the dreadful scene.

There are traditions of this terrible catastrophe among all

nations; there are plain evidences of its wide extent in our geological strata; it has left its indelible mark on the world.

In the ark, all living things were represented, either by single pairs or by seven pairs; and when the flood subsided and the ark rested on "the mount of descent," the creatures came forth, and Noah, erecting an altar, offered sacrifice and worshipped. The mountain on which the ark rested is supposed to be Ararat, in Armenia. This mountain has two peaks, about seven miles apart, and it has been conjectured that between these peaks the ark rested. The summits of the mountain are usually covered with snow, and are inaccessible. Strange legends of the wood of the ark induced many pilgrims in ages gone by to attempt its discovery, but there is no satisfactory evidence of any part of this singular structure ever having been found.

There is something sublime and solemnizing in the contemplation of the redeemed family-the only survivors of the whole world's population-coming into a new world as it were, a new world which is but the sepulchre of the old, and prostrating themselves before that awful Being of whose judgments they have been the witness, and beseeching Him to curse the earth no more. There is a divine promise given that never again shall the earth be submerged, and lo! as a ratification of the promise is the bow in the cloud. When on the stormy sky the rainbow exhibits its rich colouring we have the seal and the sign of God's covenant, that while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter shall not cease.

But the fear of another destruction oppressed the minds of succeeding generations. The story of the deluge told by father to son wrought a feeling of vindictiveness in many who thought it a hard thing that they should be called on to reverence a Deity at whose dread will a world was drowned. Not a cloud appeared in the sky but they were filled with terror; not a heavy shower poured down but they looked for utter destruction; if the tide rose higher than common, there was dismay, and they made light of the divine promise and felt no encouragement in the bow in the cloud. Nimrod, the grandson of Ham the son of Noah, was very bold in his impiety-impious as the wicked Cla