grows in much lower and warmer climes, and, therefore, the evidence of the olive branch was, that the water must have been within a few feet or yards of the ground. And you will notice, too, the interesting fact, that they waited always seven days. This is an indirect indication of the observance of the Sabbath, still. It was always upon the Sabbath that he sent forth the experimental voyager upon its wing, to ascertain whether the waters had subsided. How ancient is the Sabbath! It is not a Jewish ordinance, it is an institution for all humanity; it is the resting day of the weary, the refreshment day of the spiritually thirsty and hungry a blessing to all; the extinction of which would be an irreparable calamity, not to Christians only, for they could find a Sabbath in their hearts, because the God of the Sabbath is there; but it would be an irreparable calamity to all the rest of mankind, who would find seven days' work exacted for six days' wages, or no more than they receive now for their labor of six days. all We read that the waters completely dried up, and God told Noah, "Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth," which language indicates the universality of the deluge. "And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark." Then Noah built an altar, and the Lord was pleased with his offering, and said, "I will not again curse the ground any more." It ought to be, "I will not add to curse the ground," which is the strict rendering of the Hebrew, and means, I will not inflict an additional curse upon it. And, therefore, we have the earth, and the air, and water of the globe exactly the same now as they were immediately after the deluge. And, then, the word "for," which occurs immediately afterwards, and seems illative in our translation, ought to be "though." "And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; "—that is the use of language appropriate to man, used in reference to Deity; "and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; though the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." He saw that it was so before the flood; he saw that the heart was not changed by the flood. And this is "the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us." The flood found man's heart wicked when it came, and left it so when it departed; and so it is with that heart which is brought to the font. Baptism with water does not change the heart: the true baptism is that baptism of the Holy Spirit which gives the answer of a good conscience towards God. "Neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done; " that is, with a flood of water. "While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." These last ordinances of summer and winter, and seedtime and harvest, still remain. The decree, that fixed them four thousand years ago, still lasts; and in their stated recurrence the Christian sees that God's word is the real law of nature, and that what philosophers too often quote as the characteristics of matter, which must continue to the end as they were in the beginning, are the simple decrees of God, which He may repeal or alter at any moment. Nature hangs on the will of God. The long chain of causes and consequences which we see, is fixed to a staple which is fastened to the throne of God. Let us never so far forget these truths as to place creation in the room of the Creator, or creation's laws in the stead of the word of God. Let us also feel truly thankful, while deeply humbled, that, notwithstanding man's depravity and unthankfulness, God still maintains his decree, and gives us, in his mercy, "seedtime and harvest." He will do so till his dispensation ends, and a new and better genesis passes over creation. CHAPTER IX. GOD BLESSES NOAH ANIMAL FOOD ALLOWED-PUNISHMENT OF DEATH. THERE is addressed to Noah, in this chapter, a very needful encouragement against the possible or the feared rising of the beasts of the earth to destroy so small, and, in their infant circumstances, so helpless a community. When Adam was created, all the beasts of the earth were brought to him, and he called them by their names, and thus gave proof that his government over them was plainly a government of love; but after the fall, man, endowed still with some remains of his pristine sovereignty, had to control and govern the animals by skill or by power, and so defend himself from their assaults. The beasts of the earth are now under a new feeling in reference to man. Once they revered Adam because they loved him; now they flee from Adam, or, changing the word, from Noah, because they fear him. The very fact, therefore, that the beasts of the field, even the most formidable of them, unless under the pinching feelings of intolerable hunger, shrink from man, is just a remaining memorial of this covenant made with Noah, as real as is the rainbow that spans the sky, and silently promises there shall not be another flood. And it is a very striking fact, that man, whose physical strength is the least, comparatively, should present so formidable an aspect to the beasts of the field. So much is this felt, that it has been said that the lion will shrink from that man who has the nerve, physical and moral, to look him directly in the face, - the eye not retreat -- ing or wincing;-that, in short, the lion feels what God imprinted at the flood, and shows this by shrinking from man, because the fear of man and the dread of man is upon him by the very constitution of God. We read, in the next place, of the permission to eat animal food. It is not an injunction, it is simply a permission to do so; yet even here there is an exception made, that man should not eat the blood of the animals he destroys for food. There are various reasons for this. One is, what God asserts, that the blood is the life of the animal; and, I may add, the celebrated John Hunter the most distinguished physiologist of his day, and whose discoveries, so far as I am able to ascertain from persons who are better acquainted with the subject than I can pretend to be, are still deferred to says that the blood in the human body is quite different from any other material substance of or in it; that it is itself a vital fluid; and, so far, it would appear that the discovery of science in the nineteenth century is just an illustration of the statement of God four thousand years before, that "the blood is the life." But it may be asked, Why apply this restriction to the animals, the beasts of the earth? Partly to prevent creating savage, cruel, or, if I may use the expression, sanguinary feelings in the human creature; but no doubt it must have been forbidden mainly because of the particular use to which the blood was to be turned under the ancient, but then subsequent, Levitical economy. In the seventeenth chapter of Leviticus, and at the tenth verse, there is the following law :"And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood." That is one reason, and the reason given to Noah. . But now here is the special reason; and recollect this institution was made four hundred years |