defiance of all obstacles. The world was corrupt before God, and the world was full of violence.

But the grace of God did not leave itself without a witness. The sentence of God upon the serpent, announced the seed of the woman. Abel, who being dead yet speaketh, was a testimony to the power of evil and of Satan in the world, but he testified, also, of the acceptance, on God's part, of the righteous, who come to God by means of a sacrifice which recognises sin and expiates it, and establishes the basis of a hope outside the world in which He, who was accepted of God, had been rejected, and sacrificed to the hatred of the wicked. The departure of Enoch, who walked with God, confirmed this hope, and tended to assure faith (which believes that God is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him) that there is happiness for the righteous, in the presence of God who loves them-a happiness which the world can neither give nor take away. This although obscure nourished and sustained the faith of those who strove to walk with God, while evil still went on increasing.

This-although

When this evil had almost reached its height, another witness was raised up, in the person of one who was to pass through the judgment that put an end to the frightful development, of wickedness which took place in spite of the testimony already rendered.

It was a testimony, not for the affections of the saints, to carry them beyond the world, but a testimony of judgment upon the world itself: necessary judgment, according to the principles of divine government; but in the midst of which a little righteous remnant should be preserved in an ark of salvation, which God revealed.

Such was the condition of man, such his history, when, in consequence of the violation of a law, he had been driven out of the earthly Paradise in which God had placed him, and was left to his own will without law, although not without testimony. The deluge had to put an end to a state of things in which corruption and violence had covered the face of the earth, and had left only eight persons willing to hear the testimony which

God granted them with regard to the impending judg

ment.

During the period that elapsed between the expulsion of Adam from the earthly Paradise and the flood, men formed but one family, one race. There was no idolatry. Man was left to his own ways, not without testimony, but without outward restraint. Evil became insupportable. The flood put an end to it. After this event, this judgment from God, a new world began, and the principle of government was introduced. He who slew a man was to be himself put to death; restraint was put on violence, a bridle on outward sin: corruption of heart, in world estranged from God, remained as it was. Although there were as yet no nations, the fate of different races, even as it has continued to this day, began to dawn, at least prophetically. Noah failed in the place given him after the flood, as Adam had failed in Paradise, as man has always failed, and every creature which has not been directly sustained of God.

The reader may, in passing, notice Adam as a figure of Him who was to come-the second Adam; and Noah as a figure also of Christ, inasmuch as the government of the world and the repression of evil were now committed to man. Two great principles, which subsist to the present day, characterise the world which develops itself after Noah; they are connected with the tower of Babel. Hitherto, whether before or after the flood, the human race was but one family. Now, in consequence of the judgment on man who seeks to exalt himself on the earth, and to make himself a name, a centre, which shall give him power,-God scatters the builders of the tower, and they become nations, tongues, and peoples. The present form of the world was constituted, with respect to its divisions into divers tribes and nations. Besides this, individual energy forms an empire, which has Babel for its centre and starting point.

Now that the world is constituted, we come to the testimony and the dealings of God. Within this system

of nations, there were divers tongues, peoples, and nations. The judgment of God had thus arranged the world; but an immense fact now appears in the history of the world.

The sin of man is no longer only sin against God, manifested in corruptness and in the activity of an independent will, but demons take the place of God Himself, to the eye and imagination of men. Idolatry reigns among the nations, and even in the race that is nearest to God: the race of Shem. Although, at bottom, this idolatry was every where the same, each nation had its own gods. In the system established by God Himself at the time of His judgment upon the race at the tower of Babel, men acknowledge demons as their gods. This gives rise to the call of Abram. The God of glory manifests Himself to him, and calls on him to leave his country, his kindred, and his father's house. He must break entirely with the system which God had established; and that, in his closest relationships. He must be for God, and for God only. He is chosen by sovereign grace; and, called of God, he walks by faith; and promises are made to him.

But this call introduces another principle of great importance. There had been already many faithful ones who had walked with God: Abels, Enochs, Noahs; but none of these was, like Adam, the head of the evil, the head of a race. Now Abram, being called, became the head of a race that inherited promises outside the world. This may be developed spiritually, in Christians, or carnally, in the people of Israel; but the heirs of promise (and this applies to Christ Himself,) possess it as the seed of Abraham. If the nations, peoples, families, and tongues, took demons for their gods, God took a man by His grace, to be the head of a family, the root from which a nation belonging to Himself, should arise. The fatness of God's olive tree is found in those who grow upon the root of Abraham, whether it be in a people who are his seed according to the flesh, or in a seed that receives the promised blessings because it belongs to Christ, the true seed of the promise. This call and this vocation remain firmly established, whatever may be the phases through which the objects to whom they apply, may have to pass. Christ Himself came to fulfil the promises made to the fathers, a witness to the unchangeable truth of God.

The state of the first heirs, changes nevertheless; and in a little while, we find a people almost regardless of

the promises, and who, far removed from the faith of Abraham, are groaning under the yoke of an unrelenting tyranny.

This state of God's people leads to an event in which a principle of immense importance is set forth, namely, that of Redemption, or the deliverance of God's people from the consequences of their sins, and from the bondage in which they were held. We shall see also, in the fruits of this redemption, facts of the deepest interest to ourselves.

The cry of the people had reached the ear of the Lord of Hosts, and He comes down to deliver them. But the Saviour is also the just judge, and He must reconcile these two characters. To be able to deliver, His justice must be satisfied. A God who is not just, cannot, morally speaking, be a Saviour. It is in this character that God appears, definitively, when He delivers the people. He had manifested His power in inducing Pharaoh to let the people go, in asserting His own rights over Israel; but their deliverance had to be accomplished without the good will of man, and by the judgments of God, by the full manifestation of what He is with regard to evil, and in love also, that he might be really known.

Now, the people themselves were, in certain respects, more guilty than the Egyptians, and God comes as a judge. But the blood of the Paschal Lamb is on their door, and the Israelites escape the judgment due to them; according to the value of that blood in the eyes of God. God judges, and, because of the blood which faith has acknowledged, passes over His guilty people.

But Israel was still in Egypt, their deliverance was not yet effected, although the price of their redemption was paid in figure. Israel sets out. Arriving at the Red Sea, the question of their deliverance or their ruin must be decided. Pharaoh had pursued them, sure of his victory. The wilderness, in which Israel was apparently lost, presented no outlet; and the Red Seatype of death and judgment-was close before them. On the morrow, Israel saw only the dead bodies of their enemies who had perished in the same sea which had

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proved the path of salvation to the people of God. The death and judgment of Christ brings us through, dryshod, afar from the place of our captivity.

Redemption is much more than the fact, that we are preserved from the judgment of God. It is a deliverance wrought by God. He Himself acts on our behalf, and brings us into an entirely new position by the exercise of His own power.

We have, in this important history, the figures of the great events on which our eternal happiness is founded. It prefigures propitiation, redemption, and justification in a two-fold aspect; on the one side, propitiation by blood, which delivers us from all imputation of sin before the righteousness of God; and on the other, our introduction, by virtue of the value of that blood, into an entirely new position by resurrection. Christ has been delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification.

Some very important principles present themselves to us in connection with deliverance by redemption. God dwells with the redeemed, He is in their midst. He did not dwell with Adam when innocent, nor with Abraham when called by grace and the heir of the promises; but as soon as Israel is ransomed and delivered by redemption, God dwells in the midst of the people. Compare Exodus, xv. 2; xxix. 45, 46.

The holiness of God and of His relationship with His people, appears then for the first time. Never in Genesis is the holiness of anything whatsoever presented to us, (save only the sanctification of the Sabbath in Paradise), nor even the holiness of the character of God. But Exod. xv. and xix; Lev. xix. 26; and other passages, show us that, redemption once accomplished, God takes this character and establishes it as necessary for all in relationship with Him. Compare Exod. vi. 5.

In immediate connection with this truth, we find another which, moreover, flows necessarily from redemption, namely, that the redeemed are no longer their own. God has taken them for Himself, they are consecrated to God, set apart for him. They are brought to God Himself, Exod. xix. 4.

Israel enters the wilderness, (the character of this