overwhelmed by a flood. The rainbow was thus the first visible token of the Divine love to man, as other pledges have been given by God in after-days, as seals of the covenant of mercy by which He has been pleased to bind Himself to save those who seek Him.

CHAP. VII. The World after the Flood:-the Tower of Babel.

It appears that at this time God first permitted men to eat the flesh of animals, while before the flood their food had consisted solely of the fruits and roots of the earth. Noah and his sons immediately betook themselves to till the ground, and among other plants cultivated the vine. Noah also pressed out the juice of the grapes, and, leaving it, it naturally fermented and became wine. Of this, Noah, doubtless knowing nothing whatever of the effects that would ensue, one day drank so largely that intoxication followed, and he fell drunk and asleep upon the floor of his tent, without decent clothing to cover him. What followed betrayed with terrible force the deep-seated wickedness of man, even after the warning which he had just received in the universal deluge. Cham, one of Noah's sons, finding his father thus lying inconscious, laughed at him with contemptuous sneers, and in his shameless folly invited his two brothers, Sem and Japhet, to share his indecent jesting at their parent's misfortune. Shocked, however, instead of amused, they reverently covered their sleeping father with a cloak; and when Noah awoke, he pronounced upon Cham one of those awful judgments by which it pleases God at times to visit generations of unborn men for the sins of their fathers. Cham and his son Chanaan were declared accursed, and were to be punished by being made slaves and servants to the children of Sem and Japhet.

The eastern parts of the world were now quickly peopled again with the descendants of Noah. But scarcely had another 100 years gone by, when a new and extraordinary proof of human folly and pride called for a fresh manifestation of God's anger against those

who lift themselves up against Him. The men of the time, finding that the spot where they had settled after the flood was becoming too confined for their increasing numbers, proposed a plan for a general emigration, in search of new and fertile countries. Before separating, however, they determined to build a monument, in honour, not of God, but of themselves. The mere erection of such a structure was, of course, in itself, perfectly harmless; it might even have been most praiseworthy, if done with a view to commemorate the origin of the whole human family, and the mercies they had received from their Creator. The sin of the builders of this monument lay in the object which they had before them, which was simply to honour themselves, to hand down to posterity their own skill, and wealth, and energy. From the very earliest ages we see men exactly what they are to this day. That very spirit of haughty selfsatisfaction which makes the whole civilised world eager to raise monuments, to shew to posterity their greatness and strength, displayed itself in the erection of the very first building whose name and character is handed down to us from the remotest ages.

Like all nations in a simple state, these men intended to make the size of their tower immense; they said it should reach to heaven, and doubtless believed it would last as long as the world. It pleased God, however, not to leave them long in the delusion of their own greatness. He miraculously confused their speech; so that, being unable to understand each other's meaning, they could not possibly unite in carrying on the building they had begun. Until this time, all had spoken the language which God had taught to Adam. We can conceive the amazement, confusion, and shame which thus seized these haughty men, by imagining what would be our own feelings if, on meeting together some morning, every member of a family or a school should find that he could not understand his companions, and his companions could not understand him. The tower instantly ceased building. It was called Babel- a word signifying confusion; its builders dis

persed far and wide; and at this day not a trace of their work remains. We can scarcely even guess whereabouts it stood. Their punishment alone remains in the variety of languages which are spoken in the different nations of the world.

From this period the history of the Bible is almost entirely confined to one family, and the nation which sprung from it. And as no other histories relating to so ancient an age remain, even if ever they were written, which is scarcely possible, we can only understand the state into which the descendants of Noah fell, from the accounts which are given us of this one favoured family, and of the circumstances which befell them in their intercourse with others. All other histories, also, being written by uninspired men, contain much fable mixed up with the truths which they do relate.

CHAP. VIII. Abram and Lot.

Ir is in the tenth generation from Noah that the Bible again takes up the history of man, informing us of little more than the names and ages of those who came in a direct line, as father and son, between Sem and Abraham. About 500 years after the flood, Abraham (or, as he was first called, Abram) was living at Haran in Chaldea, when God renewed to him, in a most solemn manner, the covenant He had made with Adam immediately after the fall; promising that in him—that is, in his posterity-all the nations of the world should be blessed, and that this posterity should become a mighty and numerous people. At the same time, as a trial to Abram's faith in the protecting power of God, the Lord commanded him to leave the home where he was dwelling, and go forth as a stranger and seek a new home in the land of Chanaan. This very land God also promised to bestow at a future period upon Abram's descendants. Abram, the great excellence of whose character it was, that he depended upon the word of God, without a doubt,-strong in heroic faith, and be

lieving against all appearances, hesitated not a moment to obey, and, with his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot, and all his household and possessions, journeyed southwards to Chanaan.

It was not long before a famine drove the wanderers away to seek sustenance in a more fruitful territory. Egypt at this period was become an agricultural and settled country; while Abram and the inhabitants of Chanaan lived in tents, and laboured to increase their flocks and herds, who fed upon the natural herbage of the soil, rather than to cultivate corn and the fruits of the earth. When the scarcity, therefore, came on in Chanaan, Abram with all his dependants journeyed into Egypt in search of food. Knowing nothing of the character of the sovereign who then ruled in Egypt, Abram was alarmed lest the beauty of his wife Sarai should tempt him to put her husband to death, in order to make her his own wife. He therefore made her pass as his sister (as, indeed, she was his half-sister), saying nothing of her being married to him. What he had feared took place. Her beauty attracted the notice of the Egyptian monarch, and Sarai was taken, in a friendly spirit, to his house, where he would have married her, had not God smitten him and his household with sickness, or some other grievous torment. Struck with alarm, Pharao, as all the Egyptian sovereigns were called, remonstrated with Abram for having concealed the whole fact respecting his relationship to Sarai, and dismissed him from the country with his wife, and the presents he had already given him when he thought him only Sarai's brother.

To Chanaan Abram then returned. He was the owner of large possessions, which are described in the Scriptures as consisting of sheep, oxen, asses, camels, and male and female servants, or slaves. It is also said that he was rich in gold and silver, though it is not known whether gold and silver were yet coined into money, or were used in their natural state, in lumps, or gold and silver dust. He and Lot together occupied a spot near Bethel, where he had rested before his journey

ato Egypt, and where he had then built an altar and ffered sacrifice. The patriarchal system still prevailed. the head of each family was its sovereign and its priest, Dossessing the supreme power over his kinsfolk and ervants, and offering to God the sacrifices which were niversal throughout every people into which the race of man had been divided.

It was not long before Abram and Lot felt it to be necessary that they should part, and occupy separate spots of country. Their flocks and herds multiplied to uch an extent that pasturage failed, and the herdsmen of the uncle and nephew were perpetually quarrelling. They therefore agreed to separate; Abram nobly permiting Lot to choose first where he would prefer to settle. ot, eager only for gain, and heedless of the company e would have to keep, decided upon migrating to the eighbourhood of Sodom and Gomorrah, two towns as otorious for the infamous wickedness of their inhabitnts, as for the delightful beauty and fertility of the urrounding country. There he settled; and was soon fter involved in the misfortunes which befel the people of Sodom and their king. The whole country was diided into petty kingdoms, each governed by an independent prince, or king; and, as is usual in such cirumstances, was subject to perpetual quarrels and wars. Not long after Lot had fixed his dwelling in Sodom, the Sovereign of that town, with four others of the neighDouring princes, was defeated in battle by four other allied chiefs, who followed up their victory by marching upon Sodom, which they plundered, and carried away its inhabitants. Among the rest, Lot was taken into captivity; and the news of his misfortune was quickly carried to his uncle, Abram. Abram instantly armed all his servants and followers, above three hundred in number, attacked the victorious princes in the nighttime, put them to flight, and set free his nephew Lot, with all the captives, who returned to Sodom. On his way back to his own abode, Abram was met by Melchisedech, the king of Salem, the priest of the One True God, who solemnly blessed Abram, and offered bread