still greater advancement. The human mind attains at once heights of knowledge, which rise far above any that its greatest and long-repeated efforts have enabled it to reach. It looks forth upon a scene lighted up, not by the twilight, but by the sun shining in his strength, dispersing the clouds of dim obscurity, and giving to dubious and to distant objects, the certainty of real, substantial existences. If the soul blest with such a vision does not perceive the circle of its duties immeasurably enlarged, it must fall far short of that praise ascribed to Noah, that "he was perfect in his generations." To complete the picture of Noah's character, the historian continues, "and Noah walked with God." Beautiful expression of the intimacy of friendship! He walked with God as a man walketh with his friend. He held intimate communion with his maker. His life of piety and devotion was, as it were, a constant walking with God. Illustrious antediluvian! You stood firm against the dark current of your age. Your name and honour and praises shall remain, while the sacred page endures, a monument of the stability of virtue. The names of your great contemporaries, the giants and the heroes, have perished. The very memory of their existence remains only as a monitory example. They founded the empire of the dead.* Through you was found

* "Among the orientals, without doubt, the flood gave the first great occasion for the poetical representation of an empire of the dead. Consider what an impression upon the subsequent traditions must be produced by this monstrous event, the engulfing of the whole living world. Thus it was the Rephaim, the giants, who groan and wail beneath the waves, whose voice perchance was thought to be heard in the roaring billows, and whose restless motion was felt in the earthquake and the storm at sea." The name SCHEOL, "empire of the departed spirits," is derived from that which sinks under or is buried. HERDER, Spirit Heb. Poetry.

ed the empire of the living world. My readers, let us imitate the example of this noble patriarch, that when this present earth shall be destroyed, we may rise from the ashes of its conflagration to the new heavens and new earth, and our names find honourable mention in the records of eternal life.

This brief notice of Noah's character is immediately followed by the names of his sons. The reader will please to keep in mind that the purpose of the sacred historian is not to record the details of the deluge, for of these he was probably ignorant, but certain leading facts which had been transmitted to his times. If he does so, he will not be surprised at the appearance of abrupt transitions in the narrative, nor will he seek for connexions between different parts of it where none are intended by the writer. He will also please to observe, that the narrative, after a general introduction describing the corruption of the age, leaves the general form at the 9th verse of the chapter, and assumes the form of a history of Noah. "These are the generations of Noah." It is continued in this form throughout the following chapters. This fact serves to account for the repetition of the verses which describe the corruption and violence of the times. These were in the first place related by way of introduction to the great subject of which the writer was about to treat; they are now related as a part of the history of Noah. It is not, however, a literal repetition. In the first instance, the language is not figurative but literal. It is the human race that are there represented as corrupt. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Now, all terrestrial nature is made to participate in the infection; "the earth is corrupt before (in the sight

of) God. The earth is filled with violence." Language in its literal import does not satisfy the writer's vivid conceptions of the extent of the malady, and he adopts the boldest metaphor.

God's purpose of destruction already declared as settled, is now announced to Noah. It is now represented as including, not merely man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, but the earth itself. "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me (in my purpose) for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them with the earth." Hitherto nothing had been said of the agency, by which the destruction was to be accomplished. It was merely the destruction of the animal creation. It might be by one universal pestilence which should suddenly invade them; it might be by famine; it might be by the simple fiat of Jehovah, commanding them to return to their native dust, while the earth itself should remain untouched. On this point nothing has been intimated; the narrative has not required it; but now, when the coming ruin is announced to Noah, its nature must be intimated, that he may provide the means necessary for his safety. It is now declared to be such, that it shall affect the earth itself. "Behold I will destroy them with the earth." You must make preparation for your safety. For, the present scene of your abode shall not afford you a resting place: that too shall be destroyed. But what was it to destroy the earth? To destroy animals, is to extinguish animal life. It may go farther. It may mutilate their limbs, disfigure their form, or even reduce them to the elementary matter of which they are composed. Each or all of these changes, until the entire dissolution of their structure shall be completed, may be included in the idea of animal destruction; indeed they are all in

cluded, though the mind in making use of the term may have reference only to the one first mentioned. But what was it to destroy the earth? It could not be the extinction of life. Was it to wash away the verdant covering of its surface, to demolish its mountains, to fill up its valleys, to throw up new elevations and make new depressions, to change its rivers, its lakes, and the bed of its oceans? How deeply and extensively was the structure affected? Was it reduced to a shapeless and unfurnished mass, such as it once was when it was covered by the waters, and darkness was upon the face of the deep? Who can pretend to say to what extent the implied change was wrought? All that can be affirmed is, that it was a change of such a kind, that it is denominated, by the sacred writer, destruction. Its precise limits we must leave undetermined. Indeed, may it not be that the historian has reference mainly, perhaps entirely, to the physical appearance? When the earth had disappeared beneath the waters, and the deep invested it, as it once did before the dry land appeared, might it not be regarded as destroyed? The whole living creation was engulfed, and with it the earth itself. As they were both overwhelmed together, might they not be regarded as involved in one common ruin? When the volcano breaks forth and buries beneath its lava, cities and their inhabitants together, do we transgress the proprieties of language, when we speak of those cities as destroyed, though we may know that, like Herculaneum and Pompeii, their edifices and all which they contained except the living substance, remain as at the moment before they were overwhelmed? But whatever may have been the sense which the writer intended to convey, it may be supposed that such a catastrophe as the deluge is represented to have been, would make

considerable changes in the earth's surface; and with this supposition, the facts of geology accord. The precise extent and nature of the changes must for them ever remain a matter of doubt and speculation.

The coming destruction being announced to Noah, God proceeds to instruct him in the measures which he must adopt to insure his own safety, and "to keep seed alive on the earth." "Make thee an ark of gopher wood: rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion after which thou shalt make it. The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits; the breadth of it 50 cubits; and the height of it 30 cubits.* A window shalt thou make to the ark,

"The length of this cubit has given rise to much argument and conjecture. Some have supposed it to be nine feet, and others three; but the opinions most worthy of notice, are first, that of Bishop Cumberland, who considered the Hebrew cubit as about 22 inches, which would make the ark 550 feet long, 91 broad, and 55 high. Second, that of the learned Parkhurst, who computes it at something less than 18 inches, which makes the ark about 450 feet long, 75 broad, and 45 high."-Ed. Enc.