writer alludes to the first appearance of mountains. He speaks therefore of mountains of the highest elevation. But were they mountains of the highest elevation of any on the face of the globe, or the highest mountains of Asia, or simply the highest mountains within view of the position which Noah occupied on the mountains of Ararat? These are questions which deserve to be considered. But we must defer their consideration until we come to speak of the extent of the deluge. We shall then have a more convenient opportunity of giving them

an answer.

At the expiration of forty days from the grounding of the ark,* Noah began to be solicitous to know what was the condition of the earth. He had hitherto been satisfied that it was useless to make inquiry. But the time had now come, when there might be some hope of a speedy deliverance from his confinement. He therefore opened the window of the ark, and sent forth a raven. She did not return to him; but kept flying to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth. He was not contented to rest the experiment with the raven

*It is not easy to determine from merely reading the narrative, whether the forty days began at the grounding of the ark, or when the tops of the mountains became visible. The dove, however, was sent out three several times, at intervals of seven days. She was sent out the first time seven days after the raven. This, the narrative plainly implies. For when the dove was first sent out, it is said: "And he waited other seven days." Of course twenty-eight days intervened between sending out the raven, and the sending out of the dove for the last time. Forty days from the 10th month would be the 10th day of the eleventh month, and twenty-eight days more would bring us to the 8th day of the first month of the next year, more than a week after Noah removed the covering of the ark, and saw that the waters were dried up from off the earth. The forty days therefore commenced at the grounding of the ark.

alone.* At the expiration of seven days, he also sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters

were abated from off the face of the ground. With what vigorous and joyful pinion, she at first sped her way over the buried world! The scene was one of repose, but not to her. She sought a resting place in vain. At length, wearied with her flight she returns to the ark, and finds quiet and grateful rest with her protector. Such, the condition of a human soul estranged from its Creator. It moves perhaps for a time over the ocean of life, with alacrity and vigour, but it soon desires repose. Happy, if, like the dove of Noah, it flies away to the only ark of safety, and is at rest. And Noah stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark: And the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo in her mouth was an olive

*The raven might alight on the dead bodies. She also delights in humid places. The dove alights only on dry ground, and besides, she returns from the remotest places to her nest. See ROSENMULLER, Scholia in Genesin.

"O that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest."

The

leaf plucked off, the joyful emblem of returning peace: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove, which returned not unto him any more. The period of seven days was one of the earliest divisions of time. It was a division established and rendered sacred by the Creator. Whether it was chosen by Noah in this transaction, merely from its convenience for his purpose, or also from considerations of a religious nature, we must leave to others to determine. result of his experiment with the birds, satisfied him that he would be safe in taking a farther step. He now removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold the ground was dry. In the six hundredth and first year of Noah's life, in the first month, the first day of the month the waters were dried up from off the earth. And fifty-seven days thereafter, in the second month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth itself dried. On the 17th of November, in the year 1658, one year and eleven days from the beginning of the flood, the earth was completely restored from the dominion of the waters.-Almost two months had elapsed since Noah observed the waters dried up from off the earth. Yet he went not forth. Within the ark, whither the voice of God had directed him to repair, he felt himself secure. trusted in God, but he distrusted the earth. Within the ark, he was full of confidence; without, he knew

He

*It is said that the olive flourishes even under water. Pliny thus translates a sentence from Theophrastus: "In mari rubro (mirum est) sylvas vivere, laurum nimirum et olivam, ferentem baccas. In the Red Sea there are living trees, to wit, the laurel and the olive, bearing berries." PLINY, Nat. Hist. Book XIII. c. 25.

The first month began the 20th of September.

not what he might encounter. Though the rains might not return, yet the soft soils of the earth, so long under the influence of water, might open and engulf him. But now, the same voice which bade him enter the ark, again addresses him, and dispels all doubt. And God spake unto Noah, saying, "Go forth out 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 on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth." O what a welcome voice! It fell upon the ear of the patriarch in sweetest accents, like the voice of a deliverer. The little company had passed a long, long year in their narrow confinement, amid scenes of which they could scarcely divine the issue. With alacrity they obey the voice of Jehovah, and descend again to the grateful embraces of their maternal earth. They hail her with acclamations of intense delight. It was indeed an occasion for the highest joy. But it

was not less an occasion for gratitude. O what a memorable deliverance was that! And gratitude was not forgotten. An altar is erected in the great

temple of nature, and the smoke of the sacrifice ascends, with grateful odour, to the skies. The patriarch presents, as was befitting the occasion, a peaceoffering to conciliate the favour of heaven toward the suffering earth. The Lord was pleased with the spirit of the offerer and accepted his offering. "And the Lord smelled a sweet savour;* and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more any living thing as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." The form of this history, like other early compositions, partakes largely of the dramatic. The persons are Jehovah himself, and the patriarch Noah. In the beginning of the narrative, the sacred writer introduces Jehovah declaring within himself his purpose to destroy the race of man. This purpose now being accomplished, Jehovah is again introduced, declaring in his own mind, his determination never more to curse the ground for man's sake. He had pronounced a curse upon the earth for Adam's transgressions, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." It was the curse of sterility. This was one of the first lessons, by which the Creator taught the race the bitter consequences of disobedience to his laws. A second curse had now been fulfilled upon the earth-the curse of desolation and destruction. The cheering influence of the sun had been excluded from her bosom; the course of the seasons suspended; her surface desolated; her gay and ani

* Here is a striking instance of the Anthropopathic mode of speaking, which I have already explained. The simple meaning is, God accepted the offering. The expression, said in his heart, evidently means determined, formed the resolution.