more. There was dry land, whereon she could find rest and food. Still, however, the ark rode, without finding a secure shore, upon the waters.

A hundred and fifty days had passed from the commencement of the flood ere the ark rested among the mountains of Ararat; and then, when Noah removed the covering of the ark, to look out upon the earth, the face of the ground was dry. On the same day an angel of the Lord descended, and, entering the ark, said unto Noah, "Go forth of the ark, thou and thy wife, and thy sons and thy sons' wives with thee, and bring forth with thee every living thing, that they may breed abundantly, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth."

And Noah and his family went forth and descended to the green plain. The cattle also, and the birds, and beasts, and creeping things, which had been saved with them in the ark, quitted their place of refuge. It was still a beautiful world which they were reserved to replenish; but how changed from its former state! Rivers were diverted from their ancient channels; rocks had been heaved from their beds; mountains dissolved into ooze and washed into the valleys; and the oceam had formed for itself new shores and boundaries. The garden of Eden, with the flaming sword and the cherubim, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge, had been

swept away by the universal deluge, and their place upon the earth has never since been known.

Then Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, built an altar near the spot where the ark had rested; and they and their wives offered a sacrifice to the Almighty, with prayer and thanksgiving, for his protection and love. The human family of eight persons, sole inhabitants of the world, assembled upon the shore of the great deep to acknowledge the mercy of Him who had singled them for preservation when in his anger he destroyed all else. And Jehovah beheld the gratitude of his servants, and was pleased with their devotion, and heard their prayer; and He said, "I will not 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 everything living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."

And in order that Noah might know that his sacrifice was accepted, the Lord set a bright bow in the clouds, formed of divers brilliant colours, blended into one gorgeous arch of majestic loveliness; the beautiful and spiritual rainbow, which we still see as the companion of a sunny shower. And the voice of the Lord was heard from the bow, saying, "I, behold I, establish my covenant with you, and with your seed