looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them: and, behold, I will destroy them with 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. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant: and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind; two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he."-GEN. vi. 9-22.

W. Come and look at this picture, Lucy. Here is a picture of a great house, like a boat, and a long string of animals walking behind one another. They seem to be all going into that place! Here are some trees, too, and hills, and some people looking at the animals.

L. Well, Willie, don't you know what that means? That is the Ark-Noah's ark. I am sure that you must have read about it in the Bible. Here is the text, which I will read to you. (Lucy reads.)

P. It is a pleasant thing for me to tell you of another good man, although I have also to speak of wickedness far more dreadful than that of Cain.

L. How could it be more dreadful, papa?

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P. Because so great a number of people were wicked. We read that all the people of the earth were corrupt before God." Let us think of this sad truth first. How many wicked people there must have been! for between the time of Enoch and that of Noah, more than a thousand years passed away. During all this time, children were being born, growing up to be men, and having other children; so that the earth must have contained a large number of people. And these people that God had made to love and serve Him-alas! they were nearly all wicked. They were not only "corrupt before God," but "full of violence."

We next read that "God looked upon the earth." Did you never think how shocked and sorry God must have been? When God looked over all the broad plains, there was no good man to be found! When God looked down upon the cities He looked through all the streets, in every house, and at every man, woman, and child-not only looked at them, but looked into their hearts, where their hidden thoughts were. And their words, too, God would notice; but their words were not kind or good. He, their Maker, saw their actions too; but, alas! neither were their actions good.

They were men made as we are, with five senses; these senses, all day long, reminded them of this world, so that they thought most of the

things around them. They thought, "What shall we eat, what shall we drink, wherewithal shall we be clothed?" and these thoughts kept them busy all day. Thinking only of themselves, they had no time to think of God. How would God like their actions, when He "looked upon them?"

Ion. God must have felt very sorry.

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P. Ah, and God feels sorry when he sees such people now. people are apt to think more of the world around them, than of their Maker, who lives above. Mind that you try not to do so! Keep close to God, by praying to him as Enoch did. Pray to God very often, until he seems to be as near to you as the world around you; then God will not feel as he did when he saw those men.

But there was one man who did keep near to God. God had heard him, as he offered up prayer and thanksgiving every day; and had seen him trying to keep His law. His name was Noah, and we read that "Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God"-and this was the only just man that God found when he had searched in all the cities, plains, and streets, and in the dwellings of man.

When God saw this, then would He feel not only sorry, but angry. He would feel that such men did not answer the purpose for which He made them live-they were, as you would say, "of no good." God would say that they had better die, than live to be bad.

It was a bad case, but God must punish them. By punishing them, all other men would be able to see that it was of no use living in that manner. Men may know now, that if they are not better themselves, God must punish them also. They may not be punished in this world -but there is another world to come, and there will the punishment come also.

God therefore called NOAH, and told him that man must be punished, -that it repented Him that he had made man-and that He would destroy mankind from the face of the earth. God then told him to make a large ark—a very large one indeed, with rooms in it-to pitch it inside and out-to make a window and a door in it, and a second and a third story of rooms. God then said that He was going to bring a flood of waters on the earth to destroy all flesh except Noah, and his wife, and his sons, and his sons' wives-and that they should go into the ark and be saved there. God said, too, that some of the animals were to be saved-that two of each kind, male and female, were also to be taken into the ark.

Now, just suppose for a minute that you had been Noah. How you would have been startled! "What astonishing news are these!" Noah must have said. "I can hardly believe what I have heard. Is all this great world to be covered with water? and all these people-these animals also which God has made?—will He destroy them all?” "Ah, you'll die soon!" he would think of the first man that he met. "And so will you, and you, unless you repent, and ask God to forgive you." "But," he would say to them, "I will tell you exactly what God has said to me, and then you will know." Then, like a good man, he would go at once and do what God told him. He would go to the forests, to look out some trees to be cut down.

And now, suppose that you had been one of the people. You would have wondered as much as Noah did. Perhaps many of the people did not believe him. They would say to one another, "Here, come with me up to yonder place near the forest, and see what Noah is doing! Hark at the noise of the hammers and hatchets, and see how many men he has at work!" "How many trees he has cut down!" they would say to each other, "and what an enormous house he is building! What is it for?" And when Noah told them, perhaps some of them would laugh. "Drown the world!" they would say, "pooh!-we will never believe that. How can God send enough water to drown such a large place as this? We have never heard of such a thing-we have never seen such a thing-we will not believe it."

No! they had been accustomed, as I told you, to think only of the thoughts their senses brought to them, and they would sooner believe that Noah was foolish. "Poor fellow!" they would say, "he'll spend all his money in building his large house-he is mad."

And that has been the case not only with Noah, but with many other men since then. When the people of this world have found a man who is wiser than they are, they never can bear to think that they are foolish themselves, so they call him mad instead. Once, the Apostle Paul, who had much wisdom from God, told a man called Festus a message from God, which was so true, that he could not bear it. It made him feel that he was foolish; so, he cried out to Paul, "Paul, thy much learning hath made thee mad!"

Mind, Willie and Ion, when you grow up to be men, that you are very careful in calling others foolish. It may turn out that you yourselves are the foolish person, after all.

L. Just as Festus was.

P. Yes; and just as these people in the time of Noah were. They did not want to believe his message. But, oh, if they had only used the minds which God had given them, and had begun to think, their minds would have said to them, "Do you not see the great mountains, over there!-the long ranges of hills, the lofty forests, and the deep river and sea? If God the Almighty could make all these things, can He not make more? Can He not send more water? Can He not destroy what He has made?"

Their minds would also have said to them, "Believe that you are wicked, and ought to love your Heavenly Father more; go and repent, for He can punish you. He will surely keep His promise." But, ah! they did not think, and so matters went on for a long, long time, the people only talking of "What shall we eat? - what shall we drink?" Noah steadily obeying God-"according to all that God commanded him, so did he."

At the end of this long time-at the end of one hundred years-the ark was finished; and, one day, the people were astonished at the strange sight which you see in the picture. "Come and look at Noah!" was the cry, and no doubt they went in great crowds to see him. How strange it seemed, to see the animals doing what Noah told them! They would not believe that God was there, and was ordering the beasts. "Of clean beasts, and beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of

every thing that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah." The people would stand together in little knots, and look again, and make their remarks. "How quietly they all go!—the lion with the lamb, the bear, the ox, the camel, the wolf,-see, here they come! But, of course, it can't be true," they would say "it can't be true that the world will be drowned!" and they would laugh. "Look!" another would cry, "look at the big black clouds, and the white ones beyond-how dark it is!" Then, as the last animal went in, perhaps Noah would call to them once more-" Which of you will believe God's message ?—who will repent, and serve God?-who will come into the ark, and be saved?" No! no one went in. Some of them began to doubt now whether they were safe; but they had laughed at Noah before, and now they felt ashamed to say that they were afraid. So, as they refused, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth-and their wives entered, and the door was shut. GOD shut them in.

The people would wonder, and look at one another. Some would laugh again, and say, "He is mad." Some would feel that they were left out, alone, in the world; while others would say, "Come, let us make haste home, for, see! it is beginning to rain ;" and, as the big drops fell upon their faces, they would make haste back to the city.

Eighth Sunday.

THE FLOOD.

"And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.

"And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

"And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

"And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; the fountains also of the deep, and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.”—GEN. vii. 15-24; viii. 1, 2.

W. Now, tell us how the water came down, papa!

P. I cannot tell, Willie, because I was not in the world when the Deluge happened. I hardly like to imagine for you so terrible a scene.

When the people, who had watched Noah as he entered the ark, returned to their houses, they did not find that the rain ceased. The "big drops" which caused them to make haste home, continued all the day and even all the night; so that, on the next morning, when the world awoke, every one must have said, "See how it rains!" But, as the rain still continued all that day and night, and the next day also, no doubt some thousands would begin to fear; they would begin to see that the water on the earth had increased very much, for, although it flowed down from the cities into the plains, yet as it all flowed into the rivers, they would be very much swelled. Soon many of the rivers would overflow their banks for some miles, covering the green grass with water. Then, as the rain still came on without ceasing, the people would, at the end of the first week, begin to hear the waters from the mountains, which were everywhere rushing down in noisy, roaring torrents, and now poured forth in immense quantities into the already swollen rivers. They would next observe that even the great sea had also begun to rise; and, sweeping over the plains with its foaming, angry waves, it would cause the cattle and sheep, with other animals living there, to flee to the cities which were on higher ground.

In a few more days, the people would notice with much fear that the water covering the plains was rising higher every day, and that it now even reached the cities, and covered the streets; and every morning as they awoke, they would find it higher than before, entering their rooms, so that they would be obliged to move up higher in their houses-even on to the roof, to get out of its way.

W. And they would travel about in boats, I suppose?

P. Very likely; for now they would be obliged to leave the cities, and flee to higher places-the mountains. Here, as you may see by looking at the picture, there must have been great crowds of unhappy people-people living together in fear and trembling, watching the angry and powerful water-sometimes holding their fingers in their ears, frightened at the sound of the terrible thunder-shutting their eyes for fear of the bright and dazzling lightning which seemed to play around them, and come upon them from all parts. When the gloomy heavy clouds shrouded the light, how cheerless and cold must have been the hours of the day! how hopeless the state of the poor people's minds, unable to look up to God. When the dark nights came, and the thousands of men, women, and children found themselves to be without house or home-living up there with the wild beasts and herds of cattle, how must they have huddled together in great crowds, without respect of persons, to keep each other warm! How glad must they have been to fall asleep! Tired, hungry, and cold,-sent to sleep by the never-ending sound of those rushing waters which were always singing in their ears the song of death. They were hushed to sleep by an enemy which they could not see; but they could hear it all night, rising higher and higher on the earth, and working out the mighty vengeance of God.