than to express his gratitude for a deliverance so exceed ingly wonderful. We sometimes see extreme distress brought on a small district of country by a partial inundation; but how faint an emblem of that universal destruction of mankind in a flood that involved the whole terres

trial globe!

But the mercy of his divine Preserver did not stop here. He graciously assured Noah, that he would not again sweep mankind from the face of the earth; but so long as it remained, his creatures should continue to enjoy and to cultivate it, through the vicissitudes of time; "that seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night should not cease." To confirm the faith of man in His promise, He pointed out the rainbow, and directed the family of Noah to behold that beautiful arch as 66 a token of the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature; that the waters should no more become a flood to destroy all flesh."

FANNY. Do you think, mother, that a rain-bow had never been seen before that time? Surely it had rained before the deluge.

MRS. M. There are two opinions, my dear, on this question; but no person can now determine which is the more correct. Some suppose the rainbow to have always appeared under the same circumstances in which we behold it at the present day, and that it was merely pointed out on the present occasion, as the memorial of a promise. Others believe, that this beautiful object was now first produced and for this particular purpose. "Though it had rained," say they, "before the deluge, yet the superintending Providence which caused the rainbow to appear as a pledge of the assurance that he gave, (that the

World should never more be destroyed by water,) might have prevented the concurrence of such circumstances in the time of rain as were essentially necessary for the formation of a bow. It might have rained when the sun was set, or when he was more than 54 degrees high, when no bow could be seen, and the rain might continue between the spectator and the sun until the clouds were expended, or in any other direction, but that of an opposition to the

sun."

So many circumstances are necessary to coincide, for the formation of a rainbow, that even now it appears in but few of the rains which our beneficent Preserver showers down to fertilize the land, and render the air salubrious.

The supreme Being having condescended to promise by a covenant, that he would be the Protector of his creatures, continued to manifest his superintendence. both general and particular, by a variety of means, but more especially by a series of prophecies. These supernatural intimations of the divine will, from the first obscure ray which cheered our fallen parents in Paradise, to the full blaze of gospel light, harmonious in their tendency, and progressive in their clearness, besides their relation to the intermediate dispensations of Providence, still pointed to their ultimate end. They kept up the expectation of an extraordinary person, who should deliver mankind from the curse incurred by disobedience, both on him, and for his sake, on the earth which he inhabited.

Lamech, for example, exclaims on the birth of his son, Noah," this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." And Noah, in the blessing pronounced on his children, distinguishes his son Shem, as being fa

voured with some peculiar relationship to the Deity, in these words: "Blessed be the Lord, God of Shem." Noah was singularly honoured, as we have seen, and Shem became the progenitor of God's peculiar people. Noah having been a preacher of righteousness to the old world, became a prophet to the new; being enlightened to foreOn Shem and Jatel the future fortunes of his children.

he pronounced a blessing-while Ham is assured, that he should

phet, who were virtuous persons, and dutiful sons,

be a 66 servant of servants to his brethren."

FANNY. Then Ham, I suppose, did not deserve a blessing?

MRS. M. You are right. The supreme Disposer of events is always just. Ham had himself a bad disposition; but his posterity, who were chiefly implicated in the prophecy, were abominably wicked. Prophecies are seldom to be understood of single persons; they generally comprehend whole nations; as you will find when you come to study them. We shall notice them now only when they elucidate the history in which we are engaged.

CHARLES. I have heard one of our professors say, that Ham became black in consequence of the curse pronounced by his father against him. And thus he accounts for the colour of the Africans, his posterity.

MRS. M. Your professor, my dear, has no authority for his opinion; nor need we undertake to discuss a question irrecoverably lost. Let us confine ourselves chiefly to the letter of Scripture, and if we cannot there discover the causes of difference in the colour of the human family, we can with certainty account for the varieties in language, There we learn, that though mankind had greatly multiplied after the flood, "they were yet of one language and

of one speech," until finding themselves straitened for room, in the hilly countries of Armenia, where they had first settled when they descended from the Ark; they began to spread over the adjacent lands. Travelling westward, they came to a plain called Shinar, and on the spot as it is supposed, where the city of Babylon afterwards stood, they began (B. C. 2233), to build a city, and a tower whose top should reach the heavens, to perpetuate their name to succeeding generations. But God, who does not always favour the designs of ambitious men, was pleased to send among these projectors, such a confusion of languages, that they could not understand one another; and the place was called Babel, which imports confusion. One tie which had hitherto held together the great family of Noah, being now dissolved, they dispersed yet further with less reluctance. Still, as the number of mankind was comparatively small, it is not to be supposed that they could at once form very extensive settlements. The children of Shem remained in Asia, and those of Ham are still found in Africa; Mizraim, his grandson, led colonies into Egypt (2188), and founded a powerful kingdom; whence Egypt is sometimes called the land of Ham.

Europe was the portion of Japhet, and he, at least, must have practised the art of ship-building, which they had learned from Noah, their progenitor; for without it, he could not have taken possession of the isles of the Mediterranean sea, included in his lot. Petty monarchies, called Patriarchical, in which the head of each family was both its chief and its king, then prevailed. Nimrod is the first person mentioned in this period, who founded a kingdom. He began his reign by building the stupendous city of Babylon, on the Euphrates,

FANNY. What was the primitive language?

MRS. M. The Hebrew undoubtedly. The Chaldee, the Syrian, and the Arabic, have contended for priority; but the Hebrew has the better claim. It appears in the Chaldea character, but the Samaritan is the Hebrew letter.

No event of importance after the miracle at Babel is recorded, till the calling of Abraham, a descendant of Shem. The birth of Terah, his father, concludes the second age of the world, a period of four hundred and thirty-seven years. (B. C. 2126.)

During this lapse of ages, the knowledge of the Deity had become greatly obscured and debased by ignorance. and idolatry; for no written law was yet given, but only a few moral and ceremonial precepts. To transmit, therefore, to posterity the knowledge of one God and his essential attributes, and to preserve in symbols and prophecies, the promise of a Saviour, the particular family, of which at the appointed time, He was to come, was now to be separated from the gentile world. The principal subject then of the Old Testament from this epoch is the history of this separate and highly-favoured people. They were then called Hebrews from Eber, their ancestor, who was the great-grandson of Shem. In latter times they have been known by the name of Jews.

As the founder of this nation, Abram, the son of Terah, and the tenth from Noah, was selected and commanded by God to leave Chaldea, his native country, and go into the land of Canaan, the inheritance of his posterity. " in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed." (B. C. 1921.)

CHARLES. Was this a repetition of the promise made to our first parents?