cal discoveries and physical difficulties, to say that the plain meaning of the history of the deluge is that it was universal. The existing change in climate, and change in a thousand things, that then took place all over the earth, indicate that the deluge made some vast alteration in the physical condition of our globe, in the air which we breathe, and the exterior geography of the earth. This seems to be the opinion that many have formed, who have looked deeply into the subject. At the same time, I think it is quite right to admit that all those references to it that you have seen in books, affecting to prove that the deluge was here and there, by the appearance of certain debris, or detritus, or drift, as it is called, have all turned out, on maturer information, not to be correct. I do not know that there is a single physical trace on the surface of the globe to show that the deluge has been. There is nothing to disprove it, or to show its impossibility; but there is nothing on the face of the globe to prove it. The drift, as it is called, on the surface of the earth, seems to be connected with great prior epochs; it does not seem to have anything to do with the flood of Noah. But because there are no physical traces upon the earth of the flood, it does not therefore disprove it. We have the simple history that it was. And, unless this flood really burst the earth into fragments, of which we have no evidence, I do not see that it could have left any traces. Let a very great flood come and cover the earth, and for a year or two you will see the mud and the deposit; but in a few years it will all have dried up and be covered with verdure, where the cataract had previously rushed along. And, unless the flood was some violent rending into fragments of the earth, we have no reason to expect that there would be left any great surface manifestations of it. If there was a gradual rising and subsiding of the water (and we can calculate that it rose about one hundred and eighty-six feet per day, and subsided at the

rate of one hundred feet a day, which would prove a very gradual increase, and gradual subsidence), then there is nothing to show that there should be expected, still, any physical traces of it. There is plenty of collateral proof of it to be derived from the traditions of the heathen. There is not a heathen nation, ancient or modern, that has not some. account of a deluge. Every schoolboy, acquainted with Ovid, and with the Greek and Latin poets, knows how many allusions there are to the flood that overflowed the earth.

To a Christian who believes the Scriptures, their testimony is enough. One wants only to adduce such facts in order to endeavor to satisfy minds of a sceptical and doubting turn. I only ask you to read further, and particularly to peruse what Hitchcock has written upon the subject. He believes that the deluge was not universal. You can read his reasons, which are perfectly consistent with true piety, though not satisfactory to me; and you can come to that conclusion which seems to be best borne out by fact, and fair interpretation of the sacred record.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE WATERS ASSUAGE -THE ARK RESTS ON ARARATA RAVEN AND DOVE SENT OUT - NOAH, BEING COMMANDED, GOES FORTH OF THE ARK, BUILDS AN ALTAR, AND OFFERS SACRIFICE; WHICH GOD ACCEPTS, AND PROMISES TO CURSE THE EARTH NO MORE.

GOD promised of old to his people, what He performs still in the experience of his saints, "I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee." The fulfilment of this promise is registered in these words, " And God remembered Noah " the head of that dynasty with which he was associated; but it shows that God's regards are over all his creatures. He remembered, also, "every living thing," from the eagle perched upon the highest point inside the ark, down to the meanest reptile that crept upon its floor. "God remembered Noah, and every living thing."

We read that He "made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged." God might have said, "Let the waters be instantly absorbed," and it would have been done; but every one must be struck with the fact, who reads the Bible, that where means are available, as usually they have been so, God always employs the available means to accomplish given results. In other words, there is no profusion or prodigality of miraculous interference in the word of God. If you read the miracles said to have been achieved by the saints of the Romish Church, it will strike you that miracles seem to be their ordinary element, their very breath, their very life; there is profusion, prodigality, miraculous exuberance. But when you read God's holy word, you must be struck

with the fact, that there never is an interposition of Almighty Power suspending any one ordinary law, unless there be a necessity absolute and complete for it.

Then, in the third verse, we are told, "The waters returned from off the earth continually." It is in the Hebrew, They added to return to return; " that is, there was a gradual subsiding. "And after the end of the hundred and fifty day the waters were abated, and the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.” Now this mountain of Ararat is at least, according to the statements of the most recent visitors, seventeen thousand feet in height; that is to say, rather more than three times the height of the highest mountain in Scotland. Well, then, if the waters of the flood rose to such a height that they covered its summit, and, by subsiding, enabled the ark to rest quietly upon that summit, I cannot see how it is possible to escape the conclusion, which Hitchcock in his work on Geology denies, however, that the waters did cover the whole habitable globe, round and round. The assertions of Scripture are so broad and so strong, that I cannot see how to escape their force. And, then, the language is repeated: abated from off the earth," "the waters prevailed upon the earth." Now, let any honest, impartial reader of this chapter say what would be the impression upon his mind; and I am sure it would be that the flood there described was universal. And, as I stated before, if the flood was not universal, if it was tropical, why did Noah take into the ark creatures found in every climate of the earth? For instance, the raven, I believe, exists almost everywhere; the dove certainly is found in eastern, western, northern, and southern latitudes. What was the use of preserving a bird that must have lived everywhere? And, when the dove went out of the ark, why did she return to it? If you let out a dove between this and Boulogne, you will find that it will fly to the nearest

dry land, probably to its own dovecot, as carrier-pigeons, it is well known, do. If this flood had not been universal, when the dove was let out, with its immense rapidity of wing it would have soon reached that part of the globe that was not covered by the flood; but she "found no rest for the sole of her foot; " and the presumption, therefore, is, that the whole face of the earth was covered by this deluge.

Noah, when he rested upon the mountain,— and what comfort must it have been to feel the solid ground beneath his feet, which he, no doubt, thought at first was a rock; but a little waiting, which we often need, convinced him that it was a rest, sent forth a raven, which, it is said, "went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth." You ask, How do you account for this? I answer, The raven, being a bird which feeds upon flesh and carrion, must have found plenty of food floating on the waters; and it could have found sufficient rest on the bodies of dead animals; for any one may have seen a carrion-crow standing on a dead animal carried down a mountain stream. It is thus apparent that the raven could have found food, of the coarsest kind, everywhere and anywhere; and one can easily understand how a carnivorous bird must have found something to feed upon, and to rest upon, on the waters of the deluge. But when he sent forth the dove, which feeds upon seeds and vegetable matter, it was obliged to return. This is perfectly literal, and shows at once what was Noah's reason for sending forth this dove. It" found no rest for the sole of its foot, and returned." But the second time it was sent forth, it returned with an olive leaf, which showed that the waters had very materially subsided.

They had been subsiding for one hundred and fifty days when the ark rested on Ararat. Now we know that this mountain is seventeen thousand feet high, its crags being covered with perpetual snow; but we know that the olive