self. Jesus Christ in the same way was crucified by the chief priests and people of His own nation from the same kind of hatred and jealousy. And Abel's death is thus the figure of the death of Christ; while Eve mourning the death of her son is a type of the Mother of Christ receiving her Son taken down dead from the Cross on which He had suffered death from His own kindred.

The sufferings of all the various just men and prophets who thus became types of Christ were well known at the time that Jesus Christ came into the world; and we may see what a wise and merciful disposal of events it was on the part of God, that when people should see all these various sufferings, which they knew the prophets to have undergone, repeated in the person of Jesus Christ, they might then be convinced that He was indeed the long-promised Messias, and might believe in Him.

§ 11. The World before the Flood.

Cain was now banished from the "face of the Lord," and was forced to live separate from the members of Adam's family who feared God; for as he was now an impenitent murderer, he could no longer be allowed by Almighty God to be present when the sacrifices were offered, or in other words he was punished by excommunication. He settled himself on the east of Eden, and became the father of a numerous family, who were brought up by him without any fear or knowledge of God. Cain had now

THE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD.

15

become what is called an open infidel or unbeliever, and had ceased to practise any religious duty.

From the creation of Adam to the Flood, historians generally reckon a period of 1700 years; and though but little is said in the Bible about the state of the world then, our Saviour has told us that it was not particularly different from what it is now. There were numbers of famous men, who at the time made themselves a great name in the world; while the ordinary run of people were busied in planting their vineyards, building their houses, buying and selling, and managing their family affairs, much the same as they do at the present day.

There was, however, a great distinction between the children of the family of Cain and those of Seth, the next son of Adam born after the murder of Abel. All the family of Cain were professed infidels, who never troubled themselves in any way at all about prayer or sacrifice or the worship of God; while Seth was a just man, who taught all his household to fear God, and to offer the sacrifices which God had commanded. Enos, the son of Seth, was particularly remarkable for having exerted himself to establish the worship of God; and so strong was the feeling on the part of the different families of Seth and Cain, that they remained for some centuries without holding any intercourse with each other; the religious families looking upon the impious race as quite unfit company. for themselves, and the unbelievers entertaining just the same scorn and contempt for those who feared God as the same kind of persons do still at the present day.

In this state of things Almighty God showed His mercy for the unbelieving race, by sending them a prophet in the person of Enoch the sixth from Adam, who went about warning the unbelieving families that God would come surrounded with all His holy angels, and that He would "execute a judgment against all the blasphemers of His name for all the hard things they had spoken against Him." (Jude 15.)

However, the state of the world grew worse rather than better; and instead of the unbelieving families benefiting by the warning which God had sent them, the religious families began to form family connexions with the unbelievers, marrying and intermarrying with them, and thus they quickly became quite as bad themselves. The sacrifices which God had taught them to offer were neglected; disbelief in God spread everywhere, and with disbelief every kind of vice and wickedness besides.

§ 12. Noe and the Ark.

God seeing the wickedness that was increasing upon the earth, said: "The people will not be warned by my Spirit, for they are flesh (that is, quite corrupt). Their days shall be a hundred and twenty years." In other words, God would give them a trial for a hundred and twenty years longer. And when the wickedness of the world went on still increasing, and God saw "that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times," it repented Him that He had made man on the earth. And being touched inwardly with sor

NOE AND THE ARK.

17

row of heart, He said: "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them."

Noe alone was a just man, who, together with his three sons, Sem, Cham, and Japheth, found favour before God; and God said to him: "The end of all flesh is come before Me; the earth is filled with iniquity through them, and I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of timber planks: thou shalt make little rooms in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within and without. And thus shalt thou make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits; the breadth of it fifty cubits; and the height of it thirty cubits. Thou shalt make a window in the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish the top of it: and the door of the ark thou shalt set in the side; with lower, middle chambers, and third stories shalt thou make it. Behold I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life under heaven. All things that are in the earth shall be consumed. And I will establish My covenant with thee, and thou shalt enter into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and the wives of thy sons with thee. And of every living creature of all flesh thou shalt bring two of a sort into the ark, that they may live with thee; of the male sex, and the female. Of fowls according to their kind, and of beasts in their kind, and of every thing that creepeth on the earth according to its kind; two of every sort shall go in with thee, that they may live. Thou shalt take unto thee of all food

C

that may be eaten, and thou shalt lay it up with thee; and it shall be food for thee and them."

Noe believed God, and immediately commenced the work of building the ark, which is supposed to have kept him employed for a hundred years, during which time he had to endure all the scoffs and jeers of his unbelieving neighbours, who we may be sure passed plenty of remarks upon the folly of the work on which he was busy; built as it was to all appearance far away from any water on which it could be made of use. Noe, however, as became a just man, showed his faith by persevering for so many years; and at length, when all was finished and the warning of God continued to be totally disregarded, God appeared to Noe, and said: