TOWER OF BABEL.

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remember the everlasting covenant that was made between God and every living soul of all flesh which is upon the earth."

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§ 3. Noe's Prophecy respecting his Sons, and of the Messias to be born from the Family of Sem.

Noe now began to be a husbandman, and planted a vineyard; and toward the close of his life he uttered a very remarkable prophecy respecting his three sons. God had promised the future Messias to Eve after her disobedience; but it was not as yet known to any one from which of the three sons of Noe the future Redeemer was to be born. Noe filled with the Spirit of God declared this, saying: "Blessed be the Lord God of Sem." He blessed Japheth also and said: May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Sem;" eastern figurative language, signifying that the children of Japheth were to be blessed in listening to the heavenly doctrine which was to come into the world through the family of Sem. As Cham had been guilty of a great act of impiety to his father, he was cursed in the person of his son Chanaan. "Cursed be Chanaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren ;" a prophecy fulfilled to this day in the general slavery of the African race, which is descended from Cham.

§ 4. The Building of the Tower of Babel, and the Origin of different Languages in the World.

Up to this time, all the families of whom Noe was the forefather spoke but one language; and this one

language was the only one known upon earth. As time went on, the people began to move forward from Mount Ararat, and a number of families settled in a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it. "And

each one said to his neighbour, Come, let us make bricks, and bake them with fire. And they said, Come, let us make a city and a tower the top of which may reach to heaven, and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower

BIRS NIMROUD, BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN THE SITE OF THE TOWER OF BABEL.

which the children of Adam were building. And He said: Behold, it is one people, and they have all one tongue; and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs till they accomplish them in deed; come, therefore, let Us go down, and there confound their tongue, that they may not under

DESCENDANTS OF NOE.

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stand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city. And the name thereof was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confounded; and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries."

§ 5. Some account of the first Kingdoms formed by the Descendants of Noe.

After the confusion of their language, the various families were forced to move forward, and to seek settlements over different parts of the world, as may be sufficiently seen in the accompanying map.

At this early period of the world, kingdoms properly so called did not exist. The people lived more like the present Tartar or Mongol tribes of northern Asia, than like the states and cities of Europe; and the authority of the patriarch and other old men of the tribe was sufficient for the maintenance of order.

Nimrod, of whom the Scripture says that he was a "stout hunter before the Lord," was the first to attempt to found a dominion by force. He was of the cursed family of Cham, and settled on the Euphrates, where he built the cities of Babel or Babylon, Arah, Achad, and Calne. Assur, of the family of Sem, settled on the Tigris, and built Nineve, which was afterwards the site of the great Assyrian empire, and which will have to be so often mentioned in the history of Israel. Elam, the second son of Sem, settled to the east, and from him came the Medes and Persians, who formed the second of the four great empires of

Daniel's dream. The kingdom of Nimrod did not last long, for Noe had foretold that Cham should be a servant of his brethren; and after various wars, the Chemitic race was expelled by the Assyrians of Nineve, and forced to settle at a distance, probably in Arabia. Of these early times, however, very little is known from any source, except the short notices contained in the Bible. The wars in the time of Abraham appear to have been between the rival families of Sem and Cham.

§ 6. Some account of the Rise and Growth of Idolatry in the World.

Tradition says that the prophet Noe gave his children seven commandments, which were the foundation of the notions of right and wrong that are common to all people. From him all the nations carried away with them into their different settlements the belief in the birth of a Messias from the family of Sem, the knowledge of God and of His future day of judgment, as also of the duty of prayer, and of observing the Sabbath with sacrifices. Such was the simple and plain religion which Noe, whom St. Paul calls a preacher of justice, taught to his sons; and this is what would have continued in the world, if the nations had preserved uncorrupted what they had learned from Noe. However, it was unhappily not the case that they did preserve it. Instead of continuing to worship the God of heaven, the pure Spirit who cannot be seen, they began to wish for objects of worship which they might be able to see, and thus they were led to