from their grievous iniquities, He gave them long warning of His intended judgment." The world at its worst has never been without a grain of salt. "And Noah found favour with the Lord." To preserve him and his family was God's purpose in causing him to build the ark, when He had determined to wash out both the corruptors and the corruptions of the earth. As John Trapp pungently puts it, "The wickedness of man was grown so foul that God saw it but time to wash it with a flood, as He shall shortly do again with streams of fire. He destroyed the world then with water for the heat of lust; He shall destroy it with fire for the coldness of love." It is impossible to say how many perished in that great flood of waters, but we know how many were saved. "One lone family out of a world; eight grains of corn only winnowed out of a whole barnful of chaff." Such is the sovereign will of God, who is just and righteous. What an example of the persistency of human guilt, of the certainty of divine judgment, and of the gentleness of divine mercy and goodness! Those antediluvian sinners persisted in wickedness and unbelief during a hundred and twenty years, notwithstanding the preaching of Noah and the constant sermon of the ark, until the flood came and swept them all away. And yet the wicked say, "Doth God see? will He judge?" They still perpetuate the devil's first lie: "Ye shall not surely die." Probably many who scorned the word of God while Noah's hammerstrokes were ringing in their ears, would have eagerly entered the ark with him when the ceaseless plash of the waters gurgled round them. "In vain does he fly whom God pursues." The Scripture injunction is, "Flee from the wrath to come." While judgment is yet on the way, and coming only, repentance may fly into the arms of mercy; but when judgment is let loose, and is gone forth, and the "day of visitation" is past, flight is vain. From Ararat there has come through all the ages the warning echo, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." From Ararat there comes the constant testimony that the goodness of God is upon all them that fear Him, but that it is a fearful thing to persist in sin, and to provoke His sin-avenging power and justice. Five months the waters prevailed over the earth, during which time the ark was "steered, not by Noah's prudence, but by God's providence." The great ship, with no captain on her bridge, carefully watching for dangers ahead, and with no "man at the wheel" to clear her of them, gallantly rode upon the waters, watched by the Eye that never sleeps, and guided into port by the untiring Hand which never errs. If the ark may be taken as a beautiful emblem of Christ, who offers safety and eternal life to as many as in Him will take refuge from the impending storm, may not Noah and his family represent the church of Christ, in Him sailing over the troubled sea of time? Look backwards to the fall, and forwards to the end of time, and you may see that church riding on the floods, sometimes in calm and peace, sometimes driven by fierce winds, or tossed by tumultuous billows; struggling like that little craft on the Galilean sea to ride out the storm, and calling on her Captain to save, lest she perish. You see her for a moment trembling in dizzy peril on the crest of a mountainous wave, and then, as you watch her flung by the mad billows into the yawning trough of angry waters below, you are ready in anguish to exclaim, "King of kings, shall she perish?" and out from amid the wild gurglings, and the furious roar of the waters, and the boisterous blasts of the winds, there comes a voice, majestic as thunder, soft as music, "Fear not when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee," The coming in of a homeward bound ship is always an exciting scene, both within and beyond herself; but in this case, the wonder and excitement were all within. To Noah and his family there must have been no small degree of wonder as the months went by. After waiting some time a raven was sent forth, which, it appears, did not return to the ark, although it went "to and fro;" perhaps, as Mattthew Henry suggests, "feasting upon the carcases it found floating about, and returning to rest upon the ark, not in it." Or, as Bishop Hall has it," He neither will venture far into that solitary world for fear of want, nor yet come into the ark for love of liberty, but hovers about in uncertainty." What a picture! Are there not some who go out from the church, worldly and sensual, esteeming the indulgence of carnal appetites as better than the cross of Christ? The dove, with a purer, lovelier nature, returned to her master, not being able to find rest for her fee', nor to feed upon loathsome meat. So the truly regenerate will ever delight to leave the beggarly elements of the world and of sin to turn to Christ, in whom alone is eternal life, and in whom alone can bɔ found pure, exalting joy. The psalmist was not alone in his enjoyment when he said, " How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them!" The Lord's people have always been very deeply imbedded in His thoughts. Thus He remembered Noah, whom He had sent out on that waste of waters, and every living thing that was with him in the ark. "The ark of the Church shall neither sink nor split while she sails in the thoughts of Almighty God." Not the greatest only, but the smallest also of the living things with Noah was remembered with him—Ararat gave rest to it, as well as to him. That same thoughtful God has taught us from another mountain side that He cares for the sparrow, for the lilies, and for the grass. Nothing is beneath the love of His tender thought and remembrance. And each of His children is of more value to Him than many sparrows. He has "a book of remembrance written before him for them that fear him, who think upon his name." Noah lived by faith, or he might often have thought during those many days, "Has God forgotten to be gracious?" No, God never can forget the least of His children. Ararat shows divine care manifesting itself just at the right moment, however long delayed. It seems to say, God hever is before His time, And never is behind." Men sometimes speak of God as if our earthly daily concerns were too small, too trivial for His notice, as if He had committed us and them to some fixed wheel of law, and will not interfere for us. It may be wonderful, but it is true, that He who guides suns, comets, and stars in the boundless ocean of space, takes little children in His arms, and delights in small flowers. How much easier it is to believe in the vastness, rather than in the minuteness of divine providence? But let it never be forgotten that the animalcule, the sun, and the archangel are equally the product of His power and the objects of His care, for "his tender mercies are over all his works." He who remembered Noah and every living thing with him, remembers you. After deliverance should come grateful and devout worship. Noah did well to build an altar for the Lord ere he built a house for himself. This also was Abraham's first care, to build an altar for Jehovah. Oh, that every house in which the Lord has a name were also a temple in which He could receive daily worship! "God's mercies are binders; He is content we may have the comfort of His blessings, so He may have the praise of them. This peppercorn of rent is all He looks for." To present ourselves, living sacrifices, holy, acceptable, a spiritual service, in devout acknowledgment of all His remembrances, is as great a privilege as it is a duty. From Ararat comes the promise which cheers and sustains the heart of man; "While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest shall not cease." Here also most probably was the rainbow set in the clouds, as the token of God's covenant with man and every living creature throughout all generations, that the earth and man should not again be destroyed by water. Yet it must not be forgotten that this earth, still so full of iniquity, is kept in store unto the fire of the great day of judgment. Blessed is he who, joyfully fearless of another destruction by water, is faithfully ready for the day of fire! Long Buckby. STEALING THE DEACON'S RAILS. said, GOOD old Deacon Meigs had | with rage, the pale light of the cold been for a long time missing rails moon made look more ghastly, he from a fence around one of his fields. As the winter grew colder, more rails were missing almost every night. The Deacon suspected a poor man who lived near the fields whence the rails were taken, and so he determined to watch and discover the thief, if possible. Accordingly, late one evening, he buttoned his warm overcoat snugly about him and kept nocturnal vigil, perambulating his spacious acres. As the night grew long, and the Deacon grew chilly, he nursed his wrath, pent-up to be poured out upon the head of the culprit who should be caught in the act of stealing rails. Soon after midnight the Deacon heard footsteps, and watched behind an apple-tree until he saw a man making up a bundle of those precious rails. As the poor fellow stooped to lift the bundle to his shoulders, the Deacon sprang from his hiding-place and pounced upon the offending victim, with anger in his looks and voice, and vengeance in his heart. As he caught hold of the man's threadbare, thin, and ragged coat-which was torn into halves in his grasp the Deacon discovered that it was his life-long neighbour, Mr. Dea. "What do you do here?" the Deacon shouted. "Are you a thief? I'll have you up before the justice of the peace to-morrow, and put you where you won't steal my rails any more. The old man, thus apprehended and addressed by one with whom he had been brought up in the same neighbourhood from youth, laid down his bundle of rails, threw his torn hat upon the frozen ground, and looking with bloodshot eyes into the Deacon's face, which, white "Deacon Meigs! I know I have done wrong-I ought not to have stolen your fence for firewood. But I tell you what it is, Deacon Meigs, when I saw my wife take off her poor ragged shawl and put it on the children as they slept in our only bed, and heard her sob, as she tried not to cry so that I could hear, and saw her shiver, and knew that she had got to sit up all night and walk the house to keep the warmth of life within her (and I had to keep walking so as not to freeze, but I didn't care anything about my self-only for her and the little ones), and when I thought that they would all be hungry in the morning, and we should have no fire so as to boil the last potatoes, which have been given to us, and how the children would cry and my dear old wife would cry, too, I just put on my hat (there it is on the ground), and started out to steal some rails, and so get 'em warm once, anyhow, before they die. And I wish we were all dead together, and then no deacon would ever scare me to death again, at dead of night when I was stealing his rails." The tears ran down the old man's face as he continued in tones and attitude of wildness,- "Deacon Meigs! put you where I was to-night, and where I've been many a night this winter, with your wife and children crying around you, and almost frozen, and almost starved, and you lookin' on and seein' and hearin' 'em, and you'd steal rails! Yes, Deacon Meigs, I tell you that YOU'D steal rails, though you be a deacon, and a good 'un too, so far as I knɔw. Ah! Deacon Meigs, there's no tellin' what a man 'll do, till he's put to it." The Deacon took out his handkerchief from his inner coat pocket, and wiped his eyes, and looked no longer in anger-but calmly, and in pity, and in love (for the Deacon was a really kind,good man), and replied, This occurrence took place in my native town, when I was a little boy. Those old men are now both dead; but I can never forget their looks, nor lose the impression which my father's narration of this incident made upon me. Since then, "Mr. Dea, take home these rails I have seen young men grow old in to-night, and make a good warm fire. corruption and in crime, and old men I am rather inclined to think you are fall into acts of meanness and vice, right, and that I might steal rails if and Christian men do wrong—and you put me to it-God only knows. I have seen them repent and weep, But, Mr. Dea, if you want any more and sin no more in those same ways wood this winter, come to me and in which they had fallen under I will give you all you need, only temptation-and when I think don't take any more of the fences, because I am afraid that this will displease God; but hang it!-I'd rather all my fences were burnt up than have my neighbours suffer as you have done." that I have not committed just those acts of sin into which they fell, I think that I might have done the very same if I had been tempted just as they were tempted; and so I have learned to pity them, and pray for them, and say no harsh word about them. God only knows under what power of temptation even a good man may fall. There is no telling what a man will do until he is put to it. God help us So those old men separated that night, and Mr. Dea never stole rails again, and Deacon Meigs looked out for him, and for other poor people, too, to be sure that none whom he could help should suffer so as to be tempted to steal. all! THE OFFERING OF ISAAC. (Gen. xxii. Heb. xi. 17-19.) BY THE REV. J. D. ALFORD, WHAT was the object of this trial? As a mere test of faith it would seem to have been extreme, and in danger of failure from that cause. Besides, in many ways, the faith of Abraham had been sufficiently tried to prove its genuineness and its strength. We cannot regard this as the principal element in the divine purpose in this case. One mode of teaching adopted by God is that of types, figures, and parables. And by these the great work of redemption, in its various parts, was early set before the human mind. By this act of Abraham we see a type of the position of God the Father and Jesus Christ given to the patriarch; but, understood by us in its fulness, who can look at the type in the antitype? Abraham had grown old. Nature's strength was gone; but God's promise was not fulfilled. It had become impossible for natural life tɔ realise the fulfilment of patriarchal hopes. But what was im |