covering having been removed, there existed no natural impediment to his departure, he suffers

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patience to have her perfect work," and waits calmly and contentedly, until the same God who invited him to enter, should command him to depart.

Observe, here, another proof that Noah acted, not on impulse, but on principle. Impulse would lead a man to throw himself into a place of safety, but nothing but principle could keep him there when the danger is at an end. "He that believes," says the apostle, "will not make haste." Your situation in life may be a difficult one, your position a painful one, but if you find yourself there, as you have reason to believe, by God's providence, or have gone thither, as you trust, at God's bidding, be in no haste to leave it. You may employ such means as reason and prudence dictate, to ascertain the safety or the propriety of your departure; but having done this, wait prayerfully and patiently, until it please God, by his providence, to call you forth, for so alone can you be sure that his presence and blessing will guide, protect, and keep you.

EXPOSITION XXIV.

GENESIS viii, 15-22.

15. And God spake unto Noah, saying,

16. Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.

17. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth: that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

18. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:

19. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

20. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

22. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

And now the joyful order proceeds from the lips of the Almighty, "Go forth of the ark ;”

and Noah and his family and every beast, and every creeping thing, and every fowl went forth. His first act was, as we might have expected from such a man, an act of grateful devotion. He built an altar, and, small as was the number of every clean beast and fowl, he hesitated not to offer of every kind in gratitude to the God who had preserved him. Doubtless, it was for this reason that God had commanded him, "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens," while of the unclean there were only two. Sufficient proof that sacrifice originated in a Divine command, and that no circumstances of difficulty or of scarcity were to abrogate it. That God accepted the sacrifice is distinctly declared, and that he now revealed to man his merciful intention, never again, in a similar manner, to destroy the earth or its inhabitants. Yet, alas! how painfully degrading to our fallen race, reason to which the Almighty himself attributes his forbearance! "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." The iniquity derived from our first parents was so deeply inherent, that even the waters of the deluge could not drown it. Therefore man, sinning man, shall no more thus be smitten; but the Almighty will take compassion upon his infirmities, and

is the

though he will not overlook his corruptions, he will no more destroy him from off the face of the earth; for "he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust." What a plea does this forbearance of God put into the mouth of every penitent and returning sinner! Surely, if we know ourselves, if we know anything at all of the character of Him with whom we have to do, we shall not attempt to extenuate our guilt, to conceal the depth of our iniquities from his all-seeing eye, but we shall rather approach God in the language of the deeply-penitent David, pleading the very enormity of our sins, as a proof of our utter helplessness and hopelessness, and saying, “For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great."* So great, that but for the love which thou bearest to thine only Son; for the sake of the blood that cleanseth from all sin, I dare not, I could not, approach thy holy mercy-seat. It is when the heart is thus brought by the power of God's Spirit, to feel the fearful enormity of its own guilt, and its utter hopelessness of any relief but from God, that you can alone expect to find, and that you assuredly will find, pardon and peace.

* Psalm xxv. 11.

EXPOSITION XXV.

GENESIS ix. 1-6.

1. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

2. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

As the first words spoken by the Almighty, after the work of creation was concluded, were words of blessing, so also were the first words spoken by the same merciful Being, after his great work of destruction was finished, and Noah and his family preserved. "God blessed Noah and his sons. Truly does the Psalmist, when speaking of the wonderful acts of the Most High, whether it be in remembering his people "in their low estate," or in slaying "mighty kings," equally conclude by repeating, "For his mercy endureth for ever." All is mercy; the destruction of the ungodly, or the preservation of the righteous, alike is mercy; Ps. cxxxvi. 23, 18.