without being numbered among his saved ones, lest it should be too late. Will you, can you reject him who is so willing to make you his?

Never let us forget that our first reception of Christ must be in his sufferings. He is describing the glories of his second advent; and it is in the midst of this description the words oocur: "First must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation."

All doctrines rest upon these great facts; and, just as it was necessary that Christ should suffer first and reign afterwards, so must our first approach to him be at the cross, we must come to him as the suffering, dying Saviour, or we shall never reign with him in glory. And as it is true that we must, so is it true also that we may. Christ suffering for our sins is the first object to be presented before the eye of the sinner. Forgiveness is the first need, the primary want of the soul. It is of no use to tell the convinced sinner of Christ's glory when he comes again the second time; its only effect is to make him more hopeless. That which he needs to know is the one truth that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. This was the first truth which Jesus made to be a truth by dying. This was the first doctrine delivered to St. Paul, and the first doctrine taught by him to others; and this is the first anchoring ground to which one made conscious of sin can fasten himself. There is everything in beginning at the right end. You must not attempt to improve yourself till you have obtained forgiveness. This is the one blessing you stand in need of, and without this nothing else is really valuable. Some will not go to Christ suffering on the cross for pardon, till they have

fitted themselves, as they think, for Christ's presence. Then they will never go at all. Christ suffered first because he would save the sinful; and since he did suffer, the most sinful may obtain salvation. None are too sinful to be washed in his blood. His sufferings are of infinite worth; and every sinner, however guilty, who washes his sins away in the blood of Jesus, will have life through his name.

And then how much do we, who have received forgiveness, owe him. To procure it for us he has suffered many things. Never can we understand the depth of his agony; but it is to this we owe every hope we possess. How he claims our love! Oh that he would fill our hearts with such a flood of holy fire that they might burn with intense and never-to-be-extinguished affection. We do love him, but we want to love him more. We want to feel his love like a fire in our bosom, which cannot be restrained. May each deep sorrow of the Son of Man wake up within us this blessed flame; that, thinking of his love, we may love, as never yet, him, who in love to us, has suffered many things.

CHAPTER XIV.

NOAH'S DAYS.

THE days of Noah were the most remarkable, in some respects, that have ever been witnessed in earth's history. They form the most complete break in it imaginable: so much so, that the world before the flood is called the old world, in opposition to the world that now is. It was the most thorough finishing up of a dispensation possible, when the whole human family, with the exception of a single household, were swept at once into destruction.

This event occupies a very large space in the Book of Genesis. The memory of it still survives in the traditions of all, or almost all nations. It was an event which shut off all the past from the present by an impassable gulph. And when we look back upon it, it seems like that which can never be repeated. Repeated in that particular form it never will be. The promise was distinct, that never again should all flesh be destroyed by the waters of a flood. And the bow in the cloud still constantly reminds us both of the deluge and the promise. It still shines as fresh and as bright as when Noah left the ark, and remains a continual memorial of this wonderful event in earth's history.

Jesus declared that this event would be found in

some respects analogous to that of his coming to take his saints to himself: "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all."

There are three distinct periods of comparison suggested in the passage: that before Noah entered the ark; that in which Noah entered the ark; and that after Noah had entered the ark. And these periods were of considerable duration. The first is indefinite, reaching back to the beginning of apostasy. The second is short, confined to the actual day in which Noah went in. The third includes the gradual rise of the waters, till the mountains were covered, and the last man lay beneath them. In each of these three periods, 66 as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man."

The period before Noah entered the ark is described in these words: "They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage."

We know something more about the state of things before the flood than is here stated; and I think we must understand our Lord's words as referring to the whole history, and asserting a similarity between the state of things before the flood, and the state of things before Christ's appearing. The history of the world immediately before the flood is a short one, but it is an impressive one. We can distinctly read in it the following features :—

First, a great advance in knowledge and civilization. The whole family of Cain, in which this chiefly

was found, was swept away from the face of the earth; not one 'remained to instruct his posterity in those arts which formed men's pride in those early days. The knowledge of them was therefore in great measure lost. But it was the fact, that immediately before the flood, agriculture, the mechanical arts, and music had attained their perfection. We do not know how many of our modern inventions may not have been anticipated. A flood sweeping over us now, and destroying all our artificers, designers, men of science and skill, would destroy with them all remembrance of our discoveries, at least in their practical use. There was nothing in itself wrong in scientific agriculture, in skilfully working metals, in handling the pipe and the organ. But the men engaged in these works were endeavouring to shut God out of his own world. By these, in themselves, useful arts, their minds seem to have been occupied; and they began to think themselves able to mould everything according to their will. Human reason, human skill, and human power, were conspicuous, and the men of that age idolized them. There were reasons, especially the greater length of life, which almost certainly made an advance in knowledge and refinement more rapid than it ever has been yet. And the impression which the short record in Genesis gives us is, that till the present time, if even now, the progress then attained has never been regained. There is nothing to imply that any miraculous aid was afforded to Noah in building the ark. It was not among the children of Seth that the arts were chiefly cultivated; and yet the ark was as large and as difficult to build as the Great Eastern. I am inclined to believe that, as far as knowledge goes, we of the present day should