Noah's life was illustrated by righteousness. In other words, the faith of the gospel of Christ is not a solitary ascetic, that builds its cell and lives in it alone, but, on the contrary, the prolific parent of whatsoever things are pure, and just, and honest, and lovely, and of good report—to faith is added virtue, and to virtue brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. It is thus that faith in a Christian's heart is the source of all the good works that adorn a Christian's life; and it is to illustrate the connection between these two that I proceed to unfold these words— "Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him."

Before entering on this, I would observe, that good works are not stones added to faith, as if it were only a lower stone in the superstructure, disconnected with it, yet instantly following it, or laid upon it; but they are fruits, and flowers the same vitality that is in the root is in the topmost bough; and the tree bears fruit, because it has life. Therefore a symbol of a Christian is that of a tree, that by faith brings forth fruits of righteousness, and not that of a building one stone laid upon another, and others superadded continuing the courses.

To show the faith that Noah must have had, and how truly it was by faith in God's word that he surmounted no ordinary obstacles, I would state some of those difficulties which must have presented themselves to Noah's mind. He may have thought, surely God will not be so severe. I have found him a loving, affectionate, and kind Father; I have found him bearing and forbearing. And he might have argued, as the serpent argued with Adam and Eve, "Ye shall not surely die." God has uttered this as a threat which he does not mean to execute; and therefore I will not be at the trouble of making such vast preparations for what, in all probability, will not occur at all.

Again, the reasoning of the enemies of God, must have appeared to Noah very startling, though not strong enough to arrest his procedure. Some of the scientific men of that day said, no doubt, Where will sufficient water be found? How shall such a weight of water be lifted from the depths of the sea, and made to overflow the highest hills? If the worst come to the worst, and there be this flood, we shall find shelter in some spots that it will not reach, or we shall be able to set afloat some vessels, in which we shall be saved. And therefore we will neither enter the ark, nor believe your prophecy, nor in any way accept your proposals. Now the only answer that Noah could give to all this was, "Thus saith the Lord." Probably Noah could not answer scientific objections by scientific solutions, but he could say, "Thus saith the Lord" created the world, and "Thus saith the Lord" maintains it, and "Thus saith the Lord" is able to reduce it to its pristine chaos as it is positively predicted. So must it be. We must not look at a thing that could have been, or how it is possible it may be, but simply ascertain from that Book, which speaks without error, what God has said, and what his holy mind is.

Noah, too, in doing all that God commanded him, must himself have felt that he had great difficulties to encounter. He had not only the doubts and suspicions of his own heart to overcome, he had not only the cavils and the objections of his enemies to repel, but he had also difficulties in his own inward feelings and personal position, that must have made him hesitate not a little. How shall I build a vessel, he may have thought, seeing I have never lifted an axe before? and how shall I, who am not a sailor, navigate it upon unknown tempestuous seas without a chart, a compass, or any acquaintance with the management of the helm? And if I do so, how shall I induce all the beasts of the earth, and the birds of the air, and the creeping things, pair

by pair, to enter into this ark? These difficulties, no doubt, did array themselves in his imagination, and made him sometimes hesitate. But faith can think what others only dream of, and it can do what others think, and it can triumph where others only attempt. And having, therefore, God's word, "This shall be," and God's command, "This do you," Noah by faith "did according unto all that the Lord commanded him." Thus it was by faith that Noah set to work, and built the ark, and prepared for the coming Flood and that faith, we read, was crowned with triumphant results; and those who doubted his word, and disbelieved God's being, as well as the possibility of God's judgments, soon saw that the old fanatic-they proclaimed him to be so a hundred years before was the true and faithful prophet. When the fountains of the great deep and the windows of heaven began to break open, and all nature, as if rising on earth against humanity, opened its terrible artillery upon the world, they who once laughed at him as a fanatic, accepted him as a prophet; they who expelled him from their society were now almost ready to worship him. The greatest sceptics are invariably, in the hour of approaching danger, the greatest cowards, and the rebound. from utter derision to idolatry is a very easy and a very frequent one.

Noah, as another part of what God commanded him, spoke to the creatures the four-footed beasts of the earth, the birds of the air, and all creeping things, and summoned them to come into the ark. At first he feared this was an impossible thing; but no sooner did he open his lips to utter God's command, than instantly all the animated things heard and obeyed him. Here was a vestige of the ancient dominion over nature, which man had lost, restored to Noah upon this occasion teaching us that still the way to recover man's lost dominion over nature, is for him to

recover God's image upon his own soul. Noah obeyed God, and all nature obeyed Noah. The highest servant of God will always be found to be the greatest sovereign of nature around him. And do we not see traces of this in the fact, that as nations grow in their Christian character, in the same ratio almost do they grow in all that ennobles, elevates, and exalts a country? Where is it that you find the highest science, the purest literature, the noblest philosophy? Are not these plants that grow upon the soil that has been watered by the dew, and shone upon by the beams of the Sun of righteousness? Where is it that you see man the great sea-lord and landlord of all? It is where Christianity has its deepest hold, and where its transforming influence has been most thoroughly felt. Just in proportion as a nation grows in its moral character, does it recover its mastery over the animate and inanimate creation around it—a foretoken, a pledge, and an earnest of that day that will surely come, when man shall have restamped upon him once more the perfect image of his God, and nature again shall recognize her Sovereign and her Lord in him. The reins were dropped when Adam fell; the reins will be replaced in man's hand when the second Adam comes. He lost his sovereignty by sin, he will regain his sovereignty by righteousness; and the beasts obeying Noah, and the miracles that Jesus did, are all pledges and earnests that it will ultimately be so.

Another part of what Noah did, as God commanded him, was to walk with God. It is recorded in another passage that Noah walked with God. This is a very beautiful and expressive proof of Christian character. He walked safely, because where God advanced, he moved; where God stood, he stood still; and thus walking with God, rough places became smooth, difficulties disappeared, hills were levelled, valleys were filled up, and all things became plain to him

who felt that he was overshadowed by the power, and inspired by the directing wisdom, of Almighty God. The course that we are to pursue still, is just that course which was trodden by the footsteps of Noah before us - we too are to walk with God, doing what he commands, following the example that he sets, listening to a word upon the right hand and upon the left, saying continually, "This is the way, walk ye in it;" and so our last step will cross the valley of the shadow of death, and our footsteps echo on the floor of that everlasting rest that remaineth for the people of God. We find that what Noah did in obedience to the word of God was a victory; that each step that Noah took in the course prescribed and pointed out by God, was happiness to himself. They who doubted God's word, and preferred the conclusions of their own sceptic wisdom, perished; he who believed, in the face of difficulties, in the spite of plausible objections, the simple "Thus saith the Lord," proved in the issue the grandest philosopher, by being preserved alone a monument of this great fact, that one word of God is stronger than the pillars that sustain the universe itself.

After Noah had thus acted, and entered the ark, and all things had happened as God predicted, though better than Noah expected, we read, in beautiful words, in the 16th verse, that "God shut him in." What an exquisite touch is that single sentence "God shut him in!" What a striking illustration that he who begins our course must end it, and that he who is the author of our salvation must also be its finisher! It was as necessary that God's hand should shut that door, as it was that God's prescriptions should open it. It was as necessary that God should take care of Noah while he was in the ark, as that God should appoint that ark as the retreat of safety for Noah and his family. If the ark be in any sense a type of our blessed