of men became the beds of new seas and oceans, while the channels of the ancient waters occasionally became the terra firma of a new world.

The sea-drenched earth, the miserable wreck of its ancient grandeur, chilled by its long submersion in this watery waste, became the cold and comparatively dreary abode of the new family of man. But Noah, soon as it became dry, reared an altar to the Lord, and presented a grateful offering to his Almighty Benefactor, who had safely piloted his unwieldy ship on a dark and shoreless ocean to a safe and comfortable anchorage in the cliffs of Ararat-where we shall leave him till our next lesson.

CONVERSATION VIII.

AFTER reading the eighth and ninth chapters a second time, the conversation was resumed.

Olympas. Tell me, Susan, how many human beings were saved in the Ark ?

Susan. Only eight: these were Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their four wives.

Olympas. Of the three sons of Noah who was the first born or eldest?

James. Shem, I presume, because he is always first named.

Olympas. Is that a scriptural rule, that that which is first named is first done, or the person first named is first born, Eliza?

Eliza. No: for Moses and Aaron prove that the most important and reputable frequently take precedence. Aaron was certainly three years older than Moses; yet Moses is always first named, because most honourable; and so in this case Shem is most certainly younger than Japheth, and yet he is always first named. This is also true of Jacob and Esau.

Olympas. How do you prove, Reuben, that Shem was younger than Japheth?

Reuben. 1st. Because when Moses relates the families of these three, he begins with Japheth, chapter x., proceeds to Ham, and ends with Shem. 2nd. Because he calls Japheth the elder, chaps. x., xxi. He is said to be older than Shem. According to age it would read Japheth, Ham, and Shem.

K

Often the last in birth is first in rank: as Moses and Aaron, Jacob and Esau, Paul and Barnabas, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, &c.

Olympas. Is there any allusion to the salvation of Noah and his family in the New Covenant Scriptures, William ?

William. Peter says, baptism saves us as the ark in the deluge saved Noah.

Olympas. Perhaps you ought not to put the ark alone as the type, but the persons in the ark immersed in the deluge. The antitype, not of the ark so much as of the persons immersed in it. Baptism doth also now save us who have thus entered into the new covenant with Christ. Eight persons encased in a wooden chest, submerged in a world of waters, celestial and terrestrial, were indeed a good figure of those who enter into Christ and are immersed into his death. But does not Peter explain the salvation of which he speaks, Reuben?

Reuben. Yes, sir. "It is not," says he, "the putting off the pollutions of the skin, or of legal defilement, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, through the resurrection of Christ."

Olympas. A good conscience is the effect, not the cause of remission; and baptism is but the means of obtaining it; baptism saves no farther than it secures to us a good conscience. But without remission of sins, or a release from guilt, no person can have a good conscience; and therefore no one is saved from the condemning power of sin, but through faith and obedience according to the stipulations of the New Institution. But,

Thomas, in what sense, think you, does baptism

save us?

Thomas. It appears to me that if baptism in any sense save us, in that sense the unbaptized cannot be saved. But I do not fully comprehend in what sense it is that baptism saves us; I only believe that it saves in some sense, else Peter would not have said so.

Olympas. Salvation is a good deal like a cure. Of the diseased some are said to be healed and cured that are only partially so. But none are perfectly cured who are not restored to sound and vigorous health. The saved and the cured are not those who are merely getting better, or those who may hereafter be restored to good health, but those who are now healed, actually restored to perfect soundness. This perfect soundness in our moral nature requires a good conscience-an assurance of pardon founded upon the testimony of God-and a perfect reconciliation of heart to God. Now as this state of feeling and spiritual health presupposes a complete practical knowledge of the death, burial, and resurrection of Messiah; and as none can possibly have that deep practical knowledge of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ but the baptised; so none but they are wholly saved from sin, and intelligently and cordially reconciled to God.

Thomas. But are there not many baptised who have not this perfect and complete knowledge of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and can they be said to be saved in the sense of the Apostle Peter?

Olympas. No more than the unbaptised. He

that is baptized without previous faith in Christ, repentance towards God, and intelligence as respects his death, burial, and resurrection, cannot have that spiritual and moral health which constitutes that cure called by Peter salvation. But we are getting too much into the antitype of the salvation of Noah by water. Let us look again at father Noah when the Ark was uncovered.

Thomas. It looked, indeed, very like the opening of a grave. There was no opening of the door, but an uncovering of the roof. Noah and his household seemed to arise from the dead, as those who had been long interred. There was a figurative burial and resurrection in this salvation of Noah.

Olympas. And in another point of view might he not be regarded as one born again?

Thomas. So it would appear to me; for he entered the world again-a new world too-the old having been destroyed.

Olympas. And what, Edward, is the first recorded act of the regenerated Noah?

Edward. HE BUILDED AN ALTAR UNTO THE LORD.

Olympas. Remember, my good children, that the first building on the new-born earth, after its immersion was an altar-an altar for the Lord; and that altars are reared for Jehovah alone. Let us, then, attend carefully to this circumstance. Tell me, Edward, was this the first altar that was ever built?

Edward. It is the first recorded but not the first that was built. Cain and Abel, after the example of Adam their father, offered sacrifice;