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off from the earth.

Noah's opening the window and sending out the birds to see if the waters were abated pictures to us how the good people watched for the signs of better days, when the world would be beautiful and happy again.

At the end of the story we read about the rainbow in the cloud. Perhaps when we see a rainbow again it will remind us how the Lord took care of the few good people when there was so much wickedness in the world, and that His care still bends over the world, to give as much of protection and help as men are willing to receive.

These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind; two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. . . .

And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the

tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: and he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark; for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came in to him in the evening, and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him any more.

And it

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came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. 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. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth

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

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

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.-Genesis VI. 9-22; VII. 24; VIII.; IX. 1, 12–17.

THE CALL OF ABRAM.

ABRAM was a man who lived a long time ago. His first home was at Ur by the Euphrates River, not far from the Persian Gulf, but there are only ruins now to show where the city was. Abram had left his home and journeyed with his father and brother and all their family and flocks of sheep and goats and herds of cattle far up the Euphrates River to a town called Haran. A brother of Abram named Haran had died in Ur. The other brother Nahor and his father died at Haran, and Abram was then the head of the tribe.

The people of that country worshipped idols, and the Lord called Abram to come to another land, the land of Canaan, where he and his family could learn to obey and worship the Lord. So Abram journeyed on with his wife Sarai and Lot his brother Haran's son, and a company of men and women and children and flocks and herds. There were camels for the journey, and when they stopped they pitched their black goats' hair tents.

They crossed the Euphrates River at some ford and came by the old city Damascus and down the east side of the Jordan. They crossed the Jordan and now they were in the land of Canaan. They spread their tents by the oak or terebinth tree of Moreh, by the town of Shechem, near the middle of the land, in a beautiful plain where there was pasture for their flocks. Abram was the priest as well as the chief of the tribe, and wherever they stayed he built an altar to the Lord who had called him and was leading him.

They journeyed on towards the south and camped next upon the hill between Bethel and Ai, or Hai, where you can

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(Photograph by Babylonian Expedition, University of Pennsylvania; courtesy of H. V. Hilprecht. Copyright, 1903, by A. J. Holman & Co.)

Daghara canal, near Babylon.

look westward to the sea and eastward across the Jordan. From here they still journeyed south, and, because there was a famine in the land, they went down into Egypt. Egypt was a great rich country, and the river Nile watered its farms and gardens when other countries were dry for lack of rain. You have seen pictures of the great pyramids in Egypt. They were there when Abram came and were already very old. We shall learn more about Egypt and see more pictures of it by and by.

Then Abram and Lot came back from Egypt to the land of Canaan. They came up through the great sunny pastures that were called "the South Country" to the high hills of

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