as handed down from the time of Noah. But to most the satisfactory answer to this will ever be-" All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." The words were used by Lamech, and, from whatever source they may have come to Moses, they were given to him by the Spirit of God:"Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my words; And a young man for my hurt. But Lamech seventy and seven-fold." He seems to have been attacked by a youth, and, in self-defence or by accident, to have slain him. His wives, alarmed lest vengeance should overtake him, need to be pacified; and he utters these words, which thus fit exactly into the narrative, to soothe them. As if he had said, "If Cain, who was purposely guilty, has been hedged around by divine arrangement, and will be avenged seven-fold if any hurt him, will not I be avenged seventy and seven-fold, who have done this in circumstances which contain in them their own palliation?" There comes thus to be no need of any wild hypothesis. The words are in their true and proper place. They occur here, not by mistake or through accident, but as part of a narrative in which the trustworthy history of these early ages of the world is contained. The expression, "Then began men to call on the name of the Lord," has been even more fruitful of topics for speculation than the muchdebated address of Lamech. But the difficulty is by no means formidable. It is natural to expect references to a gradual advance in spiritual worship in the opening chapters of Genesis, after God had revealed himself to man as a God of righteousness and grace. Accordingly these words point to another step onward and upward on the part of the seed that served God. We have noticed the progress from the fears of a guilty conscience, and the covering of fig leaves, to that rest in the promise of grace which bore fruit in the sacrifices, the flocks, and the coats of skin of the infant race. From this, again, we passed to yet higher ground in that manifestation of the special presence of God, and of a recognized place of worship pointed to by the cherubim on the east of Eden. And here we find, that as the race increased and was forced to wander away from Eden and the special presence revealed brightly on the east of it, the people betook themselves to prayer in their absence from the visible symbol. We have thus the prayer of faith"Then began men to call on the name of the Lord.” GENESIS V. These HIS is the book of the generations of Adam." words, which stand as a title to this chapter, introduce us to all the difficulties connected with the chronology of the earliest ages of the world. The usual way of treating this subject, is to regard the time between the creation and the flood as the first great chronological period. Some, however, make the first great period run from Adam to the calling of Abraham. The former plan is more satisfactory, because it keeps us free from the disputes connected with the second Cainan, until we fully examine the genealogy of Noah, and attain well-defined rules for guiding us in dealing with other genealogies. One Cainan is introduced in the genealogical table given by Luke (iii.), as the son of Enos and grandson of Seth. Another Cainan is mentioned in the same chapter (ver. 36) as the son of Arphaxad, and thus the grandson of Noah's son, Shem. No notice is taken of the latter Cainan in this chapter. Reference will be made to this when the genealogy of Abraham comes to be considered. The chief passages to be noticed, in connection with the chronology from Adam to Noah, occur in this and the four preceding chapters. "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years; and he begat sons and daughters. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died" (ver. 3-5). "And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son; and he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. And Lamech lived, after he begat Noah, five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (ver. 28-32). "And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened" (vii., 10, 11). "And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died" (ix., 28, 29). The division of time into periods first claims attention here. In the chapters already noticed, such terms as years, seasons, months, and days occur. These terms must be fully defined, before we can be in circumstances to deal with the chronology of the period from Adam to Noah. Years. It is beyond doubt that, even so early as the time of Noah, the mode of reckoning time was much the same as it is now. The year at the period of the deluge was the natural year, consisting of twelve lunar months, most likely of thirty days each. The present year, which embraces the time in which the earth moves in its orbit, is equal to three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and forty-nine seconds. It is clear, from the narrative of the flood, that the year was not, as now, the solar year. Thus, we are told that, "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened" (vii., 11). In the description of the continuance of the deluge it is said, "And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days" (vii., 24). "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" (viii., 2, 3). And in the next verse (4) we have a picture of the floating ark beginning to touch the dry land"And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." We have thus five months indicated, and, if we assign to these thirty days each, we get the one hundred and fifty days of the preceding verses. The year in the time of Noah was thus reckoned by twelve lunar months of thirty days each, or three hundred and sixty days in all. In the case of the solar year referred to above, in ordinary reckoning the fractions of time are left out, and the common civil year is held to consist of three hundred and sixty-five days only. But this implies that a day is lost in the course of four years, and this necessitates an artificial arrangement, by which the difference between the natural and the civil year is equated. There is proof that at a very early period a similar expedient was had recourse to in regard to the difference between the solar and the lunar years. Reckoned by twelve lunar months, there would be a loss of about eleven days by the sun every year. Thus the people were obliged once in three years to add a thirteenth month to the year. In later times of the Jewish history this intercalated month was named Veadar, or the second Adar-the first Adar being the twelfth month of the ordinary year. Reference will again be made to this when we come to look at the division of time instituted at the Exodus. Seasons. The introduction to the work of the fourth creation day runs thus "And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years" (i., 14). And at the close of chapter viii. we have the words of the Lord to Noah, uttered from the midst of the incense clouds of the sacrifice-"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." These allusions to natural phenomena have been held to warrant the following general division of the year into six seasons : But while there may be a very vague and general agreement between this arrangement and the climate of Palestine, it is forgotten that we have not here to do with Palestine only, or even with Asia Minor. The reference to seasons is of the widest kind, and is designed for every people and for all climes. Besides, the occurrence of the words "day and night" plainly intimate that the other expressions are used in the same general way. The word seasons thus includes all the natural conditions of climate referred to above, without any definiteness as to special dates. The day and the night runs through them all, and so may the cold and the heat. Seedtime and harvest also vary greatly in different lands. Strictly speaking, the seasons were only two-summer and winter; and the subordinate divisions were ranked under these. This conforms with Scripture usage. The sovereignty of the God of grace over the times and seasons is thus acknowledged in Psalm lxxiv.: "The day is thine, the night also is thine; Thou hast prepared the light and the sun Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: Thou hast made summer and winter." And when Zechariah describes, in glowing words, the outgushing of Spring the interval between 21st March and 21st June. Autumn the interval between 23rd September and 21st December. Winter the interval included between 21st December and 21st March. The explanation of the seasons is to be found in the varied positions which the earth assumes in its revolution round the sun, and the explanation of the phenomena of day and night in the position of the earth to the sun in its revolution on its own axis. The former occurs once in a year, the latter once in every twenty-four hours. The following simple diagram will best illustrate these statements. In the revolution of the earth round the sun, its poles, or axis of rotation, 1, 2, are held obliquely to its orbital plane or path in which it moves. This is represented by the undotted lines in the diagram. The poles are constantly directed to the same point of the heavens, and are thus always parallel to the line with which they coincided at the first position of the earth in its revolution round the sun. Thus 1, 2, at position II., is parallel to 1, 2, at position IV. In the former, moreover, the top, 1, of the axis of rotation, or north pole, is directed towards the sun; while the bottom, 2, or south pole, is turned away from it. In the latter the reverse is the case. When the earth, then, is in position II., the northern hemisphere has summer. The rays of the sun fall more perpendicularly on it, and the days are longer than the nights. When it is in position IV., the northern hemisphere has winter. The rays of light fall more obliquely on it, they have to travel through a more extensive space and a thicker atmosphere, and the nights are longer than the days. In positions I. and III. one-half of the globe is illuminated from pole to pole, and the days and nights are of equal duration. Thus, when the earth is at I. in the plane of its orbit, the date is March 21-that, |