God be praised! Now let thy servants depart in peace since our eyes have seen and our hearts felt the salvation of the Lord God so manifest in our own lives, in the lives of our children and of our grandchildren, but above all this, do we praise thee, O Lord God, because thou hast so demonstrated the graciousness and effectiveness of thy saving power in the marvelous development of the life of our grandson Enoch, who, though born in this sin-cursed earth of sinful parents and reared amidst bitter trials and temptations, was by thy saving power so pleasing to thee as to walk with thee daily, (for hundreds of years), as a companion and as one fitted in every way to dwell with thee in the Garden of Eden from which we were driven because of our ungodly disobedience."

After Adam and his wife had been taken away by the Lord God, and while He continued His long and delightful walk with Enoch, it would not be out of the way to say that the Lord God in one of those most delightful daily walks with Enoch said to him: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful to me in every respect during the past three hundred years, or all of thy life, amidst all the trials and temptations of this sin-cursed earth, as I have witnessed and approved by thy long and constant walk with me. Come thou with me to a place (or condition) infinitely better than the Garden of Eden and dwell with me and reign with me forever."

Comparatively soon after Adam and his wife and also Enoch were taken from the earth, as time was reckoned in those early days, a radical change for the worse took place with the descendants of Seth. This was brought about as stated in Genesis:

I. "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply

on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

2. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

4. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown" (Gen. 6: 1, 2, 4).

The sons of God here may have meant the descendants of Seth, and the daughters of men the descendants of Cain. The result was summed up in the following state

ment:

5. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5).

C. Application of this Salvation to Noah and His Family.

While this was so, in the third generation from Enoch there was born to his grandson Lamech a son.

29. "And he (Lamech) 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" (Gen. 5:29).

8. "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

9. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" (Gen. 6:8, 9).

The wretched condition of Man upon the earth is further spoken of in the same record:

II. "The earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with violence.

12. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" (Gen. 6:11, 12).

In view of this awful sight, the Lord God made known His purpose to His faithful servant, Noah, as follows:

13. "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.

14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

15. 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.

16. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shall 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.

17. 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 everything that is in the earth shall die.

18. 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.

19. 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" (Gen. 6: 13-19).

Everything was done in perfect accord with what the Lord God had told Noah. On the one hand it was an awful destruction, the penalty of awful sin against God. On the other hand it was a glorious salvation accom

plished through faith in God and His promised righteousness in Jesus Christ.

7. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (Heb. 11:7).

After all had been accomplished that had been foretold and promised by the Lord God, when Noah and all that were with him in the ark were saved from the flood and were come out of the ark, then Noah manifested his great faith in the merits of the promised Messiah by his prompt, special and large offering to the Lord, all of which typifies the one great sacrifice upon Calvary as follows:

20. "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.

21. 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.

22. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. 8: 20-22).

There is not space in this study to make mention of the many wonderful and mysterious things which the Lord God did for the salvation of His creature-Man. I can but make brief references to the most important of them. It is not needful, however, that I should do otherwise

since they are so generally well known at the present day. In all of these visitations of the Lord God to save His creature-Man, as they followed each other in succession from Adam to Jesus Christ, there was a notable and increasing manifestation of His power to save, a greater number of persons benefited by it and a more abiding and lively hope in the all-sufficiency of the Lord's promised Messiah. All of this was but preparatory work for our salvation and the salvation of the whole world by the Lord God.

9. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

10. But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Tim. 1:9, 10).

Immediately following Noah's great offering on the altar which he built unto the Lord, God blessed him and his sons and commissioned them to re-people the earth:

1. "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Gen. 9:1).

This blessing was accomplished with many and great promises and with a great and lasting covenant from the Lord. No persons, other than Noah, his three sons and their wives, had ever witnessed the mighty power of God to destroy and to save. They were also, without doubt,