Adam by transgression fell,-that it is for this that Christ died, and the Holy Spirit of God is given; to further this end, therefore, should be his chief aim and labour. He will constantly meet with trial, and temptation, and suffering in this world, for it is his natural and deserved condition; he will often stumble and fall, for he is the heir of Adam's corrupted nature; but let him never forget the task which belongs to him here, nor the inheritance which awaits him hereafter. Let him recollect, that this corruptible must soon put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality; and that, then, being cleansed by the blood of Christ from the impurities of his original nature, and freed from the manifold imperfections which beset his path through life, he shall enter upon a Paradise more glorious than the earthly Eden, where he may freely "put forth his hand and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever!"

SERMON X.

THE COVENANT OF THE RAINBOW.

GEN. ix. 13.

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

THE striking circumstance referred to in the text, and related in the Lesson for the day', deserves, on many accounts, our attentive and grave consideration. As an account of the origin (at least the typical origin) of an extraordinary and beautiful appearance in the heavens, it must naturally be a subject of interest to every reflecting mind; as a token and pledge of a covenant between God and man, it is, of all others, the most conspicuous and enduring; for all nations and ages have beheld its brightness, and

understood, in some degree, the gracious import of its presence; as a proof of the mercy of God, and a pledge of his faithfulness and truth, it may be gazed upon with equal reverence and gratitude by all his rational creatures; and by us, as Christians, saved from a more terrible overthrow, and redeemed from a deeper destruction, it should be viewed as an everlasting monument of our deliverance. from the flood of eternal misery, and of the sunshine of that grace and favour, into which, by this deliverance, we have been exalted.

The whole history of God's dealings with the patriarchs that existed before the flood, is a surprising and consolatory illustration of his long-suffering and forbearance towards mankind. At no period of the world does the progress of vice appear to have been more rapid, nor when we consider the clear revelation of God made to Adam, and the length of time which he was permitted to live among his posterity-did forgetfulness of God ever

excuse; yet we learn from the history, that the Lord withheld his vengeance for the space of nearly two thousand years: and when at last the measure of their iniquity was completed; when the earth was filled with violence, and all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth; the language in which the sentence of their destruction is uttered, is the language of reluctance and pity; for it is written, "It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them1." And as soon as this terrible overthrow was completed, and the desolate earth once more emerged from the devouring waters, it seems-if we may ascribe such feelings to the Divine mind -as if the Almighty had been moved with compassion and regret at the sight of the

1 Gen. vi. 6, 7.

confusion and ruin which sin had wrought amongst the works of his hands; for it is recorded, that "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, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease 1." Such were the sorrowful and benevolent feelings which were entertained by the Almighty Father towards his feeble and erring creatures; and he proceeds immediately to announce his merciful determination to the remnant that was left. After having instructed Noah in some particulars of his future conduct, he adds, "And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the earth, and this is the token of the covenant