ever present with us, to check the murmuring apprehensions which too readily arise, when these blessings appear for a time to be interrupted or delayed.

CHAPTER IX.

Q. Verse 2.-Adduce from natural history, and from your own observation, some evidence of the fulfilment of this promise.

A. We cannot observe the habits of either the wild or the domestic animals, without being able to trace its fulfilment. From the mighty denizens of the forest to the most minute insect in our path, all the tribes of animated nature do homage to the superiority of man. In their wild state, we find the beasts of the field avoiding the haunts of men, and seldom attacking them, except in self-defence, or under some strongly exciting cause, such as intense hunger or provocation.

The Psalmist beautifully describes them as not intruding upon the hours which man devotes to his own labours or pursuits. "Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work, and to his labour until the evening." (Ps. civ. 20-23.) In domestic animals we see much less of this shyness and timidity, but then their very tameness and docility are but the more striking evidences of subjection. The ponderous strength of the elephant submits itself to the direction of man, and its docility renders it obedient to the control even of a child; so of the ox, of the horse, of the dog; indeed of all the brute creation; and of the tribes of the air and of the

sea.

In addition to our own daily experience of this, we have the testimony of St. James, that "every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind." (James iii. 7.) This assurance may serve at once to exalt and to humble us, when we contrast our habitual sovereignty over the beasts of the field, with the little control which we habitually exercise over ourselves; and the Apostle does not fail to set this before us, when he goes on to say, "The tongue can no man tame: it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." It is, indeed, true that of his own strength, or wisdom, 66 no man can tame" his tongue, nor govern his spirit: but then (blessed be God!) no man who humbly and fervently prays for the help of the Holy Spirit, will be left unassisted by "the wisdom which is from above," and which "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." (James iii. 17.)

Q. Verse 12.-Refer to other passages of Scripture in which this "token" of God's covenanted mercy to man is mentioned.

A. In Ezekiel's vision of the "likeness of the glory of the Lord," we are told that " as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about." (Ezek. i. 28.) In the Apocalypse we read that "there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald;" (Rev. iv. 3) and again, of the mighty angel "who came down from heaven and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are there, that there should be time no longer." Of this mighty angel we are told that he was "clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head." (Rev. x. 1.) Upon comparing these texts, one with another, the believer cannot fail joy

fully and thankfully to recognize in the rainbow a type of spiritual as well as of temporal mercies. "Unto the upright there ariseth up light in the darkness." (Ps. cxii. 4.) In temporal matters there is no such habitual realization of the supporting presence of God, as that which is reflected upon the cloud of adversity. Is not this significantly intimated by the words, "I do set my bow in the cloud?" without the cloud there could be no rainbow, although the sun might be shining brightly in the firmament; so, in spiritual matters, without a deep and contrite sorrow for sin, there can be no true recognition of the brightness of the promise "unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." (Mal. iv. 2.) Henceforth, let none of us regard the rainbow as a beautiful appearance, addressed to our outward senses only, the remembrance of which may be suffered to pass away with its own fleeting hues; but rather let us, as often as the token shall be renewed in our sight, lift up our hearts in renewed thankfulness to God for all his past and present mercies, and look forward with renewed faith and confidence, to those brighter manifestations of his love which are yet to come. We are prophetically assured, that "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isa. lix. 19.) And He who, at the first, "set his bow in the cloud," in token that He would no more destroy the earth with a flood, has vouchsafed in visions to his favoured servants Ezekiel and John, to intimate, that in heaven the significant memorial is ever displayed in the sight of cherubim and seraphim, and that when his "mighty angel" shall at last come down from heaven with the awful announcement, that "Time shall be no more,"-even then the rainbow of mercy shall be seen resting upon the cloud of judgment, according to the prophetic declaration that He was "clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was his head."

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Q. Verses 25. 27.-Prove from other records of Scripture, as well as from general history, the fulfilment of these remarkably distinct prophecies.

A. In the sacred record of the wars of Joshua, we have many proofs of the fulfilment of the curse here denounced upon Ham, whose descendants the ancient inhabitants of Canaan were. "By little and little” (Deut. vii. 22) they were to be extirpated and driven out before the children of Israel, who were descended from Shem; and so "it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxed strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute; but did not utterly drive them out;" (Josh. xvii. 13) thus, according to the prophecy, Canaan became the servant of Shem. We are told of the Gibeonites (one of the tribes of Canaan) that by craft they made peace with Joshua, who "made a league with them to let them live;" (Josh. ix. 15, and context) but, when their subtilty was discovered, a sentence of perpetual bondage was pronounced upon them, in terms which have a close affinity to the terms of the prophecy: "Now, therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood, and drawers of water for the house of my God." Many years after we find Solomon confirming this sentence upon the descendants of Ham, who yet remained in the land, and they then became literally "the servants of servants;" for it is said, "upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bond service unto this day. But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants." (1 Kings ix. 21, 22.) Nor is this all; even in the present day the fulfilment of the prophecy is remarkably apparent, and it is beautifully illustrated by Dr. Keith, in his Evidence of Prophecy. In a chapter upon Slavery of the Africans-European Colonies, the following brief, but very comprehensive passage occurs: "Though long banished from almost all Europe, slavery still lingers in Africa. That country is distinguished above every

other as the land of slavery. Slaves at home, and transported for slavery, the poor Africans, the descendants of Ham, are the servants of servants,' or slaves to others. Yet so unlikely was this fact to have been foreseen by man, that for centuries after the close of the Old Testament history, the inhabitants of Africa disputed with the Romans the empire of the world.” (Keith's Evidence, p. 346.)

The especial blessing pronounced upon Shem: "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem," may be traced to its fulfilment in the lineal descent of our blessed "Lord God" and Saviour from Him: (see Luke iii. 36) and the fulfilment of the promise that "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem," may be proved by another reference to the same chapter of Keith's Evidence of Prophecy, already quoted: "What is at present the relative situation or connexion of the inhabitants of Europe and Asia, the descendants of Japheth and of Shem? May not the former be said literally to dwell in the tents of the latter? Or what simile, drawn from the simplicity of primeval ages, could be more strikingly graphic of the numerous and extensive European colonies in Asia? And how much have the posterity of Japheth been enlarged within the regions of the posterity of Shem! In how many of their ancient cities do they dwell! How many settlements have they established! While there is not a single spot in Europe, the colony or the property of the nations whom the Scriptures represent as descended from Shem; and it may be said, more especially in reference to our own island, and to the immense extent of the British dominions in Asia, that the people of the Isles of the Gentiles' dwell in the tents of the East.'" (See Gen. x. 5. 30.)