His first act on leaving no ara was u acanow ledge the mercy of God.

10. When Noah made this offering, Gou signified to him his intention never more to destroy mankind by a flood, and at the same time the rainhow first appeared in the sky. It has since often been called the bow of promise and of hope, be cause it reminds men of the gracious promise of God, and because it appeared when God encouraged them by his covenant with Noah that he would be the eternal friend of the human race.

11. Noah's three sons were Shem, Japhet, and Ham; of these Ham is memorable for showing disrespect to his father, and for the prophecy uttered by Noah concerning him. To prophecy is to foretel what is to happen in future times.

Inspired men only are prophets. The only proof that a man is a prophet, is that what he has foretold really comes to pass afterwards.

12. Noah foretold that the descendants of Ham should become servants to the posterity of his brothers. It is believed that Ham was the first ancestor of the Africans, and that his brothers were the first ancestors of the Asiatics and Europeans. The present white inhabitants of America are descended from Europeans. The Africans have always been a barbarous people except on the north coast of Africa; and they have been, for a long time, and in great numbers, slaves to the Americans, and in the European colonies of the West Indies. Thus have the posterity of Han become servants to the posterity of Noah's other sons.

13. For some years after the flood mankind continued together, probably about mount Ararat, a mountain near the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates. Between these rivers is Mesopotamia or Shinar. In time this country became populous, and here was erected the Tower of Babel.

14. A great multitude of people joined to build a tower of immense height, and they had made considerable progress in their work, when it pleased God to put a stop to it. Till then all mer had spoken one language, but now God confounded their language, that is, he caused some to speak in one, and others to speak another language, so that they could no better understand each other, than a number of persons speaking French, Spanish, and Italian, each understanding only his own language, could now be understood

by one another. Therefore this tower was called Babel or confusion.

15. Soon after the confounding of language men spread over the eastern continent in various directions, but many of them forgot the true God, and imagined there might be other gods, or that men had the power of God, or that things without life or sense were gods; so they made images of these false gods, and built temples for them, and worshipped them in groves or on hills, which the Scripture calls "high places," Among the things worshipped were the sun, moon, and stars; afterwards fire, and the elements; and lastly the passions and vices of men. "They made a god of wine for the drunkards, of gold for the covetous, of thieves for the dishonest, &c." The history of these false gods is Mythology. The images of the gods were Idols, and the worship Idolatrv.

THE RAINBOW.

The following passage from the book of Genesis relates the declaration of God to Noah on the first recorded appearance of the rainbow.

"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 any more be a flood to destroy 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."

Mr. Campbell's verses to the Rainbow.
Triumphal arch, that fill'st the sky
When storms prepare to part,
I ask not proud philosophy

To teach me what thou art

Seem ever as to childhood's sight,
A midway station given

For happy spirits to alight

Betwixt the earth and Heaven.

Can all that optics teach, unfold

Thy form to please me so,

As when I dreamt of

gems and gold

Hid in thy radiant bow?

To me, fair bow no fabling dreams,
But words of the Most High,

Have told why first thy robe of beams
Was woven in the sky.

When o'er the green undelug'd earth
Heaven's covenant thou didst shine,
How came the world's
gray fathers forth
To watch thy sacred sign.

And when its yellow lustre smiled
O'er mountains yet untrod,
Each mother held aloft her child
To bless the bow of God.

The earth to thee her incense yields,
The lark thy welcome sings,
When glittering in the freshened fields
The snowy mushroom springs.

How glorious is thy girdle cast
O'er mountain, tower, and town,
Or mirror'd in the ocean vast,
A thousand fathoms down!

As fresh in yon horizon dark,
As young thy beauties seem,
As when the eagle from the ark,
First sported in thy beam.

For faithful to its sacred page,

Heaven still rebuilds thy span,
Nor lets the type grow pale with age
That first spoke peace to man.

Illustrations.

Can all that optics teach, &c. The science of optics teaches the real nature of the rainbow.-I. informs us that the rainbow is caused by a reflection of the sun's light. After a shower, vapours from the earth rise into the sky, and the sun, from the opposite side of the heavens, shines upon them