with grey and leaden sky: the rain drops had become larger and fell in closer array. The valleys were already flooded. And now arose fierce whirlwinds, rending trees and shattering the habitations of man; with loud hoarse thunder, which seemed cracking the firmament, and lurid lightning, darting with the rapidity of a serpent's sting, and seeming to be the only light that could penetrate the thickened atmosphere.

Sudden terror fell upon all men. It seemed like the approach of universal dissolution. Fear gave them desperate energy. As the floods increased, they removed from place to place in search of dry ground; till finding none in the vales and plains, they betook them to the hills, with feverish hopes and apprehensions. There was no abatement of the storm for a moment. Howling winds, incessant rain, booming thunder, and the fearful hiss of the blue lightning made day hideous, and gave to night the appearance of a general conflagration.

Now prayers were offered up upon the hills and rocks mingled with fearful imprecations-blasphemous oaths with the wailings of despair. Knees, that never before bowed to the throne of the Creator, were bent in solemn reverence and adjuration to the Mighty Spirit whose wrath had been kindled against a guilty world. The mother clasped her infant to her bosom, but vainly strove to shelter it from the drenching

and pitiless elements. Lovers forgot their timidity, and fled to each other's arms for succour and solace. All enmities were now forgotten. The common calamity had dissipated every thought but such as tended to self-preservation. Even the animals which had shunned the presence of man, crowded to the same haunts for shelter. The gaunt tiger forgot his savage nature in the fear with which he was stricken: the lion crouched beside the unharmed antelope. All creatures, however opposite in their habits and dispositions, sought the summits of the high hills and huddled together; and all were filled with the same intense awe and despair.

Upward and upward rose the waters hour after hour. There was no cessation, no pause-nothing to impart a ray of hope to those who were now conscious of their coming doom. Already numbers had perished in the waters, or among the crowds, trampled down by the huge animals which pressed upon the track of man. Hunger began to mingle with other feelings, and human affections to grow cold and wither. Individual clinging to life, and the sense that all but self was an encumbrance, began to grow universal. Children, as they climbed from ridge to ridge among rocky mountains, forsook their aged parents, fathers and mothers their offspring-the babe at the breast was the last to be relinquished, and when the mother had lost her youngest born she also soon dropped,

and died. The agony and horror of the time were fearful, and every moment it grew more and more unendurable. Some, no longer able to abide the terrors which encompassed them, rushed into the waters beneath and perished by their

own act.

After a few days, the ark was upraised from its place and floated upon the waters, and Noah and his family knew that the plains and many of the hills were covered with the flood; and that the world must have sustained much suffering and woe. Although the roar of the elements without was terrific, the light of Heaven was upon the ark, and peace and security were within it. The power and goodness of God, in thus preventing the total destruction of all that was on the earth, was above estimate or comprehension.

For forty days the rain prevailed upon the earth; and the waters rose above the tops of the highest mountains; and mankind, and all flesh, of fowl, of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing, were engulphed in a watery grave. None but the inmates of the ark of God were saved alive. Death had dominion over all that had dwelt upon the dry land. The wicked had ceased from troubling, and the weary were at rest. Old man and maiden, the grey-haired widow and her young and manly son, the infant and his sire, had all

perished. The sun rose, after forty days, upon a vast and shoreless ocean. The ark now rode in the calm clear sunshine upon the face of the waters, which shone like a glassy mirror over the depopulated world.

And Noah, when he saw that the rain had ceased, opened a window of the ark, and sent forth a raven to see if it should find resting-place; but it returned at even-tide, weary and hungry, and so continued to go and return from day to day. And after seven days he sent forth a dove, to see if the waters were abated. But she, like the raven, could find no restingplace among the waters, and returned to the ark for shelter and food. Seven other days elapsed, and Noah again sent forth the dove; which again returned in the evening, and was taken into the ark; but, lo, on this occasion, she had in her mouth an olive leaf, which she had plucked from its branch. So Noah knew that the waters were abated. Who shall describe the joy which the sight of this simple leaf conveyed to the bosoms of the only living family in the great world! Well might the olive be thenceforward an emblem of peace, and hope, and happiness! Still onward and onward floated the huge ark over the abyss. The mountain tops began gradually to appear; and at the end of a third seven days, when the gentle dove was sent forth again, it returned no