DELUGE. The sacred historian informs us that in the ninth generation from Adam, when the race of man had greatly multiplied on the face of the earth, wickedness of every kind had fearfully increased, that every imagination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil continually, that the earth was filled with violence, and that to such a degree of depravity had the whole race come, that it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.' We are further told, in graphic and impressive lan guage, that the Creator determined to purge the earth from the presence of the creature whom He had made. 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 them.' In the midst of a world of crime and guilt there was however one household, that of Noah, in which the fear of God still remained. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and walked with God. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.' He was commanded to make an ark of gopher wood, three hundred cubits long, fifty broad, and thirty high. [ARK.] Into this large vessel he was to collect a pair of every liv ing thing of all flesh,' fowls, cattle, and creeping things after their kind, along with a suitable amount of food. He was to enter it himself, tak ing with him his wife, and his three sons with their wives, but with no other human company. The reason of these preparations was made known in the solemn decree—' 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.' The ark thus commissioned was slowly prepared by Noah. At length, in the six hundredth year of his age, he finished his task, and after having collected in the various chambers of his huge vessel speci mens of the different tribes of terrestrial animals, along with a store of their appropriate food, he entered himself with his family. Seven days after wards the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened ; and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.' The ark floated on the surface of the waters, and the flood increased continually until it had risen i5 cubits above the highest mountains, and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered.' As the necessary result of this total change of physical conditions, the inhabi tants of the land utterly perished ; every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and the creep ing things, and the fowl of the heaven, they were destroyed from the earth, and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark' The narrative in the Book of Genesis then goes on to shew how the waters gradually abated until, in the seventh month, the ark rested upon the moun tains of Ararat, and at last, within a few days of a year from the time when the deluge began, the land was once more dry, and Noah descended from the ark, bringing with him the various creatures that had been his companions on the deep. The
command once again came forth to all flesh, Be fruitful and multiply upon the earth ;' a new and everlasting covenant was established by God with the earth which He had made, and in all future ages, so long as sun and moon should endure, the rainbow in the clouds was to stand as at once a memorial of the Lord's vengeance upon sin, and a pledge that he would no more destroy the world by a flood of waters.
The memory of this great catastrophe has been preserved among many nations, both in the old and the new world. The details of the story vary in deed in different countries, and have commonly more or less of a local colouring. Such a circum stance, however, is only what might have been looked for, and affords no real ground for the be lief that there must have been many local deluges to which alone these somewhat discordant tradi tions can refer. One primitive story could not fail to receive many additions and alterations as it passed into different climates, and was handed down from generation to generation by men who had lost all memory of the original locality of the event. The best known of all the traditions next to the narrative of the Bible, is the old Greek legend of Deucalion and Pyrrha. According to this version, mankind, for their impiety, were doomed to destruction. The waters accordingly broke from the earth accompanied by violent rains from heaven. In a short time the world was whelmed in the floods, and every human being perished save Deucalion and his wife, with his sons and their wives. They escaped in a large vessel, in which they had previously placed pairs of every kind of animal. While in the ark Deucalion sent forth a dove, which in a little time returned. On being let free a second time, it carne not back, or, as another version has it, it alighted again on the ark with mud-stained claws, whence Deucalion in ferred that the subsidence of the waters had begun.