improbability of three chief elements of civilisation bursting abruptly into being, we must bear in mind that the story has brought us to the very eve of the Deluge. Jabal, Jubal, and Tubalcain, in the imagination of the writer, leave no descendants at all. We are therefore forced into that spiritual view of the story which stamps it as divine, for there is nothing like it anywhere of human invention. The godless empire of the violent Lamech gives birth to the three things which the world has always held and still holds to be the essential marks of national prosperity —wealth, art, and mechanical appliances. And it is worthy of note that the names of Lamech's wives and daughters-which mean beauty, ornament, and grace-also point to a refined and luxurious society.

All these things has the Evil One given abundantly to those who will bow down and serve him. He presided unseen at the banquets of Belshazzar. He ministered to the lusts and the ambition of the tyrants of imperial Rome, and even now he throws his bribes broadcast among men flushed with the triumphant hurry of our material progress, till they talk more and more glibly of the infinite future in store for civilisation, and mock the God of heaven with the

predicted sneer, "Where is the promise of His coming?" But as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man.

To the eye of the seer of Genesis, while the sun is shining with undimmed splendour upon Lamech's empire, there is a vision on the horizon of

'Ragged rims of thunder brooding low
With shadow-streaks of rain."

The storm bursts, the waters rise, and all the pride and pomp of man are sunk beneath the flood.

And here we are certainly on historical ground. The tradition of every nation bears witness that one at least of the great early civilisations was destroyed by a flood of waters, and from the point of view of an eyewitness there is nothing to cavil at in the flood of Genesis. But to engage in pitiful quibbles about the depth of the waters, or the capacity of the ark, is utterly to mistake the purpose and nature of the sacred writings. To what extent the author may have used traditions and documents in illustrating the truths which God's Spirit inspired him to teach, we cannot tell; but the connected story of Cain, of Lamech, and of the Deluge, remains a true

and awful analysis of the workings of the Spirit of evil in the heart of man.

It tells us how, like our blessed Lord, he also takes upon him the form of a servant, and ministers to the children of his kingdom the peace and the glory which are in his gift the peace of the soul which has stifled conscience, the glory of the brilliant and earth-subduing crowd which has forgotten God.

But as surely as there is a God in heaven who sits upon a throne of justice, the tarrying day of vengeance will come. To more than one nation, for aught we know, it may have come in the form of a watery deluge; to the cities of the plain it came in that of volcanic fire; to the Canaanites by the commissioned hosts of the chosen people; to the Roman Empire by successive waves of barbarian inroad; to the sneering oppressors and debauchees of France in the eighteenth century by the Reign of Terror. And how it shall come in the future to every man and every nation who have not righteousness as their shield and bulwark, God only knows.

Now turn back to the beginning of this story, for that is what most concerns you. I am going to touch upon what may seem very small things— too small to be made much of in a sermon. But

when you are near what is called the watershed of a country, suppose you are curious to know of which of two mighty streams the little thread of water at your feet will soon become a part. It seems so quiet that you can see no motion; but if you stir it up, the drift, though slight, is perceptible; and you know that if you followed it, the thread of water would become part of a little trickling rill, the rill of a burn, the burn of a river, the river of an ocean. Regard your boyish life as such a thread, with no apparent drift towards good or evil. But which way do the little grains of sand move when something happens to stir them up? Leave metaphors and face realities, small in themselves, but fraught to you with results of eternal moment.

Take your school work. Do you ever use any unfair helps? Do you ever, by word or by silence, pretend that a piece of work is wholly your own when it is not? Do you ever plead want of time or want of power when you know that your excuse is not true? And do you ever gain by this? Mark that point. Do you gain exemption from punishment, or, what many of you hate more, from reproof? Do you gain a better chance of a remove, a mark or two against

a rival, a better report, undeserved praise at home?

You fall out

a companion.

Again, take your social life. about some small matter with Are you perfectly fair about this? Do you ever go to other people and colour the case on your own side, so as to bring discredit and unpopularity on him, and get a better position and a better character for yourselves at his expense? You gain by it-of course you do.

Again, take your games-take the grandest of all your games. All games involve danger; and you will admit, when you think about it, that football, more than other games, has a special danger of its own. I don't mean physical danger. Any risk of this sort which exists is far more than made up for by the strength and vitality which it imparts to nerve, and limb, and lung -by the courage, discipline, decision, and unselfishness which it fosters in the character. But does it not, I ask you-for I must use plain English-involve a temptation to cheat and to tell lies; and do not people gain by so doing? For what is wilfully breaking the rules to gain an unfair advantage? Is it not, in plain English, cheating? Or what is asserting that a ball belongs to your own side, or that it had or had