thistles shall it bring forth unto thee." "In the sweat of thy face,
shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou return unto the ground:--for dust
thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." The posterity of Adam soon
forgot God. Gross wickedness soon covered the earth. Vile and
depraved, the descendants of Adam went forth, perpetrating every act
of wickedness, every abomination that the heart of man could devise.
The world was soon filled with brutality, lust, and violence. "And God
looked down upon the earth and behold it was corrupt." "And God said
unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me." "And behold I,
even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all
flesh." Righteous Noah and his wife, and his son's and his son's wives
were preserved in the ark; "and the winds blew, and the rains
descended and the floods came;" "and all flesh died that moved upon
earth;" and God said unto Noah, "go forth of the ark, thou and thy
wife, and thy sons, and thy son's wives with thee." And God said unto
Noah, "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth."

The sons of Noah were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham was the father
of Canaan. And Noah drank wine and was drunken; and he was uncovered
within his tent; and Ham saw the nakedness of his father and told his
two brethren, Shem and Japheth; and they took a garment and covered
their father, without beholding his nakedness; "And Noah awoke from
his wine," and after being correctly informed as to the conduct of his
sons while he was intoxicated, "He said, cursed be Canaan; a servant
of servants shall he be unto his brethren."

We learn from the Sacred Record, that the curse of slavery fell on the
posterity of Ham in consequence of his dishonoring his aged father.
Every Bible reader must have noted the severe punishment of children,
under the Mosaic dispensation, for disobedience and disrespect to