intended just to remedy every one of those temptations which I just
mentioned, into which Noah's children's children would have been
certain to fall, and into which so many of them did fall. They
might have become reckless, I said, from fear of a flood at any
moment. God promises them--and confirms it with the sign of the
rainbow--never again to destroy the earth by water. They would have
been likely to take to praying to the rain and the thunder, the sun
and the stars; God declares in this covenant that it is HE alone who
sends the rain and thunder, that He brings the clouds over the
earth, that He rules the great, awful world; that men are to look up
and believe in God as a loving and thinking PERSON, who has a will
of His own, and that a faithful, and true, and loving, and merciful
will; that their lives and safety depend not on blind chance, or the
stern necessity of certain laws of nature, but on the covenant of an
almighty and all-loving person.

Again, I said, that Noah's sons would have been ready to fear, and,
at last, to worship the dumb beasts; God's covenant says, "No; these
beasts are not your equals--they are your slaves--you may freely
kill them for your food; the fear of you shall be upon them. The
huge elephant and the swift horse shall become your obedient
servants; the lion and the tiger shall tremble and flee before you.
Only claim your rights as men; believe that the invisible God who
made the earth is your strength and your protector, and that He to
whom the earth belongs has made you lords of the earth and all that
therein is. But," said God's covenant to Noah's sons, "you did not
MAKE these beasts--you did not give them life, therefore I forbid
you to eat their blood wherein their life lies; that you may never
forget that all the power you have over these beasts was given you
by God, who made and preserves that wonderful, mysterious, holy