of the good world by his wickedness. If he see fit to destroy man
out of the earth, he will destroy none but those who deserve and
need destroying. He will save those whom, like Noah, he can trust
to begin afresh, and raise up a better race of men to do his work in
the world. If God send a flood to destroy all living things, any
when or anywhere, he will show, by putting the rainbow in the cloud,
that floods and destruction and anger are not his rule; that his
rule is sunshine, and peace, and order; that though he found it
necessary once to curse the ground, once to sweep away a wicked race
of men, yet that even that was, if one dare use the words of God,
against his gracious will; that his will was from the beginning,
peace on earth, and not floods, and good will to men, and not
destruction; and that in his HEART, in the abyss of his essence, and
of which it is written, that God is Love--in his heart I say, he
said, 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake,
even though the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.
Neither will I again smite everything living, as I have done. While
the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, and
day and night, shall not cease.'

This is the God which the book of Genesis goes on revealing and
unveiling to us more and more--a God in whom men may TRUST.

The heathen could not trust their gods. The Bible tells men of a
God whom they can trust. That is just the difference between the
Bible and all other books in the world. But what a difference!
Difference enough to make us say, Sooner that every other book in
the world were lost, and the Bible preserved, than that we should
lose the Bible, and with the Bible lose faith in God.