kind of animals, Noe was required to take with him five more of each
kind of clean animals. Clean animals were certain animals which,
according to God's law, could be offered in sacrifice or eaten; they
were such animals as the ox, the sheep, the goat, etc. Therefore, seven
of each of the clean animals, and two of each of the other kinds. Why
did He have seven clean animals? Two were to be set free upon the dry
earth with the other animals, and the other five were for food and
sacrifice. Noe spent a hundred years in making the ark. At that time men
lived much longer than they do now. Adam lived over 900 years and
Mathusala, the oldest man, lived to be 969 years old. There are many
reasons why men live a shorter time now than then. When the door of the
ark was closed, God sent a great rain that lasted for forty days and
forty nights. All the springs of water broke forth, and all the rivers
and lakes overflowed their banks. Men ran here and there to high places,
while the water rose higher and higher till it covered the tops of the
mountains, and all not in the ark were drowned. The big ark floated
about for about a year; for although it stopped raining after forty
days, just think of the quantity of water that must have fallen! Think
of the rain what would fall during the whole of Lent from Ash Wednesday
to Easter Sunday--forty days. It took a long time, therefore, for the
waters to go down and finally disappear. When the waters began to go
down, Noe, wishing to know if any land was as yet above the water,
opened the little window, and sent out a raven or crow over the waters.
The raven did not come back, because it is a bird that eats flesh, and
it found plenty of dead bodies to feed upon. Then Noe sent out a dove,
and the dove came back with the bough of an olive tree in its mouth.
From this Noe knew that the earth was becoming dry again. After some
days, the ark rested on the top of a mountain named Ararat. When all the
waters had dried up, Noe and his family and all the animals passed out
of the ark. He offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and he and his