family settled once more upon the earth. For a while, the descendants of
Noe were good, but when they became numerous they soon forgot the deluge
and its punishments, and became very wicked. Many forgot the true God
altogether, and began to worship the sun, moon, and stars. Some
worshipped animals, and others idols of wood or stone. They offered up
human victims and committed all kinds of sins most displeasing to God.
Many were in slavery; masters were cruel; and things were becoming daily
worse, till just before the coming of Our Lord the world was in a
terrible condition of misery and sin. The lawmakers tried to remedy
these evils by their laws, and the teachers and professors by their
teaching; but all was of no avail. God Himself must save the world.

God gave many promises of the Redeemer. The first one was given in the
garden to our first parents. God said (Gen. 3:15) to the serpent: I will
put enmities, that is hatred, between thee and the woman; that is,
between the devil and the Blessed Virgin--whom the holy writers call the
second Eve; because as the first Eve caused our fall, the second Eve
helped us to rise again. I will put also a great hatred between the
devil and your Redeemer. The next promise of the Redeemer was made to
Abraham. (Gen. 15). Another was made to Isaac, and another to Jacob; and
later these promises were frequently renewed through the prophets; so
that during the four thousand years God encouraged the good people, by
promising from time to time the Redeemer.

Some of the prophets foretold to what family He would belong, and when
He would be born, and when and what He would suffer, and how He would
die. They also foretold signs or things that would come to pass just
before the advent or coming of the Messias (Gen. 49:10); so that when
the people saw these things coming to pass, they could know that the
time of the Messias was at hand. Thus when Our Lord came, the whole