most stormy judgments, there are those who abide safely, fearing no
evil. Though the waters are out, there is a rock on which we may
stand safe, above their highest wave. And why did God 'remember
Noah'? It was not favouritism, arbitrary and immoral. Noah was bid
to build the ark, because he was 'righteous' in a world of evil-
doers; he was 'remembered' in the ark, because he had believed God's
warning, obeyed God's command as seeing the judgment 'not seen as
yet,' and so 'became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.'
They who trust God, and, trusting Him, realise as if present the
future judgment, and, 'moved with fear,' take refuge in the ark, are
never forgot by Him, even while the world is drowned. They live in
His heart, and in due time He will show that He remembers them.

2. The gradual subsidence of the flood is told with singular
exactitude of dates, which are certainly peculiar if they are not
historical. The slow decrease negatives the explanation of the story
as being the exaggerated remembrance of some tidal-wave caused by
earthquake and the like. Precisely five months after the flood
began, the ark grounded, and the two sources, the rain from above
and the 'fountains of the deep' (that is, probably, the sea), were
'restrained,' and a high wind set in. That date marked the end of
the increase of the waters, and consequently the beginning of their
decrease. Seven months and ten days elapsed between it and the
complete restoration of the earth to its previous condition. That
time was divided into stages. Two months and a half passed before
the highest land emerged; two months more and the surface was all
visible; a month and twenty-seven days more before 'the earth was
dry.' The frequent recurrence of the sacred numbers, seven and ten,
is noticeable. The length of time required for the restorative
process witnesses to the magnitude of the catastrophe, impresses the