is upon the earth.
GENESIS ix. 8-17.

The previous verses of this chapter lay down the outlines of the new
order which followed the flood. The blessing and the command to be
fruitful are repeated. The dominion over animals is confirmed, but
enlarged by the permission to use them as food, and by the laying on
them of 'the terror of you and the dread of you.' The sanctity of
human life is laid down with great emphasis. Violence and bloodshed
had brought about the flood. The appalling destruction effected by
it might lead to the mistaken notion that God held man's life cheap.
Therefore the cornerstone of future society is laid in that
declaration that life is inviolable. These blessings and commands
are followed by this remarkable section, which deals with God's
covenant with Noah, and its token in the rainbow.

1. The covenant is stated, and the parties concerned in it
enumerated in verses 3-11. When Noah came forth from the ark, after
the stupendous act of divine justice, he must have felt that the
first thing he needed was some assurance as to the footing on which
he and the new world round him stood with God. The flood had swept
away the old order. It had revealed terrible possibilities of
destruction in nature, and terrible possibilities of wrath in God.
Was any knowledge of His intentions and ways possible? Could
continuance of the new order be counted on? The answer to such
questions was--God's covenant. Now, as then, when any great
convulsions shake what seems permanent, and bring home to men the
thinness of the crust of use and wont roofing an infinite depth of
unknown possibilities of change, on which we walk, the heart cries
out for some assurance of perpetuity, and some revelation of God's