Mark the emphasis with which God's agency is declared and His
ownership asserted. '_I_ do set _My_ bow.' Neither Noah nor the writer
knew anything about refraction or the prismatic spectrum. But perhaps
they knew more about the rainbow than people do who know all about
how it comes, except that God sets it in the cloud, and that it is His.
Let us have the facts which science labels as such, by all means, and
the more the better; but do not let us forget that there are other facts
in nature which science has no means of attaining, but which are as
solid and a great deal deeper than those which it supplies.

The natural adaptation of the rainbow for this office of a token is
too plain to need dwelling on. It 'fills the sky when storms prepare
to part,' and hence is a natural token that the downpour is being
stayed. Somewhere there must be a bit of blue through which the sun
can pierce; and the small gap, which is large enough to let it out,
will grow till all the sky is one azure dome. It springs into sight
in front of the cloud, without which it could not be, so it typifies
the light which may glorify judgments, and is born of sorrows borne
in the presence of God. It comes from the sunshine smiting the
cloud; so it preaches the blending of love with divine judgment. It
unites earth and heaven; so it proclaims that heavenly love is ready
to transform earthly sorrows. It stretches across the land; so it
speaks of an all-embracing care, which enfolds the earth and all its
creatures.

It is not only a 'sign to men.' It is also, in the strong
anthropomorphism of the narrative, a remembrancer to God. Of course
this is accommodation of the representation of His nature to the
limitations of ours. And the danger of attaching unworthy ideas to
it is lessened by noticing that He is said to set His bow in the