hearts will throb in concert-no knees will bend together in prayer-no voices will harmonize in praise within that house which you will call your home. Upon the subject of mixed marriages-a subject which, in our day, has assumed peculiar prominence, owing to the fatal consequences which are seen to result from the connections formed by unthinking Protestants in these countries with the subjects and victims of Rome, the word of God is full and explicit in its deliverance. Concerning idolaters, Jehovah thus commands His people Israel, "Thou shalt not make marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son; for they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly," Deut. vii. 3, 4. Again, Joshua is commanded to tell them, If you "make marriages with them, and go in unto them and they to you, * they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish," Joshua xxiii. 12, 13. shall But no lessons are more impressive than those that teach by example, and such lessons the Scriptures supply in abundance. Let us select a few : Job was a married man, and to what earthly friend should he have turned for comfort in his season of sorrow than to the wife of his bosom? He probably did appeal to her, but what counsel did she give him? "Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die," Job ii. 9. Well was it for Job that he had more grace than his partner; but O how must his sufferings have been aggravated by one so godless and, of course, heartless! It is evident that he had not selected her for the day of adversity. We all know that Solomon's apostasy from God was owing to the influence of his heathen wives. We are told that "his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father; for Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the godess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites, and Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord," 1 Kings xi. 4-6. There is reason to believe that, had Solomon married "in the Lord," he would have left an example of godliness behind him scarcely inferior to that of David his father. Ahab, king of Israel, has obtained an infamous notoriety by the flagitious character of the life recorded of him in the word of God. His name is synonymous with that of every impiety and atrocity of which man is capable, and for this he is indebted, as the Scriptures assure us, to his wife. This is their testimony, “There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up," 1 Kings xxi. 25. It is true, indeed, that his heart was not right with God when he married. Had it been, he would not have chosen such a wife, but how much deeper this sinful union plunged him in wickedness we may collect from the manner in which it is announced, And it cam to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him," 1 Kings xvi. 31. The histories of Elijah, the Tishbite and of Naboth the Jezreelite, sufficiently illustrate the character of "this cursed woman," 2 Kings ix. 34, and the power which she exercised over her wretched husband. Her career should be well Istudied in all Christian families. 66 In the brief history of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, we are reminded in a few emphatic words of the incalculable mischief which an ungodly alliance is almost sure to produce. He " walked," we are informed, "in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab, FOR the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord," 2 Kings viii. 18. Mark the natural order of things he walked in wickedness and did evil, for he married the daughter of wicked parents; and, as a natural consequence, he forsook the way of his fathers and followed hers. But, superior to the warning conveyed by these and other such isolated examples, is that urged upon us by the passage of Scripture quoted at the head of this lecture. You observe that, immediately after the relation of the intermarriages between the sons of God and the daughters of men, it is added, "and the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man,” implying that these fatal alliances were formed in spite of the remonstrances of a gracious God with the suicidal passions of his professed people. He strove1. With parents, that they might interpose their authority to prevent them. 2. With the young persons themselves, to save them from their headlong course to present and eternal ruin. 3. With married professors, to recal them to the paths of piety and peace, which they might even yet recover. 4. And perhaps even with godless partners, by the struggles, however faint, which those with whom they were united were yet making, to preserve some appearance of consistency. But all in vain; for the objects of His compassion were flesh, and nothing but flesh. In their carnalmindedness the thoughts-the imaginations of their hearts, became only evil continually. Their course was still downward, and the pit of destruction yawned to receive them. It is not wonderful, therefore, that when every spark of spirituality save one had gone out in the world, and nothing but darkness and corruption prevailed, the law of the earth's existence should be repealed, and chaos welcomed back again-" But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord," and he became the germ, as it were, of a new creation. Refusing to coalesce with the old world, he inherited the new, and so it shall be when "the earth which is now" perishes. Those who have repudiated its spirit and its practices in their day, and they only, shall have part in the heavens and the earth which are to succeed it. LECTURE VIII. NOAH. THE TIME OF THE END. "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." -Gen. vi. 13. "Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker!" Is. xlv. 9. Such is the broad lesson taught by the antediluvian history. God would be Lord of His own world: Satan and man, his victim and agent, said He should not. Which shall prevail ? As for God He must strive until His opponents sue for pardon, or sink into perdition. Man strove with God- All were 1. In his thoughts, desires, affections. evil. They contemplated dishonour to Him and injury to themselves. God, as Creator of the earth and Ruler of the universe, could not suffer either. He resisted, remonstrated, threatened; but the spiritual and moral disease proved inveterate. "The whole head was sick, and the whole heart faint," Is. i. 5. 2. In his walk. He had corrupted his way, verse 12. His manner of life was in direct contempt of every divine law: God, nature, humanity-all were outraged. The vilest affections held the mastery over him, and reason and conscience, instead of pleading for God, traitorously surrendered their office to the great enemy of mankind. 3. In his social relations. The earth was filled with violence, verse 13-every man's hand was against his brother. God "had made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," Acts xvii. 26. The common Father of all whose nature is love, had set His intelligent creatures a law of mutual sympathy and attachment. Against that law they rebelled, and became "full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity-without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful," Rom. i. 29, 31. Peace was banished from the individual heart, from the social circle, and from the world at large. Some interposition on God's part was inevitable. Man deserved immediate and utter destruction; but though man denies God, "He cannot deny Himself," 2 Tim. ii. 13. He is merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth," Ex. xxxiv. 6 Before proceeding to execution, He will make an effort to awaken His apostate creatures from their deadly dream of sin and impunity. Accordingly, God strove with man 1. By His Spirit quickening and constraining such men as Seth, Enoch, Noah, &c. These were lights in the world, shining all the more brightly because of the surrounding darkness. They were stars reflecting the heavenly rays of the Sun of Righteousness; and they, with those who have served a similar office in the world, shall shine in the same capacity, " for ever and ever," Dan. xii. 3. 2. By His message conveyed by Adam, Abel, Enoch, who prophesied of the judgment which would be executed upon the ungodly at the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, Jude 14, 15, and Noah specially employed as "a preacher of righteousness," 2 Pet. ii. 5, to warn "the world of the ungodly," of the flood of Divine vengeance that was ready to overwhelm it. 3. By His gracious providences, exercised for the abiding provision, protection, and enjoyment of those who conspired to wrest from Him that world which, by His wisdom and power, He continually upheld, offering constant testimony to His rational creatures of His presence and influence in their behalf, “in that He did good, and gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness," Acts xiv. 17. 4. By His long-suffering mercy. “That which may be known of God was manifest to them, for God had shewed it to them; for the invisible things of Him |