had ceased.

a. Why Noah sent forth the raven, and how the error arose the
raven never returned 23-24.

* The Jews' unclean thoughts of the raven 24.

b. Noah sent forth a dove, and if at the same time with the
raven 25.

c. Noah sent out a second dove, which assured him that the
flood had ceased 26.

(1) Dove returned with an olive leaf 26.

(2) Whether it did this of its own impulse, and what God
thereby wished to indicate 27-28.

(3) The Jews' ideas on where the dove got the olive leaf
27.

(4) Why an olive leaf 28.

6. How long Noah and family were in the ark 29.

I. NOAH IN ARK--FLOOD ABATES.

A. NOAH'S CONDITION IN THE ARK.

V. 1a. _And God remembered Noah, and all the beasts, and all the
cattle that were with him in the ark._

1. When that horrible wrath had exhausted itself, and all flesh with
the earth had been destroyed, the promise made by God to Noah and his
sons, that they were to be the seed of the human race, began to be
realized. No doubt this promise was to them an object of eager
expectation. No life is so hedged about with difficulties as that of
faith. This was the life lived by Noah and his sons, whom we see
absolutely depending upon the heavens for support. The earth was
covered with water. Bottom on which to stand there was none. It was
the word of promise that upheld them, as they drifted in this welter
of waters.

2. When the flesh is free from danger, it holds faith in contempt, as
the claims of the Papists show. It loves showy and toilsome tasks; in
these it sweats. But behold Noah, on all sides surrounded by waters,
yet not overwhelmed! Surely it is not works that sustain him but faith
in God's mercy extended through the word of promise.

3. The difficulty besetting Noah is hinted at in the words: "God
remembered." Moses thus intimates that Noah had been tossed on the
water so long that God seemed to have forgotten him altogether. They
who pass through such a mental strain, when the rays of divine grace
are gone and they sit in darkness or are forgotten by God, find by
experience that it is far more difficult to live in the Word or by
faith alone than to be a hermit or a Carthusian monk.

4. Hence, it is not a meaningless expression when the Holy Spirit says
that "God remembered Noah." He means that from the day N