HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTilORS. Vers. 16-24.-The kingd<im of God contrasted with tlie kingdom of this wr.,,.Zd, Society without the Lord. The banished Cain and his descendants. I. MULTIPLICATION apart from Divine order is no blessing. IL CIVILISATION without religion is a. chaos of conflicting forces, producing \·iolence, bloodshed, working out its own ruin. Compare France in the seventeenth und eighteenth centuries. Arts of life ma.y grow from a mere natural root. Music, mechanical skill, scientific discovery, and invention, in themselves contain no moral life. Luxury turns to corruption, and so to misery. III. RELIGION IS THE DASIS OF SOCIAL PROSPERITY. It is the true defence against the " inhumanity of man." Lamech, with his artificial protection against violent revenge, suggests the true safety in the presence of the Lord and observance of his commandments.-R. Ver. 25, 26.-Revel,atW'TI, in history. The reappearance of the redeeming pur- pose. The coJ;LSecrated family of Adam. The Divinely blessed line of descent pre- served leading onward to the fulfilment of the first promise. 11 Then beaan men to call up011, tlie name of Jehovah.." I. THE COMMENCEMENT OP REGULAR WORSHIP, possibly of distinct Church life. 1. The name of the Lord is the true centre of fellowship-including revelati011,, redemp- twn, promise. 2. The pressure of o~tward calamit~ and danger~ the multiplication of the unbelievers, the necessary separation from an evil world, motives to call upon God. !I. RENOVATION AND RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGIOUS Llll'E WORKS OUT GOD'S JlLESSlNG ON THE RACE. The separated seed bears the promise of the future. • Seo the repetition of the message of grace in the names of the descendants of Seth, "tlie appmnted." lll. The worship which was maintained by men was ENCOURAGED AND DEVELOPED IlY REVELATIONS and special communications from Jehovah. Probably there were prophets sent. Methuselah, taking up the ministry of Enoch, and himself delivering tl,e message to Noah, the preacher of righteousness. It is the method of God throughout all the dispensations to meet men's call upon his name with gracious manifestations to them. IV. THE PERIOD OF AWAKENED RELIGIOUS LIFE and of special messengers, culminat- ing in the long testimony and warning of Noah, preceded the period of outpourod judgment. So it is universally. There is no manifestation of wrath which does not vindicate righteousness. He is long-suffering, and waits. He sends the spirit of life first. Then the angel of death.-Il. (ilI, v. 1-32.] THE BOOK OF GENESI8. 93
§ 8. THl!l GENERATIONS OF ADAM (cR. V, 1-VI. 8).
EXPOSITION.