Subjects for Further Study.

(1) The Effect of the Semitic Law of Blood-revenge upon (a) the criminal, (b) society and (c) possible criminals.  Kent, Israel’s Laws and Legal Precedents, 91, 114-116; Smith, Religion of the Semites, 72, 420.

(2) Mrs. Ballington Booth’s Work for Released Prisoners. After Prison—­What?

(3) The Practical Effects of the Indeterminate Sentence.  Reports of the Prison Reform Association.

(4) Influence of Contract Prison Labor.  American Magazine, 1912, Jan., Feb., Mar., April.

STUDY IV

THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

THE STORY OF THE GREAT FLOOD.—­Gen. 6-8.

Parallel Readings.

  Hist.  Bible I, 52-65. 
  Darwin, Origin of Species; Wallace, Darwinism; 3.  William Dawson,
    Modern Ideas of Evolution; Article Evolution in leading
    encyclopedias.

When Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every purpose in the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, it was a source of regret that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.  Therefore Jehovah said, I will destroy from the face of the ground man whom I have created, for I regret that I have made mankind.

Then Jehovah said to Noah, enter thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee I have found righteous before me in this generation.

And Noah did according to all that Jehovah commanded him.

Then Jehovah destroyed everything that existed upon the face of the ground, both man and animals, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens, so that they were destroyed from the earth; and Noah only was left and they who were with him in the ark.—­Gen. 6:5-8; 7:1, 5, 23 (Hist.  Bible).

And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing with God; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.  By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.—­Heb. 11:6, 7.

Rare is the man who can look back over his life and not confess, at least to himself, that the things which have made him most a man are the very things from which he tried with all his soul to escape.

  If we would attain happiness,
  We must first attain helpfulness.

  But stay! no age was e’er degenerate
  Unless men held it at too cheap a rate,
  For in our likeness still we shape our fate.
    —­Lowell.

I.

THE TWO BIBLICAL ACCOUNTS OF THE FLOOD.