fell. Again his attempt failed, and the purpose of God held steadily on its way. Satan

himself in the form of a serpent sought by the temptation in the garden to thwart the Most

High. Satan by his angels again attempted by most diabolical means to render the

purpose impossible of attainment, but he failed.

So has it always been, and so must it be till the end, for concerning His purpose it is

written, "As I have purposed, so shall it stand".

We must keep before us the main line of purpose that runs through Scripture, and not

lose the conception of the whole in the consideration of the incidents.

The temptation and fall of man must be view as part of a plan, and the words of Christ

in the parable of the tares explain much that occurs in Scripture history, an enemy hath

done this. Sin opened the door for death, and death reigned from Adam. God, however,

is not thwarted either by sin or by death. For the complete emancipation from their dual

authority, and for the crushing of the serpent's head, He promises the "seed of the

woman". From Gen. 3: onwards we are reading chapters in the conflict between the

Seed and the serpent, and their respective "seeds"; hence the sad history of Cain and

Abel--hence, too, the awful corruption that necessitated the flood. The purpose of God

has sometimes hung upon a slender thread, and in the well-nigh universal corruption one

man is sustained by grace to keep the Messianic channel pure. "Noah was a just man,

and perfect in his generations". Noah is called in II Pet. 2: 5, "the eighth", and it is a

point that is noted in I Pet. 3: 20 that "eight souls" were saved in the Ark. Enoch we

have already seen was "the seventh from Adam", and although Methuselah and Lamech

were born before Noah, yet Noah is marked as the "eighth" by reason of the significance

of the number; the eighth or octave is a new beginning, the first day of the week also an

eighth day, resurrection and regeneration are thereby symbolized. The very names of

Noah and his sons have a numerical value, which connects them with this number.

The gematria of the names is as follows:-

Ham comes under his father's curse, and becomes the father of Canaan; removing his

name from the list, the total is 888. The witness of numbers is not, however, exhausted

by this. Chapter 7: 6 tells us that "Noah was 600 years old when the flood of water was