to the great age-time covenant, that throughout all dispensations has continued in

unaltered order.

The first great dispensational fact that is made known in the new world that opened

out to Noah and his descendants was that judgment is deferred. God will not again visit

in the same way the sins of man as He did at the flood; the wicked now may prosper as a

green bay tree, the righteous now may be plagued all the day long, "the end", as seen in

"the sanctuary of God", reveals the fact of a future day of individual judgment. So it is

that even though man continues in his sin, seed time and harvest, and day and night, do

not cease.

In the next chapter (9:) the Lord lays the foundation of human government. We must

go back further into history than the days of Nebuchadnezzar for the divine institution of

"the powers that be". "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for

in the image of God made He man" (Gen. 9: 6). When Cain shed his brother's blood

God made a special protection for him against the hand of his fellow-man.  Here,

however, man is appointed judge and executioner. A change also in the food of man is

made. To Adam God gave every herb bearing seed, and every tree in the which is the

fruit of a tree yielding seed; now, "every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you,

even as the green herb have I given you every thing". To this divine change in human

diet the apostle Paul alludes in I Tim. 4: 4, 5, "For every creature of God is good and

nothing to be refused, being received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word

of God and prayer".  The false teaching of the apostacy, the doctrines of demons,

included the forbidding of marriage, and the abstinence from foods which God created to

be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

To progress in what is called Spiritism, abstinence from flesh foods and from marriage

is essential; the seducing spirits with their doctrines of demons seem to be characteristic

of the "latter times". The days of Noah are to be repeated, and the spirit activities that

brought about the corruption of the earth that ended in the flood are to be expected again.

If the abstinence from flesh food and from marriage makes intercourse with the spirit

world easier, we can perceive the wise provision in the change of human food as given to

Noah, and the reason why such an institution should be discontinued as a prelude to

demon activities in the latter times.

After blessing Noah, and saying, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth",

God speaks of man's new relationship to the animal world; this is exactly in the same

order in Gen. 1: 28. There are one or two modifications, however, that indicate a change

from Gen. 1: 28; man is told not only to replenish the earth, but to subdue it, a type of

Him who will yet subdue all things beneath His feet; further, he was to "have dominion",

another type of the Lord from heaven. This appears to be directly connected with the fact

that man was created in the image of God. That the image remained after the fall and

after the flood is abundantly testified by Gen. 9: 6, and James 3: 9.  Instead of the

word "dominion", we have in the re-institutions of Noah, "the fear of you and the dread

of you" shall be upon every beast, fowl and fish. This is something lower than dominion,

and harmonizes with the general character of the age.