Then God made a promise to Noah. It was that no flood of water shall ever drown all the world again, but spring, summer, autumn, and winter, day and night, will go on to the end of the world, when it shall be burnt up by fire, not drowned by water. That Noah, and all of his after him, might feel sure that God in His mercy will go on preserving us, and giving us days and nights, seed-time and harvest, He gave us something to look at as a sign of His promise. He so ordered the rays of light, that when they shine upon drops of water in the air they cause beautiful colors, making part of a circle, so as to form a bow. So when the sun shines on a cloud, as it rains, the fair bright rainbow is seen, as a pledge to us of God's merciful care and love to us. [Illustration: NOAH AND HIS FAMILY LEAVING THE ARK.--Gen. 8:18, 19.] [Illustration: NOAH'S SACRIFICE AFTER THE FLOOD.--Gen. 8:20.] There is a rainbow round about the Throne of God in Heaven; and the lovely rainbows that we see when the sun shines out, and the showers drift away, are to put us in mind that we are safe under His care, in right of His promise to Noah and his three sons, of whom the whole earth was peopled. We are the children of his son Japhet, and all that was then said to him belongs to us also. We should recollect it, and put our trust in Him, and be thankful when we see the beautiful soft arch that the Hands of the Almighty have bended, looking out of the midst of the dark watery clouds. QUESTIONS. 1. What beautiful sight do we sometimes see after a shower? 2. What is a rainbow like? 3. Who put the rainbow in the cloud? 4. Who was the man to whom God showed the rainbow? 5. What promise did God make Noah? 6. What had God just done to the wicked people? 7. Whom had he saved? 8. What did he say should always go on? 9. What did God put in the sky to show that he will not send another Flood? 10. What are we to think of when we see a rainbow? 11. Who takes care of us? 12. Where is there a rainbow in Heaven above? SECOND READING. "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."--_Genesis 12:3._ WHEN Noah's grandchildren and great-grandchildren came to be more and more, and the world was being filled with people again, they still were not all good, and the longer time went on the worse they grew. At last God called to a very good man, whose name was Abram, and told him that if he would come away from his home to a land God would show him, then God would bless him and lead him, and by-and-by give the land to his children, and that their children after them should be more in number than the grains of sand on the sea-shore, or than the stars in the sky: and that in his seed--that was, in a Son of his--all the nations of the earth should be blessed.