build _us_ a _city_, and a _tower_ whose top may reach heaven; and let us make _us a name_ (as God gave us none), lest we be _scattered abroad_." _Name_, in the Hebrew scriptures, signified "power, authority, rule," as may be readily seen by consulting the Bible. And God said: "And _this_ they will begin to do, and nothing will _be restrained from them_ which they have _imagined to do_; let us, therefore, confound their language, that they might not understand one another." This language is _very peculiar_--used as it is by God--and there is more in it than appears on the surface, or to a superficial reader; but we will not pause to consider it now. The confusion of language _was confined to those there assembled_. Why should God object to _their_ building a city, if they were the descendants of Adam and Eve? But it is plain he did object to _their_ building one. Did God object to Cain's building a city?--although a fratricidal murderer. Did he object to Mizraim and his descendants building those immense cities which they built on the Nile? No. In short, did God ever object to any of the known descendants of Adam and Eve building a city, or as many as they might choose to build? Never. But, from some cause or other, God did object to those people building _that_ city and _that_ tower. The objection could not be in regard to its locality, nor to the ground on which it was proposed to build them; for the great City of Babylon and with higher towers, too, was afterward built on the same spot--_but by another people_--Shem's descendants. Then, what could be the reason that could cause God to come down from heaven to prevent _these_ people from building it? It must be some great cause that would bring God down to overthrow and prevent it. He allowed the people of Shem, afterward, to build the City of Babylon at the same place. Reader, candid or uncandid, carefully read and reflect on the facts described in this whole affair. Then remember that, on one other occasion, God came down from heaven; that he talked with Noah; that he told him he was going to destroy the world; that he told him the reason why he intended to destroy it. Reader, do not the facts here detailed, of the objects and purposes of these people, and this _logic of facts_, force our minds, in spite of all opposing reasons to the contrary, to the conviction that _the sin_ of these people was the identical sin, and consequent _corruption_ of the race, as that which caused the destruction of the world by the flood; and that sin, the amalgamation or miscegenation of Nimrod and his kindred with beasts--the daughters of _men_--negroes. But, this view of who it was that attempted the building of the tower and city of Babel, and their reasons for doing so, will be confirmed by what is to follow.