(c.) If this extreme demoralization had been caused by the marriage connection of fallen angels with the daughters of men, those angels should certainly have come in for their share of the visible retribution. God gave Satan his share of the curse for his agency in the first great sin. The same justice would have made the fallen angels visibly prominent under this curse of the flood.――――Either of these reasons singly would be sufficient ground for rejecting this tradition; much more must they suffice, combined. (2.) The withdrawal of the divine Spirit is the second assigned antecedent of this fatal degeneracy. In our English version we read――“And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’”――――As to the meaning of “My Spirit,” we must reject the sense――_animal life_――that which God breathed into man to make him “a living soul” (Gen. 2: 7), as being incongruous with the verb “strive”: also the sense――_rational soul_――that which makes man a rational being; and must accept the sense so amply sustained by Scripture usage――the divine Spirit, sent by Christ to transform human hearts.――――The word “strive” to translate the Hebrew verb[22] is not bad. We must reject the construction of some of the old versions, _dwell_, as not in the original, and as too tame: also the turn given it by Gesenius――to be humiliated, put down――as not borne out well by the original; and say that the verb is currently used of judicial transactions――searching out, convincing, convicting; and seems to have a striking analogy in that leading word given us by Christ; “When he is come, he shall _reprove_ the world”――enforce conviction upon the world――as to sin and righteousness.