of the dead, deliverance from sin, the restoration of all things, and
the manifestation of the sons of God, Rom 8, 19-23. The simplest and
true meaning, accordingly, is that Lamech, after seeing the reality of
the future life demonstrated by the translation of Enoch from the
afflictions and toils caused by sin, has a son born to him, whom he
calls Noah, which means rest, an expression of the hope that
deliverance from the curse of sin and sin itself shall take place
through him. This interpretation accords with the analogy of faith,
and confirms the hope for a resurrection and a life eternal.

82. Such longing for the future life on the part of the holy men whose
shoes we are unworthy to clean, contrasts strangely with the horrible
ingratitude of our time. How great the difference between having and
wishing! Those patriarchs were men of transcendent holiness, equipped
with the highest endowments, the heroes of the world! In them we
behold the strongest desire for the seed which is to come; that is
their greatest treasure; they thirst, they hunger, they yearn, they
pant for Christ! And we, who have Christ among us, who know him as one
revealed, offered, glorified, sitting at the right hand of God and
making intercession for us--we despise him and hold him in greater
contempt than any other creature! O, the wretchedness of it! O, the
sin of it!

83. Note the difference between the several ages of the world! The
primeval age was the most excellent and holy. It contained the noblest
jewels of the whole human race. After the flood there still existed
many great and eminent men--patriarchs, and kings, and prophets; and
although they were not the equals of the patriarchs before the flood,
yet in them also there appeared a bright longing for Christ, as Christ
says: "For I say unto you, that many prophets and kings desired to see
the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things
which ye hear, and heard them not," Lk 10, 24. And then there is our
own age, the age of the New Testament; to this Christ has been
revealed. This age is, as it were, the waste and dregs of the whole
world. It holds nothing in greater contempt than Christ, than whom a
previous age knew nothing more precious.

84. What is the cause of this grave state of affairs? To be sure, our
flesh, the world, and the devil. We altogether loathe what we have,
according to the proverb:

_Omne rarum carum; vilescit quotidianum._
"All that's rar