b. How the sons covered their father's shame 167.

c. Herein they had regard for God's will and were therefore
pleasing to God 168.

* Ham's scandal.

(1) It was a wilful and grievous sin 168-169.

(2) The lesson we may learn from it 170.

(3) Reward of this scandalous deed, and why Canaan is here
mentioned 172-173.

B. Noah's Fall.

137. Though reason tells us that Noah was burdened with these manifold
duties after the flood, yet Moses does not mention them. It appears to
him sufficient to confine his remarks to the statement that Noah began
to plant a vineyard, and that he lay in his tent drunken and naked.

This, surely, is a foolish and very useless tale in comparison with
the many praiseworthy acts he must have performed in the course of so
many years. Other things might have been recorded for edification and
for teaching righteousness of life. But this story even seems to
endorse an offense, by abetting drunkards and those who sin in
drunkenness.

138. The purpose of the Holy Spirit, however, is apparent from what we
have said. It is to console by this record of the great sins committed
by the holiest and most perfect patriarchs those righteous persons who
are discouraged by the knowledge of their own weakness and are,
therefore, cast down. In them we are to find proofs of our own
shortcomings, that we may come to humble confession and, at the same
time, seek and hope for forgiveness. This is the real and
theologically true reason why the Holy Spirit records, rather than
seemingly more important matters, the great fall of this grand man.

139. Lyra states as excuse for Noah that he knew not the power of wine
and was deceived into drinking a little too freely. Whether wine had
been known before or whether Noah began to cultivate it by his own
skill and by divine suggestion, I know not, but I believe that Noah
knew the nature of this produce quite well, and that he had often made
use of wine in company with his family, partly for his own person and
partly also in his offerings or libations. I think that in making use
of wine for his own refreshment, he partook of it too freely.

140. His action I excuse in no way. Should anyone want to do so, there
would be weightier arguments than those Lyra uses. According to him
this aged man, tired out by the great number of his daily duties and
cares, had been overpowered by the wine although he was al