The New York herald., 1869-12-19
Noah and His Three Sons, and the Com
RrehsnsiYe RlesSinr In0n ,Innhsth.

Noah and His Three Sons, and the Com
prehensive Blessing Upon Japheth.
The subject of our opening discourse this
morning will be found in the ninth chapter Of
the book of Genesis (the most interesting book
in the Holy Bible, because it is the foundation
of all the rest and from the eighteenth to the
twenty ninth verse, inclusve:-
IS. And the sons Of Noah, that went forth OF the
ark, were snem, and Ham, ana Japheth: and Ham
IL the father of Canaan.
~. These are the three sons OF Noah: and Of them
was the whole earth 0yerspresd.
20. And Noah began to De a nusbandHan, and he
IL And he drank OF the vino, and was drunken;
ana he was uncovered within his tent.
%. And Ham, the father OF Canaan, saw the
nakedness Of his father and told ms Two brothers
%. And shem ana yapheth TOOK garment, and
laid It upon both their shoulders, and went back
ward, and covered the nakedness OF their father
and their faces were backward, and they saw not
their fathers naKedness
a. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew
what mis- younger son had done unto him.
25 And he said, cursed be Canaan; servant OF
servants Shall he be unto his brethren
2o And he said, Blessed be the Lord GOO OF Shem
and Canaan shall be hts servant
n. GOD shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell
in the tents OF Shen and Canaan shall oe MS ser.
want
g. And Sgan nyed after the mood three hundred
%. Xhd ali the days Of Noah were n,nc hundred
ana ffty years and ne died.
Now, let MS first consider Noah Ii was
because he was good man that he and bis
family were saved from the food. But they
were also saved to repeople the earth. He
was the Greatest shipbuilder Of his time, for the
ark, though heavy three storied concern, built
to drift before the winds and waves, was the
most wonderful ship ever seen, and carried
the most extensive caravan of animals ever
collected together. 1t will next be remarked
that Noah, though he lived to the good old
age Of nine numbered and fifty years, was not
| a believer in the Maine liquor law, but regu-
lar old line democrat, that he indulged in
the wine of bis vineyard, at least on one occa-
\ sion till he was blind drunk" and that to
this unfortunate debauch may be traced all the
degradations and expressions which have
fallen upon the African race since the disper-
sion Of the worlds fair from the tower Of Babel,
and all our thirty years agitation Of slavery,
and all the disasters Of our late Southern
rebellion, beginning with the dispersion Of the
democratic party.
Secondly, the sons OF Noah. Ham was
evidently wild youngster, of perhaps two OF
three hundred years old, and thought the
boozy condition In which he found "the old
man" in his tent jolly good joke. Hams
conduct was 20 doubt very offensive, while
that Of his two brothers was the perfection o.
reverential modesty and respect. Little did
the thoughtless Ham, as the father of Canaan,
dream OF the fearful and far-reaching conse-
quences OF his folly. "Cursed be Canaan, @
servant OF servants shall he be unto biz
brethren"
This curse Of Noah has been generally
accepted among Christian nations, mixed uI
with African slavery, as applying to the negro
race-that the curse brought upon the de-
scendants of Canaan the black skin, the
pungent odor, the wooly hair, the fat nose
and thick lips, the ebo shin and jaybird hee
of the negro. We know that in ''the goot
old tines Of negro slavery in this country,
when a negro had ''no rights which
white man was bound to respect" til,
system was maintained as ''dvine institu
tion," and as dating from this very curse o
Noah. Upon such insignificant events hav
depended the dsaApiss Of races and nations