[[173]]
But naturally the version of the legend which most affected
Christendom was that modification of the Chaldean form developed
among the Jews and embodied in their sacred books. To a thinking
man in these days it is very instructive. The coming down of the
Almighty from heaven to see the tower and put an end to it by
dispersing its builders, points to the time when his dwelling was
supposed to be just above the firmament or solid vault above the
earth: the time when he exercised his beneficent activity in such
acts as opening "the windows of heaven" to give down rain upon
the earth; in bringing out the sun every day and hanging up the
stars every night to give light to the earth; in hurling comets,
to give warning; in placing his bow in the cloud, to give hope;
in coming down in the cool of the evening to walk and talk with
the man he had made; in making coats of skins for Adam and Eve; in
enjoying the odour of flesh which Noah burned for him; in eating
with Abraham under the oaks of Mamre; in wrestling with Jacob; and
in writing with his own finger on the stone tables for Moses.
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