ledge of the miserable course which her sin was doomed to take. The new relation of brother arose, and Cain would not let her remain long in ignorance of the various sins which should beset that relation also. Continually harassed by the duty of protecting the younger against the elder of guarding the helplessness, the innocence, the inexperience of the one, against the tyranny, the evil example, the seduction of the other, she found that she had not only brought forth with pain, but must also bring up with pain. Often, in her despair, must she have longed for that death of which, formerly, her nature had such an abhorrence, and beheld in that, her punishment, a blessed deliverance from intolerable punishment. It is vain for us who have looked on sin from our birth, to endeavour to enter into the feelings of Eve as she looked upon her children.

As Cain approached nearer to man's estate, his character would unveil itself in still more appalling traits before the eyes of his unhappy parents. He knew not, indeed, by experience, the height from which his nature had fallen. But he had been diligently taught, in all its painful steps, the history of that fall; he witnessed the continual humiliation and penitent tears of the sinners; he heard them, as in exhortation and prayer, and the various incidents of the day or night which were ever provoking it, they made, amid tears and groans, the comparison of their present state with their former; and his ears were familiar with the sound of the name of Redeemer, which ever came in at the close of a fit of sorrow, as supplying their only stay and comfort. But the rebellious pride of Cain blinded his eyes, and hardened

his heart, as flint, to all these moving lessons. It would not stoop to acknowledge the degradation of his nature. He would regard the transgression of his parents as purely their own, as terminating entirely with them. What had he to do with it, who was not then in the world? How was he accountable for any part of its consequences? They might have fallen from their former nature, as they said they had but he himself was as God had made him, and what more could be demanded? They, as having violated and lost their nature, might want a Redeemer to repair and restore it. But he had ever continued in that condition in which he was first made, and he was thankful for it, and desired scarcely a better. What need then had he of a Redeemer? his very worst sin could be but the development of that nature in the assignment of which to him he had had no choice. Thankful, therefore, he felt, most truly thankful, for the blessings with which God had surrounded him; but he asked not forgiveness. But neither supposing himself accountable for every act of his nature, could he see in himself any sin for which to atone, much less to require atonement from without, through inability to make due compensation himself. When we consider how common is the opinion of their intrinsic integrity in superficial and self-sufficient thinkers, because they have merely kept aloof from those sins, on which society, for the sake of its own safety, and not from any lofty principle, passes sentence, we may somewhat estimate the state of the conscience of Cain, who had comparatively so few means of engaging in open sin, and could draw so largely upon that maxim, "Where

there is no law, there is no transgression." The law at once teaches us the many outward forms of sin, and proves to us our own sinfulness, by convicting us of our inclination to adopt them and resist it. With reference, therefore, to open and avowed sin, Cain may have been more innocent than many better men. His sin was more confined to disposition.

But the day arrived which was to put to the proof the rectitude of these principles. Adam, and in him his descendants, had been enjoined to express their sense of their sin, of which death was the wages, and their hope of its pardon through a Redeemer, by means of the lively figure of a slaughtered animal, solemnly offered to God with prayer of confession and thanksgiving. Of the flock of sheep destined for this purpose Abel was the keeper. Cain was a tiller of the ground. The appointed day for this sacred service had come round, and Cain and Abel met to make their offerings. Abel, in all humility, brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof, and laid them on the altar, acknowledging his guilty nature, confessing his sins, and professing his hopes of forgiveness in the slaughtered victim. Cain brought only of the fruits of the ground which he tilled, thus acknowledging God as the giver, and making a thanksgiving offering, but expressing no consciousness of sin, nor faith in a Redeemer. The Lord showed his approval of the sacrifice of the first believer of all born in sin by a manifest sign, and his aversion to the offering of the first Deist, by withholding all marks of approbation. Such preference stung the proud rebellious heart of Cain, which, most probably, was already wounded by

sundry marks of superior affection shown to his younger brother by his earthly parents. A deadly malignity took possession of his bosom, which, as no good affection had there been fostered which could serve to quell or allay it, either expelled, or turned to its own account, every other feeling. Preference, indeed, shown without necessity to another by one whom we revere and love, will create, perhaps, some uneasy feeling in the best bosom; but then its unnecessary exhibition is a wanton provocation. Yet even here, the sufferer will rather look with humility to his own deficiency, than with envy to his rival's superiority; and should the rival be unworthy, still he will patiently acquiesce in the award, satisfied with the consciousness of no inferiority, aware that partiality is inseparable from human infirmity, and determined, in every event, to overcome evil with good. But Cain was angry at the preference shown by God, whom he had wilfully disobeyed. How low and degrading must have been his idea of the Almighty! To what a pass had his pride brought him! But so it ever is: an undue notion of ourselves, breeds undue notions of God, whom we practically know but through ourselves, and in proportion as we exalt our own merits we lower his; hence an overweening spirit is ever pulling him down to its own level, deals with him rather as if he were a man than God, and is dissatisfied with his awards, as if he were a fellow to its own miserable corruption. Thus men professing to be wise become fools; and they who take their stand on the sufficiency of human virtue, deny the most splendid examples of divine goodness; and, above all, that crowning mercy

-to which every other is but secondary-the atone

ment.

Great was the forbearance and long-suffering shown by God to this rebellious servant; but it only provoked further his stiff-necked and untameable spirit. God condescended to remonstrate with him, and asked him, when his countenance fell with the scowl of discontent upon it, " Why art thou angry and fallen of countenance ? With all things wherewith thou truly endeavourest to please me will I not be pleased? And for those things, in which thou neither hast pleased me, nor canst please me, have I not provided, by covenanting to accept a sin-offering? Is not this ever at hand? Why, then, was it not offered? And why be angry with thy brother? He shall still be subject to thee as younger to elder. The mark of my approbation will make no difference in this respect: I have not subjected thee to him.” But when the spirit of selfishness within a man is roused, vain is all expostulation from without, unheard the warning voice of man, of angel, and of God. So blind, so deluding is this spirit: occupied in contemplating its own worthiness, it attends to nothing else. It is at once both worshipper and worshipped; and self-love, self-admiration, take the place of love towards God, and charity to man. Everything, therefore, which for a moment stands in the way of its lust and pride is an intolerable grievance, is the instrument of a tyranny which must, by every means, be resisted and overthrown. Cain listened not to God, but kept his ear exclusively open to the complaints of his own malignant spirit. Over the imaginary wrongs which it continually