shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." Of this final bruising we read chiefly in the book of Revelation. Satan will yet make greater attempts against Christ and His people than he has yet made. The "man of sin" will be revealed. He will bring all the ungodly of the world to battle against the saints. He will have greater wrath than he yet has had against the woman and her seed, when he has been cast out of heavenly places, and knows that his time is short. (Rev. xii. 9, 12-17.) But "the Lord will consume him with the spirit of His mouth, and with the brightness of His coming!" and Satan will be bound for a thousand years, and though loosed for "a little season" after that, yet it will be but to hasten on his final overthrow, for at the last "fire will come down from God out of heaven and devour them," and the Devil be cast into the lake of fire, and that for ever and ever. (Rev. xx. 9, 10.) Thus shall this Scripture be fulfilled, and the serpent's head be bruised eternally.

PRAYER.

O Almighty God, may I never wish to hide myself from Thee. Give me a clear conscience by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and the purifying of thy Spirit. Grant me to

know my state, and to come to Thee to confess it. I am by nature wretched and miserable, and poor, and naked, as to all spiritual things. Have mercy on me, and make me happy in Thyself, peaceful in the righteousness of Christ, rich in Thy grace and every good gift, and clothed in righteousness and true holiness.

Lord, give me abundant evidence that I am not of the Devil, but that I am Thine. Make me faithful to confess Christ Jesus, my Lord, at all costs. Give me grace to suffer for His sake.

O God, bruise Satan under my feet; and give me such victory over him now, as shall secure to me hereafter a share in that kingdom which thou wilt set up when the god of this world is bruised for ever. Grant these things, AMEN.

O Lord, for Jesus' sake.

THE

JUDGMENT OF ADAM AND EVE.

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

"Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

"And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

"Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them." GENESIS iii. 16-21.

IN judgment God remembers mercy. We see this remarkably in each of the righteous sentences which God passed severally on the

F

Serpent, on the woman, and on the man. In each of them you will see mercy towards man is mingled with judgment. We have seen this in what God said to the Serpent. A promise was given of that Saviour who should destroy Satan, and deliver the seed of the woman. We have now to observe it in the punishments inflicted on the woman and on man. The curse passed on Adam did indeed affect Eve. The ground was cursed to each, and is so still to both man and woman. the woman received greater punishment than the man, something besides what she had in common with man. This was because she sinned first. Her punishment is expressed in the 16th verse. It is two-fold. Sorrow in conception of children, and subjection of her desires to her husband, or to the man.

But

To both parts of this sentence, we find St. Paul makes allusion in the 1st Epistle to Timothy, where he is exhorting the woman to submit to man in the matter of learning, i.e. of being taught. "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." This probably refers to conduct in the public assemblies and places of worship; and does it not refer us to this very sentence which God passed on the

woman, by which it was decreed that she should as the "weaker vessel," henceforth be subject to and dependent on the man for the apostle goes on to give the reasons for this in the next verses, "for Adam was first formed, then Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." (1 Tim. ii. 11—14.)

In many heathen countries, and among uncivilized nations, we find that the woman is considered and treated as being, in every respect, far below the man, even her own husband. And often they are in the most degraded state of slavery to their husbands. This is doubtless the fulfilment in part of this curse. It is only as the Gospel of Christ removes the curse from us, that woman is restored to an equality with man in such respects.

With regard to the other part of the sentence, which refers to sorrow in time of conception and of bringing forth children, we may remark that so surely is this always fulfilled, that in many parts of the scripture, the subject is used as a figure expressive of great, overwhelming, and unavoidable pain and distress. Thus in the 1st of Thess. v. 3, "when they shall say peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.