him in and accept his devotion, a steady, powerful, and serviceable ally. Let us follow this out in the sequel. "And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." The Evil One-for observe, sin throughout the Bible, like goodness, is personal· the His Evil One, I say, has so far served Cain well. And not only in this primitive murder has he exhilarated the assassin's heart with passion and smoothed his path with opportunity. How well our great English dramatist knew this! Gloucesters and Lady Macbeths are hurried with a supernatural joy and ease down the slope of crime; and then, by the red-handed murderer, is heard the voice of God in the guilty conscience, which we call remorse, giving, as it were, a last chance to the soul of freeing itself from the tightening grip of sin. The verses which follow in the sacred story seem to me to present in the form of dialogue, vivid with dramatic power, the tumultuous struggle which this voice rouses within the heart of Cain. "Where is Abel thy brother?" How vain is the criminal's ready lie, "I know not"! How poor a shield for a haunted murderer is the brazen creed of selfishness! "Am I my brother's keeper?" All his defences break down; the voice of his brother's blood crieth from the ground; he hears himself driven to wander over the earth a fugitive and a vagabond, yet never free from a ghastly presence, never safe from human vengeance. In vain shall be the labours of his hand; the earth shall not yield her strength to his fitful efforts, palsied by fear of overhanging doom. His punishment is greater than he can bear; from God's face shall he be hid. Like King Richard in the play, he seems to have a confused horror of his own solitary and inevitable presence with himself: "Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am. Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why : I am a villain. Yet I lie: I am not. Fool, of thyself speak well: fool, do not flatter. What then? Are the forebodings of Cain realised in Genesis? No, they are not. He is secured from outward danger. The Lord hath set a mark upon him that no one may slay him. Like many of his spiritual descendants he leads henceforth a charmed life. He is set free from inward agony. He "went forth from the presence of the Lord." The Divine Spirit, which will not always strive with man, ceases to be heard. Conscience with her "thousand several tongues" tortures him no more. Here the human and the divine tragedy part company. Shakespeare would fail to satisfy our dramatic instinct with the passing horrors of that haunted night, unless, shrieking for a horse in vain, the murderer died like a dog before our eyes. But the Bible is under no such necessity. It teaches us a deeper lesson. Cain lives and thrives. The flattering fiend, now master of the fortress of his soul, soothes him with a false peace, braces him with fresh hopes and bright ambition. He is the founder of a great family. In the startling language of the lesson read to-day, he "buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity." And so he passes out of our sight. I have tried to represent to you the story of Cain as the life drama of a soul which surrenders itself to the fascination of the powers of darkness; but the divine harmony of Scripture will be more clearly seen if we compare the history of his family with that of the children of Seth. It at once strikes us that nearly the same names occur in both lists. This can scarcely be a coincidence, and is one of many proofs that the inspired author of the narrative did not intend it to be taken as one of literal fact. But in character they are totally opposed. Three of Seth's descendants are singled out for special notice. Their character and their rewards are those of God's children. As Abel, the suffering righteous man, foreshadows the story of the Cross, so Enoch, who walked with God and was not, for God took him, is the herald of the resurrection; Lamech pierces the mists of trouble with the eye of faith; while Noah is the preacher of righteousness and the instrument of salvation. Now turn to the other family. The Evil One, whose desire had been unto Cain, continues to serve his race. In virtue of a power unchallenged by our tempted Saviour, which he has wielded in all ages and which he wields still, he raised it to a pinnacle of worldly grandeur, he endowed it with a force of dominant vitality. "There were giants on the earth in those days, mighty men which were of old, men of renown." By intermarriage with the sons of God the ever poisonous alloy between good and evil fills the earth with violence. They eat, they drink, they marry and are given in marriage; and it repents God that He hath made man upon the earth, because the thoughts of his heart are only evil continually. The line of Cain culminates in another Lamech, who is pictured to us a blood-stained autocrat glorying in the impunity of wanton crime. "Have I slain a young man to my hurt?" (for this is the most natural meaning of his wellknown saying): “if Cain hath been avenged sevenfold, surely Lamech seventy and sevenfold." There is no such thing, he boasts, as right and wrong. Power is for the unscrupulous. Conscience is a delusion. God is a phantom, and judgment is a scare. Now I ask you to attend particularly to the account of Lamech's family, for it is very remarkable. He has three sons: Jabal, described as the father of such as dwell in tents and of such as have cattle, which, as many of you know, are the primitive symbol of wealth; Jubal, the father of all such as handle the harp and organ; and Tubal - cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. A little thought will make it clear that this cannot be intended literally. To pass over the obvious |