bruise Mm" (Isa. !iii. 10), "Througl, death he destroyed kim that ltad the power of death," &o. (Heh. ii. 14). It must have been itself like a. revelation of redeeming love ·thnt God pronounced sentence farst upon the serpent, not upon man, thereby teaching him tha.t he wll!I in the sight of God a victim of the evil power, to be delivered by the victorious seed of the woman, rather than an enemy to he crushed nnd destroyed. Tho sentence seemed to say, Thou, the serpent, art the evil thing to be annihilated,' man shall be saved, though wounded and bruised in the heel ; the "woman's seed" shall ho the conqueror,-which was the prediction of a renovation of humanity in a pecond Adam, a dim forecasting of the future, indeed, but a certain nnd unmistakable proclamation of the continuance of the race, notwithstanding sin and death; and in that continuance it was declared there should be a realisation of entire deliverance. The sentence upon the woman, which follows that upon the ser- pent, as she was the first in the transgression, is a sentence which, while it clearly demonstrates the evil of sin, at the same time reveals the mercy of God. 'rho woman's sorrow is that which she can and does forget, for "joy that a man is born into the world." Her desire to her husband and her submission to his rule do come out of that fall of her nature in which she is made subject to the conditions of a fleshly life; but from the same earthly soil spring up the hallowed blossoms and fruits of the affections, filling the world with beauty and blessing. So have the law of righteousness and the law of love from the beginning blended together in the government of God. In like manner, the sentence upon the man is the same revela- tion of Divine goodness in the midst of condemnation. The ground is cursed for man's sake. To tliee it shall bring forth thorns and thistles, i. e. thy labour shall not be tLe productive labour it would have been-thou shalt put it forth among difficulties and obstacles. Thou shalt see thine own fnoral perversity reflected in the stubborn: barrenness, the wilderness growth of nature. Yet thou shalt eat the herb of the field, and depend upon it. With sweat of thy face all through thy life thou shalt win thy bread from an unwilling earth. And at last the dust beneath thy feet shall claim thee as its own ; thy toil-worn frame shall crumble down into the grave. It was (1) a sentence of death, of death in life; but at the same time it was (2) a merciful appointment of man's most peaceful and healthy occupation-to till the ground, to grow the corn, to eat the bread ; and it was (3) a proclamation of welcome release from the burden II when the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." There is no allusion in any of these sentences to spiritual results of transgression, but that is only because the whole is a representation of the fall, olJjectively regarded. Just as the serpent is spoken of as though it were only an animal on the earth, so man's sin is spoken of as though it were only his life's error, to be paid for in his life's suffering; but as in the former case the deeper spiritual meaning lies behind the form of the serpent, so in the latter the condemnation which brings toil and suffering and death upon man's bodily frame brings upon his whole nature that which the external infliction symbolises and sets forth. The life goes down into the dust, but it is the life which by sin had be- come a smitten, cursed thing; that hiding of it in the dust is the end, so far as the mere sentence is concerned. We must, however, wait for the revelation which is to be made in the new man,-the life coming forth again,-which, though but dimly pro- mised, is yet suggested in the story of paradise. Adam gave 11 new name to his wife when she became to him something more th1m "a help-meet for him." He called her, first, woman, because she was taken. out of man. He called her, aftenrnrcls, "Eve," as the life-producing, 11 because she was the mother of all l·iving." The coats of skin-which were not, like the fig-leaves sewn together, man's own devico for hiding shame, but God's preparation for preserving that reverence between tho sexes so vital to the very continuance of the rac!l itself-betokened again the mingling of mercy with judgment; for, apart altogether from any theory as to the slain trnimals whoAe skins were employed, the Divine origin of clothing is a most significant fact. When we are told that "the Lord God made them coats of skins, and clothed them," we must interpret the language from the standpoint of the whole mirrative, which is that of an objective representation of the mysteries of man's primeval life. It would !!ot be in harmony with the tone of tlrn whole book to say in what metho(l such Divine interposition was brought about. To the Biblical ,vriters a spiritur1l guidance, 72 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [en. Ill. 20-H,.
• work of God in the mind of man, is just as tmly God's own act as though it were altogether apart from any humn.n a&"ency. The origin of clothing wn.s an inspiration. Perhaps it is not putting too much into the language to see in such a fact nn allusion to other facts. Man is directed to use skins; might he not have been directed to slay animals? If so, might not such slaughter of animals have been first connected with religious observances, for as yet there is no allusion to the use of animal food, eave in the indirect form of dominion over the lower creation? In the fourth chapter in the extra paradisaic life, the keeping of herds and flocks is mentioned as a nati:.rat sequel. Doubtless from the time of the fall the mode of life was entirely changed, as was its sphere. Before sin man was an animal indeed, but with his animal nature in entire subordination; after his fall he was under the laws of animal life 1 both as to its support and propagation. Death became the ruling fact of life, as it is in the mere animal races. Man is delivered from it only as he is lifted out of the animal sphere and becomes a child of God. The expulsion from Eden was part of the l~ivine sentence, but it was part of the redemptive work which commenced imme- diately upon the fall. The creature knowing good and evil by disobedience must not live for ever in that disobedience. He must die thnt he mny be released from the burden of his corruption. An immortality of sin is not God's purpose for his creature. Therejdre the Lord God shut up Eden.-R.