special rcsp€'rt. The type is here of all religious wars. Tho Cain ·spirit is not moro bloody-miml.c-dness, but all defiance of God, and self-a~sert.ion, as against his will and word. htndeli'.ty has been as bloody as superstitwn. Both meet in the same per1•erted woi·ship of self.-R. Ver. 9.-Care for our bretlwe:n,. How terrible this question to the murderer I ~e thought,_ ~erhaps, his aC't ~as hidden,, and stro"e to put it out of mind. Perhaps <'hd not ant1c1pate effect of Ins stroke; but now brought face to face with his sin. ""·'here is Abel?". He knew not. He knew where the body lay; but that wns not ~bel. , Had sent hun whence he could not call him back. "Where is thy brother?" 1s God s word to each of us. It e.xpresses the great· law that wo are responsible for each ot,her's welf~re. "Am I my brother's_ keep_er ?" some would n~k. Assuredly )'es. God has kmt men together so that all our hfe through we requmi each other's help; and we cannot avoid influencing each other. And has created n bond of. brotherhood (cf. Acts xvii. 26), which follows from our calling him "Father.II \\'hat doing for good of mankind? Not to do good is to do harm; not to eave is to kill. Love of Christ works (Rom. x. 1 ; 2 Cor. v. 14). I. ,vE ARE CALLED TO CARE FOR THOSE AFAR OFF. "Who is my neighbour?" We might answer, ,vi10 is not thy neighbour? Everywhere our brethren. Thou- sands passing away daily. Abel, a vapour, the character of human life (Ps. ciii.15). ViThither are they going? And we know the way of salvation. Light is given to no one for himself only (Matt. v. 13, 14). We are to hold it fo1th; to be as lights in the world (Phil. ii. 15). It is God's will thus to spread his kingdom. Are we nnswE'ring the call? Test yourselves (cf. 1 John iii. 17). Deliver ue from blood- guiltiness, 0 God. Thank God, the question speaks to us of living men. There are fields still to be reaped. The heathen, our brethren, claim a brother's help. .How many varieties of Cain's answer :-You cannot reclaim savages ; you just make them hypocrites; we must look e.t home first. And the lost masses at home are our brethren. Oh, it is in vain to help them; they will drink ; they hato religion; th~y only think what they can get from those who visit them. Test these objections. Single out in thought one soul; compare hie case with yours. You have instruction, ordinances, influences; &.Dd he the darkness of heathenism, or surroundings of vice. Yet Christ died for that soul Can you let it depart without some effort, or even earnest prayer? II. WE ARE CALLED TO CARE FOR THOSE AROUND us. For their sake, watchful- ness and self-restraint (cf. Rom. xiv. 15). We teach more by what we• do than by what we say. The loving life teaches love; the sel.fieh, ungodliness. Inconsistencies of Christians hinder Christ's cause. What art thou at home? le thy life pointing heavenward? "None of ue liveth to himself." "Where is thy brother?"-M. Vere. 9-15.-.The condemnalion andjud,qment of tliefirst murderer. Notice- !. The Divine APPEAL TO CONSCIIlNCE, affording opportunity to repentance and confession, and therefore to the exercise of mercy. II. TnE BLINDING EFFECT OF A GREAT SIN. The man who Knew that God knew all persisting in a lie, and insulting the Divine majesty at the very throne of judg- ment, i. e. defying God by the monstrous extravagance of self-assertion, which is the effect of indulged sin, not only hardening the heart, but filling it with a mad despe-4tion. So we find great criminals still, to the very last, adding sin to sin, us thougn they had come to think that the deeper they BWik into it the more chance tliey had of escaping its punishment, or by daring the whole extremity might the sooner know the worst. III. There is great significance in the INTIMATE CONNECTION BET FORTII BETWEEN THE CRIME AND PUNISHMENT OF CAIN AND TIIE EARTH AND THE GROUND. The blood speaks from the ground, crying to God. Cain is cursed from the ground. The ground opened her mouth to receive the brother's blood. The ground refuses to serve the murderer. On the earth he shall be a fngitive and vagabond. From the face of the earth he is driven. His/unishment is greater than he can bear. Surely all that iB intended to place in vivi contrast the righteoueness of God o.nd the un• righteousness cf man ; the one witnessed by the Bteadfast eatrth, with its unbroken en. 1v. 17~26.) THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 87
l\\WB 1 ita pure, unfnllen, peaceful etate, with its communities of creaturea inno•;1JJ1t of Rli ain; tho other witnesse<l by the curae<l, wnndering, suffering, hungcr-pinollc,}, rniserable IDnn, flying from hie neighbour, flying from himself. IV. AIJ in the expulsion of man from Eden, so in the cxpul~ion of Cain from society, thero is MERCY MINGLED WITH JUDGMENT. The mark set upon Cain by the Lord was at once the mark of rejection and the mark of protection; it threatened sevenfold vengeance on the murderer of the murderer; it was an excomm•mic11tion for the sake of the sinner as well as for the sake of the community. We must not expect to find in these primeval records more than a dim intimation of the Divine mind. But here, at the outset of the human race, there is the germ of that distinction and separation among -mankind on the moral and spiritual gronncl which really is the essential fact of the kingdom of God. "The blood of sprinkling sp011keth better things than that of Abel." Yet it is a good thin~ that God should say to us, in however fearful a manner, that that which i~ destructive of human society, which rises up against a brother's life, which hates and works out its hatred in cruel act, shall be, can be, separated from the world into which it has come, and cast out. We must look at the whole narrative from the side of tho Abel element, not from the side of the Cain element; and the blessed truth contained in it is that God purgea society of its evil men and evil principles, and makes its very martyrs' blood to be a consecration of the earth to proclaim his righteousness. We have not to answer the question, How about Cain? He is protected from violence. He is permitted to repent and return, though for a time an outcast. Out of the conflict of the two worlds will come forth the purpose of God-evil separated, good eternally triumplmnt.-R.