Part 4 (1/2)

2. The Home suffered.

a. How this curse affected the earth 186-187.

b. Why Adam used such severe words in this curse 186.

c. How it caused the earth to be less fruitful 187.

* The difference between ”Arez” and ”Adama” 188.

3. The State suffered.

* What ”No” and ”Nod” mean, and how they differ 189-190.

* Cain's sin punished in three ways and in each the sin was mitigated 191-193.

* Cain a fugitive and a wanderer.

a. This refers chiefly to the true Church, as is ill.u.s.trated by many examples of the saints 194-195.

b. It refers less to the false 194-195.

c. Many take offense at this 196.

V. HOW CAIN WAS PUNISHED FOR HIS MURDER.

A. Cain's Punishment in General.

153. If Eve overheard these words, what think you must have been the state of her mind! Her grief must have been beyond all description.

But the calamity was brought home to Adam with even greater force. As he was the father, it fell to him to rebuke his son and to excommunicate him for his sin. Since, according to the ninth chapter, the law concerning the death-penalty for murderers was not promulgated until afterward when the patriarchs beheld murder becoming alarmingly frequent, Adam did not put Cain to death, but safeguarded his life in obedience to the prompting and direction of the Holy Spirit; still, it is a fact not to be gainsaid that the punishment ordained for him and all his posterity was anything but light. For in addition to that curse upon his body he suffered excommunication from his family, separation from the sight of his parents and from the society of his brothers and sisters, who remained with their parents, or in the fellows.h.i.+p of the Church.

154. Now, Adam could not have done all this, nor could Eve have heard it without indescribable anguish. For a father is a father, and a son is a son. Gladly would Adam have spared his son and retained him at home, as we now sometimes see murderers become reconciled to the brothers of their victims. But in this case no place was left for reconciliation. Cain is bidden at once to be a fugitive upon the face of the earth. The pain of the parents was doubled in consequence. They see one of their sons slain, and the other excommunicated by the judgment of G.o.d and cut off forever from the fellows.h.i.+p of his brethren.

155. Moreover, when we here speak of excommunication from the Church, it stands to reason that not our houses of wors.h.i.+p, built in magnificent style and ample proportions out of hewn stone, are meant.

The sanctuary, or church, of Adam was a certain tree, or a certain little hill under the open heaven, where they a.s.sembled to hear the Word of G.o.d and to offer their sacrifices, for which purpose they had erected altars. And when they offered their sacrifices and heard the Word, G.o.d was present, as we see from the experience of Abel.

Also elsewhere in the sacred story, mention is made of such altars under the open heaven, and of sacrifices made upon them. And, if we should come together at this day under the open sky to bend our knees, to preach, to give thanks, and to bless each other, a custom would be inaugurated altogether beneficial.

156. It was from a temple of this kind and from such a church, not a conspicuous and magnificent church at a particular place, that Cain was cast out. He was thus doubly punished; first, by a corporal penalty, because the earth was accursed to him, and secondly, by a spiritual penalty, because by excommunication, he was cast out from the temple and the church of G.o.d as from another paradise.

157. Lawyers also have drawn upon this pa.s.sage, and quite properly brought out the fact that Jehovah first investigated the matter and then pa.s.sed sentence. Their application is, that no one should be p.r.o.nounced guilty until his case has been tried; until he has been called to the bar, proved guilty and convicted. This, according to a previous statement, was also done with Adam: ”The Lord G.o.d called unto Adam, and said unto him. Where art thou?” Gen 3, 9. And further on: ”I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know,” Gen 11, 5; 18, 21.

158. However, dismissing the matter in its bearings upon public life, let us view its more attractive theological features. The element of doctrine and of hope is found in the fact that Jehovah inquires concerning the dead Abel. Clearly there is pointed out to us here the truth of the resurrection of the dead. G.o.d declared himself to be the G.o.d of Abel, although now dead, and he inquired for the dead, for Abel. Upon this pa.s.sage we may establish the incontrovertible principle that, if there were no one to care for us after this life, Abel would not have been inquired for after he was slain. But G.o.d inquires after Abel, even when he had been taken from this life; he has no desire to forget him; he retains the remembrance of him; he asks: ”Where is he?” G.o.d, therefore, we see, is the G.o.d of the dead.

My meaning is that even the dead, as we here see, still live in the memory of G.o.d, and have a G.o.d who cares for them, and saves them in another life beyond and different from this corporal life in which saints suffer affliction.

159. This pa.s.sage, therefore, is most worthy of our attention. We see that G.o.d cared for Abel, even when dead; and that on account of the dead Abel, he excommunicated Cain, and visited him, the living, with destruction in spite of his being the first-born. A towering fact this, that Abel, though dead, was living and canonized in another life more effectually and truly than those whom the pope ever canonized!

The death of Abel was indeed horrible; he did not suffer death without excruciating torment nor without many tears. Yet it was a blessed death, for now he lives a more blessed life than he did before. This bodily life of ours is lived in sin, and is ever in danger of death.

But that other life is eternal and perfectly free from trials and troubles, both of the body and of the soul.