MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,
I hope you will turn out all your references, as we have not room to print the verses you copy for me so neatly each month. I am glad to see a great improvement in many of our young correspondent’s answers, both as to the choice and as to the number sent. By searching out in your Bibles all the verses you send, you will learn more of those blessed truths of God’s word, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the seed of the woman, whose heel Satan bruised on the cross, and who through the power of that death will redeem all His spiritual seed from Satan’s dominion, and destroy death and Satan. This you have proved very clearly from the following scriptures: Gen. 22:1818And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:18); Isa. 7:1414Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14); Matt. 1:21; 23; 26:36, 38; 27:3521And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)
21And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. (Matthew 23:21)
36Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. (Matthew 26:36)
38Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. (Matthew 26:38)
35And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. (Matthew 27:35); Mark 14:33, 34;15:24, 2533And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; 34And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch. (Mark 14:33‑34)
24And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. 25And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. (Mark 15:24‑25); Luke 1:30, 31, 70; 2:7, 11; 22:39, 4430And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. 31And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. (Luke 1:30‑31)
70As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: (Luke 1:70)
7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7)
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)
39And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. (Luke 22:39)
44And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:44); John 8:44; 12:31; 16:1144Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)
31Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31)
11Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. (John 16:11); Rom. 1:3; 16:203Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; (Romans 1:3)
20And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. (Romans 16:20); 1 Cor. 15:21, 22, 25, 2621For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21‑22)
25For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:25‑26); Gal. 3:8, 16; 4:48And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. (Galatians 3:8)
16Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)
4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (Galatians 4:4); Eph. 1:20, 2220Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 1:20)
22And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, (Ephesians 1:22); Col. 2:1515And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:15); Heb. 2:14, 1514Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14‑15); 1 John 3:8; 5:58He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)
5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:5); Rev. 12:7, 9, 177And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, (Revelation 12:7)
9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:9)
17And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:17). We will now look at the story of Cain and Abel.
Cain was the first man that was born. In this we resemble him. We did not come into the world as Adam did, who was created in full age and stature, and who was made upright by God, but WE came into the world as Cain the murderer came, who was a sinner by birth, because born of sinful parents, whom God had driven out of Paradise.
His mother had bright hopes at firth, and called him Cain (gotten), for the said “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” When Abel was born she called him “Vanity,” to contrast him with her firstborn son. Many a mother since Eve has had large and happy expectations from her firstborn, which have been disappointed as Eve’s were.
The boys had no Bible to teach them God’s will and the way of salvation, but they had from their infancy the word of God from their parents’ lips. They could see the beautiful Garden of Eden, and could walk up to its gate, where the Cherubim were placed, and where the flaming sword turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Their parents, doubtless, told them repeatedly of their own creation, and of their happy state in Paradise, and of Satan’s tempting them; and how they eat the fruit of the tree, which God had commanded them not to eat; and of the judgment God pronounced upon them and their descendants; and of the judgment, too, of their cruel enemy, Satan, wherein lay man’s only hope of deliverance from the consequences of his woeful fall. Under these teachings and under the visible presence of God at Eden’s gate, the boys grew to be men, and began to learn for themselves the reality of God’s sentence on their father, Adam, in having in the sweat of their face to eat bread.
Cain became a tiller of the ground, which God had cursed, and which now brought forth thorns and thistles; and Abel became a keeper of sheep for the animals needed someone to shepherd them.
Both the sons owned God, and His claims over them, but Cain’s religion was that of an unbelieving sinner, who trusts his own thoughts of what God will accept, rather than the Word of God; so he brought of the fruit he had cultured an offering to God, just as if he had a right to worship his Creator, as an unfallen creature could have done. He did not own his sad position away from God, nor his need of mercy. He drew near to God as though sin, and death by sin (Rom. 5), had not entered into the world.
Abel acted quite differently. If he had been ignorant of sin, and unbelieving like Cain, he would have brought his lambs alive, as an offering to God. But God had given Abel to believe his true condition before Him, and he slew of the firstlings of his flock, and offered them to God; and God accepted Abel’s sacrifice, and testified by his gifts that he was righteous (Heb. 11:44By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4)); but to Cain and his offering God had not respect.
When Cain saw that God accepted Abel’s lambs, and that He passed by his beautiful fruit, his wicked heart was angry. He would not seek a sin offering for himself, but pride and malice filled his breast. This is what Scripture calls “the way of Cain.” It is the religion of every unconverted, unbelieving child. Perhaps children prove, in nothing more than in following this “way of Cain,” their guiltiness as to the sin of unbelief, which is the root of all sin and departure from God, and shuts out of heaven at last, unless by grace repented of. They think, to put it into their own language, that they have some goodness in them, and that God will love them if they make further progress in good doings; and so they grow up in Cain’s way, and not only disbelieve what God says about their sinful state, but when the occasion arises they show their hatred of any who really come the right way to God as Abel did.
I have seen boys hate their schoolmates and do to them any little spiteful thing that lay in their power, because their schoolmates said that Christ was their Saviour. This spirit of Cain led religious rulers and priests to crucify out of envy the Son of God.
Abel did not suspect his brother of this lurking malice, and this gave Cain the terrible opportunity as he talked with him in apparent brotherly love and walked with him in the field; to rise up and slay him.
Here, then, we find in the first two lives of men the two seeds God spoke of to Satan in the former chapter. Cain, the seed of the wicked one, who slew his brother, because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous; and Abel, the first of the children of God, who, born of God, believed God’s Word, and was counted righteous by God, and loved, and lived to, God.
The end of Abel’s history is soon told. On the behalf of Christ it was given unto him, not only to believe, but to suffer for His sake (Phil. 1:2929For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; (Philippians 1:29)), sealing in his lifeblood his faith in Christ, by which, says the Apostle, he, being dead, yet speaketh (Heb. 11:44By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4)).
Cain’s end is destruction. God met him with that awful question: “Where is Abel thy brother?” Cain dares to tell a lie to God: “I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Many have said the same since, but they shall not escape any more than Cain did. “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand, when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth” (Gen. 4:10-1210And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; 12When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. (Genesis 4:10‑12)). Cain is driven out of his place of outward privileges, as he bitterly laments, “From Thy face I shall be hid;” but he asks not for mercy or salvation. All he desires is that his life on earth may be spared, and this the Lord promises him. Thus Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, and sought to make himself happy away from God’s presence.
Are any of my young readers seeking to fill an empty and sinful heart as Cain did? If so, may they, like the prodigal son, be brought by their very misery to remember that House, where there is bread enough and to spare, while they perish with hunger. To any who are trusting with like faith to Abel’s in the precious blood of Christ I would say, that the same grace which gave you to believe is sufficient for you to live to God as Abel did. The Lord grant it of His great mercy.
Ever, dear children,
Your affectionate friend,
UNCLE R.