Genesis 4
AFTER Adam and Eve were turned out of the garden, they had two little children. Their names were Cain and Abel.
Cain was wicked like Satan; but Abel was good, for though his heart was naughty, yet God put His Holy Spirit in it, so that he loved God. Abel was sorry for his sins, and asked God to forgive him, and God did forgive him.
Cain and Abel were obliged to work hard like Adam their father. Cain dug the ground, and planted trees, and reaped corn. Abel took care of sheep; he was a shepherd.
Now I will tell you how Cain and Abel behaved to God.
God did not walk and talk with people then, as He had done in the garden; but He did speak sometimes, and He allowed people to pray to Him. You know that Jesus had promised to die for Adam and his children, and that was the reason that God was so kind to them.
God wished them always to remember that Jesus had promised to die for them, so He taught them a way of keeping it in their mind.
He told them to heap up stones (this heap was called an altar), and then to put some wood on the altar, and to take a lamb or a kid, and to bind it with a rope to the altar; then to take a knife and to kill the lamb, and then to burn it on the altar. Doing this was called "offering a sacrifice.”
When people did this, God wished them to think how He would one day let His Son die for their sins. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, He was like a lamb tied to the altar.
Abel brought lambs and offered them up to God, and Abel thought of God's promise, so God was pleased with Abel, and with his sacrifice. But Cain did not obey God, but brought some fruit instead of a lamb, and so God was angry with Cain, and did not, like his sacrifice.
Then Cain was very angry, and hated Abel because he was good, and because God loved him best. Cain was envious of Abel.
Then God spoke to Cain, and said, "Why are you angry? If you will love and serve Me, I shall be pleased with you; but if not, you shall be punished.”
Still Cain went on in wickedness. Now hear what he did at last. One day he was talking with Abel in the field, when he rose up and killed him.
Abel's blood was spilled upon the ground. Abel was the first man that ever died.
So Cain began by hating Abel, and ended by killing him, though he was his brother.
Soon Cain heard the voice of God calling him. God said, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I know not," answered the wicked Cain. "Am I my brother's keeper?”
But God said, "I have seen your brother's blood upon the ground, and you are cursed. You shall leave your father and mother, and wander about on the earth.”
Cain said, "My punishment is greater than I can bear. O let me not be killed!”
God said, "You shall not be killed, but you shall wander about from place to place.”
So Cain went and lived a great way off, and built houses for himself and his children. They lived in wickedness; they were the children of the devil, and cared not for God.
So Adam and Eve lost both their sons in one day; for Cain went a great way off, and Abel died. How they must have wept as they put dear Abel in the ground! But they must have wept still more to think that Cain was so wicked.
Why did they eat the fruit when Satan bid them? If they had not eaten the fruit, they would never have been unhappy. Cain would not have been wicked, and Abel would not have died. But God had pity on Adam and Eve, and gave them another son, who was made good by God's Spirit. He was called Seth.
The children of Seth feared God, and God loved them, and called them His children.
Hymn 3
Cain was the babe that first on earth
Rejoiced a mother's sight;
Now Eve laments the infant's birth,
Once hailed with fond delight.
O how could she foresee this day,
When she beheld her child,
As wrapt in slumbers soft he lay,
Or playfully he smiled?
But though so lovely to the view,
Evil lay hid within;
And Satan watched him as he grew,
And fanned the Sparks of sin.
At length Cain shed his brother's blood,
Then sought the deed to hide;
Now banished from his parents' God,
He wanders far and wide.
Child
Guard me, O Lord, from Satan's power,
For he walks to and fro,
And, like a lion, would devour
The Souls of men below.
Pride, hate, and envy are the chains,
By which he holds them fast;
Nor lets them know what bitter pains
Their sins shall bring at last.