January 3

Genesis 4:16‑17
IN these early chapters of Genesis, after the fall of Adam and Eve, two distinct lines of their descendants come before us: the line of Cain, the natural man, active, often brilliant and inventive, but existing without God, seeking to make the world a pleasant place in which to live, although manifesting increasing wickedness as the centuries went by. The line of Seth called upon the name of the Lord, and although never numbered among the great ones of the earth, sought, like Enoch, to walk with God, and, like Noah, to obey His voice in all things. Methuselah led right up to the year of the deluge. His grandson and household were the only ones to go through that time of judgment and through them God began a new world-order.
“To trust in man is but a thing of naught,
With Thee is mercy, Lord, with Thee is might;
To trust in Thee at all times I am taught
Is best, for what Thou plannest must be right.
My hand I place in Thine for all the year:
Thou art a refuge: what have I to fear?”