“In the beginning God created,” &c. This stupendous fact, thus recorded at the very commencement of God's word, is elsewhere referred to—1, as proof of His proprietorship of all things (Psa. 89:11, 1211The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. 12The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. (Psalm 89:11‑12)); 2, as proof of His power (Isa. 40:2626Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. (Isaiah 40:26)); 3, of power and Godhead (Rom. 1:20). 4, as, the ground on which praise is demanded (Psa. 148:55Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created. (Psalm 148:5)); 5, His glory stated as the object (Isa. 43:77Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. (Isaiah 43:7)); 6, His pleasure (Rev. 4:1111Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11)); 7, proof of absolute sovereignty (Isa. 45:9-129Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? 10Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? 11Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. 12I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. (Isaiah 45:9‑12)); 8, to be inhabited, and thus not in vain, the end being accomplished in millennial times; 9, God's glory in the church by Christ Jesus, stated at the end of creation (Eph. 3:99And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: (Ephesians 3:9), 10); 10, one God is the Creator; still, all the persons in the Godhead recognized; God the Father in all the above passages; 11, by Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:99And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: (Ephesians 3:9); Col. 1:1616For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (Colossians 1:16); Heb. i. 2; John 1:5, 105And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:5)
10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. (John 1:10)); 12, by the Spirit (ver. 2): 13, the whole calling on us to remember our Creator (Eccl. 12:11Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; (Ecclesiastes 12:1)); to worship and serve Him supremely (Rom. 1:2525Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 1:25); Rev. 4:1111Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11)); and to receive His gifts with thanksgiving. (1 Tim. 4:33Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (1 Timothy 4:3).)
Supposing the Bible to be a revelation from God, how exactly it begins as we might expect! Not that men ever begin thus their disquisitions on the origin of all things; far from it. But this is precisely what illustrates the point. Supposing God to be the Author and the inspired penman the instrument of communication, how natural to begin with the simple absolute statement of verse 1! To suppose God writing a preface would be absurd.
What the first verse declares is the fact of God's creating the heavens and the earth when they began to exist. There is no intimation that this was part of the first day's work, nor of the space of time elapsing between the creation, as in verse 1, and the earth being found, as in verse 2, in the condition there described. Innumerable ages may have intervened, for anything the narrative says to the contrary. But at a given epoch the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. How impossible that the darkness could ever have enlightened itself, or that chaos could reduce itself to order! Equally impossible that light and order can be educed from the deeper darkness and more dismal confusion of man's fallen state by any power inherent in himself. But the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. In like manner does He, as the source of all that is to be produced in those born of Him, act upon their souls. But it is to impart what is not there, not to develop what already exists. “Let there be light, and there was light.” So “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.” It was by His word “God said, Let there be light,” &c. So it is by His word that He shines into the sinner's heart.
Amid the uncertainty as to the import of the word Elohim, as traceable from its real or supposed root (which is not found in scripture), it is well that this chapter, and the opening verses of the next, in which it alone is used as the divine name, afford us so satisfactory a sense, revealing Elohim as the Originator of all things, His eternal power and Godhead being made known by the creation of which He is the source. As to the plural form of the word, and its connection with singular verbs, would not it be near the truth to say that, while it cannot be regarded as a revelation of the Trinity, it is still such a mode of expression as evinces that He, the blessed Spirit, the third person therein, had it in mind, and used words, the full force of which could only be understood by us when that doctrine had been revealed?
What a pure and blessed atmosphere do we breathe in the perusal of this chapter! All is divine. God said, God saw, God called. His thoughts, words, and acts were presented throughout. And hence all is very good. Alas it is when the creature begins to act that all is marred. How observable, too, that God gives everything its name He calls as well as makes all things. Night and day, heaven, earth, and seas all receive their names as well as their existence from Him. What was for man's use, and to be subjected to man's control, is left for him to name. What an evident progress, moreover, from generals to particulars in the order of the creation! Light; the atmosphere; the divisions of the seas from the dry land; the varied orders of vegetable life: the min, moon, and stars, or the placing of the earth in such relation to them as to receive their light, and have time divided by their revolutions; then first the lower orders of animals, such as birds and fishes, and afterward the higher beasts of the forest and beasts of the field—all whose organization is more complicated and elaborate—and, last of all, man, to be the ruler and lord of all.
When man, however, was to be created, it was not, as in each previous case, by a simple fiat of God's lips: the creation of man was the subject of divine counsels. “Let us make man,” &c. Observe here that man was to be, and was, made in the image and likeness of God. This is his first great distinction from what had been previously created. For the second, he was to have dominion over all. How strikingly was he, in all this, “the figure of him who was to come!” (Compare Psa. 8; Phil. 2:6-116Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6‑11), with Heb. 2:5-105For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 6But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 7Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 8Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. 10For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:5‑10); Rom. 5; 1 Cor. 15:45-4745And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:45‑47).)
How touching the testimony of God's complacency in the, as yet, unsullied creation! He rested on the seventh day: surely not in any such sense as that in which we use the word rest, as contrasted with fatigue, but simply as contrasted with the six days' work. “The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them;” “and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” as that on which He could with delight survey the completed work. How beautiful a type of that eternal rest He is yet to have in the redeemed creation! (Rev. 21:5. 6.)
Chapter 2: 4. We here begin to have a new name” Jehovah Elohim” —expressing, as it would seem, not only the origination of all things by Elohim, but the relations sustained by Him to a part of that which He had so originated. The double name is as uniformly used in this chapter from this point as the single one previously.
Verse 7. The creation of man is here more particularly described, and his distinction from the rest of the animated creation is still further developed. His body, it seems, was first formed of the dust, and without life. Then, into the nostrils of the frame thus constituted, the Lord God breathed the breath of life: and man became a living soul. He consists, therefore, of two parts—a body formed out of the dust, and now, in consequence of sin, to return to the dust whence it was taken, and a soul—a living soul—received from God Himself, and which, when separated from the body, returns to God who gave it. This soul, capable of receiving the knowledge of God, endowed with understanding, memory, affections, and will, is what renders man a responsible being. He is not inanimate, like a stone—insensitive, like a plant—irrational, and blindly governed by instinct, like an animal, but, unlike all these, capable of observation, recollection, judgment, decision; he is the subject of hope, fear, love, hatred, joy, sorrow, confidence, distrust, and, above all, he is susceptible of knowing the One who has so formed and constituted him, and of finding in Him the object of the suited exercise of all these wondrous faculties.
With what perfect goodness had God provided a residence for man, before man himself was created to enjoy it! How everything must have witnessed to man the beneficence of his Creator! Everything pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life to sustain him in immortality, in case of his obedience, and but one object, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by which his obedience was put to the test.
Verse 15, &c. It was from God that the man had received his being, and it was by Him that he was placed in the garden prepared for him—placed there, not to be inactive, but “to dress it and to keep it.” How absolute were God's rights over the creature that He had formed All Adam's rights, as regarded the garden, the earth, and the various tribes of inferior creatures, flowed from the sovereign appointment of Him, whose, equally with Adam himself, they all were. How fitting that there be some test of whether Adam recognized these rights of His Creator: and if there were to be a test, how could there have been one easier or more favorable to man? In verses 16, 17, observe, 1, God's authority—He “commanded the man;” 2, His bounty— “Of every tree,” &c.; 3, His prohibition— “Thou shalt not;” — “His threatening” — “In the day,” &c. Man is thus fully set in responsibility before that woman is created. She was to share the responsibility with him.
Verse 18. Man was alone, and it was not good that he should be so. The earth and all that it contained was good, and man placed in unquestioned authority over it all. But amid its various tribes of animals and plants, man had no companion with whom to share his affections and his thoughts. Whence was such an one to come? Had another been created out of the dust independently of Adam, where had been his supremacy? and where had been, moreover, the tender intimacy of relationship needed in such a companion? Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast and fowl, and brought them to Adam, to see what he would call them. Adam exercised thus his delegated authority, and gave names to all the animal tribes—but for Adam there was not found an help meet. How blessedly was the lack filled up! Out of Adam, while he slept, did the Lord God make woman, and bring her to the man. His exclamation sufficiently evinces the joy with which he received her, as well as his perception of the Infinite wisdom which had thus provided a partner, a companion, distinct indeed, and thus the object of his affections and delight, and yet so mysteriously linked with his existence as to have been once part of himself. “The woman is of the man.” Precious mystery, regarded as expressing the relation of the second Adam to His Eve, the church. No one in all the creation of which He is Heir, and Lord, and Head, suited to be the sharer of His dominion, and the companion of His heart, but the church, by virtue of His deep sleep of death, made partaker of His life in resurrection, and yet in the day to come to be presented by Him to Himself, a glorious church, without spot, &c. (Eph. 5)
Chapter 3. It was by subtlety, not by force, that man was overcome. No force could have overcome him, had not he himself departed, as he was induced by deception to do, from God. How important to examine God's whole word, seeing that it is so near the close of scripture as Rev. 12 that we have an explicit declaration as to who” the serpent” is of whom we here read so near the beginning of the inspired record! How evident, from the mode of the enemy's attack, that faith is the root and spring of all obedience in the creature, even in innocence, as well as that which receives the Savior and His great salvation when man has fallen! No wonder that such stress is laid on it as the fundamental principle of the Christian's life, walk, endurance, and victory. Perfect confidence in God's goodness would have assured our first parents, though they knew nothing of the reason for the prohibition, that it must be, and was, for their good and happiness. They would then have repelled the base insinuation against God's goodness, implied rather than expressed in the artful question, “Yea, hath God said?” &c. How much more was contained in such an inquiry than appears on the surface!
His own pretended anxiety for their enjoyment; the insinuation that such a thing was too bad for God to have said; but if He had, what a foe to their happiness He must be, to grudge them so small a gratification? What could have met so poisoned a dart from Satan's quiver, but the perfect confidence which would have replied in the very words of the LORD God: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat” — “such is our Creator's goodness; and, having made the one only exception to this, we can trust His goodness in this also—that it is for our good.” Faith would have noticed the “every” and the “freely” in chapter 2:16; and such observation of the very words of the “LORD God” would again have strengthened faith, and led to the instant repelling of such thoughts as the enemy sought to suggest.
But Eve's first reply has two sad features: first, that God's very words did not constitute it; and, secondly, that the two she omitted were such as show that the tempter's insinuation had already begun to take effect. Her answer betrays that already her thoughts of God's bounty are less vast and magnificent than the words had expressed. The thin edge of the wedge was already inserted. All the rest, alas! was easy. The threatening was all that now stood between her and the enjoyment she had alas! begun to covet. And even ail to the threatening, the solemn words, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” have got diluted in Eve's lips to, “lest ye die.” The heart set on a prohibited indulgence, the threatened punishment the only barrier, and even this viewed through a diminishing medium, how easily can Satan silence all remaining fears by the bold contradiction of God's word: “Ye shall not surely die!” To this, moreover, he now adds, what he had but insinuated before, that God has motives of His own for the prohibition. According to the enemy, it was to perpetuate their inferiority to Himself that God had forbidden them the fruit.
Verse 6. What a contradiction here to the One who judged not “after the sight of his eyes,” or “the hearing of his ears,” and what an answer to the infidelity which prefers “sight,” or what men call “demonstration,” to faith in God's word. She saw through the medium Satan had interposed, and what she saw was neither more nor less than three enormous lies. God had said, by prohibiting the tree, that it was not good for food: she saw that it was. Had God retained His place in her heart, she could not have found pleasure to her eyes in that which He had forbidden, but she saw “that it was pleasant to the eyes.” Believing Satan rather than God, she saw, moreover, that “it was a tree to be desired to make one wise.” “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” having thus entered, the act of disobedience was all that remained, and soon, alas I she took, ate, gave to her husband, and he also ate.
We have divine authority for believing that “Adam was not deceived, but the woman.” (1 Tim. 2:1414And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. (1 Timothy 2:14).) Hence learn, 1, the wisdom of God in making the man the head of the woman. 2, Satan's craft in addressing himself to the weaker vessel. 3, the evil and misery which flow from practical disregard of God's arrangement. It was evidently Eve's place to have referred the serpent to Adam, or to have herself referred to him the representations falsely made to her by the serpent; and how evident, as Adam was not deceived, that the tempter would in this way have been foiled. 4, God's claim ought to have been, with Adam, superior to that of conjugal affection, whether the latter led him to choose, with his eyes open, to sin, and perish with his wife, or whether it was in some other way that it operated. 5, How solemnly does the whole illustrate and enforce the subjection due from the church to Christ (Eph. 5), as well as the chosen symbol of this in the actual and willing subjection of the wife to her husband.
It has often been said, and still oftener thought, that the act of our first parents in thus eating of the forbidden fruit was it trivial act, when compared with the consequences it involved. Nothing can be more absurd than such a thought. The occasion afforded them of obeying or disobeying was certainly in itself, viewed apart from God's command, a trivial one. But not only did it cease to be a trifle, when it had become the subject of a divine command, and a test of man's obedience, but the more trivial in itself the prohibited act, the more fearful and manifest the guilt of disobedience. The man who would be a traitor for a toy would be justly held more culpable than one whose inducement to revolt was the anticipated possession of a kingdom. If it were a small matter to eat the fruit of any particular tree, it was surely a small matter to abstain therefrom. But, for the sake of so confessedly small a matter, to disobey God's command, was not a trifle, but an act of gravest significance and deepest guilt. Consider the elements which are combined in such an act—which were combined in this. Distrust of their Creator's goodness; the denial of His veracity; ingratitude for all the bounties He had bestowed upon them, and all the favors He had shown them; contempt of all the blessedness involved in His continued favors, along with the hardihood which dared Him to fulfill the threatening He had denounced. These, as well as the trampling under foot authority, the aspiring to equality with Him, and the preferring Satan as their friend and counselor to the God who had given them existence, with all that made that existence a blessing, were some of the chief moral elements involved in the act which has been deemed so trivial by their fallen and corrupted offspring.
What a solemn spectacle is here presented to us! None so deeply interested in it as ourselves; but for that very reason alas! none so incapable of rightly estimating its character. Yet, even to us, blinded as we are by self interest, as well as by the actual effect upon our perceptions and judgments of the event before us, how momentous does that event appear! The inanimate creation answers the end of its existence: the display of its Creator's wisdom, power, and glory. The planets revolve around their centers; the seasons succeed each other in due course; the rain and dew fertilize the soil; the earth yields its rich variety of fruits; all these, even the inferior tribes of animated nature obeying the instincts they possess, subserve the wellbeing of man, and display the glory of his and their Creator; but man himself, the only being amongst them all gifted with the capacity of intelligent obedience, is a rebel! It was for the glory, by the power, and according to the will, of God, that all began to be. But while all else continue to exist on these conditions, man has chosen another end than his Maker's glory. He acts to gratify and exalt himself. He seeks to be independent of his Maker. His own will becomes the rule by which he acts, not only instead of God's will, but in contradiction thereto. “How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed.”
Verse 7. How little did the guilty pair anticipate, how little could they beforehand picture to themselves, the immediate consequences of their deed! The eyes of both were opened, not, as they had vainly imagined, to discern new objects, and receive new sensations of delight, but to perceive, what they had been happily unconscious of till now, that they were naked! Their innocence had needed no veil. Shame, and the conscious need of a covering from each other and themselves, form the first-fruits of sin. Guilt and remorse, twin sisters, till now unknown, impel them to the vain attempt to hide their nakedness by garments constructed by themselves. How affecting and how true a picture of what still takes place Sin is no sooner committed, and the guilty fruition past, than remorse succeeds, and the attempt, by one excuse or another, to hide one's shame from oneself.
Verse 8. From oneself—for, the moment God manifests His presence, the fig-leaf aprons are of no avail. They may servo the purpose of self-deception till the light which makes manifest draws near; but they seem not to be remembered even when the voice of the LORD God is heard. Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God. They remember their need of covering; but those they have fabricated for themselves are forgotten, and they seek to hide themselves amongst the trees of the garden. Here several points suggest themselves. 1, they show the alienation of their hearts from God before any sentence of exclusion is pronounced upon them by Him. He has become the object of their distrust and dread. 2, how completely must sin have already blinded their understanding, that they should deem it possible to hide themselves from God! 3, with the heart alienated, and the understanding darkened, conscience, awakened by hearing the voice of the LORD God, does not lead them towards God, but away from Him.
Verse 9. What a question for Adam to have to answer! How it intimated that he was not where he had been wont to be! Why the difference? Why not meet, as he had been accustomed to meet, the One who deigned thus to visit the creatures of His power and love? No change had taken place with Him. What had befallen Adam, that he should hide himself at His approach? How wondrous the ways of God! Our first parents had rebelled—had sought by their own devices to hide their shame—and now were attempting to hide themselves from God. And yet He approaches—He speaks—not to accuse or to upbraid, but to inquire. There is nothing unusual in His approach; the change was in those who flee and hide themselves, instead of adoringly welcoming His condescension, as in moments past; and it is for them to account for the change. “Adam, where art thou?”
And what was the response to this demand? Was it a frank acknowledgment of sin, and submission to the will of the One who had such cause of just offense? Alas! no; Adam owns the effect of sin, the sense of nakedness, and the fear resulting therefrom; but not one word of his having sinned. Not a word expressive of contrition for his offense. And when the question comes closer to his conscience, assuming a form in which it could not be evaded, he casts the blame of that which he could neither deny nor longer conceal on “the woman,” and covertly on God Himself. “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me,” &c. As though he had said, The fault is not mine; it results from arrangements over which I had no control. If Thou hadst not given me the woman, she could not have been my tempter, and I should not have eaten of the tree.
Here notice, ere passing on, how solemnly precise and personal the questions are. Not, “My creatures, where are you?” but, “Adam, where art thou?” He had but one companion in sin; but this question completely isolates him, places him singly before God, and compels him to answer for himself. “I heard;” “I was afraid;” “I hid myself.” Equally direct is the next inquiry. “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” I and thou, God and the sinner—the sinner and his sin confronting each other And is not this still the effect of God's word, when it is felt to be His living voice? A man may be but one of a crowd, undistinguishable from his fellows in any eye but the eye of God; but when the word comes home, how does it isolate him, and make him feel as though none were present but God and he, and as though there were nothing for him to gaze upon under the eye of God but the sin on which that eye rests, and the conviction of which is being forced home on the conscience! “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.” “Come, see a man who told me all that ever I did.”
Observe, too, in Adam's second reply, that not only does he covertly blame God, regardless of the love in which God had given him the woman for a help-meet for him, but also how heartlessly he tries to screen himself by casting the blame on his associate in transgression. Little do men imagine, when hand joins hand in wickedness, how ready each will be to accuse the others.
Leaving, however, for the moment the man, who has been compelled to own the act, though making no confession of its evil, God next addresses the woman. “What is this that thou hast done?” She, as ready to excuse herself as her husband had been to cast on her the blame, replies, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” Both put the pretended cause of their misdoing in the front, and only afterward, at the last, acknowledge the act they had committed. No notice is taken of the excuse alleged by either of the culprits: but, convicted out of their own mouth of the deed, they stand by, and await their sentence, while God speaks to the seducer by whose wiles they had been undone. To him no question is put. There is nothing to call his conscience into exercise in a way tending towards moral restoration or renewal. A curse is absolutely pronounced upon him—a sentence even as to the animal employed, of shame, and degradation, and perpetual enmity between it and the woman, and the woman's Seed. As to the latter in the highest sense of the expression, victory over the serpent—a victory complete and glorious—is foretold; “It shall bruise thy head.” “Her seed” —what grace! “The woman, being deceived, was in the transgression;” and yet it is the woman's Seed by whom the head of the serpent is to be bruised. “Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.” “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” His heel, moreover, was to be bruised. It was not to be a conquest by mere force. The Victor was to be Himself a sufferer. Precious intimation, however obscure, of the mystery of redemption! Compare Heb. 2:1414Forasmuch 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; (Hebrews 2:14),” That through death,” &c. All this was in the hearing of the first human pair, but was not addressed to them. The promise was to the Seed of the woman. But though uttered in the curse on the enemy, it was within hearing of our first parents, and this before sentence is at all pronounced on them.
But judgment has to be pronounced. The woman, having been first in the transgression, is the first to hear her sentence. Her sin, moreover, had elements peculiar to itself; and these would seem to entail their distinctive punishment. She had usurped her husband's place, and forgotten her own, in undertaking to answer the seducer; and now subjection to her husband is a part of the sentence she receives. Sorrow in the conception and bringing forth of her offspring is that by which the female of the human race is distinguished, and that in all lands, from the female of all the inferior tribes of animals. And even afterward, how large a proportion of the sorrow and trial connected with children devolves upon the mother! In the sentence on the woman no notice is taken of her excuse; but Adam, having indirectly blamed God Himself, in the words, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me,” his excuse is made the very ground of his condemnation. “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,” &c: The sentence on Adam, as lord of this lower creation, is that the ground is cursed for his sake. Instead of yielding spontaneously all that could minister to his comfort and pleasure, hard labor is the only condition on which henceforth it should produce the ruder necessaries of life. “In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” Surely this is a part of that “vanity,” that “bondage of corruption,” to which, “not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same,” the whole creation has been consigned. (MS. of the late) W. T.