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CHAPTER III.

WHEN THE FIRST CITY WAS BUILT.

Genesis 4 and 5.

OMETIME ago in an eloquent and interesting

address on the Bible, the speaker said: "Young

man, cling to your Bible; our civilization is built upon it, and it has a sure foundation;" which remark reminds me of General U. S. Grant who, speaking of his experience at West Point, said that he graduated very near the head of his class, if it were turned around.

The remark, in other words, would be a great truth, if it were only true; but as a matter of fact it is not true. Our civilization is not based upon the Bible and hence has not a sure foundation, but a very shaky one.

John Lothrop Motley, referring to the breakdown. of the House of Hapsburg, says that there are no real catastrophes in history. "Sap-sap-sap,-gnaw-gnawgnaw,-nibble-nibble-nibble, a million mildews, and rats and mice, do their work for ages, and at last a huge fabric goes down in a smash, and the foolish chroniclers of the day wonder why it tumbles. The wonder was that the hollow thing stood so long."

Some day this civilization of ours will go down in a mighty smash. "The stone cut out from the mountain without hands" will strike the image upon its

feet, and the whole of it will disappear like chaff upon the summer threshing floor.

WHEN AUSTRIA DISAPPEARED.

Motley did not mean that Austria had disappeared, but only the traditional German Empire or confederation with a Hapsburg word to it, the Austria prestige, the great imperial, military, dictatorial power. And so the nations will not altogether disappear nor the people that compose them in the day of which I speak, but everything in or among them that represents our present governments and forms of authority.

In a word, our civilization shall give place at length to the kingdom which the God of heaven shall set up and which shall never be destroyed. It will be a catastrophe when it comes, and yet, as in the case of the House of Hapsburg, it will only be the culmination of the sins of all the former centuries which have gone before, and very particularly those of that century itself.

The elements that will bring this to pass are already working within the bounds of Christendom under the name of that civilization of which we boast, and it is the province of this lecture to point out some of them.

The particular theme is, "When the First City was Built." We shall divide it into three parts, and consider:

1. The Sacrifice of Abel.
2. The Posterity of Cain.
3. The Translation of Enoch.

All of which bear the closest relation to one another.

I.

Let us read the story of Abel, chapter 4, verses 1 to 8:

"And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door."

When, in the first verse, it is written that Eve, bare Cain and said: "I have gotten a man or "I have gotten the man from the Lord," there are those who believe she was referring to the Deliverer spoken of in the preceding chapter, the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head. But if she believed Cain were he, she was soon undeceived, as we may gather from the name of her second son, Abel, which means that which passeth away as a breath."

In process of time these two sons came to present their offerings unto the Lord, when Cain brought of

the fruit of the ground, and Abel of the firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof; and the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and his offering He had not respect.

Just how He showed His respect to the one and His disrespect to the other is not stated, but perhaps, as on later occasions, fire may have come out from before the Lord and consumed the one in token of its acceptance, leaving the other untouched.

WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE?

But a far more important question is, Why was Abel's offering accepted and Cain's rejected? The importance of this question cannot be overemphasized, because it has the most vital bearing upon the race in all the generations since.

In answer, we cannot suppose that Abel's sacrifice had a higher market value that that of Cain, for it is almost inconceivable that market values should have been considered then. Moreover, it is written in the New Testament that "If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." (2 Corinthians 8: 12).

Neither can we suppose that Abel's offering was accepted because he was a better man than Cain, for God is no respecter of persons when it is a question of two men who are alike sinners. This was true of Abel and Cain, who were both sons of sinful parents, both born outside of Eden, and hence both children of wrath, even as others. Abel's character was no better in

trinsically than Cain's, and the ground of his acceptance could not have been found in himself.

Indeed, we only discover the answer to this question in the New Testament, where we read in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, that "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain."

By faith in what, or in whom? Manifestly faith in some preceding promise of God, or some preceding revelation wherein He showed how a guilty sinner might approach a holy God.

And if we are asked what that promise was, we find it in the third chapter, in the reference to that Deliverer, the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head. And if we ask what the revelation was, we find it in connection with the coats of skins which God made for Adam and Eve, and where doubtless, He laid down the principle that it was possible for guilty man to put the life of another between himself and God; and where He showed him that he could not approach God except through the shedding of blood.

Abel believed God's promise, and came to God in God's appointed way; he surrendered his will to the divine will, and hence was accepted.

THE FIRST RATIONALIST.

Cain, on the other hand, was the first rationalist in sacred history. He was a moral man as well as Abel, and a religious man, or he would not have presented an offering to God at all. But, nevertheless, he