Christ's; but all the heathenism and wickedness, the despotism and crime in it, are the devil's. It is only because of Christ and His gospel that these sinners are not groaning under the bondage of heathenism, dark as that which covers benighted Africa. Every precious spark of liberty we enjoy we owe to this blessed gospel. It was Christ alone that ever came to open our prison doors and unbind our fetters. It is Christ alone that interposes between any sinner and perdition. The bondage of sin terminates there. That is its legitimate end. The only liberty a sinner has from his master is to sin; and the end of sin is death. It is death always and every where. Sin does not work any thing but death.

It was this spectacle of a world of sinners, under sentence of death and bound in Satan's fetters, that moved the heart of Infinite love and stirred up the Son of God to His divine mission; that in His sufferings and humiliation, His tears and death, He might work out the deep problem of redemption. The language of this triumphing Conqueror is, "I am He, which liveth and was dead: and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. And have the keys of death and of hell." Yes, thanks be to Heaven that Jesus, our Immanuel, does hold the keys of death and of hell. That is the reason, and the only reason, why there is any liberty left on earth-why there is a moment's respite or joy to any poor sinner. Christ introduced His remedial scheme of mercy immediately upon the entrance of sin; and this alone has averted hell. The bondage of sin, unmitigated by Christ, is hellnothing but hell. A sinner will require no other perdition for his soul than to be delivered over to the dominion of sin and Satan, where Christ shall no more interpose for him nor put forth efforts for his salvation. will be outer darkness forever, even the blackness of darkness.

That

CHAPTER XVII.

A SIN-OFFERING.

HAVING Considered the sinful and lost condition of our world, we pass directly to the study of that system of redemption which God instituted for its recovery; and which of necessity was His work-of His contriving, and made known entirely by Divine revelation. Human wisdom was not equal to its devising; nor human power to its accomplishment, nor human reason to its discovery. It originated in the eternal counsels and was brought down from heaven to men.

It will not be without interest here to study the method which God adopted to unfold the knowledge of His will in regard to these matters in the early history of the race; and this investigation may serve to throw new light upon some of the facts recorded there.

The first revelation then concerning the plan of redemption, was in reference to the way of approach to God, and the terms upon which the Divine favor might be secured.

This was the point upon which instruction was first demanded. Man could no longer approach God in his innocence to find favor. The question now was, how could he come in his sinfulness? To furnish an answer to this, we have our attention drawn to a most painful and marvellous record-that of the shedding of a brother's blood; a foul murder, committed in the first household, and constituting the opening scene in earth's tragic and bloody draina.

Many, doubtless, may have queried in their own minds, why the record of that fearful crime occupies such a space in the sacred narrative; why such prominence is given to it in a history so exceedingly brief. Why must its memory be preserved to the end in a revelation from heaven, so that every nation should become familiar with the dreadful story? These questions will be clearly answered by a careful study of the narrative.

The history makes it plain that the crime grew immediately out of the subject of religion—a fact which shows the meaning and object of the narrative. There was a controversy between the brothers on the vital question of the way of approach for man to God under a system of grace; a controversy which enlisted the strongest passions of their natures and developed their true principles, and in which God himself at length interfered, becoming a direct partner.

The record runs as follows: "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," Gen. iii. 3. The facts are here clearly detailed. The observance of an appointed time of worship, the offerings made by each of the parties, the favor and displeasure which God manifested towards the offerings and the offerers, and the rage which was kindled in Cain's bosom at the rejection of his sacrifice.

The secret and meaning of this striking narrative are, that here was God's attempt to instruct the race on the subject of Divine worship and the way of approach to Him by sinners; not that this was the first instruction given; for Adam had undoubtedly received lessons on

this subject already. But here we find the Divine teachings embodied in the lesson which God intended for all after generations, so that they could not forget or mistake them. God would at the outset and forever settle the question respecting the mode in which the guilty were to approach to find favor in His sight and have their sins forgiven. This was a cardinal point, and one on which a revelation was especially demanded; from which He would not withhold his clearly expressed will and decision. This instruction he embodied, not in the form of a doctrine or declaration, but in the shape of a thrilling narrative of facts, which the generations would long have painful occasion to remember. We have the controversy on this subject distinctly brought before us by two opposite and contending parties, resulting in the murder of one of them, with God's decision made in the case. No method could have been conceived better calculated than this to clear the subject from all ambiguity-to arrest attention and make a lasting impression upon the race.

The whole narrative implies, and is based on the fact, that God had made previous communications of His will respecting this matter, and appointed the method of worship and approach to Him by a bloody offering. If we concede the fact of a Divine revelation at all to men, here was the time and the subject for it. It was what Adam needed first of all to know, without which he could do nothing. When we consider also how full and complete revelation has been on the whole plan of redemption in all its parts and relations, it is incredible that Adam should have been without instruction on this vital point -being left, either to do as he pleased and adopt any mode of approach that he saw fit, or to discover God's method by his own ingenuity, a thing plainly beyond his power.

The Scriptures, however, settle this question when

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they assert directly, "By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain," Heb. xi. 4; which means that Abel believed God by receiving His instructions on this subject. His sacrifice could not have been made in faith, unless God had revealed himself here and required the bleeding lamb. That revealed will, constituted the foundation and object of his faith. Some have understood this faith of Abel, referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as recognizing Christ through the lamb slain and taking away sin. While there may be some truth in this-how much we cannot tell-yet any one who reads the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, will readily observe that the cases there specified are instances of faith in receiving the Divine testimony, believing what God revealed to those holy men, however wonderful or strange the same might be. The matter revealed to Abel was that of the bloody sacrifice; and in this he believed God, humbly accepting His teachings. "By faith," therefore, he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. This passage thus settles the positive institution of sacrifices.

It is not an insignificant circumstance also that the record is made in this very brief history that "Unto Adam and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them." It is circumstantial evidence to the fact of such sacrifices; and thus did they owe the hiding of their nakedness and shame to the innocence and sufferings of these very slain ones, being clothed in their garments, and obtained only at the cost of their lives.

"And in process of time," which may perhaps refer to the fact of the sons of Adam arriving at such age that the duty of sacrifice was devolved upon them as heads of their own households, and not alone upon their father, "it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord; and Abel, he also