namely, to reveal the will of God for the conduct of his people; to accept the sacrifices offered to him; and favourably to regard the prefigurative atonement made by the sprinkling of blood, without which there was,' after the fall, 'no remission?' And all this was done to keep, or preserve, the way to the tree of life,' immortality being now the object of a new covenant, with other conditions. There were good reasons why our first parent should not be suffered, in the state to which he had reduced himself, to 'put forth his hand, and take and eat.' In the spirit of repentance and faith the delinquents were to wait, 'till one greater man should regain the blissful seat,' and 'open the kingdom of heaven to all believers;' himself the true tree of life in the Paradise of God."

From the beginning there seems to have been a visible evidence of the nearness of God to man. How else could they have thought to "hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God," amongst the leafy shades of Eden? When man was driven forth into the wilderness, the cherubim and the coruscant sword were the symbols of God's presence with him as the object of worship, in his character of a God of righteousness and of grace. They became the true shekinah, even as the pillar of cloud and of fire afterwards became the symbol of his special presence in his church. And this helps us to understand the description of Cain's act after the murder of his brother-" And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden" (iv. 16). He pushed his way further east still; and while Adam and the Sethites lingered in the neighbourhood of the presence of the Lord-the place of worship-the Cainites removed away from that which would ever remind them of guilt. Nod taken as a proper name by our translators, is properly only flight; the sense is thus, "And dwelt in the land of flight"-the country into which he had gone after his fratricidal act.

GENESIS IV.

HE statements of the preceding chapter made it necessary to consider most of the points of interest in this one in connection with them. In verse 17 we are told that "Cain knew his wife; and she conceived and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." This is the first reference to city-building in the Scriptures, and is on this account interesting. The nomadic shepherd life was not suited to the habits of Cain as one given to agriculture; and it might have been expected that in the land of his flight he would soon seek to rear permanent abodes for himself and his descendants. It was, moreover, in his seed that the industrial and even fine arts were to be first cultivated, and these required fixed dwellings for their development. The city was named Enoch, after his first-born. Much has been made of the marriage of Cain as a corroboration of the hypothesis of a plurality of races. The marriage with his own sister is held to be alien to what we know of God from other parts of Scripture. But here we can see good ground for the arrangement. The unity of the race as descended from one couple, and all the relations which the scheme of grace has to this were to be guarded, and the tie was a necessity in those early times. Strict laws were framed against it afterwards, because of the awful social evils which would have resulted. But here a multitude of circumstances would tend to neutralize these. The " one blood" relationship also, which is connected with so many of the highest interests of man, could only thus be secured. "One couple were therefore made the progenitors of the whole human family; all other considerations were deemed of minor importance compared with that momentous doctrine which twines a tie of brotherhood around all nations and all ages; a plurality of first couples would have prevented marriages which were later justly regarded with abomination, but it would have destroyed a fundamental truth, which is the germ of noble and social virtues, and which sheds brilliant rays of hope over the confusion of national strife and warfare."

Any attempt to fix, as has often been done, the site of the first city

of the Cainites must be vain. But may not the name at least help us to a not unprofitable lesson? The suggestive character of most Old Testament names is known to all. Link together, then, the three names of places to which most prominence has hitherto been given—namely, Eden, Nod, and Enoch-and associate with them the moral considerations with which they are connected, and even the uncertain topography of the Edenic region becomes fruitful of instruction. We have Eden, a name equivalent to a delightsome land-a land of outward beauty in itself, and fitted as an abode of rest for immortal man. It was furnished to supply all the wants of the body, while the soul was satisfied with the Creator. But next comes the land of flight-Nod—a region at a distance from the special presence of God-a barren land for the soul, how abundantly soever it might minister to the body. The district to which the Cainites went was thus as suggestive of spiritual condition as was Eden itself. Men had hastened thither to quiet the uneasy conscience. It was the place of flight truly from the idea of a personal, thinking, watchful God. The vanity of the endeavour need not to be characterized. The act has been repeated tens of thousands of times. since then, and man goes on repeating it still. The troubled soul, burdened by a consciousness of guilt, too often hastens out from the presence of the Lord, as if distance from the place of blessing implied escape from the holy, and watchful eye of the great and eternal God. Himself. Yet it was here that the city Enoch was built, and became the means of perpetuating an influential thought. Had the builder seen how deeply he had fallen when he gave a name to his child which contained under it the twofold idea-instruction in order to complete dedication? Let it be borne in mind that the "seventh from Adam" -he who prophesied "behold, the Lord cometh," and who was translated that he should not see death"-bore this name. Cain appears to have felt that instruction was necessary, and he gave expression to his conviction in calling his child Enoch, or "taught." But as if still in the spirit of flight, as well as in the land of it, he did not associate the other element in the name with his child, but with a city : "he called the name of the city Enoch"-dedicated-" after the name of his son." All Scripture usage in the bestowal of names, and even in the use of words, points to this. Thus we have the same word used in the following passages, in one instance by Moses himself:-" Train (enoch) up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Prov. xxii. 6); "What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it, let him go and return to

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his house, lest he die in battle, and another man dedicate it" (Deut. xx. 5). The word "dedicated," used in the sense of consecrated, is in both cases a part of the root-verb from which the name Enoch is derived. This view of the naming of the son of Cain, and of the consecration of the city, is not fanciful. It is a fair inference from the use of the name itself, and of the other names, Eden and Nod.

"And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt: if Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold" (ver. 19-24).

The verses introduce us to new relationships, and to great advances in the arts of life. They supply a direct contradiction also to all those theories which demand a very lengthened period in primeval times for the development of the fruits of so-called "advanced civilization." The fact is, that the nearer we get to the origin of the human race, the farther removed are we from the savage state. Barbarism is degradation from the primitive type. The chief points to be noted here are:

1. The departure from the original Law of Marriage.-We have seen that the names Ish and Isha, bestowed on Adam and Eve, implied such a provision in regard to wedlock as our Lord referred to in the words given above. But thus soon man forsook the arrangements of God, and followed his own desires. Polygamy was introduced. "Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah." There is proof that this system did not, even amidst the wickedness of the times before the flood, become universal. It was not practised in the household of Noah. We are told in chapter vii. that "In the self-same day entered Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with him, into the ark."

2. The Children of Adah, and their Employments. Their mother's name is literally "manifest beauty." Jabal's occupation has already been characterized. His devotion to cattle-rearing led him away from the sheltering roofs of the city Enoch yet farther into the wilderness.

There he set the example of dwelling in tents, and of wandering from place to place as the wants of his herds demanded. In the plains, and by the mountain sides in which Jabal watched his flocks and herds, this nomadic shepherd life still flourishes. Adah's other son, Jubal, was the first who sought the help of instruments to give expression to the music in his own soul, and he became thus the father of all such as handle the harp and organ, even as Jabal was "the father of such as dwell in tents." The gloom which had been hanging over the household of Cain-the dread as if of coming judgment-had become much altered, or had passed away; and for himself and his friends Jubal had invented the harp and organ. All this showed the perseverance and talent of Jubal, as well as his tastes. An old poet describes him quaintly as detecting, while listening to the strokes of the hammer on the anvil, "The un-full harmony

Of un-even hammers, beating diversely."

He then resolves to fall on some expedient by which the music which he has heard, in the stroke of the hammer on the anvil, shall be continued at pleasure—

"And iterate the beating hammer's noise

In milder notes, and with a sweeter voice."

Nor was the opportunity long in presenting itself. Thus we have the characteristic harp

"It chaunc't that passing by a pond he found

An open tortoise lying on the ground,
With th' which there nothing else remained
Save three dry sinewes on the shell stiff strained.

This empty house Jubal doth gladly bear,
Strikes on these strings, and lends attentive ear,

And by this mould frames the melodious lute,

That makes woods hearken, and the winds be mute!"

We may take the description for what it is worth, as we bear in mind. that the steps which led to the invention have not been narrated. Can we identify the instruments invented by the younger son of Lamech? Moses refers to them as instruments with which, in his day, the Hebrews were well acquainted. Of course it is not enough to allege here that, in referring to the inventions of Jubal, Moses merely named instruments in use when he wrote, as answering to the harp and organ of Cain's immediate descendant. He was led by the spirit of God in all