§ 5. Worship of God by Sacrifice.

Almighty God continued His mercy to Adam and Eve after their banishment from Paradise. As a comfort in the midst of their labour, He taught them to keep holy the seventh day, and to enjoy it as a day of rest from the toils and hard work of the other days of the week; and more than this, He taught them also the manner how they were to spend it. We shall often have occasion, in the course of our history, to read of sacrifices being offered to God, and of animals being slain upon the altar. It will be very interesting to know that these sacrifices were what God Himself first taught Adam to offer, in order to sanctify the holy seventh or sabbath day, on which God rested from the work that He had made.

You have often read of poor people, when they come into the court of a king or of some other great person, to beg a favour from him, how they try to find something or other of as much value as they can, to offer him as a present, in order to dispose the great man to listen favourably to them, and to do for them what they want to have done. Great people are usually pleased to see the poor doing their best to show them honour; and when they ask anything that is reasonable, their request is generally granted. Though God had taken Paradise away from Adam and Eve on account of their sin, still He had given them the rest of the

earth to cultivate, and by their labour they were still able to grow rich with the produce of their husbandry and of their flocks and herds. God therefore was pleased that Adam should show by some token, that all that he got by his labour was the gift of God. He therefore taught him to cease from labour, and to keep holy each seventh or sabbath day, and also to offer in sacrifice to God some part of the produce of the earth or of the increase of his flocks. For this purpose God showed him the manner of the sacrifice,how he was to build an altar, and how the gift The reason of this

that he offered upon it was to be burnt with fire. was, to show that after it had been given to God it was no longer to be

turned to any use for Adam himself, but to be consumed whole and entire, in token of the supreme dominion of God over all His creatures.

St. Paul (Heb. x. 4) says it is impossible that with the blood of oxen and of goats sins should be taken away. But it pleased God to accept such sacrifices, in token of the coming of the one true Victim Jesus Christ, in the renewal of whose sacrifice on the Cross, in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass, all other sacrifices are done away.

§ 6. Cain's jealousy, and the first Murder. Abel the just is killed.

As the family sacrifices were offered to God on the holy sabbath day, God showed more favour to the offerings of Abel than to those of Cain; and Cain, in place of laying the blame upon himself and upon his own proud and bad spirit, became more and more jealous of the marks of favour which were shown to the offerings of Abel over his own. length his jealousy grew so strong that he made up his mind that he would murder his brother, and from this time he began to watch for his opportunity.

At

Whilst he was in this angry and jealous state of mind, God spoke to him, and said:

6

Why art thou angry and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well (like thy brother Abel), shalt thou not also receive a reward? and if thou doest ill, though sin stands at the door, still thou canst overcome the desire to commit it, and canst have dominion over it.'

Cain, however, was not made any better by this warning; and when the оссаsion offered, he said to his brother

Abel, 'Let us go

forth abroad to

gether; and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother and slew him.

C

Though no human eye had seen this murder, Almighty God knew what had been done; and He called Cain and said: 'Where is thy brother Abel? Cain answered: 'I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?' And God said to him: What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to Me from the earth. Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand. When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield thee its fruit; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth.' And Cain said to the Lord: 'My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon. Behold Thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from Thy face, and I shall be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth; every one therefore that findeth me shall kill me.' And the Lord said to him: No, it shall not be so ; but whosoever shall kill Cain shall be punished sevenfold.' And God set a mark upon Cain, that whosoever found him should not kill him. Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugitive on the earth, at the east side of Eden.

So

Eve mourning over the death of Abel the just is a figure of the Blessed Virgin mourning over Jesus Christ taken down dead from the Cross. Abel slain by his brother Cain is a figure of Jesus Christ murdered by His own people the Jews. Cain a fugitive after the murder, with the blood of his brother crying out against him, is a figure of the Jews, fugitives in all nations, with the guilt of the blood of Jesus on them and on their children.

§ 7. The World before the Flood.

Cain was now banished from the 'face of the Lord,' and was forced to live separate from the members of Adam's family who feared God. He settled himself on the east of Eden, and became the father of a numerous family, who were brought up by him without any fear or knowledge of God. Cain had now become what is called an open infidel or unbeliever, and had ceased either to teach or practise any religious duty.

From the creation of Adam to the Flood, historians generally reckon a period of 1700 years; and though but little is said in the Bible about the state of the world then, Jesus Christ has told us that it was not particularly different from what it is now. There were numbers of famous men, who at the time made themselves a great name in the world; while the ordinary run of people were busy in planting their vineyards, building their houses, buying and selling, marrying and being given in marriage (Luke xvii. 27), much the same as they do at the present day.

There was, however, a great distinction between the children of the family of Cain and those of Seth, the next son of Adam born after the murder of Abel. All the family of Cain were infidels, who never troubled themselves in any way at all about prayer or sacrifice or the worship of God; while Seth was a just man, who taught all his household to fear God, and to offer the sacrifices which God had commanded. Enos, the son of Seth, was particularly remarkable for having exerted himself to establish the worship of God; and so strong was the feeling on the part

of the different families of Seth and Cain, that they remained for some centuries separated from each other; the religious families looking upon the impious race as quite unfit company for themselves, and the unbelievers having just the same scorn and contempt for those who feared God as the same kind of persons have still at the present day.

In this state of things Almighty God showed His mercy for the unbelieving race, by sending them a prophet in the person of Enoch the sixth from Adam, who went about warning the unbelieving families that God would come surrounded with all His holy angels, and that He would 'execute a judgment against all the blasphemers of His name for all the hard things they had spoken against Him' (Jude 15).

§ 8. Increase of Sin. Noe and the Ark. The Deluge. (B.c. 2524.) God seeing that wickedness was increasing on the earth, said: "The people will not be warned by My Spirit, for they are flesh. Their days shall be a hundred and twenty years.' In other words, God would give them a trial for a hundred and twenty years longer. And when the wickedness of the world went on still increasing, and God saw that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times,' it repented Him that He had made man on the earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them.'

Noe alone was a just man, who, together with his three sons, Sem,

Cham, and Japheth, found favour before God, and God said to him: 'The end of all flesh is come before Me; the earth is filled with iniquity through them, and I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of timber planks; thou shalt make little rooms in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within and without. Behold I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life under heaven.'

Noe believed God, and immediately commenced the work of building the ark, which is supposed to have kept him employed for a hundred years, during which time he had to endure all the scoffs and jeers of his unbelieving neighbours, who we may be sure passed many remarks upon the folly of the work on which he was busy; built as it was, to all appearance, far away from any water on which it could be made of use. Noe, however, as became a just man, showed his faith by persevering for so many years; and at length, when all was finished, and the warning of God continued to be totally disregarded, God appeared to Noe, and said: 'Go in, thou and all thy house, into the ark; for thee have I seen just before Me in this generation. For yet a while, after seven days, I will rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy every substance that I have made from the face of the earth.'