tion long before it was committed to writing; and if the story before us be of Adamic origin, then thus early we have not only God revealing Himself to man and in man, but through the first man to the after-race. Thus early we light on a fact, which runs throughout the history of Scripture, and which receives its supreme illustration in the INCARNATE ONE, that God not only manifests Himself in the outer universe, but through human nature—a mode of manifestation necessary and essential for the instruction of mankind—in the knowledge of the moral character and government of God.

Thus, if we may for a moment anticipate what follows, preparations at the beginning were made for the fulness. of time; and the first man, in the history of revelation, becomes typical of the second man-the Lord from heaven.

CHAPTER II.

AFTER THE FIRST TRANSGRESSION AND BEFORE THE

THE

FLOOD.

HE command of the Almighty to Adam taught him what was good; his disobedience to that command, in eating of the forbidden tree, taught him what was evil. Adam and Eve were implicated in a common transgression, and the consciousness of guilt and shame immediately succeeded their earliest wrong-doing. "The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked." "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked."1 A new revelation was made to the soul of our first father in this awful hour, a new sentiment arose in his previously innocent and peaceful mind: and the Being whom he had before listened to with confidence and love, now startled him with terror and dismay. "The sounding footstep" of the Righteous One made him tremble.

And when God asked, "Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?" when

1 Gen. iii. 7-10.

the man replied, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat;" when the Lord God said unto the woman, "What is this that thou hast done?" and when the woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat,"1-there appeared-together with the penetrating enquiry of the displeased Judge, and the excusatory reply of the terrified culprits -the indication of a new idea having entered the human mind, the idea of temptation, as an incentive to evil; that suggestions to disobedience were being made by some power outside themselves, they must have been conscious. The narrative forces that impression upon us. Their

will was being biased by another and an evil will; that they afterwards must have sorely felt. Thus there was brought home to the man and the woman, by her offering of the fruit to him, and by the subtlety of the serpent in what he said about the fruit to her, a pregnant lesson on the moral influence of one being upon another, and how one may lead another into sin, such as in the end must have produced a startling effect. That a distinct revelation was thus early made of what we now understand by the personality and agency of Satan is far beyond what the terms of the narrative can be fairly considered to express. In subsequent parts of Scripture some light is thrown on this mystery; but to anticipate what is there taught while reading these original records, with a design to discover what man knew at the beginning, would be to defeat the very purpose we have in view. What conception Adam and Eve had of the serpent, which is said to have tempted them, and on which our first mother laid the fault of her offence, it is impossible for any one to tell. What is related, we are to infer, is taken from 1 Gen. iii. 11-13.

the point of view occupied by those who were deeply involved in the momentous trial and the fatal issue; but the relation is too brief, and too obscure, to admit of our attempting any interpretation of thoughts within their minds, as they passed through this stage of experience.

Next came the distinct announcement of punishment, as a consequence of disobedience. "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."1 Sorrow in conception and child-birth, a life of painful toil and the return of the body to the grave, are represented as becoming forms of penalty resting on the transgressors-penalty, however, which, compared with the threatening, "in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," would, on reflection, evince that mercy mingled with judgment, and that man's life should be prolonged.

With a mitigation of the original doom was associated an intimation of a conflict between the power originating temptation and the offspring of the first pair

-a conflict which, involving pain, would bring victory. "I will put enmity," it was said to the subtle serpent, 1 Gen. iii. 16-19.

"between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."1 These words, read in the light of the gospel, are found to contain a wonderful depth of meaning; in them may be discovered a prophecy of the battle between good and evil ever since the fall; in them we may see folded up the after-promises of salvation through a Messiah, the seed of the woman, and a final victory over the evil one; in them we have the outline of the history of sin, and the early promise of redemption; but what exact meaning that revelation of a Deliverer conveyed to our first parents it is impossible to say. The prophecy, as read by us at the beginning of a collection of books covering the Divine tuition of mankind for four thousand years, and studied in the light which streams back upon it from so many sources afterwards opened up one by one, may well suggest something immeasurably in advance of any idea that could at the moment be conveyed to Adam and Eve. However, thus much is plain, that the words would inspire religious encouragement and hope of a most blessed nature.

Out of a sense of sin, and a consciousness of estrangement from God, it seems to us natural, looking at the subject with the knowledge which we now possess, that there should arise a felt necessity for something to be done in order to repair the mischief wrought. And it is reasonable to suppose, reflecting on the narrative of what succeeded the fall, that some feeling of this kind might arise in the minds of the first transgressors. To interpret their consciousness is beyond our power; to attribute to them a sense of need and a desire of salva

1 Gen. iii. 15.