Quarter January 19 The Test of Sin. Like the fabled Venetian glass, which shivered into pieces when poison was poured into it, the thought of God's presence, the loving vision of his face, passes out of our hearts when we yield ourselves to sin, and the test of evil is, "Dare I do it before the flashing Shekinah on the mountain top?" Dr. Alexander Maclaren. III THE STRUGGLE WITH TEMPTATION The Persistence of the Struggle. Do not be discouraged if you have long been a Christian and still meet with sore temptations. In an experience meeting in the mountains of Pennsylvania one man had murmured because for three years he had been following the Lord, and yet had severe struggles with the Devil. A man of seventy arose and said: "It took me twenty years to get the hill back of my barn reasonably free from rattlesnakes, and, though I have farmed the place nearly fifty years, I still occasionally meet one there. Brother, the Devil is harder to deal with than rattlesnakes." H. H. Smith, in The Sunday School Times. Bob's Valiant Struggle. A tramcar stopped at a street corner, and a brightfaced little boy was put into the car by his mother, who could not go with him. "Now, Bob," she said, "don't lose that note I gave you; don't take it out of your pocket at all." "No, mother," said the little fellow, "I won't." "What is your name?" asked a mischievous-looking young man sitting next to him. "Robert Cullen Deems," he answered. "Where are you going?" "To my grandma's." "Let me see that note in your pocket." "I tan't," said the boy. "See here, if you don't I'll scare the horses and make them run away." The little boy looked at the horses, but shook his head in reply. "Here, Bob, I'll give you this peach if you'll pull that note half-way out of your pocket." Bob said nothing, and as the passengers looked at his little round face with firm lips and bright eyes, it seemed as if an angel was in that car rather than a little boy. "I say, I'll give you this whole bag of peaches if you'll just show me the corner of your note," said the tempter. The boy turned his face from his tormentor, and a gentleman leaving his seat on the other side of the car, the little boy quickly dropped from his seat and climbed into the vacant place. A young lady sitting by, slipped her arm round the brave little chap and said, with a kind look on her face: "Tell your mother she ought to be glad she has a little man strong and wise enough to run away from temptation." James Learmount, in God's Orchard. How to overcome Temptation. A little Japanese convert to Christianity was asked what is sin. "It is giving up to the evil one," he answered. Was not that a good reply? Sin is not in being tempted, but in giving up to the evil. How can you overcome temptation? the Japanese boy was next asked. In answer he quoted these words: In that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. How to overcome temptation Luther knew when he wrote that Did we in our strength confide, Our struggling would be losing, SENTENCE SERMONS To parley with temptation is to play with fire. Bunyan. Temptation is the one certainty-the one immediate certainty, before us all. Dr. George Adam Smith. The doctrine of environment had its death-blow in the Garden of Eden. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan. One great security against sin consists in our being shocked at it. Newman. For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. Rom. 3.23. Enter not into the path of the wicked, And walk not in the way of evil men. Turn from it and pass on Prov. 4.14, 15. Quarter January 19 For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all parts tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Heb. 4.15. THE LESSON'S MEANINGS FOR US How did sin get into the world? That is a truly interesting question, but it is of little consequence compared with the question each one of us must answer, How can I get sin out of my heart? Remember Longfellow's words: "We ourselves, When we commit a sin lose Paradise As much as he did. Let us think of this, SUBJECTS FOR BIBLE CLASS DISCUSSION 1. The aim and teachings of the story of The Fall. 2. The nature of temptation. 3. A woman's power over a man's life for weal or woe. 4. When work is a curse. See Man's Redemption of Man, American Magazine, Dec., 1910; Brightening the Life of the Toiler, World Today, April, 1911, P. 435. WORK TO BE ASSIGNED FOR THE NEXT LESSON Questions to look up. I. What reasons are given why Cain should not have been angry? 2. What does the writer of Hebrews say was the reason that Abel's sacrifice was accepted? (Heb. 11:4) 3. What does 1 Jn. 3.12 say was the reason Cain slew his brother? 4. What are the references in the New Testament to this story? (See Subject-Index of your Bible.) 5. What does Prov. 14.30 say about a spirit like Cain's? 6. Where in the Bible does it say "Thou God seest me"? 7. What did one of our last year's lessons teach us that Jesus would have one do if, when offering his gift on the altar, he remembered that his brother had anything against him? (Mt. 5.23, 24.) 8. What did Jesus say in that same lesson about the relations of sins of anger and murder? (Mt. 5.21-22.) 9. Tell the story of Markus' offering, p. 63. 10. Tell the story of a jealous dog, p. 64. Questions to think about. I. What is the meaning of the phrase "sin coucheth at the door"? (Clippings, p. 61.) 2. What is the meaning of verse 7? (Clipping, ¶2, p. 61.) 3. What is the meaning of verse 15? (Clipping. 15, p. 61.) 4. Why do you think Abel's offering was acceptable and Cain's not? 5. What was God's first question of Cain? 6. How did Cain answer him? 7. What does Cain's answer show as to his character? 8. When Eve was charged with her sin what did she reply? 9. Which one's answer was the worse? 10. How did Cain show his jealous spirit? (Verse 5.) II. What is at the root of jealousy? (Selfishness.) 12. Was the acceptance of Abel's sacrifice a wrong to Cain? 13. Does praise of another make you jealous? 14. Name some of the jealous characters told about in the Bible (Clipping, p. 64.) 15. What notable characters of the Bible were too great to be jealous when occasion offered? (Clipping, p. 64.) 16. What relationship exists between you and every one because of your common Father? 17. Read the words of Dora Goodhue's grandfather (Clipping, p. 65), and consider whether or not he was right. 18. Is one naturally glad to assert responsibility, however small, for some other one's success? 19. Should one as naturally claim some small responsibility for many another's failure to "make good"? 20. For what is your Sunday School responsible? (Clipping, p. 66.) 21. How far does your responsibility for others go? Note-Book Work. Write the story of Eve's Fall in six scenes: Listening, Looking, Longing, Sinning, Tempting, Blaming. Write the story of the First Sin in three dialogues: First, between the serpent and Eve; second, between Eve and Adam; third, between God and the guilty pair. LESSON IV-JANUARY 26 CAIN AND ABEL Golden Text Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. I Jn. 3.15 HOME DAILY BIBLE READINGS-M. Gen. 4.1-15. Cain and Abel. T. Jas. 1.12-27. Lust, Sin, Death. W. Heb. 10.26-31. No Sacrifice for Wilful Sin. T. Jude 5-16. Judgment upon the Ungodly. F. Eph. 4.25-32. Grieving the Spirit. S. Col. 3.5-11. Putting away Sin. S. Ps. 51. The Great Confession. STUDY Gen. 4.1-15 READ Gen. 4 and 5 COMMIT vv 9, 10 I And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah. 2 And again she bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah. 4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5 but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 6 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7 If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door; and unto thee shall be its desire; but do thou rule over it. 8 And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. 9 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brother's keeper? 10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. II And now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; 12 when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength; a fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth. 13 And Cain said unto Jehovah, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth; and it will come to pass, that whosoever findeth me will slay me. 15 And Jehovah said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And Jehovah appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him. WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED Lesson Outline. I. The Birth of Cain and Abel; their Occupations, I-2. II. The Two Sacrificial Offerings, 3-5. III. The Warning to Cain, 6-7. IV. The Murder, 8. V. The Sentence, 9-12. VI. The Mitigation of the Sentence, 13-15. 3-5. In process of time. After the brothers had become a shepherd and a farmer, verse 2. Firstlings. The first-born.-The fat thereof. The highlyprized fat pieces were offered in sacrifice, Num. 18.17.-Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering. How he signified his approval, or why he approved Abel's offering and not Cain's, the narrative does not say. Cain's anger, verse 6, and his lie and insolence, verse 9, show that the trouble was in Cain, rather than in his offering. Cain was of the evil one, his works were evil and his brother's righteous, I Jn. 3.12. Some scholars see here a trace of the time when there was a struggle as to whether animals or the fruits of the soil should be the acceptable sacrifice.-Wroth. Angry.-His countenance fell. His face was sullen. Compare our word chapfallen. 7-8. Shall it not be lifted up? The antecedent of it is countenance: shall not your countenance be bright, not sullen?-Sin coucheth at the door. Sin is pictured as a wild beast lying at the door of a room, ready to spring upon the one who gives it entrance.-Unto thee shall be its desire. Sin is eager to make the spring. But do thou rule over it. Conquer the temptation to sin.-Told. Said unto, RVm. Something is omitted here. The Septuagint Version inserts, "Let us go into the open country." Cain had deliberately planned his murder, which could not be carried out in the place where sacrifices were offered. And slew him. And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous, I Jn. 3.12. 9-12. Where is Abel thy brother? Cain is thus given a chance to confess his sin. "The passion which had blinded him and carried him away began to subside; his inner being became quieter; and then from its hidden depths there sounded the mysterious voice and words-so real that they doubtless startled him, as similar words have startled many another. Perhaps he looked round to see if some one were at his side. Scarcely, with passion again rising, had he blurted out the lie, than probably the truth dawned on him, and he knew he was face to face with God" (Simon).-The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. Murder is a crime which calls for vengeance. Compare Heb. 12.24-Cursed art thou from the ground. From in the sense of away from: he is expelled from the cultivated soil of Babylonia.-Verse 12 gives the effect of the curse in detail.-Strength. Produce. "The earth was to become sterile. In other words, Cain was to cease to be an agriculturist and turn to something else for support. Moreover, as he could no longer obtain food from the Babylonian soil, it was necessary for him to migrate elsewhere, and so become a colonist and a ‘wanderer in the land'” (Sayce). 13-14. My punishment. Or, mine iniquity, RVm.-Is greater than I can bear. He is not penitent because of his guilt; he is alarmed at the severity of his punishment. But the margin gives another rendering: greater than can be forgiven. From thy face shall I be hid. Cain is pictured in Eden: he seems to think Jehovah's presence is confined to that region. In a similar manner Jonah assumes that Canaan was the limit of Jehovah's jurisdiction (Jonah 1.3), and David thinks that he will have to serve other gods outside of Jehovah's land (1 Sam. 26.19). Another interpretation is given by Lange: "It is clearly growing despair that will no longer seek the presence of Jehovah through prayer and sacrifice, under the pretense that it is no longer allowed to do so."-Whosoever findeth me will slay me. Conscience doth make cowards of us all. 15. Vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. This refers to the ancient custom of blood revenge: Cain's kinsmen would atone for his death by slaying seven of the murderer's family. Compare 2 Sam. 21.8 and see page 62.-Jehovah appointed a sign for Cain. "The brand of Cain" is a familiar metaphor, but the account does not say that a mark was placed upon Cain. See the two explanations on page 62. SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS FROM HELPFUL WRITERS 3. Cain brought an offering. From the time of Abel onwards, sacrifices are uniformly, and with increasing clearness, set before us as the appointed way of approaching and holding fellowship with God, till at the close of Scripture history, we have the sacrifice of our Saviour Jesus Christ, to which all sacrifices pointed. And not only so, but as the dim remembrance of a better state from which man had fallen, and of a hope of deliverance, had been preserved among all heathen nations, so also had that of the necessity of sacrifices. Even the bloody rites of savages, nay, the cruel sacrifices of best-beloved children, what were they but the cry of despair in the felt need of reconciliation to God through sacrifice-the giving up of that most dear in room and stead of the offerer? Quarter January 26 These are the terribly broken pillars of what once had been a temple; the terribly distorted traditions of truths once divinely revealed. Alfred Edersheim, in The World before the Flood. 15. Jehovah appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him. The Kenites, or "Smiths," were possessed of metal weapons which in the early days of history enabled them to overcome their more poorly-armed neolithic neighbors, and doubtless able to slay the latter with comparatively little risk of being slain in return. Like the “tinkers” of mediæval Europe, and even later days, they formed a sort of secret society which moved from place to place, and jealously kept their knowledge of metallurgy to themselves. (Compare i S. 13.2022). In the history of Cain and Abel an explanation of their wanderering habits has been added to the West Semitic story of the early relations between the Bedouin shepherds and the Babylonian agriculturists. An account is given at the same time of the way in which the agriculturist came to be changed into the artisan of the Babylonian city, as well as of the migrations which carried the Babylonians into the metalliferous region east of the Tigris. Professor A. H. Sayce, in Expository Times. The guardian of each man in the ancient East was his tribe or clan. The knowledge that each and all the members of a tribe were pledged to avenge any wrong done to one of its number stayed many a murderous hand in the past, as it still does to-day in the life of the desert. To be deprived of the tribal protection meant that any man might with impunity slay the accursed outcast. God's mercy far surpasses that of men. Upon the cringing but unrepentant criminal he placed the tribal mark that proclaimed, as does the tattooing or method of cutting the hair among the Arabs to-day, that he was still a member and under the protection of a powerful tribe. Professor C. F. Kent, in Heroes of Early Hebrew History. LIGHT FROM ARCHÆOLOGY OR FROM ORIENTAL LIFE 7. Sin coucheth at the door. A proverb is quoted in this verse of which we have the Babylonian original in the legend of the Plague-god, "The Plaguegod is lying in wait at his door." The Babylonians regarded the rabitsu, or "lier in wait," from two points of view; he was either the demon who lay in wait to enter and punish sin, or he was the "guardian-bull" who was also a rabitsu, in its secondary sense of "watchman," appointed to prevent evil from entering the house. Professor A. H. Sayce, in Expository Times. 10. The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. The Arabs have a belief that over the grave of a murdered man his spirit hovers in the form of a bird that cries, “Give me a drink, give me a drink," and only ceases when the blood of the murderer is shed. Cain's conscience told him the same thing; there was no criminal law threatening death to the murderer, but he felt that men would kill him if they could. He heard the blood of Abel crying from the ground. Dr. Marcus Dods, Expositor's Bible. 11-14. Cursed art thou from the ground...whosoever findeth me will slay me. The punishment inflicted upon Cain is Babylonian, and not Israelitish. The Mosaic Law recognized the Bedouin law of blood-revenge, which extended to all mankind, in Gen. 9.5, 6. But one of the marked contrasts between the Mosaic Law and the Code of Hammurabi is that in the latter the nomadic law of blood-revenge is replaced by the State-administered justice of a civilized community. In verse 14 we pass from Babylonian law to the Bedouin law of bloodrevenge. Professor A. H. Sayce, in Expository Times. THE HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND Review Questions. What was the sin of Adam and Eve? What led them to sin? What was their punishment? Last week we were told about the first sin of disobedience and its consequence: this week we see sin in the form of selfishness, jealousy, hatred and murder. "Where art thou?" God had said to Adam, meaning by that question, "How do you stand as regards Me?" "Where is thy brother?" is the question that comes to Cain, the question meaning, "How do you stand as regards your brother?” |