FIRST T H I N G S:
A
erits  nf   trturnf
ON THE
GREAT FACTS AND MORAL LESSONS
FIRST REVEALED TO MANKIND.
BY
GARDINER SPRING, D.D.
PASTOR OF BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD,
B3RICK CHURCH CHAPEL, CITY HALL SQUARE,
(OPPOSITE THE CITY HALL.)
1851.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851,
BY M. W. DODD,
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York.
STEREOTYPED BY THOMAS B. SMITH,
216 WILLIAM STREET, N. Y.




INTRODUCTION.
THERE are several questions of grave import which
naturally present themselves for consideration, in a work
bearing the title of these volumes. The facts and principles early revealed to the world, were designed to exert
a permanent influence. They form the base of the spiritual edifice in which God himself dwells, and in which
his people, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house,
an holy temple unto the Lord. They are principles,
some of which have given rise to no small diversity of
views, and on which the author is not unwilling to leave
the testimony of his own thoughts, however humble they
may be.
If he has allowed himself to introduce topics and matter of a somewhat varied kind, and portions of it in no
elaborate and somewhat discursive form; it is because
these topics could not well be overlooked, and a less
elaborate view of them would, in his own judgment, be
the more useful. If he has omitted some which might
naturally have been looked for, it is because they would
have exposed him to a still more redundant expression
of the same thoughts, and because they have been so
frequently and ably presented by other pens.
In dedicating the work to those who compose his own
pastorate, he would fain be allowed to include in that
number, not only those who now constitute the flock of




iv                INTRODUCTION.
which the Holy Ghost has made him overseer, but those
who no longer attend upon his ministrations, and are dispersed tlrough the metropolis, and still more widely
throughout the land. They are delightful memories to
his own mind which are thus associated with the past.
They bring to his recollection so much that is venerable in the character of those long since gathered
into the garner of the great husbandman, and so much
that is lovely in youthful piety that lives still, but no
longer among men., that he loves to dwell upon them.'
Nor are they less delightful because, through much infirmity and more imperfection on his part, he has been
so uniformly sustained by the kindness of his people;
and more than all, because they so richly savor of the
" years of the right-hand of the Most High."
Those who once heard, and now hear the gospel from
his lips, will not, he hopes, be displeased, that some of
his last thoughts upon First Things are most respectfully
dedicated to them, by their affectionate pastor,
THE AUTHOR.




CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS,.               7
CHAPTER II.
GOD'S FIRST WORK,...                        33
CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST MAN,.69
CHAPTER IV.
THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE,.            97
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST WOMAN,....... 133
CHAPTER YI.
THE FIRST MARRIAGE,...170
CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST SABBATH..199
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN,..               238




Vi                    CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
PAGE
THE FIRST DECEIVER,..259
CHAPTER X.
THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER S SNARES,.            279
CHAPTER XI.
MAN S FIRST SIN,..                316
CHAPTER XII.
THE FIRST INTERVIEW BETWEEN GOD AND OUR FIRST PARENTS,
AFTER THEIR APOSTASY,.. 343
CHAPTER XIII.
THE FIRST PROMISE,...                    365




FIRST THINGS.
CHAPTER  I.
IT is not the object of the writer to address
himself to the popular taste, at the sacrifice of
truth. So far from this, the following pages will,
he trusts, be found to contain God's truth, presented in the plainest dress.
He has assumed the title, FIRST THINGS, because his topics are among the first lessons narrated
in the Sacred Writings, the first great realities revealed to men.
Of these the adorable and ever-blessed God has
the first place. In every view he has the preeminence.
By the great word GoD, the Scriptures mean
that intelligent, eternal First Cause, who created,
upholds, and governs all things. We open the
sacred pages, and the first words we read are
these: " IN THE BEGINNING, GOD."




8       GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
Most of the ancient schools and systems of Pagan philosophy, if not atheistical, were atheistic in
their tendency, and in their results showed themselves most successful abettors of atheism. Theoretical atheists are few; yet men still live without
God in the world. They speculate coldly on the
existence of Him who has existed forever; they
reason without emotion of him who is himself the
source of all they enjoy and all they admire; they
speak with marvellous indifference of him, in
whose hand their breath is, and whose are all their
ways. They have no affecting impression of his
glorious and amiable nature; every thrilling view
of God they banish; they feel as if there were no
God, and conduct themselves as though He, under whose inspection all their conduct and all
their thoughts are naked and open, and who himself has an interest in all they do and are, had no
concern with them, nor they with him.
The weighty truth can never be stricken out of
existence, that there i8 a God; that he exists independently of every being in the universe, and
that he is infinitely above the reach of creatures.
The denial of this truth is so palpable an absurdity, that it is no marvel that it has the consent
of all nations, and that the belief of it is so universally prevalent.  Human consciousness does
not more certainly attest the existence of a world
within us, nor the human senses more certainly




GOD- HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.:
the existence of the world without us, than human reason receives it as an ultimate fact, that
these internal and external worlds could not exist
without an adequate cause.  God's eternal existence is a necessary truth; if other things exist, it
is inconceivable, impossible, that he should  not
exist.
Yet, obvious as it is, this is a most exalted idea
of God.  When he revealed himself to Moses, he
made the disclosure in the memorable words, I AM
THAT I Am.  This is "his name;" this is the impression which he himself has of his own Being.
It is without beginning and without end; it has
no distinction of parts; what it now is, it always
was; what it now is, it always will be. We cannot convey any true idea of what it is; "who by
searching can find out God?"* It belongs to
creatures to begin to live; to the uncreated One,
to live always. And this is the frist thought by
which we would illustrate the truth that God himself is before all things.  "Before the mountains
were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the
earth and the world, from  everlasting to  everlasting thou art God."   "Thou art the same, and of
* In the beautiful language of the great Newton, when speaking of
God, " Eternus est et infinitus, oinnipotens, et omnisciens; id est durat ab
eterno in eternum, et adest ab infinito in infinitum. Non est eternitas et
infinitas, sed eternus et infinitus; non est duratio et spatium, sed durat et
adest. Durat semper, et adest ubique; et existendo semper et ubique
durationem et spatium constituit."-l-Newton's Principia.
1*




10      GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
thy years there is no end." "I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the
Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to
come."
In the next place, God is before all things in
the excellencies of his nature  These can no more
be comprehended by creatures than the eternity
of his existence.  "Touching the Almighty, we
cannot find him out." " It is high as heaven, what
canst thou do: deeper than hell, what canst thou
know: the measure thereof is longer than the
earth, and broader than the sea." After the clearest and most extended view of his greatness and
majesty,-his spirituality and unchangeableness,his immensity and infinity,-his omnipotence and
omniscience,-his blessedness and his goodness,his compassion and faithfulness, —his holiness and
justice,-his impartiality and sovereignty,-his
truth and mercy,-his love and anger; we are constrained to say, " Lo, these are parts of his ways,
but how little a portion is heard of him." Our
largest and holiest contemplations of his nature
leave us insensible of what he is, and almost senseless to his unutterable glory. Our thoughts of him
are like shadows; they are the emptiness, the vacancy of thought, as it would fain travel over that shoreless ocean, and as it loses itself in thinking of him
who is all and in all, and above all, and over all,
God blessed forever. Angels and men have been




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.   11
for centuries employed in contemplating the infinity of his perfections; and though their knowledge
of him, and their admiration of his excellence
have been continually increasing, and with every
new inspection of his works and his word, they
have learned something new of him; yet have
they never reached the lofty position from which
they can survey his fulness, nor have their minds
ever been able to take in the full revelations of
his nature which he himself has made. 0, we are
confounded when we think of God.  He is
"the King eternal, immortal, and invisible;" the
"blessed and only potentate, the King of kings
and the Lord of lords. "Thine, 0 Lord, is the
greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the
victory, and the majesty." Thought, which measures other things, cannot measure the infinite
Deity; reason, which penetrates other things, cannot dive into this unsearchable abyss; imagination
has no colors by which it can depict him who
makes the clouds his chariot, and who dwelleth in
light that is inaccessible and full of glory. And
faith itself, while it gives his testimony entire and
implicit confidence, confessedly believes concerning him what it does not comprehend. Bright
excellencies there are ins God which eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the
mind of man or seraph. Seraphim do indeed behold him face to face; while they are never more




12      GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
sensible than in their clearest visions of his glory,
that there are brighter and still more bright
manifestations; and even in view, of those that
are the more dim and obscure, they cover their
faces with their wings. The immensity of God,
what is it? the infinity of greatness and goodness,
who can comprehend them but his infinite Mind
in whom they dwell?  Goodness there is in creatures, and greatness, which excite our admiration;
but they are borrowed rays from this uncreated
sun; no more than floating atoms within his illimitable power and wisdom, his boundless rectitude and love. "All nations before him are as
nothing, and they are counted to him as less than
nothing and vanity."  "Behold, he putteth no
trust in his servants, and his angels he charged
with folly." Who shall "not fear thee, 0 Lord,
and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy; for
all nations shall come and worship before thee."
God is also before all things, itm the claims wuhich
he ha8s tpor htis creatures. He is of right the lawgiver of the universe; while, in the administration
of his government, he doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven, and amid all the inhabitants of the earth. His being and his nature
give him this supremacy. In searching for the
foundation of moral obligation, we may not push
our inquiries beyond the divine existence and the
divine nature. It is not without reason that we




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.    13
speak of the eternal and immutable difference between right and wrong; and of the foundations
of obligation as existing in the nature of things.
But the greatest of all things is God. His law is
what it is, because he himself is God. God himself must cease to be what he is, and his intelligent
creatures must cease to be what they are, before
his claims may hold a secondary place.
What are these claims? Summarily expressed,
they are contained in the few words, "Thou shaglt
have no other gods8 efore me."  True religion begins here, with angels and with men, in heaven
and on earth. It has peculiarities in the world
that is fallen and redeemed, and some shining
graces that are unknown to the unfallen; while
the elements of these are the same which constitute the character of those who have never sinned,
and "have no need of repentance."  And what
do these claims imply, but that all men should
know God, acknowledge him, and from the heart
serve and honor him?
Him they must know. Ignorance and false
views of his character may be, and often are, alike
fatal to piety. They not only shroud the mind in
darkness, but lead multitudes blindfold to perdition. Nature and providence speak for God; but
there are lessons which they do not, cannot read
to us. Do we search for views of him that will
not mislead our minds; for some strong and express




14      GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
image of the invisible Deity? That great mystery
of godliness, " God manifest in the flesh," was God
himself dwelling among men, imprinting his footsteps on this low earth, and holding intercourse
with mortals as a man with his friend. What he
was, that God is; Immanuel, "God with us," in
all his spotless purity and rectitude, in his attractive
loveliness and overawing majesty; "the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ." In his last
and memorable prayer with and for his disciples,
he utters the language, " This is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."
God claims to be acknowledged as well as known.
He requires an honest and frank avowal of his
excellence and prerogative. Where men are
brought into collision with idol temples and idol
deities; or where, in less degraded lands, fame,
pleasure and power set up their altars; where a
forgotten God, a slighted Saviour, an unsought
Sanctifier proclaim that there are thousands who
have other gods before him; where thousands
more make a God of self and gold, and worship
and serve the creature more than the Creator: it
is characteristic of those who serve and honor him,
never to be ashamed of him, his truth, or his
cause; and while they confess him with their
mouths, to inscribe the acknowledgment on the
fleshly table of their hearts, " This God is our God




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.     15
forever and ever; he will be our guide even unto
death."
His claims thus reach the inner man. It is this
internal homage which we owe, and on which he
insists. "My son, give me thy heart."  Our hearts
must be his-so loving, fearing, trusting and rejoicing in him, that we live to praise him, and
find our pleasure in doing his will.  His being
must influence us; all his attributes must influence
us; his providence must influence us, as well as
his grace and truth. Our time must be his; our
labor his; his our property and influence; his
our waking, and his our hours of rest; our home
his, his our joys, our sorrows; our life his, and his
our death. Living and dying, we must be the
Lord's. He will have all, if his claims are duly
honored.
And the thought may not be lost sight of, that:
he must have this supremacy in opposition to all,
other cclains. There are claims which do not interfere with his; he appoints and honors them,
and they are identified with his own. The world
has claims, business and friendship have claims,
science has claims, and every department of human effort and joy that is honest, true, temperate,
pure, and of good report, has claims which he
honors. But they must all be subordinate to him;
we must turn from every altar to his. No danger
may repress, no toil discourage, no external influ



16      GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL. THINGS.
ence subdue this paramount regard to God. No
traditions of men may countervail his word; no
confessor stand in his place; no sanctuary be set
up against his. It is only at his footstool that
true devotion kneels.
God also is before all things, in that his honor
and glory should be the Jirst and great object of
our pursiuit. When we look into the sacred writings, we find such declarations as these: "The
Lord hath made all things for himself."-" I have
created him for my glory."-" I wrought for my
name's sake that it should not be polluted before
the heathen."-" All things were created by him
and for him."-" Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power; for thou hast
created all things, and for thy pleasure they do
exist, and were created."-" Whether therefore ye
eat or drink, do all to the glory of God."  We deduce from these and such like declarations, the
great truth that God himself is his own great end,
and that in all that they do, his creatures should
aim to please and honor him. This is his supreme object, and it must be theirs. The supreme and ultimate reason of every created object
in the universe is in God himself. What is this
material universe, but an expression of his power?
the utterance of the Deity as it awoke this universe of matter into being? And when we behold it clothed with verdure, and filled with ten




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.    17
thousand forms of organic life, everywhere displaying its form and beauty; what are these but
expressions of his wisdom? And when, in addition to these, we see the myriads of animated and
living existences, fitted for life and enjoyment and
utility; what are these but expressions of his
goodness? And when, to crown the work of his
hands, we see a race of thinking, moral, and immortal beings; what do these express but the manifold perfections of their great Author, and what
were they made for, if not to show forth his
praise? And when we contemplate our race, all
the subjects of the divine government; what lesson
do they so certainly and emphatically teach us, as
the divine authority and control? And when we
further contemplate man fallen, man redeemed,
man glorified; what do these great and marvellous
events so effectually secure as the manifestation
of that holiness, justice, mercy, sovereignty, and
boundless all-sufficiency of the Godhead, which,
without these events, never could have shone
forth, and only remained in their original and undiscovered radiance around the throne of the solitary Deity? God would still have been as spiritual, as powerful, as wise, as good, as holy, as just,
as gracious and all-sufficient as he is now; but
these glorious and:burning perfections, which give
rise to all the knowledge, holiness, and blessedness
of angels and men, and which sustain and are pro



18     GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
gressively augmenting them all, would have been
silent and retired. There would have been no such
emphatic utterances of them, no such view of them,
as that, " beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord," creatures themselves might be "changed
into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by
the Spirit of the Lord." No being in the universe
occupies this high eminence but God; he is the
Alpha and the Omega; in this he is before all
others, and all creatures are but as a drop of a
bucket compared with him. Not more certainly
was the earth formed for the residence of man,
than man was formed for God. Not more certainly were the vapors formed to become condensed in clouds, and the clouds to water the
earth, and the rivers to run into the sea, than
man was formed for God. Not more certainly
was the sun made to shine, and the trees to bear
fruit, than man was made for God. It is the great
law of man's being, and his chief end to glorify
God and enjoy him forever. For this great purpose he was made; and when the fact is demonstrated that he no longer lives to praise, and glorify, and enjoy God, it were better that he did
not live. He violates the law of his creation; he
does what he can to frustrate the end of his existence; and better were it for him and for the universe where he dwells, that he go back to his original dust. And thither would his Creator remand




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.   19
him, if he were not able to "make the wrath of
man praise him," and extort from his folly and
wickedness some reluctant tribute.
It is a great thought, that, in this as well as
every other respect, God is before all things. We
cannot measure it, much less can we utter it. We
have a place on this earth more for the purpose of
taking a view of this great and glorious Deity, of
living to honor himn, of so conducting ourselves as
to make him appear glorious, excellent, and amiable in the view of our fellow-men, than for any
other purpose. We may not aim at a lower end
than this: a higher we cannot aim at, nor at one
more comprehensive and more controlling. How
great the privilege of being permitted to honor
One so great, so lovely; One, of whom everything
that is venerable in greatness and attractive in
goodness in the created universe, is but the faint
reflection; One whom holy angels venerate and
honor, whom holy men have lived and died to
glorify, and in whose faultless character wicked
men on earth and devils in hell have been able to
find no blemish.
God is also pre-eminently above all others, aq
the source of blessedness. Man is a spiritual and
immortal being. He must have joys that are
spiritual and immortal; nor does he find them except in God. Those regions of thought and affection where created minds find such rich ban



20      GOD'HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
quets, were all delineated and mapped. out by his
hand and heart of love. There is not an emotion
in the human mind that makes man wiser, better,
or more happy, and that finds such rich and everdiversified aliment in the contemplation of him
and his truth, but is the fruit of his Spirit. It is
no abstract theory, no speculation of an abstruse,
or sentimental, or transcendental philosophy, that
the ever-blessed God is himself as truly the source
of blessedness and joy to the soul, as the sun is
the source of light and gladness to the otherwise
dark and withered creation. There is that in the
divine nature, so full-orbed and complete, so glorious in holiness, that the most intense thought,
the most ardent affection and desire, the most delighted gratitude, the deepest reverence, the highest admiration, find their ever-increasing and everglowing ardor fed at his. altars.  Such is the
Christian's experience, that, when he would be
happy, he turns immediately, I had almost said
instinctively, to God as his highest good. He has
proved the deceitfulness of other confidences, and
makes God his refuge; he has tried to find tranquillity elsewhere, but he returns to God as his
rest; and even when he has drank deep at other
fountains, he can say, "Whom have I in heaven
but thee, and there is none on the earth that I desire beside thee!" He loves God and finds his
heart gratified; he flees to him, and feels safe; he




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.     21
looks to him in embarrassment, and knows that he
will " guide him by his counsel." And when he
comes to the last conflict, and there are no sublunary lights to shine upon the dark valley, and no
created power to help him as he grapples with
the king of terrors; God himself is his " glory and
the lifter up of his head." I AM' THAT I AMGod's all-sufficiency is his blessedness. It is not
the presumption of blind adventurousness that
makes him confident; nor the fortitude of insensibility that makes him strong, when unassisted
by earth he engages manfully in the great battle
with "this last enemy," and "through him that
hath loved him," comes off conqueror. It is God
alone speaking to the soul in its loneliness, and
the thinking spirit uttering its responses, and receiving in return the full promise, " I will never
leave thee, never forsake thee." If we would
know what it is to be cheered and comforted'
by the divine presence and love, we may try
to think what it is for a creature of thought
and sensitiveness to be abandoned of God; separated from  the good, separated from the holy,
eternally separated from all blessedness and joy.
If we search for the two extremes of misery and
happiness in the universe, we shall find them, on
the one hand, in the soul that is most shut out
from God's blessedness; and on the other, in the
soul that is permitted to dwell nearest his throne.




22      GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
Could we know the joys of the pure seraph who
has never wandered from his presence, or of the
ransomed sinner who occupies a place nearest his
feet; we should know that "in his presence is
fulness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures
for evermore."
In the eternity of his being, in the excellence
of his nature, in the prerogatives of his throne, in
the chief and ultimate end of man's being, and as
the source of all blessedness, God himself, therefore, is before all things.
Can these high claims be vindicated, and does
he deserve his exaltedpreeminence P  We devote a
few remaining pages to this inquiry. And we do
this, not because we doubt his claims, nor because the inquiry casts any suspicion upon them;
but because God himself invites us to inspect
them-nay, to scrutinize them; well assured that
the more they are inspected and scrutinized, the
deeper will be our conviction that they deserve to
be honored, and that we shall find our own highest
holiness, and honor, and happiness in honoring
him.
The first remark on this part of our discussion
is, That God himself claims thisprenmi9 nence in his
word. It is the language of his law, that we shall
"have no other gods before him;" that we shall
"love him with all the heart, and all the understanding." It is the language of his gospel,




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.     23
that if we give him not this preeminence, we shall
be anathema. This is man's rule of action; he
has no other. This is God's sovereign will, and it
may not be disregarded. Yet absolute as it is, we
are not justified in regarding it as his mere arbitrary will. He claims this universal preeminence;
nor does he act contrary to reason, nor without
reason in insisting upon the claim. He would
have us acknowledge and honor him  of choice,
and in view of the motives which he sets before our minds. His character as God deserves
this supremacy; his authority as God this submission., It is right that creatures should pay
him this supreme regard, and always will be
right. To insist on such claims would be preposterous and supremely selfish in any other being in
the universe; it is not preposterous, nor is it selfishness in God, because he is worthy. Every
principle of equity enforces this claim; to abate,
or relax it, or allow it to be superseded, were just
as absurd as that he should require men to hate
that which is lovely, or love that which is hateful.
If " there is none like him among the gods," then
ought he to have no rival in the affections of men;
if he is the only sovereign, then none may challenge his authority; and if he is the First Fair,
and the First Good, of no other may it be said,
"Their rock is not as our Rock, his enemies themselves being judges." Who may carry about with




24      GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
him the painful consciousness that he is a contemner, or neglecter of God, when he whose
" eyes run to and fro throughout the earth to show
himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart
is perfect toward him," knoweth his down-sitting
and his uprising, and understandeth his thoughts
afar off. Disguise this heart-idolatry as we will,
his eye marks it.  "If we have forgotten the
name of our God, or stretched out our hands unto
a strange God, shall not God search this out?"
And what is our disregard of his equitable claim,
but a virtual denial of his being, his dominion and
glory, or such a dividing and sharing of them
with others as moves him to jealousy? He will
not hold such a man guiltless. Habits, and principles, and practices, which exalt themselves against
God, or give him a subordinate place, ought, like
idols of silver and- gold, to be " cast to the moles and
the bats;" they ought to find their habitation in
"the clefts of the rocks, and in the holes of the
ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the
glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake
terribly the earth."
These are claims too, in the next place, which
are adapted to man's intellectual and moral nature. He is formed for them; he perceives them,
he feels the reasonableness of them, and cannot
throw of the obligation of yielding to them. The
Bible not more certainly assumes the fact of God's




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.    25
existence, and asserts his excellence and government, than it pre-supposes that man is the fit subject of this government. All its teachings proceed
on the principle of accountableness in men, so long
as they are not idiots. Men are greatly at fault in
their reasonings upon this very plain subject.
They would fain persuade themselves that they
are not under obligation to give God the first
place, because they have already given that place
to another; because their carnal mind is at enmity with God and dead in sin; and because this
state of moral feeling requires omnipotent grace
in order to be subdued. But what sort of theology, and what sort of piety is that, which exempts
a man from the obligation to do right, because he
does wrong; which relieves him from the duty of
having no other God than the living and true, because he sets up idols in his heart, and because he
is so wedded to them, that they must be torn from
his bosom? His excuse confounds him; he is condemned out of his own mouth. Nothing is more
preposterous than such reasoning. If there be
any force in it, no man is under obligation to be
better than he is; and the worse he is, the less is
he under obligation to be better. If there is any
force in such reasoning, there is no such thing as
sin in the world, because there is no obligation
violated, let men be as bad as they will. Never
let the truth be forgotten, that human obligation




26      GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
lies back both of human sinfulness and God's imparted grace. " To him that k'noweth to do good,
and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Give men understanding, and conscience, be they ever so perverted by iniquity, and there is no'escape from
this obligation. They are the fit subjects of God's
control; he speaks to them, and what he utters
has a determinate meaning.  It is understood;
conscience feels its authority, and cannot set it
aside. It will be a fearful thing for such a man
if he goes to the judgment trusting in his refuges
of lies. He had better have been numbered with
the cattle upon the thousand hills; he had better
have been a maniac; or "like the untimely birth of
a woman, he had better never have seen the light."
The hail will sweep his refuges of lies away, and
the waters will overflow his hiding-place. He will
have an interview with the insulted Deity at that
dread tribunal, and will be speechless.
Nor may we overlook the affecting relations
which exist between God and man, giving, as they
do, additional force to these divine claims. They
are not abstract truths which we have been uttering; they are truths addressed to every man's
conscience; the conscience of the reader must be
the expositor of them.
God is your lfaker. " Know ye not that the Lord
he is God; it is. he that hath made us, and not we
ourselves." And shall these bodies, so " curiously and




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.   27
wonderfully framed," not become his temple, but be
prostituted to the service of other gods? Shall not
these hands be employed for him, and these feet
"run in the way of his commandments?" Shall these
eyes never behold his glory; and these lips, shall
they not speak his praise? Shall these thoughts
never think of him, and for him; and these sensations never feel for him; and these volitions never
respond -to the call of their Maker?  Shall this
heart, which never beats without his wonderworking power, never throb for him, and these
warm affections of which he has made us capable,
and which give rise to so mlany social joys, never
glow with love, but to show how much others are
loved more than him?  Shall this immortality,
with which he has invested the meanest and the
most exalted of our race, be forever alienated from
him, and become an eternal exile from his family
and favor?
God is your preserver. In his hand your breath
is, and in him are all your ways. It is he that maketh the outgoings of the morning and the evening
to rejoice; that watches you by night, and by day
throws around you the shield of his guardianship;
that feeds you with the finest of the wheat, makes
you suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the
flinty rock, and bears you as on eagles' wings. And
does such goodness originate no obligations of
grateful acknowledgment and service; or may




28     GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
these mercies be perverted to his dishonor, these
deliverances abused, and this forfeited life, so
long preserved, never honestly devoted to him by
whose visitation it is thus cared for?
God is your Father. He has loved you, and instructed. you, and chastened you, and borne with
you, and guided you with his eye, and carried
you in his bosom. He has not left you to be an
atheist, nor an infidel, nor a Mohammedan, nor a
Pagan. He has reared you in his sanctuary, and
given you a place near his altars. Every morning and every evening, you have heard his voice
of love, and seen him going forth to direct the
arrangements of his providence for your benefit.' If I be a father," says he, " where is mine hqnor?
and if I be a master, where is my fear?" It is no
unreasonable, or unfilial duty, and no unreasonable, exacting service that he calls for: it is your
own good he is consulting, when he would have
you glorify and enjoy him forever.
And what is more than all, God is yours Redeemner. From the bondage of sin, from all that
is terrible in apprehension and agonizing in despair, from corroding guilt and dreadful wrath,
from the sting of death and the curse of the law,
he sent the Son of his love to rescue you, with a
strong hand and a stretched-out arm.  When
your feet were going down to death, and your
steps took hold on hell, he kept you from falling,




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.    29
and snatched you from the pit of destruction.
The Destroyer was commissioned to go through
your coasts and smite the mother with her children, and lay the first-born low; but the blood
of the Paschal Lamb was on your door-posts and
on the lintels, and he did not come nigh your
dwelling. The enraged foe was in hot pursuit
after you; you were foiled and crushed; but this
great Deliverer spoiled principalities and powers
in order to save you harmless. He spoiled the
grave, disappointed hell of its prey, brought hope
to the hopeless; and now, with unutterable tenderness, he invites those who are the children of
wrath to become the sons of God. And shall the
ransomed slave not think of his Deliverer? Shall
not the redeemed sinner instinctively say," O
Lord, I am thy servant; I am thy servant; thou
hast loosed my bonds!"
In every view, therefore, God is before all
things; and in every view he deserves this preeminence. The obligation thus to regard him is
absolute; it is universal and everlasting. We
have but to hold up this infinite Deity before the
mind of the most benighted Pagan, and he is forever bound to give God this high place. There
is no absolution from this bond; and there is no
such thing as violating it without peril. It binds
the highest and the lowest as truly as it bound
Gabriel; as truly as it did the first man before




30     GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
his apostasy; as truly, and just as much as it did
the Israelites, when those words were first promulgated, "Thou shalt have no other gods before
me."  It has never been revoked; nor has its
great Author ever said or done anything to lower
this high standard of human thought and conduct,
but the rather everything to elevate it and give
it perpetuity.
Yet, in contemplating this single truth, well
may we say, "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, 0 Lord, who shall stand?"  There is not
one of us but must lay his hand upon his mouth.
There is not one of us who is not conscious that
many a favorite idol has usurped the throne which
belongs to God; and who is not constrained to
confess that infinitely inferior claims have been
allowed to jostle with the claims of the living
Deity. We may well try ourselves by this standard, if it were only to learn how pure and searching it is, and how vile we ourselves are.  One
reason why multitudes remain so thoughtless in
sin, and so unconcerned about their soul's salvation, is that they make light of this great truth.
They make light of God, and therefore they make
light of his law; and because they make light of
these, they make light of sin; and because they
make light of sin, they make light of the great
salvation. "I was alive," says the apostle, " without the law once; but when the commandment




GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.       31
came, sin revived and I died."  Sin revives then,
and the sinner feels its power; the law utters its
penalty, and he sees his danger; his strength withers, and his hopes die. He is condemned; the
penalty is death; the day of execution is hastening on; nor is it any marvel that he looks round
for some way of escape, and cries out, "What
must I do to be saved?"  It is no new thing for
men to be sensible of their lost condition as sinners; and it is no surprising thing. Resist not
these convictions, if the Spirit of God is thus
striving with you. Do not stop them, though
they make the world look dark, and though they
hold your eyes waking.
There is forgiveness with God. There is hope.
Yes, there is forgiveness with God that he may be
feared. There is hope for the chief of sinners, because " the Son of Man came to seek and save that
which is lost."  "The wages of sin is death; but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ."
While he lives, and when he dies, this is the
Christian's glorying; and this too is his holiness; he lives to Christ and to Christ he dies.
This, also, is his greatest joy. For while it is his
greatest grief that he has done so little for Jesus
Christ, it is his greatest joy that Jesus Christ has
dotne so much for him.
The apostle once said, " I through the law am
dead to the law, that I might live unto God."




32      GOD HIMSELF BEFORE ALL THINGS.
This is the way in which God is enthroned in the
heart; and it is this enthroning which constitutes
the sum and substance of true religion. It is from
this inward obedience, that all outward obedience
flows. True morality originates in a supreme regard for God. Morality without, and not within,
is a fiction-a dream. Sin began in turning from
God; piety begins in turning to him. The point
at which men turn to him is giving him the supremacy he claims. Whether the living and true
God shall have this supremacy, or whether they give
it to another, is the question on which their eternity
is suspended. This is the great controversy between man and his Maker. You must yield this
controversy, gentle reader; for you cannot help
seeing that God is right and you are wrong.
God cannot yield it; not because he is arbitrary
and will not, but because he is right and may
not. Truth is with him; error is with you. His
is the rectitude; yours the sin. The throne is
his; the footstool yours. You are a creature of
yesterday; he is from everlasting. You are abject; he is before all things. Yours is the relenting, the penitence, the submission, the trusting
confidence; his the forgiving love, the gracious
acceptance, the free salvation.




CHAPTER II.
THE Book of Genesis is, in every view, a most
wonderful book.  If it be a fable, Christianity itself is fabulous. Not only does it furnish the earliest narrative of the earliest times, but abounds
in facts which lie at the foundation of revealed religion, and render it impregnable to all the assaults of infidelity.  The first two chapters speak
of times and events which existed before the sun
was set in his tabernacle, or man dwelt on the
earth.  It is not of science and the arts that they
treat, nor of the rise and fall of empires, nor of
battles lost and won; when its narrative begins,
there were no empires, no cities, no din of warfare,
no rivalships of art, and no researches of science.
The subject of it is the beginning of time; it is
GoD's FIRST woRn,-in its commencement, its progress, its completion; in all the exactness of its design, in all its order and simplicity, beauty and
stupendousness.
2*




34            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
Yet the writer of it speaks, throughout, with
the familiarity and simplicity of one who was an
eye-witness of the magnificent scenes he describes;
and he does so because, though not an eye-witness,
he was taught of God. Nor does he speak with
hesitation; he has no doubts to express and no
theories to propose, or defend. It is a statement
offacts which he presents us, on the authority of
the revealing Spirit, and therefore everything that
he says is consistent and harmonious.
IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS
AND THE EARTH. We read this introductory sentence, and feel a strong desire to know what the
book, which is thus introduced to us, contains.
What an impregnated announcement is this! how
much truth does it affirm   how much error does
it refute! how much that is fabulous does it put
to shame!
The first great fact here disclosed, is that there
was a beginning to the heavens and the earth-a
period when they did not exist. It is the dream
of atheism that they have existed always. We see
for ourselves that the present form, of the world,
and' the particles of which it is composed, are subject to incessant changes and revolution. "The
fashion of this world passeth away;" mutability is
stamped upon everything around us; and we cannot fail to demand, can such a world have existed
from eternity? That which may be one thing to



GOD'S FIRST WORK             35
day, another thing to-morrow, and the next day
nothing at all, cannot be independent and eternal.
Variation in the nature, or mode of the world's
existence, is an effect which cannot be produced
without a cause. And whence that cause? Not
from itself, for it is dead matter and powerless;
not from without itself, for this the hypothesis denies. If the matter of which the world is composed be eternal, how came the world to assume
its present form? If it existed from eternity with
all its parts united and at rest, how was it set in
motion? or if it existed from eternity in an infinite number of detached particles, and in motion,
in what lucky moment, and by what fortuitous
concourse did they come together, and form this
beautiful and splendid world?  Nor does it owe
its existence to an infinite succession of causes.
The notion of an infinite progression of dependent
causes, without any beginning, or first cause, involves an obvious contradiction. If each distinct
cause in the series is dependent, how can the entire series itself be independent? Where nothing
in the series is without a beginning, whence is it
that there is no beginning to the series? How
can an infinite and eternal whole be made up of
parts that are not eternal and finite? This hypothesis is adopted in order to get rid of the idea
that any one cause in the series is without beginning. If this be so, then there was a beginning




36             GOD'S FIRST WORK.
to each cause in the succession, so that if this hypothesis be true, "we have a succession of causes
infinitely earlier than any cause in the succession,"
which is an absurdity. Whether this supposed
progression commences a thousand years ago, or
from eternity, it is equally a contradiction that
every link in the chain is supported by one that
is antecedent, and that there is no parent link to
support the whole.
There is too a total want of testimony in favor
of the hypothesis, that the existence of the world
runs back to a remoter period than that spoken
of by Moses. No human records reach farther
back than that period. The traces of higher antiquity said to have been found in the history of
Egypt, Phcenicia, Hindostan, and  China, have
long since been abandoned as fabulous; so far
from countervailing, they substantiate the Mosaic
history. Had the world existed for any great
period beyond the date specified by Moses, it is
incredible that numerous evidences of this fact
should not exist, and that all veritable history and
tradition should terminate within the limits of the
scriptural chronology. The scantiness of population, the progress of society, agriculture, and arts
and improvements universally, clearly show that
this earth began to exist at no very remote period.
We are able to ascertain the time when the most
useful arts were invented, and the sciences discov



GOD'S FIRST WORK              37
ered; and can go back to the origin of the earliest nations, and the foundation and progress of the
earliest works of man.
We have, moreover, facts which lie at the basis
of chronological computations which cannot deceive us.* Jesus Christ was born while CGasar
Augustus was emperor of Rome-a date well
known in the history of nations. From the birth
of Christ upward to the calling of Abraham,
the Scripture chronology, fortified by profane authors almost without number, is exact and determinate.  From  that period to the exile of the
Jews in Babylon were fourteen generations; from
the exile in Babylon to David fourteen generations; and from David to Abraham fourteen generations; in all forty-two generations. From Abraham to Noah were four hundred and thirty years;
and from  Noah to the creation between sixteen
and seventeen hundred.t Making all due allowance for the different chronology of the Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch, the Hebrew Scriptures, the Septuagint and Josephus, there are
nearly six thousand years from the present date
to the creation.
There was a begitnning, therefore, to the heavens
and the earth; the, time was when they did not
* See Lightfoot's Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations upon Matthew.
- Works, vol. xi. p. 27.
f Comp. Wallace's True Age of the World, Blair's Chronological Tables,
W'inder's History of Knowledge, and the Encyclopedias.




38            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
exist, and when nothing was in existence but the
ever-living God. What efforts of the divine
power, and what expressions of the divine goodness may have been made in the creation of other
systems and other worlds besides those of which
the Scriptures speak, and which have no revealed
relation to "the heavens and the earth," it is at
least safe to say we are utterly ignorant. To erect
any theory at all upon such an hypothesis, is up
terly unphilosophical. So far as the Creator himself has informed us, the creation of " the heavens
and the earth" was his first work, and constituted
the earliest manifestations of his glory, the first
ray of the divinity which broke forth.
The next fact here taught us is, that the heavens
and the earth not only had a beginning, but were
created.  "In the beginning  God created the
heavens and the earth."  It is no marvel that the
idea of a creative _power that produced all things
out of nothing "was above the reach of men who
were destitute of a supernatural revelation. Men
have no experience, no observation of such a fact
as. this, and no science that can account for it.
We may be allowed to remark, and with emphasis, that the scriptural doctrine of creation is so
purely a historical question that it does not seek
any philosophical solution. It is a subject on
which science is entitled to no theory, because it
is decided by the divine testimony; a subject with




GOD'S FIRST WORM.          39
which science may not interfere; nor was it ever
designed to be investigated by human philosophy.
The great and radical error of modern philosophers lies in supposing that the primeval creation
was effected by a process which natural science
prescribes. Science may have much to do with
the changes and revolutions which have taken
place in the material world; this is her province;
while upon the doctrine of creation itself, she has
no claim to be heard. What does science know
of creation? or what has she to do but "STAND
STILL AND CONSIDER the wondrous works of God?"
"' Dost thou know when God disposed them?
dost thou know the wondrous works of him which
is perfect in knowledge?"  God speaks to these
presumptuous world-makers in the  language,
"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of
the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest? or who hath stretched out the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened,
or who hath laid the corner-stone thereof?" We
have no need of the lights of natural science, but
to illustrate, and to pour their radiance on the
works of God.  Creation is a MIRACLE, if ever
there was a miracle in the world; and what need
is there of scientific principles in order to explain a
miracle? The Creator does not tread in the foot



40            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
steps of physical science; true science treads, and
treads cautiously in the footsteps of the Creator.
We take our position on the broad and immovable basis of God's word, and ask, what is the scriptural idea of crection?  Let the answer be given
in the first chapter of the book of Genesis. Let
it be given in the language of the prophet,
" Thou, even thou art Lord alone; thou hast made
heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts,
the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas,
and all that is therein." Let it be given in the
language of the Psalmist, "By the word of the
Lord were the heavens made; and all the hosts
of them by the breath of his mouth."  Let it be
given in the language, " Thus saith God the Lord;
he that created the heavens and stretched them
out; he that spread forth the earth and that which
cometh out of it." Let it be given in the language
of the apostle, "All things were made by him;
and without him was not anything made that was
made." It is not to the cabinet of the geologist,
nor laboratory of the chemist, that we make our
appeal for information on this high subject. It
belongs to them to inquire how material things are
sustained, and perpetuated, and by what laws they
granulate and grow, after they are created; of
creation they know nothing. The Scriptures mean
by creation those acts of omnipotence by which
God gives being to that which did not exist be



GOD'S FIRST WORK.           41
fore; they mean by it, not only to cause existence,
but entire and completed existence. "Thus the
heavens and the earth were finieszec and all the
host of them."  They convey the thought, that
creation was the matured act of God; it was performed by a word, and under the direct and immediate influence of a divine command. This may
not accord with the rationalism of modern science,
but is in strict accordance with Christian faith.
It is not by science that we arrive at this tonclusion. The sacred writers instruct us, that " through
FAITH  we understand, that the worlds were
framed by the word of God." The Creator himself
knows how the worlds were created; and he has
told us. He knows the influence of second causes;
for he called them into being at the primeval creation, and gives them their place in his government
and control of the natural world. But he claims
for himself the prerogative of the mighty Creator.
The third fact here revealed, is that this
world was created in six days. Here again the
Scriptures are at issue with science.  Modern
geologists tell us that this is not possible; and
all we need reply to the bold assertion is,
"With men it is impossible, but all things are
possible with God." Everything is possible with
God that does not involve a contradiction. And
where is the contradiction in God's creating this
material world in six days? Revealed theology




42            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
we are told, must be in " organic connection" with
natural science. We are instructed that that theology is not true which is at war with the true science of nature; and that to make revelation and
science harmonize with reason, we are driven, from
an inspection of the internal organization of our
globe, to the conclusion, that " the mere shell of
the earth takes us back through an unknown series
of ages, in which creation appears to have followed
creation at the distance of vast intervals between."
There are, it is said, strata, or layers in the earth's
foundation, which must have been formed in a certain order; that we scarcely leave the surface of
the earth without finding deposits which take us
beyond the limits of recorded time; that there
are fossil remains, and beds of coal and limestone,
which must have been the spoils of other and departed worlds; that countless ages were necessary
for this arrangement, and that " the earth itself is
a crowded store-house of evidence of its gradual
formation." It is enough in reply to such a statement, that it is inconsistent with the Mosaic narrative. Although our main object is to show the inconsistency of these positions with the sacred
writings, we may be permitted here to remark,
that even upon the hypothesis that the earth exhibits evidence of its formation through the power
of natural causes, it does not follow that it was
not formed in six days, because the very idea of




GOD'S FIRST WORK.          43
creation supposes an unwonted energy in those
causes. What if it be so, that no small portions
of large continents are covered with rocks of many
miles in depth, all exhibiting a stratified formation,
and arranged in the order of a mineralogical cabinet; where is the evidence that they were not
formed by the operation of causes acting with a
rapidity and force unknown to modern geology?
What if it be so, that these strata contain " pebbles
rounded and smoothed as if they had been rolled
in water;" can it be shown that God Almighty
could not, even by the action of water, have created
a round and smooth pebble in six days? And what
if it is ascertained, that these strata are fossiliferous and contain the bones of animals; or are carbonic, and contain beds of coal; or are formed of
salt and limestone; can it be shown that no organic remains of animals were deposited between
the creation and the flood, or that races of animals
that are now extinct, were not deposited in mountain and valley by the waters of the deluge?
Geologists assume that the operation of natural
causes is at all times equal, which they have not
demonstrated.
The remark was made on a preceding page, that
natural science is concerned with the changes that
have taken place in the material world; while
upon the doctrine of c~reation, she has no claim to
be heard. No man supposes that the earth, as it




44            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
now Mi, is the same earth that was originally created. It was greatly changed by the Deluge;
was no doubt gradually changing between the
deluge and the creation; it has been subjected to
change ever since, sometimes by the laws of a universal providence, sometimes by a providence that
is special. Where is the geographer who can now
tell us where the rivers are that once bounded the
original Paradise? We have abundant proof that
what are now large and extensive lakes, were once
solid land; and that what is now solid land, was
once covered with water.- We see for ourselves
large tracts of alluvial soil, formed by the accumulation of matter washed down from mountains,
and formed by the action of rivers which have
changed their beds. Rocks, too, are wearing away
by the action of the ocean; while what is now
solid land, may in past ages have formed the bed
of the ocean itself. Decayed forests are forming new soil beneath. But it does not follow,
because the earth has been gradually moulded by
the operation of second causes, or changed in
many of its aspedts by violent concussions and
eruptions, that it did not originally possess the
great and distinctive features of land and water,
and in their marked varieties. Geologists tell us
that very large portions of the earth were formed
gradually and in the progress of indefinite ages;
that granite rocks could not have been formed ex



GOD'S FIRST WORK.           4 5
cept by the action of subterranean fire; and that
the metallic substances which are found in the
earth, are all to be traced to the action of natural
causes since the creation. But how do they know
this?  This one thing is obvious from the Mosaic
narrative, that on the third day of the creation,
God said, " Let the dry land appear."  Will geologists inform us what were the component elements of the dry land? Were there no mountain
ranges? no granite hills; no metallic substances;
no sand; no gravel; no loam; no clay? Where
were Sinai, and Horeb, and Hor, and Gilead, and
Paran, and Carmel? Where were the " high hills"
that were covered by the flood; and the " everlasting hills" that are spoken of in the book of Genesis; and the "precious things of the everlasting
hills;" and the land "' whose stones are iron, and
~out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass?" Whence
were the idols of silver and gold in kingdoms far
more ancient than the Hebrew state. Whence
was it that' Tubal Cain, the fourth in descent from
Adam, was "an instructor of every artificer in
brass and iron?"  Did not the " dry land" and
the " high hills" which God formed at the creation, contain these metallic substances at that dawn
of the world, as truly as they now contain them,
and were they not produced by God's creative
power? Were there no continents at the original creation; or were they all originally loose.




46             GOD'S FIRST WORK.
and incoherent masses in "the dry land," and
formed by " a sediment deposited in the waters,"
or by "accumulations of transposed matter," and
not a few of them by "the melting of other
rocks, and cooled down" into their present solidity?
I confess I am no professed geologist, while I
have taken some pains to acquaint myself with
the best treatises on this interesting departmenit
of natural science. And in doing this, I have become satisfied that their theories are far from being satisfactory to the authors themselves. The
most candid writers acknowledge that there are
difficulties in their system, and phenomena which
they cannot account for. It would be no difficult
matter to expose the fallacy of their reasoning in
its application to the Mosaic narrative of the creation.  Take, for example, the following facts.
It was asserted not many years since, that a stratum of lava flowed from mount Etna, in the time
of the second Punic war, which is about two thousand years ago, which is not sufficiently covered
with soil, to produce either corn or vines. The
conclusion was hence drawn, that it requires two
thousand years to change the surface of lava into
fertile soil. Seven distinct lavas, one under the
other, have been discovered in digging a pit near
Jaci, in the neighborhood of mount Etna, most of
them covered with a thick stratum of rich soil.




GOD'S FIRST WORk            47
And the conclusion was that the lowest of these
lavas flowed from the mountain fourteen thousand years ago, and that the earth, which, according to the Mosaic narrative, is six thousand years
old, is actually more than fourteen thousand. But
it has been since ascertained, that the mass which
covers Herculaneum and Pompeii, consists also of
seven distinct lavas, with veins of good soil between them; while it is well known that the lowest of these lavas flowed from Vesuvius in the year
79 of the Christian era, a little more than eighteen hundred years ago; and that, instead of taking two thousand years to be covered with soil, lava
is thus covered in a little more than two hundred.
Within the memory even of the young among us,
it was also the received doctrine of physical science, that there are substances in nature so hard
that it is impossible to form them except by the
slow process of centuries; yet it has since been
ascertained by the French chemists, that those
very substances, by the force of electricity acting
upon water, can be manufactured in a week.,
When the Scriptures teach us, therefore, that the
work of creation was completed in six days, we
have no questions to ask of geologists.
Geologists not a few are enlightened and Christian men. It may serve our purpose to allude to
the construction which such writers put upon the
Mosaic narrative, in order to make it consistent with




48            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
geological science. One of these theories is the
hypothesis of a material creation prior to that recorded in Scriptures, and of which the Scriptures
say nothing.  It inculcates the existence of a
"pre-adamite earth," which for unnumbered ages
was first held in fusion by fire, and afterwards in
solution by water; and that during these periods
rocks were crystallized, and masses of animal and
vegetable matter made their appropriate deposits, in strata conformed to subsequent geological
discoveries; and that when the requisite materials
were thus laid up in storehouses, from these God
formed the world we inhabit, as narrated in the
book of Genesis. Of this whole theory, we say,
and say with confidence, it is the mere romance of
natural science. It is conjecture simply, unbecoming the name of science. It is mere imagination
and theory, in which science not only vaults and
soars beyond the limits of known fact, but of remote probability. The most extravagant tales of
chivalry do not go beyond it, nor is it transcended
by the most fanciful Pagan Cosmogonies. I would
as soon believe the account of the generation of
the world among the Chaldeans as given by
Berosus, or the Phcenician account as given by
Sanchoniathon, or the Egyptian as given by Diodorus Siculus, or the Grecian as given by Ilesiod, as
believe this mere unsupported hypothesis of modern science.




GOD'S FIRST WORK.           49
The next of these theories is more sober and
plausible. It is, that when the Scriptures assert
that the world was created in six days, the meaning is six indefinite periods; and in support of this
construction, it is said that the word day is not
unfrequently used in this indefinite sense in the
Scriptures. Among the modern and more scientific advocates of this hypothesis are Professor
Silliman of Yale College and Professor Jameson of
Edinburgh. The philological and theological objections to this hypothesis are so many and conclusive, that, so far as my knowledge extends, it is
for the most part abandoned.  Dr. Buckland,
in his Bridgewater Treatise, while he does not
deem it necessary to adopt it, ventures to adopt
it so far as to believe that the creation was
"succeeded by cycles of ages, during which all
the physical operations disclosed by geology were
going on." To us his ingenious theory appears to
be contrary to the plain teachings of Moses. He
supposes, for a single example, that the lights of
heaven existed long before Moses affirms they
were created, and only came into:view on the, day
spoken of in the Mosaic narrative; God did not
then create them. Yet Moses affirms, God then
" made two great lights," and " set them in the firmament."  And the Psalmist reiterates the fact
when he says, " To him that mnade great lights, the
sun to rule by day, and the moon and stars to rule
3




50            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
by night;" and he does so in a song that celebrates
the work of creation as narrated by Moses.
A still more plausible theory, and that which
is now  generally adopted by those geologists
who disclaim the first, is to give a latitude of interpretation to the first two verses in the book
of Genesis, which has not generally been allowed.
That paragraph is, " In the beginnin'g, God created
the heavens and the earth; and the earth was
without form and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters." The construction put upon this paragraph is, that the
time occupied in thus calling into existence the
chaotic mass of which the material universe was
formed, is not specified, but left entirely open;
that it is not included in the six days of the subsequent creation; and that these unarranged materials thus called into being, must have remained
untold ages in that forming condition and process;
by which time was furnished for the peculiar and
stratified organization of the earth as it exhibits
itself to the examination of the geologist. The
difficulty in adopting this construction is the fact,
that, according to the Mosaic narrative, the different animals of which the fossil remains are composed1 and the vegetable substances which compose the carbonic, and which enter so largely into
the interior structure of the earth, did not exist




GOD'S FIRST WORK           51
in the chaotic period, adn1 were not created until
the third, and fifth, and six days of the creation
When, therefore, geologists tell us that the earth
must have been in the progress of a gradual and
slow formation for millions of years before the
days spoken of by Moses, and that there are phenomena in its interior organization that cannot be
accounted for but by these millennial processes;
we feel authorized and constrained to say to them,
"Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the
power of God." They aim at too much. The
knowledge of God's word is too wonderful for them;
it is high, they cannot attain unto it. The infinite
One can perform what the finite cannot comprehend. When will man, proud, reasoning man,
learn to confide in the word of Him who cannot
err, and will not deceive  If to the humble and
Christian inquirer there are facts in the organic
texture of our globe, which seem to be inconsistent
with the Mosaic history, we may be satisfied that
it is but a seeming incoherency. If human science
is inconsistent with the sacred record, so much the
worse for human science. "Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but God's word shall not pass
away."
We are not a little alarmed at the tendency of
the age to reduce the great facts narrated in the
Bible to the standard of natural science. Books
of natural science are the text books of our schools;




52             GOD'S FIRST WORK.
they supersede the Biblb; it is from these, and
not from the Bible, that the rising generation are
taught how and when God made the world. Yet,
what is more fluctuating than such instructions?
With all its noble advances, natural science is confessedly progressive, and therefore comparatively
crude. Geology is in its infancy.  How  much
does it know of the rapidity with which second
causes accomplish their work 2 how much of the
mechanical action of water and fire, and of their
chemical effects? how much of galvanism and electricity, directed by omnipotence? how much of
the general deluge? What does it know of the
internal structure and organization of the earth?
Not a thousandth, not a millionth part of our globe
has yet been submitted to its inspection. The diameter of the earth is nearly eight thousand miles.
If we are rightly informed, the deepest mine is a,mine in Bohemia, of the depth of three thousand
feet; and this, which is little more than half a
mile, is scarcely penetrating the earth's crust.
A late distinguished European geologist, remarks,
"We have attempted to penetrate as far as possible beneath the surface, into the interior of the
earth. But if we compare the depth to which we
have actually penetrated, with the real diameter
of the earth, it will be seen, that we have scarcely
broken the surface, and that'the scratch of a needle
on the varnish of one of our terrestrial globes is




GOD'S FIRST WORK.:3
proportionally much deeper than the deepest per.
forations with which we have ever penetrated into
the interior of the earth." And may we not ask,
if a science which is thus in its infancy, shall be
allowed to rob us of our confidence in the verity of
the scriptural account of the creation?  It has
been well remarked, that " the collision is not between the Bible and nature, but between the Bible and natural philosophers."
When science is better informed, it will have
fewer scruples in endorsing the Mosaic narrative.
As the most learned are often said to be more
deeply sensible of what is not known, than what
it knows, so one of the high attainments of science is, that it is a standing comment, not only
upon what it knows, but what it does not know.
It is not many years ago that a distinguished astronomer affirmed that the last discovery had been
made in the planetary system; and the reason he
assigned for the assertion was that the relative
motions of the system could be accounted for by
the existence of those already discovered, and that
the addition of another planet would disturb this
harmony. Yet,, since that period, other planets
have been discovered; and what is remarkable,
the last discovery was made by observing the
aberration of a planet which human science had
thus predicted could never occur. Human science
is a changing, restless thing. It is well that it is




54             GOD'S FIRST WORK.
so; the world is the gainer by all her advances.
It is one of her excellencies that she gives rise to
more inquiries than she sets at rest. " In not a
few of her efforts to explain inexplicable phenomena, she does, in that very explication, add to the
mass of inexplicable facts." What science was
even twenty years ago is not science now, but is
exploded by other and later discoveries.
We demand then, is human science a safe expositor of the word of God, and may it hold a
place above the settled principles of biblical exegesis? It is not denied that the physical state of
our globe has undergone great changes since its
creation. What those changes are, is the province
of science to search out and disclose, as well as to
inquire into their causes, and thus ascertain, as we
before intimated, the laws by which the Creator
still governs the material creation. But when it
would instruct us on the great subject of creation,
it is out of its province. God himself is the great
teacher here. We are firm believers in the doctrine of CREATION; and we hold that doctrine to be
"God's making all things out of nothing, by the
word of his power, in the space of six days, and all
very good." So God himself instructs us, not only
in the revelation to Moses as the selected narrator,
but with memorable solemnity, when he said to
the nation of Israel 2500 years after the creation
itelf, " Six days shall thou labor and do all thy




GOD'S FIRST WORK.          55
work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
Lord thy God; in it thou shall not do any work;
for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that in them is." We may not
give up the Sabbath from our regard to human
science. It will be time enough for science to
plead the inconsistency of its discoveries with the
literal truth of the Mosaic narrative, when God
shall commit to it the work of creation. Creation
is his work. Human science might as well teach
us that God did not in a single day create the oak
of the forest, because facts show that it never
comes to its maturity except, by the growth of
years; or that he did not in a single day create the
first man, because facts show that the human frame
reaches its maturity only by the slow and gradual
growth of thirty years; as that the successive formations of aqueous and igneous rock which existed
within the earth, required greater time for their
formation than the six days spoken of by Moses.
It was indeed a wondrous exhibition of his power
which thus called all things into being. It was
the great miracle. " Power belongeth unto God."
From the deep abyss he bid this wonderful creation rise, and poised it by its own weight without
any other support than his own almighty and invisible hand. "He spake, and it was done; he
commanded, and it stood fast."
A fourth fact connected with the subject of




66             GOD'S FIRST WORK.
which we are speaking, is, that this great work
was prosecuted under the most perfect arrangement. There is no confusion in the works of God.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth. And the earth was without form and
void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep,
and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters." What the narrator here affirms is, that
the first act of creation was the formation of the primordial elements, from which the organized heavens and earth were formed. They constituted a
commingled substance, made up of earth and water, light, heat, and electricity, blended in disorder, a rude and shapeless mass, an undigested,
dense, and floating chaos. Darkness covered it;
and "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters." This life-giving agent brooded there,
and made this chaos, this vast valley, this dark
ocean of floating death, the first scene of his vivifying power.
It became fitted to be the dwelling-place of man
and beast, and to all the purposes of this fair creation, by being reduced to form, order, and beauty. This was effected by the creation of liqht, the
most subtle and the most important of all material
substances. It was first created after the chaos,
because by his own laws of gravity and crystallization, the Creator selected it in his organization
of a material world. The sun had been dark




GOD'S FIRST WORK.           57
without it, or had never been called into existence, and the planetary world had stood still.
Without it, the vapors had never ascended from
the chaotic mass with which they were inmingled;
vegetable and animal life would have found no
aliment; living beings would never have found a
habitation on the face of the earth; and cold and
darkness would have left the original elements of
the universe condensed into a solid mass. Heathen writers have expressed their admiration of
the sublimity and majesty of the words, " God
SAID, let there be light, and there was light i"  Plato is said to have imitated it; and Longinus, the
celebrated Athenian philosopher and critic, speaks
of it as an instance of the sublime which is unsurpassed. "God said;" what words are these! Who
shall speak of the power, the wisdom, the goodness they contain? What wondrous all-sufficiency,
what wondrous fulness of the Deity flow out in
these few words, " Let there be light!" Before
the sun, or the moon, or the stars, this luminous
substance was diffused throughout the universe,
existing at first in a state of universal expansion,
and subsequently distributed into distinct bodies.
Truly the light "is sweet, and a pleasant thing it
is for the eyes to behold the sun."  "And God
saw the light that it was good; and God divided
the light from the darkness. And God called the
light day, and the darkness he called night."
3*




58            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
Ever after, in the progress of time, day and
night were thus to succeed each other, each in its
proper place, and each fraught with its appropriate blessings; the one bringing tranquillity and
repose, the other diffusing wide its beauty, and
spreading over the face of the infant creation its
assemblage of graces and its coloring of joy.
With this change only, that the light was divided from the darkness, the rude and undigested
mass remained the same. There was as yet no
separation of the commingled substance; it was
an unmeasured, turbid lake, the " vast whirlpool
of future things," with all its unseparated elements
tossed and agitated in indiscriminate confusion.
To separate these mingled substances, and assign
them their proper place, God said, "Let there be
a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it
divide the waters from the waters. And God
made the firmament, and divided the waters which
were under the firmament from the waters which
are above the firmament." The agitated and unseparated chaos is described as a mass of waters.
The earth, when formed, stood between waters:
there were waters above, and waters beneath it;
and these waters were divided by a firmament, or
that outstretched arch, or expansion over the
earth, in which are placed the atmosphere and
the clouds, and which forms the canopy adorned
with all the luminaries of heaven. The Scriptures




GOD'S FIRST WORM             59
speak of the heavens and the earth as they appear
to men; they are optical rather than astronomical
or philosophical representations.  Such are the
representations of Moses, and such is the language
of Elihu, when he represents the outspread sky as
a a "molten looking-glass"-a barrier so formed as
to separate the superior from the inferior waters,
that it is as impassable as though it were a canopy of brass, fixed and permanent as the statutes
and ordinances of the Creator. There it stood,
when God gave the decree that the fountains of
the great deep should be broken up, and the windows of heaven should be opened, in order to
drown the earth by the flood; and there it will
stand, in all its varied brilliancy, spread out like a
molten mirror, until that last change in its constituent elements, by which this same earth shall be
destroyed by fire.
This heavenly, or aerial firmament, thus formed,
the waters that were above it were held back and
kept in their assigned chambers; but the inferior
waters, constituting by far the greater portion of
the substance from which the world was formed,
overlay the whole of this lower creation. It was
the primeval flood. It was the vast deluge. Day
and night visited it; it was overhung by a pure atmosphere and a clear sky; but there were no valleys nor plains, nor had it the firmness of dry and
solid land. The inspired Psalmist, when praising




60            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
God for his goodness, declares, " He gathereth the
waters of the sea together as an heap; he layeth
up the depth in store-houses." Such is the narrative of Moses. And God said, "Let the waters
under the heavens be gathered together into one
place, and let the dry land appear!" In order to
leave the earth a firm and compact globe, there was
an upheaving of the submerged land, the everlasting hills lifted themselves up, and the waters were
thus drained off. The deep abyss was excavated
for them; they were laid up in their appointed
channels, and there the sovereign decree was imposed, "I Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further;
and here shall thy proud waves be stayed!" "And
God called the dry land ea#rth, and the gathering
together of the waters called he seas."  It was
now a terraqueous globe, its surface presenting all
the variety of land and water, continent and ocean,
sea and island, bay and promontory, hill and plain,
mountain and valley, beauty and majesty, while
its subterranean apartments unfolded a scene of
wonders everywhere exhibiting the depths of the
divine wisdom.
Thus prepared, this outspread earth was next
clothed with verdure, and devoted to the uses for
which it was thus arranged. "And Godg said, Let
the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind,
whose seed is in itself upon the earth!" Not a




GOD'S FIRST WORK.           61
root could germinate, not a tree blossom, nor a spire
of grass vegetate throughout the range of the
drear earth, without the immediate power of God.
When he speaks, this new and almost endlessly diversified creation, with all its grasses and
plants, forest and fruit-bearing trees, with all their
varieties of structure, form, and foliage, waiting
for no tedious process to reach maturity, and delayed by no laws subsequently controlling the
world of nature, comes into perfected being with
the heaven-imparted power to reproduce itself to
the end of time. How emphatic with the signature and stamp of Deity is every plant and leaf
and flower! how fragrant with his praise! A day
of wonders was this memorable day to this newborn world; hitherto cold and iinmantled, now
cheered and kissed by the warm breath of
heaven, and clothed with budding leaf, and blushing rose, and bending forest, and laughing meadow.
"And God saw that it was good."
With the exception of the earth, the whole
solar system  was created on a subsequent day.
By far the largest body in this system is the sun;
planets also there are much larger than the earth;
yet was the earth the first created world. Though
comparatively a little world, our earth is vastly
more valuable and important than other planets
which are greater. We are thus instructed by
the whole scope and design of God's revelation;




62            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
nor is it an unnatural, nor illogical conclusion from
the order of time in which they were created, that
these lights of heaven were formed for the earth,
and not the earth for them. " And God said, Let
there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to
divide the day from the night; and let them be
for signs, and for seasons: and for days, and for
years: and let them be for lights in the firmament
of heaven, to give light upon the earth; and it
was so. And God made two great lights; the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light
to rule the night; he made the stars also." Whatever other and incidental ends they may answer,
the Scriptures teach us that they were formed to
give light to the earth, to designate the vicissitudes of day and night, to mark their revolutions,
and to perform their functions in subservience to
the earth. And with what fidelity do they perform this service! with what incredible promptness and velocity! with what wonderful accuracy
and precision, no one interrupting the movements
of another, but all keeping their prescribed paths
and performing their revolutions in their appointed
times.! And with what persevering obedience to
the edict of their great Author have they been
thus revolving in majestic order and harmony ever
since the morning of their creation, and everywhere so eagerly observed as the unfailing chronometers of the universe!




GOD'S FIRST WORK.           63
No sooner was provision made for the animal
tribes to subsist upon the thus prepared earth than
again "God 8aid, Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath life,
and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open
firmament of heaven!" The creation of the inhabitants of the waters and the firmament appears to have been simultaneous; though the command was first given to the waters, beginning
with the lower, and proceeding to the higher
orders of being. The waters were commanded to
"bring forth abundantly:"-a most wise and munificent provision for a large portion of mankind;
for while millions of the poor draw their subsistence from these sources, other and richer classes
draw from them untold wealth. The riches of
the ocean exceeds all calculation.  Everything
swarms with life in these perpetually replenished
departments of the divine bounty; the original
blessing still rests with them, "Be fruitful and
multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let
fowl multiply in the earth." In the formation of
the purely terrestrial animals, " God made the 1east
of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their
kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind."  Everything was formed distinct, "each after his kind;" every class, order,
genus and species was distinctly recognized and




64            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
formed, and so constituted as,to produce its kind
throughout successive generations.
Mcain was the last formed of all the animal creation, and was the noblest monument of the Creator's power. We shall say little in this place of
this great work of God, because we propose to
make it the exclusive topic of the following chapter. When God created this his last and best
work, his language is, " Let us make man."  And
what was the high model after which he was to be
made? Wonderful is the recorded answer to this
question.  "Let us make man in our ownl image, after our likeness.". He bore the lineaments
of the Deity, reflected his light and love; and
though a created and borrowed, a faint and finite,
was, nevertheless, a real radiance of his divine
glory.
Such was the infancy of our world; such the
beginning of the creation of God. "Thus the
heavens and the earth were finished, and all the
host of them."  Survey them, even defaced and
spoiled as they are now by the wickedness of
man. What power, what wisdom, what greatness,
what goodness shine in them all! Surely their
great Author has not left himself without witness.
What a wonderful Being is God! how vast! how
incomprehensible! Great and marvellous are thy
works, Lord God Almighty! No marvel that
holy men have exclaimed, "Among the gods,




GOD'S FIRST WORK           65
there is none like unto Thee, O Lord; neither are
there any works like unto thy works!" Atheism, polytheism, idolatry, irreligion and impiety,
mournful realities as they are, and impotent to
rob the Creator of his glory, would never have
found a place on this beautiful earth, but as dark
monuments of human apostasy. Reason rebukes
them; conscience rebukes them; the works of God
rebuke them. The whole creation is the legitimate school of piety, and has a voice that speaks
for the mighty Maker. " Their line is gone out
throughout all the earth, and their words to the
end of the world." They impart instruction everywhere; there is no restriction of time, or place to
these universal teachings; they lift up their voice
and utter words of knowledge in the hearing of all
men. If all that may be learned of God is not
gathered from this field of observation, enough
may be learned to make men wiser and better,
and leave them without excuse. It is no sealed
book, but an open volume, legible and beaming
throughout with light and truth.
He whose voice was heard in the primeval paradise, and who " walked in the garden in the cool
of the day," walks still in the midst of this broad
and lofty edifice of nature, whose arch is the unmeasured heaven, whose pillars are the everlasting mountains, and whose lamps have emitted
their light from the time when the morning stars




66            GOD'S FIRST WORK.
first sang together to the present hour. Every
motion in unmeasured space indicates the hand,
every sound in the immense universe indicates the
voice of God., O why is it, that amid these
scenes of beauty and sublimity, these smiles of field
and forest, this exuberance of land and ocean, this
uncounted variety and annual reproduction of all
that they can need or ask, thus adding to their enjoyment the freshness of almost perpetual novelty,
and pervading every land and clime; men are so
slow to bring these lessons home to the mind and
heart? True piety here finds copious and consecrated materials for thought. Nature may well
become the handmaid to grace, and creation subservient to redemption. The harp of David did
not hang upon the willows when creation was his
theme. There was no tameness in those notes of
praise which sang of " the river of God which is full
of water;" nor were they the less sweet because
they were elicited by the light of that moon which
is "the work of God's fingers;" nor were they discordant when he " covered the heavens with a
cloud;" nor, though wild, as they sometimes are,
and in keeping with these expressions of majesty,
were they less thrilling when the voice of the Thunderer spake, or when he " gave his snow like wool,
and scattered his hoar-frost like ashes."  An humble and devout mind will gratefully meditate on




GOD'S FIRST WORK            67
all the works of God, and muse on the work of
his hands.
So true it is that the works of God are seen
with new eyes, where the heart is taught by his
Spirit. Gratitude has claims in view of the world
we occupy. When angels fell, it was a bleak and
desert world to which they were destined —a
world where no dew descends, and where are no
genial skies-a world where the seeds of immortality germinate in weedlike -rankness, and fit only
for unquenchable flames. Surpassing kindness was
it, and sovereign mercy, to assign the fallen race
of man to this green earth, where day and night,
summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, do
not cease, and each successive season bears testimony to the divine mercy and forbearance.' It is
a privilege to live in such a world, if life be wisely
employed; because such a life answers life's great
end, and such a world furnishes a fitting education
for a brighter and a better. Give place, then, to
these grateful thoughts; let them call forth the
tribute of praise. Praise him, all, ye nations; laud
him, all ye people. To him who by wisdom, made
the heavens; for his mercy endureth forever!
To him that stretched out the earth above the
waters; to him that made great lights; for his
mercy endureth forever!  To him that remem.
bered us in our low estate; for his mercy endureth
forever! Praise him in the sanctuary of his




68                   GOD'S FIRST WORK.
power. Praise the Lord, 0 Jerusalem; praise thy
God, 0 Zion. Let everything that hath breatt
praise the Lord.
While the preceding chapter was going through the press, the author
has fallen in with some observations, to which he may be allowed to refer
"To any one who has watched the progress of theoretical geology for
the last few years, where opinion has so often vacillated and changed on
the subject, and where so many hasty conclusions have been formed, that
scarcely an author has his speculations half through the press, when the last
part must accumulate as much on the one side as they hitherto appear to
have done on the other."-'The Aqe of the Earth considered Geologically
and Historically, by William Rhind, of Edinburgh.
" While so large a portion of the globe is geologically unexplored; while
all the general views which are to extend our classifications satisfactorily,
from one hemisphere to another, from one zone to another, are still unformed; while the organic fossils of the tropics are almost unknown, and
their general relations to the existing state of things has not even been
conjectured, how can we expect to speculate rightly and securely respecting the history of the whole of our globe? Geologists have only just
thrown open the door of a vast labyrinth, which it may employ many generations to traverse, but which they must needs explore before they can
penetrate to the oracular chamber of truth."- Whewell's History of Inductive
Sciences.
Let any one examine the history of geology from the days of Platt, Lester, Leibnitz, Hooke, Woodward, Whiston, and Burnet, to the later theroies by Gesner, Warner, Hutton, Smith, Buckland, Sedgwick, Lyell, and
Silliman, and he will see cause to suspend his judgment in all the questions
which put any other construction than that which a sound philology puts
upon the Mosaic narrative.
"We hold then that the idea of the Adamite strata containing organic
remains, in whatever condition these strata, are seen, or may be discovered,
whether arranged in the order of a first creation, or seen in the position of
secondary deposits from this, is at total variance with the narrative of Moses, and was never meant to be implied in his words, or dreamt of by his
predecessors or contemporaries. There are also geological objections to
this theory of a previous world. If it was entirely distinct from the present earth in point of the period of its existence, and if it was completely
overthrown at the time of the second creation, how does it happen that existing species are found in contemporary strata with extinct ones l"-Rhind's
Age of the Earth.
"If the geological creeds of Baron, Cuvier, and Professor Buckland be
established as true in science, then must the Book of Genesis be blotted
out from the records of inspiration."-Edinburgh Philosoph. Journ. vol. xiv.
We are not confident that the mine in Bohemia referred to is the deepest excavation. There are at Schemnitz, on the southern slope of the Carpathian mountains, two silver mines, which are no longer worked on account
oftheir depth; but they do materially differ from 3000 feet.




CHAPTER  III.
O4rr  Pirst V3lan.
A GLANCE at the works of God shows that there
is progress in them all, and that in them all the
Creator has an end in view, which is worthy of
himself. Hitherto, the creation which he had so
miraculously called into existence, was unintelligent. There was to be a higher and nobler order
of beings, transcending the mere material and animal as far as the spiritual and immortal transcends
the natural and the mortal, and making new and
ever-progressive disclosures of the unsearchable.
Deity.
Questions there are of deep interest both in
theological science and in casuistry, depending
upon the views that are entertained of the nature
of man.  What am If  To what order of creatures do I belong?  What are the peculiarities of
my nature and relations?  What are my responsibilities?  Whence am 1; and what is my destiny 
I am the progeny of ny parents; they of theirs;




0o              THE FIRST MAN.
and theirs of an ancestry which extends to a still
more remote period of time.  Who can tell but
men thus exist always and in an eternal series of
generations?
To all these inquiries, the word of God gives a
definite answer. It teaches us that man, though
among the first things, began to be; and that
there was a time when he did not exist. The
atheist himself cannot deny this. If men exist
in an,eternal series of generations, then infinite
generations are already past and gone. If infinite generations are already past and gone,
the time was when each in the series was actually present; for if never actually present, it
never existed. If each in the series was actually present, then the time was when all except
one were future. The hypothesis contradicts itelfl. It supposes one generation to have been
infinite, or the finite begifining of infinity. The
absurdity is too palpable to require more than
this passing remark. The human race had a beginning. Like the original chaos, and the light
and the firmament, man was created by the great
Author of all things.
There is a marked peculiarity in the Mosaic
narrative of the creation of the first man. "Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness; so
God created man in his own image, in the image
of God made he him."  God himself was the




THE FIRST MAN.            71
model, after which he was formed. He was created miraculously. He did not grow up from infancy to youth, and from youth to riper years; but
like the plants and trees, like the fishes of the sea,
and the fowls of heaven, and the animal creation,
and the earth, he was created in full bloom and
maturity, the perfection of humanity, and the
model of all that is noble in the successive generations of men. When he was first conscious of his
own existence, he was conscious of this maturity
both of body and of mind. It was not by any
agency of his own that he came into being, nor
by any consent of his own; nor was he conscious
of his dependence on any other being, nor of his
obligations to any other but his Almighty Parent.
Reason taught him, and his Maker taught him
that " he was the son of God," and came into existence by the will and power of Him for whose
pleasure he was created.
The sacred writers most certainly do not use
flattering words when they speak of men. They
call things by their right names, and set before us
the human character in its true deformity; while
at the same time they speak of man as the honored
race, and as entitled to regard from the race to
which he belongs. When we are told that God
created man in his own image, we are made the
depositaries of a truth from which we may learn
something of God from what we know of man, and




'72'            THE FIRST MAN.
something of man from what the Scriptures reveal
concerning God.
It was not in his corporeal organization that
the first man resembled his Creator; for " God
is a Spirit," not to be inspected, not to be analyzed, not even to be fully comprehended. There
are visible exhibitions of the Deity; but his essential glory, the pure spirituality of his nature,
lies far out of sight. All we know of it is that it is
pure, and unmingled, and infinite. His understanding is infinite, his will omnipotent, and his moral
dispositions are not only free from all imperfection,
but constitute a fountain, an ocean of purity and
loveliness that cannot be measured by finite minds.
In the different gradations and orders of being,
there is first mere inanimate matter; at one remove
from this is the exquisite and curious machinery
of art; still higher are the beauty, instinct, and
consciousness of the animal creation; above this,
is the wonderful structure of the human mind;
in advance of this, is the angelic creation; while
beyond, there is no intermediate existence till
we arrive at the infinite God. There is a mighty
chasm between the finite and the infinite; we
cannot dart our thoughts across it. "Lord, what
is mfan that thou art mindful of him, and the
son of man that thou visitest him?"  There are
views of his nature which render him abject;
yet are there views of him which we cannot help




THE FIRST MAN.              3
looking upon with wondrous interest, because he
was made but a little lower than the angels, and
next to them, holding a position nearest to the
Infinite One, and formed in his image.
Man is a complex being, formed of a body and
soul. That body of his, dust as it is, and to dust
as it will certainly return, is itself a wondrous
thing. His face, his form, his lineaments surpass
in majesty all the creatures God had made. There
is a nobleness written upon his brow, which still
marks him as having been the early favorite of his
Creator. The tongue of man gives him what no
other portion of the animal creation possesses; he
has the power of articulate speech, and utters a language that can be expressed by symbols and perpetuated by letters. The hzand of man, adapting
itself to every form and shape of matter, and giving him such power of execution; the eye of man,
that has a meaning from infancy to old age, that
speaks almost as intelligibly as his voice, and that
has a lustre, a penetration, an authority by which
men themselves are in no small degree governed,
and which exerts so mysterious a power over the
brute creation, are strongly indicative of his preeminent superiority. Strange to say, his physical
frame is more enduring of toil than any of the
brute creation, and is capable of efforts before
which the most gigantic of the lower animals faint
and die. He can live in every climate, become
4




T4              THE FIRST MAN.
accustomed to heat and cold, and be cheerful and
happy where few, if any other animals can live and
be perpetuated. In the lowest species of animals,
there are none of these distinguishing properties;
in the ascending scale, we meet with something
that bears resemblance to them; while in man we
see them in such degrees of perfection, that we are
convinced we have reached the highest scale in the
series. Who, as' he inspects this wondrous mechanism, can refrain from saying with the Psalmist,
" I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" Though
of lowly origin and allied to earth, the material
world does not furnish so striking proofs of the
divine wisdom and goodness as are visible in the
organization of that animated frame. The least
perfect and most summary treatise upbn the anatomy and physiology of the human body, is well
fitted to fill us with admiration of what we are.
From no department of natural science do the elements of natural religion and those first principles
of theology which the sacred writers everywhere
assume, derive stronger confirmation, or illustrations more curious and ample, than from this complex and beautiful fabric, this earthly house, this
tabernacle of clay.
Yet this did not constitute the man; he had a
spirituZal, as well as an animal existence.  His
body and soul were different and had a different
origin. The former was formed of dust, the lat



THE FIRST MAN.             75
ter was the immediate inspiration of God himself.
Unhappily, there is a strong tendency in the
researches of physical science to stop at second
caucses and terminate their researches in some of
the forms of ancient or modern  materialism.
There are not wanting those who still speculate
about the soul of man, as though, with Epicurus
and the Stoics, they thought it an attenuated
and material substance; a subtile air, or flame, or
portion of heavenly light. Not a few among
modern Phrenologists maintain that it is the result
of some peculiar organization of the brain. They
would have us believe there is no definite line of
separation between what is material and what is
immaterial; that, the bond which unites them is
too delicate to be visible, and that the distinction
between them is founded on conjecture. They
profess to demonstrate that there is an or~yan of
intelligence, and that it is unphilosophical to affirm
that matter is essentially unintelligent. " If," say
they," matter be capable of gravitation, of elective
attraction, of life, of instinct, of sensation, there
does not seem to be any absurdity in supposing it
is capable of thought." Such an hypothesis might
interest us if we were not driven, not less by sound
philosophy than by the Scriptures, to recognize
the omnipresence of the great First Cause in sustaining and directing the whole material and im



'16             THE FIRST MAN.
material creation. When we ask ourselves, what
are those mysterious laws of nature by which the
movements of organized and inorganic matter are
directed; by which light and heat, and magnetism
and electricity, develop their wonderful phenomena; by which matter assumes so many shapes, and
forms, and textures, and modifications of beauty,
life, and enjoyment: we answer in the language
of Dr. Paley, "They are the name of an effect
whose cause is God." The argument against these
materialists lies within a narrow compass. Perceiving, thinking, and willing must be either inherent in matter originally, or they must result
from some particular form, or modification, or motion of matter, or from some immaterial substance.
Are they then inherent in matter, either in its several parts, or as a whole? If it be intelligent as
a whole, it must be intelligent in every atom; for
a concourse of the unintelligent cannot produce
the intelligent.  If intelligent in every atom,
whence is it that there are so many unintelligent
forms and modifications of it? A clod of earth,
a block of marble, does not think. Neither a
mountain nor an atom, neither a burning volcano
nor a flash of lightning, perceives, thinks, or wills.
And if this be so, it is very difficult to conceive
how that which is essentially unintelligent as a
whole, and also in its several parts, can become intelligent by any peculiar organization. Matter is




THE FIRST MAN.              77
no nearer thinking for altering its form or position: for being two or three particles, or three
hundred; for being gross or refined, condensed or
volatile, circular or square, indefinitely large or indefinitely small. Whether in confusion and disorder, or in the most precise and geometrical arrangement; whether in the seed of a vegetable, or
in the egg of an animal, in a cord of the nerves, or
a gland of the brain, it is still unintelligent.  Nor
can it approximate to thought by being set in motion. If thought results from matter in motion,
then the whole material universe is intelligent; for
no part of it is absolutely in a state of rest. The
circulation of the blood, no less than the ebbing
of the tides, is incompetent to the production of
thought. Whatever be the essence of matter or
of mind, we know them  only by their properties.
Matter is an extended, solid, inactive, movable
substance; mind is an existence which perceives,
thinks, acts, wills. Matter is the object of the
senses; mind of consciousness. Matter has none
of the properties of mind; mind has none of the
properties of matter.
Nor are these conclusions invalidated by the
fact, that there are indications of mind in the inferior animals. We do not call this fact in question, while we judge it of some importance to set
it in its true light. The inferior animals possess
thought and knowledge. The Scriptures teach us,




s8              THE FIRST MAN.
that "the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his
master's crib."  Yea, "the stork in the heaven
knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and
the crane, and the swallow observe the time of
their coming."  But between the intellectual properties of man, and the instinct, or intellectual
capacity of animals, there is a wide and strongly
marked difference. The knowledge of the inferior
animals is confined to a narrow sphere. It is little
more than "the law of organized life in a state of
action," and extends only to what is necessary for
their preservation and comfort. It does not seem
capable of progression; it is the gift of the Creator
for these definite purposes, and extends not beyond
these defined limits. The bird builds her nest, and
the bee and the beaver construct their cells now
as they constructed them a thousand years ago.
So far are they from making any advances in
knowledge, that their sagacity is diminished rather
than increased, even by human care and culture;
while man's capacity is boundless; he is a learner
even to old age; and the more he knows, the
more is he capable of advancement. The knowledge of brutes is altogether independent of instruction; it is spontaneous; it is without deliberation,
and without an object except a provision for its
wants. Man has an end in view in his intellectual
attainments, and a far-reaching purpose. The inferior animals have little knowledge of the past, and




THE FIRST MAN.             79
no anticipations of the future; they think only of
the present, and only of themselves: man looks
backward and forward, searches into the past,
surveys the present, and penetrates into futurity.
The animal creation cannot reason; they have no
powers of imagination and abstraction; they have
no perception of cause and effect, no discernment
of the marks of wisdom and design, no power of
distinguishing between truth and error, fiction and
reality, right and wrong. They have not man's
conscience, nor his hopes, nor his fears, nor his capacities of enjoyment. They have sensation, perception, and memory, and strong appetites and passions, and strong animal sensitiveness and sensibilities. They have will and choice, but their volitions
are determined without the intervention of reason,
and are decided by appetite, passion, and habit.
God hath " deprived them of wisdom, neither hath
he imparted to them understanding."
The soul of man is a wondrous existence; not
as its Creator is wondrous, but as his most marvellous work is wondrous. "There is a spirit in
man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth
him understanding." Though mysteriously united to a material substance, it is not amalgamated
nor blended with it, nor does it resemble it in any
of its properties. It cannot be seen by the eye,
nor felt by the touch, nor has it any surface that
can be measured, nor can it be separated into




80              THE FIRST MAN.
parts. The infinite God is a vast and infinite
world within himself; and his creature man carries within himself his own finite and little world.
Of the more general properties of man's nature, as
consisting of a body and a soul, it is not necessary
that we say more. But we would utter ourselves
more definitely when we speak of his immaterial
nature, and endeavor to express some just conceptions of that which constitutes it.
What then is the human soul? In what respects
it is unlike the Deity, we know; but, if it was created in God's image, there are particulars in which it
is like him. Is the Deity in his nature intelligent?
so is the soul of man. It possesses the naturalfaculties of perception, reason, conscience, and- memory; these belong to its intellectual character. There
is the same distinction between the natural and moral properties of the human soul, that exists between
the natural and moral attributes of the Deity. Is
the Deity, in his nature, an acting existence? is he
all spirit and action? so is the soul of man. It is
an existence whose nature is to act. In its first
creation in Paradise, and in its first existence as it
comes into being in successive generations, it has,
to say the least, intellectual and moral tendencies;
and what are these, if not its incipient actings?
Wherever that creature exists which may be truly called the soul of man, there is an acting existence.  It is that which not merely thinks and




THE FIRST MAN.               81
reasons, loves and hates, hopes and fears, acts and
inspirits; it is itself thought,'reason, emotion
act.  From  its nature, there is no inactivity
ab.out it; it is activity, because it is spirit. Intellectual philosophers have questioned the truth
of this position, and none more than Mr. Locke in
his Essay on the Human Understanding.  But this
is not the only truth disputed by this great philosopher; such a denial is in'keeping with the
views of his Arminian philosophy, as expressed in
his more religious writings. In the language of a
living and more evangelical author, "There is a
power within us unconscious and incapable of fatigue. Certain exercises of the mind, such as continuous. thought and emotion, induce exhaustion
and weariness, for in these it employs an organization which requires rest.  But the individu,al
will is perfectly unsusceptible of fatigue. In its
volitions, the mind asserts its proper spirituality.
As far as material help is concerned, the will acts
from itself. In itself, the mind is an energy, and
the source of untiring energy."'*  These are sound
views. It is not the mind that becomes wearied
by intellectual effort, but the material organization
which it employs; it is not the mind that calls for
repose, but the wearied frame in which it dwells,
and which sleeps only to be awaked again, and
* Harris on the Constitution and Primitive Condition of the Human
Being. Chap. v.
4*




82             THE FIRST MAN.
again exhausted by the busy thoughts and untiring will within. The mind like its great parent
Spirit, never slumbers and never sleeps. If it
were a piece of mechanical clock-work, it might
run down and stop, and be wound up again. But
the inaction of matter is not one of its properties;
and if it once runs down and stops, there is no
conceivable cause within itself that can set it in motion, nor could it ever be set in motion except by
a new and creating power. It was the glory of
the first man, that he was thus "made a living
soul."  It was his elevation and dignity, that he
possessed vast spiritual capacities; that he was endued with a mind capable of unlimited expansion,
-a treasure-house of thought, whose intellectual
wealth should be ever increasing.
There can be no doubt that God conveyed extensive knowledge to the first man by an immediate
and supernatural revelation; nor will it be questioned that these divine communications were the
means of invigorating his intellectual capacities.
And though the intellectual powers of his descendants are darkened and impoverished by sin, it is
impossible for us to describe the fields of thought
over which the mind of man, even now, is capable
of expatiating. The gold has become dim, but it is
still gold. It is mind and not matter; it is intelligence and not idiocy; it is the activity and power
of thought and will, and not the inertness, and age,




THE FIRST MAN.             83
and decay of a mere material organization. Its
moral assimilation to the Deity it has lost; while it
retains this intellectual resemblance. The former
was "the glory that excelleth," the latter is the
glory that remains. Were the mass of men idiots
how should we venerate the few that were intelligent; or were there but one in a million known
and distinguished for intellect, how should we venerate him, and approach him as a being of.superior
rank! Our first father deserves our homage, were
it only for his high capacity of thought. This
fair jewel is the inheritance of the race. And
though it shone brighter on his unscathed and unfurrowed brow than it has since shone, it still belongs to man, and sparkles even in its degradation.
If the most fine gold be changed, there is even in this
casket of clay a gem which twinkles in borrowed
rays from the "Father of lights."
The soul of man was also created moral and
accountable. A moral and accountable being is
one who possesses a character that has moral
qualities, and capable of being judged by a moral
law. Much as men are disposed to honor intellect, we all feel that no man ought to be measured
by his intellect alone; they are his moral attributes which constitute his glory. The first man
was created in the full possession of his intellectual
and moral faculties; and was therefore created
under moral obligation. He was capable of dis



84              THE- FIRST MAN.
tinguishing, not only between reality and fiction,
truth and error, but between what is right and
what is wrong. Once let the obligations of religion
and morality be set before such a mind, and it feels
the weight of them as certainly and as necessarily
as his senses are affected by the objects of sense.
This is a truth intuitively discerned: we can give
no other account of it except that the Author of
our being has so constituted us. The first man
knew his relations to his Maker, and the biddings
of his conscience told him that his Maker's will
was law. He could not divest himself of the feeling that he was bound to do what God required,
and to abstain from doing what God forbade. It
was the obligation of rectitude, and he felt it. He
could not throw it off, nor renounce nor resign this
responsibility. There was a voice within him
that enforced it, and a voice which nothing could
silence. It was inwrought in his nature; it was
concreated with his created soul, and formed a constituent element of his being. And it is common to all men; man everywhere recognizes the
distinction between right and wrong. Even Hume
confesses, that- " the principles upon which men
reason in morals are always the same. Let a man's
insensibility be ever so great," says this infidel
writer, " he must often be touched with the images
of right and wrong; and let his prejudices be ever
so obstinate, he must observe that others are sus



THE FIRST MAN.             85
ceptible of like impressions."* Understanding
and conscience constitute men moral and accountable wherever they are found. It was not a
mere irresponsible sagacity with which the first
man was invested; the brutes had these, but they
were not accountable. The light did its Maker's
bidding; and so did the sea and the dry land, and
so did every herb of the field; but none of these
were moral and accountable. The physical and
the animal creation were subject to law, but it was
not a moral law. God gave man a law commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong;
this law was the rule of his duty and of his accountableness.'
There were greater things in the created universe; but there was no created existence so important as man, on account of his moral and
responsible nature. The sun and the stars of
heaven could accomplish that to which his arm
was incompetent; but be their action ever so useful or injurious, it could not be either approved
or condemned. Man possessed a nature capable
of doing good or evil; and in this, a nature capable of setting in motion a train of causes whose
influence should be felt to the utmost verge of the
divine empire. His character and conduct were.
allied to the most magnificent and glorious interests in the universe. He was free to do right or.
* Hume's Essays: Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. Sect. i.




86              THE FIRST MAN.
wrong; to honor or dishonor the God that made
him; to obey or disobey; to increase the aggregate of virtue and happiness in the universe, or to
open the sluices of wickedness, and swell the tide
of vice and wretchedness. He was capable of bholiness and happiness, and he was capable of sin
and misery, and of making continual progress in
both. The foundations of this responsibility are
laid deep; too deep ever to be disturbed without
annihilating the soul of man itself.
Not only was this first man created moral and
accountable, but he was created lholy.  As he
came from the hands of his Creator, he was bright
and pure. The earth was fair and beautiful; the
heavens were decked with lights which single and
alone, or in clustered galaxy, declared the glory of
God. And when he created man to inhabit this
beautiful earth, he formed him fitted for his select
abode and high destiny. He was formed in the
image of his Maker, not because he was a partaker
of the divine intelligence only, and not simply in
that, like his Maker, he was a spiritual and moral
existence; but because he was a partaker of the divine holiness. The statement that he was made in
the image of God, implies that all his intellectual
and moral powers were in a state of perfection; and
that, in the excellency of his disposition and character, he was every way a finished and perfected
existence, and fit to be the adornment of the new



THE FIRST MAN.              87
created world. Metaphysical theologians of the
Arminian school profess to see insurmountable difficulties in the doctrine of created holiness. They
affirm that holiness is the act of the creature, and
because the creatures act, must be caused by the
creature. But even upon the hypothesis that holiness i8 the act of the creature, and nothing but his
act, it does not follow that it is not caused by the
Creator. The soul of man itself is a created thing,
and like all other clreated things, is constantly dependent on the will of God for its continuance in
being. The soul of Adam was not sufficient of itself to think anything of itself; it lived, and moved,
and had its being in God. It was an acting existence; but it was a dependent existence, and dependent for its activity. All its springs were in
God. If God had not created him holy, or made
him holy after his creation, he never would have
been holy. Nor does the idea of created holiness
at all interfere with the idea that it is the creature's act. We challenge philosophy to show that
the acts of a holy creature cannot be caused by
the Creator, or that they are the less voluntary
because they are the effects of divine power. The
Scriptures teach us that the gracious affections in
the heart of the Christian are an effect of God's
power; nor are they on this account, any the less
the acts of the Christian's mind. His love to God
is his own act; he himself performs it, but it is




88             THE FIRST MAN.
"shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost."
The first man needed more than to be created with
intellectual and moral faculties, just as the material universe needed more than to be created, and
then left "to go alone;" it was necessary that the
right exercise of these faculties should be produced
by divine power. And this is everywhere the
teaching of the Bible. "So God created man
in his own image; in the image of God created
he him." If there be any doubt as to the nature
of this resemblance, let the doubt be solved by
the Apostle when he says, " And that ye put on
the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."  The new creation
makes men holy, and is in the image of God;
the first creation, which was in God's image, made
the first man holy. The author of the Book
of Ecclesiastes declares, " Lo this only have I
found, that God made man upright, but they have
sought out many inventions." God did not create
sin; wickedness is not from him. He made man
upright; this is his greatest preeminence. It was
created holiness that he possessed,-a borrowed
holiness; but it was not the less holiness because
created. Nor was it the less lovely. It was "the
beauty of holiness"-beautiful as the blossoms of
the young paradise, stainless as angelic purity, a
mild reflection, and miniature resemblance of the
Uncreated One. With the single exception of the




THE FIRST MAN.             89
Second Adam, there never has been, in this beautiful world, so delightful an object of contemplation as the perfect character of the first man.
The first man was also created immortal.  This
soul of his was deathless. When the dust which
contained it, "returned to the earth as it was, the
spirit returned to God who gave it."  Its very nature favors this thought; its instinctive dread of
annihilation favors it; it is indicated still more
clearly by its vast capacities, and more clearly still
by the equal justice and vast designs of the divine
government; but it finds its confirmation only in
God's revealed will. What he has created, he can
annihilate; nor have we any certain evidence that
he will not annihilate the mind of man, except his
own declared purpose. From the first moment of
his creation, the first man bore the seal of heaven
to his immortality. Nothing else bore this impress.
The sun and the moon did not; they were made
to be extinguished and set in darkness. The earth
did not; it was made to wax old, and stagger like
a drunken man, and be burnt up. Time did not;
for time itself shall pass away and be no longer.
But man, the first as well as the last, was formed
the inheritor of eternity. Once created, by the
decree of his eternal Author, he shall never be
blotted out of being. That same first man into
whose nostrils God breathed the breath of life
now lives. Six thousand years have passed away,




90i            THE FIRST MAN.
and his existence is but just begun. Long since
did he slough off this body of earth, and come
forth pure and happy, robed in light, and crowned
with more than his pristine honor and glory.
Nor shall he ever lose the high attribute of his
immortality.
Thus created and thus endued, he was constituted the deputed lord of this lower creation. He
came from his Maker's hands to take his place at
the head of the kingdoms of nature and the whole
animal world. Everything around him recognized his authority and influence. They were his
property, and he had a right to use them as his
own. The law of their being was that they were
all to ble subservient to man.
God gave man this dominion when he gave him
his first blessing; and the gift is one which furnishes a beautiful illustration of the Creator's
bounty. Because there was nothing within the
wide compass of the world he had made, which
presented so noble a specimen of his finished
workmanship as man, he thus honored him. The
spacious earth, the trackless ocean, were his.
Every other part of the creation was but the
preface and the prelude to the more distinguished
honor he thus put upon man. He was indeed but
a single link in the chain of created things; but
he was the last and most important link, and was
placed at the head of the creation itself. "The




THE FIRST MAN.             91
heaven and the heaven of heavens," says the
Psalmist, "are the Lord's, but the earth hath he
given to the children of men." Everything was
made subject to his usefulness, his enjoyment, and
his sway. Nor were these rights which he ever
would have claimed but for God, nor have dared
to exercise without the divine permission. Nor
would the material and animal creation have
been thus subservient, but for its Maker's high
command. But God gave man this high precedence, and made him the world's monarch and
proprietor. Though in size, and strength, and
swiftness, he was inferior to a multitude of the animal creation, they were to be his subjects. He
was crowned this earth's emperor, and it is a part
of his mission to exercise this authority. It is a
commission, too, which he has executed. Animal
tribes have made war upon him; but there are
none so fell and savage that he has not the skill
and power to tame or subdue. The "fear of man
and the dread of man" is, to the present hour, upon
every class of animal existence. Man's voice is
their law, and man's presence their restraint;
they do his bidding, he does not theirs.'With a
supremacy to be maintained until the dissolution
of all things, man is preeminent in his authority
over them all, and not more certainly does the
foot of man encroach upon the wilderness where
they roam, and the voice of man. is heard amid




92              THE FIRST MAN.
their forest recesses, than they gradually retire to
the more remote deserts.
This delegated authority is expressed in very
comprehensive terms.  "Subdue the earth and
have dominion," is broad enough to cover every
enterprise which employs human ingenuity and
labor. The sun now shines for man, and the rains
descend, and day and night, summer and winter,
seed-time and harvest, do not cease. The earth on
which he treads is barren, or fruitful, as he cultivates it; it ministers to his necessities, his comforts, his luxury, his wealth, as he wills it. Every
department of the material creation, from the
bowels of the earth to its verdure, fruits, and
flowers, and even its circumambient atmosphere,
are placed under tribute to man. Man's great
mission is, in humble dependence upon his Maker,
in the fear and love of God, and in grateful acknowledgment of his goodness, to go forth and
suzdue it. And as the result of this munificence,
the mind, the eye, the hand of man, have been directed to wondrous achievements. Had we lived in
the earlier and more rude states of society, we
might well have doubted if it were possible for
him to effect what we now know he has effected,
and what we see him performing every day. HIe
has felled the forests, and made the wilderness
blossom as the rose; and through him the solitary
place has been made glad. He has founded em



THE FIRST MAN.             93
pires, erected pyramids and towers, and beautified
the earth with cottage and palace. He has reclaimed the wandering savage of his own species,
called into existence and governed political communities, given to social life the security of its
laws, and adorned it with the arts and refinement
of civilization, science, and religion. He has scanned the heavens, penetrated the earth, and navigated its seas.  He has converted deserts into
cities, made islands in the ocean, and turned in
the sea upon the solid land. He has shown that
the animal and vegetable kingdoms are made to
balance and sustain each other, according to general laws; he has recorded the general facts or
results which proceed from the skilful adjustment
in the natural world made by the great Creator.
By his advancement in science and the arts, he
has contended successfully with the elements of
nature, and decomposed or combined them, neutralized them or given them vigor. By his acquaintance with the laws of mechanism and motion, he has asserted his power over the material
world, and directed its agencies almost at his
pleasure. The analytical powers of his mind have
been successfully employed in pursuits that have
furnished noble specimens of. thought and intellect. He has busied himself with whatever can
be numbered and measured, and with a clearness,
caution, and accuracy that have surpassed even his




94              THE FIRST MAN.
own hopes. The painted canvass, the sculptured
marble, receive life and beauty from his hands;
while he so concentrates and directs the scattered
rays of the light of heaven, that, at his bidding,
they perform more accurate and delicate tracings.
There is no enterprise, and no sphere of knowledge, in which he has been employed, which has
not acknowledged his authority. Prose has recorded his deeds, and they have been sung in
poetry. Libraries are the monuments of his toil
and perseverance; alcove upon alcove, in the deep
recesses of time, have treasured up the records of
his dominion. This dominion is man's immunity
as God's creature; he has a divine right to it, because he is a man. He is a prince in earth's empire, and not a subject. He has but one superior;
he himself is sovereign in the dominion thus delegated to him. by the great Lord of all.
There is one more thought which here deserves
consideration, and that is, that this first man was
the cparent of the race. This thought must furnish
the subject of our next chapter.  In the mean
time, we may not dismiss our general topic, without a single reflection.
We are men. Yet is there something within us
that forces the conviction upon our minds, that
our honor is tarnished. The comeliness of our humanity is obscured; its high adornment is departed. 0, why is it, that we cannot look toward




THE FIRST MAN.            95
heaven without the blush of shame upon our
cheek! Some foul enemy has been busy with our
race. "Man that is in honor abode not." Sin has
effected this mournful degradation in this highest
and noblest work of God. "The crown is fallen
from our head; woe unto us, for we have sinned!"
Yet are we not outcasts, and banished like Cain.
Everlasting thanks to God, this reproach of humanity may be wiped away. Man's nature is even
more than ever dignified by its alliance with the
second Adam, who, when it lost all its redeeming
qualities, embodied it with his own, and for disgrace gave it honor. It was. the promise to the
first man, that there should be One, "of woman
born," who would rescue from degradation and
shame. He has rescued. Multitudes have by him
been made kings and priests to God, and live and
reign with him forever.  Self-respect ought to
make every man a Christian. He imust forget
that he is a mana, and lose all consciousness of his
real worth, if he aim not thus at humanity's prize
and high calling. An unchristian man!. no, let
me not be an unchristian man. An unchristian
life, an unchristian death, an unchristian eternity,
O my soul, come not thou into their secret, to their
assembly, mine honor be not thou united! The
time is coming when such a man will be indeed
dishonored. No voice of love will greet him in
his exile, and his punishment will be greater than




96              THE FIRST MAN.
he can bear. The star of hope will never rise
over his dark way in that far-off land of sin and
shame.
Seek then to elevate the intellectual above the
animal, the moral above the physical, the spiritual and eternal above the material and temporal.
The redemption that has been achieved for man,
more than all things else, indicates his destiny.
His aspirations and, hopes indicate it; it remains
for him to watch and pray that he commit not the
suicidal act of destroying his own soul.




CHAPTER IV.
-  t adtq  Uf tat btilman     taret.
WE proceed, as we intimated in the last chapter, to call the attention of the reader to the
question of the unity of the human race. Whether
the first man spoken of by Moses, was literally the
frst man, and the _parent of the entire race of human beings, is an inquiry to which different
answers have for the most part been given, as different authors have been believers, or disbelievers,
in a supernatural revelation. Where the subject
is investigated simply by the phenomena of nature and the lights of science, there indeed are those
who have come to the conclusion, that all mankind
are not the descendants of one common pair.
Men imbued with Christian truth do not complain of these philosophical inquiries; for they are
more and more satisfied that on this subject, as
well as every other, the works and the word of
God, when both are known and understood, are
perfectly harmonious. The greatest naturalists in




98        THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
all ages, however diversified may have been their
views in regard to Christianity, regarded all the
races of men as composed of one species.* We
are not a little surprised, therefore, when we find
men who express their unhesitating confidence in
the Scriptures, advocating the doctrine of a plurality of races, as has been recently done by two
authors of eminence in our own country.t  One
of the writers here referred to affirms, that " the
Mosaic history affords a fair, and very strong presumption, that man was divided into several
species by the Creator." He expresses the belief
that Adam and Eve were not the first and only
created beings in the world; that the race spoken
of by Moses, of which Adam was the first, is
simply the race to which the Scriptures have
reference, and which were to be employed by God
in the design  of redeeming  mercy.  The other
affirms that the Bible professes to give " the his-.tory of the white race, with special reference to
the history of the Jews;" and, strange as it may
appear to those who read the Scriptures, he asserts
that " nowhere the colored races, as such, are even
* Among these were Linneaus, Leibnitz, Buffon, Sdhrobler, Erxleben,
Humboldt, Blumenbach, Cuvier, Owen, and others, who were the lights
of the world, and studied all the departments of nature.
t See " The Natural History of Man," a work of more than seven hundred
octavo pages, by William Frederic Van Amringe, of the state of New York;
and a work " On the Diversity and Origin of the Human Races," by Prof
Agassiz, of Cambridge College.




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.      99
alluded to;" while he "challenges those who
maintain that mankind originated from a single
pair, to quote a single passage in the whole Scriptures, pointing at those physical differences, which
may be adduced as evidence that the sacred
writers regarded them as descended from a common stock."
In the following discussion, therefore, we are
concerned mainly with the scriptural argument in
favor of the unity of the race. All arguments
against this position are, as it appears to us, arguments against the Scriptures; the verity of Moses
and of Paul depend alike on the common origin of
the species. In defence of this view, we remarkIn the first place, there i8s no intimation in tha
Scriptture8 that there was a race of men prior to
the creation of Adam and E've. It has been alleged as a reason of the belief that there was such
a race, that it is most improbable that the wife of
Cain could have been the daughter of Adam and
Eve; because, it does not appear that they had
daughters at the time Cain was driven into exile,
nor indeed until after the birth of Seth, who was
born after Canaan's son Enoch. And in keeping
with this hypothesis, it is supposed that the unhallowed marriages subsequently spoken of between the " sons of God" and the " daughters of
men," and through which the earth became degenerate, were alliances between the descendants of




100     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
Adam, and the descendants of a race which existed prior to the creation, spoken of by Moses.
This is no new hypothesis; it was known, at least
as early as the days of Voltaire, and has often
been repeated. No fact is more obvious than that
in the genealogy of the Scriptures, there is an incomplete record of female descendants. The sons
of Adam and Eve must have married their sisters;
yet the names of his daughters are not once mentioned in the sacred writings. The first female on
the record is the wife of Cain, and the next two
are the wives of Lamech. It does not appear
from the book of Genesis that even so late as the
time of Cain's exile, Adam and Eve had any female children; yet in a subsequent paragraph,
which covers his entire life, we are told that Adam
lived nine hundred and thirty years, and "begat
sons and dauTghters." The sacred records trace the
events of patriarchal history, and the age of the
world from Adam to Noah, through a period of
2000 years; they give us the intermediate names
of Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch,
Methusaleh, and Lamech; but the most we know
of the female descendants of any of them is the
bald record that " they begat sons and daughters."
That the wife of Cain could not have been the
daughter of Adam and Eve is entirely destitute
of proof. The supposition assumes that the narrative contains an account of all the children of




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    101
our first parents; while this was by no means necessary to the objects of the writer, or the accuracy of the nfarrative. There is no intimation in
the narrative itself that our first parents had no
daughters before Cain's exile, or none between his
exile and his marriage. He was banished during
the life of his parents, and not until about one
hundred and thirty years after their creation; so
that there was abundant time for them to have a
numerous and dispersed progeny before the marriage of Cain. Though the Scriptures do not inform us when that marriage took place, they give
no intimation that it did not take place previous
to his banishment; but on the other hand speak
of "his wife" as one well known to the family of
Adam, and as one who, as such, had been familiarly
recognized.
In opposition to the hypothesis on which we
are animadverting, it may be remarked, that the
narrative in the book of Genesis cannot fairly receive any other fair construction than that Adam
was the first created of the race. It is compendious, but perfectly explicit. It is a narrative of the
creation in its beautiful and divine order; first the
commingled materials which formed the heavens
and the earth-then light-then the firmamentthen the sea and the dry land-then the vegetable world —then the sun, moon, and stars-then
fishes and fowl-then cattle, and creeping things,




102     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
and beast of the earth —and last of all mnan, the
first created man, as the crown of the creation and
the parent of the race. Do we want anything
more than this to satisfy us that the first male and
female ever created were Adam and Eve?  If so,
we have it in the fact that they were invested with
universal dominion, and that to them the command was given, " Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth" not inhabited and replenished by a prior race, but to be inhabited and replenished by the new created-pair. -Besides; if
there were a prior race, where are they? Who
are they? And what has become of this anomalous
race of human beings, so separated from the race
of Adam, that they hail from a different ancestry,
and amid all the interlacing of the nations are not
mentioned in the word of God, and have preserved
no tradition of their origin? In addition to this,
the Scriptures exapressly assert that Adam  was
the first man. "The first man Adam was made a
living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit:"
-"The first man is of the earth, earthy; the
second man is the Lord from heaven."
In proof of the common origin of the race, it
may be again remarked that the Scriptures attriliute to them all the same common properties. In
the question we are considering, due weight is to
be given to the fact, that in their view of the nations, the Scriptures take a wide survey. There




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    103
is not a distinct, or a mingled people on the face
of the earth, known to the records of ethnology,
certainly not then in its infant state, whose history
they do not trace, or of whom they do not give
some intimation. They have respect to the entire
race of man, and overlook no part of it. To a
great extent, the Bible is definite in its notices of
the nations, and where it is not thus definite, it
speaks of them as " all the ends of the earth," and
as "dwelling afar off upon the sea."  People of
every age of time, of every longitude and zone,
under every form of government, and in all their
diversities of descent, color, language and habits,
are comprised in the descriptions, or allusions of
Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apostles.
The same dissimilarities in the various races of
men existed at the time the Scriptures were written which have existed since, and which exist at
the present day. It is not a little marvellous that
a man distinguished for learning should hazard
the bold assertion, that " the colored races are nowhere alluded to by the sacred writers." Most
abundantly do they allude to them. They speak
of Ethiopia, and they refer to its different families. Moses and the prophets were not unacquainted with the imbrowned inhabitants of
Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia; nor with the darker
inhabitants of the interior and equatorial regions.
They were Ethiopian princes who, at various




104     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
times, occupied the throne of the Pharaohs; an
Ethiopian princess is mentioned by St. Luke in
the Acts of the Apostles; the inhabitants of Ethiopia were better known to the Hebrews than they
are even to ourselves. Did Professor Agassiz
never read of a Cushite chieftain whose name was
Nimrod? Did he never hear of a Cushite woman
who was the daughter of Jethro? or of a Cushite
invader of Judah in the days of Asa? or of " recovering the remnant left from Cush?" or of the
Ethiopian slave belonging to the household of
king Zedekiah? or of "'Ethiopia stretching out
her hands unto God?" or of the glorious things
spoken of Zion, in the day when it shall be said,
"Behold Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopiac: this
man was born there?" Or does he suppose the
sacred writers knew nothing of the peculiarities
of this people, when they demand, " Can the Ethiopian. change his skin, or the leopard his spots?"
The Cush and the Ethiopia of the Scriptures are
the same; Cush is always rendered by the Septuagint translators Ethiopia. The historical fact
is, that the word Ethiopian denoted the negro
race. So the Greeks used it; -to "wash the Ethiopian white," was with them a proverbial expression applied to a hopeless attempt. They were
the darkest race of people known to the Greeks,
and in earlier times to the Hebrews. Yet the
Scriptures everywhere speak of this race of men,




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    105
who, in configuration, color, and constitutional peculiarity, are the very antipodes of the white
races, as possessing a common humanity with them.
No fact is more obvious, than that whatever there
be in one portion of the world that constitutes its
inhabitants human, that the Scriptures decide belongs to the inhabitants of every other portion.
We know from  an investigation of the laws
of nature, and from the anatomy and physiology of the human frame, that all the varieties
of the race, many as they are, and not a few of
them from their immingling with other varieties
almost imperceptible in degree, possess the same
physical properties. In the structure of his body,
and in that physical organization which distinguishes him from every other species of animals,
man is the same being in Labrador and South
Wales, on the Caucasian mountains, and on the
burning sands of Africa. Change his condition;
transplant him from his natural soil and climate;
take him in the wilds of the forest, or under the
culture of civilized and polished life; and he has
everywhere the characteristics which designate
the same species. These characteristics are obvious, striking, and permanent, even to the number of teeth and bones, the number and arrangement of the muscles, and the digestive, circulatory,
secretory, and respiratory organs. There is no difference in these particulars which has as yet been
5*




106     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
detected among the different races; there is the
same uniformity in the white and black, the Mongolian, the Malay, and the American. They are
all omniverous, and capable of living on all kinds
of food, and of inhabiting all climates; while all
have the same period of gestation, the same slow
growth, are subject to the same diseases, possess
the same average longevity, and in all their varieties, and in every shade of amalgamation, produce
a fertile offspring.
It is now a well-ascertained fact, that animals of
different species are incapable of producing and perpetuating themselves. Our learned countryman,
Dr. Bachman, has shown, with a force of testimony
that cannot be resisted, that in no instance has a
fertile progeny arisen from the amalgamation of
distinct species. Prichard, in his work on the Natural History of Man, mentions that Dr. Wagner,
of Germany, has proved by the dissection of animals of mixed blood, that nature has interposed
in the anatomical structure of hybrids, an absolute
barrier to their reproduction. Yet the proof is
abundant from. the Scriptures, that the different
varieties of the race mingle without limit, and reproduce indefinitely. They do not fail to criminate the illicit intercourse of the sexes who form
different varieties of the race, as the prohibited
intercourse with beings who are human, and belonging to the same species.




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.      107
The more important properties, and those which
the Scriptures dwell upon as characteristics of the
race, are man's intellectual and moral nature, and
his indestructible immortality. Indeed, this whole
subject is important, chiefly for its moral ends, and
in relation to man's responsibility as a being who
is human in all the varieties of his descent. It is
a spiritual nature which he possesses. He is a percipient, thinking, willing existence. He has reason and conscience. He possesses a mind which
is capable of progress and expansion; he is so far
a religious being, that he possesses a sense of right
and wrong, is capable of holiness and happiness,
and of wickedness and misery. He was formed
for immortality, and is constituted the deputed
lord of this lower creation. These are high prerogatives, but they belong to man wherever he is
found; the Scriptures everywhere attribute them
to all the races, of every variety on the face of the
globe.
In the next place, the Scriptures represent acell
the varities of thle race as having a common interest ion the troths which they reveal. No matter
from what proximate parentage he is descended,
or what his peculiarities of form and color, they
look upon man as the subject of God's moral government, and as having an interest in his revealed truth. The great truths of the Bible are
man's apostasy and God's redemption; while, as




108     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
the consequence, or rather as part and parcel of
these revelations, they disclose to us man's accountability, and his final and:irrevocable award to the
retributious of eternity. They speak of him as a
transgressor, but as the prisoner of hope; enjoying
a reprieve from condemnation, living under the
mediatorial reign of mercy, and to whom the offer
of salvation is made on revealed conditions. In
all these particulars, so descriptive of what is exclusively human, the Bible addresses itself equally,
and with equal appropriateness, to all the varieties
of the race. It requires that the same instruction
should be given to them all; the same obligation
enforced; the same offers of mercy proclaimed;
and the same divine solicitude for their salvation
made known. It requires that the same class of
motives, drawn from truth and duty, from all that
is authoritative in the divine government, and all
that is persuasive in the tenderness of infinite love,
be urged upon all men as inducements to accept
its great salvation. It tells them that this day of
grace and hope terminates at death; that none
may look for a subsequent opportunity of repentance; that then the righteous hath hope, and the
wicked is driven away in his wickedness; and that
after death is the final and irrevocable sentence to
heaven, or hell. Just look at these leading truths.
Is it of human sinfulness that the Scriptures speak;
they speak of man wherever he is found, of every




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    109
form of humanity in all its varieties, of Jew and
Gentile, slave and freeman: "All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God." Is it of the salvation by Christ; their language is, "For if by one
man's offence death reigned by one; much more
they which receive abundance of grace and of the
gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by One,
Jesues Christ."  If there be a truth they state with
clearness, it is the ruined condition of the race
from the apostasy of the first man; and with the
same clearness its blessed counterpart, the salvation
by Christ. They require that " the gospel be
preached to every creature," and affirm that "according to the commandment of the everlasting
God, it is made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."  Is it of repentance they speak;
their language is, " God now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent." Or do they lift the veil
of future things, and tell of the resurrection both
of the just and the unjust; their language is," All
that are in their graves shall hear his voice and
come forth;" "The sea gave up the dead which
were in it, and death and hell delivered up the
dead which were in them;" " As in Adam all die,
so in Christ, shall all be made alive." And when
they speak of the judgment, they say, " I saw the
dead, small and great, stand before God;" we shall
"all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ;"
"+Every one of us shall give an account of himself




110     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
before God;" " Christ shall judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing and his kingdom."
There are phrases here which certainly include
all the varieties of the race, and which regard the
race itself as one. What is there of humanity
that is not comprehended in the word, Christ?
Who shall shut out Christ from the great brotherhood of man, when he stands as the God-man Mediator, as embodying humanity, and as the brother
of the race-stands in the very centre of the
stream of time, bound alike to the first and the
last man? And who that is human has not these
characteristics-that he is a fallen sinner-that his
only hope is in the gospel of the grace of God-and
that the federal personages by which he is bound
to these great realities, are on the one hand the
first, and on the other the second Adam? Perish
the infidel thought that there is any portion of
the human race, who are so isolated from the
common parentage as to be cut off from all access to
the common Saviour! Surely wherever' man is
found, the relation he bears to the Saviour of men
identifies him with Adam's posterity. If there
was a prior race, or if there be any other race, the
Scriptures nowhere give the least intimation of it.
If there be such a race, it is one not affected by
Adam's apostasy; nor have they any interest in
the Redeemer of his descendants; nor do they
come within the sphere of the commission given to




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    111
those who preach his gospel; nor may it be
preached to them; nor are they entitled to any
of its promises or hopes; nor have any lot nor
part in this matter. Do the Scriptures anywhere
recognize such a race? We can understand why
it was that such a man as Voltaire should advocate
the doctrine of a variety of races, because his object was to invalidate the truth of the Sacred
Writings; but it is not easy for us to understand.
why professed believers in the Sacred Scriptures
should be the advocates of this doctrine, and urge
in favor of it the established laws of science. We
marvel not a little at the inconsistency which puts
the question upon such an issue. It becomes such
writers, as men of science, if not as Christians, to
show, with some precision, what those distinctive
differences in the race are, which necessarily give
men a different origin; from what, and how many,
different sources they have originated; and how,
in the dispensation of the gospel, we are to discriminate them from the descendants of Adam.
When they have done this, we, in our turn, will
undertake. to show that those very lines of demarcation are distinctly recognized in the Scriptures,
not as characteristics of a different origin, but as
belonging to those who are the descendants of the
same pair, and as component parts of the one great
family to all of whom. the Scriptures address the
truths and hopes of the common salvation.




112,    THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
This leads me to another and a distinct topic,
which is, that in their referencee to the various nations, and tribes of men, and in all their diversities,
the Scriptures do in fact trace their genealogy to one
common parentage. The common objection to the
doctrine we are advocating is, that men are so
widely diffused over the earth, that it is irrational
to suppose them to have originated from a common
centre. Man is found everywhere; and in varieties so numerous, so great, and so permanent, that
it is more consistent with analogy to suppose him
to have originated from different sources, than to
have sprung from  the same source. If we were
to answer this objection on philosophical principles merely, we would undertake to show with
Dr. Pickering, "on zoological grounds, that the
human family is foreign to the American continent." It has been shown, as we judge, from the
migratory habits of man, and from the facilities
and motives to his migration, that it is no absurd,
nor unnatural hypothesis, that he migrated from
that portion of the earth which the Scriptures
assign as the place of his creation. The theory of
Professor Agassiz is that men are traceable to
different creations, as they inhabit different zoological regions, or zones. Yet it might be shown, that
large districts of country, comprising different
zones, are inhabited by tribes and nations which
all ethnological writers trace to the same common




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.       113
stock. This theory has been well tested by arecent reviewer in our own country.* Within the
American continent, says this searching writer,
" are four provinces, reaching through a greater
extent of climate than any other body of land
upon the globe can supply-from the north star
to the southern cross-occupied through all its
length by one aboriginal race. This American
race, whose distribution over four zoological provinces is not questioned, affords the most convincing
proof of the utter futility of this attempt to connect each race of men whose limits are naturally
circumscribed with a particular organized province.
It is not like the Aztec race, of no real foundation
in nature; nor like the lfongol, of undecided extent; nor like the ZMfalay, mingled throughout its
extent with other races; nor like the negro,
blended in every direction with other and related
tribes.  It is of almost pure blood, and is limited in
every direction by the ocean, which cuts it off
from all association."t  This fact alone is a perfect
confutation of the Professor's theory, and a perfect
refutation of his whole argument.
But our concern is more with the argument
as it is presented in the Scriptures. The genealogical tables contained in the Scriptures present
a remarkable feature in the Sacred Writings. I
* The New Englander for Oct. 1850.
t In proof the common origin of the American Aborigines. See Stone's
Life of Red Jacket.




114     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
call them genealogical; and while some of them
are strictly so, others are rather staterments, and
ethnological sketches, by which the inhabitants of
the earth are traced down from earlier to later periods. The author of the Book of Genesis furnishes a succinct history of the inhabitants of the
earth from the creation to the Deluge, and from
the Deluge to his own times; a period of twentyfive hundred years, and during which men had
greatly multiplied, and formed different clans, and
large and powerful nations. -This enumeration
contains a great variety of the human race; so
great, that science might be justified in advocating
the doctrine of a plurality of races from this diversity as it then existed, for as good reasons as
justify the doctrine at the present day. There
were the same diversities of color and form; yet
it will not be questioned, that Moses traces them
to a common origin; with all their diversity, there
was the same lineal descent from Adam and from
Noah. It would be an instructive work on ethnology which should follow in the track of Moses,
and trace up the different nations of the earth to
the point where he left them, and show that all the
great branches of the race sprang from Noah's three
sons. We may be pardoned for suggesting that
this threefold classification is the more natural one.
Cuvier, in substance, retains it, and divides the race
into three varieties, Caucasian, Mongolian, and




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    115
Ethiopian. Blumenbach, and his classification has
been more generally received, makes five varieties,
the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the American, the
Negro, and the Malay. This classification appears
to us objectionable on many accounts; nor is it at
once comprehended by the ordinary reader. Nor
is that classification of one of our learned countrymen less objectionable, by which he designates the
varieties as the Shemitic species, the Japhetic, the
Ishmaelitic and' the Canaanitic species.  These
two latter classifications separate what God has
historically joined together. Philologists have
traced the languages of the earth to the languages
originally spoken by the descendants of Shem,
Ham and Japheth; would not the work of the ethnologist be facilitated by thus classifying the great
varieties of the race?
Would it be impracticable to define with very
considerable precision the branches of the Shemitic -family, or the descendants of Shem? Moses
traces his descendants down to Abraham; and
from Abraham are traced all the varieties of the
Jews proper, all the ramifications of MJfoabite and
Ammonite origin, and the still greater varieties
descended from Hagcar through Ishmrael, forming
as his descendants did one of the most extensive
empires in the world; extending themselves over
Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and civilized Africa-penetrating Europe and invading Tartary —overrun



116     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
ning Spain and the larger islands of the Mediterranean-reaching from the Ganges to the Atlantic,
and from the Pyrenees to the deserts of Africa —
combining the scattered Saracen tribes, everywhere marked by peculiarities and customs of
their own, a people " dwelling in the presence of
their brethren," and proclaiming their descent
from the archer in the wilderness of Paran. The
ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Syria, and
Ophir were all the descendants of Shem. If we
carefully compare the ethnological portions of
the Book of Genesis with the ethnological por
tions of the First Book of Chronicles, we may collect no small amount of knowledge in regard to
this portion of the human race.
Though not without its difficulties, there is still
less embarrassment in tracing the descendants of
Ham. They had a different destiny from the descendants of Shem.  For the unnatural, unfilial,
and foul sin of their father, they were the accursed race, and doomed to be "the servant of
servants," to the descendants of Shem and Japheth.
Nothing is more obvious than that this race must,
in some way, be kept so distinct from the other
races, that this curse could be visibly executed.
Without some line of demarcation, either physical
or geographical, or both, the frequent intermarriages between these races would have gradually
blotted out their predicted isolation, and rendered




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    117
the descendants of Ham, in the progress of time,
undistinguished from the descendants of Shem and
Japheth. We know from all history and observation, that there is a'race of men who possess strong
specific differences of color and features; that these
differences have prevailed from the earliest times,
and that, let them be removed to whatever portion of the earth, and live under whatever regimen
they may, these specific differences exist still.
Ham had four sons, and they were early assigned
to a well-defined portion of the earth.  Cvus7  was
the oldest, and as we have already seen, was but
another name for Ethiopia. XJizraim was the
second son; he peopled Egypt; Egypt is called.
the land of Mizraim. Canaan, the youngest, early
occupied Palestine; but this fair land was reserved
for the posterity of Shem, and the idolatrous Canaanites were conquered by Joshua, and driven
into Egypt, where they founded Carthage. H//am
is supposed to have settled in Egypt, together
with his son Mizraim. Egypt is called the land
of Ham, not only by ancient historians, but in the
Old Testament. The Greeks called it Egypt; but,
its proper name in the Hebrew Scriptures is Mizraim. The Libyans, inhabiting a country in Africa, west of Egypt, were the descendants of Lehabim, one of Mizraim's sons. Phut, another of the
sons of Ham, occupied Africa also, and by the Sep.
tuagint translators, is identified with the Libyans.




118    THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
They are associated with Cush and Lud and Egypt;
and the evidence preponderates in favor of their
occupying the Barbary coast. From Cush descended those who are more appropriately called
the Ethiopian race. A colony of them early removed from the land of Shinar, and settled in
that part of Africa which lies south of Egypt, in
the western part of the continent, and bounded on
the north by the Great Desert. Africa was peopled by the sons of Ham. All the other races,
which have from time to time inhabited it, were
not indigenous races. Africa is not, we are sorry
to say, their permanent residence; for they are
found everywhere; in India, in China, in Japan,
among the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, in
the islands of the Indian and West Indian oceans,
and in North and South America. But, though
thus scattered, they are known as the race of
Ham. Yet, strange to say, it is with this peculiar
variety of the human race, so easily traced to one
of the sons of Noah, that naturalists find the greatest difficulty in allowing to belong to the common family of man.
The descendants of Japheth comprise the Caucasian, or white races, scattered over the earth,
dwelling in the tents of Shem, inhabiting a large
portion of the finer parts of the habitable globe,
and comprising the most civilized and powerful
nations. They peopled the northern parts of Asia




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    119
and all Europe, including the ancient Persians,
Scythians, Celts, Greeks, Romans and Gauls, the
various Gothic and Teutonic and Tartar races, and
those insular portions of the earth in Lesser Asia
and Europe which are described in the Scriptures
as the " isles of the Gentiles." Japheth had seven
sons. From Gomer descended the ancient Galatians, the Trojans of the Hellespont, the Phrygians, the inhabitants of the Axanian islands, or
the coasts of the Euxine, the Gomerians, or early
Germans of the Danube, and from Germany spread.
themselves into Gaul. The ancient Britons, too,
as well as our own Saxon ancestors, were the
descendants of Japheth, through his first-born son
Gomer. The descendants of his second son, Mafog, I have not the means of tracing more extensively than to learn they were* the Scythians, the
Tartars and the Goths, who overran the Roman
empire. IlMadai, his third son, was the ancestor
of the Medes and the Samaritans. From Jfavan,
the fourth son, descended the inhabitants of Cilicia, Tarshish, Chittim, the ancient Dorians, and
the islands lying between Europe and Asia, or
what the prophet Ezekiel calls "the isles of Eli-,ha"-the Elisee Pontus, or the Hellespont, and the
colonies of Tarshish.  Tubal and.Msleech, the
fifth and sixth sons, names so often united in the
sacred writings, spread themselves over Cappadocia and Armenia, ancient Albania, and, according




120      THE -UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
to the prophet Ezekiel, carried on an extensive
slave-trade with Tyre. Wells, in his Historical
Geography of the Old Testament, says that the
Spaniards have a tradition that they are descendants from Tubal; for they were the Asiatic Iberi.
The Muscovites were a colony descended from Meshech. Of Tyras, the youngest son of Japheth, it
is generally agreed that he was the progenitor of
the ancient Thracians, and first settled in the
country of Thrace, and spread over the north
side of the Euxine sea.*
The thought is not always present to those advocates of the doctrine' of plurality of races who
profess to submit to the teachings of the Scriptures,
that these writings refer to a very yreat nIumber
of distinct nations and tribes of men, to all of
which they not only ascribe a common origin, but,
notwithstanding all their varieties, and all these
gradations of difference, historically trace them to
a common parentage in one of the sons of Noah.
If these historic facts lay unembarrassed by local
differences in the mind of the sacred historian,
why should these differences be perplexing to us?
The ethnological sketching of the sacred writers, subsequent to the days of Moses, while it is
far from being full, is also far from being impov* See Well's Hist. Geog. of the Old Test., vol. i.-The CommentariesCalmel's Dictionary-and some valuable hints from Lempriere's Class.!Dict. by Anthon-Bedford's Chronology.




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.             121
erished and bald. There are so many scraps of
history and ethnology, scattered throughout the
classics and classic historians, as well as throughout
some of the larger commentaries on the Scriptures,
the more valuable biblical and biographical dictionaries and charts of history,* that it demands
no great credulity, even independently of the sacred writings, to adopt the conclusion, that the
various races of men may, in fact, be traced to a
common origin. The great outlines of this descent
are in some good degree obvious; nor are they
obliterated by the unnumbered crossings of blood
which assign some portions of the earth to two, or
even more proximate races. Nor do we entertain
a doubt, that with the rapid progress of scientific
knowledge, the more thorough research into the
natural history of our race, and a more extended
acquaintance with the descent, and inmmingled population of the nations, facts will abundantly illustrate and confirm  the Mosaic narrative in regard
to the origin of mankind.
The only consideration that detracts from the
force of this general outline is, that it is necessarily
* See a most valuable depository of facts entitled Atlas und Tabellen,
&c., by Frederich Kruse, Leipzig: also the Annales Antiquitatis, or Oxford
Chronological Tables of Ancient History, synchronistically and ethnologically arranged. Also Atlas Historique et Chronologique, A. Jarry De
Mancy: in the Astor Library.
Not a few valuable hints on this topic may be also gathered from
Hallam's Literature of Europe.




122     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
so imperfect. The different nations are so immingled, that is difficult to trace them with precision
to their national origin. But does not this fact
itself confirm the general argument? Does it not
show that the farther back we trace the origin of
the nations, the more we find these streams commingled, and issuing from  the same fountain 
Even the Jews themselves are not a perfectly unmingled race. It would be a remarkable fact, if
not an unaccountable one, that so few of the nations
of the earth have been able to retain with certainty the knowledge of their distinct origin, if
they originated from as many new creations, as
their zoological zones. Upon the hypothesis that
they are all descended from one common origin, this
is perfectly natural, and just what might be looked
for. The different branches became gradually more
and more ramnlified from their very growth. Necessity, policy, their own arrangement and choice,
dispersed them over the earth so widely, that
while the main trunk and the principal branches
are visible, it requires a minuteness of inspection,
a microscopic view, of which the human mind is
not capable, to affirm with certainty, amid the ten
thousand graftings, to which of the main branches
the more remote and dense twigs and foliage belong. This general fact is ascertained, that all
tradition, monuments, hieroglyphical writing, and
history, point to a common origin of the race.




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.      123
Science is bound by all her own laws, if she insists
on a plurality of sources, to _prove what those
sources are. This she has not done; this she cannot do. She is pressed with this difficulty, and
does not attempt what she knows is impossible.
Yet, as the lawyers would say, the onus probahndi
lies upon her. According to all the laws of fair
reasoning, her bold affirmative that the different
races proceeded from different sources, we call
upon her to support, by defining at least some of
those sources. To speak with the confidence with
which Agassiz has spoken, and then retire from
the field in his own covert way, is presumption
and not science. The Mosaic history never was
palmed upon the world; there is every reason to
place the fullest confidence in its representations.
I remark also, that the Scriptures expressly affirm, that the entire race of men, with all their varieties, have one and the same origin. They do
not leave us to deduce this doctrine from their
great design and object merely, nor from their
ethnological records; they explicitly instruct us
that Adam and Eve were the parents of the race.
In Genesis it is written, "Let us make man, in our
own image, after our own likeness; and let them
have dominion."  The plural verb here shows that
the word man, or Adam, is employed collectively,
as equivalent to mankillnd. Afterwards it is written, " And God created the man in his own image;




124    rHE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
in the image of God created he him; male and
female created he them."
The application of male and female to the
Adam, and the plural pronoun, at the end of the
verse, show that the name is used generically, or to
denote the first of manzkind. Nor may it be denied that the word Adam is often used in the Old
Testament as an appellative noun for the species,
and in this collective sense denotes mankind-the
human race. Was not this then the germ, the
original stock? In chap. iii. v. 20, we have the
following declaration, "And Adam called his
wife's name Eve"-life-" because she was the
mother of all living." Was she not the mother of
the whole human race?  The scriptural account
of the flood proves incontestably the same fact.
By that catastrophe we are told that "all flesh
died that moved upon the earth"-" every manevery living substance, both man and cattle" —and
that " Noah only remained and they that were
with him in the ark." Where were those who, as
Professor Agassiz supposes, were descended from
other pairs? And then again, by what evasion can
the subsequent declaration be set aside, that of the
three sons of Noah "was the whole earth overspread " In the book of Deuteronomy it is affirmed, that "when God divided to the nations
their inheritance, when he separated the sons of
Adam, he set the bounds of the people according




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.       125
to the number of the children of Israel." Are not
the divided nations here called the sons of Adam?
The prophet Malachi, also, writing four thousand
years after the creation, demands, "' And did he not
make one? And wherefore one; that he might
seek a godly seed?"  In the 17th ch. of the Acts
of the Apostles, Paul addresses the learned men
of Athens in the following language: God that
made the world, "hath made of one blood all
nations of men, for to dwell on the face of the
earth, and determined the bounds of their habitation." Does not this declaration assert that God
formed the whole race of men of one family; and
that, however widely scattered, and by whatever
external varieties they may be distinguished, these
diversities, and this different locality, are consistent
with their common parentage?* Can language be
more plain or more decisive, than such statements
as these? In view of such declarations, what becomes of the hypothesis of that class of Christian
writers, who would fain have us believe that the
Scriptures have reference only to the Caucasian
race; and that other races of men exist who were
of a different origin from the posterity of Adam?
If the earth is " replenished" and peopled from one
common pair; if "all the living," and the "di* The summary manner in which Professor Agassiz disposes of this
passage is as summarily disposed of by an able and characteristic Review in
the Biblical Repertory for Oct. 1850.




126     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
vided nations," and " all nations of men" have this
common parentage, this natural descent, this blood
relationship; where is the tribe, or family, or man,
be he Greek or Jew, Ethiopian or Caucasian, monarch or slave, that hails not from the same primogenitors?
There is one more consideration in favor of the
unity of the race, which rests, also, originally on
the testimony of the Scriptures. The last enumeration gives us 3664 known languages now in the
world. Yet the Bible teaches us that the languages
of the earth had a common origin. At the time
of the division of the nations after the flood, " the
whole earth was of one language, and one speech."
At the building of the tower of Babel, God confounded their language, and thereby more effectually scattered them  abroad.  It is generally
agreed, that the Hebrew language was the primitive language of men; and that it was retained
among the descendants of Heber long before the
calling of Abraham. The immediate descendants
of Abraham probably spoke the Chaldaic tongue,
as he was from Chaldea; or if that nation spoke
the Hebrew language, there is no doubt of the
fact that they no longer preserved it in its purity after they were carried captive to Babylon;
for there'it. became mixed with the language of
the Chaldeans. The Chaldee, or Chaldaic, is said
to comprise the Aramean, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic,




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    127
Samaritan, and Coptic; while these are said to be
linked by unquestionable affinities with all the
languages spoken by the great Indo-European
and Shemitic races. The Japhetic race, scattered
throughout Asia Minor, the northern parts of Asia,
and all Europe, including the Celtic and Teutonic
families, had a different language, while their radical words are proved to have been essentially the
same, and the difference between this family of
languages and that of the Shemitic family, consists
in its inflections and combinations. The Greek
language is formed on the same radical words as
the Celtic and Teutonic languages; while the affinities between the Latin and the Teutonic show
that they are of the same origin. It is admitted,
too, that the Sanscrit, or ancient language of India,
the parent of all the dialects in the great Peninsula,
is radically from the same stock as the Greek and
Latin. The modern Italian, Spanish, French, and
Portuguese are all from the Latin, retaining some
words of Celtic, and Carthaginian, and Gothic
origin. The German, Belgian, Anglo-Saxon, Danish, and Swedish languages are all of Gothic parentage. The languages of the Chinese, of Polynesia, and original America, belong to the same
group with the languages of northern Asia, and
of parts of northern Europe. " In proportion as a.
careful inquiry has penetrated into the past, the
streams of speech have been traced upward to




128     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
their points of divergence from their parent channels; while these channels have been found to
converge and unite in a common source." Nor is
this any inconsiderable witness to the common
origin of the nations which speak them. If we
have good evidence of the common origin of all
languages, we have good evidence in confirmation
of the Mosaic account of the unity of the race.
It appears to us that there is no small temerity
in the hypothesis, that there are other races of
men, of a different origin from the posterity of
Adam, and some weakness in the considerations
by which it is supported. Its authors are too
clearly under the influence of their romantic love
of theory, rather than inflexible love of truth.
For humanity's sake, we hope better things of human science. We are alarmed at such things, lest
they prove the incipient step to a more arrogant
infidelity.
We have not, in this discussion, except incidentally, designed to present the philosophical argument in favor of the common origin of mankind.
Few questions have been more ably or more abundantly discussed upon the mere principles of natural science. In adverting to these discussions,
one fact is quite obvious, that if we once wander
from the unity of the race, we know not where to
stop. Our distinguished countryman, Dr. Pickering, himself an eminent naturalist, and employed




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    129
by the government in the scientific corps of the
Exploring Expedition, which sailed around the
world, has written ably on this general subject,
and sums up his views in the following sentence:
"There is, I conceive, no middle ground between
the admission of eleven distinct species in the human family, and the reduction to one;" while a
still later writer affirms, that " if there be five different sources, he sees not why there must not be
five hundred." The all-wise Disposer of the human
race has assigned to natural causes their appropriate agency, in the varieties of our race, but he has
limited their power; and when the naturalist expects to find a solution for all the varieties in the
sole agency of natural causes, he finds himself at
fault. There are anomalies which natural science
does not account for; our true resort is to the
word of God. Our convictions are continually
strengthening, that the laws of natural science, on
this, as well as every subject, the more they are
known, confer abundant honor on the sacred
Scriptures.
And on this firm basis of God's word do we
rest the question. There is no safety, no true science, but in the scriptural account of the origin
of the human family. The subject is one of history, and not of natural science. God is the author
of the race, and he has plainly indicated its origin.
He has given man a physical constitution fitted to
6*




130     THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
all climates, and fitted to produce those varieties
which are adapted to their'condition, their wants,
and their responsibilities. Man goes everywhere,
and everywhere carries with him his distinctive
humanity, and therefore his obligations to God
and his fellow-men.
It is a mischievous, an infidel thought, that we
may look upon any portion of the human family
as a distinct race from ourselves, and not entitled
to our love and sympathy. There are no diversities which do not carry with them the evidence
of their common humanity, and enforce its claims.
Shem, Ham, and Japheth are still impersonated
in the different nations of men; but they are
brethren; there should be no strife between them.
The weak may not envy the strong; nor the
strong oppress the weak. The polished and the
rude, the black and the white, the master and the
slave, the rich and the poor, meet together; the
Lord is the Maker of them all. The things in
which they differ are neither so many nor so important as those in which they agree. All are
creatures of the same God; descended from the
same ancestry; fallen by their iniquity; subjected to the same wants and trials; if saved, saved
by the same grace. All are born to die, destined
to the same final account, and heirs of a deathless
immortality. Tried by such standards, we see the
true and proper value of the race; while thus




THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.    131
tried, all the varieties that are incidental to their
existence in the present world, vanishes away.. It
behooves us to take heed, lest with the spirit of the
first murderer we say, " Am I my brother's keeper?" " No man," saith the Apostle, " ever hateth
his own flesh." It was a powerful appeal once
uttered by Wilberforce in behalf of an abused and
crushed people, " Am I not a man and a brother?"
Born under whatever skies, and however degraded
their condition, men, and because they are men,
are all linked together by these fraternal bonds.
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor."  Unkindness and revenge, oppression and injury, desolation
and bloodshed, do not rest in the bosom of love.
There is no poison of asps under her lips; she has
no venomous breath, and no deadly sting. She
mingles no bitter ingredients in the cup of man,
and no poison with his joys. She plants no thorns
in his path, and never blights the verdure of his
hopes.'Nay, she knows no cold indifference and
chilling neglect; it is no barren heart that beats
within her warm bosom; it is light and cheerfulness beaming on the dark places of the earth, and
making the wilderness blossom as the rose. She
does not say to the voice of the needy, or to the
sighing of the prisoner, he is an Indian-he is
a poor negro-he belongs to another race. Never
may men thus lose sight of the obligations of
humanity, associated as they are by a common




132    THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
origin, common responsibilities, common trials,
and a common eternity. There is another and a
better world, where the saved of all nations will
meet, and the elevated will be no more elevated
than their meaner brethren on the earth, and the
degraded will be degraded no more. It was a
rapturous vision beheld by the exiled apostle,
when he said, " And after this I beheld, and lo a
great multitude which no man could number, of
all nations, and 1kindreds, and people, and tongues,
stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes and palms in their
hands; and cried with a loud voice saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and
unto the Lamb!"




CHAPTER V.
W8? Bi~rot Wmlan.
FROM nothing did the first man learn so mt
of God, as from the creation of a " second human
being with faculties and senses like his own." Although we have not a detailed narrative of the
creation of woman, until after the seventh day,
there is reason to believe that she was created on
the same day with man. Both sexes of all organized bodies, of plants and animals, were created
together. In his account of the creation of man
on the sixth day, the sacred historian remarks,
"So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female
created he them." In the next paragraph he proceeds to say, ". And on the seventh day God ended
his work which he had made; and he rested on
the seventh day from all his work which he had
maAe."  From these premises, it is the more natural conclusion, that the woman was included in
the creation that was' accomplished on the sixth




134          THE FIRST WOMAN.
day. She was not an appendage to the perfected
creation; it was not perfect without her.
Of the manner of her creation we have a more
full account in a subsequent paragraph. It is in
the following words: " And the Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept:
and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the
flesh instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord
God had taken from man made he a woman."
Man himself was not created out of nothing, as
was the original chaos; he was formed out of the
dust of the earth; it was a secondary creation
from a prior existing substance. The creation of
the woman was also a secondary creation; she
was formed from a substance previously existing;
not out of the dust of the earth, but from a portion of the newly-created man himself. "She was
called woman, because she was taken out of man."
The intimacy was perfect; there was oneness between them. She was identified with the man;
she formed a part of the man; she was his second
self. She was not to be either his master or his,
slave; but his associate, his eual, imbued with
the same spirit, posseslng interests in common
with him, aiming at common objects, and pursuing
the same joyous course of oVbednce and immprtality. The man originally had no priority except
in the single fact, that " Adam was first formed,
then Eve;" nor was this equality disturbed, until




THE' FIRST WOMAN.         135
she became the first transgressor, and the sentence
uttered, " thy husband shall rule over thee."
Woman comprises one half the human race; the
birth of males and females is about equal. It has
been supposed that, taking the aggregate population of the globe, males are more numerous than
females; and that this surplusage is called for by
the waste of human life by war, and by those calamities to which the retired habits of females are
less exposed than the ordinary habits of the male
population. Yet is it to be observed, that the
average of human life is not so long among females as among males; and that in Asiatic and
Mohammedan countries, and in all countries where
polygamy prevails, there are more females than
males. There is no good reason to believe that
the original arrangement of a wise providence in
the equality of numbers in the different sexes, has
been seriously disturbed.
What are the peculiarities of woman? What
is the sphere which she is destined to occupy?
And what are the qualifications which best fit her
to occupy that sphere? Let us devote a few moments to each of these topics.
In speaking of the peculiarities of woman, we
are not so blind as to suppose that she is faultless.
She belongs to a fallen race-herself the first
transgressor.  By nature, she differs not from
those " every imagination of the thoughts of whose




136           THE FIRST WOMAN.
heart is only evil continually."  Her sinfulness,
like man's, until she is renewed by grace, is strong
and constant. Her "heart is fully set in her to
do evil," and in her unrenewed state she does
nothing to please God. She is " dead in trespasses
and sins," a "' child of wrath even as others."  Her
"neck is as an iron sinew, and her brow brass."
There is " no fear of God before her eyes;" she
"hates him without a cause."  She " casts his law
behind her back;" she "sets at naught all his
counsel, and would none of his reproof." "Of the
Rock that begat her she is unmindful, and has forgotten the God that formed her."
Yet we have strong impressions that she presents the fairer side of fallen humanity. She has
excellencies which do not belong to the other sex;
they are peculiarities that are obvious, and that
excite our admiration of the divine wisdom and
goodness. Man has the advantage over her in
physical power, and in some intellectual endowments; while there are intellectual endowments
in which the superiority belongs to her. Her
powers of patient research and reasoning, and her
powers of invention, are not equal -to those of men;
while her perceptions are.qicker than the perceptions of men; her judgment and common
sense are more worthy of confidence; her memory
is more retentive, her imagination more vivid, her




THE FIRST WOMAN.             137
taste more delicate and refined, and her curiosity
more wakeful.
Her great and distinctive peculiarity will be
found in the fact, that she live8 in her affections.
To this fact, if we mistake not, may be attributed
her peculiar excellencies and faults. Man lives,i:
the world; he lives amid the contentions of self-'
interest and the strife of passion; his life is bound
up in wealth, pleasure, and famne; nor is he ever
happier than when employed in such pursuits
most intensely and most suc..sLaly.  Woman
has more heart than man; she was madetto love'and be beloved.
"Her crown is in her heart, not on her head;
Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones,
Aor to be seen.
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy."
She may love wealth; but it is not so much for
wealth's sake, as for the sake of those she loves.
She may love pleasure; but it is more to gratify
the objects of her affection than for her own enJoyment.  She may be ambitious, and love fame,
but it is not for herself. She is gifted far above
man in native sweetness and gentleness, and in
the winning graces and charities of the heart.
"I have observed," says the celebrated traveller
Ledyard, "That women, in all countries, are civil,
obliging, tender and humane.  I never addressed
myself to them in the language of decency and




138            THE FIRST WOMAN.
friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly
answer. With man it has often been otherwise.
In wandering over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden and
frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide-spread regions
of the wandering Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold,
wet, or sick, the women have ever been friendly
to me, and uniformly so. And to add to this virtue, these actions have been performed in so free
and kind a manner, that if I was thirsty, I drank
the sweetest draughts, and if hungry, ate the
coarsest morsel with a double relish."  God has
given woman this lovely and loving nature. She
lives and would live in the hearts of others. The
O9jects of her affection live in her thoughts; they
live in her memory, live in her "hopes and in her
fears, in her toil and    her erepose. She is more
frank and has fewer imprisoned thoughts than
man, because her affections govern her. She has
more eagerness and intensity of character, because,her affections are intense. When her affectionsare crossed, she may have a degree of bitterness
that is not ordinarily possessed by men, because
her affections are despotic, and her heart would
fain play the tyrant. If her pride is more exacting, and her vanity more easily flattered; if helr
emotions are less impenetrable, and less under the
control of skill and habit, it is because there are




THE FIRST WOMAN.          139
>strong affections within her which disdain concealment, and will not brook control. She may love
cautiously; but where she loves, she loves ardently
and long. She is the creature of affection. Even
long before her heart is touched by definite attachments, there are within her bosom strong and
deep affections, and the unignited materials of attachment that is warm and ardent. With those
exceptions in which injury and wrong have driven
her to desperation, she does not sink beneath this
high-born excellence. You may bruise and crush
her; but it is by bruising and crushing her unsoiled affections. Even then she is perhaps more
lovely than ever; just as the sweetest herbs and
flowers, when bruised, give forth their sweetest
fragrance. This is her great peculiarity; in this
lies her power. Ignorance, or mistake of thiso
amiable trait of her character, has been the source
of no small portion of the domestic evils and sorrows which have desolated the world. e Not to
know and not to value this great excellence of her
nature is to misinterpret and defame her —is to
know nothing of woman. Nor does that man d6e
serve anything better than to be denied the thousand little attentions and delicacies which flow
from the strength of her love whose mind is disciplined to mock its tenderness.
Woman is also more se~,tae#cing than Eau,9
There are selfish women; but it is not so natural




140           THE FIRST WOMAN.
for woman to be selfish; there are more kindly,
and generous, and noble feelings in her bosom.
She loves more than man, and therefore will give
up more. There is no hing shei wl notsacgrifioe
for tdose she loves. The life of woman is a life of
self-denying sacrifice; the history of woman is the
historyfof one who so identifies the interests of
others with her own, that she seeks her own in
advancing theirs. Ease, comfort, pride, wealth,
pleasure, society, and long-cherished habits all
she was and all she is she renounces for those she
loves. Could days of anxiety and sleepless nights,
could deeds of self-renunciation and mortified
pride testify, how accumulated would be the testimony to woman's self-sacrificing spirit! To feel
thus, and to conduct thus, is her pleasure. She
could not have the joy of a clear conscience, she
would not be happy, she would not be.woma~,
without giving up her own good for the good
of others.
Iis not less true that woman is more patient im
sufering than man. The burden of suffering was
laid upon her at her first apostasy; and God has
prepared her to endure it quietly. Her spirit is
more subdued than the spirit of man. Be the
suffering bodily or mental, be it poverty, or reproach, or injury, she meets it; nobly indeed does
she meet it. I have seen examples of heroic suffering in woman, that made me envy her lofty




THE FIRST WOMAN.          141
bearing. Woman will suffer wrongfully, as man
will not suffer. I know of but one exception to
the truth of this remark: disapp2ointment cuts
deeper in woman than in man. It lingers longer;
shut up as she is, and excluded from external excitement, it is brooded over and dwelt upon. She
may not anticipate danger with the same unblanched countenance and unmoved nerve and
muscle as man anticipates it; she may tremble in
view of it, and shrink from it more instinctively.
Where flight is possible, she will flee from it; and
make almost frantic efforts to escape from it. She
will dart from it like the swallow from the vulture's beak; but when it is inevitable, and comes
crowding upon her, and when the blow falls, it is
not woman's heart that is the first to complain.
Woman is likewise more sensible of her dependence than ma~n. God has made her dependent,
and she feels it. Man is her natural guardian; it
is not only her nature to feel her dependence upon
him, but her strength and joy. Place her in danger, and she instinctively looks to man; and even
if her husband is far away, her thoughts at once
centre in him. She cries out for him, though she
knows he is distant; nay, though sleeping in his
grave, in sudden danger she may peradventure
instantly call for her huesband. Next to God, he is
her confidence. Man summons ]i iown firmness,
and girds himself for the conflict, while woman




142            THE FIRST WOMAN.
retires and retreats to her natural refuge.  You
see this spirit from her very girlhood. The girl
flies to the boy for protection, the sister to her
brother. She early imbibes this depending, confiding spirit, and it goes with her to old age, and
to her last rest.  She rejoices in it; it is her happiness to feel that she has some one to look up to,
and cling to. There are exceptions to this great
law of her sex, like Semiramis of Assyria, Catherine of Russia, and Elizabeth of England. When
Xerxes invaded Greece, Artemisia, a distinguished
female of Halicarnassus, displayed so much valor
and skill at the battle of Salamis, as to call from
the proud Persian the well-known remark, that
"the men had acted like women, and the women
like men."  There are masculine and Amazonian
women, as there are men who are effeminate. They
are women who unsex themselves.  This is not
woman's amiable and affectionate nature; nor was
it the character of the first woman. Nothing is
more natural to woman than to feel this dependence; it is not mortifying to her, as it is to man;
she is not ashamed of it, but rather is it her pride.
" God is thy law, thou mine; to know no more
Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise."
There is a peculiarity also in womacn's love of
power; it is not like the love of power in man.
She is proud and ambitious; but it is not so much




THE FIRST WOMAN.              143
the love of domination, as the love of influence,
that distinguishes her.  Man  would  carry his
point, no matter how; woman would carry it by
her persuasive  and  insinuating  attractiveness.
She does not ask it, she does not seek it to be reluctantly gained and grudgingly bestowed; on
such terms she would rather be without it. She
seeks power, but it is the power of love; she is not
apt to triumph over conquests, of whatever kind
they be, where she carries not the heart.' This is
the  ower'she delights in and these the conquests
she boasts of.  She is a very tyrant then, and well
knows how to sway her gilded sceptre.
"Mightier far
Than strength of nerve or sinew, ori the sway
Of magic, potent over sun and star,
Is love,
Though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast."
Woman also is more fond of embellishment than
man, and embellishment of every kind.  It is well
that she is so; else would the world we occupy
be a degraded world. It is not without reason
that classic mythology represents the Graces as
three young sisters, who were the symbols of all
that is beautiful and attractive in the physical as
well as the social world.  What marvel that a
creature thus formed, and for such ends, should be
fond of embellishment? that she should be more
susceptible to beauty than man, more embellished




144            THE FIRST WOMAN.
in her thoughts and writings, more embellished in
her person, and possess greater delicacy of taste in
all her domestic arrangements? She was formed
for this; she has a keener sense of fitness and propriety; she is the presiding genius in this department; the'grace, and polish, and elegance of society are attributable'to her; she strews the desert
with flowers, and is herself the flower of the desert. This too is woman's nature; she seeks embellishment not so much for her sone as for her
daughters. Her and their personal charms are her
treasure; and if she polish and adorn them, she
does no more, I doubt not, than did our first
mother even before she fell. I will not say that
this is woman's weakness; it may be, it is, where
it is excessive, and degenerates to the love of show.
Nor may I say that this does not belong to woman
more than to man; the love of admiration may
be her ruling passion; and it is proof of her womanly ingenuousness that she herself is not insensible to the infirmity, nor slow to confess that her
true honor is found in higher adornment.
Of the two sexes, woman, it must also be confessed, is more cheerful than man. That.would be
a gloomy continent that were inhabited only bDy
a colony of men; there would be nothing there to
tame man's liot-heart. Man is naturally more silent and pensive th'an woman, though God has so
greatly multiplied her sorrows. She has a more




THE FIRST WOMAN.           145
elastic and buoyant spirit, and one that bounds
oxverithe inequalities of life with a more sylph-like
step.  Man breaks before the storm; woman
bends before it, and regains her courage. Man's
mirth is occasional, and boisterous; woman's is
more uniform and safe. Her face is lighted up,
and her voice is gladsome. Her spirit is familiar
with the land of song, and her luxuriant, smile
skirts it with its richest verdure. A virtuous and
cheerful woman, especially if she have the graces
and hopes of Christianity, is among the bright
things, if not the brightest thing in this low world.
Woman's imperfections are not ordinarily dark
and sombre shades of character. It is not the
leaden cloud of gloom that enshrouds us in the
society of woman; we can scarcely help feeling
that there are thoughts and emotions passing
within her bosom, which, if we sympathize with
them, must banish gloom. The suavity of her disposition, the softness of her manners, and the
cheerfulness of her spirit, is just what man requires. This world were cheerless and melancholy,
a withered, autumnal, wintry world, were it never
cheered by woman's smile. A thousand times
have I thought on this beautiful characteristic of
woman with thankfulness.
Men are not unfrequently so frigid and crusty,
that nothing thaws them but the presence of woman. No matter how overwhelmed with care and




146           THE FIRST WOMAN.
depressed a man is, and no matter what the circumstances of wonman are; her effort is to lighten
the burden.  Never is he so depressed, but
her gladsome eye and voice cheer him.  Man
syrmpathiizes with her in her depression, but he
does not so naturally lift her out of it. Woman
not only bears up under sorrow, but enables others
to bear up. We do not say too much for her,
when we say that she is a well-spring of cheerfulness. There are, no doubt, exceptions to this remark, and they demand our sympathy. There
are those whose contentions " are like a continual
dropping in a rainy day." There is the dissatisfied woman, whom nothing can please. And there
is the angry woman, whose eye flashes with outrageous passion, and who is like a wasp in a garden
of flowers. Woman, like man, never feels her own
impotence so much as when she is driven to moody
sullenness, or has no other resort than uproar and
tumult. Would to God that those who constitute
these exceptions were elevated above this moody
and sentimental gloom! An austere, gloomy, sullen, woe-begone woman —from all such may the
good Lord deliver us!
Not a little to our shame, we must also add,
that woman has more seif-reepect than marn. Such
is the wise organization of society, and such the
decree of God, that more depends upon her character, and she can survive fewer faults. From a




THE FIRST WOMAN.            147
few incautious steps and self-inflicted blows, it is
very difficult for her to recover. Her circumspection is her safety. And to her honor be it said,
she is distinguished for her self-respect. Woman
s often artful; I have sometimes thought that she
was more artful than man, because when her heart
is strongly enlisted, it is difficult for her not to
encourage a little "pious fraud."  Those there are
who affect to overbear and depress by their superiority.  If you associate with them without the
fear of mortification, you still keep them at a. distance, and treat them rather with studied caution
than unembarrassed courtesy. There is a blue-light
splendor in some females, which a sensible man
enjoys for a moment, but despises at his leisure.
There are those, too, who affect to be what they
are not, and who are weak enough to desire to be
extolled for qualities which they know they do not
possess. But though sometimes artful, affected,
and of high pretensions, she is not often vicios.
When she is vicious, she is vile-viler even thaln
man-more dishonest and faithless, more impuldent in wickedness and more iqreclaimable, because her hleart is poisoned, and her affections
have not even hope to feed upon. The same
classic mythology that represents the Graces
as symbolized by female excellence and loveliness, when it would represent the extreme
of wickedness, true to nature, impersonates the




148              THE FIRST WOMAN.
Furies,-" Fure Dirme," —in female forms. As there
are characteristic faults in men, in sufficient abundance, so they are not wanting in woman. Milton,
when urged by his daughters to describe the character of their mother, and the object of his first
love, replied, that she was
"Like the fresh sweet-brier, and early May,
Like the fresh, cool, pure air of opening day,
Like the gay lark, sprung from the glittering dew,
An angel, yet-a very woman too."
We pass to another topic on which we proposed
to submit a few remarks.  It is not unnatural that
woman, with these peculiarities, should be formed
for a sphere of her own; what is that 9sphere?
"Nature herself," one would think, gives a full
-and sufficient answer to this question. A mo-,ment's reflection  must show  us, that there arq
characteristics in her physical constitution which
render her unfit for those spheres that are occu~pied by the other sex, and which, if she attempts
to occupy, necessarily throw her into inextricable
embarrassment. It is not her mission, because it
is not her nature, to plunge wildly into the peril-X'
ous enterprises and active warfare of human life.
She was not formed to fell the forest, nor to
traverse the ocean, nor to excavate the bowels of'the earth.  Nor are they the noisy scenes of barter and exchange for which she possesses any natural accomplishments; nor are they places of power,




THE FIRST WOMAN.          149
and trust, and emolument which she is fitted for.
Nor was she ever commissioned to occupy the Pul-,pit, or become a debater in the Forum, or maintain?her country's cause in the Senate, or to sit on the,bench of Justice, or wield the sword on the field
Qf battle. True it is that there have been instances in which woman has thrust herself into spheres
thus uncongenial to her soft and gentle nature.
Catharine de Medicis assulned the throne of
France; but she was despised for her cruelties
and perfidy, and the infamous features of her
masculine mind were evinced by massacres so fearful as to have made the land that witnessed them
drink blood because it was worthy. Mary of
England well deserved the appellation of the
bloody Mary, and died of disappointed ambition.
Yet have there been better female sovereigns than
these.  Zenobia, of Palmyra memory, and the
famed daughter of the Arab chieftain-Isabella
of Spain-Maria Theresa, of Austria-and Joanna
of Sicily were, worthy of the throne, and distinguished for vigor of intellect and comprehensive
policy. But after all, this is not woman's place.
The exceptions which history furnishes to this natural-law, do but confirm the law itself. Such women are anomalies; they wage war upon nature,
and nature enters her pro test against the usurpation. Woman is man's he6er; she is his friend,
his counsellor. When he girds his robust frame




150            THE FIRST WOMAN.
for the toil of human life, and nerves his heart and
arm for its varied conflicts, she is his solace, his
comforter. Her place is at home, amid those social duties which give tranquillity and joy to dointic life;   of which she herself is the queen;
whence she sends forth a universally conservative
influence, and where she weaves the thousand silken cords which are stronger than bands of iron,
and by which the otherwise disjointed and jarring
and effervescing elements of society are amalgamated and bound together.
It is amid the endearments and duties of conjugal life, that she so emphatically lives in her affections, her best and strongest, her purest and noblest affections. This is her throne; this her little
world. It is here that she makes the cup of life
sweeter by instilling into it exhilarating ingredients that are never thought of, except by her own
sovereign alchemy. It is here that she diffuses
that pleasant and balmy atmosphere, which is so
imperceptible that we scarcely notice it, yet so
necessary, that without it we droop and wither.
It were not easy to describe the extent of her
gentle influence, even where it falls short of being
religiously exerted. Woman's heart is so formed,
that it is bound up in the heart of her husband;
and even though she be not a lover of God, if
she be affectionate, beloved, and respected, her
highest wish, and her most delightful employ



THE FIRST WOMAN.            151
ment are to render her husband respected, useful,
and happy. Syv athy with her husband is one
of the marked features in her character.  She
eiters into all his feelings, all, his occupations, all
misntere~s, all'hi's sorrows, all his joys, all his
defeats, all his honors, and all his usefulness.
There is a community of feling and interest between them; a svmpathy in weal and in woe, which
in prosperity,makes everything light and gladsome, ans.i.. adversiy alleviates its, trials, and
chases away its depression and gloom.  Wearisome care loses its perplexity, toil its hardship,
affliction its bitterness, reproach its mortification,
and the subtleties and deception of the world
their sickening repulsiveness, amid her artless
simplicity, undissembled tenderness, buoyant hope
and cheerful love. Bad men are made good,. and
good men better through the influence of woman.
Few men possess so hardy and gross a temperament as not to be withdrawn from the seductions
of vice and licentiousness by the discretion and
firmness of an affectionate wife. Where woman is
whahs. w e, ougt to be, home has E   ents and
charms that cannot be easily exchanged f  the
snares of a corpt and corruptingrwodd. I would
never abandon a wild and harebrained youth while
there is any hope that his heart may be enchained
byjyuws wQw.ran; nor would I ever calculate
with confidence on the course which the most




152           THE FIRST WOMAN.
promising young man will pursue, without countingpQ mtbc domestic influences which may animate
5or depre  him, extend Sor contract his usefulness
without knowing9 something of the goddess he
worships.
It is in this relation, that woman occupies the
most responsible of all positions, ordinarily known
to her sex. In the physical, intellectual, and moral
endowments of her children, and more especially in
the whole business of forming their character, the
mother is the more important parent. Napoleon
once said to Madame Campan, " The old systems of
education are good for nothing; what do young
women stand in need of to be well brought up in
France?" The reply of this intelligent and accomplished lady was, "OF MOTHERS."  And it
speaks volumes. Give a mother ordinary intelligence, and ordinary accomplishments, and she is
the centre of attraction alike to her husband, to
her sons and daughters. Her ear and her heart
are always accessible, because she is rarely absent
from her children, and cherishes in them the habits of unrestrained familiarity. She forms their
opinions, their habits, their manners, their character, almost as she pleases. I know of no earthly
restraint, and no moral power, that can be compared with the wishes of a mother. That tongue
of hers in which is the law of kindness; that heart
which is all gentleness and love; that wakeful dis



THE FIRST WOMAN.             153
cretion and unwearied patience; that self-sacrificing spirit, and those tears which sometimes drop
as the rain; give her a control which the sterner
and more severe government of a father is rarely
able to secure. Many a youth of rash and impetuous temperament would venture to disregard the
strong bonds of paternal authority, whose heart
would fail him in rudely bursting the cord that
binds him to a mother's bosom.
" A mother's love I
If there be one thing pure,
Where all beside is sullied;
That can endure
When all else pass away;
If there be aught
Surpassing human deed, or word, or thoughtIt is a mother's love i"'
And what daughter is there, in whose bosom there
is a spark of womanly virtue and nobleness, who
would ever trample on a mother's love? The
world does not know its indebtedness to mothers.
Even when left to struggle with their responsible
and arduous duties, unaided and alone, they have
accomplished that for mankind which demands
the most grateful acknowledgment. Who does
not dwell with tenderness on the sacred name of
mother!  When we read the biographical notices
of such a man as Byron, much as we abhor his
character, we pity him; because the ostrich cruelty
of a proud and insensate mother made that dia



154           THE FIRST WOMAN.
mond mind an outcast. Mothers hold in their
hands the destinies of millions.  Who can estimate the value of a devoted mother?  Of how
little avail are the authority, power, and laws of
the world, compared with the silent and unobtrusive influence of woman?  "Her price is above
rubies." They, are honors that never wither,
when, at a mother's grave, her children rise up
and call her blessed!
There are also domestic relations of a less important kind which woman sustains. We have no
misgivings at the wisdom of divine providence
when we survey a family where there is a large
preponderance of daughters. They are the charm
of the domestic circle. The sacred penman beautifully compares them  to "corner-stones" in a
splendid edifice, that " are polished after the similitude of a palace."  As daughters, we love to look
upon them; as sisters, it is their province to give
preeminence to the domestic circle above every
society, and to make their own happy dwelling
more serene and happy. Nor let the forbidding
thought ever enter the proud heart of woman,
that, though her maidenly honors come thick upon
her, her womanly character and influence are of
little, or no account. God judges otherwise, or, in
his wise providence, he would have disposed it
otherwise. Some of the loveliest, and some of the
noblest and most estimable traits of the female




THE FIRST WOMAN.            155
character, as well as some of its most enviable
and active virtues, adorn those who themselves
would have adorned the most elevated of the social relations; but to whom the all-wise Disposer
has refused the responsibilities, the joys and the
sorrows of wedded life. Though denied this inheritance, there are reserved for them spheres of
usefulness and honor, which none but woman's
mind and heart can occupy. No matter what
sphere she fills, if she fills it well she shines. The
savor of her feminine virtues and the blessing ofs
her example are no twilight dawning upon this
darka'ri'"ad froz'en world.' She interests, she endears. Wherever she goes, she is man's guardian
and friend. Her love is wakeful, even when she
watches alone. It'sounds the note of alarm at man's
exposure; unsought, it shields him. She is never
obscure; nor can she ever exclude herself from her
share in the concerns of this great world. In her
modest reserve, she may feel that she is a cypher;
while her capacious heart may embrace greater
good thanthousands more ostentatious and exacting. Beait where it may, unless it is degenerate
to unwomanly -abjectness, the influence'of woman
has a predominant sway. Public taste and manners, public virtues and vices, are under her control. Her sway is scarcely less absolute in the
empire of morals than in the empire of fashion.
Her unseen hand is everywhere forming the chat



1t56           THE FIRST WOMAN.
acter of men, and giving a complexion to the society ani age in which she holds a place. "he has
not 1'te less iiiiience,- becaus sie is the more retired. And if she does not so often' appear in the
pompous emblazonment of heraldry, it is because
she would occupy too wide a place, and her power
would be too implicitly acknowledged.
This view of the sphere she occupies, suggests
our last topic of remark, which is the suitable requisitesfor the fuftlment of her appropriate duties.
The inquiry is a practical one How shall she
best employ herself in this her appropriate sphere,
and what are the qualifications she requires in order to act out the peculiarities of her character,
and to the best advantage fulfil her high destiny?
There are befitting attainments for her, not only
as God's creature, and constituting so large a part
of the human family; there are attainments befitting her as woman, and without which her natural
excellencies must be suppressed, her lustre obscured, and her name remain unembalmed.
Let it not be thought that we are degrading
our subject, while we say, that among these attainments, we hold in high estimation the homely..zrtues of industry and, eonomy.  No beauty, no
wealth, no embellishment can supply the want of.
these..'It is woman s calling to excel in a practi:cal acquaintance fiithe arts".tnd duties tSof domestic life. So far from being beneath her station,




THE FIRST WOMAN.          157
they adorn and exalt the most distinguis ed of her
sex. When, mn the days of the Tarqulns, the Roman army lay encamped around the walls of the
capital of the Rutuli, the princes of the Tarquin
blood, in their gay boasting, each of the beauty
and virtue of his wife, consented to yield the palm
to the one who was found at midnight, with her
handmaids around her, working at the loom.
Were I the biographer of female excellence, my
judgment, my heart, my imagination would induce me to select for my theme some illustrious
Christian woman who is preeminent for her domestic virtues. No woman is well educated, who
is not qualified to''look well to.the w'ays. [.of.her
household."  To "eat the bread of idleness" is
more befitting the slave of an Eastern despot, than
the elevated station assigned to woman in Christian lands. I pity the man who is wedded to a
woman who, so far from sharing with her husband
the burdens of humlan life, satisfies herself that
she has nothing to do but spend and be supported;
and who, when rebuked for her inactivity, can do
nothing but weep. Nor do I wonder that many
such a mai, undoer a load which he finds it impossible to bear, sinks to a premature grave. We
have no apology for the idle, pleasure-loving
spendthrift, and hard-hearted husband. There
would be fewer widowers, if husbands were more
kind, and affectionate, and industrious. And we




158           THE FIRST WOMAN.
have no apology for the pleasure-loving and spendthrift wife; there would be fewer widows, if wives
were more industrious and economical. There is
no such thing as throwing off the original curse
of care and labor either from  man or woman.
The obligation and the necessity of toil in her
own pr op    her sphe, rests as truly upon all the
daughters of Eve, as upon all the sons of Adam.
Wealth may furnish a partial exemption from labor; it is no exemption from care. Solomon, in
describing a virtuous woman, says that " her candle goeth not out by night."  The most splendid
women the world has seen, have been those who
were most familiar with care and toil. It would
be difficult to find more distinguished women than
the Countess of Huntingdon, the Lady Rachel
Russel, whose husband was beheaded by Charles
II., and Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson, who flourished during the civil wars in England, and died in prison
after the Restoration. But they were women not
less distinguished for forethought and toil, than
for the high stations they occupied.  And the
-,more retired scenes of private life furnish thousands
not less distinguished than they, and not less worthy to be immortalized on the page of history.
The woman who would not be a sufferer, must,
in the ordinary course of providence, be alive,
awake, and in earnest in the superintendence and
management of her domestic affairs. If her hand




THIE FIRST WOMAN.          159
is not everywhere, her eye must be everywhere,
anmd-her authirity everywhere in her own household. A cheerful submission -to this great law
forms one of the prominent virtues of her character, and where this is wanting she is a stranger
to woman's true worth and excellence.
Allied to this is a wellcultivated,mind. Her
intellectual endowments qualify her for high degrees of mental embellishment; nor are there any
departments even of solid learning and science
Which, with suitable training, auxiliaries, and in-..
cAe]fment, she might not adorn. The fact that she
livesin her affections, rather than in the ambition
which stimulates to high attainments in the profound sciences, indicates the limits beyond which,
in'ordinary cases, her intellectual researches may
not' be extended; while the station she occupies,
the influence she exerts, and the power she possesses'ver the minds of the young, indicate not
less clearly that, where her domestic quali1cations
are not interfered with she is the more esteemed
and honored by all her advances in knowledge.
Aside from the men who are employed in the
learned professions, the great mass of females in
this land of enterprise and hope, are better educated than the males. In the ordinary intercourse
of the middle classes, as well as in more polished
circles, the number of females who are  well
grounded in all the branches of a good English




160           THE FIRST WOMAN.
education,- and who are capable of thinking, and
of expressing their thoughts with propriety, force,
and elegance, is far greater than that of the other
sex. Not many years since, an intelligent lady
from a foreign land remarked, that nothing more
surprised: her than to find so much attention paid
in the United States to female education. I will
not say, that in reference to the other sex, this is
as it ought to be; while it is highly creditable to
woman. She is the better informed class of the
community; nor is society the loser by her preeminence.  Her keen perceptions, her intuitive
judgment, her ready wit, her vivid fancy, and her
retentive memory, cultivated, enriched, and adorned, render her her husband's pride, the glory of'her children, and the charm of the social circle.
We regret to express the opinion that, in a solid
-and well-measured education, the women of the
present age are not so far in advance of their
predecessors as their opportunities of advancement.
They are exposed to magnify the mere elegancies
of education above its more useful and practical
tendencies; theg live in the song and the dance;
or they revel in romance, and melt awav in
dream  sentimentalism, when they ought to be
more intent on storing their minds with facts and
principles; in becoming acquainted with standard
authors, and in'ilearning how to turn their attainments to good account.  Woman's object is to




THE FIRST WOMAN.           161
please; and sooner or later she will learn that she
cannot do this with becoming grace and dignity,
and cannot do it permanently, where her society is
not instructive. Men there are who are too proud
to be instructed by a woman; but so far is this
from being their general character, that the insinuation of female loveliness and modesty is never
more welcome than when most instructive. By
such teaching, the unthinking of the stronger sex
imperceptibly slide into new truths, and make
them their own. We need not fear cultivated intellect in woman. Where the God of nature has
given her the force, and opportunity the furniture,
of a well-disciplined and richly-cultivated mind,
she is not the less lovely, nor beloved.
But the most important attainmnent of woman
is personal.piety. Though in adverting to the peculiarities of' woman, we have remarked that she
presents the fairer side of human apostasy, we are
not to forget that she is one for whom there is no
redemption but through Him who " came to call,
not the righteous, but sinners to repentance." She
was the first to fall, and man's successful tempter.
It were no marvel, that the blighting effects of sin
should pass over her, and leave her scathed with
the tokens of God's displeasure. With all her
defenselessness and sorrows, there is nothing which
woman so much needs as personal piety. Frail
woman must have the Eternal God for her refuge.




162            THE FIRST WOMAN.
The keen storms of adversity will pass over her,
and she will sink beneath its billows, if she have
not this refuge, and her defenceless'head be not
covered with the shadow of his wing.
When we speak of piety, we mean something
more than a name. Bypiety, we mean the religion of principle, in distinction from the religion of
impulse; a spiritual religion, in distinction from a
&aeligion of-'forms; a religion of which the Spirit of
God, and not the wisdom or the will of man, is the
author'; a self-denying and not a self-indulgent re-.
"ligion; a religion that has a heavenward, and.not
an earthly tendency; a practical religion, in opposi on to the abstractions of theory; and a religion
that is so full of Christ, that the crucified One is at
the basis of its duties and hopes, its centre, its living head, and its glory. -" Favor is deceitful, and
beauty is vain; but the woman that feareth the
Lord, she shall be praised." Other things there are
which constitute her adornment; this is the brightest jewel in her crown. Separate her inferior and
incidental adornments from a heart-felt and practical Christianity; associate them with immorality,
imbue them with infidelity or atheism; and they are
worse than snares-they are a curse to herself and
the world. There is nothing of more dangerous
tendency and influence than an impious or infidel
woman. There are few men in the world so degenerate, and so utterly lost to all sense of right




THE FIRST WOMAN.            163
and shame, as to congratulate themselves on an
infidel wife, or an infidel mother.
It is without doubt a truth, that there are more
pious women in the world than pious men, and
that their piety is of a higher order. Nor is this
difficult to account for, from the peculiarities of the
female character and condition. The fact that she
lives in her affections; that she is formed to be
confiding; that she is separated from the grosser
snares of the world; that she is not unaccustomed
to submission; and that God " hath chosen her in
the furnace of affliction," are all in keeping with
the abounding grace of God to her sex. When
piety is engrafted upon woman's loveliness, I know
of nothing so lovely. It is a mantle that covers
all her faults and foibles, more than they are
veiled even by her beauty. The sweetest emblem
of piety, selected by the sacred writers, is woma~n.
She is " the daughter of Zion;" a high-born progeny,
attired from heaven's wardrobe, "coming up from
the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved." Piety
makes her everything she can be this side heaven.
It elevates and beautifies her when the charms of
personal beauty are fled; it supplies her with resources of joy, when the adulations of earth have
become faint, its affection cold, and its trials severe; it sanctifies the infirmities of age, and gives her
bright anticipations when the bloom and flower of.earthly hope languish and decay. It hallows all




164           THE FIRST WOMAN.
her domestic virtues, makes her toil pleasant and'her self-denial welcome, and carries along with it,its own reward. It makes her the better wife,
stimulating her husband in his spiritual career, and
rejoicing with him as he goes; or if he has not
entered upon that career, restrains him from the
paths of sin and death, allures him to heavenly
wisdom, and by discretion, love, tenderness, sympathy and prayer, it brings him within the fold
of God. And does it not make her the better
mother? Of all the untold millions that are now
in heaven, how many, think you, are there, whose
conversion is to be attributed to the counsels, the
solicitude, the prayers, the tears, the ever-stimulated, ever-hoping faith of her that bare them?
As a daughter, a sister, or even a faithful and
pious servant, how much has piety done for woman, and what dews of Hermon has it distilled
upon her path! In her own unostentatious and
retired department, how has she scattered seeds
of mercy, which have sprung up, and been cherished, and transplanted to scatter their fragrance
under purer and brighter skies!
Piety is essentially the same thing both in man
and woman; yet in woman it has her own beautiful and womanly characteristics. Woman's love
and woman's tenderness adorn it. It has her
meek-eyed humility and her robe of cheerfulness.
It blends her timidity and her confidence. It has




THE FIRST WOMAN.               165
her cautious delicacy and all the refinement of her
manners. It has her nobleness and her instinctive
abhorrence of all that is mean and grovelling. It
has her unsleeping watchfulness, her patient toil,
her self-denying devotement, and her angel ministrations. And while it has her shrinking fears, it
has also her unchanging faithfulness and unshrinking valor. Woman, if she cannot contend for
Christ, can die for him. The pages of history do
not record finer exemplifications of Christian fortitude and valor, than are furnished by the noble
doing, brave daring, and patient suffering of woman. Apathy does not belong to her; stoical indifference forms no part of her nature; a calculat-,
ing policy finds no place in her warm bosom.  It
is not she who consults with flesh and blood, when
God calls her to advance with an undaunted heart
and a firm, undeviating step to the torture, or the
death.  Flattery cannot move her then; nor is
she dismayed by cruel mockings; nor is she confounded before the envenomed tongue of man;
nor does desertion leave her deserted.  Man's
vigilance sleeps when his Saviour lies prostrate.
Man's love hesitates, and falters when his Saviour
is crowned with thorns. Man denies him, and
man betrays. Woman's heart is faithful.
"Not she, with treach'rous kiss, her Saviour stung,
Not she denied him with unholy tongue,
She, when apostles shrunk, could danger brave,
Last at his cross and earliest at his grave."




166           THE FIRST WOMAN.
We honor woman, and hold that she is to be
honored. We would give her "the fruit of her
hands, and let her own works praise her in the
gates."  "Giving honor to the wife," and because
she is the weaker and more dependent, is an obligation delightfully in keeping with the dignified
spirit, and sweet charities of the Sacred Volume.
She has trials enough to bear, arising from the
delicacy and dependence of her condition, not to
be called on to encounter disesteem or reproach.
She has no security but in the magnanimity of the
stronger sex; and that man deserves to be held in
very low estimation, who'imself che rises'Ii'' l
and mean thoughts of woman. I not only look
upon such a man as an ll-bred man, but I cannot
help suspecting that he had a bad mother or that
he has a bad wife, or that in his associations with
the female sex he has been unfortunate if not vicious. The history of nations and of men instructs
us that their personal and national advancement
stand abreast with their treatment of woman.
Man is never free, where woman is a slave; and
where she is degraded, in vain may you search for
a cultivated and polished community. Degrade
woman, and you degrade her offspring, and in
every view make man more degraded. Nature
herself inflicts the penalty; the retribution is sure
to be felt in unfailing accuracy and full measure.
The records of the past, and a careful inspection




THE FIRST WOMAN.           167
of the present, show nothing more clearly, than
that just in the proportion to woman's advancement is man the more exalted, virtuous, and happy. One of the first rays of light that broke upon
the night of the dark ages, was the gallant and heroic deportment of the stronger toward the weaker
sex, which was fostered by the laws of chivalry;
while from that day to this, not only have the social and moral culture of the nations of Europe
been progressive with the culture of the female
mind and heart, but the peculiarity of their national character has received its impress from the
peculiarity of that culture, and from the degree in
which woman has been allowed to retain her own
womanly character and station.  The Creator
honored her by making her his last and fairest
work. Her Saviour honored her; man might not
share the honor, even of his lowly incarnation. If
she was dishonored by her first transgression, she
has this honor, that the Incarnate One was the
i" qwoGnan'S seed."
It would be no small gratification to exemplify
these general observations by a reference to some
of the more distinguished of women whose names
live on the pages of secular and Christian biography, had we time for such a reference. Though
the biography of woman is not often written, for
the obvious reason that she seeks not the public
eye; yet, such is the redundance of materials for fe



168           THE FIRST WOIAN.
male biography of the richest kind, that the most
classic and Christian author would be at a loss to
make selections that would do justice, even to himself. He might conduct you to the thrones of
princesses, and to the cottages of peasants, and
there show you woman in her loveliest virtues.
He might point you to her counsels of wisdom as
treasured up in volumes alike endeared to the wise
and the unwise. He might direct you to halls
where science has baptized her thousands by female hands. We are not ambitious of this arduous, though delightful work; yet is there this one
thing of which we are ambitious, —to elevate the
standard of female excellence.  We would fain
have- you dwell up" onp those inimitably beautiful
touches of female character delineated by the writers of the Old and New Testament. We would
ask you to inspect, with us, the records of churches,from which the young and the beautiful have gone
forth to be the adornment of heathen lands. We
might go with you to the graves of the departed,
and there where mothers sleep, and the cypress;mourns, spell out names that were the glory of
their sex. We might pass with you to the evervarying scenes where woman lives not for time,
but for eternity; and you might visit, with us,
scenes where many a faithful servant of God complains not of the cross, because he bears it with
such a helper, and no longer deems his way rugged




THE FIRST WOMAN.          169
and tedious and mournful, because he is travelling
with such a comforter and friend. Let woman put
on the whole armor of God, and true soldiers of
the cross will not be wanting. Their armor will be
bright, as hers is embellished; and as is her valor,
so will be theirs. God has given woman beauty,
loveliness, and self-denying courage; we have
nothing to ask for her but consistent piety. Let
womnan be pions, and how will man feel the impulses of her piety! how will this ungodly world
feel the constraints of redeeming mercy, and how
soon would it realize the vision of the Holy City,
the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out
of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband!
8




CHAPTER VI.
THERE are few subjects the Scriptures treat of
more instructively, or even with greater solemnity,
than the subject of Marriage. They reveal to us
its origin, its sacred intimacies, and its great design and object. They speak of the matrimonial
bond as constituting a union of the highest order,
as the most exalted and inviolable of all earthly
relations; and in order to put upon it the most
emphatic seal of the divine approbation, they
compare it to the union between Christ and his
church, and consecrate its endearment and tenderness by the love which exists between the Redeemer of men and his own redeemed people.
"We love him," says the apostle, " because he first
loved us." It is the order of nature and of God,
that the man should first love the woman, and that
the woman should respond to the affections of the
man. I find nothing in the Bible about marriages
of mere expediency and interest. There are such




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.         171
marriages; as calculating as an algebraic equation,
and as cold as the moonlight on the frozen sea.
And though such marriages sometimes turn out
well, the history of the domestic feuds that have
embittered our world would form an instructive
comment on the words,' from the beginning it was
not so."
Among the fsrt tJhiings, after the narrative of
the completed creation, we have an account of the
marriage of the first parents of our race. It had
the sanction of God himself, for He was its immediate author. The halls where these holy nuptials
were celebrated, were the primeval Paradise, overhung by the clear, blue heavens. The happy pair
were the first man and the first woman. God
himself was the Great High Priest. Attending angels were the witnesses; while these morning stars
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy. Ancient mythology seems to have had some
traditionary and indistinct inkling of this beautiful
transaction, when it represented the reciprocal attachment of the sexes as the offspring of the
zephyr and the rainbow. I-ow much more beautiful was the simple reality, as narrated by the
sacred historian! " And the rib which the Lord
God had taken from man, made he a woman, and
brought her unto the man!" Adam did not take
his newly-created bride until she was given to him
by his and her Creator. She was God's gift, and




1I2          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
she is God's gift; it is still a truth, that " a prudent wife is from the Lord."
It is worthy of remark, that such were the arrangements of unerring wisdom in regard to the
human family during the period of their unfallen
integrity. But how much more important in its
influences upon a race that is fallen! With the
foreknowledge of their approaching apostasy, and
a far-reaching wisdom and purpose, the benevolent
Deity here laid the foundation of the domestic relations. And they embosomed those restraining,
conservative, and hallowed agencies destined to act
on the successive generations of men, and effectively cooperate with that wondrous method of
redeeming mercy which as yet lay undisclosed
within his own benevolent mind, and which time,
and all the institutions and events of time, exist
only to unfold. This great work of mercy was to
be a progressive work. It was pre-arranged for a
race, not called into existence by a single act of
creative power, but that sprang from a common
pair, and whose progeny were to cover this outstretched globe, as the sands cover the sea-shore.
The arrangement might have involved a promiscuous intercourse of the sexes; it might have been
a divinely authorized polygamy to the end of the
world. But it was neither of these; it was marriage-the marriage of one man with one woman,
inseparable but by death, or conjugal infidelity.




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.          173
And who does not see the wonderful goodness and
wisdom of God, in making this arrangement at the
outset, and thus ordaining the descent of the race?
We have but a single object before us, therefore, in the present chapter; it is to present a
scriptural account of the institution of marriage,
and with special reference to the religious infdluence
of the domestic relations.
The sacred writers greatly honor the institution
of marriage.  "Marriage is honorable in all, and
the bed undefiled." From the equality of numbers in the different sexes, to which we referred in
our last chapter, it is not unnatural to conclude
that it is the duty of every man, whose condition
in the world justifies the belief that he is able to
sustain the responsibilities of wedded life, to become a married man. I say, whose condition in
the world justifies such a belief; because no man,
and no woman, has the warrant to rush heedlessly
into these responsibilities, unless, with the ordinary favor of providence, there is good reason to
believe that they can be sustained. Depression,
poverty, crime, dishonor, mortification, and death,
are too often the fruits of precipitate matrimonial
alliances, not to sound the note of alarm on the
ear of those who never look beyond the present
moment. There are doubtless exceptions to this
universal obligation to the married life, arising
from the employments to which men are devoted;




174          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
from the disturbed and warlike, or persecuting
age of the world, like that to which the Apostle
Paul's advice referred, suggesting the inexpediency
of marriage to the early Christians under the bloody
reign of Nero. Nor do we deny that they may
also arise from those melancholy providences which
bereave them of the object of their first love, and
leave them desolate and beyond the reach of a
second attachment. But they are exceptions only;
the law itself is too wise and benevolent a law to
be disobeyed with impunity.
The revealed motive for the creation of woman
was a beautiful motive. " And the Lord God said,
it is not good that man should be alone; I will
make an he'p, meet for him." With all his lofty
faculties, and all his divinely imparted dominion,
he was alone. Amid all the fertility, and fruits,
and beauty of an unsullied Paradise, and all the
charms and splendor of this exterior world, unveiled and unobscured by sin, he was still alone.
His Maker had so formed him, that there were
high and holy sympathies in his nature which solitude could not satisfy. The air would be more
sweet, the fruits of Eden more delicious, the melody of its groves and the murmur of its streams
the more exquisitely enjoyed, if shared with one
who, with like hallowed and affectionate sympathies, could maintain a correspondence with him
in thought, and language, and emotion, and, with




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.        175
him, could become the grateful and happy partakerof the divine bounty. Even in his solitude,
the first man was created the happiest of the race.
He was happy in the tranquillity of his own mind,
and in his earthly inheritance; more than all, was
he happy in his delightful and delighted fellowship with his Maker. But even the services and
joys of a sinless piety would be augmented and
more joyous by woman's fellowship, because it
would be a twofold piety and a twofold joy.
There would be another being like himself, reflecting back upon his own joyous thoughts, new admiration of the wondrous Deity; another mind uttering its responsive impulses, and at the same time,
by its tenderness and susceptibility, exercising a
refining influence on his own. Piety may, and
often does solicit retirement. Sweet and almost
unearthly are its hours of solitary communion with
God and things unseen; while its purest and
highest joys both in earth and heaven, are the
most exalted and pure, where thought responds to
thought, and love commingles with love, and praise
is in sweet harmony with praise.
Paradise was no monastery. The spirit and joys
which our first father drew from religious sources
were too full for his own single heart to hold.
He would have mistaken his calling if he had been
a monk; and that fair and newly-created woman,
taken from his side, would have been unmindful




176          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
of her high and sacred destiny, if, in accordance
with the ascetic teachings of a later, and certainly
not a purer age, she had taken the veil. Of all
men in the world, it is not good for religious men
to be alone. The Creator foresaw this in relation
to the first and purest of men; and provided him
an associate, meet and every way fitted to share
his responsibility and his joys. The man and the
woman are mutually necessary to each other;
the latter to soften the sterner attributes of the
former, the former to fortify and ennoble the character of the latter. Nor were it an easy matter to
say which has the greater need. The vow of celibacy, either in man or woman, is a wicked vow;
and is as truly the bane of piety as of joy. Although the subsequent history of the first man
shows that solitary piety may be ensnared by
woman's importunity and loveliness, it does not
show that it is not more pure, more safe, and
sweeter than the piety that dwells alone. No man
is secure from temptation by becoming an anchorite, nor does he find repose by merely retiring
from the noise and bustle of the world. Solitary
man we do not envy. No, " it is not good for man
to be alone.." In youth, woman is his charm; in
manhood, his protection; in old age, his comforter.
In youth, he turns from a deceitful and sickening
world to her, as his garden of delights, and knows
no solitude. In manhood, she is his refuge from




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.        177
the storms which agitate and overwhelm. While
in old age, the love which, amid the perplexities
of middle life, was sometimes agitated and disturbed, is found to have been all the while striking
its roots the deeper. Under a wise and kind ordering of God's providence, it has become like that
which gladdened the day of his espousals; and he
still finds that the zephyr breathes upon the rainbow cloud, and that under life's waning moon, he
knows no solitude so long as he is with her he
loves.
Man was not created a simple unity; nor yet a
trinity, but a duality.  "In the day that God
created man, male and female created he them;
and blessed them, and called their name Adam."
The one was constituted of the two, and the two
were one. The perfect man is made up of twain.
Adam was not complete without Eve; when he
awoke from that deep sleep, he must have had
something like the consciousness that he was but
half a man.  Nor did he feel that he was his'
whole self, until God restored the rib, and he
could say, "' This is now bone of my bone and flesh
of my flesh." Thus do the Scriptures honor the
marriage bond. * The name of the married pair becomes one; their rights and privileges, their hearts,
their persons are one. Nothing may sever them but
the blow which dissolves the union of the body
and the soul. "Therefore shall a man leave his
8*




118          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and
they twain shall be one flesh."
As we before intimated, there are great moral
reasons for this arrangement. What are these reasons, and how much importance is to be attached to
themn, and to what extent may they be regarded as
elevating and sanctifying the domestic relations?
These are inquiries of interest, and deserve more
than a few passing remarks. " And did he not make
one 2" demands the Prophet Malachi. " And yet
had he the residue of the Spirit. And wherefore
one?"  Mark and digest the answer, "That he
might SEEK A GODLY SEED." The first pair became
pious without this parental training; God was
their immediate Father, and they were taught of
him. But they were to transmit this heaven-imparted legacy to their children; and therefore he
made them one. He had the residue of the Spirit; he could have made millions. But he made
one conzmon pair, from whom all the rest should
proceed, that he might have a holy offSeping, and
that being the property of one, they might be
cared for, and educated in his fear.
The object of this arrangement is to preoccupy
the mind of the rising generation in favor of truth
and goodness. It is no marvel that infidels and
socialists have complained of this as an invasion
upon human liberty. Why, say they, should our
fathers bind us, and we bind our children, and




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.          179
thus make religion little better than an hereditary
bondage?  Why should not intelligent beings,
before their minds receive any religious direction,
reach those adult years, in which they are capable
of judging and acting freely for themselves? Religion implies the exercise, of reason and assent;
of personal liberty, one of the dearest branches is
liberty of conscience, and this no one can exercise
till he comes to years!  To all such appeals as
this, we have only now to reply, that they are opposed to the whole spirit of the -Bible. The method
which the God only wise has selected for carrying
into effect his purposes of mercy is a very different
method. The Scriptures regard the blessings of
the great salvation as the most precious legacy,
and speak of those as most distinguished in spiritual privileges, who enjoy the earliest and best religious training. In defiance of such infidel sneers,
they regard it as the shortest and safest way, to
preoccupy the youthful mind with religious truth,
and before the Enemy has the full and unresisted
opportunity of sowing tares. It never occurred
to the writers of the sacred volume, that it is any
encroachment upon natural rights, for the God of
love to bring the rising generation into such relations as are designed to counteract the evil tendencies of their own depraved nature, and to forestall their consciences in favor of truth and heaven.
Their professed object is, so to direct the youthful




180          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
mind, that as soon as it begins to open the eyes of
thought and intelligence, one of the first impressions of which it is capable should be, that the
God that made it has a claim upon it prior to
that of the Prince of Darkness. It is a delightful
feature in the gracious government God has established, that it thus consults the nature of man as
a social being; puts his seal upon the domestic
relations; and makes use of those ties of blood
and kindred, of love and tenderness, by which the
heart of the parent is bound up in the child, in
order to give it a heavenward tendency. Nor is
there any agency so important as this, to be employed in perpetuating moral rectitude in the
earth, and elevating the countless families of which
it is composed to a companionship with the angels
of light.
When we look into the Scriptures, we find several important facts on this subject, which ought
never to be lost sight of. One of these is, that no
_parent acts for himself alone.  The legal consequences of one man's conduct may be felt not
only by himself, but by others. One may suffer for the sins of another, or be benefited by
another's righteousness.  Another may be appointed to stand in his place; may represent
and bind him, and entail upon him consequences
of conduct that is not his own. Whether this
truth forms a part of our theological creed or




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.          181
not, we cannot help discovering it in the framework and various compartments of society. The
world is full of it; the ordinary intercourse of men
could not exist with it. The husband acts for
the wife, the master for the servant, the guardian
for the ward, the ruler for his subjects. And it
is emphatically true of the parental relation. The
mere law of nature, in a multitude of instances,
constitutes the parent the representative of the
child; so that the character and destiny of the
child, through the operation both of physical
and moral causes, is affected by the conduct of
the parent. The first man was constituted the
representative of the race; his character was the
pivot on which their destiny turned. He acted
for them; his apostasy was virtually their apostasy. God has ever acted thus toward the human
family as a whole, and nowhere is this feature
of his government more distinctly observable than
in the domestic relations.
In these relations, this principle is of twofold aspect. The language of his law is, " I the Lord thy,
God am a jealous God, Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thouands of them that love me, and keep my
commandments." So long as this law is in force,
children will be disobedient, and will suffer on account of the disobedience of their parents; and they




182          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
will become obedient, and receive blessing on account of their parents' obdience. And what are the
facts, but that wherever you look over this wide
world, you see that the piety and virtues of parents
affect the well-being of their children, while their
evil-being is as truly affected by their parents' impiety and vices 2 The history of the church and the
world reads affecting lessons illustrating this great
fact. In the communications of his grace, God has
regard to Christian families; while he pours his
wrath upon the heathen and upon the families that
call not upon his name. However, in the exercise of
his sovereignty, he may go out of these limits, and
here and there abandon the incorrigible of Christian families, and reclaim those who are not incorrigible from the families of the ungodly; the instances of this sort are comparatively rare. And
who does not see that it is of great practical importance, that, in promoting the interests of rectitude in such a world as this, the God of rectitude
should give this distinguished token of his complacency to moral and Christian virtue, and at the
same time fix this strong mark of his displeasure
upon wickedness? What more powerful dissua.
sive from. sin, or more powerful persuasive to holiness is to be found within the compass of human
thought, than the consideration that the effects of
our piety or impiety tell on the destiny of our
children   Men who have little concern for them



TIE FIRST MARRIAGE.          183
selves, tremble at wickedness when they think of
the consequences of it upon those they most love.
When, for their sakes, and for their sins, God
threatens to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children, his threatenings sink deep. Nor is
the promise less affecting than the threatening. It
is a most cheering fact, that the blessings of obedience descend from parents to their children; nor
is the Christian parent to be found whose heart
does not respond to this great promise, as one of
the most sweet and one of the holiest on the pages
of the sacred volume.
We are not wont, as we ought to do, to appreciate this arrangement of heavenly wisdom. In
constituting the population of the earth into a
world of families, the Father of mercies has formed
it of delicate and sensitive materials.  It is a most
beautiful moral machinery; a "building  fitly
framed together;" a net-work so perfect that every
cord and filament, and all its thousand knots act
and pull upon its sister cords, and one is strengthened, only as it keeps the others in its place.
Holy wedlock is the centre of these evolving circles; and the parties by which it is organized entwine themselves with all these sacred influences.
What is it that holds in check the boisterous levity and bold wickedness of that ungodly youth,
who so lately found his joys only amid the
coarser revellings of his own sex, and who, with




184          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
scorners, delighted in his scorning? A subduing
influence has come upon him, because he is a husband and a father. A new world opens to his
thoughts, of which he is the head and prince;
novel scenes present themselves to his eye, new responsibilities press upon his conscience, new emotions spring up in his heart. And if he be human,
he will not break these cords of love, nor cast these
bands asunder. The eye of his child is upon him;
and though he himself may have been ever so
thoughtless, he would not that his children walk
in the counsel of the ungodly. And what is it
that has.produced such a wonderful transformation
in the character of that gay and giddy girl, and
clothed her with womanly dignity-and cast a'sombre shade over her brow, so that she seeks
retirement, and often converses with God and
heaven? She has been made to feel that she has
others to live for besides herself; because the God
of all grace has made her the centre of attraction
to her husband and children. She, too, occupies a
new world of her own, of which she is the adornment and head, and where her gentle, but effective power would fain draw the feet of those she
so much loves fiom the paths of the destroyer.
It is a truth never to be lost sight of, that in the
dispensations of his grace, the God of love does. not
ordinlarily sqeparate the child from the parent. The
principle of representation here looms, as one of




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.        185
the great principles of the divine government;
and what is more, it looms in the brightness of
hope. We see it everywhere-shedding its light
upon the past, and gilding the future. We travel
along with it, as the men of other times were conducted by the pillar and the cloud in the wilderness; and we look toward it for days to come, as
a sun that shall never go down. When, in the
patriarchal age, God was about to destroy the
world by a flood, he said to Noah, " Thee have
I found righteous before me in this generation;
therefore, come thou and all thy house into the
ark."  And when, in predicting the approach of
brighter days, the prophet speaks of a time of
which it is written, "I will pour my Spirit upon
thAy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring."
How often, how forcibly, and with what inimitable
beauty the sacred writers enforce this thought, is
best known to those who best know the Holy
Scriptures-kindling as they go, and never painting the scene in which "Jerusalem is a rejoicing,
and her people a joy;" in which "the wolf and
the lamb shall feed," and where there is " nothing
to hurt in all God's holy mountain:" without reminding us of the altars and firesides of domestic
piety and joy, and without telling us that "the
children shall be as aforetime," and that they are
"the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their
offsprin~g with them."




186          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
The promise of blessing to the children of the
righteous for the sake of their parents, is among
the " exceeding great and precious promises."
They bring relief to many an anxious and aching
heart; thousands have been buoyed up by them,
as they passed through deep waters. They encourage the sower as he goes forth to sow; and
they shed a calm and summer's light upon the
harvest, as the church looks toward the days of
her ingathering and autumnal glory.
It assumles a more solemn form too than a bare
promise; it is a covenant with an annexed and
most impressive seal. That seal was a household
ordinance under the old dispensation, and it is a
household ordinance still. It does not accord with
the analogy of the divine dispensations, that spiritual privileges enjoyed under the Old Testament
economy, should be denied or restricted under the
New.  We have the family promise and the family seal. It is still the privilege of parents and
their children; children are a part of their parents, and pass under the bond of the covenant.
They are no outcasts. They are neither pagans
nor Mohammedans, but are under the wings of the
same cherubim with their parents. The change
in the seal affects no change in the promise; the
seal is more simple under the gospel than under
the law; but it is not less significant. It is Christian in its form and in its import. And its sweet




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.          187
language is, "Suffer the little children to come
unto me, and forbid them  not, for such is the
kingdom of heaven."
In addition to these specifications, look now at
the general scope and design of the sacred writings.
The honor which the Bible confers on the matrimonial relation is abundant honor. It protects
this relation by laws and sanctions, by which no
other relations are protected.  How  often, and
with what solemnity is the thought there uttered,
that "wmhoremongers and  adulterers God will
judge;" and that they shall have their part in
the lake of fire? There is, moreover, running
throughout the whole of the Old and New Testament this household right; the right of the children by inheritance. It is the right in fee simple to
the same spiritual privileges with their parents.
The whole spirit of this sacred book stands forth,
as a guardian angel, throwing its shield over these
hallowed associations, and giving them pre6minence among the selected means by which the
designs of the divine mercy are accomplished.
Observe now the remarkable fitness and wisdom
of this arrangement. Occupied the youthful mind
will be; pre-occupied it is, and for evil. How
shall the intruder be dislodged, the usurper expelled, and in his place be introduced its rightful
proprietor, the God of heaven?  There is no relation like that which exists between the different




188          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
branches of the same plighted household, and
which so effectually secures the moral and religious
culture of the young. What human society is to
be, depends upon what its children now are. One
generation goeth, and another cometh, rapidly as
the eagle when he hasteth to his prey. Before
they are aware of it, the present generation are
laid aside as useless, or rest in their graves, and
sportive childhood and smiling infancy occupy
their places, and exert their authority and influence. It is but yesterday, as it were, and those
whose locks are now white with age, were young.
The men and the women who, when the sun of life
has risen a little higher, will bear this responsibility, are now forming their character; they are
an unformed mass, submitted to the control of
senior hands, like wax to the seal. The impression
now stamped upon it is one which remains. And
what is it without those hallowed influences, which
flow from the mutual dependence, mutual obligation, and mutual endearment of the domestic relations. Relax and sever the household bond; melt
this golden chain, and scatter it on the broad and undefined surface of a loose and licentious socialism;
and where are the hopes, either of the church, or the
world?  Who cares then for the religious education of the young? or who then appreciates an intelligent and virtuous childhood?
Men there are who are the advocates of such a




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.         189
relaxation of the marriage bond; but what, I entreat them to consider, would the world become in
twenty years, were its households broken up, or
changed at pleasure, or left in ignorance of God
and his word, unrestrained in their vicious courses,
and never cheered by the voice of prayer? How
long before the scenes of other lands would be
realized; infanticide become an act of piety; and
parents never more devout than when they caused
their children to pass through the fire as an offering to Moloch? If these cruel paths are now untrodden, it is because the God of the Bible preserves to us the integrity and piety, the tenderness,
and affection, and preciousness of the marriage
bond and the household relations. It is in the
midst of these, that religious instruction has influence; that the goodness of God leads to repentance; and that his judgments teach men righteousness.
Yes! his judgments. Let us stop a moment,
and weigh this single thought. One of the selected
instrumentalities in the conversion of men, which
neither the church nor the world can afford to dispense with, are those afflictions which, though not
joyous for the present, yet afterwards yield the
peaceable fruits of righteousness. Men are accessible
to the salutary influence of judgments, chiefly
through the domestic relations, because they touch
so many chords of tenderness and love. If we have




190          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
not been unwise observers of God's dealings, we
have found those disciplinary dispensations to be, not
the striking and the rare-not the more stunning
and overwhelming; but those of more ordinary
occurrence, and which, though they attract less
attention from without, go on their effectual message to the habitation and the heart where they
are sent. The solitary tree upon the mountain top
may be riven by the whirlwind, and not a bird
shall be disturbed in its nestling, because it is not
there that the birds build their nests, and utter
their song. It is in the domestic grove, and in the
green bower, and when the clustering vine is riven,
that these cheerful voices are silent, or die away
in the lingering and plaintive sounds of the storm.
Would you see God's hand as it comes in mercy to
the souls of men; go to that home of sorrow where
the heart-stricken parents are mourning over
blasted hopes. Go where the widow and the
orphan vainly strive to dry up their tears, and
where a sense of their loss comes gushing over
them like a flood. Go where the strong man
bows in his agony, and struggles in the grasp of a
stronger than he. Go where God has cut down
the loveliest and the best, because a father's and a
mother's heart had begun to yield to idolatry, and
needed just such an admonition to save them from
the pit of destruction. Men read such lessons of
God's love, and understand and apply them. They




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.         191
come home wnere the track of the pestilence, or
the wasting conflagration, or agitating revolutions
are unheeded. Yet the effect of this whole class of
judgments is associated with the marriage bond, and
depends upon the tenderness of the social relations.
We may not, therefore, regard these relations
with lightness; there is no view in which their
importance may not be magnified. The church
and the world will be disappointed in their hopes;
generation after generation will live and die in
their delusions, just in the measure in which these
relations are honored, and the spirit of piety is
preserved among the descendants of a pious ancestry. It is no marvel, that in carrying into effect the method of redemption, these purposes of
mercy should early entwine themselves with the
affections and hopes of the fanmily circle. It is a
most beautiful arrangement, and deserves the place
which God has given it as the selected instrumentality by which true religion is to be extended and
perpetuated among fallen men.  The great foe
of God and man desires no cooperation more effective than an irreligious and ungoverned family;
while, as the great offset to this degenerating process, the God of love has made choice of the domestic relations as the depositaries of his grace,
and there laid the deep foundations of that spiritual temple from which the symbol of his presence
and glory is never more to depart.




192          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
Our desire is, that youthful families should appreciate these thoughts. The mutual affection of
a young married pair, if not seriously disturbed in
the earlier years of its existence, is not often disturbed when that affection is matured by time,
and cemented by the same habits and interests.
It may, perhaps, be surprising to a youthful bride,
to see what a difference one short month makes in
the relations she sustains to him who is now her
husband. She has been wont to be regarded as
the idol; her lover was all devotion; no toil and
no self-denial were too great to gratify, and if possible to anticipate her every wish. But-she is the
wife now; she is as truly the loved one as ever;
but she has other wishes to consult than her own,
if she would be happy. The change is great, and
it is too much to expect that every young woman
is prepared for it. She must bear her part in the
toil, and burden, and battle of human life, as well
as its joys. And it may be she is disappointed. She
had treasured up her joys where she does not find
them. Her affections and her pride are mortified.
The flowers of hope wither in her path, and her
prospects seem for a time to be all blighted. A
young girl brought up with romantic notions of
the married life is very apt to fall into this mistake. And the preventive of the error is found in
the instructions which the Bible gives of what a
good wife should be. Her sphere is eminently one




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.         193
of self-denying tenderness and love; and not a little depends on her knowledge of the duties of that
sphere.  If this be disregarded, there may be
trouble, and the evil must work its own cure.
And if she have good sense and affection, and her
husband is generous and kind, it will not be long
before the cure is effected. A little mutual forbearance, and she will rest satisfied in being his
adviser and comforter. And then she will be
happy. They will travel on together, no longer
expecting this earth to be a paradise. They will
enjoy its sunshine together; together will they
breast themselves against its storms; and together
will they rove among its flowers and gather its
fruit. I have often thought that this is a most
critical period of human life; and more especially
where the marriage is one of affection. Much depends, in the early part of the married life, upon
the "meekness of wisdom."  The youthful pair
are not always apprised how busily the great
tempter is employed in exciting those little contentions, and fomenting those unexpected and provoking feuds which originate in unsuitableness of
temper, and in the many cares and inconveniences
of domestic life; but which are soon forgotten by
an affectionate and generous mind. "Resist the
devil, and he shall flee from you."  This "Prince
of the power of the air" would fain blow them up
into storms, and breathe into them the hurricane's
9




194          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
blast; while in fact they are a passing cloud. A
single gush of tears, a summer shower, and the sky
is clear.
The contrast is wide between an ungodly and a
godly household. " The curse of the Lord is in
the house of the wicked." An ungodly family,
what a melancholy picture is this, here in this
world of mercy and of hope, and yet a world so full
of danger! God is not there; his word has no
placc, nor does his truth shine as a lamp to their
feet, and a light to their path. The voice of
prayer and praise is not heard there; nor do tranquil Sabbaths ever visit their abode of plighted
love. The young wander there amid precipices
and dangers, to whom no guardian angel ministers,
and for whom no iHoly Spirit has been invoked;
and wander in the broad way that leads to death.
On the other hand, the sun shines upon no lovelier
scene than a godly family. It is recorded of
Zacharias and Elizabeth, that " they were both
righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."
The blameless pair, what a beautiful sight! I
recollect seeing the picture of a child passing over
a very narrow path, with precipices on each side,
and I wondered at the serenity and hope with
which she travelled on, until I saw an angel behind
her, hovering over her, and directing her to some
bright object in the distance. And I thought of




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.         195
God's promise to the families of his people, and
was reminded of the words, "Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them
that shall be heirs of salvation."  God " blesseth
the habitation of the righteous."  It is a verdant
island amid Arabian sands. The dry wind of the
desert does not scorch it, nor does its beauty
writher under its mid-day suns. No; nor do its
flowers languish under the western sky. There is
a maturity, a richness of affection in those longwedded minds that have weathered the storm of
life together, and together have so often made the
Everlasting God their refuge, which may not be
compared with the feverish affection of inexperienced youth. There is that perfect repose and
confidence which the youthful heart cannot know.
The smile of affection is there; nor is it less cheering that it radiates the brow wrinkled by time.
It is a" dwelling-place of Mount Zion," where God
himself resides, and on whose altars he hath created
a fire and a smoke.
We would have these thoughts appreciated also
bypaarents. Parents may be unfaithful, and God
may visit their iniquity upon their children. Such
unfaithfulness, we fear, is too common a sin.
Christian parents, beside violating their covenant
engagements with God, are rebuked for this unfaithfulness by the tardy fulfilment of all that is
cheering in the divine promise, and by that "' hope




196          THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
deferred which maketh the heart sick."  Parents
begin their work of prayer, instruction, and discipline, with the seal of God's covenant in their
hands, and under the high commission, " Take this
child and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy
wages." The infant Moses, of whom this was
spoken, was then a weeping babe in the ark of
bulrushes, exposed on the banks of the Nile. But
he was destined to be the greatest man of his age,
mighty in words and deeds, learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians, and God's inspired
Prophet; eminent for holiness and usefulness, and
the great legislator of the world. When the proud
daughter of Egypt's haughty tyrant, saw this little
Hebrew slave, " behold the babe wept." And she
had " compassion on him," and "the woman took
the child and nursed it."  Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones. That child which
God has given you has a high and immortal destiny. There is the dawn of intelligence there,
which will shine when the sun is turned into darkness. There are capacities of thought there, that
are capable of unlimited expansion; and capacities
for holiness, usefulness, and joy, whose brightness
may hereafter mingle with the glory that constitutes the radiance of the Redeemer's crown. Yet
is it born to weep, to sin, to suffer, to die —nay, to
perish, but for parental love and faithfulness. O
bear it on your bosom. Impel it heavenward.




THE FIRST MARRIAGE.       197
Bear it on your bosom while it is young; and when
you can no longer do this, travel with it, hand in
hand, to the city of our God.
Our desire also is, that the thoughts which have
been suggested, should not be neglected by the
young.  These domestic relations, my young
friends, where you have been so carefully nurtured,
and which will never be forgotten, are the pledge
of blessing. "You have Abraham to your father;" but you may not forget that " God is able,
from the stones, to raise up children to Abraham." It is an affecting truth, that " many shall
come from the East and the West, from the North
and the South, and sit down with Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of God, and the
children of the kingdom shall be cast out." The
piety of your parents will not save you, if you
yourselves live without God in the world. There
is many a man, and many a woman, early trained
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, now
in the world of mourning. Your perverseness may
prove too great a trial for the faith of your parents; you may discourage them too often, and
tear from their bosoms their last hope. They may
cease to pray for you, because they feel there is
no more encouragement to pray. There may be a
crisis in your history, beyond which the divine
forbearance cannot be extended, and parental faith
expires.




198         THE FIRST MARRIAGE.
But apprehensions like these, though they may
be realized, are not so much in keeping with our
theme, as the more cherished hopes it inspires.
You fill a wide space in the world in which you
dwell, and form a link in the chain that takes hold
of the destiny of those who shall come after you.
They are your natural and rightful heirs; see to
it that they inherit from you treasures and honors
which this world cannot give. There is enough in
the generosity of God's gracious arrangement in
regard to the domestic relations, to induce you to
put a high estimate upon them, and enough that is
significant of his grace to induce you to look toward him and them with religious hopes. The
social bond should constrain you to become Christians. Both the Spirit and the Bride say, Come.




CHAPTER VII.
THE fatal exposure of our race is to be absorbed
in the pursuit of the things that are seen and te.mporal, to the neglect of those that are unseen and
eternal. So immersed and engulfed are they in
this all-devouring vortex, as to be in danger of
being carried down the cataract beyond the hopo
and possibility of return. The great excuse with
the mass of men for not paying that serious attention to the concerns of the soul which their importance demands, is that they have no time for this
service; and in order to remove and forever silence this excuse, the God of heaven has set apart
one day in seven, and thereby one seventh part
of every man's life to be devoted to the interests
of his immortality.
The thought is an interesting one, that this appointment was coeval with man's creation; and
that at no period since, has this world existed
without the Sabbath. The Sabbath was literally




200           THE FIRST SABBATH.
among the "first things." The material heavens and
earth were scarcely called into being; man himself had only begun to exist, and woman to share
his existence and joys; when the institution, so full
of heavenly forethought, was made known by
the words, " And God blessed the seventh day and
sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from
all the work which God created and made."  In
this original appointment were included the entire
Sabbatical institution, and all those elemental observances that were essential to its influence. The
benevolent Creator would not send forth into this
new world the intelligent and immortal beings he
had made, and give them dominion over the inferior creatures, and the commission to replenish the
earth and subdue it; without the illuminating, sanctifying, and conservatory influence of the Sabbath.
Sinless as they were, they needed the Sabbath;
sinful as they and their posterity would be, the
Sabbath was indispensable to their hopes.
Man thus began his earthly career. As under
the legal economy, the first was to be chosen for
God; thefirst-born of man; thefJrst-born of beasts;
the first-fruits of the field; so it was the duty and
honor of the first man to devote to God the first
dawnings of time. Man was created not until the
close of the sixth and last day of the creation. So
that, reckoning from evening to evening, the first
entire dayof man's life was the Sabbath. He had




THE FIRST SABBATH.        201
but begun to be conscious of his existence, and
open his eyes upon the marvellous works of God,
and upon himself more wondrous, and upon his
still more wondrous Maker, than he and the woman God gave him, were embosomed in the quiet
atmosphere of God's holy day of rest. The shadows of the first evening were the eve of the Sabbath. The light of the first morning they ever beheld was the morning of the Sabbath. The first
voices that greeted them were the song of cherubim and seraphim, as they sang together, and all
the sons of God shouted for joy. It was a day
of rest. There was no upheaving of the dry land,
and no rushing of the waters to their appointed
beds. The lights of the firmament were established,
their laws prescribed, and they were moving quietly in their orbits. The new creation was finished. The day of rest was quietly bidding welcome to the new-created race; and man, the last
of all God's works, began his career in loving,
praising, adoring God his Maker. It was not the
busy world he first entered, but the temple of
God; God's sanctuary-there to worship, and there
to listen to the voice from the excellent glory.
The first Sabbath was the great preparative for
his life of toil; the great-preparative, and the emphatic emblem of his immortality.
But we must proceed to sober argument. There
are not a few who regard the Sabbath as an in9*




202             THE FIRST SABBATH.
stitution peculiar to the Jewish people, and who,
while they consent to its observance as a wise and
benevolent arrangement, and one fraught with great
benefits to mankind, at the same time teach that it
is not the revealed law of Christianity, but only
the conventional law of Christians.* We are by no
means prepared to adopt this view; yet is it one
which has obtained so extensively, more especially,
in the continental churches of Europe, that it deserves to be considered with respect.
The first question in relation to it is, When was
the Sacbath instituted.?  This question, it appears to
us, is answered by the narrative of Moses, to which
reference has already been made.  There we are
instructed, that immediately after the work of
creation was completed, " God blessed the seventh
day and sanctified it." He commanded his blessing to rest upon it; he sanctified, or set it apart
from  other days, as the natal day of the world,
and as a memorial of that great and perfected
work.  He foresaw, that there would be ungodly
men, and atheists, and.that it was necessary there
should be some sensible commnemoration of the fact
that it was created by himself in the space of six
days. With the recurrence of every seventh day
* Among these writers, are the distinguished names of Calvin and Paley. The reformers were divided in opinions on this question, as may be
extensively seen by consulting Vitringa, Aphorismi Doct. Christ. It is
no marvel they were tenacious of Christian liberty in regard to days, just
freed as they had been from the superstitious observances of Rome.




THE FIRST SABBATH.          203
of rest from worldly employments, the inquiry
would naturally arise in the minds of the young,
What means this remarkable observance?  Nor
would the answer be'likely to be forgotten, that
God himself set it apart as a memorial of his work
of creation. This single fact shows, unless there
be some subsequent revelation to set it aside, that
the Sabbath, from its nature, was designed to be a
permanent observance.
It is no doubt true, that there are religious observances appointed by God, which are of local
and temporary obligation, as well as those which
are universally and always binding. All moral
laws possess this universal and permanent force.
And there are positive statutes which have the
same permanent obligation, because they are
made binding by the command of God. It is
a safe principle to adopt in the interpretation
of positive statutes, that when once they are
enacted, they always remain in full force unless
they expire by their own limitations; unless they
are formally repealed; or unless the reasons for
their original appointment so obviously cease, that
they are no longer called for.
The patriarchal Sabbath, or the Sabbath instituted at the creation, differed in some respects
from the Jewish Sabbath.l It was not instituted,
so far as we know, by any expressed command.
The authority for it is contained in the nar



204          THE FIRST SABBATH.
rative already given. We have, in this portion of the sacred writings, no other divine
authority for it, than that which is implied in
God's example, and his setting apart and blessing
the Sabbath-day. And this, while it has not
the language, appears to us to have the force
of law. God may enact his zwill as a rule of action to his creatures, in other ways than by an express command, provided he makes his will intelligibly known. Have we not a right to conclude,
from this early notice of a seventh day's rest, that
it was God's pleasure that it should be observed?
For whom was it instituted? Not for God himself.
He did not require the repose of the seventh day,
either for physical or spiritual refreshment. He
did not take that repose; but was employed in upholding and directing the world and the creatures
he had just made. " The Sabbath was made for
man."  God's example in instituting it was for
man; he thus made known his will to man; his
example was man's law. And if this be thought
to be loose reasoning, I can only say, it appears to
us to be reasoning which ought to satisfy every
fair mind, and which is adopted by the Scriptures
themselves. It is the reasoning which is adopted
by the Great Lawgiver in the command requiring
the observance of the Sabbath in the Decalogue;
and it is the reasoning of the apostle in his epistle
to the Hebrews, where, the fact that "God did




THE FIRST SABBATH.        205
rest the seventh day from all his works," forms
the premises to the conclusion, " There remaineth
therefore, the keeping of a Sabbath to the people
of God." It was the Sabbath of heaven and the
Sabbath of earth; it was the Sabbath which so
many failed of enjoying through unbelief; it was
the Sabbath which was the prefiguration, the example, and the law, and the early heritage of
man.
There is a difference between the binding obligation of those positive statutes which were given
during the patriarchal age, and those which were
enacted under the Mosaic economy. The Mosaic
dispensation includes that entire period which intervened between the giving of the law, and the
resurrection of the Son of Man from the dead; the
patriarchal age includes the entire period between
the Creation and the giving of the law. If the:claims of the Sabbath cannot be supported except
as a part of the Jewish ceremonial, it must share
-the same fate with the sacrifices and new moons of
that dispensation. All Christians agree in the
conclusion, that whatever was purely positive and
ceremonial in the Jewish dispensation has passed
away, and was superseded by the "simplicity that
is in Christ."  They were obligatory upon the
Jewish nation alone; and on that nation only until
the Christian dispensation.
Yet are there positive institutions which cover the




206           THE FIRST SABBATH.
whole duration of time, because they were of prior
origin both to the Christian and Mosaic dispensations. Such, for example, was the patriarchal law
concerning the murderer, " Whoso sheddeth man's
blood, by man shall his blood be shed." It binds
the race; it was given to men, not as Jews, nor as
Gentiles, but as mnen, as God's creatures. It never
has been repealed; nor has it expired by its own
limitations; men ever, and everywhere are bound
by it. And such is the institution of the Sabbath.
It is confessedly a positive, and not a moral institution. It is a moral duty that men should worship God; but it is a positive and not a moral
duty, except as the enactment renders it moral, to
worship him socially one day in seven. But made
up as it thus is of a positive statute and moral
duty, we affirm that it is, from its origin, of perp'etual obligation. Like the law concerning the
murderer, it is not of Christian, nor Jewish origin;
but was proclaimed in an age that represented
the race, and was dictated by the great Creator
and Lawgiver to all mankind long before either
the Christian or Jewish dispensations were in existence, or the distinction between Jew and Gentile was known. It is human and not national
merely; universal and not merely local. It is
God's law to men; his wise and benevolent arrangement for humanity, and for man everywhere.
The same reasons which existed for the original




THE FIRST SABBATE           207
institution in Paradise, and before man fell, exist
in no diminished force now after he has fallen.
Whatever be the facts it commemorates, the lessons it teaches, the obligations it confers, and the
influence it exerts, they are not more necessary for
men in one age and one portion of the world, than
for men in all ages and all places. In the original
appointment of it, there is no intimation that it
had reference to one people, or one age of the
world more than another. It has never expired
by its own limitations, and has never been repealed. The peculiar positive institutions that
were commanded to the Jews have been formally
abolished, or superseded by others that have a relation to the race. The Jewish sacrifices, the Jewish passover, the Jewish hierarchy, as well as all
those Mosaic rites and ceremonies which were
merely typical of Jesus Christ, and which, from
their purely ecclesiastical or political nature, were
designed to separate the Jews from other nations,
have been abrogated. But there is no abolition of
the Sabbath. There is no reenaction of it under
the Christian dispensation, for the obvious reason
that no reenactment was necessary; it remains an
unrepealed, a permanent; and standing institution,
and of perpetual obligation.
The objection against this reasoning is somewhat
peculiar. It lies in the acknowledged fact that
from the time when the Sabbath was first instituted,




208           THE FIRST SABBATH.
there is no mention made of it in the Scritures until a period of about twenty-five hundred years, and
when the manna fell in the wilderness. But it
must not be forgotten that the history of this
early period of the world is, beyond parallel, a
crowded history, in which a single paragraph
often includes the events of centuries.  "The silence of history with respect to the continuance
of a rite, or custom, well known to have been instituted or adopted, is no argument against its
continuance, provided the reason on which the institution was founded remains the same." There is
no mention made of the Sabbath throughout all
the wars of Joshua, and the revolutionary period
of the Judges, a period of some hundred years;
while it is conceded that it was instituted long
before in the wilderness. No mention is made of
sacrifices, from the birth of Seth till the flood, a
period of fifteen hundred years.  Nor is there
any mention made of the rite of circumcision from
about the time the children of Israel took possession of the land of Canaan, under Joshua, until
the days of Jeremiah, a period of more than eight
centuries; while this does not prove that it was
not of earlier appointment. It may be, that the
Sabbath was not scrupulously observed during the
patriarchal age; there was great forgetfulness of
God, great ignorance and great wickedness in that
infant age of the world. They were a thoughtless




THE FIRST SABBATH.        209
race-men of gigantic iniquity; they were marrying and giving in marriage, and spending their
days in folly and sin, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and swept
them all away. They had few religious teachers;
no part of God's word -was then published, and
they had very little instruction of a religious kind.
It is not wonderful that they lost sight of the Sabbath; for if they had not lost sight of it, they never
could have been so vile. Yet amid all this abounding iniquity, there are some notices of what seems
to be, by fair inference, a seventh-day observance;
for we find a seven-day division of time, well
known by Noah and Jacob and Laban. The
probability, too, is, that during the severe and
protracted bondage of the Hebrews in Egypt, the
Sabbath was greatly neglected; during a portion
of that period, we know it was neglected altogether. And when that people, after they came
out of Egypt, were reminded of its obligations, it
was in such a way that it is difficult to avoid the
conclusion that it was a forgotten institution, and
not one then for the first time instituted. This
was in the wilderness, and before the giving of the
law, which some contend was the first statute requiring the Sabbath observance. They were about
to gather manna on the Sabbath-day, and Moses
checked the unhallowed work, and said unto them,
"This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow




210          THE FIRST SABBATH.
is the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Six days
shall ye gather it, but on the seventh day, which
is the Sabbath, ye shall not find it in the field."
It was not until fifty days after they left Egypt
that the law was given, in which the Sabbath
holds a prominent place. So that it was not the
Jewish Sabbath, as such, to which Moses here referred, but the Sabbath of the Patriarchs, and
which was binding upon the Jews before the specific enactment in the fourth commandment. It is
an error to suppose that the fourth commandment
originated the obligation to observe the Sabbath
even among the Jews. It did but confirm a prior
law. The friends of the Sabbath have lost ground
by endeavoring to defend this position. When,
after their fifty days' wandering in the wilderness,
God gave the children of Israel the ten commandments, the language was, "LRemember the Sabbathday to keep it holy." It is not, "Sanctify the
Sabbath;" but " remember to sanctify it." The day
was something to be remembered; it was no novel
observance first given by Moses, but one long before known and of ancient date. And the reason
for it runs back to the creation and entwines itself
with the original institution and blessing: "_Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy; for in six
days the Lord thy God created the heavens and the
earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested
the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the




THE FIRST SABBATH.         211
Sabbath-day and hallowed it." God himself spake
these solemn words amid scenes never to be forgotten, and twice did he write them upon two tables
of stone. AFTER SIX DAYS' LABOR, THERE WAS TO
BE A SEVENTH DAY'S HOLY REST; THIS WAS THE LAW
OF THE SABBATH. It was the law for the world.
It was preserved in the ark of the covenant, was
embodied within that Propitiatory which was
typical of the Christian atonement, and forms an
integral part of that great moral code, "THOSE
TEN WORDS" which bind all nations, and which
the Saviour affirms he came not to destroy, but to
fulfil. There was nothing ceremonial or Jewish
about these ten words, nor about the particular
precept here enforcing the, observance of the Sabbath. It was all moral, and all of universal and
perpetual obligation.
If the question be asked, Was there then no
Jewish Sabbath, and no ceremonial scrpuqlousne9s
in 4;ts observance incumnbent on the Jews, which is
not binding on other nations, and which wa9s abrogated by the coming of Christ?  I answer, there
were; but they are not contained in the fourth commandment. There was a subsequent law given to
the Jews, which bound them and no other people,
which consisted of fifty-seven precepts given immediately after God had " talked with them from
heaven;" and given, not by God to them, but to
Moses privately, that " he might set them before




212          THE FIRST SABBATH.
the people." These ceremonial injunctions were.
from time to time, increased; some of them respected the Sabbath; and all of them were abol
ished by Christ. These peculiar Jewish observances formed no part of Sabbath religion, or Sabbath morality for other nations. Other days were
called Sabbaths by them as well as the seventh
day. The Pentecost was so called, whatsoever
day of the week it was; because no servile work
was to be done in it, and on it there was to be "a
holy convocation to the Lord." The first day of
the Passover was a Sabbath. On the Passover
week in which the Saviour suffered, there were two
Sabbaths. There was the convocational, or festival
Sabbath, the first day of the Passover week; and
there was the ordinary weekly Sabbath, which
was the next day. It is not the ceremonial of the
Jews which we advocate; nor any of the peculiarities of their Sabbatical observance which the law
of God requires. They were appendages'to the
day, and not the day itself; the shadow and not
the substance.
The Sabbath,for substance, and freed from the
fewish ceremonial, God has bequeathed to the
world. It is delightful to know that other portions of the earth have an interest in it beside the
Jews. As proof of this, we find it frequently
spoken of in the Scriptures as extended beyond
the Jewish dispensation. The prophet Isaiah,




THE FIRST SABBATH.        213
speaking of the day when God's house " shall be
called an house of prayer for all people;" when
Jews that were disqualified by bodily infirmity,
and Gentiles who were always disqualified, should
bring their sacrifices, and they should come up
accepted on God's holy altar; when the wall of
partition between Jew and Gentile should be
broken down by the all-levelling and all-elevating
influence of Christianity; when the Jewish dispensation should be abolished and superseded by
the more comprehensive claims and privileges of
the world's gospel; speaks of the "eunuchs who
keep God's SaSbabhs' —of the " sons of the stranger
that keep the Sa6bath from polluting it "-of those
who "call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the
Lord," honorable —and of those who, in the days
of the yet coming glory, " from one new moon to
another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall
come and worship before God." Nor do we see
how the conclusion from these predictions and intimations can be avoided, that there is a divinely
authorized and a divinely honored Sabbath after
the Jewish dispensation is passed away, and therefore of more permanent obligation than the ceremonial or civil code of the Jews.
It is certainly a fair question in this argument,
To what extent has a religious observance of every
seventh day been known among the different nations of the earth? We have already adverted to




214          THE FIRST SABBATH.
the reasons for believing that the early patriarchs
divided their time into weeks, or periods of seven
days, nor do we see any reason to believe that
during the twenty-five hundred years before the
Law given on Sinai, there was no Sabbath. The
Hebrews divided their years into seven, and into
seven times seven; every week had its Sabbath,
every seventh year its Sabbath, and every fiftieth
year its Jubilee. To what extent this septenary
division of time has obtained among nations who
were contemporaneous with the patriarchal age, as
well as among those pagan nations which flourished
after the giving of the law, we have not the means
of ascertaining to such an extent, as to warrant
the sweeping assertion which has sometimes been
made, that it is a universal observance. If, as we
have seen, the Sabbath is an institution of high
antiquity, it must have been known to those ancient Eastern nations which sprang from the sons
of Noah. And so the fact was. The ancient Assyrians derived their origin from Ashur, the son
of Shem; and they divided their time into weeks
of seven days. The ancient Egyptians, who
sprang from Mizraim, the son of Ham; the ancient
Indians, and also the ancient Persians, whose origin
is traced to Joktan, the grandson of Shem; and
the ancient Arabians, who descended from Ishmael, all observed this division of time; and so far
as this observance goes, it indicates, that however




THE FIRST SABBATH.         215
the Sabbath may have fallen into disuse, it was
once known. The more ancient inhabitants of
Greece and Italy had a different division; the
Greeks dividing their months into decades or periods of ten days, and the Romans into the three
divisions, calends, nones, and ides. But it is to be
remarked, that in the early period of their history
these nations had very little intercourse with the
Eastern nations; and that as soon as they became acquainted with the calendar of the East,
they divided their time into weeks of seven days.
The origin of this usage cannot be doubtful; nor
does it stop short of the ancient Hebrews and
the patriarchal age. Learned men inform us that
there are few languages that are not found'to contain a word synonymous with our English word
week, signifying seven days. With the Hebrews,
the number seven was the sacred number. We
read of the.seventh day, the seventh month, the
seventh year, the seven altars, the seven lamps, the
seven seals, the seven thunders, the seven angels,
and the seven crowns. Nor does this fact distinguish the religion of the Hebrews alone. A
modern writer, in a late number of the Westminster Review, though he impugns the sacredness of
the Sabbath with infidel scurrility and bitterness,
is constrained to acknowledge, that " throughout
Hindostan and all the dialects of India, the word
seven is a mystical number." This writer has put




216           THE FIRST SABBATH.
us in possession of some facts which are by no
means favorable to his own conclusions. The Hindoos observe a seventh day as'a religious festival;
and they call it Sunday, or the sun's day. They
also observe every seventh lunar day; and they
call it Monday, or the moon's day. In the forms
of prayer used in their temples, the word seven
occupies a conspicuous place. ~ It is also a fact of
interest, that the word Sabbath is adopted by pagan nations, not a few, to denote the day of religious convocation. So far as the light of history
shines from different eminences, during the long
course of years prior to the coming of Christ, it
discloses to us this extensive observance.
Facts of this nature, which might be collected to a
great extent, interest us, because every other method
of accounting for them is unnatural, except the original division of time by God himself into periods
of seven days, and the consequent institution of the
Sabbath. Other divisions of time are marked by
the diurnal and annual revolutions of the earth and
the moon; while there is nothing in the solar system to mark this division into weeks; nor is there
any historical trace of the origin of this usage in
any of the memorials of antiquity, unless we find
it in the tradition of the creation of the world in
six days, and a subsequent day of rest. Here we
find it. It was revealed to our first parents, that
the one only living and true God created the uni



THE FIRST SABBATH.           217
verse; and this revelation prepared them for the
appointment and the delightful service of this first
Sabbath. What a day was that which thus first
celebrated the mysteries of nature's birth; and
with what radiant robes did this queen of days descend to dwell with men, while creation lay around
her " wet with its first dews," and man, as its highpriest, offered up the incense of his grateful heart!
Never did the rising and setting sun utter speech
of such truth; nor have they done uttering the instructive lesson. It is solemn and expressive silence, but it speaks to the mind and heart.
"In reason's ear, they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing, as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine."
When we come to the Christian era, the question assumes somewhat a different form. There is
no express command in the New Testament for the
observance of the Sabbath. Why should there
be? The command originated with God's example at the creation; was solemnly embodied in
his law from Sinai; and has not been repealed.
The blessed Sabbath is no less God's witness for
him, to the Christian, than to the Jewish and pagan world. It began with time, and with time
only will it end; like all other commemorative institutions, it is coeval with the event it commemorates, and will terminate only with the consumma10




218           THE FIRST SABBATH.
tion of this material world. Hence we find that
the early Christians observed every seventh day
as a day of holy rest. They honored it by assembling on that day for social worship, for the
celebration of the Lord's Supper, and for taking
up their charitable collections for their poor
brethren. And the Saviour himself honored it.
It was on the regular return of the seventh day,
that he appeared to his disciples to bless them,
and that he poured out upon them, after his ascension, the pentecostal effusions of his Spirit. And
hence we read in the New Testament of " the
Lord's day," a day separated from  all secular
time, distinguished as his own, as a holy Sabbath
unto the Lord. This example, connected with the
primeval institution of the day, and the fourth
commandment, is the law of Christianity.
Nor is there any good reason for perplexity in
regard to the change of the day from the seventh
to the first day of the week, which is the Christian
Sabbath. Our own mind is satisfied on this vexed
question in something like the following way.
God has set apart one seventh portion of time for
sacred purposes. A literal simultaneousness in
this observance no one contends for, nor were it
easily practicable from the elliptical form and rotatory motions of the earth. What is dawn to one
portion of the earth is evening to another; and
what is noonday to one is midnight to their an



THE FIRST SABBATH.        219
tipodes. The spirit and substance of the law is for
one seventh portion of time; whether it be the
last day of the week, or the first, and whether it
begins with the rising or the setting sun, is of minor consideration, so long as every seventh day is
sacredly observed. Time was when, at the command of Joshua, the sun stood still for a whole
day,. and when the shadow went ten degrees backward on the dial of Ahaz; and who will undertake to demnonstrate that either the first, or the
seventh day of the week is the exact and astronomical return of the seventh day from the creation? Different systems of chronology also are so
various, and so many ingenious methods have been
adopted for improving and establishing the calendar; so various have been the methods of computing time; and the beginning of the year has been
so often changed, that no living man can now prove
that any one day of the week corresponds with its
numerical counterpart in the days of the creation.
We hold therefore, that so long as there is a uniform and conventional observance of every.seven#t
day as a day of holy rest, afteir six dayc of lalbor,
the law of the Sabbath is complied with.
If it be said that these general observations
are not applicable to that period of the world
when Christianity was promulgated, because its
chronology was then well understood, and the
days of the week well known; and that there




220          THE FIRST SABBATH.
was confessedly a change then fiom the seventh
to the first day of the week; we answer they
are applicable so far as it regards the difficulty of
identifying any given day of the week with its
corresponding day of the creation. There was a
change then, and there were good reasons for it.
The change in the Sabbath falls in with the
changes that were introduced in the external organization of the church of God at the introduction of Christianity. Everything was changed by
the example and authority of the divine Author
of the Christian dispensation. What was Jewish
was done away, because the Gentiles were now
called into the kingdom of Christ, and all monopoly of religious privileges was abolished. The
rites and ceremonies of the Levitical law were repealed; the prefigurations of that whole shadowy
system were superseded by the reality; while all
that could be permanently valuable was modified.
The Jewish priesthood was superseded by the
Christian ministry; the Jewish Passover by the
Lord's Supper; the rite of circumcision by baptism, and the Jewish Sabbath by the Lord's day.
And is there not quite as much evidence that the
first day of the week, now that it combines in its
commemoration the greater work of redemption,
is as distinctive a memorial of the great work of
creation as was the original seventh day?  The
Lord's day is in honor of Him, " by whom are all




THE FIRST SABBATH.           221
things, and for whom  are all things;" who is
"head over all things to the church;" who is
" Lord also of the Sabbath-day," the Author of a
new and regenerated world, the Maker and Builder
of the " new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness," and in comparison with which
" the first heavens and the first earth shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind."  The Psalmist,
in anticipating the deliverance of Jesus Christ
from the grave, well exclaims, " This is the Lord's
doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.  This isq the
day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice in it and
be glad."  Jesus Christ is greater than the Temple. He has power over all ordinances; he is not
a servant, but a Son over his own house. The
first creation had its Sabbath, and so has the new.
It was the old Sabbath still, but in new and
brighter vestments, the witness of new and brighter
things, the servant of the redeeming God and
King. We hail this distinctive honor of the Son
of man and this distinctive badge of Christianity.
It is meet that the Christian church be thus distinguished from  the Jewish, and the Christian
from the Jew.
What are the facts in relation to Sabbatical observances as they now exist?  With very few exceptions,* the whole Christian world observes the
" The Mohammedans' Friday. Aside from these, and the Jews, who
still profess to observe the seventh day, I am not informed that this latter




222               THE FIRST SABBATH.
first day of the week. We observe this day; so
did  our fathers; and so did generations that preceded  our fathers.  How  is  this fact to  be  accounted for?  We trace back  this usage until we
find it sanctioned by the churches in the early
centuries of the Christian era,* by the apostles,
and by our infallible Lord himself. We go back
until we reach the period when a new and most
gracious Dispensation first marked the moral history of man, and find that the introduction of it
was commemorated by the observance of this
same day. We go back farther still, and find the
Jewish prophets anticipating this same observance;
and are satisfied, that so far from detracting from
the importance of the original institution, this
Christian memorial gives magnitude and emphasis
to the primeval Sabbath. It is scarcely credible
that the King of Zion would have suffered his
church, the very church which the Scriptures
teach us is to exist in her greatest beauty under
the Christian dispensation, and which is to extend
her light and glory to the Gentiles, to have reobservance extends beyond a few congregations in England proper, and
these are chiefly confined to two in London. In our own country, it is
limited to secessions from the Anabaptist churches, called " Seventh-day
Baptists," or Sabbatarians.
* 4gnatius, who was a companion of the Apostles, Justin Martyr, who
flourished at the close of the first, and the beginning of the second century,
Irenceus, a disciple of Polycarp, Dionysius, who lived in the time of Irenzeus,
and Tertullian and Petavius of the second century, all bear testimony to
this observance of the first day of the week.




THE FIRST SABBATH.            223
mained in darkness for eighteen centuries, in relation to the day on which she is to celebrate her
religious festivals. It was of no small moment that
her external institutions and ordinances should be
rightly maintained; nor would the all-wise and
all-gracious Founder of Christianity have left the
weekly Sabbath, its great guardian and bulwark,
without its proper place in the earth.
There is a single remark more in relation to the
change of the day.  It is not at all improbable
that the seventh day Sabbath was confined to the
Jews alone.  Learned men have maintained that
the Patriarchal Sabbath was the first day of the
week.  It was the seventh day, reckoning from the
first of the creation; but it was the first day of
time, as reckoned by man-the seventh day after
God's six days' work; but it was the first day of
the week from man's creation. Man, as before remarked, was not created until the close of the sixth
day, so that the seventh from the creation, as reckoned by him, would be the first day of the week.
We would not hastily endorse this representation;
nor would we hastily reject it.* We can only say
that if there be good reasons for it, the Christian
Sabbath, according to the received chronology, occurs on the same day with the Patriarchal. There
* See Bedford's Chronology-Smith's Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Lord's Day-Dr. Kennicott on the Offering of Abel and
Cain-Jennings' Jewish Antiquities, and Belfrage on the Shorter Catechism
in loc.




224                THE FIRST SABBATH.
has been no change of the day, except that which began and ended with the Jewish dispensation. The
Patriarchal Sabbath  degenerated  into  idolatry;
men became worshippers of the sun and moon
and stars of heaven, and gave the name of their
idols to the days of the week. The same divine
wisdom that separated the race of Abraham from
these idolatrous nations, also changed their Sabbath from the first day-the Sun's day, or Sunday, to the seventh day, that this peculiar people
might have no sympathy with idolatrous nations.
Nor is the thouight an unpleasant one, that if the
weekly Sabbaths which were observed before the
time of the Mosaic law, were observed on the first
and not on the seventh day of the week, the
Christian Sabbath professedly occurs the same
day  of the week  with  the first Sabbath  in  Paradise.
There is one objection  to  this whole course of
remark, and  it is the same which perplexed  the
minds of Calvin and some of the reformers.*   We
* We regret to find the name of John Calvin in favor of this error; yet
it is quite obvious that the fact is so. In his commentary on Col. ii. 16 and
17, speaking of the discrimination of days, he says, " Talis partitio conveniabit Judaeis, ut dies prieceptos sancte colerent, ab alliis segregando. Inter Christianos talis divisio cessavit." To make his meaning perfectly explicit, he states and answers the following objection. "Atque dicet quispiam, nos adhuc retinemus aliquam dierum observationem. Respondeo,
Nos dies niquaquam servare, quasi inferiis aliqua sit religio, aut quasi fas
non sit tune laborare; sed respectum haberi politim et ordinis, non
dierum."




THE  FIRST  SABBATH..                     225
will not now quote at length the passages in the
New Testament to which it refers. The apostle
Paul, both in his epistles to the Romans and the
Colossians, appears to relax the obligations to this
observance, and to leave it to the option of every
man's conscience to observe it, or not, without being condemned by others, either in regard to the
feasts of "the new moon, or of the Sahlath-day."
In regard to this objection we say as follows.  The
phrase, the Sabbath day, in the language of the
New  Testament, uniformly denotes the Jewish,
and not the Christian Sabbath. In the discussions
Calvin was imbued with the notion which I have heard half a century
ago defended by a few New England divines-that all time is holy, and
that what it is lawful to do on other days, is equally lawful on the Sabbath. In his Institutes, Lib. ii. ch. viii. p. 132 and 133, Editio Hackii, in
his exposition of the fourth commandment, he says, " Cweterum non dubium,
quin Domini Christi adventu, quod ceremoniale hic erat abolitum fuerit."
It had been well had he stopped here. But he proceeds, " Ipse enam
veritas est, cujus presentice figurve evanescunt; corpus cujus aspectu, umbrae
relinquuntur.  Ipse, inquam, verum Sabbathi complementum.-Sabbathum
umbram fuisse reifuturae alibi scribit Apostolus; corpus extare in Christo,
hoc est solidam veritatis substantiam quam illo loco bene explicavit. Ea
non uno die contenta est, sed toteo vitce nostrce cursu, donec penitus nobismet
ipsis mortui, Dei vita impleantur. A Christianis ergo abesse debet superstitiosa dierum observatio." In a subsequent section he says, summing up his
views, " Summa sit; ut sub figura Judseis tradebatur veritas, ita nobis
sine umbris commendatur; primum, ut perpetuum  tota vita Sabbathismum meditemur a nostris operibus, quo Dominus in nobis per suum Spiritum operetur; deinde, ut piu operum Dei recognitione privatim se quisque, quobis vacat, diligenter exerceat; turn etiam, ut omnes simul legitimum Ecclesise ordinem, ad verbum audiendum, ad sacramentorum administrationem, a publicas orationes constitutum observemus; tertio, ne nobis
subditos inhumaniter premamus." We take this last concession.thankfully, while we differ from Calvin as to the conventional and orderly ob10*




226                  THE FIRST SABBATH.
between the Jewish and Gentile converts, the great
points of difference referred to by the apostles, related to meats and days that were peculiar to the
ceremonial law. In addition to their weekly Sabbath, the Jews observed thirty-five days in the
year; as sacred days, and some of these occurred
on their weekly Sabbath. If the apostle here has
reference to these numerous sacred days, he does
not refer to the Christian Sabbath; or if he refers
to their weekly Sabbath, it is not the Christian
Sabbath of which he speaks. There were Jews
converted to the gospel who kept the Jewish Sabbath; they did not neglect the Lord's day, but
servance of the Sabbath merely, and number ourselves with those who
diei sanctitatem animo retinere."
The same views are substantially expressed in the catechism of the Genevan church. See Opera Calv. tom. viii. p. 18 and 19.
M. Jubetne sex diebus laborare, ut septimo quiescamus?
P. Non simpliciter: verum  sex dies hominum  laboribus permittens
septimum excipit, ut quieti destinetur.
NM. An quemvis laborem nobis interdicit 
P. Hoc praceptum  separatam et peculiarem  rationem habet.  Siquidem quibis observatio, pars est veterum  ceremoniarum: itaque Christi
adventu abrogata fuit.
M. Dicesne prleceptum hoc ad Judaos proprie spectare, ideoque temporarium duntaxat fuisse?
P. Nempe: quatenus ceremoniale est.
M. Quid ergo?  Subestne aliquidprceter ceremoniam?
P. Tribus ex causis datum fuit.
M. Cedo mihi eas.
P. Ad spiritualem quietam figurandam; ad conservationem politi'e ecclesiasticae; ad servorum sublerationem.
This whole subject has been discussed by Dr. John Owen, at great
length, and by our distinguished countryman, Dr. Dwight, in his system
of theology.




THE FIRST SABBATH.          227
they kept the Jewish Sabbath also. All that Paul
says in these passages is, Let them keep it, if they
will. Let them not be disturbed in their prejudices. He allowed them this observance; but in
so doing, relaxes not the permanent obligation of
the Christian Sabbath.
But we are more concerned about the due 8anctiftcation of this day, than about the particular day
of the week which ought to be thus sanctified.
At its original institution, God "blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." Time has no holiness,
except for the purposes for which it is consecrated,
and in which it is employed. God has given it all
the holiness of which it is capable; which is to be
consecrated to his service.  It is a rest from
worldly labors for man and for beast, for the master and the servant, the mistress and the maid. It
is a rest for kings and beggars, for men in power
and meaner men; nor is it less a rest for the stranger than the home-born. They are quiet waters
which flow from the sanctuary; tranquil scenes
and verdant banks through which they flow, where
there is no galley with oars, neither gallant ship
shall pass thereby.  Vitringa has a beautiful description of the manner in which this day is to be
observed; it is contained in three words, and though
in a foreign tongue, I may be allowed to repeat them.
It is to be observed, says he, "cum lcatitia, abstinentia  ab opere, aut peniltentia:"-joy, rest, and




228           THE FIRST SABBATH.
piety. They are not days of idleness and listless
repose, but days of thought, days of self-inspection, of devout and spiritual study of God's word,
of meditation and prayer, and of the sacred observance of those domestic, social, and public institutions which are so indispensable to true religion. Nor are they days of gloom and sadness;
nor yet of sport and pleasure; they are cheerful
days, and days when the heart is lighted up with
smiles. The objects and pursuits of the Sabbath
are delightfully congenial with man's wants as a
sinner and a sufferer; they bring peace to the
troubled and balm to the bleeding bosom; they
tune the harp that would otherwise be hung upon
the willows; and because they tell of him who is
the resurrection and the life, and the first-fruits
of them that slept, they pass silently over the
earth strewing flowers upon the grave.
It is greatly to be regretted that the teachings
and the example of some of the best of men have left
so deep an impression that a cheerful spirit is not in
keeping with the design of this sacred day. There
was a rigor required of the Jews in their observance of this day, that was altogether ceremonial
and peculiar to themselves, and as we have already
seen enjoined, not in the fourth commandment, but
in subsequent requisitions. The fourth commandment requires simply that it be regarded not as one
of the working days of men, and as a day insepar



THE FIRST SABBATH.        229
able from religious reminiscences, and sanctified
and blessed of God. The later Jews had put an
erroneous construction upon the exaction it made
upon them, and these errors were more than once
rectified by the Saviour. It was an error in the
Puritans of New England, not that they observed
the Sabbath too religiously, but that they threw
over it the unnatural and factitious gloom of blue
habits and blue laws. It was more natural for
them to do so' than for any other men in the world;
because, in the land from which they were exiled,
they had been scourged and driven by cruel and
sacrilegious laws to unseemly mirth and public
sports on this God's holy day. IHuman nature is
prone to extremes; if we ourselves were bound by
royal proclamation, like the " Book of Sports," in
the reigns of James I. and the first Charles, requiring us, on pains and penalties, to profane the
Sabbath, we should verge to the opposite extreme,
and do just as the Puritans did. But it is an error.  Why a sombre cloud should be superinduced over the hours of this gladsome day, I cannot tell, unless it be a trick of the devil to render
it a weariness and make it unwelcome to the
young. If we cannot make God's claims palatable
to the unrenewed heart, we need not clothe them
with uncomeliness. If the voluptuary smiles in
the indulgence of his sensual pleasures; the avaricious in the accumhlation of his wealth; the men




230          THE FIRST SABBATH.
of ambition in their honor and elevation; why
may not the Christian indulge in smiles of complacency, and delight in this day of joy and
triumph? There are trains of thought awakened
in the Christian mind on the return of this delightful day, which are sometimes so full of love, gratitude, peace, hope, and joyous expectation, that if
he were told he might not smile, he would feel
that he must stop his ears against the gladdest
tidings that ever greeted fallen humanity; close
his eyes on one of the bright spots in the wilderness; and turn from the sacred and cheering
fragrance that had been shed upon his weary
spirit, and made him long for heaven. While the
Sabbath is the most sacred retreat from the noise,
and bustle, and folly of the world, it is the most glad
retreat. The feet that tread it, and the hands that
open the doors to its altars might well drop with
myrrh and their fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh.
God has been liberal to men of secular time.
Six days out of seven he allows them to employ in
the pursuit of things seen and temporal. There is
no earthly want, or sympathy, or secular relation
and anxiety, which may not then be regarded and
cared for with interest and diligence. It is but
one out of seven that he asks for himself, as separated from the pursuits of earth. Time is his, and
men are his creatures; nor may his right be questioned to prescribe the portion which they shall




THE FIRST SABBATH.         231
employ in his service. He claims the Sabbath as
his own; he calls it "The Sabbath of the Lord
thy God."  Men may not encroach upon it for
their own purposes without robbing him. The
whole of it belongs to him from beginning to end,
claimed by his law, consecrated by his example,
devoted to his glory, and distinguished by his
blessing. No man, and no body of men, no human
policy or power, either by their laws or their
usages, may ever countervail the appointment or
the objects of this day of holy rest. God has
marked it in the history of the world, as a blessing
to our race. Whatever is instructive in his truth,
and urgent in the motives to holiness which that
truth presents; whatever is winning in his love,
and constraining in his authority, is thrown into the
influence of this sacred day. All that is effective
in the means of grace and salvation which he has
revealed; all that is beautiful in the simplicity,
the symmetry, the harmony of this divine arrangement for the salvation of men; all that magnifies and honors this redemption, is inseparable
from the Sabbath. Where the Sabbath is not
found, these things do not exist; where the Sabbath is perverted, they are the savor of death unto
death. The pivot on which this moral machinery
turns, the shaft that impels it is the Sabbath.
Everything secular is put at rest by it; everything
that is spiritual is set in motion. The church




232          THE FIRST SABBATH.
militant and the church triumphant-parents and
teachers and ministers-men and angels, are then
awake and in earnest in urging the claims of holiness on this lost world; while God the Spirit, who
breathed on the first chaos, and put his seal on the
first Sabbath, bows his heavens to dwell with men.
We plead for a sacred observance of this day,
and these are the grounds on which we rest our
plea. Permanent reform cannot be secured except
by religious principles and motives. There are
temporal advantages arising from this observance;
but they hold a secondary place. If God's authority and love do not influence men and communities to keep the Sabbath holy, nothing will
influence them.
This land, though exemplary in this observance compared with other lands, is not guiltless. There are individual, domestic, and social
violations of this day, for which there is no'excuse; and they are the more aggravated by the
great goodness of God toward us as a people, as
well as by the fact that inviolate and blessed Sabbaths were the heritage we received from our fathers. We regret to say there are violations of
this day sanctioned by law, which are " reproach
to any' people." They are of long standing, and
deliberately persevered in, in opposition to the
respectful and urgent remonstrances by the friends
of the Sabbath throughout the land. The legal



THE FIRST SABBATH.                        233
ized transportation of the mail on the Sabbath, the
opening of post-offices, the consequent disregard
of public worship, and the attendant and increasing
flood of immorality which rolls over the land,
are national sins which still stand registered against
us.*   And it is a sin for which there  is no excuse.
There never was any excuse; but since the introduction  of telegraphic  communications, fitted  to
meet special emergencies, one would think there
is no apology left for this national desecration.
Whether this sacred day is destined to contempt
by the great mass of the inhabitants of this land,
is yet a doubtful problem.  It is by no means improbable that the voice of God and the voice of
* In the year 1829, foUr hundred and sixty-seven petitions were presented to the Congress of the United States, from every part of the Union,
signed by individuals of different religious denominations, and containing
the names of the most active, enterprising, and intelligent of our citizens,
praying for a repeal of the law which sanctions the transportation of the
mail on the Lord's-day. There never was a more delightful union of sentiment and feeling than was expressed in these petitions; nor is it easy to
find in any of the more elaborate dissertations upon the sacredness and
importance of the Sabbath, stronger reasons, or reasons expressed with
greater sincerity and earnestness in favor of the proposed reform. The
prayer of the memorialists was not granted; God's day is not yet rescued
from this national desecration. Extracts firom these memorials may be seen
in " An account of Memorials presented to Congress by numerous friends
of their country and its institutions; praying that the mails may not be
transported, nor post-offices kept open on the Sabbath," printed in New
York, 1829. This valuable pamphlet lays before the public a list of
places from which memorials were received, extracts from the petitions,
selected names of petitioners, and a few concluding remarks. It is an
anonymous pamphlet; but came from the pen of the late Jeremiah Evarts,
of Boston.




234           THE FIRST SABBATH.
experience may be disregarded. There are some
bright signs of the times in this particular, and
there are some dark ones. The successful efforts
to induce the proprietors of steamboats and railroads to honor this day of God, are full of encouragement, and demand our thanks; while there are
encroachments upon its sacredness, especially in
our cities, which fill us with concern.
The danger to which we are exposed, is to
convert the day, after the morning service of the
sanctuary is concluded, into a day of pleasure
and amusement. We are told from the press
that it is a holiday; that it has no more 8olemnity than other days; and that its only peculiarity
is rest from toil, a festival, and a day of pleasure.*
We have been publicly appealed to, to fall in
with the usages of Continental Europe, and after
the hour of prayer to resume the business of the
week, and more than its secular pleasures.  We
have been told that the rigid opinions concerning
the Sabbath are not entertained by Christians,
"if we except English Protestants, Scotch Presbyterians, and their American descendants;" that
" Sunday fairs and markets are customary on the
other side of the channel, and were so in Britain
before the time of Cromwell;" that " the Sunday
abroad is usually divided between the services of
religion, the duties of labor, and the objects of
X See Westminster Review for Oct. 1850.




THE FIRST SABBATH.        235
recreation;" and that, "even in the city of Calvin,
Geneva, the theatre is open on a Sunday evening."
This able writer must have received a large bonus
from some Sabbath-breaking establishment in
order to have embodied so much sophistry and
weakness on the wrong side of the question. We
can only now reply to these ensnaring temptations
to evil, that they indicate no small alarm at the
efforts that are making on the other side of the
water to restore the influence of the Lord's day;
and that if a cheerful and religious observance of
it is one of the peculiarities of this land, we glory
in the peculiarity, and humbly pray that it may be
perpetuated. We wish it were so uniformly, and
everywhere. But we have our fears for the rising
generation, lest they should become a generation
of Sabbath-breakers. And should this exposure
increase, this one thing is left us; and it may
be the only thing that is left us —it is FOR THE
CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD TO REMAIN FIRM, CONSISTENT AND EXEMPLARY FRIENDS OF THE SABBATH.
Whoever else may profane it, and for whatever
purposes, let the professed disciples of Jesus Christ
with their families, show the world that they have
a strong sense of the obligation to obey the command, "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it
holy!" I say these things as one whose sun is
going down, and I would respectfully ask that
they receive solemn consideration. Disobedience




236          THE FIRST SABBATH.
to this command will incur God's displeasure;
obedience to it will receive his marked approbation. Augmented wickedness, desolating calamity, and gloomy foreboding on the one hand, and
public virtue, prosperity and happiness on the
other, will mark our future history, as we obey or
disobey this precept.
Good principles and good morals can no more
exist without religion, than religion can exist
without the Sabbath. Blot out this sacred day,
and in a quarter of a century we become pagans.
An infidel literature and a cultivated taste may
preserve us from abjectness and degradation; but
our iniquity will be full. Such apprehensions are
to the last degree painful. As any man values
his immortality, let him not profane the Sabbath. There is no one external observance that
exerts so powerful an influence on moral character
and immortal hopes as a sacred regard to the Sabbath. It is the salt of the earth, and the light of
the world. Its price is far above rubies.
Little do we know how to value this day of God,
with all its quiet and heaven-like serenity, and its
attractive summons to the assemblies of his saints.
Sweet type of that rest which shall never pass
away till it is superseded by its glorious ante-type,
where the nations of the saved walk in the light
of his countenance! Delightful thought! that the
dawning of the fr8t Sabb6ath was a light that shall




THE FIRST SABBATH.         237
never go down. From generation to generation
it has transmitted, and will yet transmit its joys,
until the joyous praise of men on the earth unite
with the sweeter harps of men in heaven, ascribing
everlasting honor to the God of the spirits of all
flesh, and the Lord of the Sabbath-day.




CHAPTER VIII.
&;aP fi3txt arupnt in 3Juiene.
MEN who."live and breathe in the lighter literature of our age," are very apt to imbibe a disrelish for the more weighty truths of God's word.
In the series of thoughts which we are called on
to present, there must be truths from which the
human mind naturally revolts; because there are
truths humbling to the pride of man. If in exhibiting some of these, we find fewer enchanting
scenes to look upon, and fewer stimulants to an
excited imagination, we shall find God's truqth, and
find it in its own heavenly dress.
Those great events by which the more weighty
truths of God's word are enforced, lose none of
their importance in their ascending series; rather
is the importance of them increased as they remount even beyond the history of our own race.
In the present condition of the universe, its inhabitants, so far as they are known to us, consist of
angels, men, and devils; there was a time when




THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.     239
there were no devils. It is not permitted us to
know how early the angelic race came into existence. This much has been revealed, that there
was such a race prior to the race of man, whom
the all-wise and sovereign Creator was pleased to
regard, in some respects, with distinguishing favor.
They were the elder family of the universal Father, the first-born sons of light, the first expressions of his infinite power and love. When this
material universe was created, they were there;
and when the Eternal and Omnipotent One
"stretched out the line" upon this earth, and
fastened its foundations, and raised the dome of
this wondrous temple, they were probably the
spectators of this wondrous work. They were a
superior order of beings; not formed from dust
like the first man, but spiritual in their nature and
advanced to glorious dignity. They are styled
"thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers,"
because they are the ministers of God's providence in the government of this lower world,
princes under him, ranged in different orders, and
each class acting within its appropriate sphere. It
was no infected parentage from which they sprang.
They were streams from a pure fountain; rays
from the "Father of lights;" stars that reflected
the purity and brightness of the uncreated sun.
And because they were thus exalted and holy,
they were happy. Their inheritance was rich and




240      THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
unfading; it was the heaven where they dwelt;
the love and fellowship of their Creator, and unrestrained access to this fountain of joy. Employed in services that elevated them in knowledge, holiness, and enjoyment, as high as their
created natures would admit, they lived only to
love and serve God, "swift to do his will, hearkening to the voice of his word." They were more
than servants; they were sons. More were they
even than sons; they were princes and courtiers
of heaven-illustrious and immortal spirits-attendants in God's own chamber of presence. We
have no knowledge of their numbers, except that
" thousands" ministered unto the Ancient of Days,
and " ten thousand times ten thousand stood before
him;" and that "they are all ministering spirits
sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs
of salvation."
In proportion to the magnitude of God's plan,
it was important to make an early disclosure of the
great principles of his moral government. The
angelic race were created under liabilities inseparable from their nature. They were to pass through
a process similar to that through which all intelligent creatures pass, and stand or fall, as they sustain this appointed ordeal. They held their
existence under law, and were subjected to a probationary course, on a larger scale than that subsequently appointed to man; and their starting



THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.      241
point was " the high and holy place."  Exalted as
they were, it was the prerogative of the sovereign
Lawgiver to give law to them as his subjects; and,
in the event of their disobedience, to punish them
according to their desert. The divine government
is, and must be impartial, and impose its obligations on every class of intelligent beings. Could
we " make the tour of the universe," we should not
find a race of beings who are not bound to love
God with all their hearts, and their fellow-existences as themselves; and who, in default thereof,
are not subjected to penalty. It does not appear
that the angelic race mingled with any other portion of the population of the universe; nor that
they were freighted with any other hopes than
their own; nor that in making shipwreck of their
own, they involved any others beside themselves.
Multitudes of them were obedient to the law, and
retained their integrity; others, and great multitudes, sinned and fell.
It is a fact of some interest, that sin was not introduced into the universe by man. Fearful was
the responsibility of the first sin. Man, in the
progress of time, was induced to join in this foul
revolt; but it was not first concocted in the human
bosom.  Man did not exist when the order, beauty,
and blessedness which reigned throughout the divine empire, were first disturbed, and the arm of
rebellion was first raised against the government
11




242      THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
of the Most High. This primeval revolt was the
beginning of sorrows, and aimed at a radical revolution in the empire of the rightful Sovereign; but
it was the work of another race. Says the Apostle Peter, " God spared not the angels that sinned."
The Apostle Jude also speaks of the angels, who'kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation." The particular act of sin by which
they fell, is not revealed. Very many are the
conjectures in relation to it; but the most we know
is contained in that representation of the Apostle
in which he speaks of the danger of being " lifted
up with pride, and falling into the condemnation
of the devil." But whatever may have been the
particular act, it was disobedience to the will of
their sovereign Creator, and a transgression of his
law.
There were several'things that greatly aggravated their crime. They "could not sin at a
lower rate," than of set purpose and wilfully.
They were angels, and there was no weakness or
ignorance in their nature. They were too intelligent to have been imposed upon and deceived.
They were their own tempters; for there was none
to tempt them, as they afterwards tempted our
first parents. There was no stumbling-block in
heaven; God had made them exalted, holy, and
happy; nor was the service required of them hard
and unreasonable; nor could they ever do too




THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.    243
much for Him who had made them what-they
were. God had not been a wilderness to them, but
the dispenser of their comforts, their portion, and
joy; nor could they have rebelled against him
from any other spirit than a desperate determination to have their own will in opposition to his, to
raise the standard of revolt, and at all hazards to
establish a kingdom of their own. They forsook
their Father's house, merely from a revolting and
proud spirit. They "sinned in heaven, the last
place in the universe where there was any excuse
for sin."  They sinned as proudly, as enviously, as
obdurately, as maliciously as it was possible to sin.
And they sinned in view of the most fearful con
sequences, without the least expectation of reprieve or hope of pardon, and with no other
design than that of perpetuating their hostility to
God through the succeeding ages of time, and the
unwasting ages of eternity.
Such was their first revolt,-the first revolt in
the universe of God. Probably there is no world
in which a revolt could have taken place with
more fearful results, and which could have made
more exacting demands of the resources of the allknowing and all-sufficient Deity. It was a revolt
which would hold on its course for countless ages;
which would be an example to all worlds; the
consequences of which would be seen and spoken
of in the endless future; and from whose unfath



244     THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
omable depths, the voice of instruction would go
up that would make the ear of him that heareth it
to tingle. Well did the prophet exclaim, " How
art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"
When Babylon fell, the merchants of the earth
wept and mourned over her, and the kings of the
earth stood afar off, and said, " Alas! alas! that
great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one
hour she is made desolate." Thus might the intelligent universe, standing afar off, have lifted up
their voice and wept over the fall of this mighty
and exalted race-these bright and morning-stars,
displaced and wandering throughout the vast expanse, disregarding the law which binds them to
their Great Centre-falling promiscuously, and
sinking to " the blackness of darkness.!"
The consequences of this revolt were serious. It
was a fearful fall, and a fearful punishment. God
measures the punishment of sin by its true and
proper demerit; and therefore we are told that
"he spared not the angels that sinned."  Though
angels, he did not spare them. Though his firstborn children, though so munificently endowed
and highly exalted, though so holy and happy, he
could not endure such a revolt as this. Though
they were the most exalted of his creation, and
the noblest image of their Creator, and though, if
any creatures can be dear to God and the objects
of his love, they were so endeared; yet sooner




THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.    245
would he abandon his throne than not exact from
such deliberate, scornful, and malicious rebels, the
utmost they deserved. He was the God of love;
but there were others to be cared for beside these
reckless traitors to his government. He had no
malice in his bosom, no spirit of revenge to gratify, and no pleasure in their death; yet well did
he know that any departure from strict justice in
this early instance of rebellion, would be an impeachment of his rectitude, a blow against his
government which it could never survive. His
truth, his justice, his holiness, and all the glory
which illuminated heaven, would have vanished
into night, had he hesitated to execute his law,
and reward these early and invincible offenders,
every one according to his deeds.
The process with them was summary and decisive. He began the work of punitive justice by
banishi'ng them from  heaven. Distinguished as
they were, since they would be disobedient and
rebellious, heaven was no place for them; they
could no longer remain in that holy and happy
world, and companions of that holy and happy
society. Their sin was a complete and everlasting
forfeiture of all the blessedness of that glorious
state and place. Heaven was too pure and holy
to contain such offenders; for there shall in no
wise enter into it anything that defileth. They
must go out. They must depart accursed. They




-246     THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
could not be suffered to be there to awaken disgust and abhorrence, nor to become the tempters
of the unfallen. And this decree was executed
without delay. There was no inquiry instituted;
no trial, and no defence. God saw the crime, and
he cast them out. He gave them no space for repentance; for the first sin he cast them out, without allowing them time or opportunity for a second revolt this side their everlasting retribution.
Not only did God banish them from heaven,
but he cast them down to hell. There was no such
place as hell in the universe, until the fall of the
angelic race. Then it was the mighty Architect
laid the foundations and built the walls of this
lurid, fiery prison, and there treasured up his
magazines of wrath. Far away, where the light
of mercy never shines, did he fit up those dark
and melancholy regions —that wretched state of
existence-that world of desolation and despair,
the very thought of which awakens anguish, and
fills the mind with horror.
This horrid, everlasting hell now became the
habitation of these fallen spirits. They left their
own habitation of holiness and joy for this deep
dwelling of pollution and wickedness, of mourning, lamentation and woe. They were driven
from the face of God into the burning lake; and
now, that many a thousand century has passed
away, there they still lie engulfed in flames, and




THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.      247
the smoke of their torments ascends forever and
ever.
This may seem to us a severe sentence. But
God will vindicate this procedure in that day
when he shall judge the world in righteousness.
We are told in the Scriptures, that he "delivered
them to chains of darkness to be reserved unto
judgmenrt."  What the judgment is, to which they
are thus reserved, we learn from the more explicit
representation of the apostle Jude, "The angels
which kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation, he hkth reserved in everlasting chains
under darkness unto the judgment of the great
day."  Creatures may not hold the great God accountable; but the great God holds himself accountable even to creatures. His plans are vast and
comprehensive plans. The fact here revealed is, that
the fallen angels are bound over as criminals, and
reserved to take their public trial at the day of
judgment, when the sentence will be openly pronounced, and finally executed. I say finally executed; for, though their doom is inevitable, for
wise reasons God defers the extremity of their
punishnment.  Other parts of the sacred writings
instruct us, that these apostate spirits are still invisible agents in this world; that they are conversant with men; exert their power and influence
upon the human mind; and as "roaring lions, go
about seeking whom they may devour." God is




248      THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
pleased to enlarge the bounds of their prison, and
give them, for a time, the opportunity of employing their power and malice in opposing the purposes of his love to men, and in attempting their
destruction. But they cannot go beyond the
length of their chain. They are prisoners of justice, and bound over to the judgment. On that
great and last day, when the mystery of God shall
be finished, and that Saviour, whom these apostate
spirits refused to acknowledge, shall be exalted and
glorified; when the trumpet shall sound, and the
voice of the archangel shall awake the dead; God
shall call them forth to receive their doom, to be
judged and sentenced to woes as fearful as was the
distinguished rank from which they fell.
Such was the first revolt in the universe, and
such its penal consequences. And while it is among
the " first things" recorded in the sacred volume,
it was recorded for our instruction. The first
great moral lesson it inculcates is, that sin _produces a great and deplorable change in the character and condition of its _perpetrators. This is not
mere theory, based upon the nature of sin and the
character of a perfect moral government; it stands
out before us in melancholy history. The angels
who kept not their first estate, once belonged to
the highest, holiest, and most happy order of beings in the universe; now, they are the most abject, the most base, and the most miserable.




THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.     249
Once, they were amiable and lovely, worthy of
confidence, the ornament and comfort of a pure
society, and resplendent jewels in the bright crown
of heaven; now,.they are malevolent spirits, lying
spirits, unclean spirits, tormentors, murderers, and
foul devils, roaming over the earth like so many
ravening wolves, or shut up in their impure and
odious prison. Once, they were the examples and
patrons of all that is holy and excellent; now,
they are the subtle, indefatigable, and vile tempters to evil, spreading sin, misery, and destruction,
as far and wide as the length of their chains permits them to rove. From angels, lovely and honored, refulgent with the beauties of holiness, and
happy as their Maker's love could make them,
they have become horrid, hateful, miserable devils. "' Fools make a mock at sin." Yet this is its
accursed work. It never, in the end, does better
than this. The man who trifles with sin would
do well to think of the guilt and punishment, the
horror and despair which are its consequences and
punishment.
Another lesson plainly taught by this revolt is,
that there it8 no inconsistency between the perfect
goodness of God, and the everlacsting punishment
of all who revolt from his authority. Not a few
have thought that the infinite goodness of God
would not allow him to make even the vilest and
most ill-deserving of his creatures eternally miser11*




250      THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
able. Instead of this, would it not be more logical
to say, that if God is good, then whatever he does
is consistent with his goodness? All objections
against his conduct are objections against his goodness. His character and his conduct must be in
keeping with each'other; so that when once facts
teach us what his conduct is, we cannot avoid the
inference that it is consistent with his character.
It does not appear to us a difficult matter to show
c priori that goodness punishes; but thea  posteriori argument is still stronger when we can show
that goodness has punished. The man is a fool
whose logic leads him to quarrel with facts. If
we inquire whether a being of perfect goodness
can inflict endless suffering on the incorrigible; our
inquiry is answered, not by theory, but byfctcts.
One fact outweighs a thousand theories.  The
fallen angels are lost. There are no devils in
heaven. God has already cast them into hell,
there to remain forever.  I say forever, because
when time shall be no more, the sentence will be
pronounced, " Depart from nme, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pjreparedfor the devil and his angels."
There is not an argument in favor of the doctrine
of universal salvation, which is not repelled and refuted by this solemn and affecting fact. Is it said
that no sin can deserve eternal punishment; the assertion is contrary to fact. Is it said, that God is too
good thus to punish; this is also contrary to fact.




THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.     251
Is it said that his mercy will not suffer him thus
to punish; this is also directly in the face of this
plain fact. Is it said that these apostate spirits
sinned with peculiar aggravation, that they became real devils, and though they may be eternally
punished, this affords no proof that any of the
fjamily of Adam will fall under a like condemnation? This is giving up the whole argument, and
conceding at once to the position that it is not inconsistent with the perfect character of God to
punish some of his creatures with everlasting destruction. And if not inconsistent with his character to punish theqn, why should it be inconsistent
with his character to punish the incorrigible of
our fallen race?  Did he " not spare" these once
exalted, once lovely, once beloved attendants on
his throne; and will he spare abject, rebellious,
incorrigible' men? Did he cast these once glorious
and glorified inhabitants of heaven down to hell;
and will he not cast into hell incorrigible man who
is a worm, and the son of man who is a worm?
What a death-blow is such a fact as this to all the
presumptuous hopes of impenitent men!  The
truth has been revealed, and it must be proclaimed, that "the wicked shall be turned into
hell, and all the nations that forget God." Those
who live and die in sin, cannot hope to be spared,
if God did not spare the angels who fell. Though
they were dear to him as the bright seraphs who




252      THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
were once around his throne, he will cast them
down.
Another lesson taught by this first revolt is,
that no beinng i8 safe unless he i8 qupheld by God.
It is very difficult to conceive how angels fell, unless they were dependent on God for their continued integrity. And did not God mean to teach us
this truth, by their fall? Who may affirm that his
power was not as necessary for their preservation
as for their original existence?  What were they
unsupported by him? and what power but his
could perpetuate their integrity?  They were not
incorruptible, though once uncorrupted.  Nor let
the truth be forgotten, that their melancholy fall
teaches us that no created mind and no created
holiness in the universe can live without God.
God alone exists, and is holy, uncaused and unsustained. Left to themselves, the holiest are unsafe. So long as they retained their integrity,
angels were kept by divine power. It is this that
has kept Gabriel from falling, and keeps him now.
It is this that kept Paul and keeps him still. Angels and saints are kept in holiness only by the
effectual power of God. Proud man boasts of his
free agency; but there is no free agency in the
universe that is safe, unless it is in God's keeping.
Man's is safe only when he is humble. His dependence on all-powerful grace is one of the sweetest truths of the Bible, and is most deeply felt




THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.    253
when he has most of the spirit of that sacred
book. Take from us our dependence on God, and
we must despair. Who can hope to become holy
without him, if, without him, angels fell? Who,
without him, can hope to be preserved in holiness,
if angels were not thus preserved?
Another lesson taught by this revolt, is the
inscrutable sovereignty of God in the di8pensation8
of hi&s grace.  All the angelic race were probably created at the same time. They had great
capacities for holiness and happiness, were all perfectly holy and happy, and equally beloved by
God. And in this high, holy, and happy state,
they remained for a period of time unknown
to us. But there was a moment when they
began to differ, and some of them  remained
angels and others became devils. And in these
two  different characters they have remained
ever since, and will remain, throughout eternity.
Who does not in this single fact see and adore
the inscrutable, and yet the holy sovereignty of the
iMost tigh?  Why this difference? Why were
some upheld, and others left to themselves and
permitted to fall?  And after they had fallen,
why was a Saviour provided for an inferior race,
and not provided for those who were once so exalted, and holy, and happy, and honored?  O, it
is past finding out! Why was it? Hell asks the
question, Why?  Earth responds to the dark in



254      THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
quiry, Why?  And heaven answers; and says to
all the unhallowed curiosity of the created universe,
Be still and know that I am God! Have I7 not a
right to do what I will witlh mine own?  Hath
not the potter poewer over the clay of the same lump
to msake one vessel unto honor and another unto
dishonor? I veil my face here, and bow in silence at his throne. This is his royal prerogative
as the Creator and owner of angels and men.
"Who art thou, 0 man, that repliest against
God!" The sovereignty of God, therefore, is not
only a doctrine that is taught in Scripture, but is
founded in fact, and acted out in the history of a
race besides our own. It is no theory, but a series
offacts, designed to wake up the slumbering minds
of men, and fix them upon his deep designs, manifold wisdom, and wonderful government. Nor is
it a mere theory with which so many contend, but
a series of facts, with which, when they contend,
they are only fighting against God.
Another lesson which the revolt of angels inculcates is, the high vantage-ground occupied by the
human family u.nder the llediatorial reign, of Jesus
ChUri'st, compared with the purely legal economy to
which the angelic race were subjected. We are
sometimes tempted to complain that we were not
created angels. Let us be thankful that we are
men. How long the period of probation allotted
to angels continued, God has not been pleased to




THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN      255
reveal. It is not, however, until after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and after his exaltation to " be head over all principality and power,"
that we hear anything about " elect angels."
And are we not justified in concluding that God
stands pledged to keep those who did not join in
the first revolt, from falling at some future time.
Their confirmation was the reward of long-tried
obedience. For four thousand years it is probable
they thus remained probationera, and during the
whole of this period, one sin would have exiled
them from heaven, and cast them down to hell.
Nor was the issue of their probation dependent on
the integrity of some one of their number, less
likely to fall than others; each individual of that
angelic race was to stand or fall for hiVnse7f.
Where then is the man who, under a clear view
of these responsibilities, does not see that he has
privileges above the angelic race?
More than this. When the angels fell, they
fell irrecoverably and without hope. No mediator
was found to "take upon him the nature of angels." No Saviour was thought of, and no glory
of the Lord shone round about that fallen race to
soothe their fears and tell them of the mighty Deliverer. But he who " took not on him the nature
of angels," in boundless condescension and love,
clothed himself with the" seed of Abraham." The
dark and immeasurable ruin that spread before




256      THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
our race after the fall, was lighted up, not by some
faint and twinkling ray of hope, but by the " Sun
of Righteousness" rising with " healing in his
beams," and in full-orbed glory. The door of life,
shut by the first man, was opened by the second.
The condemnation is for one offence, the justification is from many.
Nor is this all. The angels, though created
holy, had, as we have already seen, no promise
that they should not fall. But man is confirmed
in holiness froLm the hotr he first believes in Jeszus
Chriast; and from that hour is in an infinitely more
safe condition than angels before their apostasy.
They held all their holiness and happiness by an
uncertain tenure; while believers in the gospel
hold theirs upon a surer covenant and upon "better promises."  The irrecoverable fall of angels is
the only instance of irrecoverable falling from
grace on the records of the universe. Man fell,
but man was restored; believing man has the
promise that he shall never so fall as finally to be
cast away. "If when they were enemies they
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, being reconciled, shall they be saved
by his life." When God gave them to his Son,
before the foundation of the world, the guaranty
was given to him, that they " should never perish"
-that " none should pluck them out of his hand"
-and that of all which he had given him, he




THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.    257
should " lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day." Who then will utter the inconsiderate wish, 0 that I had never been born of
woman! So thought not the proud seraph who
fell. No work of God interests the angelic race
so much as this great work of redeeming mercy.
They were astonished spectators of the creation
and fall of man; and they are admiring spectators of his recovery. Let the reader be reminded,
that the tidings of mercy denied to fallen angels,
are proclaimed to man. We may not say to angels as we may to sinners of this fallen race, that
there is One who is able and willing, and faithful
to save them. 2/fen have a birthright to the offers
of this redemption, because they are men. Like
Esau, there may be those who profanely " sell that
birthright" for a "mess of pottage;" and hereafter, like angels that are fallen, seek a place for
repentance, and never find it, "though sought
carefully and with tears." 0 then, by the terrors
of that day in which they shall be judged; by
the glories of that heaven which they despised,
and can never regain; by the riches of that grace
never offered to them, be entreated to fall down
before that Saviour, and own him as your Lord
and King.
What suppose ye those fallen spirits think of
mnan's rejection of such offers of mercy? And
what, suppose ye, those unfallen ones think of




258      THE FIRST REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
man's hesitation and delay to accept the mighty
Saviour? Were they permitted to stand in the
place of those of us who are ambassadors for Christ,
how would they plead' with the infatuated sons
and daughters of men, by all the folly, and ingratitude, and eternal agony of their apostate and lost
companions, to beware how they " neglect so great
salvation!"  And do they not thus minister?
Happy in being humble and obedient, like their
divine Lord, they are even "now in the midst
of this fallen world as one that serveth." They
hover over the pillow of the thoughtless sinner,
when he sleeps; they hover around the sanctuary
where he worships; they hover over the volume
that he reads, to see if there be no repenting prodigal that may be setting his face toward his father's
house. Even now, as the reader closes the present
chapter, they wait to see if they cannot discover
some victory of the cross over ignorance, sorrow,
and sin-some sighings of a broken and contrite
heart-some dawnings of hope-some babe-like
lispings of the new and everlasting song-some one
returning sinner, whose repentance will fill them
with transport, and heaven with praise.




CHAPTER IX.
illf,first'PuriUMr
UP to the events of which we speak in the
present chapter, everything on this earth was
bright and gladsome. Infinite all-sufficiency and
loveliness had called into existence this vast and
beautiful creation, and by the same infinite power
and goodness, formed a race holy as God is holy.
We have seen him instituting and consecrating the
domestic relations, and giving to this new-created
world, that day of rest, of light, and of fellowship
with heaven; thus setting this earth in motion
under influences which may well be supposed,
would secure its progress and its perpetuity in
holiness. Heaven itself could scarcely present a
scene of more exquisite beauty and loveliness,
than these bright outlines of this early and unsullied creation.
But in an evil hour, a dark and heavy cloud is
superinduced over all this matchless beauty; its
light fades, its varied and splendid coloring be



260          THE FIRST DECEIVER.
comes obscured. The "six days' labor of a God"
is spoiled; and from that hour to the present,
every successive generation of men bears witness
that some foul enemy has done this.
Among the " first things" therefore, which we are
contemplating, is this FIRST DECEIVER. We have
already adverted to the apostasy of a part of the
angelic race; it was the great head and leader of
this revolt who became the tempter of man.
We are not now about to enter into any philosophical disquisition upon the origin of man's apostasy. The researches of men into the cause of this
lamentable fact are almost as many as they are
useless. Their explanations are profound and ingenious; but very many of them, instead of relieving the subject of difficulty, render it more
complicated and embarrassed. The Mosaic narrative is intelligible to a child; if God had desired
we should know more, more would have been revealed. So far as that narrative instructs us, the
thought of man's rebellion is one which originated
in the mind of another; one to which he was
tempted. Our object is to speak of the tempter.
It has been remarked by a learned commentator
upon the book of Job, that "men who do not
believe in the existence of the devil, do not believe in the existence of God."  With those who
receive the sacred writings as the rule of their
faith, there can be no doubt of the existence and




THE FIRST DECEIVER.         261
agency of this Evil Spirit. It is no uncommon thing
for writers, both of a philosophical and an imaginative cast of mind, to speak familiarly of "the
principle of evil," of the " genius of destruction;"
as though by these, and such like designations,
they conveyed some intelligible and well-defined
thought. The Scriptures never utter themselves
in this mystic language; they speak of the inciting
cause both of evil and good; but they lead our
minds to distinct and responsible per'sonaities.
The account which they give of the common enemy
of mankind is as explicit and intelligible as that
which they give of any other person, or agent.
They give us his origin and history; they delineate
his character, and set before us the great objects
he is pursuing; they premonish the world of his
subtlety and wiles; and they distinctly foretell his
overthrow, and the triumphs of the mighty Conqueror by whom he is to be cast down. They give
him his distinctive names and appellations, every
one of them marking his distinctive qualities.
" There is no characteristic property, or feature of
distinct personality, and nothing which constitutes
personal individuality in any case," which they do
not attribute to this great author of wickedness.
The teachings on this subject in the book of Genesis alone are as explicit as language can make
them. It were to make a romance of the Bible to
call them allegory. If the representations in the




262           THE FIRST DECEIVER.
third chapter of this book respecting the serpent
and the woman be a mere allegory, then is the
Saviour there promised an allegory; the whole
revelation of God is an allegory; man's apostasy is
an allegory; his redemption an allegory; the final
judgment, heaven and hell, are allegories.
Great as are the power and influence which the
adversary exerts, they are mainly dependent on
his subtlety and craft.  "Now the serpent was
more subtle than any beast of the field." His
cha'racter as the Deceiver, and the extent of hi7s cecption.s, are the two leading thoughts, therefore,
to which our remarks are now directed.
In turning our attention to HIs CHARACTER AS
THE DECEIVER, we may not venture into the fairy
land of conjecture and imagination. The sacred
records alone furnish the clue by which our pursuit may be safely governed; and with these lights,
we may ferret even the tortuous and slimy path
of the serpent. These infallible records speak of
him  as one who "goes forth to deceive the nationse;" as " the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world."  The character of this prince of
darkness is to deceive; to mislead the mind; to
cause it to err; to induce it to believe what is
false, or disbelieve what is true; to impose upon
it by stratagem and artifice.
In proof of this position, we advert, in the first
instance, to the fact that his agency is concealed.




THE FIRST DECEIVER           263
For this concealment he is peculiarly fitted, as he
belongs to that class of beings, who, from their
spirituality, are invisible. He is the head of those
high and apostate spirits "' who kept not their first
estate." With the exception of those instances in
which, to answer some wise purpose of a righteous
providence, he assumes a material form, he is as
invisible to men as those angels who never fell,
and all of whom are " ministering spirits to them
that shall be heirs of salvation."  It is not the
open assault of a manly foe that men encounter
when they enter the conflict with this " angel of
the bottomless pit;" but the stealthy assassin
whose step is in the dark, and whose presence is
indicated only by the blow he strikes. The best,
as well as the worst of men, are not always aware
of the subtlety with which he is lurking about
their path. There is no bosom so pure, but in an
ev il hour, he may insensibly invade its tranquillity; no sanctuary so holy, but he may pollute it
with sacrilegious, though unseen hands. And what
is true of himself, as the head and chief of all evil
spirits, is true of the " legion," who act in concert
with him. They are all perpetually employed,
but with impervious silence and secrecy. We live
on the verge of the world of spirits; good and evil
angels are always hovering about us, though unperceived. It is the treachery of this arch deceiver, that he should persuade multitudes who




264          THIE FIRST DECEIVER.
are themselves the victims of his treachery, that
his agency is visionary and unreal; so that, although his influence is so extensively felt, it should
not be suspected. Amid the noise and bustle of
the world, and amid the retirement and silence of
the closet; at home and abroad, on the land and
on the ocean, by day and by night, he is exerting
his power; yet no touch feels, no ear hears, no eye
sees him. Behind every scene of iniquity, he is
the dark mover. His stratagems are often discovered; we find the gin, but we cannot detect
the fowler. Millions writhe under the wounds
they receive from his hand, but the hand that inflicts them is undetected. The pit itself may
sometimes be left uncovered, but never the foe
that digs it.
Nor is it his agency only that is concealed; he
conceals hi8 object. What this is, his deep malignity leaves us at no loss to determine. When he
fell from his primeval integrity, from a pure spirit
in the heavenly court he became a reprobate in
the world of darkness; from an angel, he became
an incorrigible, irrecoverable fiend. Every development of his character has been indicative of his
fell malice and revenge. We have become acquainted with his object, not from himself. From
the beginning to the present hour, he has kept his
own secret; nor has so much as one note of alarm
escaped his venomous tongue. Yet has his aim




THE FIRST DECEIVER.        265
been steady and single. It were a dark chapter
in the history of our race, that should recite even
a few of the more prominent instances in which
men have been beguiled by him to their undoing,
and in which to have dealt honestly and have
avowed his purpose, would have been to have defeated it. It matters not on whom he practises
this deception, nor upon what scale; his object is
alike concealed. It was concealed from Adam
and Eve; it was concealed from Cain, when he
made him the abhorred of his race, and brought
upon him a punishment greater than he could
bear. It was concealed from  the antediluvian
world and from Sodom, when their blind credulity in his promises was answered in the rushing
waters of the Deluge, and in fire from the Lord
out of heaven. It was concealed from Judas, when
he " put it into his heart" to betray the Son of Man
with a kiss. All the world over, those who yield
to his temptations, find, when it is too late, that
they were a lure, and that while he flattered them
with the expectation of good, his object was evil.
"The tree was good! for food, and pvleasant to the
eye, and a tree to be desired to mnakce one wise"this is the whole story of his stratagems. It is an
artful appeal to the three vulnerable points of humanity-" the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye,
and the pride of life." And in making it, the
devil excels all other deceivers —never unfolding
12*




266           THE FIRST DECEIVER.
the flower without concealing the thorn; never
aiming to injure, without promising to benefit.
The poisoned cup is held to the lips, and while it
sparkles and exhilarates, shows no signs of the
death that lurks within.  Who of all the victims of his treachery are premonished of their
overthrow?  Not one. It is the voice of the Deceiver which they hear. It is the fascination of
the lap of indulgence, where the head of the victim  is laid to be shorn of its strength, and then
blinded and delivered over to the tormentors. It
is the syren song that invites to pleasure, and introduces to death. It is the serpent's breath, carrying its notes to the ear, and instilling its poison
into the soul, till the unwary and deluded awake
to the struggle only to be bound faster in his coils.
The same artifice is also discoverable in the
means by whicfh hAis nalignant ends are attained.
Of his influence in the physical world we are not
able to speak with definiteness or certainty.
From the fact that he is represented in the Scriptures as the "Prince of the power of the air,"
learned and sensible men have believed and
taught, that it is not beyond his province to " produce winds and storms, and other natural evils to
afflict mankind, and carry on his malignant opposition to Christ and his kingdom." Some instances
of this sort occur in the Scriptures. The magicians of Egypt seem to have a limited power over




THE FIRST DECEIVER.        267
the material creation, when they "withstood Moses," in the presence of Pharaoh. This great Enemy is also distinctly represented as obtaining
permission from God to visit Job with various
and sore physical calamities. The notion of his
power in the material creation was certainly extensively prevalent among the Jews, as well as
not a few even of the learned Gentiles. Demons
and evil genii were supposed by them to have the
seat of their empire in the air, there exerting their
influence, and watching their opportunities to harass and destroy. And it is a fact worthy, in this
connection, to be mentioned, that in those portions
of the world that are unvisited by the light of the
gospel, and where the inhabitants are most under
the power of the Prince of Darkness, his physical
power is most dreaded.
Be this as it may, he has another sphere of action, which, if it be not his own selected sphere,
is the one in which he has the divine permission
most extensively to employ his subtlety. That
sphere is the human, mind, with all its faculties of
perception, thought, imagination and memory.
Nor do I know that we are warranted in saying
that he has no power over the heart. It has been
supposed, that if his power extended to the hearts
of men, the havoc would be so fearful that there
would be no hope for the race. The reasoning
would be conclusive, if his power were not watched




'268         THE FIRST DECEIVER.
by an unsleeping eye, and restrained by an unwearied arm, and always effectually countervailed
in exact accordance with the counsels of redeeming mercy. There is no more impossibility in his
acting upon the minds of men than there is in any
other invisible agent's acting upon them. And
there is no more absurdity. He "moved David
to number Israel," and he "filled the heart of Ananias to lie unto the Holy Ghost."  The way in
which he influences the thoughts and affections of
men may not be known to us, nor may the nature
of his communications with them be capable of
being explained, or even comprehended; while we
see not how those communications themselves can
be questioned. If I dared, I would make the appeal to the personal experience of my readers, and
ask them to recall some dream of the night, some
waking vision, some unwonted and wicked train of
thought, some process of false reasoning, some fearful and fiendlike impulse, to which their own habits
of thought and feeling were not only utter strangers, but to the last degree hostile and repulsive.
I would make the appeal also to their observation.
I would ask them to visit the asylums for the insane, and look into the solitary cells of the madhouse. Not a few of these instances of mental insanity, no doubt, are the effect of physical disorganization; but are there not among them those
which present mournful instances of mloral de



THE FIRST DECEIVER.         269
rangement?  In tracing their history, is there not
as much evidence as the subject admits, that the
origin of the mania was cherished wickedness, the
cherished tempter; and are there not instances of
this sort, which are as truly specimens of demoniacal possession as those we read of in the records
of the New Testament?
I have said that the appropriate sphere of the
devil's subtlety is the mind. And here he practises his deceptions with a skill and subtlety that
show that he is no novice. To a great extent, he
makes use of men as their own tempters. By their
want of consideration, and not less by their unsleeping suspicions and jealousies; by their unguarded thoughtlessness and vanity; by their imperturbable sullenness and gloom; by their indifference, and by their over-prying curiosity, they
lay open their own minds to his artful and intriguing suggestions. Sometimes he avails himself
of the opinions they form before reason can discuss, or the judgment confirm them; and sometimes of that absence of all opinions, that mental
vacuity which invites his cultivation. Where the
prepossessions and prejudices are wrong, however
dreamy and absurd they be, he leaves them undisturbed; while, if they are right and true, he
spares no pains to agitate and disturb them, to
assail them with sarcasm, abuse, and sneers, until
these great outposts of truth and duty are, if




27,0         THE FIRST DECEIVER.
possible, broken down. The mind of man is an
apostate and depraved existence, while all its operations are most narrowly watched by the adversary. Its very excitability is one of those frailties
of which he very often takes great advantage, and
inder which he urges men to say and do what,
but for this excited state of feeling, they never
would have thought of. Whence is it that such
multitudes so unreluctantly abandon themselves to
impulse and passion rather than be governed by
cool reason and sober judgment, unless it be from
some practised delusion?  Moral depravity here
goes beyond its calculations, and supreme selfishness misses its aim. There is no characteristic of
the mind more marvellous than the preference it is
prone to give to the joys of the present moment.
Nor can it easily be accounted for. This rude
recklessness, so incorrigible in the young, and with
such difficulty eradicated in the old; this utter
disregard of consequences, so often condemned
and never controlled, so often rebuked but rarely
amended, so often held in check but not always
subdued even by the grace of God, indicates the
power of the charmer. Every man, too, has his
ruling passion; nor is the tempter ignorant either
of its nature or its power. If it be the love of
money, he aims to bind the soul in fetters of gold;
the love of power, he aims to dazzle it with the
splendor of dominion; the love of pleasure, he




THE FIRST DECEIVER.          271
aims to incite those " fleshly lusts that war against
the soul." And even where it is the love of God,
he aims to quench its ardor, or inflame it by a
misguided and headlong zeal; and as melancholy
facts show, even instigate it to deeds of wickedness under the semblance of doing God's service.
Not only does. he know the temptation that is fitted to address itself to the predominant disposition and habits, but the one that is suited to the
existing state of the mind, whether that state
arise from its outward circumstances, or its inward
spirit. It may be the state of prosperity, or of
adversity; of hope, or fear; of severe toil, or of
relaxation, leisure, or idleness; of presumption, or
despondency: and in either case, he fits the snare
to the path in which the unwary pilgrim is travelling.
If you now advert to a few of those extraneous
influences he employs, you will see that they partake of the same artful character. Sometimes they
are those whom men love most in the endeared relations of human life; sometimes those in whom
they have the deepest interest and confidence in
the relations of business; and sometimes those
who are most revered as the teachers of religion,
as the makers of their laws, or as the leaders of a
party. All those association.s which have a tendency to taint the purity of the mind, or to familiarize it with men and scenes where God is dis



272          THE FIRST DECEIVER.
honored, the authority of his word called in
question, the peculiar doctrines of Christianity
ridiculed, or the obligations of morality regarded
with loose indifference; present opportunities bf
which he is not slow to avail himself. There is an
exposure to moral assimilation amid such scenes
which he most artfully promotes, and by which
his malignant ends are too often secured. Some
he persuades to phrensied activity, that they may
sin without reflection; and some he persuades to
eat the bread of idleness, that he may have the
better opportunity of employing them in his own
work. Some he stupifies by their ignorance, and
some he misleads by their knowledge. Some he
infatuates by pride, and some he inflates by " a
voluntary humility." Some he ensnares by their
ingenuousness; and others by overspreading and
obscuring their minds by a web of sophistry.
Some are led astray by an overweening attachment to their own rights and prerogative, others
by a tame surrender of them; some by a sense of
honor, and others by the fear of shame and reproach. Very rarely, if ever, does he carry his
point by assuming the garb and showing the hideous face of wickedness, or by any such means,
the just view of which stings the conscience and
awakens disgust.
Another evidence of his deception will be found
in those artful insinuations  by which he tempt8 to




THE FIRST DECEIVER.         2l73
evil by slow deg~rees. When a man has taken a single
step in wickedness, he is very apt to take another;
and when he has taken a few more in the downward path, he is hurried onward with such accelerated and fearful velocity, that it is impossible to
predict where he will stop. The stone has gone
out of the sling, and no man can tell where it will
alight, or what mischief it will do in its course.
We may not doubt that the subtle agency of the
Deceiver is employed, both in the first impulse,
and in the subsequent and rapid progress. The
history of Ahab, Jeroboam, and Judas; of Nero,
the bloody Mary, and Voltaire, furnish melancholy exemplifications of the truth of these rer
marks. Nor are they less applicable to large
bodies of men, than to individuals. Large bodies
of men are indeed less apt to yield to the restraints
of conscience, and more liable to be driven and
hurried on, from small beginnings to courses of
headstrong and unresisted iniquity. It takes time
for a nation that was once moral and virtuous, to
become immoral and vicious. They are drawn
into the snare of the devil little by little. Some
nations had their origin in an illustrious and noble
ancestry; and could they have foreseen at a single
view the downward course they would travel, they
would have looked upon it with abhorrence, and
have trembled to anticipate their destiny. Others
had their origin in ignorance, superstition, idol12*




274          THE FIRST DECEIVER.
atry, and blood; and even they would have
scarcely thought it possible that their subsequent
history would have been marked with the obdurate degradation which attended it. It was by
slow degrees and smaller sins that the world began to be corrupted after the flood; yet in about
half a century after the death of Noah, the earth
was overrun by abounding iniquity. In the person and family of Abraham, the Hebrew nation
was planted " wholly a right seed;" while according to the testimony of their own historian, " never
was there a time from the beginning of the world
more fruitful in wickedness," than in remoter periods of their history. When Ashur, and the few
adventurers who shared his fortunes, founded the
Assyrian empire, they little thought that the
early pride of Nineveh would lead to the luxury
in which so many generations slumbered, and
finally kindle the fire by which an empire which
had existed 1400 years was subverted in a day. It
was not in a moment that " the iniquity of the
Amorites became full;" nor that Babylon, "the
glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency," became " as when God overthrew Sodom
and Gomorrah."
The evils which many portions of the earth now
suffer, and the wickedness to which they are in
bondage, were the offspring of a barbarous age, of
which the adversary was the author. The time




THE FIRST DECEIVERI         275
was when these unmitigated enormities were a
novelty in the history of our race, and were all
concentrated in the devices of his teeming bosom.
There was no tumult of alarm at the first suggestion of them; they crept in with a snail-like progress. The Old Serpent is too great a veteran in
the arts of deception to allow men to conjecture
the course in which he means to lead them. It is
enough for him to know that they will be carried
beyond their own expectations in sinning. His
policy, his subtlety is not so much seen in what
the sin is in its first encroachment, as in what he
designs it shall be. It was but the entering
wedge of destruction, but drove home by an experienced and dexterous hand. It was but the
unnoticed trains and associations of thought, that
sprung up almost imperceptibly; but which gradually increased like the stream that flows from a
fountain of water, till it has become like the
torrent of the wilderness, swollen and impetuous
by the bursting of the storm. It was but the unobserved flake of snow, floating under the control
of the " Prince of the power of the air;" now it is
the avalanche tumbling upon the plain below. It
was but the invisible vapor, secretly struggling
to find its way through some subterranean crevice of the sulphurous mountain; now, it is the
dark exhalation from the bottomless pit, and "goes
up like the smoke of a great furnace."




276          THE FIRST DECEIVER.
Add to these one other thought, and his character as the Deceiver is complete and entire. I
mean his bold and unblushing falsehood.  We do
not slander him when we say he is an impudent
liar. Falsehood is inherent in his very nature. If
he ever speaks the truth, it is but to give emphasis to some greater falsehood. He never made a
sincere declaration to men, save with the view of
carrying into effect some sinister and base design.
Truth, that eternal and unchangeable reality which
forms the indissoluble tie, the sacred connection
between God and man, and between all virtuous
minds in the universe, and which animates their
confidence, and secures and promotes their everlasting tranquillity and joy, is to him unknown,
except to be hated and opposed. There is no degree, form, or color of falsehood with which he is
not familiar, and which did not originate, and is
not fostered within his own false bosom. His
whole character and history are distinguished for
treachery and lies. The Saviour, when speaking
of him, says "he abode not in the truth;" and in
the same sentence he not only calls him " a liar,"
but " the father of lies."  He is false, not from inconstancy and fickleness; not from the instability
of passion; but from cool reflection and settled
principle. "He was a liar from the beginning;"
and what he was in the beginning, he is now, and
ever will be, world without end. As God is im



THE FIRST DECEIVER.          277
mutably and forever true, Satan is immutably and
forever false. False declarations, false names, false
reasonings, false quotations of Scripture, false promises, and hopes of impunity in sin which he knows
are refuges of lies, are his ordinary, if not his universal and uniform resort.
It is worthy of remark, that in his influence
upon the minds of men, he is wont to assail the
most demonstrable truths. Mr. Locke observes
of a certain class of propositions, that " they are
those clear truths, that either their own evidence
forces us to admit, or common experience makes
it impudence to deny."  This shameless effrontery
is the true character of the great Adversary.
There is no truth more fully established than the
indissoluble connection between sin and suffering.
This is the great ordinance of the divine kingdom,
and on this depend all its order and harmony.
The laws of the physical creation are not more
firmly established than this great law of the moral
creation. It were just as rational to believe that
heavy bodies do not fall, that light does not shine,
that cold does not contract, that heat does not expand, and that fluids do not seek a common level,
as that sin does not engender suffering.
Yet has the Deceiver set himself from the beginning to disprove and disallow this fundamental
principle of the divine government. Scarcely had
this great law been pronounced by the lips of un



2(78          THE FIRST DECEIVER.
erring truth, than he had the shameless effrontery
to call it in question, and give it a bold and flat
denial. Thou shalt "not surely die!" Wonderful discovery! and found only in the depths of
those deceptions which are nourished in the bosom of the " crooked Serpent." His first, and with
the exception of his menaces and terrors, his last
resort, is to inject this delusion, either in unmingled, or diluted forms. His great strength
lies in his powers of deception. With all his gigantic intellect, he would accomplish little without
these artifices. This is his character; this is his
nature; this is his work; the work for which he
has the talent and the heart.




CHAPTER X.
Tfir Sxtrut Uf the  Bmiurr'o Inarro.
THAT we may perceive somewhat of the assiduity
and success with which this arch-Deceiver has cultivated his powers, we propose in the present chapter
to advert to the EXTENT OF HIS DECEPTIONS. The
Scriptures speak of " the depths of Satan," and of
his amazing power.  They represent him  as a' roaring lion going about seeking whom he may
devour;"-as "going to and fro in the earth,
and walking up and down in it;" and as " deceiving the nations," and the " whole world."
His powers of locomotion are not known to us, nor
are they to be comprehended by human organs.
As a spirit, he is possessed of wonderful activity.
Milton well represents him  as an "archangel
ruined." The angel Gabriel flew from the supreme
heavens to this world, a distance far beyond the
starry firmament, during the time that the prophet
Daniel was employed in uttering a short prayer.
Nor is there any reason to believe that the activity




280  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
of infernal spirits is less than that of these celestial
beings. He who "maketh his angels spirits, his
ministers a flaming fire," has given to these invisible ones of the world of darkness, powers of moving
from place to place, which, while we have no
means of ascertaining, are so great, that when
combined with their subtle artifices, would render
them still more fearful engines of evil, but for him
who restrains the wrath of devils as well as men.
Not only are the measures of this common foe
planned with wonderful adroitness, but from his
amazing activity, laid out upon a large scale. He
is the great moral juggler of the universe. This
earth is spread out before him like a vast chessboard, every part of which he has been studying for 6,000 years. There is not a square of it
which his eye has not surveyed; not a king, nor
bishop, nor knight, nor castle, nor pawn, nor the
meanest figure that has a part in the great game
of life, with the power and value of which he is
not acquainted, and -which he knows not how to
make use of to the best advantage, both for the
purposes of defence and attack. If there were but
less proportion between his skill and the value of
the stake for which he plays, his indefatigable assiduity would not excite so much alarm. The stake
is infinite; the skill, blessed be God, falls short of
that which is infinite; he is a creature, though
probably the greatest of creatures. Yet though




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 281
a creature, it is no ordinary place that he occupies;
no common powers that he possesses. It is no
small game that he is seeking after. His aim is to
blind and infatuate men by millions, and make his
victims as the sand of the shore. He does not indeed overlook individual and isolated man; nor
suppress his exultation when he circumvents the
poorest and meanest of our race. But his eagle eye
is fixed upon the nations, and for nothing does he
utter a louder shout of triumph, than when he has
them hoodwinked in his hands, degraded and enslaved.
Among the various ways in which he aims to do
this, we will direct our attention, in the first place,
to the extensive prevalence of those institutions and
customs by which Icarge portion.s of the human race
are held under his dominion. If every age is distinguished by some peculiarity of moral character,
it is for the most part a peculiarity in wickedness.
Any one who has observed the amazing power
which corrupt institutions and customs exert upon
the character of the world, will not doubt that
they constitute a part of that moral machinery by
which this Deceiver retains the minds of men in
inexorable bondage. Men and nations who would
recoil from a sinful act, are cheated into upholding
a sinful custom. Institutions and customs which,
proposed for the first time, would strike the mind
with horror, cease to be revolting when, by their




282: THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
long standing, men have become familiar with
them. If they are handed down to them from their
ancestors, they venerate them, because they are
slow to believe that those whom they have been
accustomed to respect could do wrong. No matter
how absurd the usage, if it comes to them under
the sanction of great names, and universal adoption, and by-gone ages. It is' enough that it is
inwoven with the framework of human society,
and comes to them under all the force of a
prescriptive law; they have no settled opinions
about it, except that change would be an inroad
upon the past.
As a general fact, the customs and institutions
of the world belong to a concern in which the
great Adversary traffics in wholesale deception.
This invincible attachment to long-established
usage, is the principal reason why, in most of the
countries of the East, the female mind is so degraded. Woman holds too important a place in
human society, fills too interesting a sphere, and is
fitted to exert too wide an influence, to be overlooked by the common enemy. There, her place
is the harem; the light of day may scarcely look
upon her; her mind is unimproved, and her office is that of a pet-slave. Yet, strange to say,
such is the power of custom, that even if the longimprisoned bird were let loose, it would return to
its cage.




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 283
This also is the principal reason of the division
of caste8 throughout India, by which a large majority of the inhabitants are reduced to the most
hopeless state of humiliation. No advantage results from it to any one order of society; the
humbled classes are by far the more numerous,
and might easily become the more powerful; but
they have been so long accustomed to the yoke,
that they know not how to live without it. Here is
a territory containing one hundred and fifty millions
of inhabitants, where this wretched system, primarily a religious, but so inwoven with the social
and civil institutions of the country, and indeed
with the entire life of the Hindus, not only precludes all improvement in their secular affairs,
but so enslaves the minds of the people as to present the most discouraging obstacles to the propagation of Christianity, and their consequent elevation.
The same delusion attaches itself to the feudal;y/stem. The most striking features of this system
were its landed aristocracy, the absolute subjection of the vassal to his lord, the tenure of land
by military service, ecclesiastical nobility, and the
independence of the peers and barons of the
crown. The two great evils of this system, furnished the great adversary with the most effective
instruments of destruction to the souls of men.
They were the personal servitude of the greater




284  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
portion of mankind during the dark ages, and
the elevation of the profession of arms, to the absolute contempt of the more honorable, virtuous
and peaceful occupations. Chivalry, too, was the
proud and restive associate of the feudal system.
And who does not see, that, that passion for arms,
that reckless spirit, that honor of knighthood, those
rewards of valor, that splendor of equipage, those
romantic ideas of justice, that love of wild adventure, and that affability and gallantry, so artfully
inwoven with all its dissipation and blood, were
but the false glare thrown around it by the prince
of darkness?
The religious frenzy of the Crua9ades is another
feature of this strange delusion. It is no extravagance to say, that in these military expeditions
Satan himself bore the banner of the cross. Under the pretence of recovering the Holy Land
from the power of infidels, he has by this device
immolated millions on his own altar. So absolutely did this wild fanaticism take possession of
the mind of Europe for several centuries, that not
only sovereigns, princes of the blood, dignitaries
of the church, and a countless multitude of the
common people, but women and children enlisted
by thousands under its colors. Ninety thousand
children, commanded by a child, were once engaged in this adventure, only to be murdered, or
starved, or sold as slaves. "So many crimes and




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 285
so much misery have seldom been accumulated as
in the three years of the first crusade." It is not
enough to confess that these expeditions were the
result of a misguided enthusiasm; they were the
result of marvellous delusion, and led on by the
angel of the bottomless pit.
The long-established custom of war is also one
of the artifices of the great adversary. The moral
perceptions and sensibilities even of Christian men
and Christian nations, in relation to this fearful
scourge of humanity, have actually been blinded
and blunted by his subtle influence. As a source
of crime and misery, this unnatural, absurd and
barbarous custom stands out beyond every scourge
of the earth. Yet is it a perfect illusion. There
is no reason for it in the world. No good comes
of it. There is no such enmity between nations
as war intimates. Men do not hate those they
kill, for they do not lknow them. No; there is
strange delusion here. It was inwrought into the
habits of society by their greatest foe. It was
among the earlier lessons instilled into the youthful mind, both in the brightest and in the darkest
ages of the world's history. The maxims, the
laws, and the policy of nations have been founded
upon it; and it has been sustained by the talent,
the poetry, and the enthusiasm of the world. But
the devil is at the bottom of it. Nor is his deception yet fully detected and abhorred. When I




286  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
see the enthusiasm which excites the thirst for
military glory; when I observe the almost universal admiration of military talent which is so
fatal to the souls of men; when I hear mothers
chanting the praises of warriors in order to soothe
the sobs of the cradle; I have evidence which I
cannot resist, that the wise and the good,-nay,
the loveliest and the best, are sinfully heedless of
the extent of his subtlety who " goeth about seeking whom he may devour."
This same attachment to customs and institutions is also one of the reasons for all those corr/upting amusements by which the deceiver has
obtained such power over large masses of men,
and drugged their cup of pleasure. The early
amphitheatres at Rome, and especially its gigantic
Coliseum, so long the arena of games, and spectacles, and gladiatorial shows, cannot now be contemplated without horror. Those scenes of carnage and blood, and, licentiousness, could never
have obtained the sanction of princes, and men
and women of noble birth, and been made the favorite pastime of the people, but for a miserably
deluded state of mind. The Greeks were more
refined and civilized; yet their festivals, noted
for folly and sin, were in honor of a heathen
god and goddess, and their athletic games were
celebrated in honor of Jupiter, Hercules, Apollo,
and Neptune. Both their festivals and games




TIHE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 287
confirmed one of the noblest races of men in all
the atheism and vices of idolatry. The Bacchanalian orgies, celebrated in Greece, Egypt and
India, consisted of horrid and unnatural rites, and
were distinguished by every kind of lewdness and
extravagance. And what were the tilts and tournaments of the dark ages but the stimulus to
magnificence and luxury, to those false notions
of honor which have deprived society of so many
bright ornaments, to passions which agitate, and
to manners, habits and principles, which degrade
and destroy?
If from amusements of this barbarous character,
we advert to the' dramatic exhibilions, both of
ancient and modern times, we cannot fail to discover indications of their dark origin. Whether
in the form of opera, farce, pantomime, comedy, or
tragedy, its tendency is to tempt men to sin, and
then harden them in the commission of it. Strange
to say, they were first introduced at Rome to appease the wrath of the gods on account of a prevailing pestilence. It were difficult to find a more convincing proof of the diabolical auspices under which
they came into being. In Greece the theatre was
notoriously dissolute; and historians have recorded
that the fondness for theatrical representations was
one of the principal causes of the degeneracy, corruption, and decline of the Athenian republic.
Nowhere has wickedness so systematically as



288  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
sumed the names of virtue as in the drama. Nowhere is vice exhibited in more harmless, not
to say bewitching colors.  And nowhere, when
visited with its native consequences and just reward,
is it so surrounded with incidents, and palliatives
that secure it sympathy. Honor and sublimity are
here attached to deeds and motives which religion
shudders at; nor are there wanting instances in
which woman is here seen as not the less lovely
because she poisons, or assassinates her husband,
nor the son the less detestable because he is a parricide. The most captivating ingredients of the
drama are its incentives to evil, adorned by all
the charms of painting and poetry. Music herself, the native daughter of heaven, with all her
enchanting harmony, is here pressed into the service of the devil. And as though this were not
enough, under the auspices of the church of Rome,
the drama has  been profanely  vpiritualized.
Moses and the burning bush, the Virgin Mary,
and the infant Jesus, the holy sacrament, and the
Eternal Father have in turn been produced upon
the stage, and in inventions and language of the
lowest farce. Nor are we greatly surprised to
learn, that the infidel world has caught the spirit
of holy ecclesiastics, and in our own day, and when
"men's hearts were failing them for fear," the
judgments of Almighty God have been grossly
ridiculed, and his pestilence actually personified




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 289
upon the stage, amid scenery and decorations that
were fit emblems of the dark and invisible world
where the first sketch was drawn.
There are other amusements too, far less corrupting indeed than these, against which the voice of
the pulpit has often been lifted in vain. I regret to
say it, but there are scenes, even in embellished
society, among ourselves, where when the " sons of
God appear, Satan also comes among them." And
what is most deeply to be regretted, they are so
interlaced with the modern systems of education,
and unhappily form so essential a part of our
social organization, that it would seem that nothing
can root them out. Some of them are innocent
and harmless in themselves, but from their nature
so liable to abuse and perversion, that they become snares, and at best give no proof that those
by whom they are sanctioned, " abstain from the
appearance of evil."  And whatever may be said
or thought of them now, few I think will doubt
that they will have no place in Christian families
and in a Christian land, when that day shall come
in which Satan shall be bound, and no more go
forth to deceive the. nations.
Institutions and customs like these indicate the
subtle influence of a subtle foe. They spread
through great masses of men; their action is insensibly and incessantly going on, and their effect is to
blind the mind, sear the conscience, harden the
13




290  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
heart, and produce indifference, if not contempt of all
that assimilates the soul to the chalacter of heaven.
We take then a second' thought, and it is certainly one not destitute of interest; I refer to the
extended power which the adversary exert}s in the
education of the young. He is not so destitute of
knowledge and art as to overlook the rising generation. Give him the training of the youthful
mind, and he asks no better opportunity of satiating his malignity upon the race. Give him this,
and you invest him with power to do more to advance error and ungodliness, to corrupt and destroy
the world, than can be accomplished by any other
means.  That resistance to parental authority,
that disregard of truth, those habits of self-indulgent idleness, that companionship with fools,
that laxity of morals, that insidious intemperance,
and that wide-spread infidelity, which mark the
character and conduct of so many of the young,
are all indications of his artful training. The examples of piety, the force of truth, the power and
tenderness of parental love, have no such formidable enemy as his indefatigable subtlety. He
well knows, that as a general law of the human
mind, what the child is the man will be; and that
in a few fleeting years the boys and the girls that
are now overlooked by the risen generation, will
themselves constitute the only effective portion of
human society when the risen generation have de



THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S": SNARES. 291
scended to the tomb. We need not then be sur-.prised at his zeal and artifices to control the education of the young. He begins his work early,
and lays the axe at the root of the tree.
It is a fact Mwell fitted to excite suspicion and
alarm, that in his efforts to carry this foul device into
effect, he has so extensively corrupted the literature
of the world, and thereby poisoning the sources of
human knowledge, has poisoned the community at
the fountain-head. In few things is the cunning
craftiness of this dexterous intriguer more apparent
than in controlling literary men and literary institutions. The most important of these institutions
were founded by his influence; while not a few of
those founded "for Christ and his church," have
been wrested from them by his artifices; and for the
few that remain pure he has already set his snare.
From the school of Plato to the Royal Academy
of Paris, the most renowned seats of learning have
been sources of infidelity, or false religions.
Since the invention of the art of printing, he has
also spared no effort to control the pr'ess. To a
lamentable extent, it has dazzled only to blind the
youthful inquirer. It has possessed so much genius
and so little piety; its splendid intellect has been the
vehicle of so much irreligious sentiment; it has so
greatly abounded in caricaturing true religion,
and in " daubing with untempered mortar;" that
the marvel is that the fabric of the best organized




292  THE EXTENT OF, THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
communities has not long ago crumbled to its foundations. Natural science and the fine arts, the researches of history and chronology, have been
prostituted to the designs of the base Deceiver.
The popular tales of fiction and romance, to say
nothing of their positively demoralizing tendency,
are for the most part distinguished for total absence of moral and religious principle, and especially amid scenes where moral and religious principle are demanded and looked for.  No mind
that indulges itself in this kind of literature, and
especially the young mind, unwary and unarmed
as it is, can be safe. Its talent and enticements
constitute its danger. Artful is that device which
thus entices so many thousands into the enemy's
country without any suspicion of the perils that
await them. Of all the faculties of the human
mind to which the Deceiver has the most ready
access, the imagination is probably the most exposed. And here it is trifled with and polluted
to a degree that renders it familiar with scenes
of wickedness, progressively indifferent to sober
reflection, and even decidedly averse to those
teachings of practical wisdom which are its only
security.
In adverting to the absence of religious and moral
principle in the education of the young, I cannot repress the remark, that the growing disuse of the
Holy Scriptures, in the system of instruction in




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 293
common schools, is a blow aimed at the rising generation by the prince of darkness. It is a vain effort
to conduct the youthful mind into the paths of light,
while it shuts out the sun. It is nothing else than
an attempt to educate a generation of human beings, born for immortality, without the knowledge
of God. It is leaving'them, amid all the lights of
science, to feel their dark way to eternity in lonely
gloom. I do not know that it is in the power of
the devil to direct a more malignant, or more subtle blow against the best interests of men than
this. If there is intelligence in the universe, it is
in the word of God; if there is moral truth in the
universe, it is found there.  If there are treasures
of thought which reason and philosophy could not
acquire by the patience and toil of centuries, they
are there. If the youthful mind is ever expanded,
and its lofty faculties made more lofty; if its powers of will and feeling are ever wisely controlled;
and if the true sources of intellectual and moral
enjoyment are ever opened to it; this is the source
of them all. Science and literature, and the social
affections, the rights of conscience and the rights
of man, his holiness and his hopes are all rooted
in this consecrated soil. It is not the master intellect of the universe merely that' is the author
of the Bible; it is the all-pervading and infinite
love of the universe. It is -no marvel that the
prince of darkness should endeavor to cut off the




.294  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
youthful mind from all access to this fountain of
light and love. Who, but this " arch thief," and
those who are led captive by him at his will, would
steal away this heavenly treasure? "Woe to that
generation by which the testimony of God shall
be abandoned! But woe also to that generation
which is preparing the seed of evil-doers that shall
perform the accursed work!"
There is. another view of the general thought I
am endeavoring to illustrate. I allude to those
master-strohkes of the devils policy, by which he involves larrge masses of men in tfhe sin of a single
individeual.  Such is the organization of human
society, that when one man sins, others not only
feel the consequences, but in very many instances,
sympathize with the moral turpitude of his wickedness. They do it by treading in the footsteps
of his example; by refraining to reprove his conduct; by justifying and vindicating it; and by
neglecting to use all proper means for preventing
future offences and reforming the offender. Hence
the apostolic injunction, "Neither be ye partakers in other men's sins."  One sin, also, often produces associations of wickedness, and gives vice a
currency and a name. The dissolute conduct of
Charles II. and the Duke of Buckingham stamped
their own dissoluteness on large masses of the English nation; and the licentious court of Louis XIV.
and XV. corrupted the mass-of the French people.




THE EXTENT QF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 295
One sin- also not unfrequently promotes combinations in3. wickedness,'just like combinations in:trade; men grow rich by it, and make it a matter
of speculation: and gain. The distiller of ardent
spirits thus fabricates iniquity; so does the opium.ealer; so does the railroad corporation that profanes the Lord's-day; and so does the purveyor
of. luxury. in- every form. The gaming-table, too,
and the brothel, and the vile wretch who lives to
pander to the: lusts of men, sins that his own sin
may become the sin of thousands.. Virtue weeps.at this clustered wickedness. Some
little spot, otherwise unnoticed, has become as famous in the annals of mankind as the palaces of
kings, and not. less fatally the slaughter-house of
men, than many a bloody field of battle. The
scythe of the Destroying Angel thus takes a wide
and fell swath, and by a single sweep cuts down
and throws together every green thing. If you
inspect the corrupted. character of men who congregate in large masses,. and investigate their history, you will often trace their corruptions to some
characteristic delinquency, some single sin of one
man, little thought of on his part, but craftily devised by. the adversary. The disobedience of
Saul, and the rebellion of Absalom, were felt by
other men and other times. By consulting the
Sacred Records, it will be found that the vile
character of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, extended




296  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
its corrupting influence to twenty kings in succession, and demoralized the nation of Israel for
nearly two hundred and fifty years after his
death. The apostasy of Julian, and even the errors of Constantine, were felt by unborn ages.
The horrors of the French Revolution may be
traced to that depraved, unprincipled, and fallen
nobleman, Mirabeau, who, to reinstate himself in
the salons of Paris, secretly planned the destruction of the monarchy, the regeneration of the
state, and sacrificed his country to his ambition.
There are artifices practised by the great Deceiver which never take effect without vitiating
everything with which they come in contact, and
producing in the end a portentous amount of evil.
Every reader of history will easily recall facts by
which this remark is illustrated. It is illustrated
by the influence of men of great talents and great
vices: such were Voltaire and Chesterfield. It is
illustrated by the power of princes and princesses,
who, though they have shed lustre over their
reign, will, from their profligacy of principle, be
remembered for nothing more, or longer, than that
they were the models of ambition and injustice:
such were Alexander VI. and Catharine II. of
Russia. And a corrupt -legislation illustrates it,' framing iniquity by a law;" enlisting the popular voice in favor of transgression, and giving
it emphasis and permanency by the solemnity




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 297
of its deliberations, and the force of its enactments.
But this is not all. In adverting to the policy
of the adversary in involving multitudes in the
sins of others, there is more than the mere natural
and associated tendencies of wickedness. Such is
the moral constitution under which God has placed
the human race from the beginning, and such the
arrangements of the divine government, that no
man sins for himself alone. "The iniquity of the
fathers is visited upon the children to the third
and fourth generation of them that hate God;"
the iniquity of one age of the world is visited upon
another; and unless arrested by Him who came
to arrest the current of human woes, will flow on
to the end of time. On this great principle of the
divine administration, the Deceiver has engrafted
many a device of his own. If men inherit the sins
of their fathers, he corrupts the parent stock; and
if one generation is held responsible for the wickedness of previous generations, his stratagem is to
corrupt the generations in their origin.
Among the exemplifications of this fact, the
present condition of the Jews may not pass unnoticed. With some incidental variations of unbelief and suffering, their condition has been stationary for eighteen centuries. They are a dispersed
people, but an undivided nation; a nation scattered
throughout all nations, and intermingling with
13*




298  THE-EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
none; a people, with.some honorable exceptions,
bearing the ignominy of the world's contempt and
heaven's: reprobation. And all this is in fulfilment
of an ancient curse, and for an ancient sin. Their
ancestors crucified the Son of God, and uttered
the fearful imprecation, "His blood be on.us and
on our children!" The Scriptures inform us sthat
the great Deceiver was the prime mover in this
deed of horror, as well as the secret instigator and
sustainer of their present unbelief. "The veil that
is upon their hearts is yet untaken away."  They
constitute the greatest phenomenon in the world,
not merely for their national peculiarities, but because they are a living witness of the truth which
they themselves deny.  Obstinate prejudice, inflexible resistance to all inquiry and argument,
national pride, and a deeply imbedded hatred and
scorn of Jesus of Nazareth, form the citadel within
which they have entrenched themselves, the keys
of which are hung up in the hall of the adversary,
and among the trophies of his subtlety and conquests, who "blinds the minds of them that believe not." 
There is a large portion of the earth that is occupied- by the descendants of Ishmael. This race
originated in unbelief of the divine promise to
Abraham; and, to the present day, bears the burden. of the sentence, "Cast out the bondwoman
and her son!" A bold manceuvre of the; adver



THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 299
sary, practised upon Sarah, upon Abraham, and
upon an Egyptian slave a deep-laid plot, early
concocted in the councils of the. prince of darkness, severed this powerful people from the people
of God, perpetuated the disunion, and. branded the
tribes of Ishmnael with their characteristic features
of enmity to God and man.
From the descendants of Ishmael, go back to a
crushed, broken, and deserted people, the descendants of Ham. Facts show us that, thus far in the
history of the world, the wrath of God has come
upon this people. They were sold as slaves to the
Hebrews as early as the days of David; and from
that period to the present, the commerce of the
world has been, to no simall extent, a commerce in
the Canaanitish race. And in this commerce of
themselves, strange to say, they themselves have
been in a great degree the participators. With
wonderful infatuation, they have, from age to age,
perpetuated this inheritance of crime and misery.
It is calculated that Africa has thus annually been
drained of no less than 150,000 of her own native
inhabitants. We sigh over the wrongs of the
colored man, and reprobate the slave-dealer with
unsparing severity; and well we may. There is
no land where, according to the unvarying narratives both of ancient and modern travellers, the
great Deceiver holds such an undisputed and horrible supremacy. And if we would know-by what




300 THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
avenue he entered those desert plains, and how it
was that his throne is so firmly established there,
we learn from authentic records. What became
subsequently " the first commandment with promise,"' was then the law of nature,. and nature's God.
The benevolent Author of the social relations would
have the precept respected, "Honor thy father
and thy mother," and gave that obligation an emphasis at that early dawn of the world that should
never be forgotten. It was just after the flood,
and the three sons of Noah contained the germ of
all succeeding generations. To strike a death-blow
at the root of one of these great branches of the
human family, was the deep policy of the foe; and
it was by instigating Ham to a flagrant violation
of this great law. He had tempted Noah, and
"he drank of the wine and was drunken; and he
was uncovered within his tent. And I1am, the
father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father,
and twent and told his two brethren without."
And when Noah awoke from his wine, he awoke
in the spirit of prophecy, and said, " Cursed be
Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to hkis
brethren!  Blessed be the God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant!  God shall enlarge
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem,
and Canaan shall be his servant/!"  Thrice was
this emphatic curse repeated, in order to make it
sure. The Deceiver had sprung the snare, and




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 301
this thrice-repeated curse sealed the fate of the
Canaanitish race.
Now go to the garden of Eden. "God created
man upright." Integrity was never more exalted,
nor innocence more pure, nor happiness more unalloyed, than when the first parents of our race
came from the forming hand of their Maker. But
it was fit and proper that as the creature of God,
and as the subject of a moral government, humanity should be tried and proved. For the wisest
and best reasons, it was tried in the person of its
great progenitor, who stood, not for himself alone,
but by divine appointment, as the federal head
and representative of his race. Since the character
and condition of untold millions was thus suspended upon his perfect obedience, if the adversary could but inoculate the primeval stock, the
poisonous taint would be transmitted to the end
of time. Nor did his purpose fail. Through the
foulest treachery, the venom took and poisoned
everv heart of man. This " prince of the power
of the air" called up the storm, and wrecked the
l)ark in which the race was bound for eternity.
" By the offence of one, judgment came upon all
men unto condemnation."  It was a mournful day,
for it was the Deceiver's hour, and the power of
darkness.
There is one more thought by which our general position may be more forcibly illustrated, at




302  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
least to some minds. It has been often said, that
man is a qevigios8 being. Not that he possesses,
by naturee, anything like the spirit of true religion;
but from his own-immortal aspirations, and the
demands of conscience, he is not satisfied without
a religion of some sort. Temples he-will have,
and sacrifices, and a worship, and ministers of the
sanctuary; and' if they be not consecrated to the
true God, they will-be consecrated to gods which
are " the work of men's hands;" and if they be not
the ministry of the true sanctuary, they will be an
antichristian, or pagan priesthood.  So long as
natural conscience has a place in the human bosom, some religion men will have, even though it
be false. Blot out the true, burn its Bible, demolish its temples, annihilate its worship, starve,
or extirpate its ministry, and the generation now
on the earth would not be long in their graves,
before some false religion, with its false ministers,
would spring up in its place.
No being is more aware of the importance of
availing himself of this all-pervading sentiment of
the human bosom, than the wary adversary. This,
of all other principles of action, it is his policy to
control; for if in the matter of their religion he
can practise deception upon men, his work of destruction is accomplished.  "There is a way that
seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death." Men never sin with so high




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 303
aftd strong a hand, as when they sin from a perverted and blinded' conscience. Never was there
a more fiend-like plot, and never was a more
tremendous engine wielded for the ruin of the nations, than when their religion is under the direction of the prince of darkness.
We need not go far for appropriate illustrations
of these thoughts. The whole system of pcganisin
is the natural offspring of the "father of lies."
It had the same leading features in Greece and
Rome, that it now has throughout the heathen
world; everywhere, and at all times, "changing
the truth of God into a lie."  Preposterous and
absurd as are its rites, and impure and sanguinary as they are; the most melancholy feature of
them is that they are not only virtually, and from
their intrinsic wickedness paid to the great adversary, but to a great extent, professedly paid to him.
The Scriptures teach us that "the things which
the heathen sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, not to
God." Some they worship, that they may do
them good, and others that they may not harm
them. The object of religious sacrifices among the
Magi of Persia, the Celtic tribes of Britain, and
the savages of the western wilderness, was professedly the devil himself. We do not say that
such devotees of false religions are not sincere;
for we have no doubt they were, and are so; and
for this reason, is their whole system so much the




304  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
worse; for it is scarcely necessary to inquire what
the character of that man, or nation is, that is a
sincere worshipper of the devil. And whence is
such a religion? It could not have been the unaided work of man. Wise as he is to do evil, paganism is too preposterous and silly ever to have
entered the human intellect, but for the influence
of some such invisible agent as the great Deceiver.
The fact cannot otherwise be accounted for, that
bright and illustrious minds-minds that were the
adornment of the classic Wvorld in a classic ageminds to whom the wise and great of after-times
have been wont to appeal as the great masters of
thought and language-minds that have worn
their literary honors untarnished, and whose laurels
are still green on their brow, actually bowed down
to gods of wood and stone! It is a stupidity and
sottishness altogether below the human intellect,
even in the mass of the people, unless that intellect be degraded, and subdued by some potent
spell.
It were no marvel that the state of the world
called for some modification of these gross absurdities. It has called for such modification; nor has
the author of all evil been inactive in producing
them whenever he has seen that it best suited his
own designs. Events have occurred, in the progress of which, a few reflecting minds or some one
controlling mind, has been restive under this yoke




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 305
of pagan ignorance; and from mercenary, or ambi~tious views, or both, has meditated reform. And
when opportunity and the times favor it, the Deceiver stands by and moves the fitting instrument.
A striking example of this agency is found in the
fabrications of the Arabian, impostor. The Roman empire was attacked on every side by barbarians; the pagan mind was unsettled, and the
Jewish mind miserable; while the plot to circumvent them was so artfully formed as to take in a
portion of them all. Such was the wild impulse under which Mohammedanism began its career, that
although obstructed at the outset, in less than a
century it diffused itself throughout Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Persia. It has subsisted in vigor
for more than eleven hundred years; and even
now, like some wayward and wandering planet, it
casts its dark penumbra across the sun and shuts
out a large portion of the earth from his healing
beams. Nor is any satisfactory solution of this
moral phenomenon to be found, save in the Scriptures; and there it is attributed to the agency of
the devil. The revealing spirit, who well knows
and watches all the designs and movements of the
subtle foe, foresaw and foretold it; and that we
may not mistake its origin, he compares it, in its
obstructed and yet rapid advances, to the smoke
that came up from the bottomless pit, and "darkened the air and the sun."




306  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
But they are not false religions alone in which
the craft of the adversary is discoverable. Among
the most subtle, as well as the more effective of his
devices, are to be found his corruption and perversion of the religion that is true. Nothing has escaped his polluting touch. You may turn over
the pages of almost any dictionary of religious
sects, and from the Adamites of the second century to the Universalists of the nineteenth, and
from the beginning to the end of the alphabet,
you will discover indications of his unremitting
subtlety and zeal.
To begin with Rome: her radical error consists
in denying that the sacred Scriptures are a sufficient and infallible rule of faith and practice, under -the pretence that they are rectified by her
wisdom and illumined by her superior light. The
deception was artful, and had the effect which the
adversary intended. It jostled the planet that
was receiving its light from the Sun of Righteousness so far out of place, as to come into collision
with the Sun itself, and produce almost total darkness. The delusion took the nations first by surprise and surreptitiously, and then by force. It
was the path of the sorcerer, who, while he held
his way amid the mystic and secret rites of Paganism, professed enough of the words and charm
of truth, to conceal his aim, until his spell-bound
victim rejected the evidence of his own senses in




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 307
order to abandon himself to deceit and falsehood.
If we accredit the Scriptures, Romanism is Christianity metamorphosed into the "doctrine of devils." They inform us, in explicit language, that
the "great Dragon," that old serpent, "gave
power to the beast." They speak of the papal
antichrist as one whose " coming is after the working of Satan," as the full-grown progeny of the
world of darkness, as the very " son of perdition."
Now mark the cloven foot, sometimes in the
sudden, and sometimes in the gradual transitions
from the absurdities of Romanism to other and
substituted errors. It would not be surprising, if
when men come to see the absurdities and impiety
of this system, they should be tempted to rejectChristianity altogether; and this the great Deceiver led them  to do in France.  Elsewhere
they satisfied themselves with baptizing radical
error with the Christian name; this was the case
with the German rationalists and the whole brotherhood of Socinianism. They bear witness to the
truth, but propagate lies.  "And no marvel; for
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light;
therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also
be trasformed as the ministers of righteousness."
And what shall we say of the whole system
of relig'iou.s peseczution? was it from heaven, or
from him who "was a murderer from the beginning?"  When Pope Innocent VIII. proclaimed




308  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
that the true method of converting heretics is to
burn them-to tread them under foot as venomous
adders-to exterminate them; who was his counsellor but the devil?  And whence was it that
while this doctrine of devils was rampant in Italy,
Spain, and France, the spirit of the age was so
imbued with it that it infected protestant Switzerland; and that the very Puritans who escaped
from it in the old world, did not wholly escape
from it in the new? And when the spirit of exclusiveness in some departments of the church of
God, by which the ministry and ordinances of
other departments, that do not suffer in comparison with those who thus proscribe them, are
denied their " divine authority?" Such doctrines
can hardly be expected to make any very deep
impression upon the minds of thinking men.
It is difficult to perceive how they can be seriously
inculcated, did not melancholy facts teach us that
the mind of man is subject to unaccountable delu&own.  It is lamentable dedusion-delusion that
has been silenced, again and again silenced by
sound argument —and yet it remains. It is a castle in the air. It has no more foundation in the
word of God, than Pool's fancied dragon had in
the clouds. I pray that the subjects of it may be
"kept from falling," and that God would deliver
them from the snare of the fowler. Whence, too,
the epidemic terror of witchcraft and sorcery that




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.:309
has left such a stain, not upon Rome only, but
upon the fairest portions of Protestantism; but
from that dreadful hallucination to which the adversary has been permitted sometimes to incite
the superstitions of the best of men?
Nor is this all. Our own day has witnessed the
Deceiver's power, by the misdirected zeal of good
men, and the machinations of those that are bad.
He has endeavored to prescribe rules and a moral
machinery for the work of God; and by his oftpractised artifices, has got up those unhallowed
excitements by which the unwary and unstable
have been misled to their own undoing. One
piece of fanaticism has: thus very naturally succeeded to another, until there are not wanting
those who boast of their sinless perfection; and
other some are led away by the ravings of an insane prophet, who prates of that of which he knows
nothing, and of which the omniscient Saviour has
said that angels themselves are ignorant. To these
we might add those latitudinarian doctrines, by
which such multitudes are " carried about by the
cunning craftiness of men whereby they lie in wait
to deceive." The religion of forms without the
power of godliness ever has been, and still is the
religion which flourishes only under the auspices
of the Deceiver. That disheartening stupidity,
too, which, in defiance of returning Sabbaths, and
the faithful instructions of God's ministers, and the




310  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
admonitions and rebukes of divine providence, has
superinduced the sleep of death in the world, and
a dreamy, lifeless inaction in the church; what is
this but the work of the Enemy?
We could easily extend this tragical survey.
The adversary has always had a well-fortified kingdom in this world, and it is now lengthening its
cords and strengthening its stakes. Evidence is
not wanting of his character as the, Deceiver, and
of the extent of his deception.
If there is any one thought which has filled my
own mind with solicitude in the course of the
preceding illustrations, it is the fear that men
would throw the criminality and responsibility
of their wickedness on this great Deceiver, rather than, in all self-reproach and humiliation,
take them upon themselves. This is just what
he would have them do; it is one of his own
cherished sophistries. It is not easy to make an
impressive representation of his power without
seeming to furnish something like a palliative for
human wickedness. " The serpent beguiled me, and
I did eat!" But the excuse is no extenuation of
the crime, plausible as it may seem. While it is
no crime to be tempted to sin, unless men themgelves solicit the temptation, yet is there emphasis
in the words, "Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you." A conscientious fear and hatred of iniquity, and an humble reliance on God, will quench




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 311
all the fiery darts of the fowler. We may have
no truce with an enemy who is so alert in the arts
of seduction. One there is who is not only able
"to keep us from being tempted above what we are
able to bear," but " with every temptation to make
a way of escape;" who "knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptation," and who has himself taught us to pray daily, "Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil." The counsels of heavenly wisdom are, " Be sober; be vigilant; for your adversay, the devil, goeth about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
Be sober, lest you tempt the tempter; be vigilant,
because your foes are subtle, and aim their envenomed arrows in the dark. To those who are
the people of God, the days of temptation will
soon be over; nor should it surprise them if the
enemy should yet "come down in great wrath,
knowing that his time is short." It is but a little
longer, and the issues of the conflict will be announced in the exulting gratulation, "Thanks be
to God who giveth us the victory, through our
Lord Jesus Christ!" With those who are not the
people of God, time is also urging its rapid flight,
and if the chains of temptation and the bonds of
iniquity be not speedily broken, they will feel
the bondage forever.
Are we not also called upon by the previous
thoughts to appreciate the importance of moral




312  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
and religious truth as the great and appointed
means whereby the power of the adversary is to be
successfullyy resisted?  There is nothing this Deceiver has so much reason to fear as the truth of
God. Plain, honest truth, Bible truth, is the only
successful antagonist to a system of measures and
efforts whose only success depends on subtlety and
deception. Truth penetrates those dark chambers
of the human mind which have so long been the
lurking-places of this foul fiend; dispels the mists
in which he remains enveloped and undetected;
discloses his hideous and ugly form; drives him
out from all classes of human society, and ultimately destroys his influence in the world. The
devil cannot long retain possession of the heart,
or the community, that loves the truth of God.
His element is darkness, or dim and misty speculation. He shrinks with instinctive repulsiveness
from a pure atmosphere, and a sky beautified by
the illuminations of heaven. It is frightful to see
what a space in an ignorant mind one false notion
can fill, and to what a series of errors, and what
active power of mischief it can give rise; and on
the other hand, it -is delightful to see how wide a
place one great truth can occupy, and to what a
train of truths it gives birth, and what elevating
and reforming influences it exerts.
How constraining, then, are the obligations on
the church of God to extend his gospel to every




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 313
creature. This thraldom to the great Deceiver
is to be broken in no other way. 0 when shall
the time come, that the polluting'errors of the
nations that know not God shall be superseded
by the purifying counsels of heavenly wisdom;
the noxious, though poetic, dreams of heathen
mythology be forgotten in the messages of truth
and love, and these victims of delusion and misery be made joyful in the glad tidings of great
joy! How many more circles shall this planet
of ours accomplish round the sun before these
dreadful caverns of iniquity shall be invaded by
the truths of God, there to combat and conquer the powers of darkness! Vigor, wisdom,
courage, fidelity, self-denial, prayer, never were put
in greater requisition than by the existing enterprise of Christendom to wrest these usurped domains of the adversary from him, and restore them
to their rightful owner and Lord.
And how full of encouragement is the thought,
that notwithstanding the deceptions of the adversary, and the extent of his power, we may
triumph in his final and certain overthrow! In
defiance of the convictions of our better judgment, a sort of superstitious dread comes over us,
when we call to mind that we live in a world
where he who " was a murderer from the beginning," goes " to and fro in the earth, and walks up
and down in it."  There is one view in which this
14




314  THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES.
alarm is causeless. One there is of woman born,
who is " stronger than the strong man armed,"
and wiser than the crafty serpent. Perplex, tempt,
ensnare, and depress the people of God he may;
but his power over them extends not beyond this
partial and temporary injury. "God shall bruise
Satan under their feet shortly."  Extend his ravages over this fallen world he may; but never to
final conquest. "Thou shalt bruise his heel," is the
utmost limit of his power. It is a great and glorious truth, that " for this purpose was the son of
God manifested, that he MIGHT DESTROY THE WORKS
OF THE DEVIL. The very curse which the tempter
provoked upon the woman, enveloped the germ
of her hopes, and contained the foreshadowing of
that " promised seed" who should " bruise the
serpent's head." The adversary was caught in
his own snare. That vilest and most artful of
his machinations, the death of the Son of God
on the cross, was the most fatal to his hopes,
and the surest presage of his defeat and shame.
After three short days of seeming triumph over
the sleeping Son of Mary in the tomb of Joseph,
the manifesto was published and the war began,
which is to terminate not until the " devil and his
angels" are consigned to "' their own place," to go
no more out. Even now he durst not venture beyond the length of his chain; nor will many centuries pass away ere he is shut up within the fiery




THE EXTENT OF THE DECEIVER'S SNARES. 315
walls of his prison, and bound forever in chains of
darkness and wrath.
With joyful lips, therefore, do we proclaim the
supremacy of our redeeming God and King.
"Dominion is with him!" The very hostility of
Satan to his great design and work, is in itself a
guarantee of his triumphs. It is a contest of no
doubtful issue, in which the King of Zion is engaged with the great Deceiver. " He shall reign
until all enemies are put under his feet." In councils far back of the ages of time, this great question
was decided; and amid scenes far beyond this
changing world, and to be hereafter realized, the
triumphs of the Great Conqueror shall be pro,
claimed in the song, " He loved us, and washed us
from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us
kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign
with him forever and ever!"




CHAPTER  XI.
IT is something more than romance, that we
cannot help feeling an interest, and even a deep
sympathy, in that melancholy chapter in the history of our first parents, that narrates their apostasy. Whether it be from the wonted and cherished contemplation of those truths which their
apostasy presents; or whether it be that the penal
consequences of this first transgression have come
upon us, and, in defiance of all our philosophy, we
have an instinctive and resistless consciousness of
the circling chain that binds our destiny with
theirs; or whether it be that for the honor of humanity, we cannot suppress the wish that they had
preserved their rectitude; certain it is, that we
never read this tale of woe without becoming partakers in their blighted expectations.
The time was, when, above, without, within
them, there was nothing to detract from their joy.
Sin had not sullied them, nor had its turbid waters




MAN'S FIRST SIN.         317
mingled with the pure current of their thoughts.
There were no bodings of suspicion; recrimination
and reproach had not poisoned their lips; remorse
had not begun to prey upon their conscience, nor
had a shade of apprehension settled upon their
brow. They had no conflict with themselves, none
with one another, none with the creatures around
them. And what is more, nothing disturbed their
sweet fellowship with their Maker; they were
happy in his love; with uplifted eye and adoring
heart, they beheld, praised, and enjoyed him. So
beautiful is the picture, that it seems almost like
fable. We can scarcely believe that we ourselves
are the progeny of such innocence and joy, and
that our parents were once the possessors of an
inheritance so bright and unsullied.
This primeval Paradise was of short endurance;
how short, God has not seen fit to reveal to us.
Our first parents were not confirmed in this holy
and happy state, without a previous trial of their
integrity. Nor was it a severe or unwise arrangement, which thus put them upon'their good behavior, placed them literally in a state of probation, and suspended their destiny upon their
perfect obedience. They enjoyed the immediate
and miraculous teachings of their benevolent
Creator, and all those means and motives to obedience which could be furnished by the supreme
authority, the instructive wisdom, and the persua



318            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
sive tenderness of infinite love. The world they
occupied was full of God; every scene was illumined with his presence, every sound vocal with
his voice, every object spoke his praise, and every
part of this material universe was constructed for
their enjoyment. Never, until the manifestation
of the Son of God in the flesh, have there existed
so many and so affecting appeals of the divine
goodness to the heart of man, as were made to
these, the first created of the human family; and
never have there been found among their descendants those whose intellectual and moral constitution
was so fitted to respond to these appeals in every
act of filial love, holy fear, and uniform and unremitting obedience.
It was, therefore, in every view, a fitting arrangement, and one suited to their character, condition, and relations, that they should be the subjects of God's moral government, and placed under
law. Although it was not a written law, it was
written upon their consciences; nor had they any
desire to question its obligations, nor could they
question them without blotting out from their
bosoms those strong conceptions of right and duty
which are found in the minds of fallen men, and
in so much greater strength and purity in the unfallen.
To this great rule of action they had been obedient; but, in process of time, there was revealed




MAN'S FIRST SIN.          319
to them another lauw, a special and positive statute,
as a test of their integrity.  It was a prohibitory
statute, and is in the following words: " And the
Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every
tree of the garden thou mayest eat; but of the
tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt
not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The law was absolute. It was given to our first parents only; no
others were present, no others were in existence, no others were bound by it, no others
could transgress it; and when the specific object
for which it was given was accomplished, it was
repealed.  It was intelligibly revealed; and revealed with as much precision and exclusiveness
as the command given to Noah to build the ark,
or the command to Abraham  to sacrifice his son.
There was also this strong peculiarity in this test
of their obedience. They had committed no other
sin; and against every other they were fortified
by the consideration, that this prohibition obeyed,
they were in no danger of committing any other.
On every other point of duty they were safe; their
only point of danger was centered in their liability
to transgress this single interdict.
The penalty of this law was expressed in the
words, " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt,surely die." The language is significant, and denotes that the death here threatened should be




320            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
executed thoroughly, intensely, and in the most perfect manner. As we use the word, there are three
kinds of death, temporal, spiritual, and eternal.
Temporal death, or the separation of the soul
from the body, certainly came upon Adam, and
has come upon all mankind, in consequence of
his first transgression. The first man became a
dying man, from the hour of his apostasy. Temporal death constituted a part of the penalty.
The separation of the soul and the body, when
viewed in all its visible concomitants and consequences, is the most natural and impressive image,
or emblem of the true and proper death of a moral
and accountable agent. And this is probably the
reason why it is called death; that by the very
name, the true and proper idea of death might be
habitually held up before the minds of men. Those
few theological writers who have expressed the
opinion that the death threatened to our first parents was temporal death, affirm that this is the
primary and most natural meaning of the word
death. But it is to be borne in mind, that our
first parents had no experience and no observation
to guide them in determining its import. This
threatening is the first paragraph in the Scriptures, and the first time in the history of our
world in which the word is used. There is certainly no evidence that this is its primary meaning. There is much more reason to believe that,,




MAN'S FIRST SIN.          321
the dissolution of the soul and the body is the
secondary and figurative, rather than the literal
and primary meaning. The mere separation of
the soul and the body does not constitute the true
and proper death of the moral and accountable
agent. When, immediately after the apostasy,
temporal death was denounced, it is not called
death, but simply the " returning of the body to
the dust." Temporal death may be more properly
viewed as one of the appendages of the penalty,
rather than as constituting the entire penalty itself. A temporary separation of the soul and
the body takes place as a sequence of the first
transgression; nor would it ever have taken place
without it; it is a standing and impressive evidence that all men are sinners. But whether the
mere separation of the soul and the body be itself the original curse, is more than doubtful;
and whether the curse could not have taken
effect without it, may not be hastily decided.
We are disposed to believe that if it had been
executed upon our first parents, and no method
of mercy had stayed the stroke of justice, temporal death would have been unknown, and
these first transgressors would have sunk, body
and soul together, under the wrath of God.
Mere temporal death is not a sufficient punishment for sin; it is not such a punishment as it deserves. If the body were merely separated from
14*




322            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
the soul and returned to dust, and the soul, the
corrupted and sinning agent, were received to the
divine favor; there would be no evidence that the
punishment is commensurate with the crime.
God must pu nish sin; yet does he not inflict more
or less than is implied in his threatenings. If the
penalty of the law of paradise be commensurate
with the ill-desert of disobedience; something far
more dreadful than temporal death must have
been implied in the threatening to our first parents.
By spiritual death is meant a judicial abandonment to a state of unmingled moral depravity.
This death came upon our first parents the day
they sinned. And a grievous punishment, a most
dreadful curse it is, that for one act of disobedience,
the transgressor shall be given up to unremitting
and eternal disobedience; that when he has once
crossed the line which separates sin from holiness,
he shall have no opportunity and no power of returning; and that his evil propensities shall become
so strong and violent, and his habits of sinning so
inveterate, that nothing shall ever reclaim him.
The Scriptures often allude to such a divine procedure as this. " My Spirit shall not always strive
with man."  "So I gave them up unto their own
hearts' lust." "Therefore he gave them over to a
reprobate mind."  "Ye shall die in your sins."
"They shall utterly perish in their own corrup



MAN'S FIRST SIN.           323
tion." There is no greater evil than to be thus
abandoned to an eternal course of sinning. Nor
does this, as has sometimes been said, involve any
more confusion between natural and moral evil, or
sin and suffering, than necessarily exists. Such a
course and state of sinning is itself calamity; it is
suffering and pain. To no small extent, all sin
carries suffering with it; suffering is, in the nature
of things, inseparable from sinning; it is mental
suffering, and ever will be so, from the intellectual and moral constitution which God has given
to men. Men know, from experience, that there
are sins which are attended with the most acute
mental distress, while this distress is indicative of
God's displeasure.  "A voice from heaven could
scarcely declare more clearly, and certainly could
not announce more impressively, that there are
certain mental affections which God would brand
with the stigma of his severest reprobation." Nor
is there any absurdity or confusion in the fact that
one sin is often the punishment of another. Men
feel this to be true, when they recoil from the first
step in the course of transgression, because they
know that it will be followed by a second, and
that they are on the brink of a precipice. Nor is
there any force in the often-repeated remark, that
such a course of sinning, as it is the act of the sinner, cannot be the act of God as the punisher.
The utter withdrawing of divine influences, and




324             MAN'S FIRST SIN.
the judicial abandonment of the transgressor is
everywhere represented in the Scriptures as God's
act. Nor is there any force in the reasoning, that
the course of sinning to which the transgressor is
abandoned is his own chosen way, and therefore is
no punishment. Sin is misery, and the sinner feels
it. And if he does not feel it now, the time is
coming when the burden will be greater than he
can bear. I would not so impugn the moral government of God, as to harbor the thought, that it
is not one of its invariable laws, that a state of
mind that is bound by the cords of its own iniquity, is one which is not fraught with self-reproach,
apprehension, and horror. Besides, the Scriptures
teach us, that spiritual death is counteracted only
through the atonement of the great Redeemer,
and that the Redeemer's work has respect to the
penalty of violated law; and if this be so, spiritual
death constitutes a part of the penalty.
The penalty of this law consists also in eternal
death, or everlasting misery. This is the emphasis
of the curse, and is the proper death of an intelligent creature. This is the primary meaning of the
awful word DEATH. It is used hundreds of times
in the Scriptures to denote the everlasting punishment of sin. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
"The wages of sin is death."  " They which commit such things are worthy of death;" and that
the declaration may not be misunderstood, the




MAN'S FIRST SIN.           325
writer informs us that by death he means, " indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon
every soul of man that doeth evil." It is called
" the second death;" and this is the punishment
which sin deserves; these its earnings, this its
proper wages.
It appears to us, therefore, to'be in accordance
with the teachings of the Sacred Writings to say,
that the penalty of the law of Paradise was temporal, spi'ritual, and eternal death. There is nothing
unreasonable in believing that these three kinds
of death were threatened by the same term.
Death is a word which comprises all the evil which
is the fruit of sin. All these evils actually exist,
and are the result of the first apostasy. The Scriptures never make needless and nicely drawn philosophical distinctions; they address the common
mind, and conscience, and sensitiveness. The due
and just punishment of sin falls upon the whole
man; it is his everlasting separation from all
good to all evil; it is the destruction of both
body and soul in hell. This is the penalty of the
law given to our first parents; and this is the penalty of that universal law under which all moral
beings exist. Nor is there any reason why it
should have been different in the case of the
first transgressors. When the penalty shall be
finally executed, it will be seen what is meant by




326            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
the death of the transgressor. It will be death
without mitigation and without reprieve, and without hope.
If our first parents had preserved their integrity,
the covenant into which God entered with them secured them from disobedience. They would have
been confirmed in holiness: the Tree of Life would
have been the pledge and sacrament of their confirmation; they would have eaten of it and lived forever. How under such fearful considerations on the
one hand, and such auspices of heavenly kindness
on the other, these two holy beings came to transgress this single prohibition, so reasonable in itself,
and so intelligibly revealed, has long been, and still
is, a vexed question. There are but two theories on
this subject to which it is worth our while to advert.
One is, that it was impossible for God to prevent
them from sinning; it is the old notion of the Platonic philosophy, that " evil proceeds from the restriction, or limitation of the divine power." Some
modern divines are very bold, and teach that while
God desired, in every view, to prevent their fall,
and did all in his power to prevent it, the catastrophe was beyond his reach. This theory, if we
understand it, asserts that their apostasy is chargeable to the defectible nature of their moral agency,
and like friction in a machine, was a necessary evil;
that God submits to it of necessity, and that it remains for his wisdom and goodness to so restrain




MAN'S FIRST SIN.           327
and direct this uncontrollable evil as to produce
the least possible mischief.  The other theory i4,
that their apostasy was foreseen by God; that it
was comprised in his purposes; that he permitted
it for wise ends, and in order to bring good out of
evil; and that it will eventually be made to answer a most important purpose under the perfect
administration of that Almighty Being who will
cause all things to work for his own glory, and
thus fulfil all his pleasure. Which of these theories accords best with the fact that " the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth," it is not difficult to determine. If there be one instance in which he is unable to accomplish his pleasure, who can tell but
there may be ten thousand instances, and that the
final history of the universe may not be the records
of the divine imbecility, and the memorials of a
disappointed Deity? How much more truthful is
the last-mentioned view of this difficult subject,
and how much stronger foundation does it furnish
for hope and confidence in God, for prayer to him,
for triumph in his government, for the exercise of
his adorable sovereignty, and for exulting anticipations in those issues which, while they progressively unfold his unquestioned and infinite all-sufficiency, show that " the wrath of man shall praise
the Lord, and the remainder thereof he will restrain."  I dare not speculate on this high theme
any further than to say, that "our first parents,




328            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
being left to the freedom of their own will, fell
from the estate in which they were created by sinning against God."  Their perfect holiness was his
gift; it was originally created by him; by him it
was sustained; and when left to themselves, they
fell. They were holy, but not immutable. The
system of which they composed a part was subject
to changes, because it was progressive. The fall
of angels had already indicated that it was a system subject to moral derangement; the very fact
that they were f:ee implied the possibility of their
sinning; while that wondrous remedial process,
which as yet lay undisclosed in the divine mind
had forestalled the otherwise untold evils of the
sad catastrophe, and was already preparing to
turn it to good account.
We take the divine record on this subject as it
is, and are not covetous to be " wise above what is
written." We have before spoken of the great Deceiver," that old serpent, which is called the devil."
The first thought of apostasy did not originate with
our first parents, but with him. It was his object
to countervail the benevolent purpose of God in
man's creation. IIe had left his first estate; from
a lofty seraph, he had become the "prince of devils;" from his high place near the throne of God,
he had sunk to the regions of misery and despair;
and from his glorious employment and immortality
in the heavenly courts, he had become the most




MAN'S FIRST SIN.          329
accursed of all created beings, and hurled down
to the lake of fire. Our first parents were the
first objects of his subtlety and malice. He hated
them, and he hated their Maker. He envied their
purity and blessedness, and would fain tempt them
to become imitators of his rebellion, and partakers
in his doom. This foul fiend was, for wise reasons,
allowed to have access to the tranquil, and hallowed, and unsuspecting abodes of Eden. It was
perhaps difficult for our first parents to see the
reasons of the prohibition which laid its interdict
upon the tree of knowledge; and this seems to
have been the subtle snare which he first employed
to tempt them from their loyalty. It was to the
woman that this cowardly foe addressed the snare;
he found her unprotected and alone; and accosted
her with the words, "Yea hath God 8aid, Ye shall
not eat of every tree of the garden?"  God had
given them dominion over this entire earth; and
he artfully propounds the question, Is there a tree
of which you are not permitted to eat?  She listened to the tempter's voice; he had gained her
ear. She consented to reason with him. "And
the woman said unto him, We qmay eat of the fruit
of the trees of the garden; but of the tree which
is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye
shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest
ye die."
Perhaps the thought lingered in her heart, that




330            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
the tree belonged to man; that the prohibition
may have been misunderstood; and that, if not
misunderstood, it held them  in bondage.  The
tempter was emboldened, and "he said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die!" There may have
been, at this bold suggestion, a doubt upon her
mind as to the nature and certain execution of the
penalty. Men rarely sin where there is not some
degree of unbelief. Her faith was obscured by
clouds; there was a veil cast over her mind, and
vague thoughts of escape began to agitate her.
Perhaps what he says is true, and we shall not
die! And then thoughts, still more impious, injected by the tempter's poisonous breath, began to
fester within, and the fearful inquiry passed
through her bosom, Can it be such a giant sin to
eat of this one tree? And then her curiosity was
appealed to: " God doth know that in the day ye
eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened."  And then
her vanity: "and ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil."  And last of all, her senses were
ensnared; she looked upon the fruit; the tempter
had gained her eye. Reason and conscience were
easily blinded then. She tempted her fate. And
when " she saw that the tree was good for food,
and pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired
to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and
did eat, and gave also to her husband with her,
and he did eat." The overpowering temptation to




MAN'S FIRST SIN.            331
Adam we do not know. Perhaps the imagination
of the great English poet had its antetype in
reality; Adam  was her hub.and, and, in despair,
he linked his fate with hers.  And thus did man
throw off his subjection to God, and renounce his
allegiance to his rightful Lord and heavenly Father. The fearful deed was done. Evil they had
never known before; but now " their eyes were
opened," and new scenes and new histories presented themselves to their view.  Eden bloomed
in unsinning loveliness and beauty no longer. It
was the fist sa,.
" Earth trembled from her entrails, as again
In pangs; and nature gave a second groan.
Sky lower'd; and muttering thunder, some sad drops
Wept at the completing of the mortal sin
Original."
It is not for us to weigh the actions of men.
The sin of our first parents was a great sin, if for
no other reason than that it was the frst sin of
man. To pass from a state of perfect holiness to
a state of transgression; to cross the line; to sin
so soon; to sin in Paradise, and so near to bheaven;
to sin in God's immediate presence, within hearing
of his voice, and while lying within his light as
angels lie upon his bosom; to sin after all that he
had done for them and given to them; after he had
made them for himself and for each other, and to
augment and guard their joys, had sanctified for




332            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
them and blessed to them his holy Sabbaths; -to
sin not knowing what might be the direful consequences upon their posterity through all generations, or if knowing, thus to trifle with the character and destiny of myriads upon myriads unborn;
to sin at the loss of God's favor, and the certain,
fearful looking for of his displeasure; to abjure their
Paradise, because there was an interdict upon a
single tree; to disobey their great Maker at the
instigation of him who was a murderer from the
beginning, and thus launch forth firom the peaceful
home of heaven's complacency and joy, upon an
ocean of storms; and all that they might know the
evil, when they might have known only good;
this was a sin which can be weighed in no earthly
balance.  Melancholy truth!-they fell.  How
changed the picture, and with what mortification,
shame, and fear do we look upon it! What and
where are our great ancestors now? They have
lost their integrity, and their reward begins to be
measured out to them according to their works.
It was a day of gloom, and the reign of terror.
Dark shadows came upon them like the deep midnight. Never, probably, were beings more forlorn,
desolate, bewildered, or whose bosoms heaved
more with unavailing sighs, or whose allotment
was more drear and melancholy, this side the
"blackness of darkness."  What a crowd of terrible reflections must have rushed upon their




MAN'S FIRST SIN.          333
minds, that for violating this one precept, they had
lost their holy and happy immortality! They
have no God to look to but the God they have so
wickedly offended, and no refuge from the bitterness of their grief. They sigh, but into whose
ears can they breathe their sighs? They weep, and
they were the first tears ever shed in this world
of sorrow. Perhaps they pray; but who is there
to hear, or befriiend them! Most truly was it a
scene of desolation, anguish, and despair. It was
the sting of sin; the bitterness, the hopelessness
of those who had thus madly separated themselves
from God. If ever despair was written on the
countenance of man, it was the despair of that
hopeless hour. Fear could not undo the deed;
repentance and reform could not undo it. It
was too late to think of sinless obedience, and
securing the divine favor from the Tree of Life.
The cherubim and the flaming sword carried death
to every such presumptuous hope.
The CONSEQUENCES OF THIS SIN upon the transgressors themnelves, are stated by the sacred historian. They had fallen, but they had not become
obdurate and remorseless.  Conscience did its
office; their eyes were opened, and they saw their
shame. They were stripped of their glory, and
left naked and open, in all their degrading infamy,
to one another's inspection, and reproach, and to
the searching eye of Him who cannot look on




334            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
sin. They were confused and confounded, even to
weakness, so much so, that they hid themselves
amid the trees of the garden. They sought to flee
from God. "There was a schism between man
and his Maker;" they stood apart. Yet not long;
for though man hid himself from God, God did
not hide himself from man. They saw the gathering storm, and were filled with agony and alarm.
They themselves were no longer one. That guilty
woman, half prostrate with terror and amazement,
flees to her agonized husband, himself overwhelmed
in horror and despair; but only to encounter his
reproach and embittered crimination. "Unto the
woman God said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou
bring forth thy children; and thy desire shall be
to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." It
was a terrible sentence thus to have her own
equality with her husband disturbed, to be made
the daughter of suffering and sorrow, and to have
her highest earthly hopes withered in their bloom.
And that guilty man, what words does he hear
from the voice of God his Maker? Unto Adam,
God 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 shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
thorns and thistles also shall it bring forth to




MAN'S FIRST SIN.              335
thee; and thou shall eat the herb of the field; in
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return to the ground; for out of it wast thou
taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou
return." Nature herself had already begun to feel
the shock. This fair creation was for the first
time clad in mourning; Eden put off its gay attire,
and a sickly hue overlay its foliage and flowers.
The thunder awoke behind the clouds, and forked
lightning darted its streams of terror. The earth
was smitten with barrenness, and many a gloomy
waste where there were no fountains of water, had
begun to appear without tree, or plant, or blade
of grass.  Sorrow  and toil were the bitter inheritance of the transgressors, till they returned
to the ground from which they were taken. They
were not allowed to remain in Paradise.
"In either hand, the hast'ning angel caught
Our ling'ring parents, and to the eastern gate,
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain; then disappeared."
We know not the place of their last earthly
rest, and only know it was in some far-off land,
where flowers of paradise never grow, and the bird
of paradise never utters its song.  The cypress
wept there; for it was the mourner's tribute. Yet
faith and hope were there, pointing to a verdant
immortality.




336            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
The effects of their sin upon their characters
were even more mournful than these sad effects
upon their outward condition. What a loss was
that when this newly created pair lost the image
of QGod!  Woman's beauty, probably never since
equalled, how did it fade then, with the fading of
her radiant innocence, and how did it wane, and become expressive of her benighted, and waning, and
poisoned mind? What has dimmed those bright
lineaments so lately on the face of,man, and chased
away that placid smile and lofty bearing, and covered him with shame? The curse has overtaken
them. They began to die. Their very frame is
blasted and shrunk, and the freshness of its immortality fled, as though death had passed upon
it even in its bloom. And the living soul within
was darkened and dead in sin. There was not a
virtuous, or holy thought or emotion remaining in.their bosoms. " Every imagination of the thoughts
of their heart was only evil continually." They
were the "seeds of sin, that bitter root," which
struck deep into the soil, that but yesterday was
prolific in fruits of righteousness. They had broken God's covenant; and that single sin was the
knell of their rectitude, and tolled the dirge,
"dying thou shalt die"-dying utterly, dying
forever.
But the consequences of this first sin were not
confined to themselves; others were involved by




MAN'S FIRST SIN.           337
it in the same condemnation and punishment.
The curse pronounced upon the first woman is
woman's curse still. To what extent it has been
executed, is best known by woman's history, especially in antichristian and pagan lands, where there
is so little to alleviate her humiliation and sorrow.
It is the history of cruelty and. oppression. Women there are slaves, and the mothers of slaves.
In countries not a few, she is treated more like a
brute than a woman. In others, she is the captive of a capricious tyrant, holding her honor and
her life by the tenure of his fitful passions. In
others, she is sold to the highest bidder. In
others, where public sentiment constrains her to
the sacrifice, and makes her life bitter if she refuses his memory this devotion, she perishes by
thousands on the funeral pile of her deceased lord.
Lands such as these record little else of woman,
than that, in all that is dear to woman's heart, she
is trodden down and trampled upon. And in
Christian lands, alleviated as the curse is, it is a
sorrowful history. There are no skies so smiling,
no government so protective and generous, no
bonds so endearing, where woman is not the sufferer.
And with literal severity, has the original sentence upon the man fallen upon his sons. " In
the sweat of his brow he eats his bread." On the
earth he cultivates, thorns and thistles have sprung
15




338            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
up in vexatious exuberance. Noxious reptiles and
devouring insects ravage his harvest fields. Cold
and heat, drought and flood, storms and tempest
desolate sea and land, and defeat his fondest hopes.
Millions are destined to procure a scanty and sorrowful subsistence from the rocky. soil and impoverished bosom of that earth which was once watered only by the dews of heaven, and which, now
at best, yields its fruits only to painful labor and
toil. Toil that is unremitted, and mingled with
watchfulness, care, and solicitude; toil that becomes a burden and a weariness to the body and
the mind; but which the sun everywhere looks
upon as it sets upon millions of the weary and
heavy-laden, and as it rises only to urge them on
in labor and weariness. It is toil which pervades
all classes and orders of men, and all the professions they follow. The rich are no more exempt
from it than the poor; nor is the student any
more exempt from it than the craftsman and the
day-laborer. It is toil which none can shrink
from without being the greater sufferers, and
which ends only with the decrepitude of years
and where " the weary are at rest."
But this was not all. Their sin was the parent
sin of the race, as they themselves were its parents. If we look for the source of man's universal sinfulness, we trace it to this fountain-head.
If we inquire, Whence is it that every child of




MAN'S FIRST SIN.           339
Adam possesses "a carnal mind that is enmity
against God;" and why it is that this entire world
of intelligent and moral beings, in every age and
land, and under all the varieties of their external
condition, is distinguished by all the characteristics of wickedness, convulsed by furious passions,
rankling with envy, pride, and malice; and how it
is, that iniquity in all its forms of ungoverned and
unrestrained selfishness, seducing and being seduced-deceiving and being deceived-often gratified and still exacting, and when ungratified still
more intense and vehement-always predominating, and yet becoming more clamorous-and unless arrested by heavenly grace, waxing worse and
worse; we can only say that our fallen primogenitors begat a posterity in their own fallen likeness.
They are born depraved, because this was the
character of their depraved parents. " The cockatrice's egg has broken out into a viper."
This first sin involved the race in sin; and sin
is as truly characteristic of everything that is human as speech and reason. The youngest infant
and the man of gray hairs suffer and die, because
they are sinners.  "By one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin: and so death passed
upon all men, for that all are sinners." By an arrangement of heavenly wisdom, and for the best
of purposes, Adam was constituted the federal
head and representative of his posterity. " By the




340            MAN'S FIRST SIN.
offence of one, judgment came upon all men to
condemnation;" through " the offence of one, many
are dead;" the "judgment was by one to condemnation;" and "by one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners." The law of Paradise was
given to the first man, not only as the root from
which all the branches of the race should proceed,
and from which they should derive their nature,
but as their appointed representative. In the eye
of the law, they fell when he fell; his forfeiture
of eternal life and his legal responsibilities were
entailed upon them; they are his heirs, and the
heirs of this attainted inheritance.  Every sin,
every sorrow, every grave, and every sigh in the
prison of eternal despair is not only the fruit of
sin in the individual sufferer, but the fruit and expressive memento of that "mortal sin original."
The "angel standing in the midst of the sun, did
not occupy a prouder position than innocent man;"
the foul fiend, confined in chains of darkness,
scarcely occupies a more abject position than sinning man immediately after his fall, incurring as
he himself did, the wrath and curse of God, both
in this life and that which is to come, and, but for
God's preventing grace, dragging after him the
unnumbered generations of men.
Why he wac suffered to faill we know in part;
but we may well wait for the solution of this
problem, till we know more of the final issues of




MAN'S FIRST SIN.          341
that great Redemption of which the " second
Adam, the Lord from heaven" is both the Author
and the Finisher. It is not necessary to push our
inquiries on this point any farther, than to have the
assurance, that "high and mighty purposes" have
been, and are yet to be thereby accomplished. If
man fell from a lofty height, and infinite mercy
caught him in his guilty fall, we may be sure that
his apostasy is in harmony with the ends of infinite wisdom, rectitude and goodness, and that those
ends will be accomplished.
It is much more important for us to leave these
problems unsolved than to neglect the great moral
lessons which man's first sin reads to us. Sin is a
very different thing after it is committed from
what men imagine it to be before. To measure
the wickedness of that one offence, lies not within
the range of human thought. Yet such is all sin.
It is always an evil that cannot be measured. It
is not possible for the human mind to travel over
the immeasurable tracts of misery which it describes. Loud and admonitory is the voice from
this first sin. Serpent-like, it charms but to devour. It made Lucifer the "archangel ruined,"
and the loveliest, happiest pair the most degraded
and the most miserable. It is easier to sin than
to bear the punishment of sin, or to repent of it
after the deed is done.
We need not throw the blame of our own sins




342                MAN'S FIRST SIN.
on our great ancestor.  It is a crushing burden
he has to bear, if he has not found a forgiving
God.  "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for
thyself: and if thou scornest, thou alone shalt
bear it." We have nothing to cover us from God's
omniscient eye; no cloak for our sin; no fig-leaf
covering even to hide our shame. It is not to
such a covering that we must repair. As well
might our first parents have thrown themselves
back upon their obedience to the law they had
broken, as we, their descendants, have recourse to
works of law for our justification before God.
This is an unavailing-nay, a preposterous refuge
for a transgressor. It is too late now to think of
such a hiding-place. Yet is there a refuge even
for the transgressor.   One there is who is "an
hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from  the
tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land."
"Go ye that trust upon the law,
And toil and seek salvation there;
Look to the flames that Moses saw,
And shrink, and tremble, and despair.
But I'll retire beneath the cross,
Saviour! at thy dear feet I'll lie:
And the keen sword that justice draws,
Flaming and red, shall pass me by."




CHAPTER  XII.'fmt BUtruimrt  Wltmurn    (aft Wate
/ftrt TnarBi, nfief thSeir J{oia0s.
OUR last look at our first parents was immediately after their transgression, and when they
were plunged in despair. They fled firom the first
indications of the divine presence; the very sound
of his footsteps whose light and love had never
failed to cheer them, now filled them with alarm.
They were dark shadows that encircled them, that
settled upon them like midnight. In that fearful
threatening, " In the day thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die," they had heard the voice of him
who could not look on sin. He was their Maker
and their Lawgiver; he was the Lord God omnipotent; and he had expressed his mind and will
to execute the penalty they had incurred, in language well fitted to sink them into utter despair
of mercy. What now had man to look for?
Will the dreadful denunciations of the law have
their course? Will the flames of divine wrath
break forth upon him, and he himself and the long




344         THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
line of his descendants remain forever the monuments of that spotless rectitude of the divine nature that cannot connive at wickedness? Will
his future history be written in mourning, lamentation, and woe; or will it record some new and
unexpected manifestations of the all-sufficient
Deity, more resplendent even than his infallible
justice, and so bright that while they leave his
rectitude stainless, they shall still more illustrate
his unsearchable mercy?
Our first parents did not know that the invitations of heavenly mercy would ever reach them in
their gloomy exile. They had no reason to hope, and
could not hope to escape the punishment their sin
deserved.  Why the threatened penalty was not
promptly executed to the full extent, is one of the
difficult problems in theological science, because
the divine justice was most solemnly pledged to
destroy them. Our only solution of this problem
is, that as the supreme Lawgiver, God had a right
to remit the penalty of his law, provided there
was any method by which it could be remitted
consistently with the claims of his punitive justice.
Such a method it was not in the power of human
reason to devise, though it was not beyond the
province of God's unsearchable wisdom and love.
He had indeed thought of it " before the foundation of the world;" he had arranged it all in the
eternal covenant of'redemption with his Son; and




THE FIRST INTERVIEW.        345
therefore, in the interview he sought with our
fallen parents, his great object was not to harden
them in despair, but to elevate them from the
depths of their hopeless depression, and invite
them, wanderers as they were, back to their heavenly Father's house. God himself was thus the
first preacher of the gospel, and himself proclaimed
this first call to repentance.
Before their expulsion from the garden, there
was an affecting and instructive interview between him and them, which reads lessons of wisdom and experience to those who are authorized
in his name to call sinners to repentance, and
to sinning men themselves to whom this divine
call is addressed. The more we study this chapter
in the early history of our race, the more we shall
find it contains those treasures of truth and grace
with which we are entrusted as ministers, and in
which we all have so deep an interest as sinners.
Thoughts are presented here which furnish the
means of conviction to the thoughtless, of detection to the disingenuous, of humiliation to the
proud, of support to the humble, of alarm to the
stout-hearted, and of comfort to the broken in
spirit.
The narrative of this interview is in the following words: "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
15*




346         THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
the presence of the Lord, 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; and I hid myself.
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?
Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man
said, the woman that thou gavest to be with me,
she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the
Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that
thou hast done?  And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."
The interview was a most solemn and serious
interview. Our first parents had become alienated from God. The bond which had hitherto
connected them was sundered; they had no sweet
fellowship with their Maker; they knew that he
looked upon them as criminals, and felt that they
deserved his displeasure. They were alarmed, but
saw no way of averting the judgment they deserved, but to flee from hiim, and "go forth like
Cain with God's mark upon them, and under his
eye in all their wanderings." Never were creatures
more anxious to put themselves far from the being
they had so offended. Left to themselves, they
would never have welcomed another thought of
God to their bosoms. How different their present
state of mind from their wonted affection and con



THE FIRST INTERVIEW.       347
fidence! What chilling alienation, what bitter
jealousy! What a mournful character to be thus
the enemy of the living God! There was that in
their intelligent and moral nature, and in their
remembrance of the past, which reminded them
of what they lost in departing from him; but
there was that within their own bosoms which
drove them from the divine presence.
In order to reclaim and restore them, and before
he would give them any intimations of pardoning
mercy, God's first object was to convince them of
their wiicedness. And he did this with so much
tenderness, and faithfulness, and heavenly wisdom,
that we may well feel that his ways are not as our
ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts. He held
up before their minds the mirror in which they
might distinctly see their own character and condition; well knowing that they would be strangers
to true repentance, if they had no sense of their
sin; that they would have no reason for hope,
unless they themselves saw that they had reason
to fear; and no refuge, unless they had some just
view of their danger.
The Lord God came into the garden as though
he knew nothing of what they had done, and would
know nothing but from these offenders themselves.
He did not forestall the convictions of their own
conscience by first charging their wickedness upon them; he would rather that they should fill




348         THEE FIRST INTERVIEW.
their own bosoms with self-reproach, and voluntarily make an ingenuous confession of their sin,
than be driven to that confession by constraint.
He was accustomed by some well-known symbols to manifest himself to them, and most probably
at those seasons when they were employed in their
more solemn acts of religious worship. The season
once more returns when, at the decline of the day,
he was wont to bless and accept their sacrifice; but
they were not there to greet the approach of their
once-loved Maker. Their affectionate and filial
character was gone. They fled from the being
they so lately venerated, and were filled with dismay as they heard his voice walking in the garden. Even before they had seen or heard anything of God, they had lost all solid foundation
for inward peace and serenity of mind, and trembled at the premonitions of his displeasure which
they found within their own bosoms. Mournful
evidence of their apostasy! Sad indication of a
disruption of those ties which had bound them to
him who was once their highest joy! He who but
yesterday looked upon the Creator as his father
and friend, and regarded him with supreme complacency and confidence, now looks upon him as
his enemy, and with suspicion and fear. He who
but yesterday delighted in acts of grateful homage
and loyalty, has now become the first human apostate, and the father of rebellion.




THE FIRST INTERVIEW.        349
God was not ignorant of the melancholy events
that had occurred in the history of his ruined
creature; but he condescends to inquire after him,
as a father inquires after his lost and wandering
child. "The Son of Man" " came to seek," as well
as to save'" that which is lost." And it is a beautiful exemplification of this truth which is thus presented in this first call of God to our first parents.
He would have conscience do its office, and leave it
for a while unpacified, until " their sin had found
them  out," and their own convictions testified
against them.
But with all this tenderness, there was great
faithfulness on God's part, in setting their sin distinctly before their own minds. They had wilfully
and criminally gone out of the way. They had
voluntarily disobeyed the known will of God, and
violated his infinite authority. God designed not
only to awaken them to a sense of their lost condition, but to arouse within their bosoms the sentiments of shame and remorse. He designed by
the solemn demand he made upon them, to make
them see what they had done, and to show them
that they were without excuse. He would press
the inquiries upon them, What fatal enticement
has allured you from your rightful Lord, and affectionate Parent? What strange event has taken
place to induce you to shun my lately desired
presence?  Whliat ]haqt thou done?  They must




350         THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
be made to feel that they were guilty. They had
seen their destiny suspended upon a prohibition
that was perfectly intelligible and explicit; the
consequences of disobedience had been spread before them; no necessity was laid upon them to sin,
but they were free to stand, and free to fall. And
they were guilty; there was no cloak for their
sin; no apology in the world could exculpate
them. These offenders themselves knew this, and
felt condemned. A guilty conscience gave force
and energy to the first and most gentle accents of
God's displeasure; they could not bear the rebuke
of injured Deity.
Though God's ultimate design was to call them
to repentance, yet he does in fact arraign them
before him as their Judge. They had just received
law from his mouth, and recognized him as their
Lawgiver. They had tampered with the foe, and
believed the serpent rather than God; they had
broken through the restraints which their rightful
Proprietor and Lord had thrown around them;
and now, wisdom, benevolence, justice, all combined to bring these bold offenders to feel the
force of the authority on which they had so wantonly trampled. They themselves would have
secretly reproached their Maker if they had not
been called to a solemn account. Nor could he
do otherwise than thus make them see the equity
of the procedure, should his justice exhaust its




THE FIRST INTERVIEW.         351
rigor on their devoted head. How reproachful
the remonstrance, and how cutting to the conscience of this first transgressor, when the God of
heaven thus called him by name, and required him
to answer to the call! With what shame, with
what deep confusion must he have been dragged
from his hiding-place, and forced to reply to the
upbraiding inquiry, " Adam, where art thou 2"
The immediate effect of this call was much the
same on their minds, which the call to repentance
ordinarily produces, upon the minds of their descendants. It was not a prompt return to God;
rather did they turn from him with a mind averse
to holiness, a defiled conscience, and a face covered
with shame. They were conscious of their crime;
and the deeper and more painful the consciousness, the more deeply did they entrench themselves within their gloomy retreat.  There was
also great disinzgenuousness on their part. They
hesitated to make a full and frank confession of
their sin; nor did they do so, until it was extorted
from their lips. An ingenuous and honest spirit
would have led them to flee, not from God, but to
him; not to cover their sin, but to spread it all
out before him in all its black deformity.
Instead of this, they try to extenuate its turpitude.
"The woman that thou gavest to'be with me, she
gave me of the tree and I did eat." There was
something ungenerous and unmanly in this assault




352         THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
upon the woman; while there was more that was
impious in the imputation upon God himself, for
giving him the woman to be his tempter. Yet
how much is this like fallen man! If Adam had
not been conscious of what he had done, and had
not been sensible that his conduct needed some
excuse, he would have laid his hand upon his
mouth. Right conduct needs no excuse, and deserves no condemnation. It is only when men
know they have done wrong, that they have any
occasion for pretexts to excuse their wrong-doing.
Our first father's state of mind was not what it
ought to have been; nor was he willing to see and
confess his wickedness, and abase himself before
God; else would he not have allowed himself so
dexterously to throw the blame upon others.
The tendency of this state of mind was only to
fortify himself in his disobedience, and provoke
still more the displeasure of God. God did not
suffer him to be in doubt as to his real object in
coming into the garden, but brought his thoughts
directly to the cause of all his trouble. The human heart is " deceitf;ul above all things and desperately wicked."  This transgressor was not willing to see his sin in its true light. " He that doeth
evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved." He could not
bear to look his own wickedness in the face, and
fix his thoughts upon the dreadful evils of his pre



THE FIRST INTERVIEW.         353
sumptuous and reckless deed. IHe shrunk back
from it, and endeavored to wrap himself up in his
own delusion. He was not the gainer by his excuses, but the loser by all the turnings and windings of his benighted and deceived mind. His
duty was obvious. He ought to have stood speechless, or if he opened his lips, it should have been
only to make the ingenuous confession, My Father,
I have disobeyed thee; I have eaten of the tree and
am without excuse. Instead of this, the confession
that was extorted from him is prefaced and incorporated with the most flattering extenuation of
his crime. And the same is also true of his confused tempter, and the guilty partner of his crime;
"The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."
There was much in all this early conduct that
evinced obdurate impenitence. Why did they not
at once confess and bewail what they had done?
and as soon as they heard the voice of their Maker,
throw themselves at his feet, and say, " We have
sinned against heaven and before thee!" Did they
wish to capitulate with God, or suppose that he
would capitulate with them, while they were in a
state of rebellion? It was no great proof of penitence, that they were fugitives from law and justice; nor that during the whole of this interview,
we hear not a word of lamentation from their lips,
nor one heart-felt expression of sorrow for their
crime.




354          THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
Yet, wondrous mercy, God's ways are not as our
ways, nor are his thoughts as our thoughts. It is
ordinarily the method of his grace, to arrest the subjects of it in their greatest obduracy, and when distress and anguish come upon them; that they and
others may know and record that it " was not for
their sakes, but for his own great name's sake" that
he " took them from the horrible pit and the miry
clay, and set their feet upon a rock, and put a new
song in their mouth, even praise to our God."
His way of leading men to appreciate the interpositions of his mercy, is first to make them feel their
need of it. Such are the teachings of his truth
and Spirit, that they are brought to despair of
help from themselves and creatures, before they
will be induced to place their hope in God. The
call to repentance is never welcome, never indeed
well understood, till the sinner feels that he is lost
and helpless. The self-righteous, the self-deceived,
and the self-hardened, are in no fit state of mind
to repent and believe the gospel. It was not until
the jailer of Philippi "called for a light, and
sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and
said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved," that his
anxious heart caught at the answer, "Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and
thine house."  It was not until the woman of
Canaan bowed her proud heart to the reproachful




THE FIRST INTERVIEW.       355
words, " Woman, it is not fit to take the children's
bread and give it to dogs," and meekly replied,
"Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that
fall from their master's table;" that the Saviour
said to her, " O woman, great is thy faith, be it
unto thee, even as thou wilt." It was not until
the early Christians saw and felt that " they had the
sentence of death in themselves, that they should
not trust in themselves," that they " trusted in God."
God led our first parents to a just view of their
sinful conduct; he made them sensible of the
bond between their sin and his own displeasure,
before he gave them even the most distant intimations of his mercy. They were overwhelmed
in view of what they had done, and God had
threatened. It was the hour of alarm. Everything concurred to excite their fears. They knew
no way of escape, and were apprehending nothing
but death. Thus arrested, tried, convicted, and
forced to come forth from their hiding-places,
nothing seemed to remain to them, but " a certain
fearful looking for of judgment."  Well might
they feel that "they were naked;" that nothing could cover them from the omniscient eye,
nothing hide their shame, and that they had no
refuge from the coming wrath.
The time had come, therefore, when with the
language of rebuke and judgment, were mingled
the whispers of love. Notwithstanding all their




356         THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
vileness, the Father of mercies had thoughts of
kindness toward these his ruined children. The
Son of God had already taken the initiatory steps
to his mediatorial work, and himself interposed to
deliver them from going down to the pit. God
had been preparing their minds to understand
and appreciate those disclosures which, in the fulness of time, would be more emphatically proclaimed as " glad tidings of great joy to all people." And he hasted to unfold his compassionate
design, and invite them to repentance. There
was some obscurity in this disclosure; it was,
but a glimpse of him in whom all fulness dwells;
but it was enough to keep them from despair.
"To the serpent he said, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and /her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel." This was an enigma
which their darkened minds could not at once
solve; yet it threw a beam df light across their
future path. They caught the intimation, as a
drowning man catches at a straw, and as many a
convinced and despairing sinner catches at the
first thought of God's pardoning mercy. They
were assured, at least, of some suspension of the
fearful sentence; who could tell but it might be
the plenitude of pardons, and the glad hope of
their restoration to the favor of God!
- God then proceeds to unfold some of the con



THE FIRST INTERVIEW.       357
sequences of their sin; but 0, how tempered with
mercy! how far short of the curse of a violated law!
Enough was denounced and felt to teach them. the
greatness of their sin, and to impress upon their
mind the inviolable claims of divine justice; but
enough was disclosed to teach them that the complete execution of the penalty was deferred, and
that time and opportunity were furnished them to
obtain mercy, through the promised mediator.
Thus in the whole of this solemn and affecting
interview, the great object seems to have been,
not only thus early to announce to our first parents that there was forgiveness with God that he
might be feared, and to reveal the method of forgiveness; but to bring them to true repentance,
and to an humble apprehension of the mercy of
God in that Saviour who is the serpent's foe, and
the sinner's friend.
What the ulti'mate effect of this disclosure was
upon their minds, we are not distinctly informed; while from the whole interview itself,
from the comprehensiveness of the promise, and
from the subsequent conduct of Eve on the birth
of her first son, there is reason to believe, that
what they had heard about the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent, was the
means of their saving faith in the promised Saviour; was ultimately the source of consolation and
hope, and that they became penitent and pardoned.




358          THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
It is somewhat remarkable that their history
closes here at the termination of this interview
with God after their apostasy. We are simply
informed, after this, that Cain, Abel, and Seth
were their children; and then their names and
history, with a bare allusion to them as the parents of the race, are dropped from the sacred
record. Their sin had been great; they were
the first transgressors; they had covered the world
with mourning; and although they found mercy,
it was fitting that their history should here be
brought to a close, and terminate with the bald
record, "All the days that Adam lived, were nine
hundred and thirty years, and he died."
Such was the first call to repentance ever issued
from the God of heaven to guilty men. There are
several important lessons which it inculcates; the
first of which is, that it discoses those great laws
of rectitude cand of mercy which form the unchanginzg principes of tae divine government.  It was,:in substance, the same call which is now made to
Adam's posterity, and based on the same great
moral principles. In man's redemption from sin
and hell, there is a union of those properties of
the divine nature, which seem to be irreconcilable. On the one hand, there is a rectitude that
is perfect and unerring, and that is the strong
support of rectitude in heaven and on earth.
There is that even justice which punishes the




TIE FIRST INTERVIEW.        359
fallen, and cannot do otherwise than ignite the
flame of holy indignation against all wickedness,
and express its abhorrence of iniquity in those
everlasting terrors which are consuming fire. And
on the other hand, there is that mercy and peace,
which fully to comprehend, we must dive deeper
into the heart of God, and explore the depths of
his love more fully than it is for mortals to attempt. There is that self-originating and self-moved
mercy which has wrought such wonders in our
world, and made so many the partakers of the
" exceeding riches of his grace." How these
seemingly jarring attributes of the divine nature,
and these conflicting principles ever could be reconciled in the government of fallen men rather
than fallen angels, is the great mystery of godliness. How to bring about such an arrangement,
that a being of inflexible justice could show
mercy; that the punisher should become the pardoner; is a problem which could find no solution
but in the uncreated Mind. When man had once
sinned, everything, in reason and nature, in the
divine works and providence, and in the history
of other worlds, pointed to the wrath to come,
and seemed to demonstrate that the transgressor
must perish, or God be unjust.
Yet among the Jlrst lesson8 inculcated by the
early history of our race, is the fact, that God
is just in being the "justifier of every one that be



360          THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
lieveth in Jesus."  Love the most exacting, and
justice the most inflexible, were alike satisfied with
the first promise. In that early intimation, obscure as it was, were wrapt up the unchanging
principles of that nlediatorial government, where
mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. The suffering Saviour was there-the seed of the woman,
that he might die as a Sacrifice.. And the Son
of God was there, that he might survive the
flames of the altar; that he might impart a consideration to his sacrifice that would render it capable of answering the ends of love that passeth
knowledge, and of justice as terrible as ever hurled
angels from their thrones, or kindled the flames
the smoke of which ascends forever and ever.
Behold, therefore, the goodness and the severity
of God! thus early disclosed as combining their
influence in the government of this fallen world,
and thus adorning and giving efficacy to that government till the heavens be no more. " Toward
thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness;
otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off."
There is another lesson also to be learned from
this early interview between God and our fallen
primogenitors: it is, that no outwarcd condition can
make a sinful creature happy.  Our apostate parents were miserable even in the garden of Eden.
That garden of delights had not altered, nor were




THE FIRST INTERVIEW.       361
its beauty and loveliness as yet blighted by the
curse. Its sylvan scenery was still cheerful, its air
soft and fragrant, its ground fertile, its songs and
smiles were sweet, and everything was full of God.
Yet its once happy occupants were to the last degree miserable. We need not ask why? It
availed them nothing now that they still dwelt in
Paradise, and that "the Lord God still walked in
the garden in the cool of the day." Every path
they trod, every tree and flower rebuked them;
God's presence only filled them with dismay.
Let us bring the lesson home then, that no man
can be tranquil and happy, and live in sin. Crowns
cannot make him happy. Wealth and honor,
health and friends cannot make him happy, so
long as he has a guilty conscience, and an aching,
bleeding heart. He cannot be happy even when
alone; in the deepest solitude, he cannot forget
that he is a dying man; that he is an immortal being, and that there is a God to whom he is
accountable. He cannot look up at God's sun in
the heavens; he cannot hear his voice in the storm,
or in the zephyr; he cannot feel the darkness of
the night covering him, without having his existence embittered by fears. He has no almighty
Friend, no Father in heaven to whom he can look
with the confidence of a child, and of whom he
can say, "The Lord is my light and my salvation,
whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my
16




362          THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
life, of whom shall I be afraid?" What is there
to be envied in all this world can give, if one view
of God, or one retrospective, or introverted thought
can spoil the joy? Give a wicked man the material universe; conduct him even to that heavenly
Paradise where God dwells in his ineffable glory;
and, if still in love with sin, he would be the most
miserable of men. Just as our guilty first parents
fled from God to hide themselves amid the trees
of the garden, would wicked men cry "to the
rocks and the mountains to fall on them, and hide
them from the face of him that sitteth on the
throne."
With what force and tenderness, then, ought
these thoughts to address themselves to all who live
in, sin. Their language to them is, " Repent of all
your transgressions, so iniquity shall not he your
ruin."  They utter the gospel call —repentance
toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is not the stern call of justice merely; it is the
call of heaven's proffered and tenderest mercy.
And what is its language, if it does not say, Dismiss this spirit of alienation from God; away with
this disingenuousness, and make a frank and humble confession of your wickedness. You have
eaten of the tree, whereof he hath said, Thou shalt
not eat of it. You cannot undo the deed; nor
can you expiate the justice of a violated law. Yet
may you repair to him who "came to seek and




THE FIRST INTERVIEW.         363
save that which is lost," and who has said, "Him
that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out."
Flee to God, and not from him. Flee to the arms
of his mercy; flee to the heart of his bleeding Son.
Perhaps the reader has fled thither, where grace
triumphs and extends its triumphs. Let him learn,
then, to aFlreciate that goodness of God which has
led hAim to r'epentance. After our first parents had
fallen, nothing was farther from their thoughts
than a true return to the God they had offended.
They would have remained strangers to him always-forever undone, but for that condescending
grace which pursued them in their flight, brought
them forth from their hiding-place, not to confound
and destroy them, but to convince, humble, and
forgive them. Thus it is that the God of infinite
mercy draws the sons and daughters of men with
" cords of love, as the bands of a man." We " love
him because he first loved us."  It is God who
first seeks the sinner, and not the sinner who first
seeks God. It is only thus that the miserable and
guilty exile is brought back to his father's house.
No man makes the first advances.  God meets him
in his wanderings with the treaty of reconciliation
in his hands, and counsels him to retrace his steps.
Precious truth!
"Jesus sought him, when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God."
How touching is that memorable appeal, Adam,




364          THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
where a'rt thou?  Whence i8 it that thou hast fled
from mbe, thy iMaker, thy Father, thy Shepherd, thy
Saviour?  What hast thou, done?  Never can
these expostulations be forgotten by his people,
and never can they give him the full glory which
his grace deserves. Though they spend an eternity in praising him, it will be but to acknowledge
that he alone is worthy to be praised; that all
honor and glory are his due; and to unite their
hearts and combine their efforts in " forming one
refulgent, unequalled crown, not to be placed on
his head, for it would be unworthy, but to be cast
at his feet."




CHAPTER XIII.
WONDROUS truth, there was no great interval
between the first sin and the first promise. Those
portentous clouds which hung over the garden, had
scarcely begun to cast their shadows, when the
halo of an unexpected and bright prediction encircled these first transgressors, and sent its radiance to distant times. Strange prediction! marvellous promise! " I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
bruise his heel."
This is thefist promise recorded in the Scriptures. And that hope might gently and gradually
find its way to the despairing bosoms of the transgressors, it is contained in the sentence pronouncedc
on their betrcyer. He was the first and great
transgressor, and on him incensed justice first fell.
What was death to him, was life to them. They
could not comprehend its import; bright as it




366          THE FIRST PROMISE.
was, it was but a ray of light that illumined
their dungeon. Nor did it at first disclose the
full, rich truth, that his degradation was man's
honor, his defeat man's victory, his overthrow
man's redemption.  Our first parents probably
understood it to imply no more than that it contained a prediction of life to the woman, because
it spoke of the "woman's seed;" a prediction of
conflict between her seed and the serpent, in which
the tempter should be vanquished by One in a
nature inferior to his own, and in which the woman's seed should be ultimately triumphant. It
was the womacn's seed, and not the offspring of the
mans; and could therefore be applicable only to
him who was the Virgin's Son. It is a singular
promise, but so emphatic and compendious as to
require subsequent revelations to develop its import. It includes the sum and substance of the
gospel; it is the germ of that Tree of Life whose
leaves are for the healing of the nations. A brief
analysis of it is the design of the present chapter.
It contains the FIRST REVELATION OF GOD's PURPOSES OF MERCY TO OUR WORLD. There is nothing
contingent, or accidental in the arrangements of
the divine mind. "Order is heaven's first law."
Nothing can happen which is not foreseen by an
all-knowing God. There never was a period when
everything that he does, did not come within the
arrangements of an antecedent and eternal pur



THE FIRST PROMISE.         367
pose. He is wise and immutable, and therefore
thought of everything beforehand; everything
exists "according to the counsel of his own will."
The purposes of creatures discover weakness and
imperfection; and therefore are liable to change.
On God's part, everything is fixed and permanent.
The mind of creatures is too narrow to comprehend many things at once; their heart is too inconstant to remain undivided in their pursuits;
their passions are too unstable to flow long in any
one direction. God is " of one mind, and none can
turn him, and what his soul desireth that he
doeth." It is a revealed fact, and not a problem
to be solved, that the infinite God, whose thoughts
are as far above man's thoughts as the heavens are
higher than the earth, has interposed in the concern of man's salvation by a settled purpose and a
stated method. If his perfections require definiteness of arrangement in all the minor affairs of the
world in which we dwell, so that a sparrow falls
not to the ground without his providence; much
more is it required in the method of the great redemption. The purpose is not fortuitous and unexpected; it belongs to " the everlasting gospel,"
and this revelation of it is the first explication of
that "mystery hid from the foundation of the
world."
Whether a Being who never began to exist,
formed some of his purposes before he formed




368           THE FIRST PROMISE.
others, is a question which need not embarrass us.
It is not necessary that his master-purpose should
have priority in the order of time, and only in
the order of nature. Nothing is more obvious
from his word, or from an extended view of his
providence, than that his first purpose in importance-his most comprehensive and all-concentrating purpose-is his purpose of mercy to apostate men. It is the purpose which is most endeared to his benevolent mind, the one for which
he has made the greatest sacrifices, and to which
he has made all things subservient. Treasures of
divine thought were to be developed by it, which
otherwise never could have enriched the universe,
and changes effected by it which would arrest the
attention of angels and men. The divine mind
was here to employ itself on a large scale; it was
to occupy ages; wondrous were the manifestations
it was to make of the unsearchable Godhead.
There were " utterances of the Deity" in the few
words of that single promise, which will be echoed
in the everlasting song of the redeemed; there
were excellencies of the Deity of which that promise is the mirror, which will be the more effulgent
and the more transforming, as the effects of it are
seen and felt with increasing interest by every rational being, when these material heavens and
earth shall be no more.
The reasons for the formation of this great




THE FIRST PROMISE.         369
purpose, have been revealed. God himself is his
own supreme object. Ile must be so, from the
eternity of his existence, and the perfection of his
character. All nations are as a drop of a bucket
compared with him. In the eternity past, there
was no other in existence except himself; and in
the eternity to come, though worlds be created
upon worlds, they may not be compared with
him. If God himself be not the chief end of all
things, creatures must be that end. Yet the
heavens are not clean in his sight, and his angels
he chargeth with folly. And what is man who is
a worm, and the son of man who is a worm?  If
we ask why, with unwasting resources of joy and
blessedness within himself, did he give existence
to the race of man; the most natural and obvious
answer must be given in the words, "Thou hast
created all things, and for thypleasure they do
exist and were created."  If we ask, why was it
hiospleasure; a field of thought here opens which
it is impossible for creatures to travel over, impossible for them to survey, or even to glance at,
without adoring views of God, and without veiling their faces before him.
That is an amazing declaration which affirms
that God is love. How much these few words
contain, neither the tongue of men, nor angels can
express. It is God's nature, to love. He would
not exist alone; he must have something to love.
16*




370. THE FIRST PROMISE.
He created angels that he might love them, and
make them holy and happy. But he would stoop
lower than angels; his heart was set upon man;
he would make them lovely, and give them the
happiness of being loved. When his love puts on
its most attractive forms, and he would deck himself with it as with a garment, he smiles upon the
cheerless and desponding; he hears the groaning
of the prisoner and looses them that are appointed
unto death. He stoops to this agitated, convulsed,
and almost distracted world-this house of mourning, this home of the miserable, these suburbs of
hell. His highest delight and joy are that from
this once fair, and now fallen creation, those most
demonstrative expressions of "the exceeding
riches of his grace" should go forth which must
otherwise have been suppressed, but which are
now destined to receive eternally-accumulating
responses of grateful and admiring praise.
Here we may perceive something of the import
of this ftrqt promise. The all-sufficient God was,
if I may so speak, urged to it by his irrepressible
love. The fountain was full, and must thus transpire though it were by a streamlet in the desert.
It is a wonderful promise; and one which illumines the pages of God's entire revelation; lights
up many a dark and inexplicable dispensation of
his goveirnment, and sends its cheering radiance
from the dawn of creation to its declining sun.




THE FIRST PROMISE.         371
When oppressed with sin, and writhing under the
sting of guilt, it was no easy matter for our first
parents to comprehend that there was hope for
such sinners as they. Dismal and sullen was the
silence of that scene when they were first surmnmoned before their offended judge; and when
that deep silence was broken on their part, pitiable must have been those notes of woe. And,
delightful thought, guilty as our fallen humanity
was, its wretchedness had a voice that entered into
his ear; man's helplessness was his most affecting
appeal for deliverance from death. The fountain
of eternal love was opened, that the thirsty and
perishing might drink and live. " Deliver him from
going down to the pit; for I have found a ransom." The iron grasp of inexorable justice was
broken; that hopeless grief assuaged, and the tears
of Paradise exchanged for the " glad tidings, I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between her seed and thy seed."
There is in this promise, in the next place, A
PREDICTION OF HIS ASSUMPTION OF HUMAN NATURE
BY THE SECOND PERSON OF THE ADORABLE GODHEAD. "Without controversy, great is the mystery
of godliness; God manifest in the flesh." It is one
thing to reveal a mystery; it is quite another to
explain it; to say that mysteries are revealed is
no absurdity, to say that they are explained is to
make them no longer mysterious. The Bible has




372          THE FIRST PROMISE.
higher aims than to make men acute reasoners
and profound metaphysicians. The incomprehensible mystery of the Incarnation appeals to something else in man beside his reason; it appeals to
his conscience and addresses his wants and his woes.
The Saviour we need must be God, and not
a creature. Men have sinned, and deserve the
curse pronounced by that law which can no more
change than God can change. They need pardon
and peace; and though they search through creation, and go up to the heavens, and down into the
deep; though they inquire of the past, the present,
and the future; though they address the most exalted and the most perfect of all the creatures that
ever came firom the hand of God; they can find
none so good, so powerful, so perfect as to effect
their reconciliation with their offended Maker. It
would be temerity and crime for the loftiest of
creatures, who has no righteousness beyond his
own necessities, to entertain the proud and sacrilegious thought that by anything he could do, or
suffer, he could satisfy or relax the bonds of immutable justice, and justify the Holy One in justifying the ungodly. Condemned and dying men
could not trust a created Saviour; redeemed sinners may not be under this debt of gratitude to a
created Saviour.
But while the deliverer they need must be truly
and properly divine; he must be also the " woman's




THE FIRST PROMISE.         373
seed," and clothe himself with flesh. Man is the
transgressor; man is the one that needs reconciliation; the great and satisfactory expiation must
be made by man, and have a special reference
to man. Man is the one who must suffer; and
therefore, it is in the nature of man, and for man
that the expiation must be made.
The great Mediator must therefore be both God
and man, thus supplying the deficiencies of the
created by the infinite efficacy and worthiness of
the uncreated; and thus applying the infinite merits of the uncreated to the created nature. It is
this Incarnate Deliverer which the sinner needs;
one that is not hidden from his view by the light
that is inaccessible and full of glory; one that he
may venture to approach, because, with all his
majestic brightness, he is related to humanity; and
one to whom he can repair without distrust, without timidity, and with joy.
While, therefore, there is inexplicable mystery
in the truth disclosed in this first promise, it is an
arrangement full of heavenly love and wisdom.
In no way does God so stoop to men, as by becoming one of them; and in no way does he so
encourage men to draw near to him, without fear
and without reserve. The promised Saviour was
the "seed of the woman," the Virgin's son. He
whom" all the angels of God worship," who " was in
the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be




37J4         THE FIRST PROMISE.
equal with God," took upon him the form of a
servant, and was: made in the likeness of men."
Nothing could have induced this disrobing himself of the splendor of the Godhead, and this enrobing himself with the properties of a well-known
and degraded humanity, had he not a special fellowship and sympathy with the great brotherhood
of man. He linked himself with the race by this
fraternal tie. "Forasmuch as the children, are
partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise took part
of the same."  He would be a child with them,
and participate in the children's destiny. "Verily
he took not on him the nature of angels, but the
seed of Abraham; because in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethrenr."
The " Seed of the Woman" is a designation that
he glories in; he claims to be the " Son of David,"
and the "Son of Abraham," not less than the
"Son of God."  He speaks of himself more than
sixty times, as the " Son of Man," everywhere and
always identifying himself with humanity. We
look back to those gloomy scenes in Paradise,
where man fell, and was doomed to labor and toil;
where woman was condemned to be the daughter
of sorrow; where the ground was cursed for man's
sake; and where our first parents trembled in apprehension of the coming wrath; and in this sentence upon the serpent, we see them, dark and
gloomy as they were, illumined with brighter rays




THE FIRST PROMISE.        375
even than those of hope. The predicted Incarnation of the Eternal Word gives an interest and
importance to them which belongs to no other
part of the universe. This earth we tread upon is
immortalized by the fact that it was once his cradle
and his grave; and man is immortalized from this
wondrous alliance to the Deity. We feel humbled
as the descendants of an apostate progenitor; but
it is no mean genealogy that we belong to a race
of which Mary's Son was the " first born among
many brethren." The pride of family has no
such lineage to boast of as this common heritage
of the race; descent from earthly princes has no
such armorial ensigns as the babe of Bethlehem
"wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a
manger."
The " Seed of the Woman," how comprehensive
a truth is this!-announced by prophets, shadowed
forth by the prefigurations of the ancient law,
demonstrated by miracles, confirmed by the cross,
reassured by him who rose from the dead, and
raiseth them up, because "he quickeneth whom
he will!" How momentous this historical fact,
that the Son of God left the glories of heaven and
descended to the abyss of humnan woes! What a
new face did it put, not only upon the original
Paradise, but upon all earthly things, and what
transformations has it effected and is yet destined
to produce in the history of the world in which




376          THE FIRST PROMISE.
we dwell! What an announcement to sinners like
ourselves! What amazing interest is thrown
around this affecting reality,-interest as -intense
and as firesh as though it had been just revealed
from heaven, although it was announced six thousand years ago! What should interest and electrify us, if not the tidings that the " Seed of the
Woman" came to seek and save that which was
lost; to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to
God; to restore the fallen to fellowship with their
Maker; to welcome the exile to his Father's
house; to make the conquest of the sinner's heart,
and carry it with him to those unseen heavens
whence he came; to bid the despairing hope, to
give the confiding comfort, strength to the weak,
and to the struggling victory!
This first promise, also, in the next place, REVEALS THE ONLY WAY OF LIFE. We know not how
distinctly the way of salvation was revealed to our
first parents; but it was in sufficient fulness to
keep them from despair, and encourage them to
offer acceptable sacrifices to God. Of this one
truth they were persuaded, that salvation by the
works of the law was to them no longer a practicable thing. What they had done, or what they
could perform, might no longer be the ground
of hope.  They had no reason for self-exultation in their obedience. No repentance and reform could come in the place of the threatened




THE FIRST PROMISE.        377
penalty. No morality, no religious duties, no
promises of good behavior, much as all these became them, could justify them in the sight of God.
As well might a murderer promise repentance and
amendment as a satisfaction to violated law, as the
sinner look to any works of righteousness of his
own as the ground of his pardon and acceptance.
"Moses describeth the righteousness which is of
the law;" it is a legal obedience, a character and
conduct which the law requires and justifies.
"The man that doeth these things shall live by
them." Punitive justice has no claims upon such
a man, because he has no sin to be punished, or
forgiven.  Remunerative justice pronounces him
just, and entitled to the life which it awards to
unsinning subjects.  But the mournful fact is,
there is no such man; "all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God."  "There is none righteous, no, not one."  So that, the man who now
stands upon his own righteousness, is condemned
and lost. He may not be so bad as other men;
but in the article of his justification on the ground
of what he himself has done, he stands upon the
same level with the vilest of the race. " Every
mouth is stopped, and the whole world is guilty
before God."  For man the sinner, there is no
hope from the law. "Yea, though I wash myself
in snow water, and make myself never so clean,
yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine




378           THE FIRST PROMISE.
own clothes shall abhor me." It is no longer in
himself that he can find a justifying righteousness;
it is too late; be it ever so agonizing, the effort
is desperate, it is a forlorn hope.  "If thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquity, 0 Lord, who could stand?"
The thing is impossible.  Sooner may meni scale
the heavens, or dive to the bottom  of the ocean.
It is more than God can do thus to justify the,ungodly.
Yet shall the seed of the woman bruise the serpent's head. There is salvation by Jesus Christ,
and that salvation is altogether a practicable attainment. What cannot be affirmed of a legal
justification by the deeds of law, can be affirmed
of a gratuitous justification by the seed of the woman. There is such a reality as " the righteousness of faith." This was the way of life revealed
to our first parents, and which is so clearly and
abundantly revealed to their apostate descendants.
What men cannot do, Jesus Christ has performed.
The work is finished by him; nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it; and
God hath done it, that men may fear before him.
There is perfect simplicity in this way of life,
and perfect reasonableness in its revealed conditions. There is nothing in it which an intelligent
child cannot understand; it has no duplicity, no
subtlety, no abstruseness.  It has not one set bf
doctrines for the initiated, and another for the vul



THE FIRST PROMISE.         379
gar; its teachings are open to the world and accessible to all. It is not locked up in mysterious
hieroglyphics, and confined to the cloisters of
learned and privileged orders of men. " The
word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart."
It is simply that the righteousness, on the ground
of which the sinner is justified, is not in himself,
but in another; not wrought by himself, but by
God manifest in the flesh. And it is perfectly
reasonable in its revealed condition.  It is the'"word of faith which we preach, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved." It is no
longer "This do and thou shalt live," but "he
that believeth shall be saved."  It is an honest and
true faith.
It is not enough, that the ground of acceptance is
laid in the perfected work of Christ; that finished
redemption must be received by a trusting confidence. The testimony which God has given concerning it must be practically honored. Men must be so
persuaded of the truth and importance of it, as to
rest upon it the whole weight of their immortality.
If they demand, Is there nothing for me to do to
be saved; I answer, this is the work of God, " that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent." They have
nothing to do as a work of righteousness, or as adding to, or giving strength to the foundation which




380           THE FIRST PROMISE.
God has laid in Zion. They have this to do, to
believe the promise in which there is so much reason to conclude, our first parents believed-to believe on the Son of God as the only and all-sufficient Saviour. " Him hath God set forth to be a
propitiation, through faith in his blood."  This is
a very different thing from " going about to establish a righteousness of our own by the deeds of the
law."  The one is the " righteousness of the law,"
the other is the " righteousness of faith;" the one is
of works, the other is of grace-a received and imputed righteousness. The former is impossible,
there is no impossibility in the latter. Millions
have thus believed; and millions upon millions
more will rejoice in this way of life, thus
early disclosed, and to the "glory of his grace
who hath made them accepted in the Beloved."
Men may not work for it, but they must believe
for it. They have nothing to give for it; but
they may have it without money and without
price. They are not worthy of it; and it is because they are so unworthy that the gift and grace
are so rich and free. They have nothing to cover
their poverty and shame but rags of filthiness; yet
may they take these heaven-provided robes and be
clothed in fine linen, clean and white. The word
on which God caused our first parents to hope was
not a stipulation, but a promise; and it is worthy
of remark, that so far from their worthiness having




THE FIRST PROMISE.         381
anything to do with it, it was not uttered to t7hem,
but embodied in the sentence upon their greatest
foe.
Another fact comprised in this promise is, that
IT IS THE GREAT SOURCE AND MEANS OF HOLINESS.
This is a fair inference from  what was said in
the chapter on the subject of spiritual death constituting a part of the penalty threatened to our
first parents for their disobedience. Personal holiness flows through Christ as well as pardon. The
redemption he bestows is as truly redemption from
sin as redemption from hell. Personal holiness is
too great a blessing to be bestowed except for the
sake of Christ; nor could it, in the nature of the
case, be bestowed where the penalty of the law is
executed. And if it could be, who does not see
and feel the unfitness of sanctifying a sinner
without making him the object of pardoning
mercy?'Those who hold to the doctrine, that
forgiveness is the only blessing which is bestowed for Christ's sake, must be driven to the
conclusion, that, so far as this theory is concerned,
God may, in the mere sovereignty of his grace,
sanctify a sinner, and yet send him to hell. Would
not this be an anomaly in the divine government?
How much more in keeping with the beauty and
symmetry of all the arrangements of heavenly
wisdom, that pardon and holiness should never be
separated in their objects, should flow in the same




382           THE FIRST PROMISE.
channel; and from the same source? It is a beautiful view of this first promise, that it not only
binds together the divine attributes of truth, justice, and mercy, but is the golden string that binds
the unwithering flowers of holiness, in all their
beauty and freshness, to the parent stock on which
they grew. There is nothing in the gospel that
transforms man's physical and intellectual nature;
it is impossible for him to be holy while in despair. The great design of Christianity is to make
him holy, by encouraging him to hope. "Perfect
love casteth out fear."  The love of God is essential to the existence and progress of holiness in
the heart. Wickedness could not indeed be justifled in a state of absolute despair, any more than
our first parents could have been justified in persevering alienation from God before the utterance
of this first promise. Yet, no more than they
would have returned to him without this promise,
would their descendants, without, hope, ever become holy.
It is the method of God's grace to rouse men
from their thoughtlessness by the terrors of wrath,
and to persuade them to repentance by the attractions of love. The promise which so early
taught the first transgressors the only true
method of justification, contained those great
truths by which alone they and their descendants could become holy. The apostle Peter in



THE FIRST PROMISE.        383
structs us, that "exceeding great and precious
promises" are given to God's people, "that by
these, they might become partakers of the divine nature."  They have comforted the hearts
and revived the hopes of millions, and thereby
promoted their holiness. The influence of this
first promise has extended to untold millions; nor
has it been uncertain, or feeble, nor its tendency
questioned to promote every grace and virtue.
This was its great object, and these the most important things it promised. It supplies the means
and inducements to holiness, and that power of
the Spirit of God by which alone men ever become holy. Just as it supported and propped up
the drooping heart of our first parents, who, in
that dark hour, needed something to lean upon,
does the system of grace and truth it reveals support the drooping hearts of that great multitude
which no man can number who are washed, and
sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. There never
was, and there never will be a holy creature among
all Adam's posterity, whose personal character is not
influenced by this promise. Take this promise and
the great truths and realities which it involves from
the word of God, and you leave the world under
the influence of error, dreams, and fable; you
leave it without any such knowledge of right and
wrong as would exert a practical effect on their




384           THE FIRST PROMISE.
character; you leave it under the dominion of
wickedness, and with no hope that its wickedness
will ever end, or that a brighter day will ever
dawn on this lost and undone world. There is
heavenly light from this promise on the wayward
character of man. There is no provision made for
this, but in the religion of which this promise is the
germ. Here the heart is relieved from its sense
of guilt, and cleansed from sin. It is no longer
shut out from all communication with God. There
is a renewal of the lost fellowship.  There is a
closer and still more close communion; until, at
last, it becomes unbroken; and beholding, as in a
mirror, the " glory of the Lord, the believer in it
is changed into the same image, from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
There is one more remark we may not suppress,
in our amplification of this promise: it contains A
PREDICTION OF THE SAVIOUR's TRIUMPH. After his
fatally practised wiles upon our first parents, the
Great Adversary enjoyed a malignant and momentary victory. Man was ensnared, and this
great foe vainly imagined the race was lost. The
thought not improbably entered his mind, that
what he sought by his own revolt was now secured;
that the object of the benevolent Creator in calling
into existence this lower world was defeated, and
that the gloom and sadness of his own prison
must now be transferred to those bright heavens




THE FIRST PROMISE.         385
from which he had been so lately exiled. But
how short the triumph, and what a death-blow to
his malignant hopes were those words, " I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head
and thou shalt bruise his heel!" How degrading
the sentence, and what a poor, degraded being
must he have felt himself to be, to learn that, after
all his subtlety and malice, and all that teeming
hostility which then brooded within his fiendish
bosom; the most that he could ever hope to accomplish was to crawl upon his belly through a
redeemed world; be trodden upon and crushed by
the woman's seed, and that the only retaliation he
could now inflict was to "bruise its heel!" And
how degraded must they be who condescend to
enlist themselves in the service of such a poor, degraded devil as this!
Glad visions cheer the Son of God as he now
looks down on the world where we dwell. Ten
thousand blessings drop from his hands, and fountains of joy spring up in his path all over this redeemed creation. In the progress of time, not a
nation, not a tribe, and not an island of the sea
but will lay their honors at his feet. His triumphs
will be complete, and everywhere confessed. His
conquests are conquests of truth over error, holiness over sin, joy over sorrow, heaven over hell.
He is as emphatically the King of truth as the
17




386           THE FIRST PROMISE.
Great Adversary is the prince of darkness. He
himself is the way, the truth, and the life; truth
in its thousand forms constitutes the weapons of
his warfare. When his arrows are sharp and
reach the -hearts of his enemies, he "'rides victoriously, because of truth, meekness and righteousness."  When he girds his sword upon his thigh,
and his right hand teaches him terrible things,
"grace is poured into his lips," and his "sceptre
is a righteous.sceptre."  He gains his victories by
making the people willing in the day of his
power, and by those moral transformations which
are multiplied like the dew of the morning, and
resplendent with the beauties of holiness.
When this " rod of his strength goes forth out
of Zion," the love of self is supplanted by the love
of God; the love of heaven predominates over the
love of earth: the law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus over the law of sin and death; and the new
creation, the temple of God is erected upon the
ruins of the fall. This is all his work, the consequence of his incarnation and sacrifice, and the
result of " the exceeding greatness of his power."
Not more certainly did this beautiful world come
forth from the depths of chaos at his command,
and shine forth in all its brilliancy, than his command calls into being a new and regenerated intellectual and moral creation, and bids it shine in
progressive and everlasting splendor.




THE FIRST PROMISE.         387
This was the object he had in view when he
stooped to the cradle, and expired on the cross;
and this is his joyous reward. The balances of
earth cannot weigh the burden of his degradation
and sorrows; nor can the arithmetic of earth
measure the exaltation and extent of his victories.
The " heathefn are given to him as his inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession."  He shall "have dominion from sea to
sea;" they that " dwell in the wilderness shall bow
before him," and his throne shall be as the days
of heaven." "His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace;" and " he must reign until
all enemies are put under his feet." The victory
shall be complete, and the shouts of it be heard in
every land. The devil, that old serpent, in a little
while shall be bound a thousand years, and go
forth to deceive the nations no more. And when
the predestined time shall come that his chain
shall be loosed for a little season, it shall be only
that he may be more inexorably bound at last.
"He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel;" this is the comment upon all his
struggles. He shall have no ultimate triumph.
Whatever may be the relative number of the
saved and the lost, of this one thing we are assured, the proportion will be such, that heaven
and hell shall see that the seed of the woman is




388          THE FIRST PROMISE.
victorious. He has made a show of the powers
of darkness openly, triumphing over them in his
cross. In commemorating his death, we commemorate his triumphs. The destroyer shall still destroy; but the Saviour shall be mighty to save.
It shall yet be as it ever has been, that while the
devil's path shall be traced only by the serpent's
slime, the path of the conqueror shall be marked
by the footsteps of light, and impress of love, by
the honors awarded to him by redeemed men, and
by wreaths which earth and heaven have prepared for the head that is to wear " many crowns."
Such is this first promise. And it is like the
rainbow which the exiled apostle saw round about
the throne. It encircles the earth where we dwell.
This is the promise under which we were born.
We are the descendants of a fallen ancestry; nor
are there wanting humbling reflections which force
themselves upon us, and thoughts that cover us
with shame in contemplating such an origin. But
these form the deep and lowering background,
from which stand out the strongest lights in the
moral firmament.
The brightest gems that adorn our Immanuel's head are gathered from this low earth; the
sweetest song is the song of those who " are redeemed from among men." And let not the remark be forgotten, that notwithstanding all their
sins, men cannot come short of this character




THE FIRST PROMISE.        389
and blessedness, except through their persevering
unbelief and impenitent rebellion.  Yonder infant in its cradle, if it employs its opportunities
of religious instruction as it may and ought to
employ them, will know more of its redeeming
God, and enjoy him more; will be brought into
nearer relations to him; will adore him more
humbly, and more gratefully praise him, than the
favored angel who now leads the chorus of the
skies. To have been thus an embryo fiend, and to
have thus become an embryo seraph, is the privilege of every believer in Jesus. Wondrous truth!
and one which we may well press to our bosoms,
-to pass through this wondrous transformation —
to learn thus to " esteem all things but loss, that
he may win Christ"-to find his highest good in
him, and good in everything because it flows from
his love-to be the workmanship of this Great
Restorer, and occupy his assigned place in the
"Temple not made with hands"-is the privilege
of the meanest believer in Jesus. This is a privilege which belongs not to angels; they have no such
interest in Christ; they bear no relation to him as
their Redeemer. In heaven they cannot sing his
praise as their Redeemer; and should they come
down to earth and worship with us in these
earthly sanctuaries, they could never have access
to the communion-table of his saints, and there
show forth his love.




890           THE FIRST PROMISE.
I thank my Maker that I was not created an
angel; for if I had been, right sure am I, that, left
to myself, I should have been among the fallen. I
give him praise that I am a native of this favored
earth; that I occupy a place on the soil consecrated
by the mission of patriarchs and prophets, and the
greater mission of his Son; and that I belong to
this habitable earth, where " his delights are with
the sons of men;" that I live in a world where
that Incarnate One first drew his infant breath,
and where one of Adam's daughters called him
Son! Here lies man's dignity, that his nature has
been thus associated with Deity. He belongs to
the earth the Saviour trode upon, and which was
vocal with his. prayers, and wet with his tears and
blood. And, if a believer in Jesus, he is one with
that redeemed humanity, in which, from the eternity past to the coming eternity, this Redeemer
takes such a joyous interest, and of which he is
the accredited, honored, adored Representative in
the court of Heaven.
This promise is appreciated only by appreciating
its corresponding obligation&. And how vast and
extended are they! Who makes a just estimate
of them? What a world is this we live in; what
a world to labor for, and what mighty objects are
here to be secured by a faithful devotement to the
will and glory of its great Redeemer! The smallest church, the meanest family, the most unworthy




THE FIRST PROMISE.         391
minister, the most unnoticed individual, is here
exerting an influence for good or for evil. It is
an influence that acts always and everywhere. It
is felt far off and near; and not only while men
live, but after they are dead; it laps over, and
fastens itself upon succeeding generations.
And how amazing is the responsibility which
rests upon every man for his own soul!  He inhabits a world which belongs to him who " came
to seek and to save that which was lost."  With
the exception of the short period between the first
apostasy and the first promise, this earth has never
been without a revealed Saviour. Not a generation has passed over it for whom there was no
gospel; never was so miserable, so touching a sight
presented to the eyes of angels or men. Amid all
the changes in human affairs, God's revelation of
grace has never been withdrawn from the abodes
of time. Almost from its very birth, this earth
has been wrapt in the mantle of heavenly mercy. Here " God commands all men everywhere
to repent," and makes them  the offer of the
great salvation.  They have a reprieve from
the condemning sentence; and this is their day
of grace. But it is a short day. Nothing shuts
out death from the abodes of men. It is found in
the purest and most salubrious sky; it reigns in
every zone; its elements are combined with every
clod, every stream, and every breeze. This world




392            THE FIRST PROMISE.
is the only place of education for eternity.  Within this little span are comprehended decisions
which determine an unalterable retribution.  O
does not this stamp a value on earth and time,
which time and earth cannot calculate! This
single fact throws around this habitable globe, and
the least considerable of its inhabitants, an interest and a responsibility, that are overwhelming.
" Just as a tree cut down, that fell
To north or southward, there it lies;
So man departs to heaven or hell,
Fix'd in the state wherein he dies,"
Think of this, Christian, when you inspect the
work you have to do, and the place which it is
given you to occupy.  Be thankful for the high
vocation to which the grace of God has called
you, and be solicitous and in earnest to honor the
law of your being and your destiny. Let this:
earth have the same place in your hearts which it
has in- the heart of your eternal Saviour, and for
the same reasons; take heed that you put a due
estimate upon it, by putting a due estimate upon
his claims, and the advancement of his kingdom
where he lived and died.
Think of these things, ye also who forget God.
There is no world like that in which you dwell,
go fitted to draw out your character, and fit you
for your eternal state.  Hear ye this, both high




THE FIRST PROMISE.         393
and low, rich and poor together.  0 O earth, earth,
earth, hear the word of the Lord!" There is given
to you this short space for repentance. Around
you are men forgetful of God like yourselves. A
little farther back in the career of human life, you
see the young who have fallen, and made shipwreck of their immortality in the days of their
youth. Onward, and at a little distance, is many
a veteran neglecter of God's salvation, cast up as a
withered hulk on the shores of time, a beacon to
warn you of the danger of delay. Just beyond
the ground on which you are treading is the grave.
It is a dark valley; a darker night than ever yet
encircled the earth, will soon enwrap its folds
about you. And now, from "the top of high
places, by the way in the places of the paths," the
voice of wisdom cries, " Flee to the stronghold, ye
PRISONERS OF HOPE."
We solicit for this promise a glad and thankful
and confident reception. There is no imposition
in this first promise. It is but for this Saviour to
fill the circle of our moral vision, and we may say
with Paul, " I know whom I have believed, and
am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I have committed to him against that day!"
There are realities in his divine character and
perfected work, so sure as to remove doubt.
There is nothing obscure, or fluctuating in them.
They will never alter. God's covenant with the
17*




394           THE FIRST PROMISE.
day and the night shall come to an end; but the
coveniant of which his blood is the seal, is "ordered
in all things and sure." I am " persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  It is no marvel that
when our back is turned upon this Sun of Righteousness, our way should be dark; nor need we wonder
that. the winter of our comforts comes on when his
beams fall scantily and obliquely on our path. If
you seek not shadows and gloom, study to know
more of this first promise. Be familiar with the
pages that develop its import, with the mercy-seat
on which it is inscribed, with the sanctuaries which
it illumines, with the ordinances and emblems of
which it is the substance. And learn to dread not
too deeply those dark passages in the wilderness
where the light of it shines with unwonted loveliness; nor those hard and tempestuous waves where
the wind is contrary, and in the appointed watch
of the night, Jesus himself comes walking on the
sea. "Stagger not at the promise through unbelief;" and if he bids you come to him on the
waters, take heed lest you extort from his lips the
deserved, though kind rebuke, "O thou of little
faith! wherefore didst thou doubt?"
Human life is not worth its toil, its perplexity, its




THE FIRST PROMISE.          395
weariness, its disappointments, its trials, its solitude, its ten thousand ills, if there be no hereafter.
Man would be the sport of delusion, his hopes
mocked, and his best affections cheated, were not
life and immortality brought to light by the gospel. O ye, who make light of this gospel! approach and see what a wreck of human hopes this
fallen world would be, if this ark of God did not
float upon its waters, or if its doors were shut.
Cast your eyes over this broad earth; mark the
woes that rest upon it, and then turn to this one
hope of man.
END OF VOL. 1.