Genesis 4:9

Genesis 4:9

The feeling of our sonship to God in Christ is a topic which requires to be constantly dwelt upon, because our conventional acceptance of such a relationship is apt to be compatible with a life which has no real apprehension of it.

I. Of the dangers which are partly rooted in our animal nature and partly fostered and intensified by the drift of our time, the one likely to press most heavily on us is that of exaggerated individualism. Where this is not tempered by an infusion of the religious spirit, we find it working with a disintegrating power, and in various ways vitiating both our personal and social life.

II. Almost every advance of civilisation which distinguishes our century has tended to give this principle some new hold on the common life. There is no corner of society, commercial or social, political or artistic, which it does not invade. The volume of its force is intensified as wealth increases and easy circumstances become more common. Our time is preeminently a time of materialistic egoism.

III. The evolutionist, telling us of the growth of all our sentiments, taking us back to germinal forms and then leading us upward through struggle and survival, makes the ruling motive in every early life essentially egoistic. The question arises, Where and how is this motive to change its character? Is this last utterance to be still but an echo of the primeval question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" If this be the last word, we must repeat again, however sadly Αρα Χριστὸς δωρεὰν ἀπέθανε.

IV. But we cannot rest in this conclusion. There is no possibility of rest until we have settled it with ourselves that our higher consciousness gives us touch of the reality of the Divine and everlasting, when it declares that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, joint-heirs with Christ. This we believe to be the last word for us on the mystery of our being and destiny.

J. Percival, Oxford Review and Undergraduates' Journal,Jan. 25th, 1883.

The first time the relationship of brotherhood is brought before us in Scripture does not present it in the most harmonious or endearing aspect, and yet the very rivalry and resentment which were engendered by it give an incidental sign of the closeness of the tie which it involves.

I. The brother tie is one whose visible and apparent closeness of necessity diminishes under the common conditions of life.

II. Although it is a link whose visible association vanishes, it ought never to be an association which fades out of the heart. There is always something wrong when a relationship like this disappears behind maturer attachments.

III. Whether from the hearth of home or from the wider range of brotherhood which the commonwealth supplies, the pattern and inspiration of true brotherhood is found in Christ, the Elder Brother of us all.

A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 251.

"Am I my brother's keeper?" This is the very gospel of selfishness, and a murderer is its first preacher. The gospel of selfishness is, that a man must take care of his own interests; and out of that universal self-seeking, provided it be wise and restrained, will come the well-being of all.

I. This is an age of rights rather than of duties. It is very notable that there is almost nothing about rights in the teaching of Christ. The Lord seeks to train the spirit of His followers into doing and suffering aright. But by preaching love and duty, the Gospel has been the lawgiver of nations, the friend of man, the champion of his rights. Its teaching has been of God, of duty, and of love; and wherever these ideas have come, freedom and earthly happiness and cultivation have followed silently behind.

II. Our age needs to be reminded that in one sense each of us has the keeping of his brethren confided to him, and that love is the law and the fulfilling of the law. The rights of men to our love, to our consideration, rest upon an act of Divine love. Their chartered right to our reverence is in these terms: That God loved them and sent His Son to be the propitiation for their sins, and the Saviour set to it His seal and signed it with His blood.

Archbishop Thomson, Life in the Light of God's Word,p. 301.

References: Genesis 4:9. J. Cumming, Church before the Flood,p. 186; H. Alford, Sermons,p. 1; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 277; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 242; A. Hamilton, Sunday Magazine(1877), p. 660; J. D. Kelly, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 243; T. Birkett Dover, A Lent Manual,p. 5; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxiv., No. 1399; Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,vol. iv., p. 272; J. Sherman, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 25, No. 39. Genesis 4:9; Genesis 4:10. H. Melvill, Sermons on Less Prominent Facts,p. 286. Genesis 4:10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. viii., No. 461, and vol. xii., No. 708. Genesis 4:13. Parker, vol. i., p. 150. Genesis 4:15; Genesis 4:16. R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis,vol. i., pp. 86 and 108. Genesis 4:17. Homiletic Magazine,vol. vi., p. 268 Genesis 4:23; Genesis 4:24. S. Cox, Expositor's Notebook,p. 19; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 380; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 227.