Genesis 4:3

CAIN AND ABEL. -- Genesis 4:3-16.

GOLDEN TEXT. -- Am. my brother's keeper? -- Genesis 4:9. TIME --Unknown. PLACE. --East of the Garden of Eden. HELPFUL READINGS. --Gen. 3:20 to 4:3; Genesis 4:17-26; Psalms 15:1; 1 John 3:10-19; Hebrews 11:1-4. LESSON ANALYSIS. --1. False and True Worship; 2. The First Murder; 3. The Murderer's Doom.

INTRODUCTION.

Our last lesson gave the history of the lapse of the ancestors of our race from their primitive innocence; this lesson shows the malign and terrible fruits of sin as it continues its workings in the first family. After the fall Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden and went east from Eden, wherever that was located; all access to their former home was denied; the first employment of man was to "dress the garden and to keep it," and he was sent forth from thence "to till the ground." Children were born in the exile to the pair, perhaps many of them whose fortunes are not vital to human history, but the tragic interest that gathers around two has made them famous forever. Cain was the elder, perhaps the first-born child of our race,. tiller of the soil,. man of sullen, morose, selfish and jealous disposition; the younger, Abel, of sweet and trusting nature. Cain was named by his mother, who was filled with great hope at his birth and called him "possession;" it is not stated that she named Abel, and his name, "breath," "vanity," might have been given him after his untimely fate.

I. FALSE AND TRUE WORSHIP.

3. And in process of time.

Literally, "After the end of days," or, after. time. Some have held that the meaning is after. stated time, at the regular appointed time of worship, at the end of. year and an annual feast, or at the end of the week. At any rate it is an occasion that both celebrate, each in his own way, by worship.

Cain brought of the fruit of the ground.

He brought an offering of the products of his own labor,. bloodless offering. Such offerings, oblations, were made under the law, and were held as thank offerings, while upon the other hand the bloody offerings were for sin.