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From Eternity Past
Cain the murderer was soon called to answer for his crime. “The
Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know
not: am I my brother’s keeper?” He resorted to falsehood to conceal
his guilt.
The Punishment of Cain
Again the Lord said to Cain, “What hast thou done? The voice
of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” Cain had had
time to reflect. He knew the enormity of the deed he had done and
the falsehood he had uttered to conceal it; but he was rebellious still,
and sentence was no longer deferred. The divine voice pronounced
the terrible words: “And now art thou cursed from the earth, which
hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand.
When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee
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her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.”
A merciful Creator still spared his life and granted him opportunity
for repentance. But Cain lived only to harden his heart, to encourage
rebellion against divine authority, and to be the head of a line of bold
sinners. His influence exerted demoralizing power until the earth
became so corrupt and filled with violence as to call for its destruction.
The dark history of Cain and his descendants was an illustration
of what would have been the result of permitting the sinner to live on
forever, to carry out his rebellion against God. The forbearance of
God only rendered the wicked more bold and defiant. Fifteen centuries
after the sentence pronounced upon Cain, crime and pollution flooded
the earth. It was made manifest that the sentence of death on the fallen
race was just and merciful. The longer men lived in sin, the more
abandoned they became.
Satan is constantly at work to misrepresent the character and gov-
ernment of God and to hold the inhabitants of the world under his
deception. God sees the end from the beginning. His plans were
far-reaching and comprehensive, not merely to put down the rebellion,
but to demonstrate to all the universe its nature, fully vindicating His
wisdom and righteousness in His dealings with evil.
The inhabitants of other worlds were watching with the deepest
interest the condition of the world before the flood. They saw the
results of the administration which Lucifer had endeavored to establish