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Patriarchs and Prophets
determined to follow his own will. As the eldest, he felt above being
admonished by his brother, and despised his counsel.
Cain came before God with murmuring and infidelity in his heart
in regard to the promised sacrifice and the necessity of the sacrificial
offerings. His gift expressed no penitence for sin. He felt, as many
now feel, that it would be an acknowledgment of weakness to follow
the exact plan marked out by God, of trusting his salvation wholly to
the atonement of the promised Saviour. He chose the course of self-
dependence. He would come in his own merits. He would not bring
the lamb, and mingle its blood with his offering, but would present his
fruits, the products of his labor. He presented his offering as a favor
done to God, through which he expected to secure the divine approval.
Cain obeyed in building an altar, obeyed in bringing a sacrifice; but he
rendered only a partial obedience. The essential part, the recognition
of the need of a Redeemer, was left out.
So far as birth and religious instruction were concerned, these
brothers were equal. Both were sinners, and both acknowledged the
claims of God to reverence and worship. To outward appearance
their religion was the same up to a certain point, but beyond this the
difference between the two was great.
“By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain.”
Hebrews 11:4
. Abel grasped the great principles of redemption.
He saw himself a sinner, and he saw sin and its penalty, death, standing
between his soul and communion with God. He brought the slain
victim, the sacrificed life, thus acknowledging the claims of the law
that had been transgressed. Through the shed blood he looked to the
future sacrifice, Christ dying on the cross of Calvary; and trusting in
the atonement that was there to be made, he had the witness that he
was righteous, and his offering accepted.
Cain had the same opportunity of learning and accepting these
truths as had Abel. He was not the victim of an arbitrary purpose. One
brother was not elected to be accepted of God, and the other to be
rejected. Abel chose faith and obedience; Cain, unbelief and rebellion.
Here the whole matter rested.
Cain and Abel represent two classes that will exist in the world till
the close of time. One class avail themselves of the appointed sacrifice
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for sin; the other venture to depend upon their own merits; theirs is
a sacrifice without the virtue of divine mediation, and thus it is not