The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1871-02-14
S U N D Az R READING.'
GAINS WIFE.
by HENRY WARD DEECHER.

NNHERE is no record of Gains court
Il ship Or wedding. However interest
ing to the parties themselves, it is of no
interest to us, except on the supposition
that the account in Genesis of the crea-
tion of Adam was designed to exclude
the supposition that any people had been
created. If Adam and Eve were the
sole progenitors of the race, then Cain
and Abel, it is inferred, must have mar
ried their own sisters - u connection
which is shocking to the sensibilties of
the whole race, at subsequent stage of
development.
But many of the Fathers of the
Church denied that Adam and Eve, and
their children, were the only people on
the globe. They affirmed that the text
in Genesis very plainly implies that there
were other inhabitants besides Adams
family. They allegc that verse IA, of
chapter 4 of Genesis plainly implies that
the earth was already widely populated.
For, when God declared that Cain should
be driven out from his family, and made
a vagabond in the earth, Cain deprecated
the sentence and plead that "every one
that fndeth me shall slay me-" 1t was
plainly not his family connections that he
feared, for he desired not to be driven
from them. 1t was the people that he
should meet when wandcrer in the
earth. Who, then, were these people
whom Cain feared to meet when he
should have gone forth into the earth
1t is also reasoned by scholars that the
most natural method Of soothing his fears
would have been to tell him, "There are
no other people on earth, except your
fathers children" Instead of that the
Lord is represented as falling in with
Gains impression respecting the popula-
ton of the world, and that he set mark
upon Cain, lest any finding him should
kill him. Gen. 1 : 15.-Still further,
it is said that Cain, separating himself
from his kindred, went to the land Of
Nod, east of Edom, "and he builded
city, and called the name of the city after
the name of his son Enoch." The Faith
ers very pertinently asked, where the
people came from that lived in this city.
That would be an extraordinary state Of
things which should have. enabled Cain
to fill up a city, however small, with his
own children. And it is inferred, there
fore, that there were other people in the
land besides the immediate posterity of
Adam. If Adam was the only progeni-
tor, Cain must have married his sister,
If there were other lines Of people, other
Adams, as it were, then Cain might have
married into another stock.
We do not express any judgment in
the matter. We give our correspondent
the opinions that have been held in the
early days of the Church, but with the
statement that almost all modern Chris
tian writers have rejected them.
But as the origin of races has, in our
day, assumed an important scientific de-
velopment and, as very many able sci
entists hold to variety of original race
stocks, it is interesting to know that those
views have been held before, and upon
supposed Biblical grounds.
But are there no more questions about
Cain? Does nobody wish to know his
wife's name Does no one wish to know
what the marie was which the Lord afiix-
ed to Cain? Does no one wish to know
how Cain died Questions must be scarce
to leave such points untouched. If Cain
is to be raised, lie surely ought to be
thoroughly dealt with.