Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-12-24
GAINS WIFE.
Henry Ward Beecher on the Absorb
ing Problem.


r- ing Problem.
II people do not ask questions, how shall
they get information? Even if it be only
curiosity that prompts the questions, an an
swer may sometimes do good. We don't
suppose any human being cares who Gains
wife was, for any practical reason. There
is no Anneke JAMS estate, We presume, de-
pendent on it no title of nobility that any
one would be likely to coyet. But, then,
in village, where people are not so much
in hurry but that they can sit down and
discuss matter, many queer questions
come up. Here is one of them, which has
been on our hands year, but, as it has
kept through so many ages, it is not likely
to spoil in few months, and so here it is:
DECEMBER IL, 1869-Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher-Dear Sir: Please to inform me,
through the columns of the New York
Ledger, who Gains wife was, and oblige
A READER OF THE LEDGER.
There is no record of Gains courtship or
wedding. However Interesting to the par
ties themselves, it is of no interest to us, ex-
cept upon the supposition that the account
in Genesis of the creation 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 married their own sisters-a connec-
ton which is shocking to the sensibilities
of the whole race, at subsequent stage of
development.
But many Of the fathers of the church de-
MED that Adam and Eve, and their children,
were the only people on the globe. They
affirmed that the text in Genesis very plain
ly implies that there were other inhabitants
besides Adams family. They allege that
verse II, chapter 4, of Genesis, plainly I'M
plies that the earth was already widely pop
ulated. For, when God declared that Cain
should be driven out from his family, and
made vagabond in the earth, Cain depre-
Gated the sentence, and plead that "every
one that findeth me shall slay me-" 1t was
plainly not his family connections that he
feared, for he desired not to be driven forth
from them. 1t was the people he should
meet when wanderer 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 impress
sion respecting the population Of the world,
and that He set mark upon Cain, lest any
finding him should kill him. (Gen. 4: 49,
Still further, it is said that Cain, separa-
ting himself from his kindred, went to the
land of Nod, east of Edom, land he
builded city, and called the name Of the
city after the name of his son Enoch." The
Fathers very pertinently asked, where did
the people come from that lived in this
city? That would be an extraordinary
state-of things which should have enabled
Cain to fill up city, however small, with
his own children And it is inferred,
therefore, that there were other people in
the land besides the immediate posterity of
Adam. If Adam was the only progenitOr,
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 Christian writers
have rejected them.
But as the origin of races has, in our day,
assumed an important scientific develop
ment, and, as very many able scientists hold
to variety of original race stock, it is inter-
esting 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 mark was which the Lord affixed
to Cain? Does 10 one wish to know how
Cain died? Questions must be scarce to
leave such points untouched. If Cain is to
be raised, he surely ought to be thoroughly
dealt with.