Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-06-06
TERMS---S2.o0 PER YEAR.
sh SHE --VOL. %, NO. |.
Gains Wife.

If people do not ask questions, how
shall we get information Even if il
be only curiosity that prompts the
question, an answer may sometimes
do good. We don't suppose any
human being cares who Gains wife
was, for any particular reason. There
is no Anneke JAMS estate, we presume
dependent on it--no title of nobility
that any one would be likely to covet
But, then, in village where people
are not in so much of 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 q 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 oil
the New York LEDGER, who Gains wife was,
and oblige
A READER OF THE LEDGER
There is no record of Gains court
ship or wedding. However interest,"
ing to the parties themselves, it is no
interest to US, except upon the suppo-
sition that the account of 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 in
ferred, must have married their own
sisters-a connection which is shock
ing to the sensibllities of the whole
race, at the subsequent stage of de-
velopment.
But many of the Fathers of the
Church denied that Adam and Eve,
and their children, were the only peo-
pie on the globe. They affirm that
the text in Genesis very plainly i'm
plies that there were other inhabit-
ants besides Adams family. They
allege that verse ii, 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 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 connection that he feared, for
he desired not to be driven forth from
them. 1t was the people he should
meet when a 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" In
stead Of that, the Lord is represented
as falling in with Gains impression
respecting the population Of the
world, and that he set mark upon
Cain, lest any one finding him should
kill him. Gen. 4 (: 15) Still further,
it is said that Cain, separating him
self from his kindred, went to the
land of Nod, east Edom, "and be
builded city, and called the name
of the city after the name of his son
Enoch." The fathers very pertinent.
ly asked, where did the people come
from that lived in that city That
would be an extraordinary state Of
things which should have enabled
Cain to fill up the city, however small,
with his own children and it is infer
red, therefore, that there were other
people in the land besides the imme-
diato postery of Adam. If Adam
were 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 judgement
in the matter. We give our CORES
pendent the opinions that have been
held in the early days of the Church,
but with the statement that almost
all modern Christian writer's have
rejected them.
But as the origin Of races has, in
cur day, assumed an important scien-
tific development, and as very many
able scientists hold to variety Of
original race stocks, it is interesting
to know that these views have been
held before, and upon supposed Bib
lical grounds.
But are there no more questions
about Cain Does nobody Wish to
know what the mark was which the
Lord affixed to Cain ? Does no one
wish to know how Cain died ? CUES
tons must be scarce to leave such
points untouched. If Cain is to be
raised he surely oughtto be thorough
ly dealt with.-Henry Ward Beecher,
in ". Y Ledger.