The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-06-11
Who Was Gains Wife?

In reply to the query of correspond
ent through the New York Ledger as
to who Cain marSied, Henry Ward
Beecher says:
"There is no record of Gains court
ship or wedding. However interesting
to the parties themselves, it is of no
interest to us, except upon the suppo-
sition that any people had been created.
If Adam and Eve were the sole progen-
itors of the race, then Cain and Able,
it is inferred, must have married their
own sisters-a connection which is shock
ing to the sensibilities of the whole race
at a subsequent state 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 allege that verse fourteen
of chapter four, Of Genesis plainly inn
plies that the earth was widely populated.
For when God declared that Cain should
be driven from his family and made a
vagabond in the earth, Cain deprecated
the sentence, and plead that "every one
that findeth me shall STAY me-" 1t was
plainly not his family connections that
he feared, for he desired not to be driven
from them. Who, then, were these peo-
pie whom Cain feared to meet when he
should have gone forth into the earth I?
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 upon the
earth except your fathers children"
Instead of that the Lord is represented as
falling in with Gains impression respect
ing the population of the world, and
that he set mark upon Cain, lest any
finding him should kill him. (Gen. 4:15).
Still further, is it said that Cain separated
himself from his kindred, went into the
land of Nod, east Of Eden, "and he
built city and called the name of the
city after the name of his son Enoch."
The fathers were patiently asked ::
Where did the people come from who
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 chill
dren! 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 other stock.
awe 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 all modern Christian
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
these views have been held before, and
upon 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 no one wish to
know how Cain died? Questions must
be scarce to leave such point untouched
If Cain is to be raised he surely ought to
be thoroughly dealt with"