The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1905-02-09


ia AAslA in the garden and
SSySN the guilty pair cast
{+gT8I forth! Death in
IN SD the home-Death
" n the elimination OF
~ sin! For 'sin
~EEA { when it is finished
Gz0J bringeth fort
| DEATH"
-> What strange,
mysterious infiu-
ence is it which steals upon the soul some
times, bringing vague dread and fear OF
some impending trouble or tragedy,
while yet the coming tragedy or trouble
is unforeseen and unknown? Why the
unexplained depression of spirits while
yet all is sunshine about and no cloud
of the coming storm is visible upon LIES
horizon? Like the ominous calm that
comes as the silent prelude to the angry
tempest in the tropics, SO in human ex-
perience the storm of distress and sor-
row which sometimes sweeps in upon
the life is preceded by an ominous calm
leading to inner forebodings.
So it was with Mother Eve on the
morning of our story. The day was
filled with the beauty and gladness of
nature. The song of birds was heard
inviting a glad response from her heart,
and the sunlight bursting in through
the doorway, sought by its brightness to
turn her thoughts upward. But the
happy mother of that happy home could
not dispel the cloud that brooded like an
ill-omen over her heart. Not since
those blissful days in the garden when,
ere the temptation and fall, mysteri-
Gus dread had touched her heart while
yet unknown to her Satan was plot
ting her ruin, had such feeling come
upon her. She was conscious of the de-
preston almost with her first waking
thoughts, and the dark look on the brow
Of her son Cain as he left the house on
his way to the fields drove the arrows of
apprehension more sharply into her
soul
Once, long before, she recalled hav-
ing seen such a look upon Gains face.
It was upon the occasion of one Of their
days of worship and sacrifice. Father
Adam had made the offering Of the lamb
as God had instructed him to do, and
for the first time he was telling to the two
boys-for they were then old enough to
hear the story-of the first lamb God
had slain In order that he might pro-
vide garments to clothe himself and
their mother.
but his elder twin brother,
with apparent indifference, played with
the pebbles at his feet, and when his
father paused in his story, blurted out:
4 don't see why the skins were any
better clothing than the garments You
made for yourselves"
Before Adam could reply to the irrev-
erent taunt, Abel. whose heart was stirred |
by the story Of God and Gods care, in
quired:
But. father, If such garments were
needed, why did not God provide them
when ISn created you.'
A pa:aful silence followed. Could he
tell the sad, dark side to his life? Could
lie revesl the tragic secret of his life
Ind the life of Mother Eve? It was a
subject which had not been referred to
;ince the expulsion from the garden.
But thu question of Abel came as a rev.
'lation to the fathers heart, and he saw
hat ha must make plain to his boys how
Tod had created man In His own image.
Unless aad pure, and how, by disobedi-
nee, man had fallen from that state
INTO one Of sin. At last he looked up
With .ssar-dimmed eyes. and with fal-
ering yoice he went on and told all the
ong. sas story.
Cain, impressed momentarily by the
Of the occasion, even though
be story itself did not seem to affect
i'm, kcat silent for time after his
lther CEASED speaking. and then impa-
emily exclaimed: i,
Tha. was q small thing for God to
make 80 much fuss about, and don't see
ow it concerns me, anyway"
Father Adam turned in sharp re-
uke upon Cain for his irreverence ana
iliful refusal to receive and under
and Gods dealings with man.
Meanwhile. Mother Eve and Abel
ere holding earnest converse, Abel
skiing questions and his mother ex-
laining these strange mysteries inso-
Y Is she could. The.father noted this
he was speaking and hc cnncIudoa 4