The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-19
''CROSS" THE THEME
MISS BLODGETT DELIVERS SECOND
 LECTURE.
Bible Student Takes Lives of Cain and Abel as Lesson for Talk h Couft Street Methodist
 Church.

The second of a serles of Bible lec- noon at the Court Street Methodist Church by Miss May N. Blodgett, who will lecture under the auspices of the Young Women's Christian Association at 4 o'clock every afternoon except Monday and Tuesday for the next two weeks.
 the book of the Bible from which to lecture. and began the series Wednes- day evening with a discussion of the life of Adam and Eve.
 Yesterday she took as the subject of | the lesson, "The Cross" and studied
 the life of Cain and Abel. She dealt with the life of the two brothers in the same unique and interesting fashion in which she handled the subject of Adam | and Eve on the previous night. While not digressing from the topic in hand, and tne Bible as the authority of her theme, yet she seemed to tell the story more clearly, and to throw a lucidity about those characters, rarely done by the most up to date and modern teacn- CTS of the Bible.
 Miss Blodgett has studied the Bible to a purpose and she possesses the happy faculty of being able to teach others the things which she mas learned. The lesson which she taught In the life of Cain and Abel was that in the beginning the two were equal. They were born of the same parents and were both born after the parents had sinned and been driven from the Garden of Eden. They were equal in opportunity, standing side by side. Their lives were spent together, and their early training was the same. yet, when the end came they were as far apart as the poles.
 It was the difference in the two men, and the lessons taught by the lives of the two, as applied to the lives of men and women of today, of which Miss Blodgett spoke. The idea that the character of Cain was unacceptable to God, she said is erroneous. In the of- fering of the sacrifice. one mans char acter was as acceptable to Him as that of the other. It was the offering that God refused from the one and ac- cepted from. the other. lie had told them what he wanted of them. and while Abel did as he was commanded, Cain said in his heart, "I will go my own way"
 Even after God had refused to &C., cept the offering of the fruit Of the land made by Cain, He still gave him a chance to make an acceptable oner- ing. Cain refused. Sne pictured. real istically, the difference between the two men. the one graciously doing the things which God told him to do be- cause he believed that God knew best. and the other going his own way and reaping eternal punishment for his sin
 The three points of difference in the characters of the men and their or ferings, she said, were. first. in the of- fering; second. in Gods attitude to- ward the offering and, third, in the de- velopment of their lives in reference to the offering.
 Abel was a keeper of the fiocks and he brought to God an offering from his flock. Cain was a tiller of the soil and he brought an offering of the fruit of the soil It was not the character of the men, primarily, considered by God, but the things which they onered. Gods holiness rejects anything tainted. No sin can enter with God. No soul without sin has been born In the world since the time of Adam and Eve.
 The great lesson taught in the life of Cain and Abel is that God will ac- cept no offering made to Him that ,s not absolutely perfect ana exactly as He would have 1t. He mas no fellow shin with sin, no commerce with 1t.
 "J will give you a new 4ife," a new eternal life in Christ" That Is Gods own way of salvation for the sinner. He will do not patching. or making over of the old life, but gives new and holy life. Christ. the acceptable offering on the cross. was Gods solu- tion of the problem of salvation. God loves the sinner. and longs to save him. and when He meets him at the cross of Christ His judgment falls on the cross-on his own son-and while the