The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-02-16
DR.. SCUDDER ON
GAIN AND ABEL
An Interesting Sermon on an
Old Testament
Topic.

Text, L. corinthians, I0:4O-' FIRST
That Which is Natural, then that which
is Spiritual.''
The Cain and Abel of our morning
Scripture lesson are types, their names
and story packed with significance.
Either of two derivations lie in the
name of the elder brother-gain, ac-
QUESTION; or spear-that is. ruthless
instrument of blood. hesitatlng at
nothing. Cain is the material man,
what Paul in the second of l. Corinth.
ians called the natural man, the en-
bodiment of achievement, strong, war:
like, aggressive, founder of civiliza-
tions, father of powerful peoples, your
typical men of the world. The Alexan-
ders, Caesars, Napoleons, Rothschilds
Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Harrimans
builders of colossal empires, winners
of battles, wealth getters, engineers of
gigantic combines, manipulators Of
mighty material forces, high priests
at the altar of Success, all the realists
of history are Gains children.
Abel means "breath. - Cain sub
dues the earth. Abel tends sheep. The
elder brother is restless, the younger
meditative. Abel is the thinker. His
descendants are Abraham, Moses, Amos,
Isaiah, jeremiah, Plato, the Apostle
John, Paul, Origen, Savonarola, the Pill
grim Fathers, Carey, the Haystack stu
dents, Lincoln-men who dwell in the
ideal realm, whose conscience lords it
over them, who are laughed at, die I'M
satisfied, and rule the world ages after
they graduate from it. Abel is the
spiritual man, the idealist.
Each of these brothers has his re-
ligion. The old Hebrew prophets who
gave us Genesis knew human nature.
No man without his God.
The typical Gains have been like
Paul's Athenians, very religious. Alex
ander was model worshiper. The
Caesars were pious enough to consent
to be adored as gods, little gods, of
course, for at the same time they serv-
ed as high priests and kept astrologers
to reveal to them the will of the great
gods. Gains religion, however, was
strictly business. Jobs "Though He
Stay me, yet will trust Him. was as
far from Cain s mind as Jesus golden
rule is from the modern believer in
the phrase Cuisines is business,
which means, of course, Cuisines is
war; Mark the syllogism: War is
hell, hence business is hell, which it
usually proves to be to the man who
lets this motto rule his commercial
life. Fortunately the great mass of
men, even though they may cantingly
say Cuisines is business contradict
the heartless phrase in their conduct
a proof that the church holds no
monopoly of cant. But Gains religion
was of the purely Sunday service sort.
Like Jacobs, it was governed by the
rules of trade. So much sacrifice, SO
much blessing; so much time and
| money, so much heaven is the modern
| translation. 1t was an external af
| fair. Heart, mind, soul, strength
which Jesus commanded, had no place
| in it. Behold a modern counterpart
a wealthy American, head of a great
combination, some years ago planted
his magnificent stone church within
one hundred yards of another eccles
iastical poem in granite, both of the
same denomination, determined to hes
his rival just as he would a commercial
competitor. They began to hear can
didates, and one Sunday the clergy
man applied Jesus teaching to pres
ent day business problems. ''Fin'
preacher said this ruler in Zion; "bu
he II never do for US. Too much of
socialist There your twentieth
century Cain. Like Peter, before Satal
sifted him, he is forever asking, "Lo
we have left all and followed thee
what then shall we have?''-the relig
ion of the bargain counter. The Hebrey
prophet wrote the eternal estimate o
all such Worship But unto Cain an
to his sacrifice Jehovah had not re
spect."
Abel's faith was honest. When b