The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-09-29
THE CASE or CANA COMPARE
SON

tation and her disobedience, the first
crime committed in the worlds an
nails was that of murder-the black
est in the catalogue. 1t was commit
ted by the first man born into the
world. This man, occupying this ex-
allied place in history, we are told IN
the ceptuagint, brewed his hands in
his brothers blood.
There were then no judges and no
juries. Courts were not yet organic
ed. God personally directed human
affairs. For their disobedience he
drove our first parents from the Gar
den of Eden out into barren wilder
ness.
The evidence against Cain was
purely circumstantial There were in
those times no real nor suppositious
bearded men with guns in their hands
on whom to shift the crime.
The supposition is that Cain killed
Abel with a stone, and after killing
him dug a hole and buried him in the
earth. AS no one was in the imme-
date vicinity, and he was unobserved
by any human eye, he thought thus
to hide all evidence of his guilt. But
like the tell-tale spots so raved about
by Macbeth, the stains on his hands
would not out.
When God questioned Cain as to
Abel's whereabouts, he answered:
Lord, I know not; am 1 my broth
er's KEEPER
Then the Lord said, so runs the
text: What hast thou done? The
voice of thy brothers blood calleth
unto me from the ground"
The text tells us that Cain was
wroth with Abel because Abel's offer
ing, more than his own, was accepta-
BILE to God.
Gains offering was the fruit of the
ground and Abel's the first fruitling
of his flock.
Learned theologians and commenta-
tors argue that those offerings were
only symbolical-that they had other
meanings than those given by the
translators That the Hebrew word,
minchah, meant an offering of fine
flour, together with oil and franklin
cense That it was gratitude Of
fering and testified Gains belief in
God as the Lord of the universe, and
the dispenser of secular blessings.
That Abel also brought a minchah,
or gratitude offering, and also sacri-
feed the firstling of his flock, &C.
knowledging himself thereby a sinner
and a profession of faith in the prom
ised Messiah. 1t is figure or repre-
sentation of the Lamb of God that
was to take away the sin of the
world, while Gains was merely an
Offering recognizing God as the dis
penser of secular gifts and blessings.
According to this Interpretation,
Cain is put down as the father of
Deism, not acknowledging the neces-
sity of a vicarious sacrifice, nor feel
ing in need of an atonement, so the
dispute between the brothers arose
over a religious discussion, which
ended in anger and murder.
DR.. Adam Clark quotes from the
Jerusalem Targum and the Targum
of Jonathan ben Uzziel the supposed
conversation between the two broth
ers, giving both sides of the dispute
and opposing religious dogmas.
Commenting on the same, DR.. Clark
says:
cit is here supposed that the first
murder committed in the world was
| the consequence of a religious dis
pute; however this may have been,
millions since have been sacrificed to
prejudice, bigotry and intolerance"
He says that every religious perse-
cutor is a legitimate son of the old
murderer
But whether it be true or not that
the offerings of Cain and Abel were
symbolical, that a religious belief
were behind them, and on account Of
which a quarrel ensued, which ended
in Cain killing his brother, it is true
that God sat in Judgment upon the
act; that the evidence, though entire
ly circumstantial, was Overwhelming,
yet God did not render a verdict of
death upon the culprit.
He put mark upon him, spared his
life, and permitted him to go.
For adhering to this precedent that
God himself established the editor of
this paper has been roundly berated
because he said that if he had been
on the jury in the Beattie case that
he would have given the young man
the benefit of the doubt that arose
in the trial of the case. That the ev-
idence was purely eircumstantial;
that the chain was not complete, and