Year: 1871

inquired of him "who was Cain
| wife Z" Mr.. Beecher says:


/ There is no record OF Gains court


ship Or wedding. However interest


ing TO the parties themselves, it is o


no interest to us except on the sup


position that the account OF Genesi


of tho creation OF Adam was de


signed to exclude the suppositlon TIM


any other people had been created


If Adam and Eve were the chic


proganitors of the race, then Cali
land Able, 1t is inferred, must have


married their own sisters---a eohhec


tion which is shocking to the sensi


bilities of the whole race, at a subse


quent stage of development Bu,


many Of tho Fathers of the Chnrel


denied that Adam and Eve and theil


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 alledge that


verse IA, of chapter 4, of Genesis,
plainly implies that the Garth was
already widely populated. For, God
declared that Cain should be driven
out from his family, and made a
vagabond in the earth. Cain de-
precated the sentence, and replied
that "every one that findeth shall
slay me-" 1t is plainly not his family
connections that be feared, for he
desired not to be driven forth from
them. It was the people that he
should meet when a wanderer on
the face of the earth.


Who, then, were the people whom
Cain feared to meet when he should
have gone forth into the earth IL
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 on earth
except your fathers children. In
stead of that the Lord is represented
as falling in with Gains impression
respecting the population IF the
world and that ho set mark upon
Cain, Lest any finding him should
kill him. (Gen. iv. 25.) Still further
it is said that Cain, separating from
his kindred, went to the land Of Nod,
east of Edom, "and he builded a city
after the name of his son Enoch."
The fathers very pertinently asked
where did the people como iiom ?
That would be an extraordinary state
of things which should enable Cain
to ill up city, however small, with
his children! And it is inferred
therefore, that there were other peo-
pie in the land besides the immediate
posterity of Adam.


If Adam was the only progenitor,
Cain must have m arried his sister.
If there were other lines of people,
other Adams as it were, then Cain
might have married into another
stock.


We do not express any Judgment
in the matter. We give our CORES
pondent the opinions that have been
held in the early days OF the church,
but with the statement that all
modern Christian writers have rejec-
ted them.


But as the origin of races has in
our day assumed an important
scientific development, as very many
able scientists held to a variety OF
original stock, it is interesting to
know that those views have been
held before, and upon supposed bibli-
cal grounds. But are there no more
questions about Cain? Does no one
wish to know his wife's name? Does
no one wish to know what the Lord
affixed to Cam ? Does no one wish |
10 know how Cain died Questions
must be scarce to leave such points |
If Cain is To be raised, he |
surely ought TO be thoroughly dealt
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