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the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden."

I am well aware that the above account of the entrance of sin into the world by the agency of the serpent, has been ridiculed by infidel scepticks they laugh at the idea of the serpent speaking; but if parrots, jackdaws, &c. can be made subservient to the cunning of man, to speak his language, why should it be thought impossible for Satan to make use of the serpent for the same purpose? But let them raise any quibble they will against the above account of the origin of evil, or of Satanic influence, yet the existence of evil they cannot deny, because it meets them at every step they take. But they attempt to shew that it has originated from a false system of education: do away, they say, with that-instil into people's minds right principles-make them to well understand their relationship to each other, and the necessity of mutual co-operation-and social harmony will be sure to follow. But I wish them to show me, if they can, when the false system of education commenced; I want to know the precise time, because in every history that I have read, I have perceived that evil always existed: and if it sprang out of a false system of education, I ask them, Who educated the first man? and then I will ask, if they are certain that their notion of the matter is right, how comes it to pass that themselves are so imperfect-how is it that they who profess to have so much philosophical light do, for the major part, prove such curses to society? It is because sin is born with them.

But the sceptick will ask, Is it reasonable to suppose that the Almighty would pass such a heavy sentence on man, for merely eating of a little fruit? To which I answer, man being created a free agent, it was requisite that a law should be given to him, as a test of his allegiance to his Creator; and it matters not how simple that law was under which our first parents were placed, for the simpler it was, the easier complied with; and it was a law just suitable to their condition; and however trivial their act of disobedience may appear, it was a most daring act of presumption, and wicked rebellion, which opened the way for every other sin to enter; for, until that wilful and wicked act, they only knew good, and dwelt in delightful harmony with their Maker, endowed with every glorious faculty requisite to constitute them like him, and had all things under their dominion; but as soon as they presumed to break the royal law of their Maker, immediately was their perfect happiness destroyed, the knowledge of evil entered, and with that, sorrow, murder, blasphemy, and all the train of hellish passions which have in all ages blackened the history of mankind the whole catalogue of which may be summed up in the one word, death: for, as the word life implies union to God, "whom to know is eternal life," so the word death implies separation from God, a scene of dismal woe, blackness, and despair a bottomless pit in which, if God prevent not, a man keeps sinking deeper and deeper into a state of depravity (consequently further from God) until he becomes perfectly imbued with the nature of demons: whereas life implies a going on from righteousness to holiness—

a continual ascending, until we rise perfectly into the nature of God, which, according to the 4th chap. 1st Epis. John 15 v., is love" God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Therefore, when our first parents, through listening to the voice of the tempter, partook of the forbidden fruit, they, by that act, fell from God their centre, and they, who just before were all true love and perfection" were naked and were not ashamed" then became such hideous monsters to each other, that shame and confusion overwhelmed them, and forced them to make fig-leaf aprons to cover their nakedness.* Thus were they incapacitated to enjoy communion with their Maker.

A sense of sin is sure to fill the mind with terror and drive the soul from God, and until he reveals his pardoning love to the soul again, it cannot hold joyful communion with him" There is no peace saith my God to the wicked:" and so they found it, and tried to hide themselves behind the trees of the garden. But he called out, (v. 9,) "Adam, where art thou?" Alas, poor Adam! he had fallen into a state of reprobation, and sneakingly came forth from his fancied hiding place, and said, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." But, blessed be God, he had still a purpose of mercy towards Adam and his guilty partner, and called them forth to tell them of a better hiding-place, even salvation through the

It has been generally conjectured that the forbidden fruit was apples, but, as they sewed fig-leaves together for aprons, why may it not be as reasonably supposed that it was figs.

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promised seed. But they anticipated nothing but execution; therefore they hid themselves because they were naked. "Who told thee that thou wert naked?" their Maker asked- hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the woman which thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."

Thus sin caused Adam to criminate his wife, between whom and himself nothing but pure love had hitherto existed-" The man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Here was dissimulation. O, how does sin destroy natural affection? Adam, to screen himself, dissimulatingly tried to cast all the blame upon his wife; for, in the sixth verse, it reads thus-" She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat." Thus it appears that he was with her, or stood by, when she plucked the fruit-therefore was equally guilty with her, who, to palliate her crime, laid it to the serpent, upon whom the curse was first pronounced.

THE CURSE PRONOUNCED.

Verse 14. "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly thou shalt go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life."

By what means the serpent travelled before the

curse I cannot pretend to say, nor upon what it subsisted; but it is well known now that the serpent goes upon his belly, therefore grovels in the dust; consequently dust is part of his portion; and the text does not say that it was to be his sole subsistence, but, "dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

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In the curse upon the serpent is evidently set forth the conflict betwixt the seed of Satan (symbolized by the serpent) and the holy seed of promise, Christ, which should in the fulness of time be born of a woman; He who should bruise the head of the serpent, or Satan, that is, should destroy his kingdom, and abolish death, the very essence of his kingdom of darkness, 1 Cor. xv. 25, 26, For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." So will he bruise the serpent's head: but the serpent should only "bruise his heel" that is, he should be permitted to afflict and persecute the promised seed, and all his members. But, although he should have power to harrass them, yet it is only the mortal part of Christ's members that Satan is permitted to destroy he was permitted to smite poor Job with boils, but he must not touch his life-no, he is a chained enemy. Thus he was permitted, by his infernal craft, so to debauch the will and understanding of a portion of the human race, that, in their hellish rage, they sought to destroy the Lord of life and glory. But he was not to be holden of death; it was only his heel, his mortal,