round the stone, one after another, and extending themselves as the first did?

Just so a wicked feeling increases, and brings on other wicked feelings, growing all of them, larger and larger, and worse and worse. Envy in Cain's breast led to anger; anger to hatred; hatred to malice; and malice to murder.

Strive against the beginning of wrong feelings. Think of the stone thrown into the pond. Remember what envy in Cain, led to. Fear to what your wrong feelings may lead. Above all, look up to God directly, and beseech him to give you his Holy Spirit to enable you to banish all such wrong feelings from your mind, and all wicked thoughts, too, and to have only those which are good and right.

STORY VII.

THE FIRST MURDERER'S PUNISHMENT.

Cain was hoping to escape detection. How he must have been startled and terrified, in an unexpected moment, to hear this

inquiry falling upon his ear, from the awful voice of God,

"Where is Abel, thy brother?"

He dared to reply; "I know not: am I my brother's keeper?”

Have I the care of my brother, to go with him and keep him out of danger? Abel is his own keeper. How should I know where he is, or what he is doing?"

Those who commit sins which they are afraid of having known, are almost always ready to lie in order to conceal them.

One sin leads on to another. The circles in the water are increasing. Cain was envious; angry; malicious ;-a murderer ;—and now he is a liar, and dares to tell a bold and shameful falsehood to the omniscient God! What must have been his consternation to have been overwhelmed with this tre

mendous reply!

"What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."--As if the very blood of poor, murdered Abel, which had stained the ground where he was killed, had a voice, and could cry aloud to God to punish such a horrible deed of wickedness.

His

Cain was dumb with amazement. murder was known to God. His lie was worse than useless. It had only added to his guilt. Trembling before his offended Maker, he stood, a miserable wretch to await the punishment due to his crime. For he had nothing to say in excuse or extenuation. And he had nothing to hope for, from the mercy of God. That mercy he had not sought by penitence and prayer. What of true sorrow for sin was there in his breast, who could defy the omniscient God with a daring falsehood? This was his awful sentence.

"And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be on the earth."

This curse of God,-the abiding upon him of the terrible displeasure of the Almighty. -must have sounded dreadfully in his ears. Wherever he went, the very earth beneath his feet was to show him this displeasure of God. He might dig it, and plant seeds in it, as he had done before, but it would be all barren and unproductive to him. Nothing

would take root, and spring up, and grow under his cultivation. As if the very touch of his murderous hand would blast and destroy the fertility of the soil, and make every thing desolate around him.

He was to be a fugitive,-to flee in great dread from his home and friends; fearful of seeing them and of meeting their reproaches, and, perhaps, of suffering the vengeance which their indignation at his crime might lead them to inflict.

He was to be a vagabond,-to wander, and wander from one place to another, having no home; dreaded and detested by every body; friendless and forsaken; restless and miserable; his murdered brother ever before his eyes;-his soul tortured with remorse; and dreading the still more terrible marks of God's displeasure in a future world!

rors.

The thoughts of such dreariness, disgrace, and suffering filled his breast with new terStill he showed no penitence for his guilt, nor that he felt that he deserved the sentence which had just been pronounced against him. In the agony of his soul, he broke out into this exclamation.

"My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me."

He was miserably afraid that some one would take his life; while he had felt no compassion for defenceless and unoffending Abel, but, with ferocious cruelty, like a savage beast of prey, had imbrued his hands in a brother's blood.

Base and cowardly wretch! But such is the meanness and inconsistency of sin; unfeeling towards others; selfish and fearful when itself is to lose any thing, or be exposed to danger. How important the rule which God has given us: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.-Alas! who can say that he faithfully and uniformly obeys it!-How often do you break it?

But it was not the intention of God, that the life of Cain should be in danger. He meant that he should live, to endure his punishment, and to let others see the terrible displeasure of God against such wickedness.