nature, as essentially a Divine process. Now, when despite the evident differences presented by light, heat, sound-as quantitative phenomena; they were, by a triumph of analysis, identified under one common form-undulation; it was a beautiful greeting of the spirit: so when Moses laid aside idolatry, gave up nature worship, identified all things as possessing Divinity in their origin and progress, there was that triumph of genius, that greeting of the spirit, which devout men and scientific men are alike bound to revere. Undulations, however manipulated, will only yield undulations: nevertheless, out of things with limited and peculiar range are brought those varied aspects of existence and real existences which are impossible to uniformity, and are irreducible to one another. For example-our notion of light can never be resolved into that of heat, nor into that of sound, though all three are reducible to undulations. Noises are the irregular mingling of vibrations, and tones are that regular recurrence of vibrations out of which music is constructed: so, between heat and light, as undulations of æther, there is only quantitative difference; nevertheless æther, of luminous rapidity, beats in vain on the skin-nerves-no light is felt or seen; nor do transverse vibrations, of whatever rapidity, produce heat through the retina. Hence, essential differences grow out of original unity, and as this is impossible, for things equal in themselves are equal to one another, something must come in from without. Behind this complexity of visible and invisible facts is the whole universe; nor is any explanation possible without that greeting of the spirit, scen in the genius and piety of Moses, by which we are conscious. that there is the Weaver's side of the tapestry. All flesh is not the same flesh, nor all life the same life, beasts are not low men, nor are their sensations capable of being prolonged into human intelligence and emotion. Man, then, being man by God's creative energy acting according to law upon matter, fashioning it into life, and inspiring it with spirit, is that Adam, the tree of humanity of whom we are branches; is that living soul by whose soul our souls are kindled, as light at a light. Was this man the first man? We may argue, indeed it is seriously maintained by some that D, Adam, is the word for Adamites;, man is the word for men, mankind, not Adamites. This will not hold as establishing two races: for Adam uses the feminine of the latter for Eve (Gen. iii. 16); and Eve uses, man, -"I have gotten a man" (Gen. iv. 1)—in speaking of Cain, her first born. The two words are often used in contrast (Ps. xlix. 1, 2; lxii. 9; Is. ii. 9; v. 15), but never as of separate races. "The daughters of men" (Gen. vi. 2) were certainly daughters of Adam, not of a savage pre-Adamite race. On the other hand, "the sons of God" cannot be children of brutal ancestry; for such to marry Adam's daughters would be an elevation, but God's anger was moved at it as a degradation. We are shut up to one of these conclusions: either the pious sons of Adam married the daughters of Cain, the murderer; or, in some mysterious way, there was unholy communion by Angels-this latter interpretation, which some considered to be favoured by Jude 6, is universally given up. The following has been asserted with some confidenceCain, having done a dark deed, was not slain, but branded for preservation and execration. He went forth, married, and built a city. A city required men to build it, and his going forth to be a fugitive and vagabond among men who might kill him, seems to show that there were other people, and that from them he took a wife. If it were so, we answer "The shrewd Contriver, who first sweated at the forge, And forced the blunt and yet unblooded steel had not a pleasant pedigree in murderous father, and mother who was but little removed from the brute: but to reply soberly-Cain married a sister, as is admitted, of Seth. The building of a city would be of lowly beginning-of one hut, cottage, or house; great gaps in the Scripture record are acknowledged; and the children of Cain called the city by his name. If any race, moreover, could be proved of brute ancestry, say the Negro, there would be an argument for slavery founded on natural and essential inferiority; for the fact of God making men of "one blood" does not prove that all mankind is descended from one pair of ancestors; but may be taken to mean that there is one flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. (1 Cor. xv. 39.) This, however, cannot be proved, the argument falls to the ground when we consider the whole force of the statement, we are all the offspring of God. (Acts xvii. 26-28.) The unity of men is further evidenced by death and redemption,—" In Adam all die, in Christ all are made alive." (Rom. v. 12-14; 1 Cor. xv. 22, 49.) If there are other men than the Adamite, not having his image, they have not his redemption, nor any heavenly image. To say that the Mongol and Negro partake of redemption, just as four-footed beasts, and wild beasts, and creeping things were presented to Peter (Acts x. 11-15), is to misconceive the whole thing. The Mongol and Negro, if pre-Adamite, did not sin in Adam, are not of his race, nor possessors of the blessing of redemption. We conclude, that the Adam of Scripture was the first man; and admitting, on Scriptural and scientific grounds, that the human frame is that structure which crowned the long process of organic life on the earth, firmly maintain that the first man, Adam, not only manifested a great and marked difference and improvement in structure, excelling all other creatures, but, in the essence of his nature, in personal consciousness, intellect, and emotion, excelled them in a degree that is immeasurable and practically infinite. That which so differenced him from the animal, which the science of physics cannot hope to detect, barely hope to conjecture, was a spirit uniting the fleshly organism and the rational animal life into an immortal personality. In connection with this personality appeared an evil of most appalling character-Sin. Sin is a wilful violation of law; is an act or a course of conduct voluntarily pursued to the damage of physical or moral completeness of life. Law is disclosed in every throb of the mighty rhythmic life of the universe, law is implicated in every action of our life, obedience to it is our only guarantee of purity and happiness. Man, in pure personality, had God's love; and his own love to God, occupying will thought and feeling, determined the sanctity of his whole being. By entrance of sin that personality became impure, and Death Prior to Adam. 293 unity with God was dissolved; for evil will made Divine will appear loveless. We cannot fully understand this; there is some great secret reserved to be made known hereafter to holy men ; but we know that the effect of lawlessness was to raise strife in the soul, so that the spirit and flesh became contrary (Gal. v. 7)-strife issuing in death of the spirit by separation from God. We must not forget that death reigned in the world before Adam either lived or sinned. From the very earliest times our earth has been an arena of strife; hence we are led to think that evil originated in a preceding existence and amongst other beings. "The opening chapters of Genesis unquestionably set us down, not at the earliest but in a subsequent the middle-stage of the mighty action, which it is the purpose of Scripture to unroll. Far away in the unfathomed depths of the earliest times, and pre-hexameral period, lies the beginning of the story; far onward in the future lies its consummation; indeed, in some sense, that is, if we regard the design and the result, the narrative stretches from one eternity to another." This complexity and continuance-affecting body and soul, and contaminating with guilt-shroud Adam's death with mysterious horrors of woeful anticipation, and make it a death which had not previously existed—a death entering by sin. (Rom. v. 12.) It is natural for us to wonder that even one wail of sorrow should mingle with the wide chorus of thanksgiving to God; and when we contemplate the past horrors desolating every land, and the possible future unimaginable eternal anguish to be endured by rebels against the Almighty, our amazement becomes an awful dread of some dire reality and calamity which even Infinite love, Divine wisdom and almightiness may not be able to prevent without violating the purity of moral government. We can conceive that Omniscience may have foreseen that the gift of freedom would render it impossible for the whole universe of spirits to be preserved. So far as man is concerned, we can also see that linking the inevitable danger with a type to show its reality and the unreasonable folly of transgression; and the giving a simple, 1 "Science and Scripture:" Rev. Philip Freeman. earnest warning, joined with dread penalty, would be the best and only restrictions which purely moral rule could allow. Our feeble nature moreover can form a true conception of Omnipotence in creation, of wisdom in Providence, of love in redemption. By Creation, God calls into existence all the worlds, -occupying them with manifold forms of beauty, and giving them for abodes to living creatures,-small as a point of matter, grand as a seraph before the Throne. By Providence the world of matter is subjected to the physical law of God, and the world of spirit or intelligence to the moral order of God, spreading the profusion of Divine bounty, and executing Divine decrees. By Redemption is supplied guidance for the erring, strength for the weak, moral suasion, motives, spiritpower, pardon for the sinner; that every fallen being who wills it may be rescued from degradation and elevated to life and honour. Thus, in some degree, we realise that freedom of the creature may involve the possibility and thereby an actuality of evil, which even the Supreme may not be able to prevent, except by departure from the principle of moral rule. Evil is so intense, that sometimes we would that it be put an end to at once. We say,-"Let present misery and future anguish in no wise be permitted." We must not be rash in decision. The malignant influences, painfully felt by us, and our spiritual dangers, "as tenants of this haunted planet," we may be sure, tend to some good end. They are so wrought into the physical and moral plan of the universe that they cannot be regarded as a surprise on the Almighty, or as an unforeseen calamity. The mighty tempter of man, whom we believe to be a subtle, fallen archangel, manifested by that temptation, how great a degradation had come upon him by wickedness. That archangel chose evil for his good; the fact of choice proves freedom, brings in responsibility, and casts out necessity; even as freedom in its very essence includes power of choice, and thereby capacity to bring in evil. Man possesses powers of the same nature, but less in degree. If we set before us the essential contrast of light and darkness, of good and evil; that good becomes a higher good by trial, and evil a greater evil by refusal of good; that truth must be manifested as separate from a |