Mary. He promised him acceptance on doing well, and that he would still have the rights of the first-born. And if he failed of these rights, sin was the cause-the only thing in his way.

Olympas. How did this controversy end, Susan ?

Susan. Cain killed his brother when they were in the field. But the Lord called him to an account for it, and pronounced a curse upon the very ground that had received the blood of the good Abel.

Olympas. He cursed Cain also; but on his suing for mercy God gave him a sign or pledge that he should not be killed by the hand of violence; for so means the mark here spoken of. It is a sign, token, or pledge, and not a particular mark on his person. Observe that the first death grew out of religious pride and jealousy. Cain was a persecutor-Abel was a martyr. He died in faith. The first death of an animal was a sinoffering a covering from guilt. The first man that suffered death was a martyr to the faith in sin offering; and the first Deist was a murderer. Do you recollect, Reuben, any thing that John says on this subject?

Reuben. He asks why did Cain kill Abel? and responds, "Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.'

Olympas. Wicked men sometimes, like Cain, thank God for health, peace, and competence; but they have not that faith in sacrifice which "works by love and purifies the heart.”

Reuben. Would you please inform us why you call Abel's offering a sacrifice?

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Olympas. Paul says, "by faith he offered more sacrifice than Cain." I shall interrogate you at our next reading on faith; and especially on the faith of Abel. Meanwhile, what came of Cain after this time?

Reuben. He went into the land of Nod, married a wife, founded a city, and named it for his son. Olympas. Where did he find his wife?

Reuben. You told us that independent of Cain and Abel, at the time of the birth of Seth, allowing the other children of Adam to have been married at the age of twenty, and to have only doubled every twenty-five years, there would have been when Seth was born, and at the time of Cain's departure to Nod, (or the place of the vagabond, as the word indicates,) at least thirty-three thousand souls. Amongst these Cain certainly might have found a wife.

Olympas. And what, Thomas Dilworth, were the fortunes of Cain's family?

Thomas. They appear to have been an enterprizing people. Cain founded a city, and gave birth to a numerous family. Indeed the most useful inventions and social improvements were introduced by Cain's descendants.

Olympas. Tell me, Susan, who was it invented tents for graziers and the keeping of travelling herds?

Susan. Jabal, the son of Lamech. He was "the father of all that dwell in tents and keep cattle."

Olympas. And who, Edward, invented harps and organs?

Edward. Jubal, the brother of Jabal. He was

a lover of music; and skilled in playing on in struments, one would think, when he invented both stringed instruments and wind instruments. Olympas. Were any other of Cain's posterity famous for useful arts, Elizabeth?

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Elizabeth. Yes: Tubal-cain was "an instructer every artificer in brass and iron."

Olympas. Hence we may learn that men of the world are more apt to be enterprizing men in all temporal affairs than the sons of God. They are more devoted to such improvements as pertain to this life, because it is to them the only life of which they have any idea, and for which they have any relish. You must not therefore conclude when you hear persons praised for their enterprize and ingenuity, that such are at all either rational or exemplary characters, unless their enterprize be for the promotion of the spiritual and eternal happiness of men. Cain and his sons down to the first polygamist Lamech, the father of these great inventors, sought stimulus to their minds from worldly pursuits, because they had it not in religion. The other branch of the Adamic family was renouned for piety, and this for carnality and worldly prudence.

CONVERSATION IV.

HAVING read a second time the fourth chapter of Genesis, Olympas proceeded to ask general questions on some points slightly touched in past

conversations.

Olympas. I promised, this morning, to interrogate some of the elder members of my household on faith at this lesson. I hope you have all been thinking of it to-day. Tell me, Thomas, the sum of our winter lesson on faith.

Thomas. You have frequently taught us to discriminate between the definition of a word and the description of a thing. The word faith means belief of testimony, or the persuasion that a report is true. It therefore implies four things:-One that reports the hearing of the report the understanding of the report-and the assenting to it as true. If it be assented to, the report is believed if it be not assented to, it is either doubted or disbelieved; for you say that there are but three states of mind concerning any report.

Olympas. True: every report appears to us true, untrue, or doubtful. When it appears true, it is believed; when it appears untrue, it is disbelieved; when it appears neither true nor untrue, it is doubted. You say faith implies four things: A reporter, or a witness-hearing-understand ing -and assurance. Can you refer to the Scripture, Edward, that so represents the subject?

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Edward. Paul to the Romans says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." But how do you make four things out of this brief account of the matter? The word of God" is the testimony; for if he did not speak we could not hear. That hearing comes by speaking is as certain as that faith comes by hearing. If no one speaks, nothing can be heard, if nothing be heard, nothing can be understood; if nothing be understood, nothing can be believed. God speaks the ear hears the soul perceives-the heart believes. So that a voice, an ear, an understanding, and a heart, are all essential to the faith that saves the soul.

Olympas. But is there not something peculiar to saving faith, contradistinguishing it from every other faith? Tell me, Thomas, what that is?

Thomas. I remember only this difference, that God must always either speak the saving truth himself, or sanction those who speak it.

Olympas. You mean, then, that saving faith is the belief of saving truth for it is not the believing, but the thing believed, that saves the soul, purifies the heart, and overcomes the world.

Thomas. Yes, sir; the power of believing, is as much in the belief or things believed, as the power of seeing is in the sight, or of eating in the food. It is neither eating nor drinking that sustains life, but the things eaten and drank. So it is not believing, but the thing or truth believed that saves the soul.

Olympas. Saving faith is therefore the belief of saving truth. Now as God alone can speak, propound, or inspire saving truth, the faith that