take about it. A companion said there could be no harm in it. He led the way, and did it more than half himself. It never would have been thought of, if the temptation had not been presented.

Just so Adam and Eve began to make excuses, when God called them out from their hiding place, and they came and stood trembling before him.

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Hast thou eaten," said he to Adam, "of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?"

"The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." This was Adam's reply. He was unwilling frankly and humbly to confess his guilt. He was ready, if possible, to make some excuse for it. He tried to throw the blame on Eve; as if he could not avoid doing as she urged him to do, and could not refuse to accept the forbidden fruit from her hand.

God then inquired of Eve; "what is this that thou hast done?"-She too was ready

with an excuse.

me," or told me

"The serpent beguiled pleasant and deceitful

things about the fruit, which led me, almost

without thinking of what I did, to pluck it, " and I did eat."

O! how much better it would have been for both to have cast themselves at the feet. of their heavenly Father, and, in the deepest self-abasement, with a heart-felt sorrow for their sin, to have confessed it, and besought his forgiveness.

And so it is now. If you try, as Adam and Eve did, to find out excuses for the sins which you have committed against God, it will only make it all so much the worse. Your heart will grow harder in sin. You will begin to think less of the evil of sin. You will regard less and less the danger and guilt of sin. You will keep on sinning, wandering farther and farther from God, increasing his displeasure against you, and making the punishment for your sins greater and greater.

But if you confess your sins to God, and feel truly sorry for them, and trust in Jesus Christ, God has promised to forgive your sins. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

How sad must have been the anxious sus

pense of Adam and Eve, as they stood still, trembling before their offended Maker, waiting to know what would be the result of their disobedience. Thus they stood till the malicious being who tempted them, had first received the sentence to be passed upon him.

The curse of God was denounced against him. You can read it in the third chapter of Genesis. One part of it is full of interest to you, and me, and all mankind ;-The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.

By the seed of the woman is one of the descendants of Eve.

meant some

She was to have children, and these again would have children, and these again would have children, and so on. All these would be the descendants of Eve, or her seed. Now God declared that one of these descendants should bruise the head of the serpent.

Poisonous snakes, you know, are sometimes found in the fields and roads, and the men and boys who see them, often take a large stick, or stone and beat them on the head till they are killed.

Now as Satan had taken the form of a ser

pent when he tempted Eve,-to bruise the head of that serpent would mean, to bruise the head of Satan,-that is, to weaken and destroy his power, so that he could do no more harm. For you know Satan has done, and is still doing a great deal of evil in the world. In some way which we cannot understand, God has permitted him to tempt many persons to sin, as he did Eve. You must remember, however, that this is no more an excuse for their sinning than it was for hers. God will give every one who looks to him for it in sincere prayer, and with faith in Christ-strength to resist Satan and to overcome all his temptations.

From among the descendants of Eve, a person would appear who should weaken, and finally destroy the power of Satan. And that person has come. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As a man, he is one of the descendants of Eve. Mary, you know, was his mother. And if you go back to her father and mother, and to their father and mother, and so on, you will at last get back to Eve-the mother, as she is called, of all mankind. It was four thousand years before Christ was born, when

God pronounced the curse upon Satan in Eden, and declared that the seed of the woman should bruise his head. This has wonderfully come to pass.

Satan has been trying, ever since he tempted Eve, to lead men to become the enemies of God; and those who listen to his temptations, and are wicked like him, the Bible calls his children.

Jesus Christ came into the world to lead men to love God, and to love each other-to obey God, and do each other good. Satan, therefore, hates and opposes Christ. But Christ is almighty. He has already bruised the serpent's head. He has greatly weakened, and he will at last utterly destroy the power of Satan.

While on earth, you remember how he overcame the temptations of Satan, and how he cast out devils, and gave his disciples power to cast them out. He once said that he saw "Satan as lightning fall from heaven;" probably meaning by this that the time had come for the great downfall of Satan's power to do evil.

The Bible tells us, that it was thus to destroy the power of Satan that Christ came