deemed, restored. Light beamed upon that promise soon as it fell from their Maker's lips; and by it they were raised to hope, expectancy, and, even now, a joy and satisfaction to which even 'mid the bliss of paradise they had heretofore been strangers. They saw in vision Him who in after-day should take their nature, and, in that very nature, serve and suffer -bleed and die. By Him atonement for transgression should be made; by Him redemption come; by Him a re-admission, not to paradise alone, but to a seat upon His throne in heights of highest glory. Hence Eden (though its sun is veiled, and a gloominess overspreads its beauties) becomes the birthplace of Faith and Hope and Love. Love did exist before, but not as now. Then it centred in Jehovah as Creator only, but now as Redeemer also, for already was the glory of that truth unfolding, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John iii. 16). Of Adam's having, by faith, an insight into redemption, there can be no question; for not only had he heard the declaration, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, but a sacrifice had subsequently been made, a victim had been slain; for we read, "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them." There was the nature of justification, or the mode by which Jehovah could be just and yet the Justifier, practically expounded. By blood atonement could be made; by the covering of the victim slain, a righteousness imputed to or counted as that personally of the redeemed. This The faith and hope thus grounded on the Saviour's substitution-His blood and righteousness-supported Adam and the partner of his woes. faith, this hope, dispelled in measure that intensity of gloom and sadness which sin had introduced. The self-same faith and hope animated also each privileged possessor. By the power thereof, they beheld in type and shadow Him who "once in the end of the world" should appear, "to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." CHAPTER V. REDEEMER-THE VEIN OF DIVINE UNFOLDINGS OF MERCY-ABEL'S OFFERING EXPRESSIVE OF WE have considered the circumstances connected with the fall in Eden, and we have seen how even there Adam and his companion in transgression were raised to hope, by the promise of a seed through which they should be saved. Upon that promise was based the loving-kindness and mercy which was treasured up in the heart of Jehovah towards every redeemed sinner. Pity was manifested, and pardon substantially proclaimed, in Eden; but the clearer development and the fuller working out of that Divine pity and compassion was reserved for a somewhat later period. Divine love was opened up to Adam's early offspring, for we read that "the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering." Abel, in contrast to Cain, had a sight of Christ, by the self-same faith with which Adam had been indulged, and which was then, as it is now, the sovereign gift of Jehovah. This was evidenced by his offering of the firstlings of his flock. Here again was a sacrifice, and the early admission of his convictions that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission." Again we read, at the close of the 4th chapter of Genesis, that "men began to call upon the name of the Lord." Of Enoch it is testified, that he "walked with God, and he was not; for God took him." Noah, too, "found grace in the eyes of the Lord;" and he and his family it was whom God preserved, whilst He destroyed the world with the flood. But, great as was the love displayed in all these characters, it was in Abraham the love was so largely and so blessedly opened out. It was not that Abraham was more loved than were the men of whom we have made mention; but concerning them the testimony was comparatively brief. Whilst to some of them at least the love was for most part to be traced in the testimony and the proclamation, in Abraham, so emphatically called "the father of the faithful," as though he were to be to the end of time both a pattern and an example of faith, there was the training and the proof. In him and his eventful career was the opening out of the covenant plan of salvation, as originating in the mercy, love, and grace of Jehovah in His Trinity of Persons. Now all this will be the more clearly seen, if we consider what Abraham was, and whence he came. The first that we hear of him is in the 11th of Genesis and 26th verse, where we read, " And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran." Then again we read that "Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren, she had no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai, his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there." Thus we see that Abraham was not only born in an idolatrous country, and surrounded by idolatry, but was doubtless originally an idolator himself. Abraham, humanly, was not better than other men. He descended from a guilty stock. Sin, when it entered by the disobedience of Adam, contaminated the whole human family. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. v. 12). "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. iii. 23). "There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. iii. 10). Whence was it, then, that there came any change in Abraham? How was it that he left his idolatrous country, and what induced him to separate himself from his own people? The answer is given in the opening of the 12th chapter of Genesis: "Now the |