After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years. Genesis 5:22.

Enoch learned from the lips of Adam the painful story of the fall and the precious story of God’s condescending grace in the gift of His Son as the world’s Redeemer. He believed and relied upon the promise given. Enoch was a holy man. He served God with singleness of heart. He realized the corruptions of the human family and separated himself from the descendants of Cain and reproved them for their great wickedness. There were those upon the earth who acknowledged God, who feared and worshipped Him. Yet righteous Enoch was so distressed with the increasing wickedness of the ungodly that he would not daily associate with them, fearing that he should be affected by their infidelity and that he might not ever regard God with that holy reverence which was due His exalted character. His soul was vexed as he daily beheld them trampling upon the authority of God. He chose to be separate from them and spent much of his time in solitude, giving himself to reflection and prayer. He waited before God and prayed to know His will more perfectly, that he might perform it. God communed with Enoch through His angels and gave him divine instruction. He made known to him that He would not always bear with human beings in their rebellion—that it was His purpose to destroy the sinful race by bringing a flood of waters upon the earth.

The beautiful Garden of Eden, from which our first parents had been driven, remained until God determined to destroy the earth by a flood. The Lord had planted that garden and especially blessed it, and in His wonderful providence He withdrew it from the earth and will return it again, more gloriously adorned than before it was removed. God purposed to preserve a specimen of His perfect work of creation free from the curse which sin had brought upon the earth….

Enoch continued to grow more heavenly while communing with God. His face was radiant with a holy light…. The Lord loved Enoch, because he steadfastly followed Him…. He yearned to unite himself still more closely to God, whom he feared, reverenced, and adored. The Lord would not permit Enoch to die like others, but sent His angels to take him to heaven without seeing death. In the presence of the righteous and the wicked, Enoch was removed from them.—Signs of the Times, February 20, 1879.

From From the Heart

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22.

“I will put enmity … between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

This was the first gospel sermon ever preached to sinners; this promise was the star of hope, illuminating the dark and dismal future of the race. Adam gladly received the welcome assurance of deliverance and diligently instructed his children in the way of the Lord. This promise was presented in close connection with the altar of sacrificial offerings. The altar and the promise stand side by side, and one casts clear beams of light upon the other, showing that the justice of an offended God could be appeased only by the death of His beloved Son….

Abel heard these precious lessons, and to him they were like seed sown on good ground. Cain also heard them. He had the same privileges as his brother, but he did not improve them. He ventured to go contrary to the commands of God, and the result is strongly presented before us. Cain was not the victim of an arbitrary purpose; one was not elected to be chosen of God, and the other to be rejected. The whole matter rested upon doing or not doing as God had said.

In the case of Cain and Abel we have a type of two classes that will exist in the world till the close of time; and this type is worthy of close study. There is a marked difference in the characters of these two brothers, and the same difference is seen in the human family today. Cain represents those who carry out the principles and works of Satan, by worshipping God in a way of their own choosing. Like the leader whom they follow, they are willing to render partial obedience but not entire submission to God….

The Cain class of worshippers includes by far the largest number, for every false religion that has been invented has been based on the Cain principle, that a sinner can depend upon his own merits and righteousness for salvation….

The religion of Christ is for men and women to accept with all its inconveniences. They may invent an easier way, but it will not lead to the city of God, the saints’ secure abode. Only those who “do his commandments” will have “right to the tree of life” and “enter in through the gates into the city.”—The Signs of the Times, December 23, 1886.

From From the Heart

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. Hebrews 11:4.

These two brothers, Cain and Abel, represent the whole human family. They were both tested on the point of obedience, and all will be tested as they were. Abel bore the proving of God. He revealed the gold of a righteous character, the principles of true godliness. But Cain’s religion had not a good foundation; it rested on human merit. He brought to God something in which he had a personal interest—the fruits of the ground, which had been cultivated by his toil; and he presented his offering as a favor done to God through which he expected to secure the divine approval. He obeyed in building an altar, obeyed in bringing a sacrifice, but it was only a partial obedience. The essential part, the recognition of the need of a Redeemer, was left out….

Both were sinners, and both acknowledged the claims of God as an object of worship. To all outward appearance, their religion was the same up to a certain point of time; but the Bible history shows us that there was a time when the difference between the two became very great. This difference lay in the obedience of one and the disobedience of the other.

The apostle says that Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Abel grasped the great principles of redemption. He saw himself a sinner, and he saw sin and its penalty, death, standing between his soul and communion with God. He brought the slain victim, the sacrificed life, thus acknowledging the claims of the law which had been transgressed. Through the shed blood he looked to the future Sacrifice, Christ dying on the cross of Calvary; and, trusting in the atonement that was there to be made, he had the witness that he was righteous and his offering accepted.

How did Abel know so well the plan of salvation? Adam taught it to his children and grandchildren…. After Adam had sinned, a feeling of terror seized him. A constant dread was upon him; shame and remorse tortured his soul. In this state of mind he wished to be as far removed as possible from the presence of God, whom he had so loved to meet in his Eden home. But the Lord followed this conscience-stricken man, and while He condemned the sin of which Adam had been guilty, gave him words of gracious promise.—Signs of the Times, December 23, 1886.

From From the Heart

So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?” Genesis 4:6, 7.

The Lord was not ignorant of the feelings of resentment cherished by Cain, but He would have Cain reflect upon his course, and, becoming convinced of his sin, repent and set his feet in the path of obedience. There was no cause for his wrathful feelings toward either his brother or his God; it was his own disregard of the plainly expressed will of God that had led to the rejection of his offering…. Abel’s offering had been accepted, but this was because Abel had done in every particular as God required him to do. This would not rob Cain of his birthright…. Thus the matter was plainly laid open before Cain; but his combativeness was aroused because his course was questioned and he was not permitted to follow his own independent ideas. He was angry with God and angry with his brother. He was angry with God because He would not accept the plans of a sinner in place of the divine requirements, and he was angry with his brother for disagreeing with him….

Cain invites Abel to walk with him in the fields, and he there gives utterance to his unbelief and his murmuring against God. He claims that he was doing well in presenting his offering; and the more he talks against God and impeaches His justice and mercy in rejecting his own offering and accepting that of his brother Abel, the more bitter are his feelings of anger and resentment.

Abel defends the goodness and impartiality of God and places before Cain the simple reason why God did not accept his offering.

The fact that Abel ventured to disagree with him and even went so far as to point out his errors astonished Cain…. Cain’s reason told him that Abel was right when he spoke of the necessity of presenting the blood of a slain victim if he would have his sacrifice accepted, but Satan presented the matter in a different light. He urged Cain on to a furious madness, till he slew his brother, and the sin of murder was laid upon his soul.—Signs of the Times, December 16, 1886.

From From the Heart

It came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. Genesis 4:3-5.

Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam, were unlike in character…. These brothers were tested, as Adam had been tested before them, to see if they would be obedient to God’s requirements. They had been instructed in regard to the provision made for the salvation of the human race. Through the system of sacrificial offerings, God designed to impress upon people’s minds the offensive character of sin and to make known to them its sure penalty, death. The offerings were to be a constant reminder that it was only through the promised Redeemer that men and women could come into the presence of God. Cain and Abel understood the system of offerings which they were required to carry out. They knew that in presenting these offerings they showed humble and reverential obedience to the will of God and acknowledged faith in, and dependence upon, the Savior whom these offerings typified.

Cain and Abel erected their altars alike, and each brought an offering. Cain thought it unnecessary to be particular about fulfilling all the requirements of God; he therefore brought an offering without the shedding of blood. He brought of the fruits of the ground and presented his offering before the Lord; but there was no token from heaven to show that it was accepted. Abel entreated his brother to come into the presence of God only in the divinely prescribed way. But his remonstrances made Cain all the more determined to carry out his own purpose. As the eldest, he felt above being advised by his brother, and despised his counsel.

Abel brought of the firstlings of the flock, the very best, as God had commanded him. In the slain lamb he sees by faith the Son of God, appointed to death because of the transgression of His Father’s law. God had respect to Abel’s offering. Fire flashes from heaven and consumes the sacrifice of the penitent sinner.

Cain now has an opportunity to see and acknowledge his mistake…. And He who is no respecter of persons will have respect to the offering of faith and obedience….

Abel’s offering had been accepted, but this was because Abel had done in every particular as God required him to do.—Signs of the Times, December 16, 1886.

From From the Heart