taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Gen. iii: 17—19.
Would all these consequences be so fully described, and the one of surpassing importance be concealed? Would God perpetrate a "snap judgment" on his poor deluded creatures? Impossible. Our first parents died in trespasses and sins, as did the prodigal, "in the day" they sinned. The whole penalty to which Adam or any other should ever be liable was fully described, but not a word of endless punishment is there.
CAIN'S PUNISHMENT.
The case of Cain is equally explicit. What penalty did the first murderer experience? Here it is fully stated:
And the Lord God said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not; Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth; and Cain said unto the Lord, my punishment is more than I can bear. Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. Gen. iv: 19.
Not a word of endless punishment for this greatest of crimes. "A fugitive and a vagabond in the earth," not torment in an endless hell, is the punishment of the first murderer. His punishments were all temporal, and were so understood by him. Is it credible that in addition to all this an endless hell
