Love and Hatred: The Spirit of Cain
By E. S. Brooks
LAST week we endeavored to show that the spirit of the genuine Christian is the Spirit of the God of love, and that his heart is too full of love to allow any room for hatred toward his poor suffering fellow-beings. We now turn our attention to the spirit of hatred, and its bitter, unchristian fruits. Since Cain was the first hater, we give him the first place. During the War of the Rebellion, we often heard sung:— “John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,
But his soul goes marching on.” The body of Cain lies mouldering in the ground,
But his soul goes marching along. Cain, like many others, was an inventor of improved (?) religion, and, like many others, said in his heart, “What pleases me, pleases God.” How bitter must have been his disappointment when the lamb of Abel was accepted, while his fruits were rejected. Instead of allowing God to teach him through Abel, he allowed the spirit of hatred to fill his heart, and at that moment became the first-born of the “seed of the serpent.” Passing over the bitter fruits of Cain's hatred, we come to Joseph and his brothers. The brothers first hated and then persecuted Joseph. They caused their father to mourn days, weeks, months, years. The long years of sorrow which they brought upon their father were but a part of the fruits of their hatred. Turning to the prophet Daniel we see that the Babylonian princes hated him and set a trap for him. But Daniel, like one resurrected from death, lived, and his haters died. How short, how short is the triumph of the haters and persecutors! Passing over the long and bloody persecutions of the holy prophets, we come to our dear Redeemer. God had said in the hearing of the Jews, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Was God the one to be “well pleased,” or were the Jews the ones to be “well pleased”? The Jews, like many Christians (?), felt that themselves were the ones to be “well pleased,” and consequently became haters of the Word. Many professed Christians of to-day are in reality haters of the Word of God, and are seeking to have it crucified on the Roman cross. Let no beloved but erring Sunday-keeper think the writer is mistaken, but let him look well to his own foundations. E. S. BROOKS.