AFTER the serpent had been used as a medium of Satan to deceive our mother Eve, the Lord pronounced this sentence: "Because thou hast done this, thou are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly thou shalt go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. 3:14, 15. Here is the first proclamation of the Gospel that we have on record; the first, because it had not been necessary before. It is evident that the serpent was a very different creature before the curse was pronounced upon it, from what it is now. The sentence, "Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat," indicates that it did not move about in that way originally, nor was its food of that degrading character. Moreover, "the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made."4Verse 1. One of the definitions of "subtle," or "subtle," is "acute in mind." Therefore, the serpent, besides being more comely in appearance, was more intelligent before the curse came upon it than afterward. Inasmuch as it was the most intelligent of all earthly creatures, excepting man, it is fair to suppose that it was also the most attractive. And these peculiar endowments would naturally cause the tempter to select it for his medium in the temptation of the woman. The sentence, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed," etc., had a double significance, and is working out in a double fulfilment. Almost without exception, the descendants of Eve have an inborn aversion to the serpent in all its multiplied varieties. There is an occasional human freak who, for the sake of notoriety or pecuniary gain, will fraternize in a familiar way with the hideous reptiles, but such people usually pay dearly in the end for their temerity or foolhardiness. Even those who worship the vicious creatures, do so because of their dread that the species will do them harm if they incur the wrath of one. Such worship is of the character of devil worship—a sentiment born solely of dread, rather than reverence. On the other hand, the woman stands for the church smitten by the adversary, and the serpent stands for Satan, the adversary, whose medium it was. The Lord put enmity between His church and her would-be destroyer; this enmity is the light of the Gospel truth. It is a "Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9); a Light which, if followed, will enable every one to know the true character of the adversary, and to avoid his wiles. The endowment of every one in this respect is sufficient to leave him without excuse in the event of his going after strange gods (Rom. 1:18-21). Christ is the Seed of the woman that shall finally bruise the "serpent's" (the adversary's) head. Satan is continually striking his vicious fangs into the heel of the church. He can vex and annoy by his persecutions, but he can not destroy. He could even put to death for the moment the Head of the church, but through that very thing, and the subsequent resurrection, she won a glorious victory, and the assurance of final triumph. Satan could not have achieved even that momentary appearance of victory at the cross had not the Son of God, the Seed of the "woman," chosen to lay down His life as a ransom for all the victims of Satan's deception. This ransom price was paid in purpose in the beginning, so that it was just as available to Adam and all his descendants before the cross as it has been since. Christ "tasted death for every man." Heb. 2:9. Christ will eventually destroy the adversary, known as "that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan." The Son of God was manifested "to destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8. He assumed flesh and blood "that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Heb. 2:14. The devil and his angels understand this (Matt. 8:28, 29), and Revelation 20 tells of the consummation. It is this deliverance of the church from the grasp of her enemy, and his final overthrow, that is assured to the woman in Gen. 3:15. G.