than their fathers.
The original inhabitants of Canaan, whom they dispossessed, could hardly
have surpassed them in sin against Jehovah; and therefore the ruthless
slaughter of their conquest was as unreasonable as it was inhuman. So
much for "God's Thieves in Canaan."

CAIN AND ABEL.

BIBLE ROMANCES.--11.

By G. W. FOOTE.

God completed the immense labors described in the first chapter of
Genesis by creating man "in his own image," after which he serenely
contemplated "everything that he had made, and; behold, it was very
good." Yet the first woman deceived her husband, the first man was
duped, and their first son was a murderer. God could not have looked
very far ahead when he pronounced everything "very good." It is clear
that the original pair of human beings were very badly made. As the Lord
was obliged to take a rest on the seventh day, it is not unreasonable to
suppose that he was pretty tired on the sixth, and scamped the work.
All the sin and suffering in this world is the consequence of man having
been the fag-end of creation. If the Lord had rested on the sixth day
and created man on the seventh, how different things might have been!
The Devil would probably have done no business in this world, and the
population of hell would be no more now than it was six thousand years
ago.

After leaving the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, having no fear of
Malthus in their hearts, began to "multiply and replenish the earth."
When their first child was born, Eve said, "I have gotten a man from
the Lord," poor Adam's share in the youngster's advent being quietly
ignored. She christened him Cain, a name which comes from a Hebrew root
signifying to _acquire_. Cain was regarded as an _acquisition_, and his
mother was very proud of him. The time came when she wished he had never
been born.

Some time after, but how long is unknown, Eve gave birth to a second
son, called Abel. Josephus explains this name as meaning _grief_, but
Hebrew scholars at present explain it as meaning _nothingness, vanity,
frailty_. The etymology of Abel's name shows conclusively that the story
is a myth. Why should Eve give her second boy so sinister a name? How
could she have so clearly anticipated his sad fate? Cain's name has,
too, another significance besides that of "acquisition," for, as
Kalisch points out, it also belongs to the Hebrew verb to _strike_, and
"signifies either the man of violence and the sire of murderers, or
the an