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But though God forgave Adam and
Eve, He would not let them remain in the garden. An angel came with
a flaming sword to drive them away. They were sinners, and therefore
they must not stay there. Now, they felt pain and sorrow; and when
their children were born, they were sinful children. Cain,
the eldest son of Adam and Eve, was very wicked; but his brother Abel
loved and prayed to God, and believed in Jesus. Abel was a
shepherd: and, at God's command, he took a lamb, and killed it, and
offered it up in sacrifice. Abel sacrificed the lamb in faith, and
in obedience: Cain offered a sacrifice too, but not the right sort
of sacrifice, and not in the right way. He brought the fruits of the
earth, and gave them to God. But he did not confess his sins, nor
ask for forgiveness; so God accepted Abel, and his sacrifice; but Cain,
and his sacrifice, He did not accept. But when Cain knew God was
angry, he did not ask God to forgive him, and change his heart; he was
sullen and jealous, because God accepted his brother, and did not accept
him. God said to Cain, "Why art thou angry? If thou doest
well, shalt thou not also be accepted?" for God was willing to
forgive Cain. But Cain would not attend to what God said; Satan was
in his heart, tempting him to be angry and passionate, and Cain did not
"resist the devil." One
day, Cain and Abel were together in the field. They were alone; Adam
and Eve were not there; and Cain struck Abel, and killed him. Abel's
body fell dead upon the ground; but his soul did not die; Cain could not
hurt that: it went to heaven, to be there in happiness for
ever. God saw Cain kill his brother, and asked, "Where is
Abel?" and wicked Cain commmitted another sin, and told a lie, and
said, "I know not." But God had seen Abel die, and He
punished Cain, and drove him away, far from his father, and mother, and
brothers, and sisters; and he was a wanderer in the earth. Adam
and Eve were very sorry for their dear son. When they looked on his
dead body, they must have thought of their own sin, and of the punishment
of sin: and how glad they must have been to remember God's promise,
that Jesus should come and die to save sinners. They lived to be
hundreds of years old, and then they died. Their bodies were buried
in the tomb; but we may hope that their souls went to heaven.
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