Abel Death

“ Abel was slain for his righteousness, Amnon for his wickedness. Observe the aggravations of this sin:— [1.] He would have Amnon slain when his heart was merry with wine, and he was consequently least apprehensive of danger, least able to resist it, and also least fit to go out of the world; as if his malice aimed to destroy both soul and body, not giving him time to say, Lord, have mercy upon me. What a dreadful surprise hath death been to many, whose hearts have been overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness! [2.] His servants must be employed to do it, and so involved in the guilt. ”

“ A weakness of the spine was developed, a malady that dwarfed the child's physical growth, giving to his wee face a pinched, starved look, warping his emaciated body, and enfeebling his puny limbs, while at the same time it quickened the intellectual faculties to the degree of precocity. And so two and three and four years went by, little Abel clinging to life with pathetic heroism, and Old Growly loving that little cripple with all the violence of his selfish nature. Never once did it occur to the father that his child might die, that death's seal was already set upon the misshapen little body ”

“ Cain brought to God the sin-stained fruit of a cursed earth. Here was no recognition of the fact that he was a sinner, condemned to death. All his toil could not satisfy God's holiness, or remove the penalty. But Abel recognized his sin, condemnation, helplessness, death, and brought the bloody sacrifice—the sacrifice of another—the sacrifice provided by God, to meet the claims of God. He found a substitute, and he presented it in faith—the faith that looks away from self to Christ, or God's appointed way of salvation. ”

“ Abel's death has not only no curse in it, but it has a crown in it; so admirably well is the property of death altered that it is not only rendered innocent and inoffensive to those that die in Christ, but honourable and glorious to those that die for him. Let us not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, nor shrink if we be called to resist unto blood; for we know there is a crown of life for all that are faithful unto death. Verses 9-12 Cain's Punishment. ”

“ To view death on the bed--at ease--
A dream, and draped; to minister
To inheriting kin; to comfort these
In chamber comfortable;--here
The elements all that unsay! ⁠50
The first man dies. Thus Abel lay. ”

“ When, then, Satan saw Adam and his wife not only still living, but also begetting children—being carried away with spite because he had not succeeded in putting them to death,—when he saw that Abel was well-pleasing to God, he wrought upon the heart of his brother called Cain, and caused him to kill his brother Abel. And thus did death get a beginning in this world, to find its way into every race of man, even to this day. ”

“ And even this punishment was lightened by his having a token from God, that he would not be put to death by any zealous avenger of Abel. He would experience the hardships of a man entering unexplored territory, but to an enterprising spirit this would not be without its charms. As the fresh beauties of the world’s youth were disclosed to him and by their bright and peaceful friendliness allayed the bitterness of his spirit, and as the mysteries and dangers of the new regions excited him and called his thoughts from the past, some of the old delight in life may have been recovered by him. ”

“ Abel hesitated. What, leave Edith? She guessed the thought.
"Go, Abel. I feel that it is the only way to save me. Do as our friend suggests. Get the settlers or Lightfoot on the trail, and all will yet be well."
"I will go! God forgive me if any ill happens to you!" and he disappeared in the darkness.
The savages, led by the renegade, were soon up with the old man and his charge, and came down on them with the fierceness of tigers. Their leader, however, interposed to save the fugitives from slaughter; he had other designs upon them than to permit the old hermit an easy death. ”

“ No more he talk'd; 'twas pain, 'twas shame to speak,
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His heart was sinking and his frame was weak.
[Pg 486]
His sister died with such serene delight,
He once again began to think her right;
Poor like himself, the happy spinster lay,
And sweet assurance bless'd her dying-day;
Poor like the spinster, he, when death was nigh,
Assured of nothing, felt afraid to die.
The cheerful clerks who sometimes pass'd the door,
Just mention'd "Abel!" and then thought no more.
So Abel, pondering on his state forlorn,
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Look'd round for comfort, and was chased by scorn. ”

“ But no! neither Abel, nor Abraham, nor Moses, nor Aaron, must be petitioned to intercede with God, and to pray that God would stay his hand. To God and God alone, for his own mercy's sake, must his afflicted servant turn in supplication. We find among his prayers no "Holy Abraham, pray for us,"—"Holy Abel, pray for us." His own Psalm of thanksgiving describes full well the object and the nature of his {24} prayer: "When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid, the sorrows of hell compassed me about, the snares of death prevented me ”

“ It began with the dispute which caused Abel to lose his life, and has continued unto this day. For nearly 6,000 years has this enmity made the earth a field of blood, and yet the war is not ended. The sin-power still lords it over the world, and is marshalling its forces for a last decisive blow. The "powers that be" have laid low the saints of God in all the countries of their dominion; they have bruised them in the heel ”

“ If Christianity, which is the completion of the original scheme of salvation, was not promulgated till a comparatively late period in the history of our world, yet the essential substance of it was known from the earliest period of time. The apostle says, that Abel, the first man who tasted the bitterness of death, offered his prefigurative sacrifice in faith, which is a proof that he knew the way of salvation, to be perfected by the death of the promised Saviour ”

“ And so it befell many days after, under the same tree Cain slew Abel, whereof befel great marvel. For anon as Abel had received the death under the green tree, it lost the green colour and became red; and that was in tokening of the blood. And anon all the plants died thereof, but the tree grew and waxed marvellously fair, and it was the fairest tree and the most delectable that any man might behold and see; and so died the plants that grew out of it tofore that Abel was slain under it. So long dured the tree till that Solomon, King David's son, reigned, and held the land after his father. ”

“ An thou, O Abel, be slain this day * Thy death I bemourn with heart torn and lone. Weep these eyes and 'sooth they have right to weep * Their tears are as rills flowing hills adown. Kábil slew Hábil—did his brother dead; * Oh my woe for that lovely face, ochone!'"98
Hereat Al-Hajjaj asked, "O young man, what drove our ancestor to poetry?" whereto answered the youth--And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" ”

“ Certainly a dead Christ would be, as it always is, a very sublime theme. But yet I was not satisfied. I wished to find a new subject; and as the Bible was familiar to me, the death of Abel suggested itself, and I seized upon it with settled purpose. I sought for a studio to shut myself up in with the model, and I found one in the Piazzetta of S. Simone, opposite the church. Then I put together a few sous to buy me two stands, one for the living model and one for the clay. ”

“ Accordingly men possess the hope of a resurrection. They have a God who brings them back from the death of the body unto eternal life, a God who inquires after their blood as a most precious thing. The Psalmist says: "Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints," Ps 116, 15.
161. This is the glory of the human race, obtained for it by the seed of the woman which bruised the serpent's head. The case of Abel is the first instance of such promise made to Adam and Eve, and God showed by the same that the serpent did not harm Abel, although it caused his murder. ”

“ Here we have another possible Babylonian parallel to the story of the death of Abel, in which the driving forth of her who makes the lament from her city and from her palace might well typify the expulsion of Eve from Paradise, and her delivery into the power of her enemy, who is, to all appearance, the king of terrors, into whose hands she and her husband were, for their disobedience, consigned. In this really beautiful Babylonian poem her “enemy” seems to reproach her, telling her how it was she, and she alone, who had ruined herself. ”

“ Their offspring were directly affected by the hereditary enthralment, to which Abel fell a victim even during the life-time of his parents.
Death came into the world through sin; the imperfections and frailties incident to the mortal state are conducive to sin; and man is prone in an inexcusable degree to readily yield thereto. So general is sin operative in the world that the wise comment of the ancient preacher stands unchallenged: "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not." ”

“ The "crying out of Abel's blood from the ground" is expressive of the onetime belief in the presence of the ghost in the blood. The Semites taught that the soul resided in the bodily fat, and among many the eating of animal fat was taboo. Head hunting was a method of capturing an enemy's soul, as was scalping. In recent times the eyes have been regarded as the windows of the soul.
Those who held the doctrine of three or four souls believed that the loss of one soul meant discomfort, two illness, three death. One soul lived in the breath, one in the head, one in the hair, one in the heart. ”

“ Therefore, fearing he should be called upon to depose about this destroyed child, and so be the cause of her death, he hid himself (much as he grieved for the child) , kept himself dark, as he says, out of the way and out of the trial, and was only vaguely talked of as a certain man called Abel, out of whom the jealousy arose. ”

“ As thou wast the first to [bring in] death, so he is the first to enter into the holy place.” When Adam heard this he was comforted and he buried Abel in the Cave of Treasures. Salutation to Abel the accepted sacrifice.
And on this day also Hellanicus, the bishop [of Weshim] , became a martyr. When the Emperor Diocletian, the infidel, heard the report that Saint Hellanicus was teaching the people to reject his gods, he sent envoys to seize him, and to torture him severely. ”

“ After the failure of his concert undertakings Abel still remained in great request as a player on various instruments new and old, but he took to drink and thereby hastened his death. He was a man of striking presence, of whom several fine portraits, including two by Gainsborough, exist. ”

“ There must have been instruction given to Adam’s sons before they could know that God required sacrifices, and that the instruction was sufficient to render it possible for them to offer acceptable sacrifices is shown by the fact that Abel had a faith that enabled him to make one that was more excellent than that of Cain’s and by which he "obtained witness that he was righteous." ”

“ Through a study of history, too, we become aware of the intimate connection that exists between the present and the past. The present moment is a very transient thing; its roots are in the past, its hopes in the future. "If all depends on the slender thread of the fleeting moment of the present, which illumines and endures merely for a twinkling of an eye, but to sink into the abyss of nothingness, then all life would mean a mere exit into death.... ”

“ Setting aside all controversy as to the meaning or efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, it is clear that he died for all, tasted death for every man, gave himself a ransom for all, without distinction of color, character, station or creed. Whatever allowance the Lord may make for sins of ignorance, can the great God look with complacency on any people who by Slavery count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and do despite unto the spirit of grace?—Hebrews x. ”

“ But Cain was a genuine "seed of the Serpent". The thinking of the flesh called by Adam the Serpent, was strong within him. He talked with Abel, who doubtless, pleaded for the things repudiated by Cain. But Cain's reasonings were perverse; well-doing was not at all to his taste; so that, having no faith in the promise, he preferred to follow his own waywardness; and being determined to rid himself of his brother's expostulations, he mingled his blood with the dust of the ground.
Thus was slain by a brother's hand the protomartyr of the faith. A righteous man, respected and beloved of God. ”

“ None will walk the celestial pavement of heaven but those washed in the blood. The first man that went up from this earth was probably Abel. You can see Abel putting his little lamb upon the altar, thus placing blood between him and his sin. Abel sang a song the angels could not join in. There must have been one solo song of redemption in heaven, because Abel had no one to join him. But there is a great chorus now, for the redeemed have been going up for six thousand years, and they sing of Him who is worthy to receive honour because He died to save us from condemnation. ”

“ His evil passions quite blinded him. He did not think of the grief which his act would cause his parents, nor did he remember the threats of Almighty God. He enticed his brother into the field, and turning on him struck him dead. What must Adam and Eve have felt when they saw their dear Abel lying dead in his blood, slain by his own brother’s hand? Perhaps, blinded by bitter tears, they exclaimed: “Alas, that we must survive this, our son's crime! Woe to us that we ever sinned! Cain has got his bad passions from us: this terrible deed is the consequence of our sin!” ”