unless we confess them. Moreover, Cain had no true contrition, and all hope of pardon depends on that. He, however, had given up hope, and despaired of God’s mercy.
Free-will. There are those who yield to their evil passions, and then say that they could not help it. Is it true that they could not have helped it? Could not Cain have acted differently from what he did? God Himself had said to him: “Keep your lust under.” We are not obliged to follow our evil inclinations, for we have free-will, and can overcome our passions if we choose.
The necessity of grace. Grace is, however, necessary to enable the free-will of man to choose what is right. Cain had received sufficient grace, and if he had corresponded with it, he would have been quite able to overcome his envy and hatred, and would never have become a murderer. Even after his sin he would have been able to obtain pardon, if he had not resisted the grace of God which urged him to repent.
The wonderful working of divine grace for the good of man is shown to us very plainly in this story of Cain. Think how much God did both to keep him from sinning, and to bring him to repentance, after he had sinned, so that his soul might be saved. First, He drew Cain’s attention to his ruling passions of envy and anger, in order to bring him to a knowledge of himself. Then He promised him a reward and blessing if he would correct himself, and threatened him with speedy punishment if he let himself be led on to do an evil deed. Lastly, He stirred him up, and exhorted him not to be led away by his evil desires, but to have dominion over them. Even after the terrible deed was done, Almighty God did not at once reject the murderer, and even while reproaching him for his crime, tried to move his heart. He wished Cain to recognise the horror of his deed, to abhor it, and repent of it. He even asked him where his brother was, in order to make the confession of his guilt easier to him. It was only when Cain proved to be hard-hearted and impenitent that God pronounced judgment on him. Even then, the sentence was not an eternal one; it was only temporal (“cursed be thou on the earth”), and might have led him to repentance and amendment. God protected the life of this wretch by a special mark, in order to give him more time for repentance. How good and merciful is God who, as it were, pursues the sinner so indefatigably, and tries in so many ways to move his heart, so as to save him from eternal damnation!
Resistance of grace. Sins against the Holy Ghost. Man, having free-will, is able to resist grace which, much as it may move him and incline him towards what is good, does not force him. Cain’s terrible example shows us to what resistance of grace can lead. He would not listen to God’s loving exhortation to overcome his envy and anger, but cherished them in his heart, till his anger waxed fiercer and turned
