hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood;" and to indicate the mercy it was declared, "Whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him."[1] Surely there must have been the influence of some spiritual causes acting behind these outer events, and conducing to their existence.
To prevent this fact from being overlooked, we find it strongly marked at a subsequent stage of this declining Church. It is written, "that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."[2] Whatever may be the natural significance of this narrative, it is plain that its general scope is to describe some spiritual atrocity. It is spoken of as a great wickedness, and referred to as a proof that every imagination of man's heart was evil continually. Indeed it was the proximate cause of that Divine coming and last judgment, by means of which the Adamic dispensation collapsed and terminated. For the Lord said concerning it, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; for the earth was corrupt before God: the earth was filled with violence; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth!"[3] It is easy to see that this is a state of things which could only have been brought about by some direful influence proceeding from the spiritual world, and pressing upon the minds of men for the purpose of seducing them to evil. And how could such a disastrous circumstance be remedied, but by the total removal of its cause? This cause we believe to have been the activity of wicked spirits who had passed from the natural into the spiritual world. And how could this activity be
