BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 49

put the cent or dime or dollar back again in its place. But
the ‘ meaning ”
wrong. ‘There must be a thousand wicked thoughts in the
mind; a thousand wicked feelings, a thousand cruel purposes
in the heart, before the murderer plunges the fatal knife into
the bosom of his bitterest foe, much less the bosom of his
friend or brother.

When these dark thoughts vegan to brood in the mind
of Cain, we are not told. Probably when quite a boy; for
we are thoroughly persuaded that if a boy cherishes a spirit
of kindness, and gentleness, and love, in his young days, his
manhood will be kind, and gentle, and loving too. That
poor mother in the desert had a thousand heartaches of
which no one knew but God. The fierce, resentful scowl of
Cain never escaped her. How often she sought to soothe
and calm his turbulent spirit, but all in vain. Cain was not
a gentle spirit. [He set but little value on his mother’s tears;
he had no reverence for his mother’s entreaties and prayers.
If he had lived in these days, he would have boasted that
he was not going to be tied to his mother’s ‘‘apron-strings.”

We have the most loving admiration for noble, manly,
independent boys. We do not think there is much room and
use for ‘‘ milk-sops,” in this busy world of to-day. But we
are sure of this, that the bravest, noblest, most worthy men
the world has seen in any age, are the men who have all
through life set a priceless value on their mother’s ‘apron-

is not enough, we must “do;” or all wiil go

strings.”

Years pass on, those primitive years of boyhood which
have so much to do in making up the character of the
coming man. Cain grows more and more envious, jealous,
overbearing and self-willed.

At last we reach the crisis of this history. Cain offers