22 SINFUL NATURE OF MAN.

 

ousy, and was greatly enraged, so that he struck his
brother with a club, or some weapon, and killed him.

O, how their father and mother must have felt, when
they knew their dear boy was dead! But this did not
hurt them half as much as to know that their other boy
was a murderer. Would you not much rather hear that
your brother was dead than to hear that he had, in anger,
killed some other boy? I am sure I should. These
were the sad fruits of sin, which began so soon to be
manifested. .

We see, by the conduct of Cain, that he had a wicked
heart. The sinful nature of the parents, we now find in
the child. The parents disobeyed God by eating of the
forbidden fruit, and the child disobeyed also, only ina
more wicked act. We have the same sinful nature, and ~
wicked hearts, much like Cain.

Your schoolmate may do better than you, and be
given a better place in the class; you know that there is
a kind of jealous, ugly feeling inside, and you almost wish
them dead, or that something would happen to them.
This is just the feeling which Cain had, only his was so
strong that it led him to strike the blow which killed his
brother. We have a great many ugly, naughty feelings, .
which show that our natures are sinful, much like Cain’s.

We could never be happy with such natures in heaven,
and this is why Jesus has said, “Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We need a
new heart.