"And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without
the shedding of blood is no remission."--Heb. ix. 22.
No man can give a satisfactory reason for the hope that is in him if
he is a stranger to the "Blood." At the very commencement of the Bible
we find reference made to the subject in Genesis iii. 21: "Unto Adam
also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed
them." In this verse we get the first glimpse of blood. Certainly God
could not have clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of beasts unless He
had shed blood. Here, then, we have the innocent suffering for the
guilty--the doctrine of substitution in the garden of Eden. God dealt
with Adam in grace before He dealt in judgment. Death came by sin.
Adam had sinned, and the Lord came down to make the way of escape. God
came to him as a loving friend, and not to hurl him from the earth.
Adam could have said to Eve, "Though the Lord has driven us out of the
garden of Eden, He loves us," for this coat is a token of love.
God put a lamp of promise into Adam's hand before He drove him out;
for He said, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head."
Did you ever think what a terrible state of things it would be if man
was allowed to live for ever in his lost, ruined state? It was from
love to Adam that God drove him out of Eden, that he should not live
for ever. God put the cherubim with a flaming sword there. But now
Christ has taken the sword out of his hand, and opened wide the gate,
so that we can come in and eat. Adam might have been in Eden ten
thousand years, and then be led astray by Satan; but now "our life is
hid with Christ in God." Man is safer with the second Adam out of Eden
than with the first Adam in Eden.
Let us next turn to Genesis iv. 4: "And Abel, he also brought of the
firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had
respect unto Abel and to his offering." Cain and Abel were brought up
outside of Eden, and had the same parents, and both received the same
instruction as to how they were to draw near to God; but