THE BROKEN COVENANT; OR, THE FAMILY OF THIEVES.
QUESTION XVI. _Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?_
ANSWER. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself,
but for his posterity, all mankind, descending from him by ordinary
generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression.
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"I HOPE we shall have a long story this time," exclaimed Isabelle, as
they were seated around the fire, waiting for their father and mother,
who were engaged with company.
"That was a good story last time," rejoined Walter. "Don't you remember
father told us about the trees in the garden, and how the serpent
talked with Eve? I wonder if the serpent looked like the great snakes
we have now."
At this moment Mrs. Dermott returned to the room, and, having heard her
son's remark, took from the library a volume of Milton's Paradise Lost,
and read,—
"His head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant; pleasing was his shape and lovely."
"I shouldn't want to see him," cried Helen, with an air of disgust; "I
hate snakes."
Mr. Dermott having come into the room, Helen repeated the answer, when
he continued, "You will remember that God made a bargain or agreement
with Adam and Eve, that if they would yield obedience to his command
about the forbidden fruit, they should live forever. This I told you
was called a covenant of life, or of works. They forfeited the reward
by their disobedience; and now they must pay the penalty. They were
driven out of that pleasant home, and were condemned to eternal death.
Was this covenant, Walter, made for themselves alone?"
"It was made for all mankind."
"Where do we learn this?"
Mrs. Dermott turned to Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and read,—
"'For as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift
came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous.'
"Is it common for God to join children with their parents in his
covenants?"
"He does in the second commandment."
"Yes, and he did with Noah, and also with Abraham.
"'And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your
seed after you.'"
"What is the meaning, father, of 'ordinary generation'?"
"It means, Helen, that children follow their parents; then they grow
up and have families; and thus one generation follows another. Do you
remember that very old gentleman we saw at your grandfather's? He said
he had lived to see married members of four generations—himself and
wife, his son with his wife, his grandson with his wife, and now he has
a great-granddaughter, who is just married.
"Adam lived to be nine hundred and thirty years old, so that he must
have seen many generations of his posterity. How sad must his life have
been to think that by his disobedience he had not only forfeited the
favor of God, the delightful pleasures of paradise, and the joys of
eternal life, but that all who would descend from him must participate
in the consequences of his first transgression! They fell with him from
his high estate, just as when a man who is immensely wealthy fails. He
does not suffer alone. His children and his children's children must
become sharers in his poverty. Or as a man who is executed upon the
gallows does not suffer alone; his children, to the latest generation,
suffer with him. They can never get rid of the disgrace.
"Or suppose a man, like our neighbor, Mr. Morse, is dreadfully deformed
by scrofula, and has suffered from it all his life, as his father did
before him. Now, look at his children. Every one of them is tainted
with the same disease. Lydia has it in the form of consumption, Esther
in sore eyes, while the little boys, James and Joseph, are always
breaking out in great sores upon their bodies.
"So it is in the case of Adam. He sinned, and all his race are infected
with the plague of sin. In one it shows itself by unbounded ambition;
in another by pride; in another by selfishness. In one little girl
we see vanity; in another disobedience to her parents. One boy tells
lies; another steals; another swears. Some do all these; but every one
of the race has inherited the fatal taint, and is neither morally nor
physically sound."
"In a town situated near the centre of the State of Connecticut there
lived a man who, in early life, was often detected in stealing small
articles from his playmates. As he grew older, he became more hardened
in crime. He married, and had four sons and three daughters. But during
this time he had been sentenced twice to the state prison once to serve
out a term of three years, the other of two.
"As soon as his sons were old enough, each one of them became addicted
to pilfering, so that they were considered a nuisance to the whole
neighborhood. One by one they left home to seek their fortune in a
wider sphere; and the first news of them that came back was, that they
had been convicted of this crime, and were sentenced to prison for a
longer or shorter period.
"The daughters were all younger. One of them was taken into the service
of a lady at the age of thirteen: In a few months her mistress detected
her in purloining articles of clothing from her wardrobe. She was
dismissed from service after a trial of several months, during which
she often repeated her offence.
"The second daughter was a very handsome girl. She went to the city
to learn the trade of a milliner, and was soon after sent to jail for
what was called shoplifting. She was shopping for her employer, saw an
elegant lace cape which she coveted, and while the clerk was waiting
upon another customer, endeavored to hide it beneath her shawl. The
article was missed, she was pursued, the cape discovered, and she was
punished for her theft.
"The youngest daughter was taken from her mother's arms by a benevolent
lady who believed the sad fate of the children to be the consequence
of their early training. She began very early to teach the little one
the difference between mine and thine, and through all the years when
the young mind is so susceptible to outward influence, endeavored to
impress upon her, both by precept and example, that it was sin to
appropriate to one's self the property of another; but it was in vain.
The seeds of sin were planted at her birth; and though she knew not
even of the existence of her relatives, yet she followed in the same
footsteps, and brought sorrow and disgrace into the family of her kind
benefactress.
"A few years since, the father, now a white-haired old man, and his
four sons, were confined together in the state prison. In the father's
case, as in the second son's, it was an aggravated one; and they were
condemned to pass the rest of their lives within the prison walls. The
others would be released in a few years, but would probably return to
spend their days in confinement."
"O Sin, what hast thou done to this fair earth!"
"Sin hath broken the world's sweet peace—unstrung
The harmonious chords to which the angels sung."