she was not only to be the mother of all those who should spend their days in misery upon an accursed earth, but more especially of those who, through the accomplishment of the promise, should live through a Redeemer, live in God, live for eternity! O my brethren in Christ Jesus! shall not we who live and bear in our hearts the hope which maketh not ashamed, the pledge of eternal life, shall we not unite with Adam in blessing that longsuffering God, who for nearly six thousand years has suffered a sin-polluted earth to exist, that he might gather out of it the harvest of his redeemed? Yes, let all those children of Adam who live for heaven, and all those who have already attained everlasting felicity, join with the sinner in Eden to celebrate the mercies of God, and, to praise Him who, instead of blotting out of existence her by whom sin was introduced into the world, allowed her to be called "Eve, life, the mother of all living."

The text contains another proof of the goodness of God toward his sinful creatures, whom he mercifully purposed to save, even while he condemned them. As soon as man had violated the divine command, he felt

shame on account of his nakedness before God. He had lost his purity and innocence; and inward pollution manifests itself by unhallowed desires, which are followed by shame and remorse. In vain has he recourse to a miserable expedient to hide his nakedness; the fig-leaves cannot conceal his guilt from Him "who searcheth the heart, and whose eyes are as a flaming fire." He stands without excuse in the presence of his Judge; his mouth is stopped when he hears the sentence which condemns him. But O the unsearchable goodness of God, which is displayed even in the midst of judgment! He who comes forth to condemn the sinner, Himself condescends to cover the shame of his nakedness: "Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them." If, without adopting a system of allegorical interpretation which we by no means approve of, we have been forced to regard the shame which the first man felt after his fall as the immediate effect of sin, and as a proof that his soul had been spoiled of its innocence and glory; must we not also recognize in the coats of skins, with which the Lord covered the nakedness of His creature, something

more than is implied in the mere words of the sacred historian, who relates all these transactions of Eden as they appeared to that early age in which they took place, without hinting at their hidden meaning? Doubtless the first thing which we should see in the words under consideration, is the tender solicitude and condescension of a Father, who clothes his fallen creatures as he does the lilies of the field. He does not abandon them, he cares for them, he supplies them with food, and shows them from whence they are to procure raiment. But let us not stop in the letter, which killeth. Let us remember that it was sin that rendered necessary the garments with which the Lord covered the nakedness of the sinner; and let us learn to see in them a first remedy for sin, a first mark of the spiritual mercy of the Lord.

I shall now give the reasons which seem to warrant our adopting such a conclusion. We naturally demand, Whence came these coats. of skins with which the Lord clothed Adam and his companion? The fruits of the ground had been assigned to man as his food from the creation; it had been said to him after the fall, "thou shalt eat of the herb of the field,"

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nor was it until after the flood that he was allowed to eat animal food, which appears not to have been originally intended for his use. It is evident, then, that these coats of skins could not have been taken from animals slain for the nourishment of man. On the other hand, it seems exceedingly improbable that they were put to death solely with a view to supplying him with clothing. These con siderations have induced the greater part of interpreters to conclude, that a solemn sacrifice had taken place in Eden, that the blood of victims had been shed to ratify the promise of a Redeemer, and that from the animals employed on this occasion, were borrowed the coats of skins. I admit that there is no positive proof of the truth of this opinion. But is it not rendered extremely probable, by the fact, that we no where read of the original institution of sacrifices, and yet that the first children of Adam offered them to the Lord, the one of the first fruits of the ground, the other of the firstlings of his flock? How did they come to worship God in this manner, like sinners troubled in their consciences by a sense of guilt? Must it not have been that they learned from their father the meaning of

sacrifice? And further, do we not constantly see, in the Old Testament, the solemn promises of God ratified by the blood of victims, which prefigured, until the fulness of times, the great sacrifice of atonement? Are we not told in the word of God, whose depths we never can fully fathom, that "the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world?" Yes, my brethren, I like to see the gracious designs of redemption pourtrayed in types to the view of the first sinner in Eden. I like to see the unbroken chain of God's promises uniting, through a series of ages, Eden and Calvary, the first and the second Adam, the fall and the deliverance. I like to think that the name of Jesus, "the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world," that name so dear to the sinner's heart, that name which enfolds in it all the love, the mercy, the tender compassion of heaven. I like to think that that name of Jesus, anticipated by hope, or received by faith, prefigured by sacrifices, or commemorated in the Lord's Supper, has been in all ages the hope of poor sinners, the expectation of Adam's fallen race.

Thus the victim which was immolated in Eden, as the seal of God's promise, the victim