CHAPTER XVI.

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."