that his employment should be frequently so painful and wearisome as to occasion the greatest sorrow and distress. The whole earth is more or less covered with briers and thorns, which spring up again and again, if ever so constantly removed. Every calling or occupation of man from the time of Adam down to this day is attended with a great deal of vexation and disappointment.

Ellen. Did Adam begin to work as God had commanded?

Mamma. He did so: for he soon found that fruits and vegetables no longer came up without care and labour, as they had done in the garden of Eden. And as fruits and vegetables were at that time the food of man, it was necessary for his existence that they should be cultured and reared. Adam had no longer any choice whether he would work or not: it was absolutely necessary, even for the preservation of his life, that he should do so, or the means of existence would soon have failed him.

Ellen. They did not want a great many fruits and vegetables, Mamma, as there was only one man and one woman?

Mamma. At first this was the case, Ellen;

but in the course of time, Adam and Eve were promised that they should have a family of children; and as none were to eat bread from thenceforth but in the sweat of the brow, as the race of mankind increased, so the food necessary for their existence must increase also.

Ellen. Did Adam and Eve wear such clothes as ours, Mamma?

Mamma. Adam and Eve, before their fall, from obedience, wore no clothes at all, Ellen. Being perfectly good and innocent, and living in a delightful climate, subject to neither rain nor tempest, they needed not covering. They were naked, but they had too much purity to be ashamed at being so. After they had sinned, and lost their natural innocence, they became uneasy without a covering, and endeavoured to supply this deficiency by making themselves aprons of the leaves of the fig-tree. God, however, had compassion upon them, and caused them to have coats made of the skins of beasts provided for them, and from this time this sort of covering was common to them.

Ellen. Did they like this covering, Mamma? I should not, I think, feel very comfortable in the skin of a beast,

Mamma. And yet the skins of beasts are worn in some countries even to this day, Ellen. But in regard to Adam and Eve, no doubt they found them comfortable; for as they were provided for them by the kindness of God, it was not likely that they should be otherwise. These skins have been of great benefit to mankind ever since their first introduction by the Almighty himself. And you, Ellen, are, when you walk out, clothed partly in the skin of a beast. The cloth of your pelisse is made from the wool of sheep which is the outward covering of its skin, and the fur with which it is trimmed is the skin itself of an animal or beast which is very common in the country from whence it came. So that you see, in some particulars, there was a relation between the dress of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and of ourselves. But now go and get this pelisse of yours put on, and we will take a walk together.

DIALOGUE III.

CAIN AND ABEL.

Ellen. Now, Mamma, will you tell me some more about Adam and Eve, when they had left their beautiful garden?

Mamma. Come then and sit down quietly, and I will. When Adam and Eve had been driven from the garden of Eden, they proceeded to cultivate the ground, as they had been directed to do by God, and to keep under by their own exertions the thorns and briers which, from that time, were to spring up, in common with the fruits and flowers of the earth. God had promised them children, and to the birth of these children they now looked as a consolation under their present state of life. And they were the more anxious for their promised son, because God had told them that one should be born in the course of years, and in regular succession from them, who should pay the forfeit of sin in his own person, and save from the consequences of sin all mankind who should be born upon the earth from the time of Adam to the end of the world.

Ellen. I do not know what you mean, Mamma. But did not Adam and Eve soon have a child?

Mamma. You must try and understand what I say now, Ellen; and as you get older and more able to do so, you will see how good was God in making this promise to our first parents. But I will now satisfy your curiosity about Adam's children, by telling you that he very soon had a son, whom he called Cain; and soon after another, whom he called Abel.

Ellen. I dare say Cain and Abel were very happy together, Mamma? Did they work when they were little boys?

Mamma. As soon as they were strong enough, no doubt they began to work, and indeed the Bible tells us the nature of the employment of each of these brothers-Cain being a tiller or cultivator of the earth, and Abel a keeper of sheep. But the brothers were not so happy together as might have been supposed. After their sin, Adam and Eve could no longer expect to give birth only to good children; and accordingly we find that their very first born son was sadly wicked. And so envious did he become of his brother Abel, who won the favour of God by his obedience, that he resolved to kill him: