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The Mark on Cainby Rev. Robert S. Jungé
Spiritually speaking, Adam and Eve had portrayed the man of the Most Ancient Church, of which the Lord could say, "And, behold, it was very good." But that man of the church had fallen from his celestial state. Deceived by the serpentine ways of his sensual, and lured by his delight and pride in self-intelligence, he was no longer content with perception. He wanted to reason things out from his own intelligence. He had so loved the Lord that he had been allowed to live in a spiritual Eden. Everything that he wished to understand, all the goods and truths that he could desire, were given to him, even as was the fruit of the garden. But he was commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not to try to know what good and evil are from himself. His will and understanding were one. If he tried to find out what good and evil are from his understanding, he would be separating it from his will. He would be trusting in his understanding alone, and he would surely be deceived. It is with this background in mind that we must view Cain, Adam and Eve's firstborn. After his fall Adam has been told, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life" (Genesis 3 : 17). Adam then became a tiller of the ground, as did his son Cain after him. We remember that Eve had said when she bare Cain, "I have gotten a man, Jehovah" (Genesis 4: 1). Previously men had been in the order of their lives; they had known a wonderful perception of all the things of faith. But now the truths which Eve bore, represented by Cain, she thought of as something distinct. The men of that age reduced their wonderful perceptions to distinct matters of doctrine, thinking that they had something new and calling it, "I have gotten a man, Jehovah." Yet this Cain, this tiller of the ground, was not something new, was not inscribed on their hearts, but was merely stored in their memories. The tiller of the ground - the one who represents faith laboring as of itself, faith separated from charity - this Cain had a brother. Abel was a keeper of sheep, a man who represented charity and love. His offering, because it came from innocence and love, was accepted by the Lord. The fruits which Cain brought were works done without love, works done for mere show - the products of faith and knowledge alone. They had no heart and no life in them. As soon as man admits that there can be a doctrine of faith separated from charity and love, he opens the door to monstrous evils. In the beginning he may continue to act in simplicity. It will take time before the offerings will be compared. Even though the Lord tells him, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door," Cain will not change. Instead of repenting he waits his chance, and rises up and slays his brother. Faith alone becomes the open enemy of good works, and the charity and love which they represent. Then the Lord must expose him. Cain replies to the Lord with the familiar question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" This involves more than the usual idea. It has within it the idea: Am I my brother's doorkeeper, or porter? Am I my brother's servant? This was the idea that Cain resented, and to which he would not submit (AC 372). Cain, representing truth, should indeed have served the charity represented by Abel. They were brothers. But Cain considered himself alone the man. Cain then became a fugitive and a vagabond. How beautifully this describes the manner in which truth separated from a life of good wanders about upon the whole earth of knowledge and doctrine, seeking new ideas! It is indeed a wanderer when it does not have love to hold it to its proper work. Even such truth separated is afraid. It recognizes its weakness. It sees that its punishment is greater than it can bear; for Cain says, "everyone that findeth me shall slay me" (Genesis 4: 14). Evil and falsity lie in wait to destroy everything that Cain has. They are ready to slay, to drag into hell, a man who recognizes only the truth. Evil and falsity can approach truth when it is separated from love. But they cannot stand before charity united to faith. But the Lord protected Cain. He was protected because the Lord saw it was necessary that the doctrines of the early church be passed on to the next generation. The Lord foresaw that the time would come when doctrines would be needed, that because of man's self-love perception would no longer be adequate. It is even so with man. The Lord labors to preserve all those knowledges which man has from the Word. These are stored up, and protected as far as possible. Even though they form but an historical faith, handed on by parents and teachers, they are preserved. Even though they are separated from charity, and are not truly loved, the Lord protects them. They are the hope of man's salvation, if he will but apply himself to them in the future. Man's faith, even though it be blind and dead, can often be used to help others. From his memory he can often inspire others by teaching not only faith but also charity. Cain must be protected. A mark is set upon him, and a threat of sevenfold vengeance is uttered, lest anyone do him harm. "Violence to that faith," we are taught, "even when it is separated, would be sacrilege" (AC 392). Now it is the nature of the man of our day that he must begin as a tiller of the ground. Man can no longer be led by perception. He must be led by his understanding. In appearance, his understanding of doc trine is in the first place. It appears as the firstborn, even as Cain himself was the firstborn. We have this same appearance today. We begin with knowledges. We labor in scientifics and knowledges of truth; we toil in the fields of doctrine. It is granted to us that our understandings shall grow, quite apart from our wills. Yet the fruits which we bring to the Lord must be fruits of love. The Lord will not have great delight in our understanding of the doctrine alone, or in merely external acts of fellowship and social good. The fruits which we bring to the Lord must be the fruits of love. All men must meet the challenge which their abilities place before them. They have been given knowledges and the ability to acquire more. They have a potential, capable of growing to eternity, which is known to the Lord alone. Yet man's task is not merely to cultivate his intellectual faculties. His is not merely to till the ground, and make offerings that have no heart or soul within them. Knowledges in the memory are a wonderful thing, a thing to be cultivated and to grow. They are like a great reservoir or sea upon which love can grow to serve the neighbor. But knowledges alone, sought from pride and not to apply to life, will eventually carry man off. He will become so absorbed in them that, in one way or another, the Abel of charity in his heart is slain. As a rational church, the New Church seems to be particularly vulnerable to the dangers of faith alone. The Writings unfold such a wealth of knowledges for man to explore that we are tempted to explore but not apply. We are tempted to take pride in the opportunity for spiritual understanding given to us. Yet that understanding is a fugitive and a vagabond if it is a Cain refusing to be joined to his brother Abel. Too often we are ready to condemn what we consider to be faith alone in others, when perhaps such faith is lurking as a great dragon in our own hearts. When we so readily look down upon external works of charity and external social good, are we being New Church Cains rising up against Abel? If we truly possess the Abel, not of blind charity, but of charity guided by truth; if we are truly laboring from love; why do so many often say that the New Church seems cold to them? Is Abel as a brother warming our hearts? Are we cultivating without embarrassment the spontaneous expressions of love to which our church calls us, or is it to be said of us: "What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground" (Genesis 4: 10). While we examine our own hearts, and look at the lives of those around us, we should remember what the Lord did for Cain, even though he showed open hatred for his brother Abel, and slew him. The Lord saw the uses which such faith alone could serve. We must remember, for example, the children who learn the truths of the Word from infancy, those truths which alone can save them. Yet they learn them from parents, teachers or ministers who are sometimes themselves Cains. The Lord saw the need of protecting faith alone that it might serve others; and we, too, must protect it in others from our own conceited intelligence. Though love might not be joined to it in one man, others might be saved through the spreading of his knowledge. Historical faith can grow up and be changed into the saving faith of life. New Church men are given the equipment, and the knowledges about faith alone, first and foremost to guard against it in their own lives. They can see the danger of the Cains around them, they can see them as fugitives and vagabonds; but it is not their task to become the self-appointed persecutors of Cain. We must always remember, when we rise up to condemn, that the Lord has set a mark on Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. We are not to rise up against, not to slay, historical faith and faith alone in others.
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Adam and Eve had been cast out
of the garden. Eve had plucked the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, and had eaten of it, and had given it to Adam to eat. They
were never to enter that blessed state in the garden again. Cherubim, and
a flaming sword which turned every way, were set to keep the way of the
tree of life.