It cannot be known for a certainty whether Cain and Abel were twins or not, although it is very probable indeed that they were twins. But be that as it may, it is certain that our first parents had various thoughts concerning these two sons, and that they imagined that their redemption was at the door. Cain was doubtless held in the highest honor and made the object of their chief delight; while Abel on the other hand was not an object of so much pleasure nor of so much hope, as the names themselves of the two sons show. Cain was so called, as we have said, because they considered that it was he who should acquire or restore all things. On the contrary Abel signifies "vanity" or "that which is nothing or of no value or abject." Some interpreters have rendered the name in our Bible "mourning" or "sorrow;" but the Hebrew term for sorrow is EBEL not HABEL. Moreover the expression HEBEL is of very frequent use in the sacred Scriptures. How often is it repeated in Ecclesiastes? "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity," Eccles. 1:2, and also in the Psalm, "Therefore their days did he consume in vanity," Ps. 78:33; that is, they attained not the "promised land" of Canaan. Abel therefore was so called, as being considered one concerning whom there was no hope, or one respecting whom all hope was vain. But Cain was so named, as one of whom all things were hoped. These very names given to these two sons therefore plainly manifest the thoughts and feelings of the parents concerning them; that, as the promise was made concerning the Seed of the woman, Adam and Eve thought that the divine promise thus made was to be fulfilled through Cain, their first son; but that Abel would effect nothing, seeing that everything was to be successfully accomplished as they thought through Cain. Therefore they called him Abel. And this hope which Adam and Eve entertained concerning Cain was undoubtedly the reason why these two brothers were not brought up with the same care and concern. For to Abel was committed the charge of the cattle; but Cain was trained in the pursuits of his father, and to the cultivation of the earth, as being the superior and nobler employment. Abel was a shepherd; Cain was a king and a priest, being the first-born and destined by his birth to fulfil those high hopes and expectations of the recovery of all his parents entertained concerning him. But here ponder the wonderful counsel of God! From the beginning of the world, primogeniture has always held a very high privilege, not only among the people of God, with whom the right attached to primogeniture was an institution of God himself, and by him highly commended, but among the Gentile nations also. And yet facts and experiences prove, especially among the holy people, that the first-born have often disappointed the hopes of their parents and that the after-born have often attained to the condition and dignity of the first-born.