* * * * * When Adam was driven out of paradise, he was told— “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” “Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.” The expression, “Thou shalt eat the _herb_ of the field,” we think has a very peculiar significance; for God made “every _herb_ of the field before it grew;” and one of the reasons assigned why the “herb was made before it grew,” we find to be, that “there was not a man to till the ground.” Now, the word _to till_ is translated from the word לַֽעֲבֹֽד _la ebod_, and means _to slave_; but in English we use the term not so directly. We use more words to express the same idea; we say _to do slave-labour on the ground_, instead of _to slave the ground_, as the expression stands in Hebrew. The doctrine is, that the herb, on which the fallen sinner is destined to subsist, was not of spontaneous growth; it could only be produced by sweat and toil, even unto sorrow. Sin had made man a slave to his own necessities; he had _to slave the ground_ for his subsistence; and such was the view of David, who, after describing how the brute creation is spontaneously provided for, says— “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and _herb_ for the service (לַֽעֲבֹדַ֣ת _la ebodath, the slavery_) of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth.” _Ps._ civ. 14. This state of being compelled to labour with sweat and toil for subsistence, is the degree of slavery to which sin reduced the whole human family. If we mistake not, the holy books include the idea that sin affects the character of man as a moral poison, producing aberrations of mind in the constant direction of greater sins and an increased departure from a desire to be in obedience to the laws of God. If we mistake not, the doctrine also is prominent that idleness is not only a sin itself, but exceedingly prolific of still greater sins. This mild state of slavery, thus imposed on Adam, was a constant restraint against a lower descent into sin, and can be regarded in no other light than a merciful provision of God in protection of his child, the creation of his hand. If it then be a fact that a given intensity of sin draws upon itself a corresponding condition of slavery, as an operating protection against the final effect of transgression, it will follow that an increased intensity of sin will demand an increased severity of the condition of slavery. Thus, when Cain murdered Abel, God said to him—