A Manual for Teaching Biblical History Author:Eugene Kohn Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III CAIN AND ABEL Genesis 4. I to 15 Interpretation. The story of Cain and Abel is a study of sin, remorse and repentance. There is a suggestion i... more »n verse 7, of evil passions existing in Cain's heart even before the murder of his brother, and, though the verse is obscure, it may be interpreted as giving a reason for God's not accepting Cain's offering. Not until after the deed is done is Cain made fully to realize the significance of his act and then he is stirred by remorse and fear until God reassures him of his protection. The sign that God gives Cain is sometimes construed as part of his punishment but in the Bible it is mentioned rather as evidence of God's acceptance of his repentance. Aim. The teacher should endeavor through this lesson to impress on the child the danger of yielding to envy and anger and the desirability of repentance and of confession of our sins to God whenever we have done wrong. Suggestions to the teacher. Sentimentalists sometimes object to teaching this story to young children because of the sordid crime that it relates. This objection however is not valid, because the very ignorance and innocence of childhood rob the story of most of its horror. Indeed, the teacher must rather guard against the child's utterly losing the sense of the tragedy of the crime, the universal tragedy by which passionleads men to commit acts which they would later gladly retrieve if they could. In order to impress this on the child the teacher must describe what the narrative of the Bible but barely suggests, the wayward character of Cain before the secrifice which made it unacceptable. Devote some time to characterizing Cain and Abel in such a way that the child pictures the former as a sullen, discontented, envious man, who showed no true appreciation o...« less