GAIN’S WIFE.

Gisborne Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 9670, 17 April 1923, Page 6

GAIN’S WIFE.

WHEEL DID SHE COME EEOM ?

ADDRESS BY DE. OLIVER.

Last evening, the ground door of the Opera House was well filled on the occasion of the opening of the second week of Dr. French Oliver's mission in Gisborne, this being the first meeting at the Opera House, the City Hall not being sufficient to accommodate the crowds. The speaker took as his subject, ''Where Did Cain Get His Wife?" The address, which was listened to very attentively, was preceded by a song service by a large choir under Mr. Anton Cedarholm, the song leader attached to the mission.

Dr. Oliver, after reading extracts from the fourth chapter of Genesis, dealing with the murder of Abel and the flight of Cain, said it was thousands of years since the tragedy of the entrance of sin into the human family. God had pronounced the heaviest penalties on sinners, in spite of all the sceptics, 'theologians and doubters. In regard to the question "Where did Cain get his wife?” we find the story clear and sufficient. It is evident there was a beginning of the human race. The Bible says the beginning was a small one as far as number' is concerned, one man. Then the next statement tells of the creation of a woman. Then there is the story of thefirst birth, and the story of the second birth. Then is told the story of the first murder. That Cain dwelt in the land of Nod and got. liis wife appeared to indicate to the sceptics the necessity of another country and another people, just as if a Gisborne man went to Queensland for a wife for instance. The sceptic had no time for Adam and Eve—they were myths, he said, but the ordinary sceptic thinks that here he finds a contradiction and a discrepancy in the records. There is no discrepancy in the story. Tire Scriptures do not say Cain went into the land of Nod and got his' wife? The sceptics have read into the Book something which it does not contain. The word Nod as rendered into .English means an accursed land, a land of vagabondage, and would seem to indicate that a curse bad fallen on the land —that a curse had been pronounced on the whole earth. The land of Nod. does not mean a land distant like New South Wales, Stewart Island, or Fiji, but the land upon which God pronounced a curse. It did not need intelligence or genius to read into the Book something it did not contain With the destructive critic, the agnostic, and the infidel* trying to show something is wrong the poor old Bible would have a hard, time of it, but thank God it stood higher than ever among the nations of the world.

'‘Let us look into the matter of this matrimonial venture of Cain's,” said Dr. Oliver. "Cain was not a child when ho went into this land. The best evangelical authorities agree that at the time of his marriage he could not have been less than 125 years of age. Statisticians claim that a population doubles itself in ten years, and not infrequently quadruples itself in 25 years. The human race started out in the Orient with one family and it became absolutely necessary for brother and sister to marry. Even in this day among the nations of the Orient, girls from ten to twelve years of age are wives and mothers. If population would double itself in ton years there must have been from 12.000 to 20,000 people on the earth at the end of 125 years. Where did Cain get his wife? The speaker’s own opinion was that Cain got hie wife from his father-in-law (laughter), but who his father-in-law was. was a question no man could answer. The thing that puzzled him was that any woman could so forget herself as to become the wife of a murderer. It was not a question of who was available. He-, could imagine seeing Cain's wife dart out 'of the jungle, and somebody seeing her and asking "Who is that wild looking woman?” and the answer, "Oh, that's only Cain's wife.” The brand of Cain had descended through generations.

The speaker narrated vivid stories of crime in America, of murderers, of unfaithful men, of hank thieves, all with the mark of Cain. The saddest thing which he had seen was a woman' married to a godless man, with the gibbering soul of a devil, who made her life a hell. Only that day he had received a letter from a woman in Auckland asking for prayer on her behalf. She had been converted, hut her husband made all sorts of insulting remarks and boasted he was a sceptic. The best protection the girlhood of the world could have was faith in Jesus Christ. Let his hearers write this down—Tv'hon a man goes out of his way to fight the Bible lie does so because there is a wrong spot, in his character. It does not matter how lovely the preacher is. There is a wrong spot in his character if he fights the Bible. "The gang that talk their profound scholarship doesn't interest me," said Dr. Oliver. "Thou shalt not kill, thou si 1 alt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt nob covet —that's the reason, the dirty rascals don't like it. The rascal who is as rotten as hell says, 'I don't like that book.' I challenge you to produce a man in Gisborne, in New Zealand, in the world, who is opposed to the Bible, but who is condemned by this Book. You cannot produce a man who opposes it, but who is condemned. The wife of a sceptic or an infidel is a typical Cain's wife. -The blight of Cain has fallen on her through centuries. There .is no consolation in scepticism. No one had ever heard of a true Christian man becoming an infidel, agnostic, or athiest on his deathbed. There is hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ."

At the conclusion-of the meeting a number of converts approached the stage, and were welcomed by Dr. Oliver. Mr. CedarLolm, and the Bey. E. T. Cox. k

The meetings will be continued at the Opera House to-day. At 2.30 Dr. Oliver will speak on "The .Security of Believers," and at LG) the address will be "The Philosoprtf of the Virgin' Birth."