that sad day man has been subject to fear, and has sought to hide himself from the presence of the Lord.  But the Lord God still loved Adam, and right there and then gave a promise to save man.  That promise is in these words:  “I will put enmity between her seed and thy seed:  it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”  This was spoken to the serpent.  Christ Jesus our Lord is the seed of the woman.  He bruises the serpent’s head under our feet whenever we sincerely desire him to do so.  The head of the serpent stands for sin and transgression of God’s holy law in all its forms, with the evil loves which prompt us thereto.  The heel which the serpent shall bruise is man’s natural body, and the natural feelings incident to him from his connection with this body.  Diseases, the infirmities of age, with all the pains and anguish of body and mind; yea, death itself, and the fear of death, all, all are but the bruises which the serpent, the devil and Satan is inflicting upon the heel of the woman’s seed.

But, Brethren, Christ is bruising the head of the serpent daily under our feet.  Every temptation to do some forbidden thing, every inclination to indulge evil and impure desires and thoughts, fairly resisted and overcome, is just that much of the serpent’s head, of his very life, bruised and crushed under our feet.  Now, it appears to us as if we did all this of ourselves, and in our own strength.  But this is very far from the truth.  Jesus says:  “Without me ye can do nothing.”  “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  All the spiritual life, which embraces all pure and holy thoughts, affections, motives, with all the truth and holy love in the Christian’s soul, is from the Lord.  Man of himself is nothing but evil, and but for the Lord’s redeeming and saving arm would forever sink to lower and yet lower depths of ruin.  But just turn with me to the twenty-first chapter of Revelation, fourth verse, and see to what the Lord offers to exalt man.  We there read:  “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.”  There is quite an excitement over California at this time.  Thousands have left their homes to try their fortunes in the far-off land of gold.  Some have already perished in the attempt to reach the shining Eldorado, and many more may have to suffer the same sad experience.  But the Gospel invites the sinner to a city whose gates are of pearl, and whose streets are paved with gold, and where the society is exempt from all the ills of life; for there they die no more.

Brethren, let us live not for ourselves, but for others, as far as lies in our power.  Our love feasts show our love for one another, and our social equality with each other insomuch as we all eat together:  and our beautiful order in washing one another’s feet sets forth our readiness to help one another in the Christian life, for “none of us liveth to himself.”