Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/65

V.] then that Satan cannot approach those who pray. Then Adam addressed himself to God and said, "O my God! is there another God but Thou, who can create angels and send them to us? Lord, deign to instruct us!" Then a heavenly angel entered the cavern and said, "Adam, fear not those whom you see; it is Satan and his host. He sought to seduce you again to your fall." Having thus spoken, the angel fell upon Satan and tore from off him his disguise, and exposed him in his hideous nakedness to Adam and Eve. And to console them for this trial, God sent Adam gold rings, incense and myrrh, and said to him, "Preserve these things, and they will give you at night light and fragrance; and when I shall come down on earth to save you, clothed in human flesh, kings shall bring me these three tokens." It is because of this present that the cavern into which Adam and Eve retreated has been called the Treasure-cave.

Adam and Eve, greatly cheered, blessed the Lord, and thanked Him for His goodness, and resolved to continue their repentance. A short time after they committed a fault. Satan presented himself to them under the form of an angel of light, and announced that he was commissioned by the Most High to lead them to the brink of the River of the Water of Life, into which they were to plunge and wash away their sin.

They believed, and followed him by a strange road, and he led them to the edge of a precipice, down which he endeavoured to fling them; for, he thought, were he to destroy the man and the woman, he would be supreme in the world God had made. But the Almighty rescued Adam and Eve, and drave Satan from them. To punish themselves for their involuntary fault, Adam and Eve separated, so as not to see one another, and resolved to spend forty days up to their necks in the sea.

Before parting, Adam said to his wife, "Remain in the water here, and do not quit it till I return, and spend your time in praying the Lord to pardon us." Now, whilst they were undergoing this penance, Satan cast about how he might bring to naught our first parents, and he sought them but could not find them, till on the thirty-fifth day of their penance he perceived the two heads above the water; then he knew at once what was their intention, and he resolved