When Adam fell he quickly lost

CAIN and ABEL by John Newton


 * When Adam fell he quickly lost
 * God's image, which he once possessed:
 * See All our nature since could boast
 * In Cain, his first-born Son, expressed!


 * The sacrifice the Lord ordained
 * In type of the Redeemer's blood,
 * Self-righteous reas'ning Cain disdained,
 * And thought his own first-fruits as good.


 * Yet rage and envy filled his mind,
 * When, with a fallen, downcast look,
 * He saw his brother favor find,
 * Who GOD's appointed method took.


 * By Cain's own hand, good Abel died,
 * Because the Lord approved his faith;
 * And, when his blood for vengeance cried,
 * He vainly thought to hide his death.


 * Such was the wicked murd'rer Cain,
 * And such by nature still are we,
 * Until by grace we're born again,
 * Malicious, blind and proud, as he.


 * Like him the way of grace we slight,
 * And in our own devices trust;
 * Call evil good, and darkness light,
 * And hate and persecute the just.


 * The saints, in every age and place,
 * Have found this history fulfilled;
 * The numbers all our thoughts surpass
 * Of Abels, whom the Cains have killed!


 * Thus JESUS fell--but O! his blood
 * Far better things than Abel's cries:
 * Obtains his murd'rers peace with God,
 * And gains them mansions in the skies.