or at
least slighted of God. Did not Adam also, and Seth, and Cainan,
together with their descendants--did not all these, also, walk with
God? Why, then, does Moses ascribe this great honor to Enoch only? And
is the fact that God took Enoch to be understood as if the other
patriarchs are neither with God nor living? Yes, they all, like Enoch,
now live with God, and we shall behold them all, at the last day,
shining equally with Enoch, in the brightest glory!

45. Why, then, does Moses discriminate in favor of Enoch? Why does he
not bestow the same praise upon the other patriarchs? Although they
died a natural death, and were not taken by God, yet, also they
"walked with God." We have heard above concerning Enosh that in his
times, likewise, mighty things were done. It was in his days that "men
began to call upon the name of Jehovah," that is, that the Word and
worship of God began to flourish; and as a result holy men once more
"walked with God." Why is it then, we repeat, that Moses does not laud
Enosh equally with Enoch? Why does he bestow such high praise on the
latter only? For his words are these:

Vs. 21-24. _And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat
Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three
hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch
were three hundred sixty and five years. And Enoch walked with God:
and he was not; for God took him._

46. When Moses says that Enoch "walked with God," we must beware of
taking the monastic view in the premises, as if he had kept himself
secluded in some private corner, and there lived a monastic life. No,
so eminent a patriarch must be placed on a candlestick, or, as our
Saviour Christ expresses it, set as a city on a hill, that he may
shine forth in the public ministry.

47. It is as a bearer of such public office the Apostle Jude extols
him in his epistle, when he says: "To these also Enoch, the seventh
from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten
thousands of holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict
all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness, which they have
ungodly wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have
spoken against him," Jude vs. 14, 15. From what source Jude obtained
these facts I know not. Probably they remained in the memory of man
from the primitive age of the world; or it may be that holy men
committed to writing many of the sacred words and