s been tried; until he has been
called to the bar, proved guilty and convicted. This, according to a
previous statement, was also done with Adam: "The Lord God called unto
Adam, and said unto him. Where art thou?" Gen 3, 9. And further on: "I
will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according
to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know," Gen
11, 5; 18, 21.

158. However, dismissing the matter in its bearings upon public life,
let us view its more attractive theological features. The element of
doctrine and of hope is found in the fact that Jehovah inquires
concerning the dead Abel. Clearly there is pointed out to us here the
truth of the resurrection of the dead. God declared himself to be the
God of Abel, although now dead, and he inquired for the dead, for
Abel. Upon this passage we may establish the incontrovertible
principle that, if there were no one to care for us after this life,
Abel would not have been inquired for after he was slain. But God
inquires after Abel, even when he had been taken from this life; he
has no desire to forget him; he retains the remembrance of him; he
asks: "Where is he?" God, therefore, we see, is the God of the dead.
My meaning is that even the dead, as we here see, still live in the
memory of God, and have a God who cares for them, and saves them in
another life beyond and different from this corporal life in which
saints suffer affliction.

159. This passage, therefore, is most worthy of our attention. We see
that God cared for Abel, even when dead; and that on account of the
dead Abel, he excommunicated Cain, and visited him, the living, with
destruction in spite of his being the first-born. A towering fact
this, that Abel, though dead, was living and canonized in another life
more effectually and truly than those whom the pope ever canonized!
The death of Abel was indeed horrible; he did not suffer death without
excruciating torment nor without many tears. Yet it was a blessed
death, for now he lives a more blessed life than he did before. This
bodily life of ours is lived in sin, and is ever in danger of death.
But that other life is eternal and perfectly free from trials and
troubles, both of the body and of the soul.

160. No! God inquires not after the sheep and the oxen that are slain,
but he does inquire after the men who are slain. Accordingly men
possess the hope of a resurrection. They have a God who brings them
back from the dea