8. The stern sentence is next pronounced. First we have the grand
figure of the innocent blood having a voice which pierces the
heavens. That teaches in the most forcible way the truth that God
knows the crimes done by 'man's inhumanity to man,' even when the
meek sufferers are silent. According to the fine old legend of the
cranes of Ibycus, a bird of the air will carry the matter. It
speaks, too, of God's tender regard for His saints, whose blood is
precious in His sight; and it teaches that He will surely requite.
We cannot but think of the innocent blood shed on Calvary, of the
Brother of us all, whose sacrifice was accepted of God. His blood,
too, crieth from the ground, has a voice which speaks in the ear of
God, but not to plead for vengeance, but pardon.

'Jesus' blood through earth and skies,
Mercy, free, boundless mercy, cries.'

Then follows the sentence which falls into two parts--the curse of
bitter, unrequited toil, and the doom of homeless wandering. The
blood which has been poured out on the battlefield fertilises the
soil; but Abel's blasted the earth. It was a supernatural
infliction, to teach that bloodshed polluted the earth, and so to
shed a nameless horror over the deed. We see an analogous feeling in
the common belief that places where some foul sin has been committed
are cursed. We see a weak natural correspondence in the devastating
effect of war, as expressed in the old saying that no grass would
grow where the hoof of the Turk's horse had stamped.

The doom of wandering, which would be compulsory by reason of the
earth's barrenness, is a parable. The murderer is hunted from place
to place, as the Greek fable has it, by the furies, who suffer him