"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." "For He spake, and it was;" "He commanded, and it stood fast." Psalm 33:6,9. He "laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever." Psalm 104:5.
As the earth came forth from the hand of its Maker, it was exceedingly beautiful. Its surface was diversified with mountains, hills, and plains, interspersed with noble rivers and lovely lakes; but the hills and mountains were not abrupt and rugged, abounding in terrific steeps and frightful chasms, as they now do; the sharp, ragged edges of earth's rocky framework were buried beneath the fruitful soil, which everywhere produced a luxuriant growth of verdure. There were no loathsome swamps or barren deserts. Graceful shrubs and delicate flowers greeted the eye at every turn. The heights were crowned with trees more majestic than any that now exist. The air, untainted by foul miasma, was clear and healthful. The entire landscape outvied in beauty the decorated grounds of the proudest palace. The angelic host viewed the scene with delight, and rejoiced at the wonderful works of God.
After the earth with its
teeming animal and vegetable life had been called into existence,
man, the crowning work of the Creator, and the one for whom the
beautiful earth had been fitted up, was brought upon the stage
of action. To him was given dominion over all that his eye could
behold; for "God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after
Our likeness: and let them have dominion over . . . all the earth.
. . . So God created man in His own image; . . . male and female
created He them." Here is clearly set forth the origin of
the human race; and the divine record is so plainly stated that
there is no occasion for erroneous conclusions. God created man
in His own image. Here is no mystery. There is no ground for the
supposition that man was evolved by slow degrees of development
from the lower forms of animal or vegetable life. Such teaching
lowers the great work of the Creator to the level of man's narrow,
earthly conceptions. Men are so intent upon excluding God from
the sovereignty of the universe that they degrade man and defraud
him of the dignity of his origin. He who set the starry worlds
on high and tinted with delicate skill the flowers of the field,
who filled the earth and the heavens with the wonders of His power,
when He came to crown His glorious work, to place one in the midst
to stand as ruler of the fair earth, did not fail to create a
being worthy of the hand that gave him life. The genealogy of
our race, as given by inspiration, traces back its origin, not
to a line of developing germs, mollusks, and quadrupeds, but to
the great Creator. Though formed from the dust, Adam was "the
son of God."
He was placed, as God's representative, over the lower orders of being. They cannot understand or acknowledge the sovereignty of God, yet they were made capable of loving and serving man. The psalmist says, "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet: . . . the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, . . . and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." Psalm 8:6-8.
Man was to bear God's image, both in outward resemblance and in character. Christ alone is "the express image" (Hebrews 1:3) of the Father; but man was formed in the likeness of God. His nature was in harmony with the will of God. His mind was capable of comprehending divine things. His affections were pure; his appetites and passions were under the control of reason. He was holy and happy in bearing the image of God and in perfect obedience to His will.
As man came forth from the
hand of his Creator, he was of lofty stature and perfect symmetry.
His countenance bore the ruddy tint of health and glowed with
the light of life and joy. Adam's height was much greater than
that of men who now inhabit the earth. Eve was somewhat less in
stature; yet her form was noble, and full of beauty. The sinless
pair wore no artificial garments; they were clothed with a covering
of light and glory, such as the angels wear. So long as they lived
in obedience to God, this robe of light continued to enshroud
them.
After the creation of Adam every living creature was brought before him to receive its name; he saw that to each had been given a companion, but among them "there was not found an help meet for him." Among all the creatures that God had made on the earth, there was not one equal to man. And God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." Man was not made to dwell in solitude; he was to be a social being. Without companionship the beautiful scenes and delightful employments of Eden would have failed to yield perfect happiness. Even communion with angels could not have satisfied his desire for sympathy and companionship. There was none of the same nature to love and to be loved.
God Himself gave Adam a companion. He provided "an help meet for him"--a helper corresponding to him-one who was fitted to be his companion, and who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was his second self, showing the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation. "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it." Ephesians 5:29. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one."
God celebrated the first
marriage. Thus the institution has for its originator the Creator
of the universe. "Marriage is honorable" (Hebrews 13:4);
it was one of the first gifts of God to man, and it is one of
the two institutions that, after the Fall, Adam brought with him
beyond the gates of Paradise. When the divine principles are recognized
and obeyed in this relation, marriage is a blessing; it guards
the purity and happiness of the race, it provides for man's social
needs, it elevates the physical, the intellectual, and the moral
nature.
"And the Lord God planted
a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had
formed." Everything that God had made was the perfection
of beauty, and nothing seemed wanting that could contribute to
the happiness of the holy pair; yet the Creator gave them still
another token of His love, by preparing a garden especially for
their home. In this garden were trees of every variety, many of
them laden with fragrant and delicious fruit. There were lovely
vines, growing upright, yet presenting a most graceful appearance,
with their branches drooping under their load of tempting fruit
of the richest and most varied hues. It was the work of Adam and
Eve to train the branches of the vine to form bowers, thus making
for themselves a dwelling from living trees covered with foliage
and fruit. There were fragrant flowers of every hue in rich profusion.
In the midst of the garden stood the tree of life, surpassing
in glory all other trees. Its fruit appeared like apples of gold
and silver, and had the power to perpetuate life.
The creation was now complete. "The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." "And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Eden bloomed on earth. Adam and Eve had free access to the tree of life. No taint of sin or shadow of death marred the fair creation. "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38:7.
The great Jehovah had laid the foundations of the earth; He had dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty and had filled it with things useful to man; He had created all the wonders of the land and of the sea. In six days the great work of creation had been accomplished. And God "rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." God looked with satisfaction upon the work of His hands. All was perfect, worthy of its divine Author, and He rested, not as one weary, but as well pleased with the fruits of His wisdom and goodness and the manifestations of His glory.
After resting upon the seventh
day, God sanctified it, or set it apart, as a day of rest for
man. Following the example of the Creator, man was to rest upon
this sacred day, that as he should look upon the heavens and the
earth, he might reflect upon God's great work of creation; and
that as he should behold the evidences of God's wisdom and goodness,
his heart might be filled with love and reverence for his Maker.
In Eden, God set up the memorial of His work of creation, in placing His blessing upon the seventh day. The Sabbath was committed to Adam, the father and representative of the whole human family. Its observance was to be an act of grateful acknowledgment, on the part of all who should dwell upon the earth, that God was their Creator and their rightful Sovereign; that they were the work of His hands and the subjects of His authority. Thus the institution was wholly commemorative, and given to all mankind. There was nothing in it shadowy or of restricted application to any people.
God saw that a Sabbath was
essential for man, even in Paradise. He needed to lay aside his
own interests and pursuits for one day of the seven, that he might
more fully contemplate the works of God and meditate upon His
power and goodness. He needed a Sabbath to remind him more vividly
of God and to awaken gratitude because all that he enjoyed and
possessed came from the beneficent hand of the Creator.
God designs that the Sabbath shall direct the minds of men to the contemplation of His created works. Nature speaks to their senses, declaring that there is a living God, the Creator, the Supreme Ruler of all. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." Psalm 19:1, 2. The beauty that clothes the earth is token of God's love. We may behold it in the everlasting hills, in the lofty trees, in the opening buds and the delicate flowers. All speak to us of God. The Sabbath, ever pointing to Him who made them all, bids men open the great book of nature and trace therein the wisdom, the power, and the love of the Creator.
Our first parents, though
created innocent and holy, were not placed beyond the possibility
of wrongdoing. God made them free moral agents, capable of appreciating
the wisdom and benevolence of His character and the justice of
His requirements, and with full liberty to yield or to withhold
obedience. They were to enjoy communion with God and with holy
angels; but before they could be rendered eternally secure, their
loyalty must be tested. At the very beginning of man's existence
a check was placed upon the desire for self-indulgence, the fatal
passion that lay at the foundation of Satan's fall. The tree of
knowledge, which stood near the tree of life in the midst of the
garden, was to be a test of the obedience, faith, and love of
our parents. While permitted to eat freely of every other tree,
they were forbidden to taste of this, on pain of death. They were
also to be exposed to the temptations of Satan; but if they endured
the trial, they would finally be placed beyond his power, to enjoy
perpetual favor with God.
God placed man under law, as an indispensable condition of his very existence. He was a subject of the divine government, and there can be no government without law. God might have created man without the power to transgress His law; He might have withheld the hand of Adam from touching the forbidden fruit; but in that case man would have been, not a free moral agent, but a mere automaton. Without freedom of choice, his obedience would not have been voluntary, but forced. There could have been no development of character. Such a course would have been contrary to God's plan in dealing with the inhabitants of other worlds. It would have been unworthy of man as an intelligent being, and would have sustained Satan's charge of God's arbitrary rule.
God made upright; He gave him noble traits of character, with no bias toward evil. He endowed him with high intellectual powers, and presented before him the strongest possible inducements to be true to his allegiance. Obedience, perfect and perpetual, was the condition of eternal happiness. On this condition he was to have access to the tree of life.
The home of our first parents
was to be a pattern for other homes as their children should go
forth to occupy the earth. That home, beautified by the hand of
God Himself, was not a gorgeous palace. Men, in their pride, delight
in magnificent and costly edifices and glory in the works of their
own hands; but God placed Adam in a garden. This was his dwelling.
The blue heavens were its dome; the earth, with its delicate flowers
and carpet of living green, was its floor; and the leafy branches
of the goodly trees were its canopy. Its was walls were hung with
the most magnificent adornings--the handiwork of the great Master
Artist. In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for
all time--that true happiness is found, not in the indulgence
of pride and luxury, but in communion with God through His created
works. If men would give less attention to the artificial, and
would cultivate greater simplicity, they would come far nearer
to answering the purpose of God in their creation. Pride and ambition
are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise will find substantial
and elevating pleasure in the sources of enjoyment that God has
placed within the reach of all.
To the dwellers in Eden
was committed the care of the garden, "to dress it and to
keep it." Their occupation was not wearisome, but pleasant
and invigorating. God appointed labor as a blessing to man, to
occupy his mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties.
In mental and physical activity Adam found one of the highest
pleasures of his holy existence. And when, as a result of his
disobedience, he was driven from his beautiful home, and forced
to struggle with a stubborn soil to gain his daily bread, that
very labor, although widely different from his pleasant occupation
in the garden, was a safeguard against temptation and a source
of happiness. Those who regard work as a curse, attended though
it be with weariness and pain, are cherishing an error. The rich
often look down with contempt upon the working classes, but this
is wholly at variance with God's purpose in creating man. What
are the possessions of even the most wealthy in comparison with
the heritage given to the lordly Adam? Yet Adam was not to be
idle. Our Creator, who understands what is for man's happiness,
appointed Adam his work. The true joy of life is found only by
the working men and women. The angels are diligent workers; they
are the ministers of God to the children of men. The Creator has
prepared no place for the stagnating practice of indolence.
While they remained true to God, Adam and his companion were to bear rule over the earth. Unlimited control was given them over every living thing. The lion and the lamb sported peacefully around them or lay down together at their feet. The happy birds flitted about them without fear; and as their glad songs ascended to the praise of their Creator, Adam and Eve united with them in thanksgiving to the Father and the Son.
The holy pair were not only
children under the fatherly care of God but students receiving
instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels,
and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring
veil between. They were full of the vigor imparted by the tree
of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than
that of the angels. The mysteries of the visible universe--"the
wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge" (Job
37:16)--afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and
delight. The laws and operations of nature, which have engaged
men's study for six thousand years, were opened to their minds
by the infinite Framer and Upholder of all. They held converse
with leaf and flower and tree, gathering from each the secrets
of its life. With every living creature, from the mighty leviathan
that playeth among the waters to the insect mote that floats in
the sunbeam, Adam was familiar. He had given to each its name,
and he was acquainted with the nature and habits of all. God's
glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly
revolutions, "the balancings of the clouds," the mysteries
of light and sound, of day and night--all were open to the study
of our first parents. On every leaf of the forest or stone of
the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and air and sky,
God's name was written. The order and harmony of creation spoke
to them of infinite wisdom and power. They were ever discovering
some attraction that filled their hearts with deeper love and
called forth fresh expressions of gratitude.
So long as they remained
loyal to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and
to love would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining
new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness,
and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable,
unfailing love of God.
