not surely die; for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat." 11

It is wholly immaterial, so far as the object of this article is concerned, whether we consider the foregoing account of the first transgression a literal history of facts, or a figurative representation. Certain it is that there was an act of transgression, and consequently of sin; and equally certain that the act brought upon the transgressors its inevitable consequences; for "the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked." 12

But were those consequences to our first parents altogether and ultimately evil? Did no good result to them by reason of their transgression? They were guilty in the sight of God and in their own consciences; but was the Divine favor wholly withdrawn from them? Did their disobedience subject them to the "wrath and curse of God," for time and eternity? And further, did their sin involve their whole posterity in "all the miseries of this life, death itself, and the pains of hell forever?" Their trial followed immediately after their transgression; and we must suppose that God, in arraigning, convicting and sentencing them, charged them with the full measure of their iniquity, and informed them of all the consequences of their guilt, or, in other words, pronounced the full penalty of his violated law. And it appears, from the history of this transaction, that the consequences of their disobedience followed immediately the act of transgression; for, not only were their eyes opened to discover their nakedness, but fear, the invariable concomitant of guilt, took possession of their souls. "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden." 13 They were immediately arraigned at the bar of God, and instantly convicted on their own confession. After their conviction, but before sentence was

"Gen. iii. 1-6.

12 Id. 7.

13 Id. 8.

pronounced against them, God proceeded to curse the serpent, and to announce his final destruction: thus demonstrating that evil, whether introduced into the world by the direct agency of Deity, or existing by his permission, is not an ultimate end in the divine purpose; and if not an end, we must believe it subordinate, and the means ordained by unerring wisdom for the attainment of some other end; and this, in the purpose of infinite goodness, can be only good.

After the arraignment and conviction of the guilty pair, and the denunciation of God to the serpent, the sentence immediately follows. "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 14

In relation to the foregoing sentence, the following particulars may be noticed:

1. There is not the least intimation that any of the consequences of the transgression would extend to the future. world. On the contrary, they are all of such a character that they must necessarily pertain wholly to the present state of being. Nor is it intimated that the guilt of our first parents would so descend to their posterity as to render them totally depraved in "all the faculties of their bodies, souls and spirits," or constitute them heirs of eternal torments beyond the grave. Neither is it reported or even taught by implication, that the nature of Adam and Eve was changed by this one act of sin; or that they lost that image of God in which they were created, and which they retained till they transgressed the law of the Lord. And so far from teaching that every subsequent act of their lives

14 Gen. iii. 16-19.

was sinful, as the consequence of their fall, their history does not even intimate that they committed another sin during their whole earthly existence.

2. In pronouncing sentence upon the woman, God informed her that he would multiply her sorrow and her conception; that in sorrow, or with pain, she should bring forth children; and that her desire should be to her husband; or, adopting the marginal reading, her desire should be "subject to her husband." Here is no intimation that any change had been wrought in her physical constitution by the act of transgression; and if no such change was effected, we have no reason to suppose that she was originally, or in a state of innocence, exempt from the operation of the universal law of nature in relation to the bringing forth of offspring; or that she was an exception to the whole animal creation. But, admitting it were otherwise, and that all those pains and sorrows came upon her as the punishment, or consequence, of her sin, does no good result from such sufferings? We have every reason to believe that those sufferings create, or at least arouse to action that ardent and enduring maternal love so indispensable to the preservation and welfare of every new-born creature, and the source of such unspeakable joy and happiness in the breast of every mother. It is an undeniable, if not a universally admitted fact, that the joys of maternity far outweigh its sorrows; and if so, such sufferings cannot be incompatible with divine goodness.

3. We may next consider the denunciation against Adam ; and here we find what have been considered the two great evils, or curses, which have come into the world and passed upon all mankind, in consequence of sin, viz., labor and death, or the dissolution of the body. But is labor an evil? If so, was it something which did not enter into the purpose of God when he created man in his own image? We learn that our first parents, immediately after their creation, received the Divine benediction. "And God blessed them; and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." 15 From this it

15 Gen. i. 28.

is evident that God originally ordained labor, as the means by which men should rise to that exalted rank in the scale of being for which he was designed in the purpose of his Creator. And how could man, without labor, and that development of his faculties induced by it, subdue the earth, or exercise dominion over all other creatures? But labor, even if we admit that it was imposed on man as part of the penalty of God's violated law, is not a curse, but a real and substantial blessing. In proof of this, we have only to look into those regions where the earth spontaneously brings forth all that is necessary for human sustenance. There, man, intellectually and morally, is but very little elevated above the wild beasts by whom he is surrounded. Compared with the untutored aborigines of our own country, who, for the purpose of procuring their food, are compelled to engage in the simple labor of the chase, the inhabitants of those tropical regions are but very little exalted above mere animals. Without labor, neither the physical, intellectual, nor moral powers of human nature could be fully developed. With it, man becomes an exalted being. Without labor, only comparatively small portions of the earth could be inhabited by man. With it, the most sterile and inhospitable regions teem with intelligent human beings, and become the theatres of human enjoyment. Labor, then, even admitting that it was imposed on man as a punishment, or as a consequence of sin, is the direct means of procuring for him great good, which he could obtain in no other manner; and is, consequently, not an evil, but a true blessing; and its institution an evidence of the infinite goodness of our heavenly Father.

Natural death, or the dissolution of the body, which is the common lot of humanity, has long and generally been considered one of the most direful consequences of the first transgression; a calamity which all mankind would have escaped had it not been for the sin of our first parents. But this view of the subject is certainly not warranted by the language of God to Adam; nor is it sanctioned by any thing we find in the inspired volume. Death was, in the beginning, and still is, the penalty of the Divine law. To our first parents God said, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;" and the voice of the Almighty now proclaims to all men, everywhere, "the soul

that sinneth it shall die." Through all ages of the world, and wherever the righteous government of God extends, "the wages of sin is death;" and from the consequences of unrighteousness no human soul can escape. Though natural death is frequently the consequence of sinful acts and indulgences, it is abundantly evident that it was not introduced into the world and made the portion of all the living, by the transgression of Adam and Eve in the garden ; for during long ages before the creation of man, successive generations and numerous species of animals had existed and died on the earth. In further proof of our position, we may notice the fact that our progenitors did not suffer natural death at the time when God declared that they should "surely die," i. e., in the day of transgression. If the declaration of God that they should die in consequence of transgression was true, it was equally true that the death denounced against them was inflicted in that very day; consequently, that death could not have been the dissolution of their bodies, for they lived in the earth many years after the day of transgression. Another fact bearing strictly on this point is, that in their primeval state they needed food to repair the natural waste and decay of their physical constitutions, which would not have been necessary had they been created with bodies exempt from dissolution, or natural death. Finally, God assigned to Adam the true reason why he should return to the ground, viz., for, or because, out of it he was taken: "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." If, then, the dissolution of human bodies, or natural death, is the consequence, not of sin, but of their earthly organization, their dissolution and return to their native elements can be no more incompatible with divine goodness than the death of the rest of the animal creation.

But, aside from all these considerations, every Christian believes that man was created for a higher, purer and better state of being than he can ever attain in the flesh; a state in which he will be free, not only from all mortal infirmities, but from the influence of all those passions which so often mar his felicity, destroy his happiness in life, and retard his progress towards that state of high perfection to which he is destined in the purpose of his God. This more perfect and glorious condition can be reached only through