The three gardens, Eden, Gethsemane, and Paradise : or, Man's ruin, redemption and restoration / by William Adams

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I. Man’s First Probation

As to the interpretation of that portion of Scripture which narrates the original probation and fall of man, different methods have been advocated. It would be difficult to select any other part of the sacred volume about which there has been the same amount of curious speculation. The reader will easily perceive how many topics are suggested by the narrative, which would be likely to divert minds of a certain order from the principal subject of the history—such as curious disquisitions about the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, the mode of Satanic approach, the origin of evil, and many other matters of similar import. Many have given an allegorical interpretation to the whole passage, for the purpose of avoiding what has seemed to them a diffi- : culty arising from the extreme simplicity of the narrative as it now stands. Others interpret it as partly allegorical and partly historical. Others, still, interpret it as a myth, a didactic fable, a truth invested in a poetic form—some asserting that the account of man’s first trial was represented in a pictorial method, so that the language of Moses is ‘here borrowed from hieroglyphic figures, thus combining together the his- ~ torical and the mythical. This reference to these several methods of interpreting the passage is made for - the distinct purpose of saying that the plan now proposed will not make it necessary to enter upon the discussion of any one of these incidental matters. Hven those who regard the whole narrative of Moses concerning man’s abode in Eden as mythological, agree | in this, that the myth has a moral; though an allegory is the form in which truth is conveyed, yet truth still is thus conveyed. It is that truth, that one fact, whether it be communicated in hieroglyphical, allegorical, or didactic language, with which we are now to be occupied. Bearing this in mind, we shall dispense with all that is simply curious and speculative, and occupy ourselves with the one great fact which is here revealed, whatever mode of interpreting the form of revelation may be adopted. Those who give the most literal interpretation to every item of the narrative, and those who incline to the tropical and mythical, all agree that the object of the sacred writer was to describe the first probation of human nature. And this is the topic now before us—a topic altogether practical to ourselves,

TEST OF OBEDIENCE. ao since the first and second forms of human probation differ essentially.

The terms of man’s original probation are briefly defined. Simple obedience to the will of God describes the first moral trial of human nature. A special act of

obedience was presented, and the conditions of proba- _ tion were simply these: obey, and retain all the pleasures and rewards of innocence ; disobey, and there shall follow the pangs of remorse, and the displeasure of God. Obey, and live; disobey, and die. Such is the definition of man’s original probation. He was placed “ under law’? ——if we may use a word which to us is associated with severity, and compulsion, and awe, as descriptive of that trial of innocence, with which nothing repulsive was connected. The thing to be observed is, that obedience — obedience alone, nothing but obedience — describes the original probation of man. ‘There is no mixture of mercy, of forgiveness, in the terms of it. Mercy is a gratuity offered to guilt. Nothing of this was proposed to original innocence, for it was not needed while innocence was retained. It matters not at all whether the interdicted act be in itself great or smail, vast or trivial—it was a test of obedience; and that was the moral trial to which the nature of man was first subjected.

Observe the favorable auspices of this original proop 2 bation. There was no propensity in man’s nature to evil. There was no derangement in his constitution inclining him to sin. Body and soul were absolutely perfect in their organization. There was no proclivity, no bias, in the wrong direction. Man was the very likeness of his Maker, with no more disposition or inclination to evil than in the holy nature of God.

The terms of the probation were definitely wnderstood. 'This is essential to all fairness and equity when the principle of obedience is to be tested. Acts which proceed from ignorance or accident are not to be con- - founded with the intelligent and purposed infraction of positive injunctions. When serpent subtlety suggested the first temptation to the mind of Eve, she quickly repelled it, on the ground that the act to which she was solicited was forbidden by the-express interdict of the Creator ; thus proving that the first condition of legal probation was complied with, in that the test of obedience was well and perfectly understood.

The circumstances of the probation were in all other respects eminently auspicious. The liberty allowed was the very largest. There was no pressure of want to necessitate transgression. All the delights of Eden were at the command of its innocent tenants. The amplest range of enjoyment was afforded; all created things were at their disposal, save that one, which it was their pleasure to avoid, because obedience to their

FAVORABLE AUSPICES. 35

Maker was a delight. Infidelity may scoff at the trivial nature of the act interdicted ; but the obvious reply is, that acts are not to be measured by their own littleness or largeness, or the brevity of the time in which they are performed, but by their relations —the smallest serving as a test as well as the largest.

With the mention of these several circumstances, we can not conceive how human nature could have been tested, as to the principle of obedience, on conditions more hopeful, more auspicious, more equitable, than it actually was in Hden. The imagination has often been indulged, and the wish expressed, that we, each for himself, might have been put on probation, in reference to simple obedience to divine statutes, with no disadvantage of evil example, or a vitiated nature, or misleading influences, or unfavorable conditions, against us. It is well to bear in mind that the first and only probation of human nature, on terms of simple, unmixed obedience to law, was conducted under circumstances which left absolutely nothing more auspicious, more desirable, to be conceived of.

How long man continued in that state of imnocence, proving and enjoying his obedience, we are not informed. ‘There is a meaning in the fact that the narrative of man’s first probation is so brief. All which relates to it is condensed into one short chapter. The

Bible is constructed for the advantage of humanity in its second probation, and consequently nothing more is revealed concerning the first than barely suffices to acquaint us with its nature and issue—thus serving as an introduction to that which ensues, upon which we are now passing our earthly existence.

Temptation is now presented to the occupants of Eden. Temptation is not sin, but it seems to be implied in the very nature of man’s probation. Were we to derive all our knowledge concerning the temptation of man in HKden from the third chapter of Genesis, we should suspect no other agency as connected with it than impressions made on the mind of innocence by the serpent, remarkable for beauty, adroitness, and subtlety — feeding, perhaps, himself on the very tree which was interdicted to man. But we are not left in this imperfect acquaintance with facts. Later disclosures of inspiration make it certain that another order of beings was concerned in instigating man to evil. Here have we the first allusion which, like a hinge or link, connects the history of our race with events which occurred before man was made—a connection which subsists now, and is to continue, in one form or another, when this world is consumed — so binding for ever, past, present, and future events of Providence, into one vast and endless system, ever revolving and unfolding. Sin existed in the universe before it blighted Eden. Some of the angels kept not their first estate; and rev-

“PARADISE LOST.” 37 elation positively instructs us that man’s apostacy, and man’s redemption, and man’s final destiny, have direct relations to the history of those who fell from heaven before man was fashioned out of the dust. It is frequently said that our notions on this subject are drawn from the ‘ Paradise Lost?’ of Milton, rather than from the Word of God. But is not that sublime epic, as to the great facts of its construction, founded on the historical incidents of the inspired Scriptures? We claim that it is. We are not jealous, as believers in inspiration, of the influence upon our imagination of that book which, in the great outlines of its mechanism, is accordant with revelation. The blindness of Milton seems to have been sent for the world’s blessing—inward illumination increasing as sensible vision was darkened: so that, while the great epics of the Greek and Latin languages relate only to the overthrow or founding of states, the epic of the English language, constructed out of the materials furnished by divine revelation, informs and exalts the imagination of all who read our native tongue to a greater familiarity with those august events of the spiritual world which are disclosed by our religion, and inseparably allied to our immortality.

After all which has been written by metaphysical ‘ philosophy about the origin of sin, we take the subject just where it was found by those who first began to think and speculate concerning it. Wery much has been written on the subject, we know, which is visionary, which is irrational—explanations which explain nothing —solutions of problems which are not solved at all; but we are not aware that all the philosophic discussions of the world together ever advanced beyond the condensed and inimitable formula of the apostle James: ‘“‘God can not be tempted with evil; neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Sin originated in no compulsion, no inducement, on the part of God. It is not an accident, or effect of matter. It had its origin in the free-will of man. It was man’s free-will which was on trial. Involuntary suggestion, the thought, the imagination of the act interdicted, was not sin; but the entertainment of that imagination, the cherishing of that desire, the accomplishing of that thought—this is sin. Such is the sequency in this actual history. She looked—she saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eye, and good for food ; desire was enkindled, was cherished: and this, when it conceived, brought forth sin; and sin, when completed in act, brought forth death. All the metaphysics of centuries, whole libraries of philosophic discussion, concerning the origin and nature of sin, condensed together, add nothing to this concise statement of historic events.

TRANSGRESSION. , ao

The fact with which we are chiefly concerned is, that ‘man’s first probation terminated disastrously. That tree which, because of the divine interdict, had been avoided——-which had been the test of obedience — through the subtleties of diabolic solicitation, was approached, and the fruit thereof was eaten. ‘The tempter was believed more than God. The desire of self control, distrust and independence of the Creator, and palpable infrmgement of his well-known will, were the ripened form and fruit of sin. The bright and happy auspices of the first probation availed nothing ; and, notwithstanding circumstances most propitious in aid of obedience, sin entered the world, with all ist entailment of wo!

Behold the changes which were produced by transeression !

The first was shame. A new emotion was this to man. He who had rejoiced in the perfect consciousness of innocence, before his Maker, was now bereaved of that happy sense, and depressed with mortification. There was no blush in Eden, as there was none in heaven, till sin entered it. That crimson signal of cuilt, or offended modesty, betrays the knowledge between good and evil which was first born on earth when transgression invaded Eden. No reproof, no upbraiding, no sentence, as yet had been uttered by their Maker ; but the guilty pair had lost, what they never could regain, ignorance of evil, consciousness of innocence, and they were ashamed. Shame is the first-born progeny of sin. |

The next was fear of God. That fear had been unknown and unimagined before. The greatest joy of innocence was to have communion with the Creator, conscious of meriting, certain of receiving, his benediction. With what exuberant delight the heart of holy man bounded to meet the Being from whom his own being had proceeded. The voice of God was now heard —‘“‘ Adam, where art thou ?’?—but there was no gladness in the heart of man to meet him: and the conscience-smitten culprits, cowering with terror, hid themselves beneath the trees of the garden. Yet not with terror only. Let it not escape us how true to nature, how true to all we have ourselves observed and experienced, is the record here given of the effects produced by primeval transgression. We are naturally repelled from the society of those we have wronged. An innocent child, conscious of having regarded every parental injunction, will enjoy no society so much as of those very parents in whose sunny approbation it loves to bask. Let the case be “reversed, and a parent’s will be disregarded, and that child will feel itself repelled from the presence of those whose favor it has consciously forfeited. Repulsion from God was the necessary effect of guilt and shame.

EFFECTS OF TRANSGRESSION. At

Man sought to conceal himself from his Maker. An evil conscience invariably begets dislike and fear of God.

The next effect of disobedience was mutual recrimination between the guilty parties. Before, they were. as one with themselves, as they were one with God. But now they are at variance. The harsh word, the cruel taunt, the bitter recrimination, are passed between the offending pair. Here, again, observe how truthful to nature is this narrative. It is hard for the guilty honestly to acknowledge sin. Shame deters from manly and ingenuous confession, and begets subterfuges, evasions, excuses, prevarications, without number, and without end. The charge of guilt was thrown from one to the other—by Adam upon Eve, by Eve upon the tempter —and throughout it all there was that mean and pitiable effort which conscious guilt always engenders, to evade the light of truth, and ward off the unequivocal admission of demerit.

Now comes the sentence of retribution-—the curse of the Almighty—pealing in thunders on the ear of affrighted nature. It was not malice which uttered the direful words, for God was at the beginning, is now, and ever shall be Love. Nevertheless, it was God himself who pronounced a curse upon the tempter, a curse upon the woman, a curse upon man, a curse upon the earth, for their sakes.

Pain, and sorrow, now began: and pain and sorrow were to be continued. Transgression is the head-spring of sorrow. .

Occupation was a part of man’s enjoyment in innocence. Now easy and pleasant work is exchanged for hard and toilsome labor. Now that man has himself opened a leak in the ship, he is put under the stern necessity of sweat, and strife, to drive out the invading water or be drowned. We shall see, in the proper time and place, how the remedy is made appropriate to the evil: not by removing the necessity of exertion: but by mitigating and modifying the curse to such a degree that a compensatory good is deduced from the necessary evil. Work in innocence was regulated and limited by pleasure; but labor after defection, is imposed by necessity, and is hard, exacting, and onerous. Next comes the curse of death. ‘ Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”” The most distinct punishment of transgression was that man must die. Out of the ground was he taken, and unto the ground must be return. Man saw death before he tasted it himself. What emotions must have agitated his soul when, for the first time he saw the death of an animal, which, but for his guilt, would have fawned and sported before him; its touching bleat, its quivering limbs, its convulsive palpitation, its stiffness, its coldness, its death! So man himself should die. Sim entered the world, and death by sin. That gloomy shape, which shadows the

DEATH. AS earth to-day, strode into Eden, and brandished his menacing dart at the guilty.

Last of all came expulsion from Eden. That tree of life from which they had eaten, and might have eaten always but for transgression, was not to be their food now that they had lost their innocence. They

were driven out of the garden—its blessedness was for- - feited for ever. Eden was lost: nor could man regain and re-enter it. This is the substance of the whole narrative. The first probation of human nature ended in shame, suffering, recrimination, remorse, and death. The world has had one Eden—and only one. Man has never discovered and reclaimed it since our progenitors lost it. Kable has told us of the garden of the

Hesperides, of Elysian fields, but who has ever found an Eden? We have read of royal magnificence, of sumptuous palaces, of gardens wrought by art, watered by fountains, and replenished by affluence, but we have never read of human abodes in which there existed the ‘innocence, the love, the fearlessness, the joy, of original paradise. We have never read of the royal residence into which death might not intrude; nor the bosom into which sorrow never could enter.

Where shall we betake ourselves now to find an Eden? Should we climb the steep of Ararat, would we find it there? Should we voyage to those isles of Greece about which the memories of history throw their soft and radiant light, could we find it there? Does it sleep undiscovered in the bosom of one of those islands in the Pacific seas which are clad with perpetual verdure? Barbarism is there. The fairest portion, of the world—the cradle of the human race—the very plains and valleys where the fathers of our race once lived—are now in the possession of half-civilized and degenerate tribes; nor is there one sheltered nook in this vast world, explore as we will, which corresponds to that abode, where man walked and worshipped in his innocence. Eden is something past, lost, and gone from the earth. It is an historic tradition— a form of probation which is finished for ever. The consequences of that original trial of human nature still remain ; but the same form of probation, on the same terms, and under the same auspices, has never been repeated, and if we read the Scriptures aright, will never be repeated on the earth.

What are the consequences of that first disobedience? Were any entailed upon the posterity of the first pair? Did all the disastrous effects of transgression terminate on the two who committed the first sin, or did they travel over to involve, in any manner, the human race ?

Without anticipating the answer to these inquiries, our attention is arrested by one remarkable fact. The history of our world did not terminate abruptly and

THE WORLD REPRIEVED. 45 immediately after sin had invaded and blighted it. God did not forsake the race that had forsaken him. God was not alienated from man when man was alienated from him. The life of humanity was not ended, at once and for ever, by the disastrous issue of its first probation. From all which is told us in revelation, we infer that, when the fallen angels sinned, retribution followed immediately upon transgression. They “who kept not their first estate, left their own habitation, and are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” For them was no reprieve, no redemption, no gospel of forgiveness. Mark the difference. When man sinned, though retribution of one kind followed, yet man was spared. The curtain did not drop before this stage of being, nor the life of man go out in darkness. Mercy was mingled with the displeasure of justice.

Speaking after the manner of men, we say that man’s first probation was a failure, a disappointment, and a wreck. But the waves of oblivion did not roll over the world, nor was a new creation evoked to supply its place; but the world continued, the sun shone, the stars kept on in their courses, time waited, and man was placed on a new and different probation. That second probation forms the great body of human history. The first was a mere prelude to the second. This explains why it is that the narrative of the first is so brief and condensed. It is not pertinent or practical to ourselves at all. We are not deciding our destiny on the same probationary terms which were prescribed. to man at the beginning. Our immortal blessedness is not pivoted on the contingency of sinless obedience and unsullied innocence. Mercy presides over the second and main probation of our race; and our destiny turns on our relations and dispositions to the means of redemption. A glimpse of coming hope and relief breaks through the gloom of the curse itself: ‘The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Promise is.mingled with the very utterance of displeasure; nor does the cloud which gathered its blackness, and uttered its thunders over the heads of the guilty, discharge its contents, before the bow of hope is painted on its gloom, to gladden their tearful eyes and desponding heart ; nor have they stepped outside the gates of Eden, before the second probation of human nature begins, under the auspices of restorative help. Sometimes we wonder why the closing days of the first man’s life are not more minutely described. His history was prolonged through well-nigh a thousand years. What was the state of the world—into what forms and degrees of development human nature unfolded itself, before Adam died—we are well informed. But the personal character, the emotions, the hopes, the sorrows, the dying scene, of the first man,

IN CHRIST, NOT IN ADAM. 47 are not recorded. His second son leads the column of the faithful; and the New Testament expressly mentions the blood which Abel shed in sacrifice as the religious confidence he expressed in the coming of One who was to redeem and restore the world.

Not one of the human race—such is the record of the Word of God—not one of all its countless myriads— neither Adam nor one of that vast family of his—never yet gathered together on earth, and never but once to be gathered together, at the tribunal of the Son of man —not one of the whole will ever enter the kingdom of heaven on the terms of the first probation, because of sinless obedience—because of the deserts of an unstained and unfallen glory. There is not one who would presume to enter into judgment with God on such conditions. Who would invite the scrutiny of Omniscience, and challenge the verdict of the Almighty on the claim of being holy as our Maker? Fear would blanch the cheek, beyond all the pallor of death, at the thought of terminating our earthly trial and going into the presence of God with such a pretence!

We need not wait, therefore, till we draw out, in scholastic order, the statement of redemption, before announcing what is the only hope and safety of man. We live under the auspices of mercy, and our salvation is in the remission of sins. We are not in Adam, but in Christ. How much better, how much safer, how much more for our blessedness this is, will appear in the proper place, when we treat of those wonders of divine love by which the sad issues of the first probation were overruled and superseded by the compensatory provisions of the second. Enough to know, the Scriptures record it, the ministry herald it, the skies reflect it, the world has heard it, sabbaths repeat it, time reechoes it, the Spirit and the Bride proclaim it; and, ere the mystery of Providence shall close, it shall roll around the earth from pole to pole—‘“ God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Behold already the terms of our earthly probation! Let us flee, seasonably and joyfully, for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us in the gospel. ;