Immortality A Conditional Gift To Be Bestowed At The Resurrection, continued

There is a short way of disposing of antagonistic speculation. If Christ is true, so is the Mosaic presentation of Adam in the garden of Eden; for Christ endorsed the Mosaic writings; and the New Testament, in more places than one, ties Adam and Christ together as the two poles in the divine scheme (I Cor. 15v 20-21; Rom. 5v 12-20). It is no childish relapse, therefore (though it is so esteemed in many quarters), that goes back for information on a problem of human condition to the episode of Eden. Let us go thither a moment; we behold Adam and Eve pursuing the pleasant occupation of dressers of that magnificent garden of a thousand hues, spreading itself below the warming rays of an Asiatic sun. We contemplate them spending their days in the sweetness of innocence, and drinking in, with virgin faculty, the pure delights of nature. When we think of what follows, we are taught the lesson that man exists not for himself alone-that mere sensuous enjoyment is not the supreme object of existence-that there are higher actions of the mind, more serious responsibilities, more exalted obligations, which exercise alone can wake us up to-that God is the highest, and demands the absolute submission of our wills and affections to Him as the essential condition of our happiness and His pleasure.

Adam is prohibited from touching a certain tree in the midst of the garden, not because the tree was intrinsically bad, or that there was any sin in the act itself apart from interdict, but because such a prohibition was, in the circumstances, the simplest and most convenient mode of educating him in regard to his relations to the Almighty. "Where no law is, there is no transgression," says Paul. So long as the tree was free from prohibition, Adam was at liberty to use it as freely as the others; but, the prohibition having been enjoined, it became unlawful for him to touch it. How long Adam continued to obey, we are not informed; but we know that in the course of time he infringed the divine enactment.

"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 unto her husband with her, and he did eat" (Gen. 3v 6).

The consequence of this act was most calamitous:-

"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" (Gen. 3v 17-19).

Here is an explanation of the present exceptional condition of the human race. Adam, originally created with a view to possible immortality, was doomed to return to his original nothingness, and there then commenced in him that process of physical decay which terminates all in death. Having all sprung from Adam, we have, of course, inherited the deathtending qualities of his nature, because the clean cannot come out of the unclean (Job 14v 4). On this principle, death has passed upon all men through Adam; and so we find ourselves mortal.

It is no uncommon thing nowadays to jest upon the subject, and to mockingly enquire why God did not prevent this result. It is useless to attempt an answer to those who are guilty of this folly, because they are not in a frame of mind to appreciate it. The very question evinces a flippancy of thought and, in most cases, a shallowness of moral nature which it is hopeless to deal with. To answer is like throwing pearls before swine; they are certain to "turn again and rend." The deep thinking and the devout will have no difficulty in perceiving that the occurrence of such a bitter chapter in human history was incidental to the investiture of man with the Godlike prerogative of free agency; and, further, that its occurrence was foreseen by the Almighty, and intended by Him to be the basis on which He should establish the triumph of eternal benevolence and eternal wisdom. It requires no very profound discernment to see that the introduction of evil will lead to ultimate results, so perfectly glorious as to show the infinite wisdom and mercy of God in permitting it.

After the occurrence of the transgression, and the passing of the sentence consequent upon it, a precaution was taken for the purpose expressed in these words, taken from the 3rd chap. of Genesis (verses 22 and 23):-

"And now, lest he (Adam) put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken."

Let those who believe in the natural immortality of man ponder the import of these words. What necessity would there have been for preventing Adam from eating of the tree of life "lest he eat and live for ever," if he were already and essentially immortal? Adam being mortal, the precaution was a merciful one; for had Adam, in his fallen and unhappy state, become invested in immortality, the earth would have become peopled with undying sinful men, who in the course of ages would have multiplied and overcrowded the globe, and developed a scene of indescribable confusion and misery. But this terrible calamity was averted. Adam was excluded from access to the other tree, which, under a provisional arrangement, had been endowed with life giving virtue; and so continued mortal: and his descendants, innumerable, sinstricken, and wretched, are mercifully swept away, generation after generation, like grass before the mower.

It is easy here to realize how unfounded are the popular hopes of salvation based on "being good," as they phrase it. Adam by one offence, and that, too, an offence inspired by the good motive, as men would say, of doing himself good, viz., that he might become wise, and be as the Elohim-by one offence, came under sentence of death. If one offence was fatal in the case of Adam, how can his descendants, laden with sins, hope to escape by any amount of poor goodness? No, no! men must be forgiven and justified before they can be saved: and how they are to attain to this state may be learnt in the teachings of the Apostles-apart from which there is "no hope" (Eph. 2v 12).