Adam and Eve and their Eden home
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surrounded them reflected like a mirror the wisdom, excellence, and
love of their heavenly Father. And their songs of affection and praise
rose sweetly and reverentially to heaven, harmonizing with the songs
of the exalted angels, and with the happy birds who were caroling forth
their music without a care. There was no disease, decay, nor death.
Life was in everything the eye rested upon. The atmosphere was filled
with life. Life was in every leaf, in every flower, and in every tree.
The Lord knew that Adam could not be happy without labor; there-
fore, He gave him the pleasant employment of dressing the garden.
And, as he tended the things of beauty and usefulness around him,
he could behold the goodness and glory of God in His created works.
Adam had themes for contemplation in the works of God in Eden,
which was heaven in miniature. God did not form man merely to
contemplate His glorious works; therefore, He gave him hands for
labor, as well as a mind and heart for contemplation.
If the happiness of man consisted in doing nothing, the Creator
would not have given Adam his appointed work. Man was to find
happiness in labor, as well as in meditation. Adam could take in the
grand idea that he was created in the image of God, to be like Him
in righteousness and holiness. His mind was capable of continual
cultivation, expansion, refinement, and noble elevation; for God was
his teacher, and angels were his companions.
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