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From Eternity Past
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, his countenance
glowed with the light of life and joy. Adam’s height was much greater
than that of men now living. 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 glory such as the
angels wear.
The First Marriage
After the creation of Adam, “God said, It is not good that the man
should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” God gave
Adam a companion, “an help meet for him,” one who was fitted to be
his companion, and who would be one with him in love and sympathy.
Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam. 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, loved and protected
by him. She was his second self, showing the close union that should
exist in this relation. “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but
nourisheth and cherisheth it.” “Therefore shall a man leave his father
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one.”
Ephesians 5:29
;
Genesis 2:24
.
“Marriage is honorable.”
Hebrews 13:4
. It is one of the two insti-
tutions that, after the fall, Adam brought with him beyond the gates
of Paradise. When the divine principles are recognized and obeyed,
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marriage is a blessing; it guards the purity and happiness of the race
and 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.” In this garden were trees of
every variety, many of them laden with delicious fruit. There were
lovely vines, growing upright, their branches drooping under their
load of tempting fruit. 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. In the midst
of the garden stood the tree of life, surpassing in glory all other trees.
Its fruit had the power to perpetuate life.