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From Eternity Past
was to be a test of the obedience, faith, and love of our first parents.
They were forbidden to taste of this, on pain of death. They were to be
exposed to the temptations of Satan; but if they endured the trial, they
would be placed beyond his power, to enjoy perpetual favor with God.
The Beautiful Garden of Eden
God placed man under law, a subject of the divine government.
God might have created man without the power to transgress; He might
have withheld Adam from touching the forbidden fruit; but in that case
man would have been a mere automaton. Without freedom of choice,
his obedience would have been forced. Such a course would have been
contrary to God’s plan, unworthy of man as an intelligent being, and
would have sustained Satan’s charge of God’s arbitrary rule.
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God made man upright, with no bias toward evil. He presented
before him the strongest possible inducements to be true. Obedience
was the condition of eternal happiness and access to the tree of life.
The home of our first parents was to be a pattern for other homes as
their children should go forth to occupy the earth. Men in their pride
delight in magnificent and costly edifices and glory in the works of
their own hands, but God placed Adam in a garden. This was a lesson
for all time—true happiness is found not in the indulgence of pride
and luxury, but in communion with God through His created works.
Pride and ambition are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise
will find pleasure in the enjoyment God has placed within the reach of
all.
To the dwellers in Eden was committed the care of the garden, “to
dress it and to keep it.” God appointed labor as a blessing to man, to
occupy his mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. In
mental and physical activity Adam found one of the highest pleasures
of his holy existence. Those who regard work as a curse, attended
though it be with weariness and pain, are cherishing an error. The rich
often look down upon the working classes, but this is at variance with
God’s purpose in creating man. Adam was not to be idle. Our Creator,
who understands what is for man’s happiness, appointed Adam his
work. The true joy of life is found only by working men and women.
The Creator has prepared no place for stagnating indolence.