14
Education
To Adam and Eve was committed the care of the garden, “to dress
it and to keep it.”
Genesis 2:15
. Though rich in all that the Owner of
the universe could supply, they were not to be idle. Useful occupation
was appointed them as a blessing, to strengthen the body, to expand
the mind, and to develop the character.
The book of nature, which spread its living lessons before them,
afforded an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. On every
leaf of the forest and stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in
earth and sea and sky, God’s name was written. With both the animate
and the inanimate creation—with leaf and flower and tree, and with
every living creature, from the leviathan of the waters to the mote
in the sunbeam—the dwellers in Eden held converse, gathering from
each the secrets of its life. God’s glory in the heavens, the innumerable
worlds in their orderly revolutions, “the balancings of the clouds” (
Job
37:16
), the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night—all were
objects of study by the pupils of earth’s first school.
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The laws and operations of nature, and the great principles of truth
that govern the spiritual universe, were opened to their minds by the
infinite Author of all. In “the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God” (
2 Corinthians 4:6
), their mental and spiritual powers developed,
and they realized the highest pleasures of their holy existence.
As it came from the Creator’s hand, not only the Garden of Eden
but the whole earth was exceedingly beautiful. No taint of sin, or
shadow of death, marred the fair creation. God’s glory “covered the
heavens, and the earth was full of His praise.” “The morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
Habakkuk 3:3
;
Job
38:7
. Thus was the earth a fit emblem of Him who is “abundant in
goodness and truth” (
Exodus 34:6
); a fit study for those who were
made in His image. The Garden of Eden was a representation of what
God desired the whole earth to become, and it was His purpose that,
as the human family increased in numbers, they should establish other
homes and schools like the one He had given. Thus in course of time
the whole earth might be occupied with homes and schools where the
words and the works of God should be studied, and where the students
should thus be fitted more and more fully to reflect, throughout endless
ages, the light of the knowledge of His glory.
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