Creation
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and most varied hues. 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. There were
fragrant flowers of every hue in rich profusion. In the midst of the
garden stood the tree of life, surpassing in glory all other trees. Its
fruit appeared like apples of gold and silver, and had the power to
perpetuate life.
The creation was now complete. “The heavens and the earth were
finished, and all the host of them.” “And God saw everything that He
had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Eden bloomed on earth.
Adam and Eve had free access to the tree of life. No taint of sin or
shadow of death marred the fair creation. “The morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
Job 38:7
.
The great Jehovah had laid the foundations of the earth; He had
dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty and had filled it with
things useful to man; He had created all the wonders of the land and of
the sea. In six days the great work of creation had been accomplished.
And God “rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had
made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that
in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.”
God looked with satisfaction upon the work of His hands. All was
perfect, worthy of its divine Author, and He rested, not as one weary,
but as well pleased with the fruits of His wisdom and goodness and
the manifestations of His glory.
After resting upon the seventh day, God sanctified it, or set it
apart, as a day of rest for man. Following the example of the Creator,
man was to rest upon this sacred day, that as he should look upon
the heavens and the earth, he might reflect upon God’s great work of
creation; and that as he should behold the evidences of God’s wisdom
and goodness, his heart might be filled with love and reverence for his
Maker.
[48]
In Eden, God set up the memorial of His work of creation, in
placing His blessing upon the seventh day. The Sabbath was committed
to Adam, the father and representative of the whole human family. Its
observance was to be an act of grateful acknowledgment, on the part
of all who should dwell upon the earth, that God was their Creator
and their rightful Sovereign; that they were the work of His hands
and the subjects of His authority. Thus the institution was wholly