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Patriarchs and Prophets
heart was darkened.”
Romans 1:21
. Therefore “God gave them over to
a mind void of judgment.”
Verse 28
, margin. Sin spread abroad in the
earth like a deadly leprosy.
For nearly a thousand years Adam lived among men, a witness to
the results of sin. Faithfully he sought to stem the tide of evil. He had
been commanded to instruct his posterity in the way of the Lord; and
he carefully treasured what God had revealed to him, and repeated it to
succeeding generations. To his children and children’s children, to the
ninth generation, he described man’s holy and happy estate in Paradise,
and repeated the history of his fall, telling them of the sufferings by
which God had taught him the necessity of strict adherence to His law,
and explaining to them the merciful provisions for their salvation. Yet
there were but few who gave heed to his words. Often he was met
with bitter reproaches for the sin that had brought such woe upon his
posterity.
Adam’s life was one of sorrow, humility, and contrition. When he
left Eden, the thought that he must die thrilled him with horror. He
was first made acquainted with the reality of death in the human family
when Cain, his first-born son, became the murderer of his brother.
Filled with the keenest remorse for his own sin, and doubly bereaved
in the death of Abel and the rejection of Cain, Adam was bowed down
with anguish. He witnessed the wide-spreading corruption that was
finally to cause the destruction of the world by a flood; and though
the sentence of death pronounced upon him by his Maker had at first
appeared terrible, yet after beholding for nearly a thousand years the
results of sin, he felt that it was merciful in God to bring to an end a
life of suffering and sorrow.
Notwithstanding the wickedness of the antediluvian world, that age
was not, as has often been supposed, an era of ignorance and barbarism.
The people were granted the opportunity of reaching a high standard of
moral and intellectual attainment. They possessed great physical and
mental strength, and their advantages for acquiring both religious and
scientific knowledge were unrivaled. It is a mistake to suppose that
because they lived to a great age their minds matured late; their mental
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powers were early developed, and those who cherished the fear of God
and lived in harmony with His will continued to increase in knowledge
and wisdom throughout their life. Could illustrious scholars of our
time be placed in contrast with men of the same age who lived before