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proud hearts, and reveled in scenes of pleasure and wickedness. Not
desiring to retain God in their knowledge, they soon came to deny His
existence. They adored nature in place of the God of nature. They
glorified human genius, worshiped the works of their own hands, and
taught their children to bow down to graven images.
In the green fields and under the shadow of the goodly trees they
set up the altars of their idols. Extensive groves, that retained their
foliage throughout the year, were dedicated to the worship of false
gods. With these groves were connected beautiful gardens, their long,
winding avenues overhung with fruit-bearing trees of all descriptions,
adorned with statuary, and furnished with all that could delight the
senses or minister to the voluptuous desires of the people, and thus
allure them to participate in the idolatrous worship.
Men put God out of their knowledge and worshiped the creatures
of their own imagination; and as the result, they became more and
more debased. The psalmist describes the effect produced upon the
worshiper by the adoration of idols. He says, “They that make them are
like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.”
Psalm 115:8
. It is
a law of the human mind that by beholding we become changed. Man
will rise no higher than his conceptions of truth, purity, and holiness.
If the mind is never exalted above the level of humanity, if it is not
uplifted by faith to contemplate infinite wisdom and love, the man will
be constantly sinking lower and lower. The worshipers of false gods
clothed their deities with human attributes and passions, and thus their
standard of character was degraded to the likeness of sinful humanity.
They were defiled in consequence. “God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually.... The earth also was corrupt
before God; and the earth was filled with violence.” God had given
men His commandments as a rule of life, but His law was transgressed,
and every conceivable sin was the result. The wickedness of men was
open and daring, justice was trampled in the dust, and the cries of the
oppressed reached unto heaven.
Polygamy had been early introduced, contrary to the divine ar-
rangement at the beginning. The Lord gave to Adam one wife, show-
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ing His order in that respect. But after the Fall, men chose to follow
their own sinful desires; and as the result, crime and wretchedness
rapidly increased. Neither the marriage relation nor the rights of prop-