in the garden of God acquired, now that they are gathered by the hand of conjugal affection and recommended to the taste by the smile of complacency and love! Our imagination cannot exceed the conception which the brief description of Scripture conveys of the joys of Paradise, the happiness of our first parents in their unfallen condition. They must have been perfect in body, beautiful of complexion, symmetrical of form, compact of structure, dignified of mien, and graceful of motion. No seed of weakness, or decay or pain lurked within them. Destined for immortality, they were instinct with a buoyancy that knew no depression, with a health that knew no change, and with a vigor and bloom that could never fade away. No fatigue distressed, no sickness visited them, no accident or calamity ever interfered with their free and unlimited enjoyments. Placed in a habitation worthy of their own dignity and of their Maker's architecture, where the earth was clothed with beauty and the sky was overspread with magnificence, and where the sun and the moon and the stars displayed their greatest lustre and diffused their most benignant influence, they found every talent and every grace that each possessed, every personal endowment, every mental and spiritual ornament, every gift of heaven and earth, inexpressibly enhanced in value by the inseparable companionship of One who could sympathize in all their feelings, agree in all their views, take an interest in all their contemplations, reciprocate all their endearments, and participate in all their joys. Thus, in an atmosphere impregnated with life, amid streams which flowed in beauty, amid fruits that delighted the taste and flowers that charmed the eye and music that enchanted the ear and scenes of countless attractions which gratified and satisfied every sense, they were appointed by a gracious Creator to take up their peaceful dwelling-place, and to spend the days of their existence in the enjoyment of entire and unalloyed happiness. Oh blessed and glorious state!—a morn without a cloud! a sun without a spot! a landscape without one drawback to diminish its unequaled loveliness! Was bliss like this bestowed

but to be blasted? And must Adam's chief felicity issue in his ruin?

We are reluctantly brought forward to that awful revolution which at length took place in Adam's condition and character. Of the duration of his innocence and happiness we have no account. His history now becomes blended with that of the wicked and malignant spirit who had "left his first estate" of holiness and felicity, and who, having artfully seduced our first parents from their innocence, exposed them to the wrath of God, procured their expulsion from Paradise, rendered them a prey to fear, shame and remorse, and subjected them to pain, disease and death.

The circumstances of the case, according to the Scripture account of it, were these. The devil observes the serpent to be an animal of peculiar sagacity and penetration, and fixes on him as a fit instrument of seduction. Fearing a repulse from the superio firmness and discernment of the man, he watches for, and finds, the unhappy moment when the woman, being separated from her husband, opposed to his wiles inferior powers of reason and intelligence with greater softness and pliancy. He addresses himself to a principle in her nature, the immoderate indulgence of which has proved fatal to so many thousands of her daughters—curiosity -curiosity, the investigator of truth, the mother of inventioncuriosity, the prompter to rashness, the parent of danger, the guide to ruin. Having first gained her attention, he excites her to doubt and to reason in the face of a positive command, rouses in her a spirit of pride and ambition, and at length persuades her to make the fatal experiment. She eats of the prohibited tree, and by transgression acquires the knowledge of evil, whereas she had hitherto known only good.

By what arguments Adam was prevailed upon to become a partner of her guilt we are not informed. From the apology he made for his conduct, it is to be inferred that female insinuation. and address misled him from the law of his God. And thus were both ruined by the operation of principles in themselves good and

useful, but carried to excess, unchecked by reason, unawed by religion. Eve perished by a curious and ambitious desire after a condition for which God and Nature had not designed her-a desire to be "as God, to know good and evil;" Adam fell by complaisance to his wife, carried to unmanly weakness and compliance, yielding to his subject, bidding defiance to his sovereign.

And what words can express, what heart can conceive, the bitter change? All his posterity have experienced the melancholy transition from health to sickness, from ease to pain; very many have passed from affluence to indigence, from glory to shame; and not a few have exchanged empire itself for banishment or a dungeon. But more than the accumulated weight of all these at once falls on the devoted head of our guilty first father. The eyes which before met the approach of God with rapture now are clouded with sorrow, tremble with fear, or strain with remorse and horror, at the voice of the Almighty. That tongue which was once tuned only to the accent and the language of love has in a moment learned to reproach and upbraid. The heart which glowed at the promise and the prospect of a fair, numerous, and happy progeny now sinks in dejection at the dismal apprehension of that guilt and woe in which his folly had plunged all his hapless children. Where innocence sat enthroned, there fell despair broods over her own stinging reflections and tormenting fears. Above, the awful throne of an offended God; beneath, a fathomless gulf, kindled by the breath of Jehovah as a stream of brimstone; within, a troubled conscience, like the raging sea, incapable of taking rest. "The glory is departed: the gold is become dim, and the most fine gold changed."

And now, too, a revolution in outward circumstances takes place, corresponding to that which had passed on his internal constitution and character. Adam must no longer possess that paradise of which he had rendered himself unworthy. Justice drives out from Eden the man who had cast himself out from the

favor of God. A wall reaching up to heaven and immovable as the decree of the Eternal prevents the possibility of return. The flaming sword of the cherubim bars all access to the tree of life. His labor, formerly his delight, must henceforward be accompanied with pain. The subject tribes throw off their allegiance, and either shun or threaten their lord. The elements change their influence, and the fair domain becomes a vast solitude. The sole partner of his former joys, now become the cause and the companion of his guilt, becomes also the companion of his woe. Sad reflections embitter and increase their common misery, and stern death stares them in the face.

But "will God contend for ever, will he be always wroth?" Then "the spirit should fail before him, and the souls which he has made." Behold, a dawn of hope arises, and the promise of the Most High saves from despair. The moment man becomes and feels himself a miserable offender, that moment is the gospel preached unto him; as the woman was first in the transgression, so from her the prospect of salvation arises; and it is declared that "the old serpent, who is the devil and Satan," who had, in deceiving her, destroyed her posterity, should, by one who was peculiarly her posterity, be destroyed and slain. Thus they leave Eden, supported and cheered with the expectation of triumph over their bitter enemy, and of being restored at length to the favor of their offended God. To keep alive this hope, as well as to afford present relief from shame, at this period, it would appear, sacrifice was instituted. The same victim shed its blood, the type of atonement, and furnished its skin to clothe the naked, thereby presenting the emblem of a perfect righteousness, to cover and shelter the naked soul. And thus early, distinctly and unequivocally was Christianity taught to mankind.

In process of time, however, Adam has the felicity of becoming a father, and enjoys the satisfaction of seeing the blessing pronounced upon him in his better state, notwithstanding his apostasy, taking effect. Eve becomes the joyful mother of two

sons-Cain and Abel--and the earth begins to be replenished. Behold the first parents of mankind exulting in affections unknown, unfelt before-exulting in this fresh proof that God had not forgotten to be gracious. Behold the nuptial tie strengthened and confirmed, the voice of upbraiding and reproach turned to the language of gratulation, complacency, and love.

Adam observes with growing delight his sons increasing in stature and wisdom. Stung with keen reflection upon the happiness which he had vilely thrown away, and the misery which he had entailed upon his hapless children, how would he exert himself to repair that loss!-how forcibly inculcate, by his own fatal example, the obligations of God's holy law !—with what gratitude lead them to the promised atonement!—with what heartfelt delight infuse knowledge into their opening minds!

Man was destined to labor from the beginning, and for his punishment guilty man must labor with the sweat of his brow. But all the punishments of Heaven, in reality and in the issue, are blessings. It is the privilege and the happiness of Adam and all his sons to be employed, though to weariness and fatigue. Accordingly, the heirs and possessors of the whole globe, as soon as they arrive at man's estate, betake themselves to the humble and necessary occupations of that simple state of human nature. "Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain was a tiller of the ground."

But Adam, we find, has taught his sons to blend religion with their secular employments-nay, to make their very employments. the monitors and the means of religious worship. "In process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof; and the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect." Gen. iv. 3-5. And oh how early did the different passions and affections of the human mind discover themselves! Abel brings with his offering a humble, pious