I. The supernatural state had sanctified and elevated every faculty and action of human nature. Adam had been subject to God alone; all creatures were subject to him, and he was dependent on none of them. In his supernatural and natural endowments he possessed all that he required. The progress and development of man in the unfallen state would have been very different from what it is at present; it would have been more rapid, more complete, more extensive, and would have proceeded in marvellous ways that we cannot picture to ourselves. As we are now, our progress has been very slow, laborious, accompanied by many checks, mistakes, failures. It has been dependent for the most part on the compulsion of our wants, on our material surroundings, on climate, food, and the natural features of our place of abode. Except under such pressure, there has been little progress among men. The loss of the supernatural has changed all the conditions of human life, and among them the character of our material progress. The first step in the new order of material civilization is indicated by the clothing of our first parents in the skins of beasts. The influences of climate had become hostile to them. They needed protection from heat, and cold, and moisture. God Himself inaugurated this first step in the work of civilization for fallen man. We still need His aid, even for our natural and material works; we can carry out what is merely material without God; but we cannot ensure that its action on human beings will be beneficial.
II. The local habitation of unfallen man was closely associated with his supernatural condition of soul. It was adapted to the support and development of a kind of life superior to ours at present. It contained the mysterious tree of life, and it was characterized by that tree. Adam had chosen the tree that represented not simply the natural state, but an impaired natural state. In that fallen condition his eyes were opened; he saw all things as if by a different light. He saw himself to be out of harmony with the environment in paradise, and although it remained as yet unchanged, it was no longer the same place to him. His sin had destroyed it as a paradise of delight, even before he was expelled from it. Expulsion was but the accentuation of the fatal change in his own condition. The whole earth henceforth for him was a place of labour and suffering. The character of this world and this life varies for men, not so much in proportion to the variety of their external conditions, but according to their mental and spiritual frame. With God, we may generally be happy, always contented. Without Him, the possession of every material advantage will not prevent life from being wearisome, burdensome, tormenting, unendurable.
III. Human life after the fall necessarily bears a different character; thenceforth it was a penance and an expiation as well as a state of trial and of progress. The place of delight is not to be looked for here but hereafter. Now we are under God’s malediction and punishment; but by His mercy these are actually the means of our progress, and of our rehabilitation in the supernatural state, and are the price of our eternal life. Thereby, as is generally held, Adam and Eve recovered supernatural grace, and at last worked out their salvation. It is written that divine wisdom “preserved him that was first formed by God . . . and she brought him out of his sin, and gave him power to govern all things” (Wisd. x. 1, 2). It is most important for your happiness and for your understanding of life that you should take the proper view of it. Regarding it as an occasion for pleasure to be made the most of, you will find it to be an enigma and a bitter disappointment. Regarding yourself as a sinner, and life as a time for expiation by labour and suffering, you will find contentment here and happiness hereafter.
II. The local habitation of unfallen man was closely associated with his supernatural condition of soul. It was adapted to the support and development of a kind of life superior to ours at present. It contained the mysterious tree of life, and it was characterized by that tree. Adam had chosen the tree that represented not simply the natural state, but an impaired natural state. In that fallen condition his eyes were opened; he saw all things as if by a different light. He saw himself to be out of harmony with the environment in paradise, and although it remained as yet unchanged, it was no longer the same place to him. His sin had destroyed it as a paradise of delight, even before he was expelled from it. Expulsion was but the accentuation of the fatal change in his own condition. The whole earth henceforth for him was a place of labour and suffering. The character of this world and this life varies for men, not so much in proportion to the variety of their external conditions, but according to their mental and spiritual frame. With God, we may generally be happy, always contented. Without Him, the possession of every material advantage will not prevent life from being wearisome, burdensome, tormenting, unendurable.
III. Human life after the fall necessarily bears a different character; thenceforth it was a penance and an expiation as well as a state of trial and of progress. The place of delight is not to be looked for here but hereafter. Now we are under God’s malediction and punishment; but by His mercy these are actually the means of our progress, and of our rehabilitation in the supernatural state, and are the price of our eternal life. Thereby, as is generally held, Adam and Eve recovered supernatural grace, and at last worked out their salvation. It is written that divine wisdom “preserved him that was first formed by God . . . and she brought him out of his sin, and gave him power to govern all things” (Wisd. x. 1, 2). It is most important for your happiness and for your understanding of life that you should take the proper view of it. Regarding it as an occasion for pleasure to be made the most of, you will find it to be an enigma and a bitter disappointment. Regarding yourself as a sinner, and life as a time for expiation by labour and suffering, you will find contentment here and happiness hereafter.
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