of this he was What a change!

whose presence they before had sought with a holy joy, they now trembled to meet ; and when the Lord ́entered the garden, Adam hid himself. This circumstance alone evinced, that he had lost the knowledge that the divine eye saw every where, and that nothing could be hid from it. It showed that he had obtained the knowledge of evil, according to what Satan intimated would happen; as he now for the first time felt terror, and abhorred himself: he perceived that his figure had become uncomely, and therefore he sought to cover it. Previously to his fall, however, he had no covering but the righteousness of God: stripped, and put on filthy rags. God entered the garden, and his voice was heard by Adam with terror, and he was full of shame. The law of God was broken, judgment came, and sentence was passed. The serpent was to be cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; and it was to crawl on its belly, and to eat dust all the days of its life, and enmity was to be put between man and it. Man was to bruise his head, while the serpent was permitted to bruise man's heel. Unto the woman God would multiply her sorrow and conception: in sorrow she should bring forth children, and her desire was to be to her husband, and he should rule over her ; and Adam by the sweat of his

face was to eat bread all the days of his life; for God cursed the ground for his sake, that it should bring forth thorns and thistles, and of the herb he should eat, and finally should return to dust, for out of it he was taken, and unto dust he should return. What a fall was this, my love, and how has it been realized! The serpent, to this day, crawls upon the earth, and is an object odious to man. All women experience the sorrow here mentioned, and there is no man who does not suffer care, and by the sweat of his face eat bread, and we all know he returns to the dust. But, my child, this is not the whole of the evil which he endures. Man in a certain degree fell under the dominion of the tempter, Satan. Hitherto he had held communion with God, and his pleasures were pure and holy; he had no evil propensity, no turbulent passions: but, alas! now what a change! He became acquainted with evil; it had dominion over him, for the influence of divine grace no longer operated. The dominion of sin entered, with anger, malice, revenge, jealousy, horror, despair, anxiety, and rebellion, which are the direful attributes of Satan; and Adam and Eve were driven out of paradise by the Lord's angels, for God's holiness could not permit them to remain, lest they should eat of the tree of life. They were driven, my love, into the world, in which you and I now are

From them we have descended, and from them, to our sorrow, we experience this evil nature, which is of itself confirmatory of the truth of the Holy Scriptures; and of these evil propensities, every man in the world has the evidence in his own mind, excepting those who are blinded by Satan's tree of knowledge, which still, my love, grows in the world; but the wisdom of that knowledge is foolishness with God. Now what was the change in Adam's state and ours, when he was banished from God's presence? When I say that the knowledge of the world is foolishness with God, I do not mean to say that man lost his intelligence in the fall. O, no! but he lost that ability to exert his rational soul in a wise and fit manner, which he possessed when his soul was holy. He retained perception and volition, took pleasure in the objects on which they were exercised; and a conscience to know the difference between good and evil, an intuition which directed him to seek for divine grace; so that man, choosing evil and not good, became accountable to God. Although he cannot, being deprived of divine grace, do good of himself, yet the spirit of intuition and power of conscience, this force of persuasion and the Holy Scriptures direct him to the fountain of grace, to which he obtains access by a contrite and

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broken spirit, without money and without price; and when he drinks of this fountain, he begins to feel the pleasures which the streams of it afforded in the garden of Eden; and although it does not quench the thirst, yet the oftener, he drinks, the more exquisite is the pleasure which it yields.

But perhaps you begin to think, my dear child, that since God has driven us from his presence, and we are all so iniquitous, he will not receive us again. You will begin to say, we are lost, and inquire what we shall do to be saved? I will tell you, my child, for I hope by my mentioning the fountain to you, it will afford you some hope. Now I am afraid, that, like the world, you have been entertaining harsh views of God; but I assure you, as high as the heaven is from the earth, so great is the mercy of God, and greater; for it has no limit, as I will show you.

God's holiness could not admit iniquity to approach him, and as I have already represented, his law was perfect and holy, so that the sentence of condemnation inevitably passed upon man when he sinned. But God did not allow the sun to set without giving him the hope of redemption from the power and consequences of transgression. Although man had committed the greatest iniquity against his Creator and Benefactor, and had rather listened to a

wily serpent than to his heavenly parent, yet God, great in mercy, did in wisdom lay a foundation for redemption, by which to bring us nearer to himself than he permitted Adam to approach. But how, my love, was this to be brought about? for only holiness could enter heaven. I have told you that Satan was to bruise man's heel. This signifies that he was to possess the sovereignty of the world, and have the power of causing man to fall, whenever he found him approaching near the walk of God; and this accounts for men loving the world better than God, because they are under the influence of the king of the world, who is Satan. You will also remember, my love, that I mentioned to you that God said he would bruise the head of the serpent by the seed of the woman, that is to say, that man should conquer him. But how can this be, since men are born in sin, love sin, and are under the dominion of sin? for in order to conquer sin, man must be holy. He must be the friend of God, and love him, and an enemy to Satan, if he would successfully fight this tremendous battle. God, therefore, determined to send a second Adam, who would not be subject to the mutability of the first Adam, but perfectly holy, and said to be, with out blasphemy, equal with God. And now, my love, this brings me back to the original story of Jacob