p. 8 | PARADISE LOST by H. A. St. John

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 6, 1893

PARADISE LOST.

By H. A. St. John

BY ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.

WHEN this world of ours first came from the hands of its Creator, it was very beautiful. It must have fairly sparkled with brilliancy and glory, for the all-wise Creator himself pronounced it "very good." But there was one spot on that fair domain upon which the Almighty with lavish hand spread the gorgeous beauties of nature more profusely than anywhere else. That inclosure was named the Garden of Eden, or Paradise. It was the surpassingly magnificent focal point of all that wonderful creation.

When fully completed, adorned, and embellished with everything good and beautiful, with no mingling of evil or decay, the all-wise Father made it the home of his first earth-born children. Adam and Eve, the father and mother of all living, at the beginning of their happy existence and blessed union, were instated in the lovely Eden. It was their blissful home—all theirs, and forever theirs, upon condition that they keep it pure and perfect as when committed to them. For a time, how long the page of revelation does not record, they addressed themselves to the pleasing and delightful task assigned them, and all was harmony and melody in peaceful Eden.

But there came a day, sad day, when by this one man and one woman sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Rom. 5:12. It will never do for that gem of creation, that shining Paradise, to be dimmed and marred by the curse of sin and of death, and hence the Creator drives out the first human pair from their first estate. Like the fallen angels before them, they kept not their "first estate," and, like them also, they kept it not because they sinned. With bowed heads and sad hearts they went out, turning their backs upon their fair Eden home. The gates of Paradise were closed behind them; they carried none of its treasures with them; and they never after were permitted to enter, or even to look into, the sinless homestead of Paradise lost.

Sin, that cruel, unreasonable, unexplainable, unjustifiable thing, caused it all. Sin—disobedience to God, the transgression of his law—was the cause of the fall of our first parents from their first estate, and sin has caused all the trouble in this world from that time to this. Man's second estate, his present state, has ever been one of trouble and sorrow, because of the presence of sin and death. And man's condition in this respect will never wholly cease until he recovers his first estate. Can and will the fallen, sinful, dead, and dying race of Adam ever recover beautiful Eden? Is Paradise lost, long lost, forever lost? By driving sin and sinners out of it, did God mean to preserve it intact from the curse? And did he purpose to raise up a second Adam to lead sinful man out of his second sinful state, and back to his first estate—to Paradise? Thrilling and momentous questions are these, and our answer will be rendered soon, for the word of the Lord is not silent upon these important things, but speaks with clearness.