p. 37 | PARADISE-HOW REGAINED by H. A. St. John

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1893

PARADISE—HOW REGAINED.

By H. A. St. John

BY ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.

WE have found that Paradise was lost by disobedience. God's moral law was transgressed, and the transgressors, for that reason, and that reason only, were obliged to abandon their Eden home. Hence it is obvious that God could not be consistent in his dealings with his creatures to allow man to return to Paradise in the same condition which furnished the reason for his banishment. He went out disloyal, he cannot return disloyal. He went out a sinner, he cannot return a sinner.

Has God devised a plan whereby sinful man may again become sinless and pure? May the disloyal again become loyal to the holy law of God? To these intensely interesting questions we are happy to be able to return an affirmative answer. Through Jesus, the promised seed, this perfect pardon, purity, and loyalty, may be obtained. And by the strength and grace that he ever after is ready and willing to give, it may be retained, in spite of all opposition. Free and full pardon for sin is obtained by repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. This faith in Christ embraces obedience to the gospel. When freedom of our sin is thus secured, it is retained by the same faith and consecration that secure it. It is this maintenance of a life of purity and obedience that constituted the Christian warfare. Gaining the victory in the conflicts with the powers of evil, is overcoming. He who endures and comes off victor in the end of the warfare, is a complete overcomer; and to such Jesus has promised that they shall eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.

Again, Jesus has promised, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Rev. 22:14. On the opening pages of God's great progressive revelation we learn that man was driven out of Paradise because of sin, or disobedience to the commandments of God. Further on in that sacred volume we learn how he may find pardon for sin—have the spiritual mind, or true spirit of obedience, restored

to his soul, and again obtain and retain the purest loyalty to his loving Heavenly Father. All this through the mediatorial work of the promised seed—the world's Redeemer. And then on the last page of the same glorious revelation we learn that such loyal commandment-keeping ones shall have right to the tree of life and enter in—yes, enter in—to the Paradise of God.

And it should be noticed that they do not enter into the long-lost Paradise as the man enters the World's Fair, to see hurriedly, and then depart, never to view again—no, no. The saints, because of their characters of loving loyalty to God, will have a perfect right to admission, and a perfect and eternal right when admitted to remain. It will be all theirs, and always theirs. "The redeemed of the Lord will come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." It is true that this earth will be made new, the curse entirely removed, and the Paradise of God, the New Jerusalem, come down and again rest upon a beautiful new earth, but the saints will come too, and with the freest access to Paradise restored in their midst, they will have recovered their first estate. Yes, so transcendently beautiful and glorious will that new heavens and new earth and New Jerusalem be, that the redeemed will seem to have gone beyond their first estate, and attained even unto the first estate of the angels that fell. Let us be ready to hail that happy day.