HUNTING FOR EDEN by Rusticus

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 21, 1880

HUNTING FOR EDEN.

By Rusticus

A GENTLEMAN from the East called on me today. He had heard and read a good deal about California, and thought he would like to live here. He had been all over the coast, looking at places that travelers and real estate agents write about. But none of them just suited him; when the climate was good the land was poor, and where there was good land and good society, the prices were too high. He said to me: "Mr. Rusticus, can you tell me where I can find such a home as I want? Now this of yours would just suit me, but I suppose that you would not sell it at any reasonable price?"

"No, I don't want to sell," I replied, "but if you are willing to do as I did, you can have a home like mine. I bought this ranch ten years ago when it was only a cattle ranch. I fenced it, I cultivated it, I built this house and barn, I planted these trees and vines, I sunk these wells and put up these windmills. My example was followed by others; so I soon had good neighbors, and now we have as pleasant and prosperous a community as you will often see."

"But I don't want to work and wait ten years for a home. I want one that is all complete and perfect now so that I can begin to enjoy it."

Elder Theophilus was present, and as I saw the twinkle in his eyes, I knew that he had something to say, so I turned to him with the question: "Elder, do you know of any place that would be likely to suit this gentleman?"

"I have read about such a place, but I never saw it, and I don't know whether he could find it if he should try."

"Where did you read of it—in Nordhoff's Book?" cried my visitor.

"No, in an older and better book than his. This was the statement about it: 'And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, . . . and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.' Now, although the Bible says that the garden was planted eastward, there are hundreds of people who keep coming west, hoping to find it. I often tell my neighbor Rusticus that most of the troubles and disappointments that folks have in this world come from not studying the Bible more. I learn from this story in Genesis that the Lord don't plant any more gardens on the earth—that if we want them we have to plant them ourselves; and I believe that we can have them almost anywhere if we will trust in him and try to do our duty."

"Yes, but it takes too long," said my visitor. "Life is short; I am getting well up in years, and I want to settle down and enjoy myself."

The good elder looked very sad. He waited some time and then said: "Yes, life is short, the Bible says so. We are but strangers and pilgrims here. What we call our homes are at best only tents in which we find shelter for a few days while on our journey. The garden that the Lord has planted for us is not eastward or westward, but above; and it don't matter much whether we have all things pleasant about us or not for the little time that we can stay here, if we are sure that a mansion is being prepared for us up there."

"But don't you believe that it is right for us to make ourselves as comfortable as we can while we are in this world? Because life is short, ought I to stay where I am sick all the time, and so make it shorter? Is it wrong for me to want to move from Indiana to California, even if Eden is not here?"

"I don't say that it is. But I can't help thinking when I see so many folks discontented, hunting for something that they cannot find, that the old story in the Bible must be true. We were not made for such a world as this; we were made for the home that God prepared for Adam; the longing for the lost home of the race is born in us, and we can't be satisfied with anything in the wilderness. The best tents are cold and leaky. We keep patching them or making new ones, and if we lived a thousand years we shouldn't get one just to suit us. You think neighbor Rusticus here is fixed very nicely; but I know of a dozen things that he wants; another wing to his house, an addition to his barn, a well and tank in his new orchard, a piano for his daughters, the new encyclopedia for himself, and ever so many little things; and it is just so with all the rest of us."

"Then you think we can never be entirely comfortable in the world?"

"I did not say so; I said we are never satisfied with worldly things; that we never find our Eden on the earth. But a man may be comfortable with a very little if his heart is right. One of the most comfortable nights I ever spent was in a snow drift. I wrapped myself in a buffalo robe, buried myself in the snow, and slept as sweetly as a babe in a cradle. Thousands of people are more comfortable in log cabins than kings are in their palaces. And I learn from the Bible that God wants us all to be comfortable. He has sent us a Divine Comforter, to abide with us forever; and Paul writes to the Romans about the Bible in these words: 'That through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.' He who has the Scriptures to read, and the Holy Spirit to help him understand them, ought to be happy anywhere; every land ought to be the land of Beulah to him, for he can always see the Eden of the soul with the eye of faith, and there is only a narrow stream between it and him."

My visitor thanked Elder Theophilus, and said that he would try to find a home for himself and family in the land of Beulah, and not expect to find Eden on this side of the grave. The whole of this beautiful State might be a land of Beulah, if we would seek such comfort of the Scriptures as Elder Theophilus enjoys.