And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
God Himself took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and till it and to care for and guard it. Useful work was given before sin as part of His original plan, a blessing and not a curse, and at first it was pleasant, invigorating and happy without weariness or toil. Even amid abundance and beauty, enjoyment alone was not enough, for humanity needed useful employment to be happy and to exercise brain, bone, muscle and nerve in harmonious action. That placing was a probation forming character through obedience, and after disobedience labor became toilsome with sweat and stubborn soil, yet even so it remains appointed to check evil and promote development. The same pattern makes Eden a school joining physical labor with mental and moral training, and the employment begun there continues forever when the redeemed again plant and harvest without weariness.
Garden Setting and Charge
The Lord God Himself took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it by cultivating and tilling it and to keep it by tending, caring for and guarding it. Equal use of mental and physical powers belonged to life from creation, and useful work was appointed as a blessing that strengthened the body, expanded the mind and developed character even though Eden supplied all that was needed. That responsibility formed part of his probation, with the first moral lesson being self-denial through self-government in which judgment, reason and conscience were to rule toward steadfast integrity.
In special love God planted the garden of Eden as the home and special residence of Adam and Eve, even though all the earth was already perfect and complete for their happiness. It was planted with every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, with trees of every variety for usefulness and beauty, fruit-laden trees of rich fragrance beautiful to the eye and pleasant to the taste given as food for the holy pair. Lovely upright vines bore very large fruit of different colors called grapes that did not trail on the ground but bowed down with weight, and part of the happy labor was forming beautiful bowers from the branches of the vine and training them into dwellings of nature's living trees and foliage laden with fragrant fruit. Four rivers ran by it, and the land was enriched with precious stones and gold and silver. That original work of dressing and keeping was simple, delightful and pleasant employment done together with God, with everything contributing to enjoyment and with no noxious weeds demanding patient toil, in sharp contrast to later sowing amid tares and accumulated rubbish of error.
The placing came after finished creation pronounced very good, with everything fitted for its purpose, and the man made with mind and will and moral faculties finite yet after the similitude of God's mind and will. He was put there in holy innocence, purity and happiness, in fellowship with the Creator who visited in the cool of the day to walk and talk and daily teach His lessons, and in communion with sinless angels. He was clothed with light and glory, living in sinless obedience amid pure and undefiled nature where fruits, flowers and beautiful lofty trees flourished and everything required was abundantly supplied. In tending things of beauty and usefulness around him he beheld the goodness and glory of God, grasped that he was created in the image of God for righteousness and holiness, and had themes for contemplation with a mind capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement and noble elevation, for Eden was heaven in miniature. Being holy did not excuse from work, for God is never idle and every angel has an appointed task, and mind, heart and will acting in perfect harmony made the hours full of useful work and communion with only one restriction.
The charge was given jointly to Adam and Eve, with holy angels often visiting them there to instruct them concerning that employment. Their work of caring for and guarding the garden was happy employment for only a portion of their time, with the rest given to receiving visits from angels, listening to instruction, happy meditation, and fellowship with their Creator. Each day's labor brought them health and gladness. They were cautioned not to separate from each other in their work lest working apart bring contact with Satan the fallen foe, and were enjoined to closely follow the directions God had given, for only in perfect obedience were they safe and while obedient Satan could have no power over them.
Work as Original Blessing
Useful employment was assigned in Eden before any sin entered, and belongs to the original plan for humanity. Labor itself is a blessing and a pleasure, not a curse, not the work of the enemy, not degrading, and not a mark of poverty, disgrace, or low standing. Tending and guarding the garden occupied mind, strengthened body, developed ability, and was necessary to happiness, for the organs of the body were made for use. The fall changed the order and brought a curse upon the earth, yet the decree to earn bread by sweat of brow was not given as a curse, and through faith and hope labor was to remain a blessing to the descendants of Adam and Eve because humanity was never meant to have nothing to do.
That first work was happy employment for holy beings, pleasant and invigorating rather than wearisome, with mind, heart, and will acting in perfect harmony and with no weariness or toil. It filled only a portion of time alongside visits from angels, instruction, happy meditation, and free converse with God and Christ, with only one restriction. Had the first pair not transgressed, only such pleasant work would ever have entered the world, for toilsome labor came solely because of disobedience. God Himself is never idle and every angel has an appointed task, so holiness did not excuse even a sinless pair from work.
Though every need was supplied amid beauty, abundance, and all that was useful and lovely, enjoyment alone was not enough. Useful employment was appointed to engage the capacities and was essential to physical, mental, and moral well-being and to happiness itself. Human beings were not formed merely to contemplate glorious works but were given hands for labor as well as mind and heart for contemplation, so happiness was to be found in labor as well as in meditation. By tending the useful and beautiful things around him, man could behold divine goodness and glory and grasp that he was made in the divine image for righteousness and holiness, with a mind capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement, and noble elevation.
Tending what had been made was given for employment and happiness, and in return for labor the wants of the workers were abundantly supplied from the fruits of the garden. Such employment brings no degradation and no loss of standing, even though Adam was rich with all that was owned and stood as a gentleman, and learning different kinds of work in order to be self-sustaining does not degrade children. While obedience continued this garden labor was a pleasure and the earth yielded abundance for every need.
At first only good was provided and knowledge of evil was withheld, including toil, grief, pain, and death. While obedience lasted work was pleasure; when disobedience came work became a battle in toil and hardship against the power to which the will had been yielded, wrestling with evil sown and earning bread by sweat amid weeds, thistles, stubborn soil, and continual warfare in earth and heart. The fall changed the order and brought the curse on the earth, turning free supply into struggle.
Even toilsome labor remains part of the great plan for recovery from the fall. It was purposed to lighten and remove the evil brought by disobedience, to make temptation ineffectual, to stay the tide of evil, to check self-indulgence, and to promote industry, purity, firmness, happiness, and development. Thus labor still guards against temptation and serves as a safeguard and source of development, teaching how to become laborers together with God.
Probation Obedience and Fall
God put the man in Eden to dress and keep it as part of his probation for forming a character of steadfast integrity. His first moral lesson there was self-denial, with the reins of self-government placed in his hands for judgment, reason, and conscience to rule under God's command. That placement with its charge was the test of Adam and Eve's obedience.
The work belonged to their happiness, for pleasant purposeful labor together with contemplation let him observe God's goodness and glory in creation. By tending the useful and beautiful things around him he beheld that goodness and glory and found themes for thought, since Eden was heaven in miniature. Happiness was to be found in labor as well as in meditation, for man was not made merely to contemplate glorious works but was given hands for labor as well as mind and heart for contemplation. In that life of work and contemplation he could grasp that he was created in the image of God to be like Him in righteousness and holiness, with a mind capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement, and noble elevation, with God as teacher and angels as companions. Caring for plants and animals was an occupation favorable to human development, and the same pattern of living among fields and hills, tending soil and caring for flocks and herds, gave later faithful people opportunity to labor, study, meditate, learn of God, and teach children His works and ways. Adam's tending was his book of study, God in nature, where he was to study God and obey Him, and true education still strengthens the moral powers and expands the mind through the Word of God and through nature.
Adam and Eve were placed in the beautiful garden with everything they could desire for happiness, yet they were not rendered eternally secure at first. In all-wise arrangement God purposed to test their loyalty while granting them His favor and direct converse, not placing evil out of their reach and permitting Satan to tempt them, with perpetual favor with God and heavenly angels if they endured the trial. They received joint employment to dress and keep the garden, with holy angels often visiting to instruct them concerning it, and they were cautioned not to separate from each other in their work lest working apart bring contact with Satan the fallen foe. They were enjoined to follow closely the directions God had given, for only in perfect obedience were they safe, and while obedient Satan could have no power over them.
Eden was given to our first parents to live in and cultivate for the Lord as a test of obedience, with permission to eat from every tree but one. The gift was conditional, and meeting the conditions would have given spiritual and temporal prosperity, as the gift of Canaan to Israel afterward likewise required the whole people and not leaders and teachers alone to return the fruit of the vineyard to God as representatives of His kingdom. They ate the forbidden fruit, and that sin caused them to lose Eden and opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, beginning the increase of sin that has continued since. Transgression excluded them from the home and garden to dress and keep, yet Jesus Christ paid the price to ransom the race from Satan so the way back stands open through perfect obedience to all God's requirements in right relation to God, as Christ overcame by perfect obedience to His Father's commandments and men must overcome as He overcame, bending footsteps heavenward and pointing others to the Eden home. Adam lived among men for nearly a thousand years to the ninth generation as a witness to Paradise, describing his holy and happy estate together with his fall, the sufferings by which God taught him strict adherence to God's law, and the merciful provisions for salvation to stem the tide of evil, yet few gave heed and he was often met with bitter reproaches for the sin that brought woe upon his posterity.
The first Adam began in Eden in purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, abundantly supplied with everything required amid pure undefiled nature with fruits, flowers, and beautiful lofty trees, in every way more favorably situated than Christ, yet with a holy sinless pure undefiled nature he failed under the smallest test of obedience where Christ as the second Adam began. Christ took human nature and by a life of untiring labor taught how men can become laborers together with God in building His kingdom. That lesson seals the dignity and blessing of work, for diligent useful labor brings joy and benefits others, and Jesus exemplified industrious, careful, thorough duty by faithful work as a carpenter, forever sealing that earnest service is nothing to be ashamed of even for those with plenty of money, while idleness invites the enemy to tempt. The work God gives includes spiritual duties such as receiving His Word as the voice of God, humbling the heart before Him, controlling prejudice and temper, and overcoming the selfishness that mars character, and useful employment of all the physical powers is essential for health.
Health Happiness and Design
The charge to dress and keep the garden establishes physical exercise through useful labor as part of provision from the beginning. Equal use of mental and physical powers belonged to human life from creation, with bodily labor in cultivating and caring for the garden instituted at the start. Tending and guarding Eden means humanity was designed for active physical work outdoors in sunlight and fresh air, and that open-air activity was important to happiness. Suitable, healthful employment was wisely provided for the physical powers even in sinless Eden, providing exercise of brain, bone, and muscle and fulfilling one purpose in creating the earth. That same Eden plan is to be carried out today where mental and moral training are combined with physical training, with manual training developing brain power and training muscles and nerves to obey a healthful brain, so that men and women become workers together with God. Work exercised the fully developed muscles and helped preserve their elasticity, as part of the original plan for human life.
The body’s organs were made for use, and work was necessary for happiness even amid paradise’s beauty and abundance in the state of innocence. Although Eden surrounded the first pair with everything useful and lovely to delight the soul, that alone was not enough, for the wonderful organs of the body were made to be exercised through employment. If happiness had consisted in doing nothing, humanity in holy innocence would have been left unemployed, but labor was given from the beginning because human beings must work in order to be happy. Human beings were created to be laborers for action and not for contemplation only or idleness, with activity essential for happiness and health, precious faculties as talents to be exercised, and indolence as sin. Every bone, feature of the countenance, and muscle of the limbs proves humanity was made for activity, not for idleness. As the heart continually throbs and drives blood through the body, action pervades the whole living machinery with each organ doing its appointed work, entire harmony requires exercise of all parts harmoniously with brain nerve power rather than in a merely mechanical way, all nature forbids inaction, no created intelligence was made to be a drone, continued physical inaction lessens activity of the brain, and healthy people need useful labor that helps others instead of mere amusement, gymnasium exercises, or self-gratification to pass time.
Daily labor in the garden brought health and gladness as part of happy life alongside the beauty of nature, fellowship with the Creator, and His daily teaching. Being holy did not excuse from work, for God is never idle and every angel has an appointed task, and the holy pair’s work made them happy with mind, heart, and will acting in perfect harmony, with no weariness or toil, hours filled with useful work and communion, occupation pleasant amid visits and free converse except for one restriction. Working in the garden before sin was a blessing that engaged the mind, strengthened the body, developed abilities, and gave pleasure. Labor together with contemplation belonged to happiness, and through caring for the garden humanity could observe goodness and glory in creation. Being busy and cheerful balances the mind, elevates thought, clears the brain, strengthens moral powers, gives healthful sleep, and lifts above discontent, while riches with idleness bring restlessness and short life.
Work belongs to the original perfect life and is for the health of soul and body, while a do-nothing idle life is a curse, for the first pair were given employment because they would be happier when employed. Light useful employment, especially outdoors, is therefore better than enforced inactivity for the sick, because keeping the will active arouses dormant faculties, diverts the mind from symptoms and homesickness, and helps recovery. Life in close contact with nature follows the plan of life for humanity, offering lessons for today, helping restore suffering humanity, with outdoor life amid natural surroundings bringing great benefit to the sick. Cultivating the garden is God’s work, providing needed physical exercise and care for the body as much service to God as holding meetings.
Education Dignity and Training
Eden was a school with God as instructor, where Adam and Eve learned to till the soil and care for what He had planted. Their employment together with God made Adam the first to labor together with God, with nothing interposing between the pair and their Maker, for He had created Adam with mind and will and moral faculties after the similitude of His own mind and will and then placed him in a garden planted with every tree pleasant to sight and good for food, with four rivers and land enriched with gold and silver and precious stones, and instructed him how to care for it. Labor there before sin was not degrading but a great blessing and pleasure, and industry was their joy, with everything responding to their efforts to develop and perfect it. The fall changed the order and the earth was cursed so that it no longer brought forth only good, yet the decree to earn bread by the sweat of the brow was not given as a curse, and through faith and hope labor was to remain a blessing to Adam and Eve and their descendants, because God never meant for man to have nothing to do, and departure from that order grows with the deepening curse of sin. God still instructs those who plow and plant and sow.
True education follows that pattern by joining physical labor with mental and moral training rather than book study alone. Body and mind were both meant to be worked from the beginning, so students in schools should have physical and mental powers taxed in right proportion, as useful results like a field of wheat require hard breaking work like plowing. Manual training develops brain power and trains muscles and nerves to obey a healthful brain, wisely providing exercise of brain, bone, and muscle even as in sinless Eden, fulfilling one of God's purposes in creating the earth and making men and women workers together with God. Employment educates better than teaching alone, and God still impresses human minds better by giving them something to do, so schools should connect manual labor with study, since working the land gives physical soundness and strength while students advance just as much as when they give all their time to study. From infancy children are to be trained to do what is appropriate for age and ability, combining science with practical labor and exercising both physical and mental powers, learning to amuse themselves and exercise their minds in devising plans and doing simple natural things for themselves, becoming more independent and able to meet serious troubles soon to come, for useful labor was their safeguard in Eden and that safeguard was to be perpetuated through all generations to the close of earth's history. Caring for plants and animals was an occupation favorable to human development, and God's arrangement of land likewise provided this kind of useful work, containing principles from the Creator that all must obey to produce balanced mind and character fitted for useful employment and for teaching youth, the same employment given in Eden to continue in Eden restored.
Manual work with the hands is God's order, given for happiness, and having employment does not degrade, cause loss of caste, or unfit one to be a gentleman. Learning different kinds of work in order to be self-sustaining does not degrade children. Tending the garden was pleasant work given to sinless Adam and Eve, and work was not a curse in the beginning, with only pleasant work to have entered the world if obedience had continued, and unpleasant, toilsome work entering only after disobedience. To regard work as a curse is error, and to despise working people and honest labor reverses God's order and puts human opinion above His purpose.
Even children of the wealthy must not be deprived of having something to do, but must have work to increase strength of brain and muscle and to use entrusted strength, time, money, and possessions wisely and not for selfish purposes, keeping a place among the world's workers. Delicate idleness and selfish gratification make invalids and make life empty and barren in every way, for God gave human beings reason and crowned their lives with goodness not to be cursed with the results of idleness. Learning different kinds of work in order to be self-sustaining and working for a living is therefore not degradation and is no loss of caste, since work was appointed by God in sinless Eden for human happiness. Children and youth must be educated to be masters of labor and not slaves of labor, learning to use God-given ability in even the humblest occupation and putting heart and soul and mind and strength into work as service to God whom they love with heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Cultivating the soil is work requiring tact, skill, diligence, faith, and perseverance, with prayer for God's blessing seconded by most diligent, thorough, earnest labor that overcomes serious obstacles, for the same requirement to subdue the land and till it that kept Adam employed rests on people now, so land left uncultivated after a disappointing first trial must still be worked. There is wisdom from God for the one who holds the plow and plants and sows the seed, given to those who trust and obey Him, because the earth has concealed treasures God would have opened, and faithful tillage brings harvest while neglect leaves unfruitfulness. God would have thousands and tens of thousands now crowded into cities watching for a chance to earn a trifle working upon the soil instead, with families taking their children into the country where there are fewer temptations, where children with parents who love and fear God are in every way better situated to learn of the Great Teacher who is the source and fountain of wisdom and to gain fitness for the kingdom of heaven. Working the land as appointed in Eden provides opportunity to earn a living and meet needs. By transgressing the law man worked against his own present and eternal good and that appointed work was made much harder, giving Satan opportunity to sow seeds of evil in the human heart while the cursed ground that at first produced only good began to produce tares whose growth calls for continual warfare, yet when man fell God began to work to defeat Satan's plans by working in man, and cultivation of the soil remains a school in which man learns spiritual lessons, seeing reflected as in a mirror the work of God upon the human soul.
God is never idle and every angel has an appointed task, so holiness did not excuse the holy pair from work and there is no place for indolence. God committed to them the care of the garden under His ownership, holding it from Him, in order for them to continue happy, with mind, heart, and will acting in perfect harmony, with no weariness or toil, their hours filled with useful work and communion with each other while God and Christ visited and talked with them in perfect freedom except for one restriction. He appointed labor as a blessing to occupy the mind, strengthen the body, and develop the faculties, and in mental and physical activity Adam found one of the highest pleasures of his holy existence, for although he received a rich heritage he was not to be idle, because the Creator knows what brings human happiness and true joy of life is found only by working men and women. Even the toilsome labor to gain bread after disobedience and expulsion remained a safeguard against temptation and a source of happiness, and angels are diligent workers. God has given to every person his own work to do and no one is to be idle, for work is a blessing, honorable, praiseworthy, approved and blessed of God, and useful employment of all the physical powers is essential for health, while idleness is dangerous because it invites the enemy to tempt, and innocent pleasure is fullest after industry. Christ forever sealed this truth by working at the carpenter's trade to help support the family and by making Himself in His manhood the servant of all, exemplifying the duty to work industriously, carefully, and thoroughly for the joy and benefit of others, and the work God gives includes spiritual duties such as receiving His Word as the voice of God, humbling the heart before Him, controlling prejudice and temper, and overcoming the selfishness that mars character, with earnest service nothing to be ashamed of even for those who have plenty of money.
Food Nature and Restoration
To dress and keep the garden meant living on food in its natural state, the direct produce of the garden itself. The original diet was simple fruits, vegetables and grains, taken straight from the ground without animalizing them by first feeding them to animals and then eating dead flesh. In that first order one animal was not to destroy another animal for food. Eating flesh came only after the fall, suffered because of hardness of heart to shorten the existence of the long-lived race, not because it is essential for health or strength. Simple grains, tree fruits and vegetables contain all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood, which a flesh diet cannot do.
God's plan was life amid garden beauty rather than crowding into unhealthy cities, terraces and tenements. He placed the first parents in Eden amidst beautiful sights and attractive sounds of nature, not in a palace among artificial luxuries, and He desires men and women to rejoice in those sights and sounds today. The garden was an emblem of heaven and of the love of God, with flowers showing beauty and fragrance, fruit trees bearing precious treasure for man's good, and birds on every tree singing praise which Adam and Eve in untainted purity delighted to hear. The more nearly people come into harmony with that original country plan, the more favorable their position for recovery and preservation of health of body, mind and soul. Outdoor life in close contact with nature can bring great benefit to the sick and help restore suffering humanity.
Cultivating the ground was given before sin and not because of sin, and God Himself blessed the work of tilling the soil. After disobedience the work was greatly multiplied because the cursed earth brought forth weeds and thistles, yet the work itself remains good. In country places this useful labor gives physical health by developing nerve and muscle, offers fewer temptations than the cities, and parents are to use it in training their children for the saving of souls. City crowding with its care and anguish comes from sin marring God's purpose, but His purpose stands to impress His image again on souls, fill hearts with the peace of heaven, make His people joyful in His goodness, mercy and love, and convert sinners, for He has not abandoned the earth. Families with parents who love and fear God are in every way better situated in the country to learn of the Great Teacher who is the source and fountain of wisdom and to gain fitness for the kingdom of heaven, while city schools surround children with every phase of temptation that attracts and demoralizes and makes character building tenfold harder.
Cultivation of the soil remains a school in which man learns spiritual lessons, seeing reflected as in a mirror the work of God upon the human soul. By transgression man worked against his own present and eternal good, gave Satan opportunity to sow seeds of evil in the human heart, and the ground that at first produced only good began to produce tares whose growth calls for continual warfare, while God began to work in man to defeat Satan's plans. Working the land with tact and skill is noble work, not menial service, the same work given to Adam and Eve, to be done by men, women and children energized and guided by the Spirit of God with cultivated minds employed in thorough work. Adam and Eve loved to see the miracles wrought by the divine Husbandman, in which the human agent plants the seed and God waters it and sends sunshine until the tiny blade springs up. That growth teaches the resurrection of the body and the renewing of the heart, showing that spiritual things are learned from earthly development as seeds of truth sown in the soil of the heart spring up to harvest, and faithful cultivation of the vineyard of the soul now, receiving God's instruction and grace and using every spiritual advantage with faith, love and patience as laborers together with God, proves fitness to enter and serve in restored Eden.
Employment begun in Eden will continue forever, for the whole family of the redeemed will not live in dreamy idleness. Labor was designed as nothing but a blessing, and man never could have been happy without something to do, while misery and weariness come not from labor itself but from the sin attached to all activity and from carrying lawful things to excess which taxes mind and body and leaves misery in a hardened conscience. A life of the hardest labor is more satisfying than idleness, and no converted man or woman can be anything but a worker. In the earth made new the redeemed will again enjoy the Eden life and occupations, planting and harvesting and cultivating the restored garden under God's supervision in a world free from sin and sorrow. There activity will not be wearying and burdensome but will be rest, and the redeemed will find delight in serving Him whose they are by creation and by redemption. The way back to that Eden home, lost by transgression, stands open because Jesus paid the price to ransom the race from Satan, and return comes through perfect obedience as Christ overcame, while the things of nature, though marred by sin, still speak of God's love and of that home and its restoration when the earth shall be filled with praise, a truth Christ taught through familiar illustrations in simple, sympathetic, cheerful instruction identified with the interests and happiness of His hearers.
The record of creation and of man placed to work stands with Exodus 20 and Exodus 31 as God's Word for instruction and guidance, presenting eternal truth and an unchangeable standard of right-doing. Those who relate themselves humbly to God in meekness and lowliness of heart will be blessed in everything they are called to do in His cause, given wisdom, understanding and knowledge to do their work aright, and helped by angels of light. God Himself taught Adam and Eve how to tend the garden, and He still instructs those who plow, plant and sow. There is wisdom from God for the one who holds the plow, because the earth has concealed treasures that God would have opened by working the soil. He would have thousands and tens of thousands now crowded into cities watching for a chance to earn a trifle leave the city to work upon the land instead.
God Himself took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and till it and to care for and guard it. Useful work was given before sin as part of His original plan, a blessing and not a curse, and at first it was pleasant, invigorating and happy without weariness or toil. Even amid abundance and beauty, enjoyment alone was not enough, for humanity needed useful employment to be happy and to exercise brain, bone, muscle and nerve in harmonious action. That placing was a probation forming character through obedience, and after disobedience labor became toilsome with sweat and stubborn soil, yet even so it remains appointed to check evil and promote development. The same pattern makes Eden a school joining physical labor with mental and moral training, and the employment begun there continues forever when the redeemed again plant and harvest without weariness.
Garden Setting and Charge
The Lord God Himself took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it by cultivating and tilling it and to keep it by tending, caring for and guarding it. Equal use of mental and physical powers belonged to life from creation, and useful work was appointed as a blessing that strengthened the body, expanded the mind and developed character even though Eden supplied all that was needed. That responsibility formed part of his probation, with the first moral lesson being self-denial through self-government in which judgment, reason and conscience were to rule toward steadfast integrity.
In special love God planted the garden of Eden as the home and special residence of Adam and Eve, even though all the earth was already perfect and complete for their happiness. It was planted with every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, with trees of every variety for usefulness and beauty, fruit-laden trees of rich fragrance beautiful to the eye and pleasant to the taste given as food for the holy pair. Lovely upright vines bore very large fruit of different colors called grapes that did not trail on the ground but bowed down with weight, and part of the happy labor was forming beautiful bowers from the branches of the vine and training them into dwellings of nature's living trees and foliage laden with fragrant fruit. Four rivers ran by it, and the land was enriched with precious stones and gold and silver. That original work of dressing and keeping was simple, delightful and pleasant employment done together with God, with everything contributing to enjoyment and with no noxious weeds demanding patient toil, in sharp contrast to later sowing amid tares and accumulated rubbish of error.
The placing came after finished creation pronounced very good, with everything fitted for its purpose, and the man made with mind and will and moral faculties finite yet after the similitude of God's mind and will. He was put there in holy innocence, purity and happiness, in fellowship with the Creator who visited in the cool of the day to walk and talk and daily teach His lessons, and in communion with sinless angels. He was clothed with light and glory, living in sinless obedience amid pure and undefiled nature where fruits, flowers and beautiful lofty trees flourished and everything required was abundantly supplied. In tending things of beauty and usefulness around him he beheld the goodness and glory of God, grasped that he was created in the image of God for righteousness and holiness, and had themes for contemplation with a mind capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement and noble elevation, for Eden was heaven in miniature. Being holy did not excuse from work, for God is never idle and every angel has an appointed task, and mind, heart and will acting in perfect harmony made the hours full of useful work and communion with only one restriction.
The charge was given jointly to Adam and Eve, with holy angels often visiting them there to instruct them concerning that employment. Their work of caring for and guarding the garden was happy employment for only a portion of their time, with the rest given to receiving visits from angels, listening to instruction, happy meditation, and fellowship with their Creator. Each day's labor brought them health and gladness. They were cautioned not to separate from each other in their work lest working apart bring contact with Satan the fallen foe, and were enjoined to closely follow the directions God had given, for only in perfect obedience were they safe and while obedient Satan could have no power over them.
Work as Original Blessing
Useful employment was assigned in Eden before any sin entered, and belongs to the original plan for humanity. Labor itself is a blessing and a pleasure, not a curse, not the work of the enemy, not degrading, and not a mark of poverty, disgrace, or low standing. Tending and guarding the garden occupied mind, strengthened body, developed ability, and was necessary to happiness, for the organs of the body were made for use. The fall changed the order and brought a curse upon the earth, yet the decree to earn bread by sweat of brow was not given as a curse, and through faith and hope labor was to remain a blessing to the descendants of Adam and Eve because humanity was never meant to have nothing to do.
That first work was happy employment for holy beings, pleasant and invigorating rather than wearisome, with mind, heart, and will acting in perfect harmony and with no weariness or toil. It filled only a portion of time alongside visits from angels, instruction, happy meditation, and free converse with God and Christ, with only one restriction. Had the first pair not transgressed, only such pleasant work would ever have entered the world, for toilsome labor came solely because of disobedience. God Himself is never idle and every angel has an appointed task, so holiness did not excuse even a sinless pair from work.
Though every need was supplied amid beauty, abundance, and all that was useful and lovely, enjoyment alone was not enough. Useful employment was appointed to engage the capacities and was essential to physical, mental, and moral well-being and to happiness itself. Human beings were not formed merely to contemplate glorious works but were given hands for labor as well as mind and heart for contemplation, so happiness was to be found in labor as well as in meditation. By tending the useful and beautiful things around him, man could behold divine goodness and glory and grasp that he was made in the divine image for righteousness and holiness, with a mind capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement, and noble elevation.
Tending what had been made was given for employment and happiness, and in return for labor the wants of the workers were abundantly supplied from the fruits of the garden. Such employment brings no degradation and no loss of standing, even though Adam was rich with all that was owned and stood as a gentleman, and learning different kinds of work in order to be self-sustaining does not degrade children. While obedience continued this garden labor was a pleasure and the earth yielded abundance for every need.
At first only good was provided and knowledge of evil was withheld, including toil, grief, pain, and death. While obedience lasted work was pleasure; when disobedience came work became a battle in toil and hardship against the power to which the will had been yielded, wrestling with evil sown and earning bread by sweat amid weeds, thistles, stubborn soil, and continual warfare in earth and heart. The fall changed the order and brought the curse on the earth, turning free supply into struggle.
Even toilsome labor remains part of the great plan for recovery from the fall. It was purposed to lighten and remove the evil brought by disobedience, to make temptation ineffectual, to stay the tide of evil, to check self-indulgence, and to promote industry, purity, firmness, happiness, and development. Thus labor still guards against temptation and serves as a safeguard and source of development, teaching how to become laborers together with God.
Probation Obedience and Fall
God put the man in Eden to dress and keep it as part of his probation for forming a character of steadfast integrity. His first moral lesson there was self-denial, with the reins of self-government placed in his hands for judgment, reason, and conscience to rule under God's command. That placement with its charge was the test of Adam and Eve's obedience.
The work belonged to their happiness, for pleasant purposeful labor together with contemplation let him observe God's goodness and glory in creation. By tending the useful and beautiful things around him he beheld that goodness and glory and found themes for thought, since Eden was heaven in miniature. Happiness was to be found in labor as well as in meditation, for man was not made merely to contemplate glorious works but was given hands for labor as well as mind and heart for contemplation. In that life of work and contemplation he could grasp that he was created in the image of God to be like Him in righteousness and holiness, with a mind capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement, and noble elevation, with God as teacher and angels as companions. Caring for plants and animals was an occupation favorable to human development, and the same pattern of living among fields and hills, tending soil and caring for flocks and herds, gave later faithful people opportunity to labor, study, meditate, learn of God, and teach children His works and ways. Adam's tending was his book of study, God in nature, where he was to study God and obey Him, and true education still strengthens the moral powers and expands the mind through the Word of God and through nature.
Adam and Eve were placed in the beautiful garden with everything they could desire for happiness, yet they were not rendered eternally secure at first. In all-wise arrangement God purposed to test their loyalty while granting them His favor and direct converse, not placing evil out of their reach and permitting Satan to tempt them, with perpetual favor with God and heavenly angels if they endured the trial. They received joint employment to dress and keep the garden, with holy angels often visiting to instruct them concerning it, and they were cautioned not to separate from each other in their work lest working apart bring contact with Satan the fallen foe. They were enjoined to follow closely the directions God had given, for only in perfect obedience were they safe, and while obedient Satan could have no power over them.
Eden was given to our first parents to live in and cultivate for the Lord as a test of obedience, with permission to eat from every tree but one. The gift was conditional, and meeting the conditions would have given spiritual and temporal prosperity, as the gift of Canaan to Israel afterward likewise required the whole people and not leaders and teachers alone to return the fruit of the vineyard to God as representatives of His kingdom. They ate the forbidden fruit, and that sin caused them to lose Eden and opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, beginning the increase of sin that has continued since. Transgression excluded them from the home and garden to dress and keep, yet Jesus Christ paid the price to ransom the race from Satan so the way back stands open through perfect obedience to all God's requirements in right relation to God, as Christ overcame by perfect obedience to His Father's commandments and men must overcome as He overcame, bending footsteps heavenward and pointing others to the Eden home. Adam lived among men for nearly a thousand years to the ninth generation as a witness to Paradise, describing his holy and happy estate together with his fall, the sufferings by which God taught him strict adherence to God's law, and the merciful provisions for salvation to stem the tide of evil, yet few gave heed and he was often met with bitter reproaches for the sin that brought woe upon his posterity.
The first Adam began in Eden in purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, abundantly supplied with everything required amid pure undefiled nature with fruits, flowers, and beautiful lofty trees, in every way more favorably situated than Christ, yet with a holy sinless pure undefiled nature he failed under the smallest test of obedience where Christ as the second Adam began. Christ took human nature and by a life of untiring labor taught how men can become laborers together with God in building His kingdom. That lesson seals the dignity and blessing of work, for diligent useful labor brings joy and benefits others, and Jesus exemplified industrious, careful, thorough duty by faithful work as a carpenter, forever sealing that earnest service is nothing to be ashamed of even for those with plenty of money, while idleness invites the enemy to tempt. The work God gives includes spiritual duties such as receiving His Word as the voice of God, humbling the heart before Him, controlling prejudice and temper, and overcoming the selfishness that mars character, and useful employment of all the physical powers is essential for health.
Health Happiness and Design
The charge to dress and keep the garden establishes physical exercise through useful labor as part of provision from the beginning. Equal use of mental and physical powers belonged to human life from creation, with bodily labor in cultivating and caring for the garden instituted at the start. Tending and guarding Eden means humanity was designed for active physical work outdoors in sunlight and fresh air, and that open-air activity was important to happiness. Suitable, healthful employment was wisely provided for the physical powers even in sinless Eden, providing exercise of brain, bone, and muscle and fulfilling one purpose in creating the earth. That same Eden plan is to be carried out today where mental and moral training are combined with physical training, with manual training developing brain power and training muscles and nerves to obey a healthful brain, so that men and women become workers together with God. Work exercised the fully developed muscles and helped preserve their elasticity, as part of the original plan for human life.
The body’s organs were made for use, and work was necessary for happiness even amid paradise’s beauty and abundance in the state of innocence. Although Eden surrounded the first pair with everything useful and lovely to delight the soul, that alone was not enough, for the wonderful organs of the body were made to be exercised through employment. If happiness had consisted in doing nothing, humanity in holy innocence would have been left unemployed, but labor was given from the beginning because human beings must work in order to be happy. Human beings were created to be laborers for action and not for contemplation only or idleness, with activity essential for happiness and health, precious faculties as talents to be exercised, and indolence as sin. Every bone, feature of the countenance, and muscle of the limbs proves humanity was made for activity, not for idleness. As the heart continually throbs and drives blood through the body, action pervades the whole living machinery with each organ doing its appointed work, entire harmony requires exercise of all parts harmoniously with brain nerve power rather than in a merely mechanical way, all nature forbids inaction, no created intelligence was made to be a drone, continued physical inaction lessens activity of the brain, and healthy people need useful labor that helps others instead of mere amusement, gymnasium exercises, or self-gratification to pass time.
Daily labor in the garden brought health and gladness as part of happy life alongside the beauty of nature, fellowship with the Creator, and His daily teaching. Being holy did not excuse from work, for God is never idle and every angel has an appointed task, and the holy pair’s work made them happy with mind, heart, and will acting in perfect harmony, with no weariness or toil, hours filled with useful work and communion, occupation pleasant amid visits and free converse except for one restriction. Working in the garden before sin was a blessing that engaged the mind, strengthened the body, developed abilities, and gave pleasure. Labor together with contemplation belonged to happiness, and through caring for the garden humanity could observe goodness and glory in creation. Being busy and cheerful balances the mind, elevates thought, clears the brain, strengthens moral powers, gives healthful sleep, and lifts above discontent, while riches with idleness bring restlessness and short life.
Work belongs to the original perfect life and is for the health of soul and body, while a do-nothing idle life is a curse, for the first pair were given employment because they would be happier when employed. Light useful employment, especially outdoors, is therefore better than enforced inactivity for the sick, because keeping the will active arouses dormant faculties, diverts the mind from symptoms and homesickness, and helps recovery. Life in close contact with nature follows the plan of life for humanity, offering lessons for today, helping restore suffering humanity, with outdoor life amid natural surroundings bringing great benefit to the sick. Cultivating the garden is God’s work, providing needed physical exercise and care for the body as much service to God as holding meetings.
Education Dignity and Training
Eden was a school with God as instructor, where Adam and Eve learned to till the soil and care for what He had planted. Their employment together with God made Adam the first to labor together with God, with nothing interposing between the pair and their Maker, for He had created Adam with mind and will and moral faculties after the similitude of His own mind and will and then placed him in a garden planted with every tree pleasant to sight and good for food, with four rivers and land enriched with gold and silver and precious stones, and instructed him how to care for it. Labor there before sin was not degrading but a great blessing and pleasure, and industry was their joy, with everything responding to their efforts to develop and perfect it. The fall changed the order and the earth was cursed so that it no longer brought forth only good, yet the decree to earn bread by the sweat of the brow was not given as a curse, and through faith and hope labor was to remain a blessing to Adam and Eve and their descendants, because God never meant for man to have nothing to do, and departure from that order grows with the deepening curse of sin. God still instructs those who plow and plant and sow.
True education follows that pattern by joining physical labor with mental and moral training rather than book study alone. Body and mind were both meant to be worked from the beginning, so students in schools should have physical and mental powers taxed in right proportion, as useful results like a field of wheat require hard breaking work like plowing. Manual training develops brain power and trains muscles and nerves to obey a healthful brain, wisely providing exercise of brain, bone, and muscle even as in sinless Eden, fulfilling one of God's purposes in creating the earth and making men and women workers together with God. Employment educates better than teaching alone, and God still impresses human minds better by giving them something to do, so schools should connect manual labor with study, since working the land gives physical soundness and strength while students advance just as much as when they give all their time to study. From infancy children are to be trained to do what is appropriate for age and ability, combining science with practical labor and exercising both physical and mental powers, learning to amuse themselves and exercise their minds in devising plans and doing simple natural things for themselves, becoming more independent and able to meet serious troubles soon to come, for useful labor was their safeguard in Eden and that safeguard was to be perpetuated through all generations to the close of earth's history. Caring for plants and animals was an occupation favorable to human development, and God's arrangement of land likewise provided this kind of useful work, containing principles from the Creator that all must obey to produce balanced mind and character fitted for useful employment and for teaching youth, the same employment given in Eden to continue in Eden restored.
Manual work with the hands is God's order, given for happiness, and having employment does not degrade, cause loss of caste, or unfit one to be a gentleman. Learning different kinds of work in order to be self-sustaining does not degrade children. Tending the garden was pleasant work given to sinless Adam and Eve, and work was not a curse in the beginning, with only pleasant work to have entered the world if obedience had continued, and unpleasant, toilsome work entering only after disobedience. To regard work as a curse is error, and to despise working people and honest labor reverses God's order and puts human opinion above His purpose.
Even children of the wealthy must not be deprived of having something to do, but must have work to increase strength of brain and muscle and to use entrusted strength, time, money, and possessions wisely and not for selfish purposes, keeping a place among the world's workers. Delicate idleness and selfish gratification make invalids and make life empty and barren in every way, for God gave human beings reason and crowned their lives with goodness not to be cursed with the results of idleness. Learning different kinds of work in order to be self-sustaining and working for a living is therefore not degradation and is no loss of caste, since work was appointed by God in sinless Eden for human happiness. Children and youth must be educated to be masters of labor and not slaves of labor, learning to use God-given ability in even the humblest occupation and putting heart and soul and mind and strength into work as service to God whom they love with heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Cultivating the soil is work requiring tact, skill, diligence, faith, and perseverance, with prayer for God's blessing seconded by most diligent, thorough, earnest labor that overcomes serious obstacles, for the same requirement to subdue the land and till it that kept Adam employed rests on people now, so land left uncultivated after a disappointing first trial must still be worked. There is wisdom from God for the one who holds the plow and plants and sows the seed, given to those who trust and obey Him, because the earth has concealed treasures God would have opened, and faithful tillage brings harvest while neglect leaves unfruitfulness. God would have thousands and tens of thousands now crowded into cities watching for a chance to earn a trifle working upon the soil instead, with families taking their children into the country where there are fewer temptations, where children with parents who love and fear God are in every way better situated to learn of the Great Teacher who is the source and fountain of wisdom and to gain fitness for the kingdom of heaven. Working the land as appointed in Eden provides opportunity to earn a living and meet needs. By transgressing the law man worked against his own present and eternal good and that appointed work was made much harder, giving Satan opportunity to sow seeds of evil in the human heart while the cursed ground that at first produced only good began to produce tares whose growth calls for continual warfare, yet when man fell God began to work to defeat Satan's plans by working in man, and cultivation of the soil remains a school in which man learns spiritual lessons, seeing reflected as in a mirror the work of God upon the human soul.
God is never idle and every angel has an appointed task, so holiness did not excuse the holy pair from work and there is no place for indolence. God committed to them the care of the garden under His ownership, holding it from Him, in order for them to continue happy, with mind, heart, and will acting in perfect harmony, with no weariness or toil, their hours filled with useful work and communion with each other while God and Christ visited and talked with them in perfect freedom except for one restriction. He appointed labor as a blessing to occupy the mind, strengthen the body, and develop the faculties, and in mental and physical activity Adam found one of the highest pleasures of his holy existence, for although he received a rich heritage he was not to be idle, because the Creator knows what brings human happiness and true joy of life is found only by working men and women. Even the toilsome labor to gain bread after disobedience and expulsion remained a safeguard against temptation and a source of happiness, and angels are diligent workers. God has given to every person his own work to do and no one is to be idle, for work is a blessing, honorable, praiseworthy, approved and blessed of God, and useful employment of all the physical powers is essential for health, while idleness is dangerous because it invites the enemy to tempt, and innocent pleasure is fullest after industry. Christ forever sealed this truth by working at the carpenter's trade to help support the family and by making Himself in His manhood the servant of all, exemplifying the duty to work industriously, carefully, and thoroughly for the joy and benefit of others, and the work God gives includes spiritual duties such as receiving His Word as the voice of God, humbling the heart before Him, controlling prejudice and temper, and overcoming the selfishness that mars character, with earnest service nothing to be ashamed of even for those who have plenty of money.
Food Nature and Restoration
To dress and keep the garden meant living on food in its natural state, the direct produce of the garden itself. The original diet was simple fruits, vegetables and grains, taken straight from the ground without animalizing them by first feeding them to animals and then eating dead flesh. In that first order one animal was not to destroy another animal for food. Eating flesh came only after the fall, suffered because of hardness of heart to shorten the existence of the long-lived race, not because it is essential for health or strength. Simple grains, tree fruits and vegetables contain all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood, which a flesh diet cannot do.
God's plan was life amid garden beauty rather than crowding into unhealthy cities, terraces and tenements. He placed the first parents in Eden amidst beautiful sights and attractive sounds of nature, not in a palace among artificial luxuries, and He desires men and women to rejoice in those sights and sounds today. The garden was an emblem of heaven and of the love of God, with flowers showing beauty and fragrance, fruit trees bearing precious treasure for man's good, and birds on every tree singing praise which Adam and Eve in untainted purity delighted to hear. The more nearly people come into harmony with that original country plan, the more favorable their position for recovery and preservation of health of body, mind and soul. Outdoor life in close contact with nature can bring great benefit to the sick and help restore suffering humanity.
Cultivating the ground was given before sin and not because of sin, and God Himself blessed the work of tilling the soil. After disobedience the work was greatly multiplied because the cursed earth brought forth weeds and thistles, yet the work itself remains good. In country places this useful labor gives physical health by developing nerve and muscle, offers fewer temptations than the cities, and parents are to use it in training their children for the saving of souls. City crowding with its care and anguish comes from sin marring God's purpose, but His purpose stands to impress His image again on souls, fill hearts with the peace of heaven, make His people joyful in His goodness, mercy and love, and convert sinners, for He has not abandoned the earth. Families with parents who love and fear God are in every way better situated in the country to learn of the Great Teacher who is the source and fountain of wisdom and to gain fitness for the kingdom of heaven, while city schools surround children with every phase of temptation that attracts and demoralizes and makes character building tenfold harder.
Cultivation of the soil remains a school in which man learns spiritual lessons, seeing reflected as in a mirror the work of God upon the human soul. By transgression man worked against his own present and eternal good, gave Satan opportunity to sow seeds of evil in the human heart, and the ground that at first produced only good began to produce tares whose growth calls for continual warfare, while God began to work in man to defeat Satan's plans. Working the land with tact and skill is noble work, not menial service, the same work given to Adam and Eve, to be done by men, women and children energized and guided by the Spirit of God with cultivated minds employed in thorough work. Adam and Eve loved to see the miracles wrought by the divine Husbandman, in which the human agent plants the seed and God waters it and sends sunshine until the tiny blade springs up. That growth teaches the resurrection of the body and the renewing of the heart, showing that spiritual things are learned from earthly development as seeds of truth sown in the soil of the heart spring up to harvest, and faithful cultivation of the vineyard of the soul now, receiving God's instruction and grace and using every spiritual advantage with faith, love and patience as laborers together with God, proves fitness to enter and serve in restored Eden.
Employment begun in Eden will continue forever, for the whole family of the redeemed will not live in dreamy idleness. Labor was designed as nothing but a blessing, and man never could have been happy without something to do, while misery and weariness come not from labor itself but from the sin attached to all activity and from carrying lawful things to excess which taxes mind and body and leaves misery in a hardened conscience. A life of the hardest labor is more satisfying than idleness, and no converted man or woman can be anything but a worker. In the earth made new the redeemed will again enjoy the Eden life and occupations, planting and harvesting and cultivating the restored garden under God's supervision in a world free from sin and sorrow. There activity will not be wearying and burdensome but will be rest, and the redeemed will find delight in serving Him whose they are by creation and by redemption. The way back to that Eden home, lost by transgression, stands open because Jesus paid the price to ransom the race from Satan, and return comes through perfect obedience as Christ overcame, while the things of nature, though marred by sin, still speak of God's love and of that home and its restoration when the earth shall be filled with praise, a truth Christ taught through familiar illustrations in simple, sympathetic, cheerful instruction identified with the interests and happiness of His hearers.
The record of creation and of man placed to work stands with Exodus 20 and Exodus 31 as God's Word for instruction and guidance, presenting eternal truth and an unchangeable standard of right-doing. Those who relate themselves humbly to God in meekness and lowliness of heart will be blessed in everything they are called to do in His cause, given wisdom, understanding and knowledge to do their work aright, and helped by angels of light. God Himself taught Adam and Eve how to tend the garden, and He still instructs those who plow, plant and sow. There is wisdom from God for the one who holds the plow, because the earth has concealed treasures that God would have opened by working the soil. He would have thousands and tens of thousands now crowded into cities watching for a chance to earn a trifle leave the city to work upon the land instead.