Genesis 2:9, commentary and pictures

Out of the ground God caused to grow every tree beautiful to the eye and nourishing for food, placing the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden eastward in Eden. It reveals His love in ample provision for happiness, making trees both useful and beautiful to delight the senses, sustain the body, and lift the heart to Him. The tree of life held supernatural power to perpetuate life and heal, freely offered on condition of perfect obedience, then barred by the flaming sword after sin lest sinners live forever in sin. The tree of knowledge was the one forbidden tree reserved as the smallest test of loyalty, faith and love, withholding only the experience of evil and its sorrow and death. Christ Himself is now to the world what that tree was then, the fountain of immortality and bread of life, so that repentant obedience through His blood regains Paradise and the right to eat again and live forever.

Garden Setting and Trees

Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden eastward in Eden, as beautiful and nourishing surroundings providing for equal use of mental and physical powers through cultivation and care of the land. He finished what He could do in creation by planting that garden and putting the formed man there, sending a river out of Eden to water it, pronouncing it all good, and then resting on the seventh day. Eden was untouched by sin and perfect, the beautiful natural setting where Adam and Eve in holy innocence enjoyed communion with God and sinless angels and were to receive their education as God's perfect work in the glory of the original condition before the curse. Nothing there was imperfect or incomplete and the work needed no undoing, for the very dust from which man was formed was pure, the breath of life breathed into him was holy, the atmosphere was undefiled, and from sunbeams to fountains and streams all was holy, clothed in spotless purity and unexcelled loveliness in harmony with the Father and the Son by whom the worlds were made. When creation was complete Eden bloomed with no taint of sin or shadow of death marring it, and Adam and Eve had free access to the tree of life in its midst.

The garden held trees of every variety for usefulness and beauty, laden with luxuriant fragrant delicious fruit beautiful to the eye and pleasant to the taste as food, including fruits, vegetables and grains, set amid stately trees for use and ornament, shrubs, trailing vines, flowers of every hue in rich profusion perfuming the air, singing birds praising the Creator, and little songsters in bright graceful plumage. The vines grew upright without trellises and bore very large fruit called grapes of varied hues — nearly black, purple, red, pink and light green — unlike anything seen since the fall, bowing down under their weight. Adam and Eve made it their happy labor to train those living branches and foliage into beautiful bowers and dwellings laden with fragrant fruit. God gave tangible proof that He is pleased with the beautiful by planting that lovely garden and decorating the earth with lovely flowers, so that order, neatness, taste, convenience and plain beauty in preparing a house for Him are not pride and love of the world, while vain pride in gaudy trappings and needless ornaments is not pleasing to Him and He accepts the humblest sincere offering when no better can be presented. God Himself planted the garden with His own hands after creating Adam in His own image with mind and will and moral faculties after the similitude of His mind and will, placing Adam and Eve there with nothing between them and their Maker. That home was watered by four rivers and enriched with gold and silver and precious stones, with giant trees, blooming gardens, fruitful trees, shady avenues, streams of clear deep water, and beautiful ferns that fill the mind with awe at His planting and caring work. The Eden glory looked upon by sinless eyes possessed qualities peculiarly His own, revealing divine momentous truths bound up with the beauty of natural things in contrast to the earth's present fallen state.

The same two trees exist on other unfallen worlds — one like the tree of life in the holy city and one forbidden — whose inhabitants have power to eat of both but by strict obedience to God's commandments never taste the forbidden tree. By so abstaining they remain unfallen, noble, majestic and lovely, bearing the express image of Jesus in holy joy, freedom and happiness, knowing that to eat would be to fall as on earth. In Eden life filled the created world, with life in every leaf, flower and tree, and its exquisite beauty surpassed human art. Though creation is now blighted, traces of primal loveliness remain in trees, vines, shrubs, flowers and floral beauty that recall Eden, awaken longing for its unfading beauty, point to the blessed country to come, and have health-giving properties. The trees and flowers of Paradise before the curse must have been more glorious still than the exquisite beauty remaining after sin.

The garden with its two trees placed for a definite object closely connected with man's destiny remained among men for many centuries after the fall as a silent witness standing just in sight with its entrance barred by watching angels. At its cherubim-guarded gate the glory of God was revealed where the first worshipers reared altars and presented offerings, and while Eden stood visible the order of creation, the object of the garden, the history of its two trees, the existence and supreme authority of God, and the obligation of His law were undisputed facts leaving men slow to question. Adam recounted its perfection alongside his fall and its grief-filled consequences to his descendants. Before the Flood God withdrew it and caught it up from earth because He would not suffer it to feel the marks of the curse, preserving it as a specimen of perfect handiwork untouched by sin which Moses beheld with joy, and He will return it more gloriously adorned than before. After transgression and murder the earth still bore abundant beautiful trees and fruit and nature remained little less fair than Eden, yet signs of decay showed it no longer had its original unfallen condition.

The home God gave man was planted with giant forests of trees that knew scarcely anything of decay, blooming gardens, fruitful trees, shady avenues, and beautiful forests and gardens to enrich the earth and keep God in remembrance, but men enjoyed and idolized the trees and groves instead of loving the Giver and by ingratitude and disobedience brought the curse upon themselves. At the Flood torrents of rain fell and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, uprooting and sweeping away trees, groves, avenues, forests and gardens with their inhabitants, covering adored places with rubbish, earth and rocks thrown up from beneath, and turning the lovely home into a broken uneven frightful solitude. That faultless Eden cannot be expected on this sin-desecrated earth, where sin mars every most desirable place. Yet fertile land with giant trees, shrubs, ferns and streams shows His hand still planting and caring as a great farm and forest garden furnishing resources for knowing His wonderful works, cultivating soil for crops, and physical exercise for students and teachers who need to educate far more from nature as God's great school. Under blessing the land of promise would become a second Eden like it — clear, distinct, beautiful and fruitful — with cedar-clad mountains, olive hills, vines, green plains bright with flowers, palms, wheat and barley, sunny valleys with brooks and birds, fair gardens and cities, abundant lakes, hillside flocks, and honey amid rocks. Even the beautiful holy garden did not exclude the tempter and the tempted, for Satan found entrance and left sin and disobedience there where pride, vanity, love of display could appear.

Divine Love in Provision

The verse shows love for created beings through ample provision for comfort, happiness and glorious surroundings in this present life. Out of the ground were made to grow many varieties of lofty trees laden with delicious fruit of every kind adapted to please taste and meet want, set amid unsurpassed loveliness of green earth, self-perpetuating flowers, shrubs and trailing vines regaling the senses with beauty and fragrance. The trees of every kind were for usefulness and beauty, supplying physical needs while delighting the eye, as evidence of goodness and love. They were suited to need, and their varied beauty and usefulness also displayed wisdom and glory. The garden's trees and other created beauties were gifts meant to meet human needs and bring happiness, revealing love and care.

The trees were made both useful and beautiful, fragrant and pleasing to eye and taste as food, and the garden was made a lovely place and source of happiness and delight. Its beauty and provision were intended to bring happiness through caring for what was made. Its beauty reflects care and gives reason to understand character through what was created. The trees and garden were gifts intended for enjoyment and happiness. The beautiful home with trees of many kinds and pleasant nourishing fruit shows works of nature are meant to bring delight, and even in a world shadowed by sin people can find delight in them. The beauty and natural surroundings can draw attention away from self and lift thoughts to God.

In love the first man was created with perfect senses to enjoy taste and to feast the eye on the beautiful. A feast was prepared for sight as well as for taste, and both should have proper gratification within proper limits. The Author of all that is really beautiful is best pleased when what was made lovely is loved. Love for beauty was implanted in human hearts so that through tokens of love correct views of character may be gained, with stately trees caused to grow and field flowers set like gems to beautify the earth and surround people with lovely things for happiness. Caring for flowers, shrubs and ornamental trees belongs with the Christian heaven, while caring only for useful things like pig-pens and hen-parks does not. Yards adorned with flowers, trees and shrubbery at proper distance have a happy influence on the family, promoting health and cheerfulness.

The home made was full of beauty and delight as tokens of love, charming its dwellers who united with little songsters around them in bright yet graceful plumage warbling happy cheerful music in harmonious songs of love, praise and adoration. In the order and harmony of creation infinite wisdom and knowledge were recognized, with continually discovered new beauty and additional glory filling hearts with deeper love and bringing gratitude and reverence to the Creator. The garden with its trees was an emblem of heaven and of love, where pleasant and fruit trees bore beauty, fragrance and precious treasures for good, and with birds caroling praise made sights and sounds delighted in in untainted purity. Those same sights and sounds are to be rejoiced in today, reposing in goodness, mercy and love as a joyous people with heaven's peace in the heart, for mankind was made for happiness and not continual worry. It is not in order for people to be crowded into cities huddled in terraces and tenements, for sin marred that purpose and brought care and anguish, yet the image is to be impressed anew and sinners converted. Life more nearly in harmony with that original garden plan favors recovery and preservation of health.

Variety and inexhaustible supply of what was good for food were caused to grow, and man was freely welcomed to eat of all except one tree warned against on pain of death. Nothing good was withheld, and the beauty and abundance showed provision for happiness. The forbidden tree was as attractive and lovely as the others, its name reflecting that eating would give experience of sin and disobedience. Freedom to eat from every other tree with single restriction taught self-denial and obedience. Placed on probation to develop perfect character amid beauty and plenty by a beneficent Creator, there was no necessity to take the forbidden fruit. Suspicion and belief that something was withheld led to mistrust and distrust of goodness and to heeding the tempter.

Man was created pure and noble with no bias to evil and placed surrounded with every inducement to remain true to allegiance, with law placed around as safeguard, for it was not the purpose for man to be sinful. The Eden home given was a provision and revelation of love. That garden home was lost, but through the sacrifice of Christ it is to be restored to man. The sick and patients cared for in medical work are to be instructed concerning that love and restoration. Sanitariums are to be established in quiet secluded places as far from cities as is consistent, so opportunity is given for this instruction and every restorative agency provided is used.

Humanity was placed amid most pleasant surroundings to divert attention from self and lift thoughts upward, with graceful shrubs and delicate flowers greeting the eye at every turn and trees of every variety, many laden with fragrant delicious fruit, while birds caroled praise on branches. Although sin has cast its shadow over the earth, delight is still to be found in the works of the hands. Though marred by sin, the things of nature still speak of that home. From that great treasure-house illustrations and lessons were drawn, pointing to the lily in simplicity and marvelous beauty and to the grass of the field clothed by God. They remind of the time when the home shall be restored and the earth filled with praise.

Tree of Life

The tree of life stood in the midst of the garden surrounded by beautiful verdure and flowers, surpassing all the other trees in glory, with fruit like apples of gold and silver associated with gold and silver. Its fruit possessed supernatural virtue as the antidote of death, so that to eat of it was to live forever and perpetuate life, and its leaves were for the sustaining of life and immortality with healing properties. While Adam and Eve ate from it they could not die, and its life-giving power passed on from them to prolong the lives of the antediluvians.

Access to it was free while obedient, for perfect and perpetual obedience was the condition of eternal happiness and on that condition alone was access to be had. Had Adam remained obedient he would have continued to enjoy free access and would have lived forever, forfeiting only upon sin the immortality promised on condition of obedience. As they learned from God and explored creation they gained vigor from the tree, and their knowledge, enjoyment and love would keep increasing as long as they remained loyal to God's law.

After sin Adam was cut off, driven from Eden and from the tree, and a flaming sword was placed around it so he could not eat and perpetuate a life of sin and become an immortal sinner. Without access human life gradually wore out, and he became subject to death, forfeiting conditional immortality. No one of Adam's family has since passed that flaming sword and eaten, so there is not an immortal sinner, and the soul that sins dies an everlasting death with no hope of resurrection. Fallen man no longer enjoyed the visible presence of God and the holy angels as he had in Eden.

After the entrance of sin God transplanted the tree from earth to the paradise above, yet its branches hang over the wall to this lower world, so that through the redemption purchased by the blood of Christ fallen men may still eat its life-giving fruit and live forever. Its fruit had sustained health and vitality before the fall, and when deprived of it they began to lose their hold upon health and vitality. Jesus is now to the world what that tree was then, His word, His flesh to eat and His blood to drink, being life so that eaters will not die but live forever.

The tree is also a source of knowledge to which Christ had access, explaining the higher education and wisdom His brothers recognized but could not account for. In childhood without schooling from prophets or rabbinical teachers He gained wisdom, deep penetration and stores of wisdom and scientific knowledge, astonishing rulers and learned teachers with instructive questions and answers as their instructor. He grew in wisdom and in favor with God and man as His talents developed and His faculties strengthened by exercise according to divine law.

Access forfeited through disobedience is offered again as part of salvation, for the words of God obeyed as the conditions of life give access anew, and Christ's blood and death reconcile fallen humanity to God and make restoration possible through pardon and obedience to God's law. By repentance and faithful obedience Adam regains the garden he lost, and after the resurrection he sees Eden again, names and recognizes the trees he once knew while innocent, and is led by the Saviour to the tree of life to eat its fruit, showing that redemption restores the first home and dominion. The tree once withdrawn and conditional is promised to the overcomer in God's paradise as a gift of the future life, and that gift is absolute and eternal.

Tree of Knowledge and Test

The tree of knowledge of good and evil was a real tree bearing real edible fruit, standing near the tree of life as the single exception to free eating, which was not to be eaten or touched on warning that eating would bring death. Knowledge of good was freely given, but knowledge of evil — sin and its results of wearing toil, anxious care, disappointment, grief, pain and death — was lovingly withheld. That prohibition withheld no blessing, for the promised mingled knowledge was no path to greater wisdom, power, happiness or higher existence, as Satan falsely presented while hiding that transgression had made him an outcast from heaven.

The tree was the test of obedience, faith and love, the smallest test that could be devised to prove loyalty. Everything was freely provided and all other trees were open to eat, but this one was reserved as a reminder that all belonged to God, and abstaining from its fruit gave opportunity to show faith, trust and perfect obedience through self-denial. Instruction was given about it and about the danger of listening to Satan, yet freedom to obey or disobey was left; there was safety in not touching, but eating brought knowledge of sin and guilt and the covering of light disappeared. The garden place did not put evil beyond reach, for Satan was allowed to tempt and the trial was used to test loyalty, with continuance in the favor of God and the heavenly angels if endured.

The restriction gave Satan his opening, drawing them by curiosity about unsearchable plans, making them doubt truthfulness and question why they were restricted, repeating his own sin. He sought them at the one tree that endangered safety while the other trees posed no danger, working by flattery, envy, distrust, questioning and unbelief. Looking upon the happy holy home, its beauty and goodness excited his envy and jealousy, and he laid plans to cause the fall and bring creation into warfare against God's government to take possession of the earth. He worked in the dark concealing real character and purpose to deceive from earliest history, for if revealed he would have been repulsed at once.

He entered the serpent and took position in that tree leisurely eating its fruit as temptation opened, the serpent then being a beautiful winged creature bright like burnished gold in flight, moving through air from place to place instead of on the ground and eating fruit like man. Its presence beside the other tree led Eve and Adam to falsely suppose they would not die after eating. After sin nature also became a lesson in that knowledge, still revealing goodness but showing decay and death as effects of evil warning of sin's results.

The tree stands for prying curious knowledge that cannot be used, set against practical life-giving knowledge; those eager to pluck come with prying questions which Christ does not gratify but answers with solemn earnest appeal, offering instead fruit of the tree of life — only utilizable knowledge, instruction confined to practical need and the science of salvation — for every other avenue is closed except the narrow way to God and every fountain sealed save eternal life. It means the forbidden knowledge of the consequence of transgression which was refused; age after age curiosity, ambition for glory, self-exaltation and supremacy seek it as most essential but find vanity like Solomon's research compared with true holiness opening God's city gates, for Satan works until restraint snaps and education under lies begins giving practical knowledge of evil, while the tree of life planted by Christ has leaves for healing of nations. Its fruit must not be eagerly taken merely because a fallen angel once bright in glory recommends it promising knowledge of good and evil; it is to be left alone, for all valuable knowledge comes from God the fountain of wisdom through His word, Jesus Christ the true light lighting every man, and the Holy Spirit who knows needs for peace, happiness and eternal rest, not from infidels or wicked men. To be led to that tree is to be led into corrupt sexual acts, and to pluck is to learn and do only evil; eating poisons the mind with unholy imaginings, and leading young women to it and teaching them to pluck does Satan's work most effectually so that a man doing it cannot act as minister.

Fall Loss and Restoration

God caused every good fruit tree to grow in Eden, giving variety and inexhaustible supply of what was good for food, and freely welcomed man to eat of them all except one tree warned against on pain of death, with stately trees, climbing vines, beautiful shrubs and flowers spread as a feast of pleasure so that surrounded with beauty and plenty by a beneficent Creator and placed on probation to develop perfect character there was no necessity to take the forbidden fruit. Yet Eve, flattered that it would raise her to a higher and happier life, and Adam with her, let appetite, curiosity and ambition triumph over reason and basely yielded to the tempter, losing innocence and plunging the race into soul, body and spiritual taint, guilt, sickness, pain, sorrow and death. Everything in nature was then pure and undefiled and every need abundantly supplied with fruits, flowers and beautiful lofty trees pleasant to sight and good for food, with the tree of knowledge forbidden as the smallest test God could devise to prove loyalty. Adam and Eve possessed holy sinless pure undefiled natures and were in every way more favorably situated than Christ, yet when Satan insinuated doubts of God's wisdom and accused their heavenly Father and Sovereign of selfishness, Eve yielded and Adam accepted from her hand and fell, opening the floodgates of woe upon the world, depraving posterity and beginning the steady increase of sin by which Eden was lost.

Satan planned to cause disobedience so fallen angels could unite with them, take possession of Eden and hold it as their home, thinking that if they could gain access to the tree of life in the midst their strength would become equal to that of the holy angels so that even God Himself could not expel them. Adam lived nearly a thousand years among men as witness to the results of sin and faithfully sought to stem evil, having been commanded to instruct posterity in the way of the Lord. He carefully treasured what God had revealed and repeated it to succeeding generations, to children and children's children to the ninth generation, describing the holy happy Paradise life, repeating the history of the fall, telling of sufferings by which God taught necessity of strict adherence to law, and explaining merciful provisions for salvation, yet few heeded and he was often met with bitter reproaches for bringing woe upon posterity. Taking man's nature even as Adam stood in innocence in Eden would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God, but Jesus did not take that innocent humanity. He accepted humanity as weakened and defiled by four thousand years of sin, and like every child of Adam accepted the results of the great law of heredity shown in the history of His earthly ancestors, coming with such heredity to share sorrows and temptations and give example of a sinless life, meeting life's peril in common with every soul and fighting as every child of humanity must fight at risk of failure and eternal loss.

By violation of God's law the beautiful Eden home was lost and the floodgates of woe opened to the world, yet through the sacrifice of Christ alone fallen man has been granted another trial and second probation in wise plans. Christ overcame by perfect obedience to His Father's commandments, and believers must not transgress as Adam and Eve did but be obedient to all requirements and overcome as He overcame, so that through obedience they are brought back to Eden, bending footsteps heavenward and pointing others heavenward. Their example and result teach every soul to avoid sin and abhor it as hateful, feeling in view of sufferings sin inflicts that it is better to suffer loss of all things than depart from the least commandment. Eden the original home and garden-and-field life is to be restored to humanity through Christ's sacrifice when sin is removed, and the renewed earth will again have gardens and fields where people plant and enjoy fruit of labor and study creation without reminder of evil or sorrow.

Eden will be restored in grand beauty, and it belongs to the faithful to cultivate that garden under God's supervision and work there as laborers together with Him. The present life is the time to use every spiritual advantage to become skillful workers in His vineyard showing faith and love and patience, for only those proving faithful, obedient and industrious in service will enter Paradise and be given work in God's garden. The riches of Eden with its pleasant fruitful provision are the hope calling God's people from this dark earth and worth looking to, and because heaven is cheap enough believers should rid every hindrance, go free in God and press on to come off victorious.

Christ Scripture and Meaning

The tree of life is a type of the one great Source of immortality, Christ, in whom is life as the fountain of life, and obedience to Him is life-giving power that gladdens the soul. Now life and immortality are brought to light through Jesus Christ, who as the bread of life gives eternal life to those who come, believe and feed on Him, to be raised at the last day. To him that overcomes will be granted to eat of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God, absolute and eternal. The tree in the midst of the garden is Jesus Christ to everyone who believes, standing as the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God with branches reaching down to this lower world to bring within reach the blessings He has purchased. Believers may pluck and eat freely from Him by beholding Him, apprehending His character, availing themselves of His kindness and helpfulness, and receiving the blessings He proffers, and then guide others to Him that they also may eat and have the blessings communicated to them. This receiving from Him and imparting to others causes growth in love toward God and increase in faith and peace and assurance and holiness, which is wholeness toward Him.

Christ presents Himself as the Lifegiver, the tree of life to the world, so that by feeding upon His flesh and drinking His blood spiritual life is perfected and eternal life is regained. The tree of life in Eden gave access to everlasting life, and Jesus is to the world now what that tree was to Adam and Eve then. Its fruit sustained their health and vitality before the fall, and when deprived of it they began to lose hold upon health and vitality. His Word, His flesh to eat and His blood to drink, is now life in the same way the tree of life was then, giving eternal life so that those who eat will not die but live forever. The tree of knowledge of good and evil became a curse not because it was poisonous but because of disobedience concerning it; it was attractive, greatly desired, eaten in letting go purity and allegiance to God.

The Scriptures are like the Garden of Eden, with every tree pleasant to the sight and good for spiritual food that nourishes the soul, strengthens and ennobles the mind, and fills the heart with purest emotions. The tree of life in this garden is open to all, with no cherubim with flaming sword barring access. Through Christ taking humanity to Himself and giving His life as a Substitute, the whole human family is redeemed to a second probation, and everyone has the privilege to put forth the hand, partake fully of the soul-reviving fruit, and live forever. The Bible is likened to a leaf from that tree, and receiving it into the mind compared to eating it gives strength to do God's will.

The tree of life is truth, the Word of God, whose leaves and fruit the human family are to eat and live, whose fruit perpetuates immortality and gives life that measures with the life of God. The forbidden tree is error, falsehood and deception — accepting Satan's fallacies in place of Thus saith the Lord by interpreting the Word according to one's own ideas and opinions. Those who partake of error suffer as Adam and Eve did, die in their sins, and exclude themselves from the tree of life and eternal life unless they repent, while earnest sincere searchers for truth receive the Word as the bread of life unto eternal life. To eat from the tree of life is to receive Christ in truth, to have Christ abiding in the heart by faith, to eat God's Word as the bread of life, and to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God by heeding God's requirements and obeying His laws and commandments. To eat from the tree of knowledge is to disobey the commandments and remain under the control of hereditary and cultivated tendencies, pride, vanity, self-esteem, worldliness and every sin; those who eat from the tree of life escape that control, cooperate with God who works in them to will and to do, work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, and reveal Christ in obedient lives.

The forbidden fruit is human theories and sentiments not in harmony with the Word, first presented in Satan's promise that eating would make them as gods. Partaking of it produces false and ruinous theories, a disordered imagination, and error usurping the place of truth with centuries of darkness and ignorance. Those eager to seize knowledge apart from God are offered instead the life-giving fruit of the tree of life, which represents the way to God and eternal life as the only way left open. Christ's life itself is as a garden of the Lord, filled with qualities lovely to behold and nourishing to others, embodying every lovely trait including sensibility, courtesy and love, with sympathy reaching sufferers.

The tree of life bears fruit for the healing of the nations, and Christ's miracles to supply genuine necessity lead people to it, while the tree of knowledge bears fruit God prohibited and Satan still leads people to partake of it. At first men lived simply in harmony with nature's laws with abundant supply for need, but selfishness and unnatural taste pervert natural provisions into luxurious feasts and unnatural stimulants for perverted appetite, bringing sin and misery with excess on one hand and want on the other. Christ's provision of rest and simple food far from human dwellings teaches more true enjoyment than indulgence. Eden prepared by God, pleasant and good for food, is the pattern for the human home; through the presence of Christ, the consecration of mother and child to God before and after birth, the cooperation of husband and wife, and the mother's ministry of love, the home becomes again as an Eden of bliss and the family a beautiful symbol of the family in heaven. The two trees present instruction for teachers and managers of schools, with lessons on God's purpose for youth today, true education and reform in educational work.

Labor Learning and Living

The growing of every pleasant and useful tree, with the tree of life and the tree of knowledge in the midst, provided suitable healthful employment for the first human beings, giving opportunity to employ physical powers in dressing and keeping the garden as part of the plan instituted for training in which mental and moral training is combined with training of the physical being. Even in paradise surrounded by what delighted them they needed meaningful work, for the body’s organs were made for use and appointed labor was given for happiness. In Eden surrounded with everything pleasant to the eye and good for food, with stately trees for use and ornament, flowers of rare loveliness perfuming the air, and singing birds delighting the senses, man in holy innocence could not be happy in doing nothing, but immediately after creation was appointed work in tending what was created, to find employment and happiness in that labor while wants were abundantly supplied from fruits. Brain, bone, and muscle were to act their appointed part in useful labor, with schools so arranged that brain power is developed and strengthened by manual training and muscles and nerves trained to obey a healthful brain, making workers together with God.

Though Eden was filled with fruit-bearing trees of many kinds providing abundance, usefulness, and beauty, Adam possessing this rich garden still needed meaningful employment to be happy and was given the work of tending it. The garden’s abundance delighted, but enjoyment of its gifts was not meant to replace useful work, for an appointed task was given and useful labor was essential to well-being. Though possessing great wealth with flowers flourishing without decay, Adam was given work in caring for the garden, and labor and provision belonged together from the beginning, with needs abundantly supplied from fruits alongside assigned tending.

This arrangement for useful labor in caring for fruit trees and cultivating and training vegetation was designed in counsel with the Father before the world was, to be a safeguard perpetuated through all generations to the close of earth’s history. Adam, created in the image of God with mind and will and moral faculties after the similitude of His mind and will and placed in the garden watered by four rivers and enriched with precious stones and gold and silver where nothing stood between him and his Maker, was instructed how to care for what was planted and given the pleasant employment of dressing and keeping it, becoming the first to labor together with God in harmony with law and not apart from Him. Education therefore means more than studying books, requiring exercise of both physical and mental powers and combining science with practical labor, and from infancy children should be trained to do work appropriate to age and ability, to become more independent, amuse themselves and devise plans, and meet serious troubles soon to come.

Adam’s education began in holy Eden through communion with God in that setting where instruction came through personal visits and the works of His hands. Every tree planted was a lesson-book expressing love for human intelligences and demonstrating existence, left open before perfectly conformed minds with clear perception of the divine character surrounded by beautiful light, so each tree spoke and invisible things even eternal power and Godhead were clearly seen and understood by things made. There nature was full of the knowledge of God and teeming with divine instruction, vocal with wisdom to attentive ears, speaking to the eye and received into the heart in communion with God in created works. In original perfection the created world was full of knowledge giving divine instruction for learning and communion, but transgression caused brightness to depart leaving it marred and defiled, yet object lessons were not obliterated and rightly studied and interpreted it still speaks of its Creator with beauty and lessons remaining.

Eden was a lesson-book where dwellers learned from nature’s pages, and the same schooling is open to children today as unfailing instruction and delight. The little child not yet able to learn from the printed page, whose heart is not yet hardened by evil, quickly recognizes the Presence pervading all created things, and whose ear is not yet dulled by the world’s clamor hears the Voice speaking through nature’s utterances, no less than older years needing silent reminders of the spiritual and eternal. The unseen is illustrated by the seen, and on everything from loftiest forest tree to lichen on rock, from boundless ocean to tiniest shell, may be beheld the image and superscription of God, so the child from earliest years should as far as possible be placed where the book is open to behold glorious heavens, wonders of earth and sea, and unfolding mysteries of changing seasons, and in all works learn of the Creator. Nature there, with every pleasant tree made to grow possessing qualities peculiarly its Maker’s own, like the Old Testament Scriptures reveals divine momentous truths bound up with beauty of natural things, in contrast to the earth’s present fallen state before human eyes.

That faultless Eden where the Lord made trees grow and cared for growth cannot be expected on this sin-desecrated earth where sin mars every most desirable place. Still fertile land with giant trees, shrubs, ferns, and streams of clear deep water shows His own hand planting and caring for growth, as His great farm and forest garden furnishing resources for knowing wonderful works, for cultivating soil to bring forth crops, and for physical exercise strengthening muscles of students and teachers. Those who teach book knowledge need exercise as much as youth, and need to educate far more from nature which is God’s great school.

Fruit was the original food pronounced good for food in the beginning, while flesh meat was never best nor part of that first plan, permission to eat animal flesh coming as consequence of the fall and not until after the Flood. Eating meat is eating grains and vegetables secondhand, because the animal receives nutrition from them into its own life and man then eats the animal, strengthening the animal nature and weakening the spiritual nature. Giving it up gives pure blood and clear minds, while continuing brings disease, for meat is now full of disease and cursed by it, so a firm stand is to be taken against meat-eating and return made to the original diet. Enjoying healthful food with clear senses can give a partial present taste of Eden’s blessings of trees pleasing to sight and good for food. Those blessings picture the health and enjoyment healthful living brings, though present life is not Paradise restored, whose full restoration remains future hope for the pure.

The record in Genesis 2 is God’s Word given for instruction and guidance, presenting the standard of right-doing as eternal truth that can never be changed, to be read and obeyed alongside the law in Exodus 20 and Exodus 31. The lovely garden planted with every variety of trees for fruit and beauty, with earth decorated with lovely flowers of every hue, gives tangible proof of pleasure in the beautiful. Therefore order, neatness, taste, convenience and plain beauty in preparing a house for God are not pride and love of world, while vain pride in gaudy trappings and needless ornaments is not pleasing, and the humblest sincere offering from the poorest weakest child is accepted when no better can be presented.

It was not the purpose for people to be crowded into cities huddled in terraces and tenements losing sights and sounds, but the original plan placed the first pair in a garden surrounded by beauty and sounds of nature, and men are desired to rejoice in them today. The more nearly life comes into harmony with that garden plan the more favorable the position for recovery and preservation of health. The garden was exceedingly beautiful with graceful shrubs and delicate flowers greeting the eye, trees of every variety many laden with fragrant delicious fruit, birds caroling praise on branches, in which untainted purity delighted, placed amid most pleasant surroundings to divert from self and lift thoughts to God, and though sin has cast shadow He still desires delight in works of His hands. To locate sanitariums and educational and medical institutions amidst nature away from turmoil, bustle, noise, want, suffering and dark clouds of cities, in quiet secluded retirement with good air, plenty of room and ground for cultivation where visitors feel at home, minds are favorably impressed and influenced by the Spirit and thoughts bound to God, is to follow the Eden plan and order, and the more closely followed the more wonderfully suffering humanity is restored through educational and medical work using every restorative agency, instructing patients concerning love and the Eden home to be restored through Christ’s sacrifice, for mankind was created for happiness and to be a joyous people reposing in goodness, mercy and love and not continual worry.