(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

THE FALL OF MAN.—(Continued.)

SPECIAL TEXT: "And now behold, if Adam had not transgressed, he would not have fallen; but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state which they were [in], after they were created; and they must have remained for ever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore, they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things."

NOTES.

1. Be Fruitful.—Importance of Life: The purpose of God in the earth-life of man already has been considered (Lesson IV, Subdivision 4), and it was found to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man as man; and to bring to him an increase of joy, by enlargement of capacity to enjoy; by adding upon him new powers of self expression; by adding an earth-body to a heavenly born spirit; "for man is spirit:" but "spirit" in order to receive "a fullness of joy" must be inseparably connected with element (Doc. & Cov. Sec. xciii:32-35, also note 2, Year Book II, Lesson II); hence the earth life of Intelligences; hence the advent of Adam and his wife Eve upon our earth; hence the commandment "Be fruitful;" hence the importance of man obtaining his body (Lesson II, note 2); hence the resurrection from the dead, which brings to pass the eternal union of spirit and body (element), to be sanctified as a "soul;" for the "spirit and the body is the soul of man" (Doc. & Cov., Sec. xxxviii:15). These principles enlarge the view of the importance of the earth-life of man, and give the idea of sanctity to the commandment, "Be fruitful." Undoubtedly the most important thing in life is life itself, since there flows from life all other things—experiences, joys, sorrows, sympathies, achievements, righteousness, honor, power—it is the root, the base of all. To protect and preserve life, whence spring all things else, God has issued his decree. "Thou shalt not kill"—the Everlasting's cannon, fixed alike against self-slaughter and the killing of others; and on the crime of murder is placed the heaviest of all penalties—"whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" (Gen. ix:6); "No murderer hath eternal abiding in him" (I John iii:15).

And on the other hand, for the promotion of life, what encouragement has God not given? First, this commandment, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish (refill) the earth;" second, in making sex desire and love of offspring the strongest of passions, refining both, however, by the sentiment of love, and confining by his law the exercise of these life-functions to the limits of wedlock relations. "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate" (Psalms 127:3-5). And when the Lord would give his highest blessing to Abraham, his friend, for his supreme act of obedience, he could but say: "In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice" (Genesis, xxii:17-18). And to Jacob the Lord also said: "Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people" (Gen. xlviii:4).

2. Nature's Testimony to the Value of Life: In nature, too, this law of life is written, until our philosophers who treat on life in its various forms, declare that the very "object of nature is function"—i. e., life, (Lester F. Ward, Outlines of Sociology, 1904, Ch. V). So superabundant is the fertility of all forms of life, animal and vegetable, that if it were not limited by destructive agencies the earth would soon be overwhelmed. "Every being," says Mr. Darwin, "which during its natural life time produces several eggs or seeds, must suffer destruction during some period of its life, and during some season or occasional year, otherwise, on the principle of geometrical increase, its numbers would quickly become so inordinately great that no country could support the product. * * * There is no exception to the rule that every organic being naturally increases at so high a rate, that, if not destroyed, the earth would soon be covered by the progeny of a single pair. Even slow-breeding man has doubled in twenty-five years, and at this rate, in less than a thousand years, there would literally not be standing room for his progeny. * * * In a state of nature almost every full-grown plant annually produces seed, and amongst animals there are very few which do not annually pair. Hence we may confidently assert, that all plants and animals are tending to increase at a geometrical ratio,—that all would rapidly stock every station in which they could any how exist—and that this geometrical tendency to increase must be checked by destruction at some period of life" ("The Origin of Species," p. 50, 51, 52).

What is the significance of this rich endowment with the power of reproduction in all forms of life, animal and vegetable, until it assumes the appearance of actual redundancy? Is it not nature's testimony to the fact of the desirability of life? And hence she has equipped the various species with power to perpetuate life, notwithstanding the destructive forces with which life in its great variety of forms has to contend. Is life—especially human life—worth living? Undoubtedly, since nature has so abundantly provided the means for its perpetuation, and God has given the commandment, "Be fruitful and replenish the earth."

3. "The Fall" Regarded as Beneficent by Adam and Eve: Much that is remarked in the foregoing paragraphs of this lesson on the nature of the fall finds its warrant in the Book of Moses, (Pearl of Great Price) and in the Book of Mormon, in what is said of Adam and Eve, and what is said by them when the fact of the Atonement was expounded to them; for one of the effects the fall seems to have had upon Adam and his spouse—the effect of transition from heaven conditions to earth conditions—was to veil their knowledge, to some extent, as to pre-earth life conditions and purposes of God;^[A] hence they lost their knowledge apparently of the earth-life scheme of things, and had to be instructed anew as to the plan of "eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began."^[B] And after Adam had been re-instated in a knowledge of the things of God, and made to understand that notwithstanding he had fallen yet could he be redeemed, "and all mankind, even as many as will"—"In that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God. And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters."^[C]

[Footnote A: It will be observed that in speaking of Adam and Eve and their part in the affairs of our earth and the beginning of the human race upon it. I am passing by the evident allegory of Genesis as to the earth origin of Adam and Eve. Our doctrine regard these first parents of the human race as simply coming from another sphere upon a mission to this earth to perform the work assigned them in peopling the earth as prepared for them at their advent. The account in Genesis of man's earth origin, of his being made of the dust of the earth, and woman manufactured from man's rib gives in allegory the process of the generation of human life. But human life is but a continuation of pre-earth existing life which has no beginning and which will have no end, being of the eternal things. So that in the system of philosophic thought that is born of the revelations in which the New Dispensation of the gospel has its origin, man was not moulded from the earth as a brick nor woman manufactured from a rib; but, as well stated by Elder Parley P. Pratt, the earth having been prepared and made ready for the human race, "A royal planter now descends from yonder world of older date, and bearing in his hand the choice seeds of the older Paradise, he plants them in the virgin soil of our new born earth. They grow and flourish there, and, bearing seed, replant themselves, and thus clothed the naked earth with scenes of beauty, and-the air with fragrant incense. Ripening fruits and herbs at length abound. When lo! from yonder world is transferred every species of animal life. Male and female, they come, with blessings on their heads, and a voice is heard again, "Be fruitful and multiply." Earth, its mineral, vegetable and animal wealth, its Paradise prepared, down comes from yonder world on high a son of God, with his beloved spouse. And thus a colony from heaven * * * is transplanted on our soil. The blessings of their Father are upon them, and the first great law of heaven and earth is again repeated, "Be fruitful and multiply." Hence, the nations which have swarmed our earth." "Key to Theology," Ch. vi.]

[Footnote B: Titus i:2. Also Book of Moses, Ch. v:1-12. For a fuller consideration of the facts of the text see Seventy's Year Book II, Lesson XI. Notes 5 and 6.]

[Footnote C: Book of Moses (Pearl of Great Price) Ch. v. 10-12.]

4. Book of Mormon View of the Fall—Necessary to the Purposes of God: After a most remarkable process of reasoning upon the fact of opposite existences, good and evil, sin and righteousness, and reaching the conclusion that there "must needs be an opposition in all things," the Nephite prophet applies his principles to the fall of Adam in the following passage:

"To bring about his [God's] eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents. * * * It must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter; wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore man could not act for himself, save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other. And I, Lehi, according to the things which I have read, must needs suppose, that an angel of God, according to that which is written, had fallen from heaven; wherefore he became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God, and because he had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable for ever he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said, Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit, they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the earth. And they have brought forth children; yea, even the family of all the earth. And the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh: wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents. And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed, he would not have fallen; but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created, must have remained in the same state in which they were, after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy."^[A]

[Footnote A: II Nephi ii:15-25. For a treatise on "Opposite Existences," see "New Witnesses for God," Vol. III, pp. 219-227.]

5. Summary of Views of the Fall: I shall depend on the two foregoing passages, to sustain, in large measure, the views of this lesson, viz., that the fall of Adam was not an accident; that it did not surprise the purposes of God with reference to man's earth-life, much less thwart them; that the fall was as much embraced in the sovereign purposes of God with reference to the earth-life of man as was the Atonement; that without the first the second could not be; that the transition from heaven conditions to earth conditions, the fall, in some way was connected with the propagation of the earth-life of man: "Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed" is the declaration of Eve, allowed to stand in the Book of Moses as an undoubted truth. But for the transgression of Adam, as the Prophet Lehi tells us, in the above passage, "all things which were created, must have remained in the same state which they were [in] after they were created; and they must have remained forever and had no end. And they [Adam and Eve] would have had no children: Wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin." But Adam made the necessary transition from a state of mere innocence, he fell that man might be, and that the experiences of earth-life might follow, and eventuate in something better and greater than mere innocence, viz., in virtue; which is goodness, and strength, acquired by conquest of evil.^[A]

[Footnote A: See Seventy's Year Book No. II, Part II, Lesson IX, p. 50. On this distinction between mere innocence and virtue, Professor Joseph Le Conte of the University of California says: "It will, I think, be admitted by all that innocence and virtue are two very different things. Innocence is a pre-established, virtue a self-established, harmony of spiritual activities. The course of human development, whether individual or racial, is from innocence through more or less discord and conflict to virtue. And virtue completed, regarded as a condition, is holiness, as an activity, it is spiritual freedom. Not happiness nor innocence but virtue is the goal of humanity. Happiness will surely come in the train of virtue, but if we seek primarily happiness we miss both. Two things must be borne steadily in mind; virtue is the goal of humanity; virtue can not be given, it must be self-acquired. * * * Why could not man have been made a perfectly pure, innocent, happy being, unplagued by evil and incapable of sin? I answer: The thing is impossible even to Omnipotence, because it is a contradiction in terms. Such a being would also be incapable of virtue, would not be a moral being at all, would not in fact be man. We can not even conceive of a moral being without freedom to choose. We can not even conceive of virtue without successful conflict with solicitations to debasement. But these solicitations are so strong and so often overcome us, that we are prone to regard the solicitations themselves as essential evil, instead of our weak surrender to them." (Evolution and Its Relation to Religious Thought—1902—pp. 372-3.)]