(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

THE ADAMIC DISPENSATION—I.

NOTES.

1. Dispensation: A dispensation, without reference to any specific application or limitations of the term, is the act of dealing out or distributing, such as the dispensation of justice by courts, the dispensation of blessings or afflictions by the hand of Providence. Theologically a dispensation is defined as one of the several systems of bodies of law in which at different periods God has revealed His mind and will to man, such as the Patriarchal Dispensation, the Mosaic Dispensation, or the Christian Dispensation. The word is also sometimes applied to the periods of time during which the said laws obtain. That is, the period from Adam to Noah is usually called the Patriarchal Dispensation. From Noah to the calling of Abraham, the Noachian Dispensation; and from Abraham to the calling of Moses, the Abrahamic Dispensation. But the word dispensation as connected with the Gospel of Jesus Christ means the opening of the heavens to men; the giving out or dispensing to them the word of God; the revealing to men in whole or in part the principles and ordinances of the Gospel; the conferring of divine authority upon certain chosen ones, by which they are empowered to act in the name, that is, in the authority of God, and for Him. That is a dispensation as relating to the Gospel.

2. The Advent of Adam on Earth: The earth, "warmed and dried by the cheering rays of the now resplendent sun, is prepared for the first seeds of vegetation. 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. In after years, when Paradise was lost by sin; when man was driven from the face of his heavenly Father, to toil, and droop, and die; when heaven was veiled from view, and, with few exceptions, man was no longer counted worthy to retain the knowledge of his heavenly origin; then darkness veiled the past and future from the heathen mind; man neither knew himself, from whence he came, nor whither he was bound. At length a Moses came, who knew his God, and would fain have led mankind to know Him too, and see Him face to face. But they could not receive His heavenly laws or bide His presence. Thus the holy man was forced again to veil the past in mystery, and in the beginning of his history assign to man an earthly origin. Man, moulded from the earth as a brick! Woman, manufactured from a rib! Thus, parents still would fain conceal from budding manhood the mysteries of procreation, or the sources of life's everflowing river, by relating some childish tale of new-born life, engendered in the hollow trunk of some old tree, or springing with spontaneous growth like mushrooms from out the heaps of rubbish. O man! when wilt thou cease to be a child in knowledge?"—Parley P. Pratt's "Key to the Science of Theology" chap. VI.

3. "Be Fruitful": It has already been shown (Lesson II) that the purpose of God in the earth-life of man was 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 fulness of joy" must be inseparably connected with element (Doc. & Cov. Sec. xciii. 32-35, also note 2 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 [the whole] 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 no 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.)

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 forces of life, the earth would soon be overwhelmed. "Every being," says Mr. Darwin, "which during its natural lifetime 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, not withstanding 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."

4. The Symbols of Life and Death: "The Tree of Life.—so called from its symbolic character as a sign and seal of immortal life. Its prominent position in the midst of the garden where it must have been an object of daily observation and interest, was admirably fitted to keep them [Adam and Eve] habitually in mind of God and futurity."

"Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.—so called because it was a test of obedience by which our first parents were to be tried, whether they would be good or bad, obey God or break his commandments.'

"Thou Shalt not Eat of it. * * * Thou Shalt Surely Die.—no reason assigned for the prohibition, but death was to be the punishment of disobedience. A positive command like this was not only the simplest and easiest, but the only trial to which their fidelity could be exposed." (Commentary Critical and Explanatory of the Old and New Testament, Jamieson-Fossett-Brown.)

In the above symbols, together with the commandment and penalty to follow disobedience, we have assembled the great mysteries of this world—Life, Death, Good, Evil, the fact of man's Agency—power to order his own course, to obey or disobey; continued life for obedience, which is but conformation to the law of life; and death for disobedience, or departure from the conditions on which life is predicated. The Tree of Life was the symbol of eternal life, for later when man had partaken of the fruit of the Tree of Death—the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—God is represented as saying, in effect, since the man has become as one of us to know good and evil, lest he put forth his hand now and partake also of the tree of life and eat and live forever, let us send him forth from the garden and guard the tree of life by cherubims with flaming sword. And so it was ordered.—(Genesis iii:22-25) See also Alma ch. xii:22-27; also Alma ch. xii, 1-10.

Death was symbolized in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—in the day thou eatest of it, thou shalt surely die—hence the Tree of Death. Death we learn from other scriptures than Genesis, is both temporal and spiritual. What is here called temporal death is physical death, separation of spirit and body, the dust returning to the earth whence it came; but the spirit, being as we have seen a thing immortal, survives in conscious life and goes to the world of spirits. "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return," was not written of the spirit of man. The spiritual death is the breaking of the union of the soul with God, separation, alienation from God. (See Alma, chapters 12, 13, 42.) Man's disobedience to God would break this union of the soul with God, and hence spiritual death. But while partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge would bring death, both spiritual and temporal, yet it would bring also the knowledge that would make men as Gods, to know good and evil; and to this end, doubtless, was planned the whole scheme of man's earth-life. This to be developed in lessons that follow.