CHARACTER OF ADAM.

SECTION I.

ADAM IN INNOCENCY.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

(Genesis i. 1. and 26-28.)

THE account of the Creation of the 'heaven and the earth, is given with a majestic simplicity in the opening verses of the Bible. The first five verses describe the work which Almighty God was pleased to perform on the first day. No reason is assigned why the operations of our Great Creator were divided into successive portions: nor does it become us to pry into his secret councils in this matter. We

receive the narrative, as given by inspiration of God; and thankfully adore his wisdom, power and goodness.

On the sixth day we read that the Almighty created the noblest of his works on earth: he made Man, after his own image. This is the subject of our present contemplation.

To understand the holy and happy character of Adam in Paradise, is a matter of some difficulty. By nature we are so sinful and ignorant, that we soon feel ourselves at a loss, when endeavouring to contemplate a created being, living in a state of perfect innocency. The Bible, however, supplies us with various helps for this purpose. Let us then pray to be enlightened by God's Holy Spirit; that we may be taught whatever it is right for us to know, upon this interesting subject.

We observe, then, that the excellence and felicity of our first Parents consisted in their holiness, their communion with God, and their freedom from all evil.

1. First, they were perfect in Holiness. "God made man upright." He created man "in his own image, after his own likeness." The chief character of that image is holiness. "The Lord our God is holy." When he commands us to imitate him, he does so in these words-"Be ye holy; for I am holy." This then was the chief excellence of Adam in Paradise.

And what is holiness? In few words we answerIt is, to have the heart filled with the knowledge of what is good, and with dispositions tending only to what is good. It is to will what is good, to do what is good, and to delight supremely in all that is good. St. John teaches us what it is to bear the image of God, when he says, "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John iv. 16.) Adam enjoyed a perfect knowledge of the will of God; and he had a heart entirely disposed to love and obey that will.

2. Hence, his happiness mainly consisted in Communion with God. With the inmost thoughts of his mind he conversed with his Maker; and he felt every movement of his soul to be directed by the pure and holy Spirit of his God. When our first Parents fell into sin, they lost this delightful intercourse with the Most High. Instead of welcoming his approach, they fled from him: “They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden." (Gen. iii. 8.) From what they lost, we

may infer what was the character of their former happiness. Their Great Friend was now become their enemy but O how glorious and blissful must that former friendship have been!

:

3. The felicity of Paradise consisted, also, in that entire Freedom from pain, trouble, sorrow and death, which was enjoyed by Adam and Eve, so long as they remained sinless. In their proper original

character, they were the happy lords of creation. They had "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the face of the earth." Every herb and every tree yielded them fruit. Work was not wearisome: sickness and death were unknown: the Tree of life grew in the midst of the garden, as a pledge to them, that, so long as they continued obedient, they should be immortal.

Such was then the character and the condition of Adam. He was holy: God was his Friend, before whose presence he walked in joy unutterable: and all created things around him were "very good!"

It has already been remarked that we necessarily have great difficulty in apprehending this state. To. assist us, however, in conceiving of it, two very material helps are furnished us in the Scriptures.

First, we may gain some insight into Man's original innocency, by studying that new character, to which believers in Christ attain upon their conversion to God. They are said to be "renewed in the image of God." That image in which they are renewed, accords with the image wherein Adam was at the first created.

Another method there is of contemplating this subject; namely, by studying the character of Christ. Though no one of the human family ever was perfect, yet in our Lord Jesus Christ, who became Man, and who is called "the second Adam," we behold spotless perfection. Adam in innocency

must have resembled what Christ was in the flesh. In reading the Gospels, we become acquainted with the character of him, whose name is, Emmanuel, God with us: and in this way we form some idea of the excellence and bliss of Adam and Eve, when they dwelt in Eden.

Faint, after all, as may be our conceptions of this glorious state, yet it is useful to contemplate it in all its particulars, that we may see how deeply we are fallen by sin, and how great is the grace of our Redeemer, who came to save and to restore us.

SECTION II.

ADAM FALLING INTO SIN.

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die : For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.