Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1895-12-06


man saying, OF every tree of the garden
thou mayest eat: but OF the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil thou shalt
not eat of it; for in the day that thou
latest thereof thou shalt surely die ."
Gen. IL lG, II.
This quotation, and the continuation
in the third chapter, is Hebrew myth
and has its parallel in the Greek myth
of Pandora; and indeed. nearly every
people has its somewhat similar account
of the ORGAN of evil and suffering in
the world. just how it arose aud what
It's Specification is would perhaps be
difficult to say. and different commen-
tators expound it differently. That
below given may bee taken as one of
many and is offered for what it is worth.
Bat this much is certain, 1t is no more
to be taken literally than the Greek
myth relating how Prometheus stole
fire from heaven for the benefit of
mortals and for this crime was con-
demned 10 be chained to rock with a
vulture forever gnawing at his ytalS:-
Mankind in the tertiary age had no
necessity for labor. since every want
was supplied by the profusion of all
that he desired around him. There
was no war. no blood she'd, no quarrels,
no strife. Man was peaceful animal
without as yet having developed in him
the elements of progression. He was in
blissfu ignorance of his own condition
and Of all nature about him. But a
change came oyer all nature, and with
il came great change i'm the condition
of prlmeval man. As age followed age
the cOsmic winter crept Stealthely over
the world like the noiSelesS approach of
serpent. Ice began to accumulate
about the north pole, more and more
each year, till the whole northern hemi-
sphere passed To a state of refrigeration.
ley glaciers wound their way, serpent
like, into the valley, encroaching even
on the tropics themselves; vegetation
was swept away; animal life was de-
stroyed; and man, the lord of creation.
did not escape The cravings of
hunger, the suffering from cold aroused
his selfish propensities, and the first
crime was doubtless in struggle for
TODD. The serpent. the icy glacier
creeping stealthily into the garden.
whispered, through the cravings of
hunger, take and eat; and the first sense
of guilt was when one took the food
belonging to another. The first eating
of stolen fruit, while perhaps the right
full possessor was starving. left behind
the sting of guilty conscience: man
had eaten of the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good aud evil With
wrong doing come knowledge of good
and evil. The tempter was the sinuous
Shiny serpent, the glacier, which
brought cold and hunger-which aroused
the selfish nature of man, necessary to
self preservation in a time when To live
was a struggle. Man falling victim
To the cOsmic winter of the glacial
epoch. became warlike being. and
struggled with his fellow for the most
fertile spots in the valley where the
glacial cold had not completely pene-
trated; and the first murder was Ia "A
struggle for mastery for possession.
Age followed age and mans struggle
with nature continued; and with this
succession of ages of hardshipand want
ms ferocity increased until he became
fiend incarnate. his business, war. ana
his delight, in blood of his enemies
Thus was brought about the .fall" of