Connecticut western news., 1897-06-17
WOMAN'S FIRST SIN.
EYES FATAL STEP IN THE GARDEN
 OF EDEN.

Rev. Dr. Talmage on the Danger of a
 Poorly Regulated Inquisitiveness-A Pic turesque Sermon on the Ruin of the Hu-
 man Race.
 NEW YORK, June 13.-A new inter pretation of the calamity in Paradise is given by Dr. Talmage in this sermon, which is laden with practical lessons. The text is Genesis iii, 6, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the Iyes and tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her hus- band with her, and he did eat. :"
 It is the first Saturday afternoon in the worlds existence. Ever since sum- rise Adam has been watching the bril- liant pageantry of wings and scales and clouds, and in his first lessons in zoolo- gy and ornithology and ichthyology he has noticed that the robins fly the air in twos, and that the fish swim the wa ter in twos, and that the lions walk the fields in twos, and ill the warm redo lence of that Saturday afternoon he falls off into slumber, and, as if by al- legory to teach all ages that the great est of earthly blessings is sound sleep, this paradisaical somnolence ends with the discovery on the part of Adam of a corresponding intelligence just landed on a new planet. Of the mother of all the living I speak-Eve, the first, the fairest and the best.
 In Eden.
 I make me garden. inlay the paths with mountain moss, and border them with pearls from Ceylon and diamonds from Golconda. Here and there are fountains tossing in the sunlight and ponds that ripple under the paddling of the swans. I gather me lilies from the Amazon, and orange groves from the tropics and tamarinds from Goyaz. There are woodbine and honeysuckle climbing over the wall and starred spaniels sprawling themselves on the grass I invite amid these trees the larks, and the brown thrushes, and the robins, and all the brightest birds of heaven, and they stir the air with in- finite chirp and carol. And yet the place is a desert filled with darkness and oCotu dS COulpdkcu Witu buo IcslucuCS of the woman of the text, the subject of my story. Never since have such skies looked down through such leaves into such waters. Never has river wave had such curve and sheen and bank as adorned the Pison, the Havilah, the Gihon and the Hiddekel, even the peb- bles being bdellium and onyx stone. What fruits, with no curculio to sting the rindl What flowers, with no slug to gnaw the rootl What atmosphere, with no frost to chill and with no heat to consuhei Bright colors tangled in the grass. Perfume in the air. Music in the sky. Great scene of gladness and love and joy.
 Right there under bower of leaf and vine and shrub occurred the first marriage. Adam took the hand of this immaculate daughter of God and pro- nouneed the ceremony when he said. "Bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh" A forbidden tree stood in the midst of that exquisite park Eve, saun- tering out one day alone, looks up at the tree and sees the beautiful fruit and wonders if it is sweet and wonders if it is sour, and standing there says: ''I think will just put my hand upon the fruit. It will do no damage to the tree. will not take the fruit to eat, but will just take it down to examine it." She examined the fruit. She said, "I do not think there can be any harm in my just breaking tho rind of it. ," She put the fruit to her teeth, she tasted, she allowed Adam also to taste the fruit, the door of the world opened, and the monster sin entered. Let the heavens gather blackness, and the winds sigh on the bosom of the hills, and cav ern, and desert, and earth, and sky join in one long, deep, hell rending howl, tThe world is lostl''
 Beasts that before were harmless and and tooth and tusk. Birds whet their beak for prey. Clouds troop in the sky Sharp thorns shoot up through the soft grass Blastings on the leaves. All the chords of that great harmony are snapped. Upon the brightest home this world ever saw our first parents turned their back and led forth on path of sorrow the broken hearted myriads of ruined race.
 Danger of Curiosity.
 Do you not see, in the first place, the danger of poorly regulated inquisi- tiveness? She wanted to know how the fruit tasted. She found out, but 6, 900 years have deplored that unhealthful curiosity. Healthful curiosity has done a great deal for letters, for art. for science and for religion. It has gone down into the depths of the earth with %hn scf &Io oLo. of Genesis written in the book of na- ture illustrated with engraving on rock, and it stood with the antiquarian while he blew the trumpet of resurrection over buried Herculaneum and Pompeii, until from their sepulcher there came up shaft and terrace and amphitheater. Healthful curiosity has enlarged the telescopic vision of the astronomer, until worlds hidden in the distant heavens have trooped forth and have joined the choir praising the Lord; planet weighed against planet and widest comet las sooed with resplendent law. Healthful curiosity has gone down and found the tracks of the eternal God in the polypi and the starfish under the sea and the majesty of the great Jehovah encamped under the gorgeous curtains of the dah- 1ia. It has studied the spots on the sun, and the larva ill beech leaf, and the light under a firefy's wing, and the terrible eye glance of condor pitching from Cbimborazo It has studied the myriads of animalcule that make up the phosphorescence in a ships wake and the mighty maze of suns and spheres and cancellations and galaxies that blaze on in the march of God. Health ful curiosity has stood by the inventor, until forces that were hidden for ages