The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-18
,WOMAN'S FIRST SIN.
EYES FATAL STEP IN THE GAR.
DEN OF EDEN.

Rev DR.. Talmage on the Danger of a Poor
~ Regulated Inquisitiveness "A Pictu.
rescue Sermon on the Ruin of the HUI
man Race.
A new Interpretation Of the calamity
In Paradise is given by DR.. Talmage in
this sermon, which is laden with practi-
cal lessons. The text is Genesis iii, s,
And when the woman saw hat 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 rave
also unto her husband with her, and he
did eat"
1t is the first Saturday afternoon in
the worlds existence. Ever since sun
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 technology he
has noticed that the robins fly the air
in twOs, and that the fish swim the wa
ter in tWos, and that the ions walk the
fields in tvrs, and in the warm redo
Ience Of that Saturday afternoon he
falls off into slumber, and, as if by al
iegory 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 lande
on a new planet. OF the mother Of all
the living / speak-Eve, the first, the
fairest and the best.
IN EDEN.
! make me a 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 padding of
the swans. | 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. | invite amid these trees the
larks, and the brown thrushes, and the
robins, and all the brightest birds of
heaven, me they stir the air with in
finite chirp and carol. And yet the place
is a desert filled with darkness and
death as compared with the residence
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
ahd such curve and sheen and bank as
adorned the Pison, the HaVilah, the
GihOn ard the Hiddekel. even the peb-
bIes being bdellium and onyx stone.
What fruits. with no curculiO to sting
the rind, What flowers, with no slug
TO gnaW the root, What atmosphere
with no frost to chill and with no heat
to consume. 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 a bower Of leaf
and vine and shrub occurred the first
marriage. Adam took the HAND of this
Immaculate daughter of God and pro-
nounced 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:
Il think l will just put my hand upon
the fruit. 1t Will do no damage to the
tree. I will not take the fruit to eat,
but | will just take it down to examlne
it" She examined the fruit. She said,
Il do not think there can be any harm
in my first breaking the rind Of it."
She put the fruit to her teeth. she
ldSltu, she dllONtu Audlll dlSO ~ LdSlc
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 TX
join in one long, deep, hell rending
howl, The world is lost"
Beasts nat before were harmless and
full of play put forth claws and sting
and tooth and tusk. Birds whet their
haok for nrpv Clouds trnOn in the CkV
Sharp thorns shoot up through the soft
grass. Hastings on the leaves. All the
chords of that great are
mapped Upon the brightest home this
world ever saw our first parents turned
their back and led forth on a path of
sorrow the broken hearted myriads of
a ruined race.
DANGER OF CURIOSITY.
Do you not see, in the first place, the
danger of a poorly regulated lnquisl-
tiveness? She wanted to know how the
fruit tasted. She found out, but 5000
years have deplored that unhealthful
curiosity. Healthful curiosity has done
a great deal for letters, for art, for
science and for religion. 1t has gone
down into the depths of the earth with
the g%eOlOgiSt and seen the first chapte
of Genesis written in the BOOK of ma
ture illustrated with engraving on rock
dtld IL Il liNC
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
telescope vision of the aStrOnomer un-
til 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 respondent 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-
liza. 1t has studied the spots on the sun,
and the larVa in a beech leaf, and the
light under a tiretiy's wing. and the
terrible eye glance of a condor pitching
from ChimboraZO. 1t has studied the
myriads of animalculae that make UP
the phOsphOrescence in a ships wake
and the mighty maze Of suns and