El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-28

TT OW the serpent was more SUD
tile than any beast OF the field
which the Lord God had made
And he said unto the woman Yea hath
God said, We shall not eat OF every tee
And the woman said unto the ser
pent we may eat of the fruit OF the
trees Of the garden;
But Of the fruit Of the tree v men
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 WOm@
an. Xe shall not surely die
For God doth know that IN the DAY
We eat thereof. then your eyes snail De
opened. and We shall be as gods, know
ETHIS picture of the scene in the
Garden Of Eden is worth study
iEg because it is just as true TO NE
today as when the first man and Wom-
an lived thousands OF years ago
When we go into a museum Of an
tfduitieS We are interested IN the OBJ
iects displayed because they snow Us
how things used TO be before tAey
changed into what things are now
That is not the case with the Eden
picture, for it portrays the experience,
not of Adam and Eve only, but OF every
come into the world and lived in it 50
that if any one calls il a foolish picture
it is because he has not read II care
fully enough to discover that Il IS as
good q likeness Of himself as II IS OF
cur first pOrents.
Adam and Eve, at the point at which
we now meet them, were stun IN a SLaLs
of innocence. They were not perfect
but only innocent, neither one thing
nor another, neither good nor bad, but
ready to become either according as
circumstances might tip the scale up or
down.
babes and as empty as kittens OF any
thing deserving to be called character
They were like sheets OF white paper
upon which no DeauJlIul WrluhS mas
vet been put and no blOts either.
We beg leave to differ from those
who claim that while Adam and Eve
were born innocent every one porn
since has come into the world with a
moral faint upon him-paper that was
designed to be clear white but that
came out of the mandatory with dirty
Those who view the matter in that
way do so because Of a certain theo-
logical theory they want 10 sustain
We are not here to sustain any theory
and believe that we get into more dir
ficUlties than we escape II we suppose
that the hearts we bring into the world
with US are any different in point OF
purity from those which our first par
ents brought in with them
It does not seem as though Christ
would have spoken in the way he did
about little children If he had thought
that any cleansing was necessary Tor
them before they would re fit for the
kingdom of heaven. 1T would not dp-
pear to be quite a fair way for God to
deal with us--tOO much like setting q
s-oung bird to flying and then clipping
its wings just before tipping II off the
perch.
What limp thing mere innocence is
is shown bv the fact that the first
temptation, so far as we are told, that
Adam and Eve were subjected to Uhcy
yielded to. They had had no opportunity
to fOrtify themselves against assault
and rather naturally were Worsted by
it when il came. A tempted man is
always WOrsted if the moral strength
in him is not at least a little greater
than the fascination that is in the
temptation. One ounce Of power can
not do a pound of work.
The art of doing right is therefore
the art of accommodating the power to
say No Adam had no sucn accumu-
IatiOn- He was empty chip on the
waves and so driftcd the way the tile
went. a bubble in the wind, and so
went the way the wind blew
1t makes no difference what the par
ticuIar temptation was that addressed
itself to Adam. and which is pictOrially
represented under the figure of fruit
1t may have been anything that inclined
him to disregard Gods prohibition. and
as for the serpent, that is to be under
stood not as any kind of snake, python.
boa constructor, but only as a. pictorial
or theatrical exhibit of the fascination
which the prohibited object had for
Adam The whole represent atiOn con-
stitutes a picture Of what always goes