heir obedience and love to God; that the high and happy estate of
the holy angels was to be retained upon condition of obedience; that
they were similarly situated; that they could obey the law of God and be
inexpressibly happy, or disobey and lose their high estate and be plunged
into hopeless despair.
They told Adam and Eve that God would not compel them to
obey—that He had not removed from them power to go contrary to His
will; that they were moral agents, free to obey or disobey. There was
but one prohibition that God had seen fit to lay upon them as yet. If
they should transgress the will of God they would surely die. They told
Adam and Eve that the most exalted angel, next in order to Christ, refused
obedience to the law of God which He had ordained to govern heavenly
beings; that this rebellion had caused war in heaven, which resulted in the
rebellious being expelled therefrom, and every angel was driven out of
heaven who had united with him in questioning the authority of the great
Jehovah; and that this fallen foe was now an enemy to all that concerned
the interest of God and His dear Son.
They told them that Satan purposed to do them harm, and it was
necessary for them to be guarded, for they might come in contact with the
fallen foe; but he could not harm them while they yielded obedience to
God’s command, for, if necessary, every angel from heaven would come
to their help rather than that he should in any way do them harm. But
if they disobeyed the command of God, then Satan would have power to
ever annoy, perplex, and troubl
