s fall—to lead men to pry into the secrets of the Almighty and
not to be satisfied with what God has revealed, and not careful to obey
that which He has commanded. He would lead them to disobey God’s
commands, and then make them believe that they are entering a wonderful
field of knowledge. This is purely supposition, and a miserable deception.
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They fail to understand what God has revealed, and disregard His explicit
commandments and aspire after wisdom, independent of God, and seek
to understand that which He has been pleased to withhold from mortals.
They are elated with their ideas of progression and charmed with their
own vain philosophy, but grope in midnight darkness relative to true
knowledge. They are ever learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth.
It was not the will of God that this sinless pair should have any
knowledge of evil. He had freely given them the good but withheld the
evil. Eve thought the words of the serpent wise, and she received the
broad assertion, “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil”—making God a liar. Satan boldly insinuated that
God had deceived them to keep them from being exalted in knowledge
equal with Himself. God said: If ye eat ye shall surely die. The serpent
said, If ye eat, “ye shall not surely die.”
The tempter assured Eve that as soon as she ate of the fruit she would
receive a new and superior knowledge that would make her equal with
God. He called her attention to himself. He ate freely of the tree and
found it not only perfectly harmless but delicious and exhilarating, and
told her that it was because of its wonderful properties to impart wisdom
and power that God had prohibited them from tasting or even touching it,
for He knew its wonderful qualities. He stated that his eating of the fruit
of the tree forbidden to them was the reason he had attained the power
of speech. He intimated that God would not carry out His word. It was
merely a threat to intimidate
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them and keep them from great good. He further told them that they
could not die. Had they not eaten of the tree of life which perpetuates
immortality? He said that God was deceiving them to keep them from a
higher state of felicity and more exalted happiness. The tempter plucked
the fruit and passed it to Eve. She took it in her hand. Now, said the
tempter, you were prohibited from even touching it lest you die. He told
her that she would realize no more sense of evil and death in eating than in
touching or handling the fruit. Eve was emboldened because she felt not
the immediate signs of God’s displeasure. She thought the words of the
tempter all wise and correct. She ate, and was delighted with the fruit. It
seemed delicious to her taste, and she imagined that she realized in herself
the wonderful effects of the fruit.
Eve Becomes a Tempter
She then plucked for herself of the fruit and ate, and imagined she
felt the quickening power of a new and elevated existence as the result of
the exhilarating influence of the forbidden fruit. She was in a strange and
unnatural excitement as she sought her husband with her hands filled with
the forbidden fruit. She related to him the wise discourse of the serpent
and wished to conduct him at once to the tree of knowledge. She told him
she had eaten of the fruit, and instead of her feeling any sense of death, she
realized a pleasing, exhilarating influence. As soon as Eve had disobeyed
she became a powerful medium through which to occasion the fall of her
husband.
I saw a sadness come over the countenance of Adam. He appeared
afraid and astonished. A struggle appeared to be going on in his mind. He
told Eve
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he was quite certain that this was the foe that they had been warned
against, and if so, that she must die. She assured him she felt no ill effects
but rather a very pleasant influence, and entreated him to eat.
Adam quite well understood that his companion had transgressed the
only prohibition laid upon them as a test of their fidelity and love. Eve
reasoned that the serpent said they should not surely die, and his words
must be true, for she felt no signs of God’s displeasure, but a pleasant
influence, as she imagined the angels felt.
Adam regretted that Eve had left his side, but now the deed was
done. He must be separated from her whose society he had loved so
well. How could he have it thus? His love for Eve was strong. And
in utter discouragement he resolved to share her fate. He reasoned that
Eve was a part of himself, and if she must die, he would die with her, for
he could not bear the thought of separation from her. He lacked faith in
his merciful and benevolent Creator. He did not think that God, who had
formed him out of the dust of the ground into a living, beautiful form, and
had created Eve to be his companion, could supply her place. After all,
might not the words of this wise serpent be correct? Eve was before him,
just as lovely and beautiful, and apparently as innocent, as before this act
of disobedience. She expressed greater, higher love for him than before
her disobedience, as the effects of the fruit she had eaten. He saw in her
no signs of death. She had told him of the happy influence of the fruit,
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of her ardent love for him, and he decided to brave the consequences. He
seized the fruit and quickly ate it, and like Eve, felt not immediately it