life and perpetuate a life of sin. They entreated to be permitted to remain,
although they acknowledged that they had forfeited all right to blissful
Eden. They promised that they would in the future yield to God implicit
obedience. They were informed that in their fall from innocence to guilt
they gained no strength but great weakness. They had not preserved their
integrity while they were in a state of holy, happy innocence, and they
would have far less strength to remain true and loyal in a state of conscious
guilt. They were filled with keenest anguish and remorse. They now
realized that the penalty of sin was death.
Angels were commissioned to immediately guard the way of the tree
of life. It was Satan’s studied plan that Adam and Eve should disobey
God, receive His frown, and then partake of the tree of life, that they
might perpetuate a life of sin. But holy angels were sent to debar their
way to the tree of life. Around these angels flashed beams of light on
every side, which had the appearance of glittering swords.