Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God’s ideal
for His children. Godliness—godlikeness—is the goal to be reached.
Before the student there is opened a path of continual progress. He
has an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything
good, and pure, and noble. He will advance as fast and as far as
possible in every branch of true knowledge. But his efforts will be
[19] directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal
interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.
He who co-operates with the divine purpose in imparting to the
youth a knowledge of God, and molding the character into harmony
with His, does a high and noble work. As he awakens a desire
to reach God’s ideal, he presents an education that is as high as
heaven and as broad as the universe; an education that cannot be
completed in this life, but that will be continued in the life to come;
an education that secures to the successful student his passport from
[20] the preparatory school of earth to the higher grade, the school above.
Chapter 2—The Eden School
“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom.”
The system of education instituted at the beginning of the world
was to be a model for man throughout all aftertime. As an illustration
of its principles a model school was established in Eden, the home
of our first parents. The Garden of Eden was the schoolroom, nature
was the lesson book, the Creator Himself was the instructor, and the
parents of the human family were the students.
Created to be “the image and glory of God” (1 Corinthians 11:7),
Adam and Eve had received endowments not unworthy of their high
destiny. Graceful and symmetrical in form, regular and beautiful in
feature, their countenances glowing with the tint of health and the
light of joy and hope, they bore in outward resemblance the likeness
of their Maker. Nor was this likeness manifest in the physical nature
only. Every faculty of mind and soul reflected the Creator’s glory.
Endowed with high mental and spiritual gifts, Adam and Eve were
made but “little lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:7), that they
might not only discern the wonders of the visible universe, but
comprehend moral responsibilities and obligations.
“The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He
put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the
Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good [21]
for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.” Genesis
2:8, 9. Here, amidst the beautiful scenes of nature untouched by sin,
our first parents were to receive their education.
In His interest for His children, our heavenly Father personally
directed their education. Often they were visited by His messengers,
the holy angels, and from them received counsel and instruction.
Often as they walked in the garden in the cool of the day they heard
the voice of God, and face to face held communion with the Eternal.
His thoughts toward them were “thoughts of peace, and not of evil.”
Jeremiah 29:11. His every purpose was their highest good.
13
14 Education
To Adam and Eve was committed the care of the garden, “to
dress it and to keep it.” Genesis 2:15. Though rich in all that the
Owner of the universe could supply, they were not to be idle. Useful
occupation was appointed them as a blessing, to strengthen the body,
to expand the mind, and to develop the character.
The book of nature, which spread its living lessons before them,
afforded an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. On every
leaf of the forest and stone of the mountains, in every shining star,
in earth and sea and sky, God’s name was written. With both the
animate and the inanimate creation—with leaf and flower and tree,
and with every living creature, from the leviathan of the waters to the
mote in the sunbeam—the dwellers in Eden held converse, gathering
from each the secrets of its life. God’s glory in the heavens, the
innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, “the balancings of
the clouds” (Job 37:16), the mysteries of light and sound, of day and
[22] night—all were objects of study by the pupils of earth’s first school.
The laws and operations of nature, and the great principles of
truth that govern the spiritual universe, were opened to their minds
by the infinite Author of all. In “the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:6), their mental and spiritual
powers developed, and they realized the highest pleasures of their
holy existence.
As it came from the Creator’s hand, not only the Garden of Eden
but the whole earth was exceedingly beautiful. No taint of sin, or
shadow of death, marred the fair creation. God’s glory “covered the
heavens, and the earth was full of His praise.” “The morning stars
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Habakkuk
3:3; Job 38:7. Thus was the earth a fit emblem of Him who is
“abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6); a fit study for
those who were made in His image. The Garden of Eden was a
representation of what God desired the whole earth to become, and
it was His purpose that, as the human family increased in numbers,
they should establish other homes and schools like the one He had
given. Thus in course of time the whole earth might be occupied
with homes and schools where the words and the works of God
should be studied, and where the students should thus be fitted more
and more fully to reflect, throughout endless ages, the light of the
[23] knowledge of His glory.
