"When flesh was fettered to fruits forbidden And souls were wedded to care and crime."
A. L. GORDON.

The Book of Genesis comes to us with the same authority as the other portions of the Bible. If true, it must stand any reasonable test which may be made, it must bear the most thoroughly scientific investigation. It occupies the first place in the Bible, and is the foundation upon which the rest of the Bible is built. It contains those fundamental facts which enable us to understand the remainder of that glorious revelation which God made to man. It explains mysteries which are not explained elsewhere. It is a narration of facts; it claims to be such. It is a literal and accurate description of historic events, and therefore it must be the basis of any true and adequate history of the world and its inhabitants. In support of this I direct attention to, e.g., the 8th chapter of Genesis. When Noah came out of the ark, he built an altar and sacrificed to God, "and the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." Here is a statement of a fundamental fact. A history which deals with humankind cannot afford to overlook it. That fact is of fundamental importance both in respect to man's dealings with man and God's dealings with man, and conversely man's dealings with God. It lies at the base of our economic, political, social and religious systems. It would be irrational for the student of human nature to neglect these primary facts.

God has graciously revealed to us many things which were hidden. The world disbelieves God and makes Him a liar. Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry found it necessary to say to those who disbelieved His words: "If I have told you of earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" To those persons who profess to accept the Incarnate Word while rejecting the Written Word, we say - If you believe not what God has revealed concerning Creation and the entrance into this world of sorrow and sin, how can you believe what God has written concerning His love and mercy? The Book of Genesis, according to the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ, was written by Moses. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we have it recorded that when the former being in torment wished someone to warn his erring brethren, the answer was made: "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them, for if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe though one rose from the dead." To the world we say - If you believe not Moses neither will you believe Him Who did rise from the dead, i.e., Christ Jesus.

Let us now direct our attention to the third chapter of Genesis. After making a detailed study of it, and after studying different theories concerning the cause and nature of evil, this chapter appears to me to contain the only rational and scientific, and consequently only true account of the entrance into this world of sin and its accompanying evils. Chapters one and two chiefly treat of the creation of the world and its inhabitants. The 3rd chapter largely deals with the acts of the first of the human race. Man now begins to play his part in the history of the world. This is the beginning of the history of mankind. But directly man begins to act, someone else - Satan - begins to play his part. His initial act is significant: an act truly worthy of the Arch Deceiver. Satan asked: "Yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" This question reveals Satan's chief method of procedure. He asked a question deliberately casting a doubt. He wished Eve to distrust what God had said; hence his question: "Yea, hath God said?" or as it may also be correctly rendered - "And has God said?" or "Has God really said?" Satan was too wily, too wary to say outright God did not say so; but he raised the doubt. Satan achieved his aim, for Eve disbelieved God and believed Satan. Eve knew well the command God had given: "God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Immediately Satan deceived Eve, he undertook to contradict God's words and said, "Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil." Yes, they were to become as gods, or, as it may be correctly translated, god-like. Adam and Eve previously knew only that which was good. No thought of evil ever came to them. The fact that they were naked and knew no shame shows plainly that they were innocent in the true sense of that term. Evil was a thing unknown to them. They held communion with God. God delighted in them and they delighted in God, and did His will. But when Satan made these suggestions the evil became tempting. Eve looking at the fruit saw that it was good for food (some material advantage); and pleasant to the eyes (evil always is); and a tree to be desired to make one wise, or to cause to understand (the mystery which surrounds sin would be revealed to her). There is a morbid desire on the part of men to know and to fathom the depths of sin. Eve believed that by eating of the fruit she would be initiated into these mysteries. She then had no knowledae of sin, but now by eating the fruit she would gain that knowldge. Adam and Eve attracted by evil and at the instigation of Satan turned away from purity and truth. The Immediate effect was that their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked. Sin and shame came upon them. They were no longer innocent. They had eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and now they had direct acquaintance with evil. Sin entered their hearts which were previously holy. They now lost their original righteousness - their desire for holiness and communion with God. Their first act was to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Yes, the temptation held out to them by Satan was partly true. They did increase in knowledge, but it was knowledge of evil.

What then was God to do with sinful man? Did He leave them in that condition of sin and misery? Was God's plan frustrated? For in the 1st Chapter of Genesis we have it recorded that God said, "Let us make man in our own image and likeness." God will not be turned aside from His purpose. He does carry out His plans despite the wiles of Satan. He has declared: My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure." In the 15th verse God addressed Satan: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman; between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman, did come and did bruise the head of Satan - for this the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. " Here in the 3rd Chapter of Genesis is a prophecy given thousands of years before the advent of Christ. A promise contained in the Jewish Scriptures - a body of literature which every student of literature should know was jealously guarded and never tinkered. Satan's power was abolished, because Christ Jesus freed His people from Satan's domination. Yes, God does carry out His purpose. He does create men in His own image after His own likeness. God knew men would sin, so a Redeemer was found. God's people are made willing in the day of His power and are brought from the bondage of Satan into the glorious liberty of the children of God. By types and symbols in the early portion of the Old Testament, God indicated the ultimate accomplishment of His eternal purpose; in the Psalms and Prophets this purpose and the means of its fulfilment are rather explicitly stated; but God in Jesus Christ has fully revealed how He will carry out His purpose of making a race of men in His own image and likeness. Of God's people, Philip Mauro writes: "Even now they are accorded the privilege of children; they know what the Father is doing, and they can observe in some measure the progress of His work." Writes the Apostle Paul: "Even now there are a remnant according to the election of Grace."

In addition to spiritual evils, temporal or physical disadvantages came upon the human race because of transgression. A special portion of suffering was assigned to woman and to man. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake," were the words addressed by God to Adam. Sin brought all evil into this world. When God created the world all was very good or excellent. Now not only is there human misery, but "the ground" is cursed. Thorns and thistles abound, and the lower creation suffers in consequence. The Book of Genesis is a scientific account of how this world came to be in that state of sin and sorrow. The words of the Apostle Paul are true: "The whole creation (both man and beast) groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." Nothing now is very good or excellent. It is false to say: "Every prospect pleases, and only man is vile." The blight of sin is upon the whole creation. In man there are a few remnants of his former greatness, likewise the earth itself is not without signs of its former purity and beauty. The pretty colours of many flowers, the beautiful plumage of many birds, and all else which is pleasing to the senses of man, enable him to understand something of the beauty and purity of the creation prior to man's sin. On man's part, his greatest loss was original righteousness. He lost true purity and peace. Love is now largely ideal. Only remnants of innocency are left. Man is continually building up systems of religion, the conscious or unconscious objective of which is the elimination of sin and sorrow.

God said to Adam: "In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life" (verse 17). "All the days" - all man's days are days of sorrow: he is never completely happy. His way is "paved with pain." The references in Scripture to human sorrow are often pathetic. Perhaps the most affecting statement is contained in Genesis 5th chapter: "And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son; and he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." This is pathetic. It springs from the recognition of the fact that the earth is cursed, and evil and woe are here.

True but partial was the revelation made to Israel. "The law was given by Moses, but the grace and the truth came by Jesus Christ." The Book of Genesis teaches that God made the possibility of evil, and man made that possibility into a reality. That is the only true solution of these mysteries. "God made man upright, but he sought out many inventions," said Solomon, and that statement is universally true. Our general observation, and our inner experience both witness to the fact that human nature is as the Book of Genesis describes it.

Adam and Eve wished to improve their condition; they were dissatisfied with God's prescriptions. This tendency has been transmitted. e.g, Man has an inclination to worship God in ways not appointed in His Word. This is common to every age and race. It is the common heritage of the children of men. Therefore we must not be surprised if men introduce into the worship of God things forbidden by God. If human nature is what the Book of Genesis tells us it is, we must not be surprised if human actions are what they are. Wars are but a natural result. God is telling us now by His inspired Word, and was telling us throughout the ages, what are the chief traits of the character of mankind. Man would not believe the Scriptures, but believed that the world by its sciences, philosophies, and religions was steadily progressing and changing its very nature. The Book of Genesis was considered a slander upon the human race. But History confirms the statement of Scripture that every age is an age of sin and sorrow. Those who throughout the ages contended that the human race was depraved and fallen from righteousness, were by no means "an intellectually extinct order of beings." Solomon was a great student of human nature and human actions. In the Book of Ecclesiastes he has put on record his reflections, which were the result of a deep study of man and his doings. In the 5th chapter Solomon gives this advice: "If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter." Solomon recognised that an effect is of a particular kind because its causes or antecedents are of a particular kind. Sin and sorrow are the common legacy as well as the common heritage of the children of men. History is confirmatory of this. Genesis definitely teaches this. The present age demonstrates this. Yet in the face of all this, there flourishes a religion, which, although it is termed Christian, teaches: "The old theology is an essential falsehood. Man has not fallen; the world is not under a curse." The Book of Genesis was written that we may know whence our evils come. It teaches that sin is essentially deceitful, and that consequently there is in human nature a deep rooted tendency to disbelieve the Word of God and to blind itself to the truth concerning its own nature. Genesis teaches that man has not any innate or inherent qualities which will enable him to progress. No mere human means can free man from his bondage. Scripture does not deny that a man may perform commendable actions, but it does deny that man can of himself escape from this state of sin and sorrow.

Those who hold closely to Scripture, while they may recognise that perhaps advances have been made in bettering material conditions, see no advance spiritually. Human nature unless regenerated by the Spirit of God is ever the same. "No man by nature has more ability or strength in spiritual matters than another: all are equally dead in trespasses and sins" (John Owen). Scientists may reveal many of the mysteries of nature, but that is no criterion that there is any advance spiritually. A man may understand, as thoroughly as man at the present time can understand, the laws of e.g., gravitation and refraction but that is no guarantee that he has any spiritual life. The Apostle Paul as late as his day found it necessary to say: "The carnal (natural, unregenerate) mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." And today we find it necessary to reiterate the same truth.

What shall we say concerning the origin of all this evil? Shall we take the side of the modern speculative philosophers who try to explain away evil by ignoring its source and its consequence? Not we. Unless we agree with Scripture and say, "An enemy hath done this," we are in fair way to go mad. The Scriptures teach that evil originally proceeded from a personal Devil; they also represent Hell as a great reality. It may scem strange to those who know little of the methods of Satan, that we have professedly Christian teachers who not only ask concerning the Book of Genesis and in fact the whole of the Scriptures: "Hath God really said?" but they actually assert that God said no such things. God declares the statements of Genesis to be facts; man loves to represent them as fiction. Many deluded by Satan are pleased to regard the account of the origin of sin and sorrow given in Genesis as a myth - a fable told by primitive man in his attempt to solve the great mysteries by which he was surrounded. Adam and Eve disbelieved God's Word, and one great result is that there is a tendency on the part of man to do likewise. When Satan had enticed man to doubt God's Word, he set up his own in direct opposition: "Ye shall not surely die." This is the first article in Satan's creed. This has been incorporated into many religious systems. This article of faith always has millions of adherents. When man sinned he became the servant of Satan, and now Satan is man's spiritual leader and teacher. Satan is now "the Prince of this world." The Great Deceiver now rules. His followers often think they are serving God even while they are serving Satan, and so the statement of Solomon is true to fact: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Satan has something to offer to every man to prevent him turning from sin to God. Some men are too busy some are too idle to consider the welfare of their own souls. One Man - the Perfect Man - could say: "The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me."

The great fact that Satan is the god of .his world, the spiritual leader of mankind, the world rejects. The Book of Genesis teaches us that man at the instigation of Satan turned from purity and holiness to impurity and sin. The glorious revelation of God is suffcient and complete. It tells us whence our evils come and how we may be freed from them. God's plan of salvation is to destroy the works of Satan and bring His people from sin and sorrow into a condition of joy, peace, purity and love. So efficiently is this work carried out that God over-rules all things for the good or His people. Sin, sorrow, sickness and all other troubles and afflictions are made to work together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8 :28). God's people shall be freed from all evils, the result of man's sins, for "there shall be no more curse" (Rev. 22:3).