Genesis 3:19

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, etc.

What. brief and impressive summary of human life is condensed in this verse! The literature of the world will be searched in vain for. parallel to this truthful and affecting statement.-- Conant. Until death comes, the death that is now inevitable, life must be sustained by the sweat of labor. This is. universal truth. Every mortal is either living by his own labor or off of some one else's labor. Some are dependents, like children; some are parasites, like paupers; some have the dollars other men have labored for and earned, but it is labor and sweat that sustains them all.

Till thou return to the ground.

The spiritual death was immediate; physical death was now certain, but delayed. Finally man should return to the ground, because he was taken from thence. Formed of dust to the dust he should return. Again the statement is verified by universal experience. Countless millions have become dust since these words were uttered. All who are upon the earth shall be dust before many years pass. Yet there is. golden gleam of sunshine upon this gloomy prospect, for it is elsewhere said that when the body returns to the earth whence it was taken the spirit goes to God who gave it.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

The highest privileges are not. guarantee against listening to the voice of the tempter and falling. One of the apostles sold the second Adam. The first Adam turned from God right in Eden.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Listen to him. word and he will lead you astray. To every man he comes in disguise to beguile and to lead astray. Every thought of wrong-doing must be throttled as soon as it is conceived.

In the garden of every life there is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The child is guileless, free from the knowledge of sin and pure. Then the tempter comes and entices it to eat the forbidden fruit. When it yields then comes guilty knowledge, the taint of sin, the voice of God arraigning the sin-polluted soul. Happy is he who at once convicted of sin turns to Christ.

Man's career began in. garden; Revelation gives us the last glimpse of his future destiny in. beautiful city. Each has. tree of life; each is free from sin and death; each enjoys the presence of God; each has its Adam.

Man was expelled from the first by disobedience; he has secured entrance into the second by obedience. It is they "who keep his commandments that have the right to enter in through the gates into the city."

This lesson portrays the great primal tragedy of the world;. tragedy which has flung shadows six thousand years long and only chased away where the Sun of Righteousness has arisen. The facts of evil, of sin, death, sorrow, labor for bread, unremitting toil and. return to earth, remain and testify at this day. They are only accounted for by the history of the Fall.

THE PROHIBITION.--It was right that God should impose some test of their obedience and love. Indeed, it was. necessity of their moral nature that this question of obeying God, always and everywhere, should come to an issue. As surely as they were moral beings, capable of knowing duty and doing it, born into being with susceptibilities to happiness which sometimes must be virtuously denied at the demand of God and of greater good, so surely they must meet this trial sooner or later, in some form or other, until they become so strong in their holy purpose, so fixed in the spirit of love and obedience to God, that temptation to sin is spurned away and duty is done forever more without. question.-- Cowles.

THE SOURCE OF SIN.--The root and source of all sin is unbelief and turning away from God. Even on the contrary, the root and source of all righteousness is faith. When sin is ripened in the heart by unbelief the external act of disobedience speedily follows. This is the light in which the nature of sin is to be regarded according to its true magnitude--whereby we are all ruined.-- Luther. This is the order of the temptation: 1. The goodness of God must be disbelieved, or there must be. loss of faith. 2. There must cease to be. belief in the justice of God. 3.. want of belief in the holiness of God. As. result of this eclipse of faith there is. disobedience to the command of God. Eating the forbidden fruit was only an outward proof of. revolt against the government of God.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

1. Picture paradise,. happy home, no care, anxiety or sin, no sickness or death. All for man, on one condition. 2. Impress the need of some test of man's loyalty to God; that there have been tests of faith and obedience given to all worshipers. Noah, Abraham, the Jews and Christians have had their tests. The test proved the disloyalty of Adam and Eve. 3. Point out temptation as. great fact of human life. Thousands fall through the temptations of appetite; other thousands through the temptations of avarice or ambition. The only safe way is to stifle the temptation just as soon as it is born. 4. Show the need of good associations. The woman fell by listening to corrupt counsel; man fell by listening to. persuasive companion. Multitudes fall from the influence of evil associates. Few go alone and without counsel into sin. 5. Draw the contrast between the two Adams, each. federal head; one of all sinners, the other of all saints; one leading down to death, the other up to life; one by disobedience bringing death upon all who were in his loins, the other by perfect obedience bringing life to all found in him. 6. Point to the tree of life. No flaming sword of cherubim forbids the way. It even lifts up red stained hands and cries, "Come unto me that you may have life." The Bread of Life, the Water of Life, the Tree of Life is the Lord.