Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/51

Rh you stay there always, as silent as so many quadrupeds? Without doubt one should be silent before a man of greater merit, but we should know wherefore and to what extent we are to be silent, and not humble ourselves basely, or adore him as an idol.

Thus, in the name of this latter class, I address myself to the former, and I say: Reply to the questions I will ask.

1. Adam, for having infringed God's command, "Ye shall not eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree," lost paradise not only for himself, but for all his race unto the end of the world. We see by that that he was guilty of a great sin, but we must not believe that his crime consisted merely in eating the forbidden fruit, that is, the apple.

2. Then he tried to hide himself among the trees of the garden, as the Scripture recites.

But from whom would he hide? Men did not yet exist. From God, then.

Behold, then, the madness in which sin had plunged man! Could he hide from the eyes of God? We see that, having recognized his fault, he waited to receive his punishment, and this is God's unexpected decree:

"For having disobeyed the command I gave you, behold your punishment: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou knead bread: dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

3. Ought not Adam, then, to have shed tears of gratitude towards God for the great mercy