Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/129

 our first parents fell, nor yet the justice of God in attach- ing so severe a penalty to what seems to many so slight an offense; but a little reflection will make all plain. The Scriptures tell the simple story of how the woman, the weaker one, was deceived, and thus became a transgressor. Her experience and acquaintance with God were even more limited than Adam's, for he was created first, and God had directly communicated to him before her creation the knowledge of the penalty of sin, while Eve probably received her information from Adam. When she had partaken of the fruit, she, having put confidence in Satan's deceptive misrepresentation, evidently did not realize the extent of the transgression, though probably she had misgivings and slight apprehensions that all was not well. But, although deceived, Paul says she was a transgressor, though not so culpable as if she had transgressed against greater light.

Adam, we are told, unlike Eve, was not deceived (i Tim. 2: 14), hence he must have transgressed with a fuller realization of the sin, and with the penalty in view> knowing certainly that he must die. We can readily see what was the temptation which impelled him thus recklessly to incur the pronounced penalty. Bearing in mind that they were perfect beings, in the mental and moral likeness of their Maker, the godlike element of love was displayed with marked prominence by the per- fect man toward his beloved companion, the perfect woman. , Realizing the sin and fearing Eve's death, and thus his loss (and that without hope of recovery, for no such hope had been given), Adam, in despair, reck- lessly concluded not to live without her. Deeming his own life unhappy and worthless without her companion- ship, he wilfully shared her act of disobedience in order to share the death-penalty which he probably supposed rest- ed on her. Both were ' 'in the transgression, " as the Apostle

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