Page:The Garden of Eden (Doughty).djvu/34

28

we would get the precise idea of the manner in which Eden is to be understood in Scripture. This is a conception that must be thoroughly imbedded in our minds and naturalized to our thoughts, if we would read this portion of the Bible aright. So thinking and so intuitively grasping the spirit of the narrative, we are prepared to follow its details to their legitimate conclusion.

Now in this view it becomes evident that, as Eden is not a place nor the garden a locality, the two trees which play so important a part in the narrative must be something other than their literal import would indicate. If the Garden of Eden is a phrase indicative of the state of the people of the Lord's first Church on earth, these trees must, in some way, be further descriptive of that state. Their very names indicate this. A tree of life—a natural tree that would bear fruit, the eating whereof would render our existence on earth one of endless duration—is a thing that we cannot comprehend. To suppose that any natural fruit could nourish our souls to eternal life, in the higher spiritual meaning of that term, would tax our credulity still more largely. But as this garden is of the mind, to find some mental attributes of which these trees