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92 itself would begin to yield, while perhaps with others it would be longer retained. Thus at first the fruit of the forbidden tree was faith as the basis of religion. This also would be forbidden, because love is its true basis. Then its fruit became error; and at last positive falsity. The eating by the woman was a work of centuries; the offering to the man and his eating a work of centuries more. The letter makes it, in the fall of a man, the work of a day; the spirit makes it, in the fall of a race, the work of a period of indefinite and unknown length.

And so let us still follow the lesson in our hearts, and contemplate all its admonitions as given to make us wiser in our generation. There is only one tree whose fruit is life, for us as well as for our early progenitors. It is the Lord himself enthroned within the heart. It is that principle of love, so large, so all-embracing, so divine, that the mind of its possessor is an Eden of intelligence and delight. Its branches are far reaching; its roots strike deep; its fruits are all goodness and wisdom, and they nourish the soul from its centers of affection and thought to its extremities of active life and work. Other trees there are in the garden which contribute to life; other perceptions of the soul which are suggested from within and without; but this tree is Life Itself. Let us ask nothing of sense and science,