The First Sin.

GENESIS iii.

The traveller and the fountain-The fountain of sin-Disobedience to God-Many reasons for doing right-Obedience that asks no questions-Distrust and self-will-God's words changed for a bad purpose-Knowing good and evil— "Mother knows best "-The lost child-JESUS in the wilderness-A home more beautiful than Eden.

Now and then, in books about countries far away, we may read how the traveller, in his journeyings, has come to the fountain of some mighty river. There it is at his feet, bubbling up from the ground beneath, a little, tiny stream, that he can stop with his foot. But as he stands and looks upon it, he is filled with wonder to know that soon the little rill becomes a broad, deep river, and pours its waters like a swelling flood into the sea.

We have now been reading of the little fountain of the great river of man's sin and sorrow. All the wickedness, and pain, and death that have filled the world for nearly six thousand years sprang up in one little moment. What a river it is! How deep, and broad, and dark! And our sins are a part of that mighty flood.

Let us think a little longer about the way in which it first sprang up. Here is the picture of the fountain.

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."

That was the First Sin. Every sin that has sprung from that fountain since has some likeness to it. Shall we try to understand this?

First. It was disobedience to God. People sometimes think it was a pity to drive poor Adam and Eve out of Eden only for eating a bit of fruit. It was such a little thing, they say. Yes, it was; and that is just what made it so wicked; for as it was such a little thing to do, it was all the easier to leave it undone. If God had commanded them to do some greater thing, is it likely that they would have done it?

Now, we may understand in one way how it was in wisdom that God gave to Adam and Eve such a command as he did. You know we do some things for a great many reasons. A little Sunday-school girl was once told she was a good child for coming to school when her mother told her. "Ah, but," said she, "I like to come." Well, that was not wrong; but the little one, you see, had two reasons-her mother's command, and her own liking. If her mother had

wanted to know whether she was really an obedient child, she would have had to give her another sort of command-something that the little girl did not like so much, or that she would not have thought of doing unless her mother had told her. Now, there would be many things, all good and right to do, which Adam would have done, whether God commanded him or not. Adam would "like" to do them. So God tried whether the obedience was true, whether Adam would attend to his command because it was his command, without wanting any reason beside. "Why must I not take of this tree?" he might say; "I can see no reason." No; perhaps there was no reason but this one, the command of God. If Adam obeyed because of that, he was truly obedient; if not, his obedience in other things would be of no use.

Children should think of this in obeying their parents, and, most of all, in obeying God. A Sunday-school scholar once, when asked, "How do the angels do God's will in heaven?" answered, "I think they do it without asking any questions." All true obedience is of that sort. When a child begins to ask, "Why? why?" whatever he is told to do, that child is becoming disobedient. Eve's sin began in asking, "Why?" If she and Adam had remembered that the fruit was to be let alone because God had so commanded, and that they were not to ask for other reason they would never have disobeyed.

any

The second thing we may ask is, What were the feelings that led Adam and Eve to be disobedient? These may be called Distrust and Self-will.

First. Distrust. When first the serpent came to Eve she ought to have been so sure that God had only wise and kind thoughts to her as not to have stayed talking with the tempter for one moment. See how the serpent tried to make Eve think that God was unkind and cruel. "Hath God said," asked he, "Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" That means, in the language in which the Bible was written, "Not of any tree."* How hard, to be sure! And this seems to have set Eve thinking, "Well, it is not so bad as that, but it is not so good as we should like, either." For we see how she changes God's words. God had said, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." Eve said, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden." Why did she leave out that word every and the word freely? She was beginning to think God unkind. Then God had said, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat." Eve made out that God had said, "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it." Why did she put that

*

Not every and not all, in the Old Testament, have the force of not any. Thus, "God is not in all his thoughts" (Psalm x. 4), that is, "not in any of them." So (Psalm ciii. 2), "Forget not all his benefits," that is, "not any."

in about touching it? You see she was trying to make the commandment as hard as she could. But did Eve quite believe that God would punish disobedience as he said? God had declared, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Eve turned this into "lest ye die;" as if they might die, or might not. It was no wonder that when she began to talk in this way the tempter became at last bold enough to say, "Ye shall not surely die."

Now, does not this help us to see that the beginning of sin is the want of faith, and that faith must be the first thing, if our sins are to be taken away and our souls made holy? Let us but trust in God, and we shall serve him, and try to do his will. To believe that what he says and does is all right and kind will take from us the greatest of our temptations to sin. There is no obedience without trust.

The second thing was Self-will. Eve did not trust in God; she thought she could do better for herself. It would be a very fine thing to be, as the tempter said, "like the gods," or, perhaps, like GOD himself, "knowing good and evil."

She did not understand what this "knowing" was, or she would never have wished for that kind of wisdom. Why did she not know good and evil before she tasted of the tree? Because she had never done evil. She knew the good, she knew happiness; but she did not know what it was to sin.