In forming this globe, God had prepared a suitable spot for the abode of Adam and the cradle of the human race. It was a garden of delights, abounding in all that was necessary for man's simple wants, providing him with occupation for his faculties, and, we may be sure, more lovely than the loveliest spots that charm us now in this world of our trial and punishment. At this stage the earth was fully under the dominion of man, serving him without resistance to his efforts. "The Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning, wherein He placed man whom He had formed . . . to dress it and keep it" (Gen. ii. 8, 15). Hence we learn that idleness is not the lot of man even in beatitude. There is a curse upon our labour, but labour itself is a necessity for our good estate of body and mind, for our advance and happiness. In this we may see a figure of Our Lord s Incarnation in the "Garden enclosed" (Cant. iv. 12) where He placed His tabernacle. It was an Eden of grace and delight, and it endured but a short time. Jesus had to go forth in consequence of sin to labour in the sweat of His brow and struggle with the thorns and thistles of human perversity. In His Church God has provided a garden of Eden for you, full of all necessaries and delights, with the tree of life in the midst thereof. Outside there prevail doctrinal difficulty, moral failure, deficiency of grace, frustration of well-meant effort.
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