The Adam of Genesis 



IN pursuing the story of Adam, we should bear 

 in mind some considerations that have been 

 excluded by popular and poetic conceptions; 

 the most important of which is the truth that a 

 wide intellectual, spiritual, and moral range of 

 knowledge is not necessary to a true and genuine 

 faith in God. Our Lord thought it necessary to 

 emphasize this truth more than once, and in the 

 most impressive manner. He thanked the Father 

 that while the wise and prudent were blind to the 

 highest spiritual truth, it had been revealed unto 

 babes. He literally held them up in his arms as 

 models of what a true faith must be, and said that 

 unless we should become as one of them we could 

 in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. That 

 this is law in the spiritual kingdom is also seen 

 in the mention of the Psalmist, who said that 

 God ordained his praise in the mouths of infants. 

 With this truth before us, we shall not be dis- 

 turbed, though possibly somewhat surprised, at the 

 description given of Adam by Moses. In this par- 

 ticular Milton's noble absurdities are a wide and 

 wild departure from the original — directly contrary 

 to it, in fact. Considered simply from the stand- 

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