172 
THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
diet that would stimulate a spiritual nature and 
awaken emotions of devotion and love. What¬ 
ever of order and adornment the earth may 
have possessed before man’s advent, they were 
not in a plane high enough to meet the cravings 
of his celestial quickening. The soul being of 
heavenly origin, something of its beauty and 
perfection was necessary to fill its spiritual long¬ 
ings; and it is hardly to be questioned that, 
in making provision for this supreme need, 
Jehovah took his pattern from ‘the heavenly 
things,’ and thus gave to the earth a similitude 
of celestial surroundings when he ‘planted a 
garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the 
man whom he had formed.’ His environment 
was ‘ every tree that is pleasant to the sight,’ and 
‘ the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, 
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.* 
When the Great Teacher blessed the earth with 
his presence, in order to bring man back to the 
lost Paradise one of his first lessons was to 
reimpress the moral sanctities of Eden: ‘ Con¬ 
sider the lilies of the field, how they grow;’ and, 
making his teaching impressive, he contrasts 
this one glory of the field with the grandest 
of all human splendors: ‘ I say unto you, that 
