[Footnote A: Chapter vii.]
The first evidence men have of the existence of God comes from tradition, from the testimony of their fathers; and this has been the case from that event known as the Fall, until the present. Nor is this evidence unworthy our serious attention; it rests upon a surer foundation than is usually accorded it. Suppose we go back to its beginning, to its first introduction into the world, and observe how well founded it is.
According to the account given by Moses in Genesis, previous to the Fall, Adam associated with God; conversed with him respecting the works of creation, and gave names to the cattle, and all living things upon the earth. How long continued, or how intimate that association was, we are not informed in Genesis; but, at all events, it was long enough continued, and sufficiently intimate to fix definitely in the mind of Adam the fact of God's existence. Then when Adam and his wife transgressed God's law, their recollection of his existence did not vanish, but they tried to hide from his presence; and were afterwards visited of the Lord, who reproved them for their sin and pronounced the penalty which would overtake them for their transgression.
All I wish to call attention to in this is the fact that they knew positively of the Lord's existence before their transgression, and they did not forget it after that event; but on the contrary had a lively recollection of what they had seen and heard before they fell, and related it to their children, who, in turn, transmitted it to their children, and so from generation to generation the tradition of God's existence has been handed down until the present time.
But other considerations are yet to be noticed in respect to this tradition. It will be remembered that Adam and all the patriarchs previous to the Flood lived to a very great age. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years, and during that time Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah and Lamech, the father of Noah, were born. Indeed the last named was fifty-six years old[B] when Adam died; so that for a number of years he must have had the pleasure of Adam's acquaintance; while the patriarchs between Adam and Lamech all associated with him for hundreds of years, and would learn well the story that the grand patriarch of our race would have to tell respecting Eden before the Fall.
[Footnote B: See Doc. and Cov. II Lecture on Faith, verse 30.]
Then again, we are told in Genesis[C] that when Lamech was one hundred and eighty-two years old he begat Noah; and since Lamech was fifty- six years old when Adam died, Adam had been dead but one hundred and twenty-six years when Noah was born. After the birth of Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, so that Noah associated with his father, who had seen Adam, for more than five hundred years; and also with a number of the other patriarchs —with Enos, the grandson of Adam, and son of Seth—with Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared and Methuselah.[D] Then, the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth, all of whom were born before the Flood, would likewise be acquainted with a number of these worthies who had lived with Adam and heard his testimony of God's existence.
[Footnote C: Gen. v: 28, 29.]
[Footnote D: Those desiring a more minute account of these points are referred to the Doc. and Cov., II Lecture on Faith.]
Again, Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the Flood; that would give him ample time and opportunity to teach his posterity for several generations the tradition respecting God, which he had received from a number of patriarchs, who lived previous to the Flood, and thus the said tradition became firmly fixed in the minds of men.