Also Adam fell that man might "be" in the environment of earthlife; in the midst of broken harmonies, where good and evil are seen in conflict; in a life of adventure and danger; in a life where real losses may have to be sustained; and sorrows as well as joys are realities; where death as well as life is encountered; and where spiritual deaths may be as endless, as spiritual lives may be eternal. To bring to pass these conditions essential to man's earth-experiences, on which is to be builded his future progress, the "fall" must be; which is only another way of saying that the transition from heaven conditions to earth must be made. In no way else could this earth department of God's great university for Intelligences be established. May it not, however, from some points of view be regarded as a misnomer, this "fall?" Certainly it is but an incident in the process of rising to greater heights. It is but the crouch for the spring; the steps backward in order to gain momentum for the rush forward; a descending below all things only that there might be a rising above all things. Such the benefits to arise from the fall; at least to some, and doubtless to the benefit ultimately, of most of the Intelligences that participate in earth-life, though there will be real losses in the adventure.[B] The fall is to eventuate in the advantage of God's children, then, in the main. Adam did not sin because deceived by another. He did not sin maliciously, or with evil intent; or to gratify an inclination to rebellion against God, or to thwart the Divine purposes, or to manifest his own pride. Had his act of sin involved the taking of life rather than eating a forbidden fruit, it would be regarded as a "sacrifice" rather than as a "murder." This is to show the nature of Adam's transgression. It was a transgression of the law—"for sin is the transgression of the law"—that conditions deemed necessary to the progress of eternal Intelligences might obtain. But Adam did sin. He did break the law, which is sin, and violation of law involves the violator in its penalties, as surely as effect follows cause. Upon this principle depends the dignity and majesty of law. Take this fact away from moral government and your moral laws become mere nullities. Therefore, notwithstanding Adam fell that men might be, and that in his transgression there was at bottom a really exalted motive—a motive that contemplated nothing less than bringing to pass the highly necessary purposes of God with respect to man's existence in the earth—yet his transgression of law was real; he did brave the conditions that would be brought into existence by his sin; it was followed by certain moral effects in the nature of men and in the world. The harmony of things was broken; discord ruled; changed relations between God and men took place; moral and intellectual darkness, sin and death—death, the wages of sin—stalked through the world, and made necessary the Atonement for man, and his redemption.
[Footnote A: Elsewhere of this Book of Mormon passage I have said: In the second book of Nephi, chapter ii, occurs the following direct, explicit statement: Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy.
This sentence is the summing up of a somewhat lengthy discussion on the Atonement, by the Prophet Lehi. It is a most excellent and important generalization, and is worthy to be classed with the great generalizations of the Jewish scriptures, such for instance as that in the closing chapter of Ecclesiastes, "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man;" Paul's famous generalization: "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive;" or the Apostle James' summing up of religion: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to kep one's self unspotted from the world." Or the Messiah's great summing up of the whole law and gospel: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. On these two commandments hang all the law and all the prophets." I care not whether you regard the literary excellence of this Book of Mormon generalization or the importance of the great truths which it announces, I repeat it, it is worthy in every way to stand with the great generalizations quoted above.]
[Footnote B: A question presses on the optimists, * * * Are the rebellious and the sinful not also on the up grade? Ultimately and in the last resort will not they, too, put themselves in time with the harmony of existence? Who is to say? Time is infinite, Eternity is before us as well as behind us, and the end is not yet. There is no "ultimately" in the matter, for there is no end; There is room for an eternity of rebellion and degradation and misery as well as of hope and love" ("Science and Immortality," Sir Oliver Lodge, p. 291)—and hence, doubtless, real losses to be sustained.]
LESSON VIII.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
THE FALL OF MAN.—(Continued.)
| ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
| V. The Importance of Life—Be Fruitful and Replenish the Earth. | Same references as in Lesson VII. |
| VI. The Fall Beneficent. | |
| VII. The Book of Mormon View of the Fall.—Necessary to the Purposes of God. | |
| VIII. Summary of the Subjects of Lessons VII and VIII. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "And now behold, if Adam had not transgressed, he would not have fallen; but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state which they were [in], after they were created; and they must have remained for ever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore, they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things."