We will now notice the sentence pronounced upon the several participants in this fabled rebellion against the divine government, and observe how, or to what extent, they were realized. Adam, Eve, and the snake were the culprits arraigned at the bar under charge of being rebels; and, all being found guilty, a sentence was pronounced upon each separately. We will examine them in their order. The first part of Adam's curse consisted in being doomed to die,—"The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die" (Gen. ii. 17). The serpent, however, took the liberty to contradict and counteract the sentence, and told him he should not die, but that partaking of the fruit would make him "wise as the Gods, knowing good and evil." Now, the first question which arises here is, Who told the truth in the case,—Jehovah, or "the father of lies"? In the eighth chapter of Genesis we read, "All the days of Adam were nine hundred and thirty years, and he begat sons and daughters." It will be seen, then, that he did not die in "the day thereof," nor the year thereof, nor the century thereof; so it appears the serpent told the truth and Moses' God told the falsehood, or was mistaken. Hundreds of Christian writers and commentators have racked their brains to find some plausible mode of disposing of these difficulties. The most specious one they have resorted to is that of assigning the text a spiritual signification, and alleging that it was a spiritual death that was intended in this case. But the text does not say so; and the context shows it was not so: for it is declared, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen. iii. 19), which shows it was not spiritual but physical death that was meant; and this did not take place for more than nine hundred years after the sentence was pronounced.
The second part of Adam's curse consisted in being driven out of the garden, and compelled to engage in agricultural pursuits; that is, he was sentenced to earn his bread by the sweat of his face. (See Gen. iii. 23). But the experience of nearly the whole human race, from that period to the present time, proves that the sweating part of the operation is no curse at all, but a real blessing; for no person in warm climates can enjoy good health without perspiring occasionally; and as for labor being a curse, because said to have been pronounced upon Adam as a penalty for transgression, the experience of all who have tried it, and the present condition of the civilized world, proclaim it to be untrue. Indeed, we must consider it a very fortunate circumstance that he was driven out of the garden, and compelled to embark in agricultural pursuits, not only on account of such employments being conducive to health, but because the very existence of human life depends upon it in all civilized countries. It is the source whence we derive all our food, all our clothing, and nearly all the comforts of life. No: it is laziness, not labor, that curses the race; and the most accursed set of beings are the drones, the soft-handed gentry, who are almost as afraid of a hoe, axe, or spade, as they are of the measles or small-pox, having been erroneously taught that labor is a curse.
The third item in Adam's curse consisted in being doomed to eat the ground,—"Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life" (Gen. iii. 17); but we have never seen any report of either Adam or any of his posterity eating the ground, or making it an article of diet. It will be observed, then, that no part of the sentence pronounced upon Adam turned out to be a curse, but, when realized at all, was realized as a blessing.
The sentence pronounced upon the woman was also of a threefold character. In the first place, she was doomed to "Bring forth children in sorrow" (Gen. iii. 16). And her posterity, we are told, inherited the curse, and must suffer in this same way; but the history of the human family shows that many individuals, and whole nations in some cases, have never suffered this affliction. It is well known that the mothers of some of the African tribes, also some of the tribes of Americans, never suffer in childbirth. Hence it will be seen that the curse in the general sense implied by the text is a failure in this case also.
The second punishment to which woman was to be subjected was that of being ruled over by her husband. This portion of her curse, we must confess, has not been an entire failure. Many women, even in civilized countries, are not only ruled over, but tyrannized over, by their husbands. Yet this state of things has by no means been universal. On the contrary, in many cases, woman has been the ruling party; and, in some instances, they have not merely ruled their own husbands, but all the husbands in the nation. Queen Mary, Queen Anne, and Queen Victoria, and many others, are examples of this kind; and then there have been thousands of women in all ages and countries who never had any husbands. Consequently the curse is a failure in their cases. The curse of husband-dominion, then, has not fallen upon woman as a sex.
There was to be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (i.e., their offspring) as the third part of woman's curse; but we find no evidence that this part of the curse has ever been fulfilled. We observe no more enmity between men and serpents than between men and other noxious reptiles and ravenous beasts. How much enmity exists between the Hindoo juggler and the serpent that twines around his arm and neck, and crawls through his bosom? We may be told in reply that it is not the common serpent that is referred to here, but the serpent-devil that beguiled Eve; but we do not learn that his Devilish Majesty ever had any offspring. So this part of the curse, in a general sense, is a failure also.
THE CURSE OF THE SERPENT.
The curse pronounced upon the serpent was of a twofold character.
He was doomed to crawl upon his belly. How he traveled previous to that period we have no means of knowing, as revelation is silent on this momentous subject. He must have crawled on his back, or hopped on his head or tail,—either of which we should consider a much more difficult mode of traveling than that inflicted on him by the curse. I can see no curse or punishment in an animal or reptile traveling in its natural way, and by the easiest mode known in the whole animal kingdom. To make a curse of his mode of travel, he should have been turned the other side up, so that, while wiggling or wriggling along on his back, his eyes and mouth would get full of dust and mud. This would have been much more like a punishment,—a more real and sensible curse than his present mode of traveling.
The second mode of punishing the serpent was to compel him to eat dust as an article of diet; but some difficulty must have arisen in attempting to comply with the injunction. When the ground is saturated with water, he would have to take a meal occasionally of mud, which would not be more nutritious than dust, and would not be fulfilling the law. But it is needless to speculate. It is evident he does not subsist in that way, but, like the other culprits, escaped the penalties or punishments due to his crime.