The Past Obscured.—It is not to be supposed, however, that this was Adam's first knowledge of the sacrificial statute, concerning which he must have known before it was revealed to him in mortal life. Adam was no ordinary man. He was a great and wonderful character, and the world has not seen the last of him. Undoubtedly he was among those who sat in the eternal councils when the Gospel plan was instituted and its mighty Executor chosen. Surely he knew about the Lamb of God, already slain in the spirit before the creation of the world, and, in Adam's time, yet to be slain literally in the world—an event symbolized by the very sacrifice that the first man was offering when the Lord's messenger appeared to him.
But Adam had lost the knowledge of his spirit past. It had been temporarily taken from him in order that his agency might be free and untrammeled, his conduct uninfluenced by any recollection of a former experience. Hence the need of the Angel's coming to enlighten him, and the further need of revelation by the Holy Spirit, bringing things past to remembrance and showing things to come.
Acceptable and Unacceptable Offerings.—Adam's worship was acceptable to God, for he was in every way obedient to the divine instruction; his offering truly symbolizing the heavenly Lamb, subsequently foretokened in the Feast of the Passover. Abel made a similar offering—of the firstlings of his flock; "and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering."[[3]]
But Abel's elder brother, Cain, who also had been taught the Law of Sacrifice, took it upon himself to deviate from the course marked out. Instead of a lamb, he "brought of the fruit of the ground"—an offering in no way symbolical of the Savior. His offering was rejected;[[4]] for "the ordinances must be kept in the very way God has appointed."[[5]]
The Gospel Introduced.—The way was now prepared for the introduction of the great redemptive scheme that was to lift fallen man and open to him the opportunities for endless increase and progression. Instead of preaching "another gospel," or inventing some new form of ordinance, as the misguided Cain might have done, Adam adhered to the Gospel in its purity, carrying out to the letter the instructions God had given. He, by his own voice, commanded Adam to believe, to repent, and to be baptized; and, as it is written: "He was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and was brought forth out of the water;" after which the Spirit descended upon him, "and he heard a voice out of heaven, saying: Thou art baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost."[[6]]
"And thus the Gospel began to be preached from the beginning, being declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by his own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost. And thus all things were confirmed unto Adam by an holy ordinance, and the Gospel preached, and a decree sent forth that it should be in the world until the end thereof."[[7]]
Seeming Differences Reconciled.—Apropos of that ancient decree, I was once asked to reconcile the statement concerning it with the idea of a new dispensation. The question came to me in this form: "If the Gospel was to be 'in the world' from Adam's time 'until the end,' what was the need of restoring it—bringing it back again?"
I answered, in substance: "The two propositions do not really contradict each other. The Gospel has been in the world from Adam's day until now, by a series of dispensations, reaching through the entire range of human history. The gaps between, so wide to us, count for little with Deity, to whom past, present and future are one.[[8]] The finite mind is prone to take short and narrow views of things, tangling itself up in little quibbling details that often give a great deal of trouble. But the Eternal sweeps the whole universe with infinite gaze, and what seem mountains to men are less than mole-hills in His sight. He has found it necessary, at different times, to withdraw the Gospel and the Priesthood from the midst of mankind; and yet, by repeated restorations, forming a continuous chain of dispensations, he has kept the Gospel and the Priesthood in the world from the beginning down to the present."[[9]]
Seth Succeeds Abel.—Abel fell a martyr to the Truth. Slain by his envious brother[[10]], he was succeeded by Seth, another brother, born subsequently. Seth was typical of the Son of God, not only because he was "a perfect man," but because "his likeness was the express likeness of his father's, insomuch that he seemed to be like unto his father in all things, and could be distinguished from him only by his age."[[11]]
Adam-ondi-Ahman.—Says Joseph the Seer: "I saw Adam in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman. He called together his children and blessed them with a patriarchal blessing."[[12]] The vision was of course retrospective, having reference to the time when Adam dwelt on earth. The same event is more fully set forth as follows: "Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth Enos Cainan Mahalaleel Jared Enoch and Methuselah, who were all High Priests, with the residue of his posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and there bestowed upon them his last blessing.