Having realized the necessity and efficacy of prayer, it is for our eternal interest to practice it diligently, in the spirit of humility and earnestAs God has promised to hear and answer our petitions thus presented, our benefit is absolutely certain, for He never fails in the fulfilment of His promises.

ness.

CHAPTER XV.

ADAM.

Pre-existence of the soul, the purpose of its imprisonment in the body, and the conditions of its existence hereafter, have been divinely revealed to us in the story of Adam and the Garden of Eden. Whence came we? What is our purpose here? Whither going? These are the all-important questions of human existence. They cover the history and destiny of the soul. In their solution, is knowledge of the Truth of God, whose All-wise intention has preserved scriptural record, until this present age of the world, when human understanding is fitted to receive the message of its interpretation and the revelation of its teaching.

Theologians and religious thinkers have failed to understand whether the earliest records in the book of Genesis, relative to the Garden of Eden, the Fall of Man and longevity of the human race, are historical accounts of real events, or simply myths and traditions, which had their origin in the earliest dawn of civilization. Is the story of Adam but the product of human imagination? Is it allegory founded upon man's observation of the working forces of nature; or is it the record of actual happenings, symbolically written by prophets inspired of God, to teach the human race the history of the beginning and earliest condition of man ?

The majority of theologians maintain that the story of Adam is the Word of God, containing an underlying spiritual significance, but confess their inability to give it specific and definite interpretation. However they may differ in opinion as to its exact teaching, they must coincide in admitting its ultra importance, inasmuch as it concerns the most remote epoch of human history, and upon its narrative as a foundation, rests entirely, the doctrine of "original sin." Belief in this doctrine, or proof of it, depends solely upon the history of Adam and the story of Eden. If we cannot prove the nature of Adam's transgression, or discover the reality of an act of disobedience which holds all mankind in the thraldom of its consequences, the whole scriptural basis of original sin is destroyed, man's absolute independence of action and supreme individual responsibility established, and the doctrine of redemption proved to be unnecessary and impossible. The importance of this record in Genesis is therefore apparent from the fact that it contains the only data upon which the doctrine of original sin can be founded. All other citations and elaborations of this point, in scripture and outside of scripture, proceed from the Story of the Garden of Eden.

While numberless theories and explanations ad infinitum have been evolved concerning it; while the result of human effort to understand its real significance, has been confusion and contrariety of opinion, the fact remains that this record is a revelation from God to mankind; intended by Him

to teach a great spiritual truth which is essential to every human soul. The certain evidence of this intention of revelation, is found in the fact that the prophets, Christ especially, taught the same spiritual truth embodied in the story of Adam and the Garden of Eden.

Much of the difficulty in understanding and interpretation, arises from the reason that scriptural mode of expression is symbolical. All the prophetic language of scripture employs symbols. Christ taught in parables and allegorical illustrations. The earliest records in the book of Genesis, were written in idiographic language, which preceded the use of characters representing sounds. Centuries later, they were translated into Hebrew. The original Hebrew writings suffered many changes through successive transcriptions, at long intervals and different periods.

According to Dr. Heber Newton in "Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible," "We must also take into consideration this fact, that the languages are constantly changing; words and expressions that were in use a hundred years ago, are now obsolete or convey a different meaning and it is often necessary for us to take their meaning in a figurative sense and not literally, as we do at the present time."

Upon this point, Origen (Vol. 1, p.-315) wrote as follows:

"The Scriptures contain many things which did not actually occur. For who that hath understanding, will suppose that the first and second and