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John Doughty
Published by Good Press, 2020
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In this view it is proposed to take up the history of the Garden of Eden. This narrative has been given as a spiritual allegory. Its construction, its peculiarities of diction, and the difficulties which surround the assumption that it is the record of actual facts set down concerning a historical man and woman, point to it as a specimen of divine parable, beautiful in its simplicity, perfect in its symmetry, harmonious in its statements. It is of no consequence how inconsistent or inaccurate it may be as a historical record; as a parable it is perfect, and that is enough. The Divine Mind here as in other parts of the Word, seeks to teach not natural but spiritual history; not the outward actions of races, but the inward workings of hearts. It treats not of changes of locality, but of alterations of state; not of the loss of a natural abode, but of the forfeiture of a spiritual home. The outer husk of the narrative is temporal and carnal; its inward life is moral and spiritual.
The first thought that suggests itself in the consideration of this topic, is in reference to the etymology of the word "Eden." It is a Hebrew expression signifying delight or happiness. And when we consider that the term garden is often applied in the Scripture to man's state of spiritual intelligence, or to that frame of mind in which he readily comprehends and accepts spiritual things, that this peculiar state of mind is alluded to as a garden, likened to a garden, called a garden, we have no trouble in arriving at the truth that the Garden of Eden was man's spiritually intelligent state of love and happiness in the early age of the world. For was it not said in reference to the Jews, spiritually unfertile and dry as their religious state was, "Ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water " (Isa. i. 8)?—that is, as an intelligent mind not fertilized by any conception of spiritual truth? And when the restoration of the Church was foretold, and its promised fertile and fruitful condition set forth in glowing figures, was it not said by the Lord, "Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not " (Isa. lviii. 11)?
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