CARPENTER

"Parents need not feel that it is necessary to repress the activity of their children,

but they are to understand that it is essential to guide and train them in right and

proper directions. These active impulses are like the vines, that, if untrained, will

run over every stump and brush, and fasten their tendrils upon low supports. If

the vines are not trained about some proper support, they waste their energies to

no purpose. So it is with children. Their activities must be trained in the right

direction. Give their hands and minds something to do that will advance them in

physical and mental attainments." 

CG 36

“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man

whom He had formed.” In this garden were trees of every variety, many of them

laden with delicious fruit. There were lovely vines, growing upright, their branches

drooping under their load of tempting fruit. It was the work of Adam and Eve to

train the branches of the vine to form bowers, thus making for themselves a

dwelling from living trees covered with foliage and fruit. In the midst of the garden

stood the tree of life, surpassing in glory all other trees. Its fruit had the power to

perpetuate life.

EP 18

Eden, January 6

Genesis 2:8-15

"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."

Genesis 2:15.

"Although everything God had made was in the perfection of beauty, and there

seemed nothing wanting upon the earth which God had created to make Adam

and Eve happy, yet He manifested His great love to them by planting a garden

especially for them. A portion of their time was to be occupied in the happy

employment of dressing the garden, and a portion in receiving the visits of

angels, listening to their instruction, and in happy meditation. Their labor was not

wearisome but pleasant and invigorating. This beautiful garden was to be their

home.

In this garden the Lord placed trees of every variety for usefulness and beauty.

There were trees laden with luxuriant fruit, of rich fragrance, beautiful to the eye,

and pleasant to the taste, designed of God to be food for the holy pair. There were

the lovely vines which grew upright, laden with their burden of fruit, unlike

anything man has seen since the fall. The fruit was very large and of different

 colors; some nearly black, some purple, red, pink, and light green. This beautiful

and luxuriant growth of fruit upon the branches of the vine was called grapes.

They did not trail upon the ground, although not supported by trellises, but the

weight of the fruit bowed them down. It was the happy labor of Adam and Eve to

form beautiful bowers from the branches of the vine and train them, forming

dwellings of nature’s beautiful, living trees and foliage, laden with fragrant fruit.

It was the design of God that man should find happiness in the employment of

tending the things He had created, and that his wants should be met with the

fruits of the trees of the garden....

 
Had happiness consisted in doing nothing, man, in his state of holy innocence,

would have been left unemployed. But He who created man knew what would be

for his happiness; and no sooner had He created him than He gave him his

appointed work. The promise of future glory, and the decree that man must toil for

his daily bread, came from the same throne."

  CC 12

"The earth was clothed with beautiful verdure, while myriads of fragrant flowers of

every variety and hue sprang up in rich profusion around them. Every thing was

tastefully and gloriously arranged. In the midst of the garden stood the tree of life,

the glory of which surpassed all other trees. Its fruit looked like apples of gold

and silver, and was to perpetuate immortality. The leaves contained healing

properties. 

Very happy were the holy pair in Eden. Unlimited control was given them over

every living thing. The lion and the lamb sported together peacefully and

harmlessly around them, or slumbered at their feet. Birds of every variety of color

and plumage flitted among the trees and flowers, and about Adam and Eve, while

their mellow-toned music echoed among the trees in sweet accord to the praises

of their Creator.

 
Adam and Eve were charmed with the beauties of their Eden home. They were

delighted with the little songsters around them, wearing their bright yet graceful

plumage, and warbling forth their happy, cheerful music. The holy pair united with

them, and raised their voices in harmonious songs of love, praise, and adoration,

to the Father and his dear Son, for the tokens of love which surrounded them.

They recognized the order and harmony of creation, which spoke of wisdom and

knowledge which were infinite. Some new beauty and additional glory of their

Eden home they were continually discovering, which filled their hearts with

deeper love, and brought from their lips expressions of gratitude and reverence to

their Creator."

ST January 16, 1879,

Hops

Impatient