he make one distant allusion to the necessity of eating any. But what followed? Eve committed the first sin, by eating prohibited food, and the curse ensued, the natural consequence of disobedience; and now let us not mistake the nature of this curse. God did not pass an irrevocable decree, that man should be miserable if be followed the original laws of nature. Talk of decrees and fatality till we die, and facts in all ages prove, that when man has obeyed those laws, he has been universally healthy, cheerful, and more happy than miserable. [1]
Then what did God mean? Why he must mean that he would transgress, as our first parents had done, and we must consequently "eat thereof in sorrow." But whoever drank his strong decoctions of tea, and coffee, and rioted on flesh, fat, and blood, till his nerves were wholly unstrung, and his stomach worn out with over action, to obey a decree of the Almighty, that "he shall eat in sorrow?"
No! he eats for the low purpose of gratifying a morbid appetite, regardless of consequences, and then complains of the cruel, unavoidable curse.
But, leaving the mutilated body, let us return to the mind. What a wreck do we behold! hampered and clogged, it cannot leap forth. Like the caged bird,
- ↑ It is not intended by the writer to imply that all the consequences of the fall were of a mere physical nature, or that mankind are to recover the moral effects of that catastrophe by mere temperance in diet and regimen.
