FALL, THE
My brethren, when man fell in the garden, manhood fell entirely; there was not one
single pillar in the temple of manhood that stood erect. 182.140
The very garments that you wear show that you have discovered your shame. The
daily labours which weary you prove that you are not in paradise. The very
preaching of the gospel implies that you are in a sinful world. You are not possessed
of a will unbiased, or inclined to that which is good: you have chosen the evil, and still
continue to choose it; and therefore I should only be proposing to you a road in which
you have already stumbled, and I should be setting you a task in which you have
already broken down. 2210.341
The fall—what a mysterious thing that is! It might have been prevented. I cannot
hold any limit to the omnipotence of God: if he had willed it, there need not have been
a fall. Then why did he permit it? I reply to that in the same spirit. I do not know,
and I do not want to know; but I think I can see such a display of divine mercy, and
love, and grace, and every other attribute, in the redemption of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that the fall, terrible thing as it is, seems to be a grand platform on which the
glory of God could be displayed. 3420.403