at God's bar we shall have to say, '_Mea_ culpa, _mea_ culpa.'

The curse pronounced on the serpent takes its habit and form as an
emblem of the degradation of the personal tempter, and of the
perennial antagonism between him and mankind, while even at that
first hour of sin and retribution a gleam of hope, like the stray
beam that steals through a gap in a thundercloud, promises that the
conquered shall one day be the conqueror, and that the woman's seed,
though wounded in the struggle, shall one day crush the poison-
bearing, flat head in the dust, and end forever his power to harm.
'Known unto God are all his works from the beginning,' and the
Christ was promised ere the gates of Eden were shut on the exiles.




EDEN LOST AND RESTORED


'So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east of
the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which
turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.'
--GENESIS iii. 24.

'Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they
may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in
through the gates into the city.'
REVELATION xxii. 14.

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.' Eden was fair, but