His infinite mercy, deliver us.

IV. THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE TREE OF LIFE; OR, THE FALL.

"Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman
said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the
garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch
it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not
surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one
wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her; and he did eat."--GENESIS iii. 1-6.

Here is a lesson for us all. You and I, and all men brought into the
world with us a nature which fell in Adam; and, as it fell _before_ we
were born, it is certain enough to fall, again and again, after we are
born, in this life; ay, and unless we take care, to fall lower and lower,
every day, acting Adam's sin over again, until we surely die. This is
what I mean--What God said to Adam and Eve, He says to every one of us.
And what the devil said to Adam and Eve, he will say to every one of us.

First. God says to us, "Of all the trees of the garden thou mayest
freely eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat, lest thou die."

Of all the trees of the garden thou mayest freely eat. God grudges you
nothing good for you. He has put you into this good and pleasant world,
where you will find pleasures enough, and comforts enough, to satisfy
you, if you are wise; but there are things which God has forbidden you,
not out of any spite or arbitrariness, but because they are bad for you;
because they will hurt you if you indulge in them, and sooner or later,
kill both body and soul.

Now, many of those wrong things look pleasant enough, and reasonable
enough, as the forbidden fruit did. Pleasant to the eyes and good for
food--and to be desired to make you wise. As people grow up and go out
into life, they are tempted to do many things which their parents forbid,
which the Bible forbids, whic