ng, and believed to have access to the oracles of God, will
doubtless be able to reveal the whole gospel truth on the subject.

A little later, God himself, who is everywhere at once, came down from
everywhere to the Garden of Eden, for the purpose of taking a "walk in
the cool of the day." He had perhaps just visited the infernal regions
to see that everything was ready for the reception of the miserable
creatures he meant to damn, or to assure himself that the Devil was
really not at home; and was anxious to cool himself before returning to
his celestial abode, as well as to purify himself from the sulphurous
taint which might else have sent a shudder through all the seraphic
hosts. Apparently he was holding a soliloquy, for Adam and Eve "heard
his voice." Colenso, however, renders this portion of the Romance
differently from our authorised version--"And they heard the sound
of Jehovah-Elohim walking in the garden in the breeze of the day."
Delitzsch thinks they heard the sound of his footsteps, for God used to
visit them in the form of a man! Could the force of folly farther go?
Any devout Theist, who candidly thought over this petty fiction, would
find its gross anthropomorphism inexpressibly shocking.

Knowing that God was everywhere, Adam and Eve nevertheless "hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
garden." But they were soon dragged forth to the light. Adam, who
seems to have been a silly fellow, explained that he had hidden himself
because he was _naked_, as though the Lord had not seen him in that
state before. "Naked!" said the Lord, "Who told thee that thou wast
naked. Hast thou eaten of that tree, eh?" "O, Lord, yes," replied Adam;
"just a little bit; but it wasn't my fault, _she_ made me do it, O Lord!
O Lord!" Whereupon God, who although he knows everything, even before it
happens, was singularly ill-informed on this occasion, turned fiercely
upon the woman, asking her what she had done. "Oh, if you please,"
whimpered poor Eve, "it _was_ I who took the first bite; but the serpent
beguiled me, and the fault you see is not mine but his. Oh dear! oh
dear!" Then the Lord utterly lost his temper. He cursed the serpent,
cursed the woman, cursed the man, and even cursed the ground beneath
their feet Everything about at the time came in for a share of the
malison. In fact, it was what the Yankees would call a good, all-round,
level swear.

The curse of the serpent is a subject