could never, it is true, have coped with the world as it is to-day. To place such a man in our present world, would be almost like placing a lamb in the midst of wolves. Ignorant, as the world now would deem, he unquestionably was. Science and art, learning and skill, luxury and extravagance, as they permeate all present life, were to him unknown. Without doubt nature was beautiful, and the bounteous soil with its spontaneous products supplied his simple wants. It was not necessary for him to be lashed to his daily round of duty by the whip of necessity, nor to work in repulsive fields of labor under the spur of want. Earth was sparsely peopled, and fruitful nature furnished food for all.
But ignorant as he was in worldly things, the now hidden mysteries of God and godly conversation, of heaven and heavenly life, made him wise in a wisdom far above that of to-day. His life was a round of spiritual offices to those about him; his children were reared as heirs, not of the world's wealth and applause, but of spiritual riches and the approval of the Lord. It was indeed the childhood of the race; and those people of the past were very children of the Lord, innocent, beautiful, guileless, angelic. Godlike, but unlearned in the follies which the world prizes and pursues now, unskilled in all the cunning of to-day.
We know that mankind did not remain in that
