God Prepared Man’s First Home—The Eden home of our first parents was prepared for them by God Himself. When He had furnished it with everything that man could desire, He said: “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.”(Genesis 1:26) ...
(AH 25.1)
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The Lord was pleased with this last and noblest of all His creatures, and designed that he should be the perfect inhabitant of a perfect world. But it was not His purpose that man should live in solitude. He said: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.”Genesis 2:18.
(AH 25.2)
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God Himself gave Adam a companion. He provided “an help meet for him”(Genesis 2:18)—a helper corresponding to him—one who was fitted to be his companion, and who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was his second self; showing the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation. “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.”Ephesians 5:29. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one.”Genesis 2:24.
(AH 25.3)
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First Marriage Performed by God—God celebrated the first marriage. Thus the institution has for its originator the Creator of the universe. “Marriage is honourable”(Hebrews 13:4); it was one of the first gifts of God to man, and it is one of the two institutions that, after the fall, Adam brought with him beyond the gates of Paradise. When the divine principles are recognized and obeyed in this relation, marriage is a blessing; it guards the purity and happiness of the race, it provides for man’s social needs, it elevates the physical, the intellectual, and the moral nature.
(AH 25.4)
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He who gave Eve to Adam as a helpmeet performed His first miracle at a marriage festival. In the festal hall where friends and kindred rejoiced together, Christ began His public ministry. Thus He sanctioned marriage, recognizing it as an institution that He Himself had established....
(AH 26.1)
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Christ honored the marriage relation by making it also a symbol of the union between Him and His redeemed ones. He Himself is the Bridegroom; the bride is the church, of which, as His chosen one, He says, “Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee.”Song of Solomon 4:7.
(AH 26.2)
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Every Want Was Supplied—Adam was surrounded with everything his heart could wish. Every want was supplied. There were no sin and no signs of decay in glorious Eden. Angels of God conversed freely and lovingly with the holy pair. The happy songsters caroled forth their free, joyous songs of praise to their Creator. The peaceful beasts in happy innocence played about Adam and Eve, obedient to their word. Adam was in the perfection of manhood, the noblest of the Creator’s work.
(AH 26.3)
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Not a shadow interposed between them and their Creator. They knew God as their beneficent Father, and in all things their will was conformed to the will of God. And God’s character was reflected in the character of Adam. His glory was revealed in every object of nature.
(AH 26.4)
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