Read in your Bibles in the first two chapters of Genesis all that you can find about Adam, the first man that God made, and then we will talk over together some of the things that we are told about him. Notice all these things particularly, for we shall speak of them again next week.

First, God said: “Let us make man in our image.” In the first chapter of Luke we read that “Adam was the son of God.” He was a perfect likeness of his Father; so that all who looked upon him could see at once that he was a child of God.

Next God said: “Let them have dominion.” Over the whole earth and everything upon it,—the beasts, the cattle, the creeping things; over the air and all the birds that fly in it; over the waters, the fish, and all “whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea,” Adam was to have dominion; that is, all these things were to be his kingdom, he was to rule.

What do we call one who has a kingdom? A king, you will say at once. And how is a king distinguished,—what is the mark of a king or queen? If you were in a large assembly of people among which was a king or queen, I think I know what you would look for; the crown, would you not? And you would know that the one upon whose head you saw it was the king. But it is not always, in fact it is very seldom, that the kings and queens of earth wear their heavy gold crowns; they can put them on and off just as they like.

Queen Victoria has not worn her crown more than twenty times during all the sixty-two years of her reign. {remember this is written in 1899}

Adam, the king of the earth, had a crown, but it was not like that. It was not something that could be put on, and the burden of which would make his head ache, but it was a part of himself: “Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour.” His crown of glory was the shining forth of his own kingly character, the image of God in which he was made; it was “a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”

In the kingdoms of this world where everything has been turned upside down by sin, it is the crown that makes the king; that is, one is made king by being crowned. But that is not God’s way. He made man a king by giving him His own kingly nature; and this royal character was itself the crown of glory that encircled his head. He was crowned by being made king, and not made king by being crowned.

But although Adam himself was perfect, and lived in such a beautiful home, and was king over every living thing, there was still something wanting to make him quite happy. God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone.” He had no companions who could enter into his plans and feelings, and share the kingdom with him.

God brought before Adam everything that He had made, but among them all “there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man.”

While Adam slept, God pierced his side, and from his own being formed a suitable companion for him. “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” But Eve herself came from the side of Adam, so the whole human family really came from him. He was to be the head of all the human race, and all who lived and reigned with him on the earth would be his own children, formed from his body and bearing his image—just himself multiplied.

Think what a beautiful picture of happiness and peace; man in the perfect image of God, crowned with glory, one happy family ruling over everything in the earth. But Adam, as you know, fell from his high position as king; he lost his crown, disgraced himself and his family, and sold all their possessions for nothing.

Yet in all these things of which we have spoken God had been “preaching the Gospel beforehand,” showing how all that man lost through sin could be brought back to him. Next week we will talk of this again, and see what “good tidings” God has hidden there for us.

The Present Truth – November 16, 1899
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf  The First Adam