By J.G. Bellet

      Genesis 1 - 9. "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." Samson's riddle--God's riddle. (Judges 14: 14.)

      This has been abundantly illustrated in the story of this world. May I not say it is the key of the whole of it. It figuratively shows us God and the Enemy at their several work--the Enemy doing his work as the Strong and the Eater, and God, in gracious, victorious power, forcing him to yield both meat and sweetness--constantly and ever bringing good out of evil, and building new systems of wonder and glory and joy out of the ruins Satan has wrought.

      I am now, however, looking at this only as it is presented to us in the earliest chapters of Scripture--I mean in Genesis 1 - 9.

      Man in innocency is set in the garden of Eden--and there, (as in His whole creation,) God is glorified and has His joy, while the creature is blest and happy.

      But man loses this goodly estate. He forfeits his innocency under the temptation of the Serpent, and with his innocency he loses everything.

      This leads at once into a new scene. To be sure it does. But we have to ask, What do we see of man, and of the blessed God Himself there?