**Adam Hears the Gospel.** The only rational thing that could be done to spirits so placed on earth was to teach them fully the story of man's origin and destiny and the meaning and duties of the earth-life. The plea of ignorance would not then be valid. Consequently, soon after the first parents had been driven out of the Garden of Eden, an angel appeared and taught Adam the story of man from the first to the last day. The plan of salvation, including the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, the organized Church, the purpose and powers of the priesthood and the rights and duties of man upon earth, whether within or without the Church, was fully unfolded. Adam, the first earth-pupil of God, was taught, as his first lesson, the great philosophy overshadowing the existence of man. When Adam had been taught all this, and had accepted the truth, he was baptized, even as men are baptized today, and he entered into all the other ordinances of the Gospel and was given full authority through the Priesthood conferred upon him to officiate in God's name in all matters pertaining, under the Great Plan, to the welfare of man. **The First Dispensation.** As children and children's children came to Adam he taught them carefully all that had been taught him, so that the knowledge of the law might remain upon the earth. The ordinances of the Gospel were practiced, the righteous were organized into the Church, even as today, and the authority of the Priesthood was transmitted by Adam to his children, and by them to their children, so that the precious gift might not be lost. In those days the Church was probably fully organized, according to the patriarchal order; at least in the days of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, it seems quite clear that the Church was established with all of its essential parts. The activity in behalf of the Gospel which began with Adam and continued until Noah, at the time of the great flood, is ordinarily known as the first dispensation of the Gospel. **The First Apostasy.** From the beginning of his earth-career, Adam retained his free agency. God, directly or through agents, might teach and command, but Adam, a free agent, had the right to accept or reject as seemed him best. Adam's children, likewise, though taught by the patriarch of the race of the way of righteousness, could accept or reject for themselves whatever was taught them. Free agency was with man in that early day as it is now.