The laws and operations of nature, and the great principles of truth that govern the spiritual universe, were opened to their minds by the infinite Author of all. In “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God,”[16] their mental and spiritual powers developed, and they realized the highest pleasures of their holy existence. [Sidenote: _Other Schools_] [Sidenote: _Purpose of Training_] As it came from the Creator’s hand, not only the garden of Eden but the whole earth was exceedingly beautiful. No taint of sin, or shadow of death, marred the fair creation. God’s glory “covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise.” “The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”[17] Thus was the earth a fit emblem of Him who is “abundant in goodness and truth;”[18] a fit study for those who were made in His image. The garden of Eden was a representation of what God desired the whole earth to become, and it was His purpose that, as the human family increased in numbers, they should establish other homes and schools like the one He had given. Thus in course of time the whole earth might be occupied with homes and schools where the words and the works of God should be studied, and where the students should thus be fitted more and more fully to reflect, throughout endless ages, the light of the knowledge of His glory. _The Knowledge of Good and Evil_ “AS THEY REFUSED TO HAVE GOD IN THEIR KNOWLEDGE, THEIR SENSELESS HEART WAS DARKENED” [Sidenote: _A Test of Loyalty_] Though created innocent and holy, our first parents were not placed beyond the possibility of wrong-doing. God might have created them without the power to transgress His requirements; but in that case there could have been no development of character; their service would not have been voluntary, but forced. Therefore He gave them the power of choice—the power to yield or to withhold obedience. And before they could receive in fulness the blessings He desired to impart, their love and loyalty must be tested. [Sidenote: _Only Evil Withheld_] In the garden of Eden was the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.... And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat.”[19] It was the will of God that Adam and Eve should not know evil. The knowledge of good had been freely given them; but the knowledge of evil,—of sin and its results, of wearing toil, of anxious care, of disappointment and grief, of pain and death,—this was in love withheld. [Sidenote: _Insinuation of Distrust_]