=Memory Text.=—Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Jeremiah 23:24a. LIGHT FROM OTHER BIBLE PASSAGES Psalm 139:7-12; Proverbs 28:1, 13; Jeremiah 2:17, 19; Romans 5:12-19; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22. FROM THE COMMENTATORS As of the tree of life which stands in the paradise of the future it is said, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life”; so in Eden man’s immortality was suspended on the condition of obedience. And the trial of man’s obedience is imaged in the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From the childlike innocence in which man originally was, he was to pass forward into the condition of moral manhood, which consists not in mere innocence, but in innocence maintained in presence of temptation.... Only by choosing the good in presence of the evil are true manhood and real maturity gained.—_The Expositor’s Bible_, _Genesis_, _Marcus Dods_. Like the great Teacher of Nazareth, the prophetic author of this marvelous story was dealing with the deepest experiences of human life. His problem was to make clear and plain even to children the nature of that inner struggle which we call temptation. He accomplishes his end by the use of the simple story and dialogue. Attention and interest are fixed from the first on the experiences of a certain man and woman. The story has all the personal charm of those fascinating popular tales which come from the ancient East. Its prologue, the primitive story of creation, was old centuries before the days of Moses. In the first scene the actors are the serpent, the woman, and the man. In the dialogue between the serpent and the woman is brought out vividly the struggle that raged in her own mind between her natural inclinations and her sense of duty. In the second scene Jehovah appears. The acts and motives of the man and woman and the terrible consequences of sin are portrayed so concretely and dramatically that even the youngest and simplest reader can fully appreciate them. The thoughtful reader, however, soon discovers that the marvelous biblical narrative is far more than a mere record of the experiences of a primitive man and woman. Like the inimitable parables of Jesus, it is a chapter from the book of life.—_Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History_, _Charles Foster Kent_.