We will now notice the sentence pronounced upon the several participants in this fabled rebellion against the divine government, and observe how, or to what extent, they were realized. Adam, Eve, and the snake were the culprits arraigned at the bar under charge of being rebels; and, all being found guilty, a sentence was pronounced upon each separately. We will examine them in their order. The first part of Adam's curse consisted in being doomed to die,--"The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die" (Gen. ii. 17). The serpent, however, took the liberty to contradict and counteract the sentence, and told him he should not die, but that partaking of the fruit would make him "wise as the Gods, knowing good and evil." Now, the first question which arises here is, Who told the truth in the case,--Jehovah, or "the father of lies"? In the eighth chapter of Genesis we read, "All the days of Adam were nine hundred and thirty years, and he begat sons and daughters." It will be seen, then, that he did not die in "the day thereof," nor the year thereof, nor the century thereof; so it appears the serpent told the truth and Moses' God told the falsehood, or was mistaken. Hundreds of Christian writers and commentators have racked their brains to find some plausible mode of disposing of these difficulties. The most specious one they have resorted to is that of assigning the text a spiritual signification, and alleging that it was a spiritual death that was intended in this case. But the text does not say so; and the context shows it was not so: for it is declared, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen. iii. 19), which shows it was not spiritual but physical death that was meant; and this did not take place for more than nine hundred years after the sentence was pronounced.