food; the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

The tree of Life in the midst of the garden represents the life stream of the Spirit whose source is in God and whose branches reach out into the human mind. The tree of knowledge of Good and Evil represents the growing knowledge of the soul of the truths of life, discarding all that is not of God.

“And Jehovah God put man into the garden of Eden to dress and keep it. And he commanded man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat, for on the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

From this, Jehovah God evidently intended to show man that knowledge of things not of God would lead only to separation from Him and to the death of his Spiritual knowing. But at the same time He permitted him his free will. For He knew that man could learn only from experience; yet He told him in advance to what the way of experience—eating the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil—would lead.

We have now seen the newly created “living souls” established in the garden of Eden, and given the command of the fruits of what trees they may eat. We must remember that reborn man (the new Adamic race), though now a living soul, still had a physical body, even as he has today; but sin not yet having entered his consciousness, man in his new soul state was only too happy to stay in his newly won home, and now concerned himself with his physical body only when necessary to satisfy his human needs—even as do all true disciples of Christ today.