Adam receives the first worldly goods.
Book I. Chapter XXX.
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After these things, God
commanded the angel Gabriel to go down to the garden, and say to the
cherub who kept it, "Behold, God has commanded me to come into
the garden, and to take thence sweet smelling incense, and give it to
Adam."
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Then the angel Gabriel went
down by God's order to the garden, and told the cherub as God had
commanded him.
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The cherub then said,
"Well." And Gabriel went in and took the incense.
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Then God commanded His angel
Raphael to go down to the garden, and speak to the cherub about some
myrrh, to give to Adam.
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And the angel Raphael went
down and told the cherub as God had commanded him, and the cherub
said, "Well." Then Raphael went in and took the myrrh.
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The golden rods were from the
Indian sea, where there are precious stones. The incense was
from the eastern border of the garden; and the myrrh from the western
border, whence bitterness came upon Adam.
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And the angels brought these
three things to God, by the Tree of Life, in the garden.
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Then God said to the angels,
"Dip them in the spring of water; then take them and sprinkle
their water over Adam and Eve, that they be a little comforted in
their sorrow, and give them to Adam and Eve.
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And the angels did as God had
commanded them, and they gave all those things to Adam and Eve on the
top of the mountain upon which Satan had placed them, when he sought
to make an end of them.
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And when Adam saw the golden
rods, the incense and the myrrh, he was rejoiced and wept because he
thought that the gold was a token of the kingdom whence he had come,
that the incense was a token of the bright light which had been taken
from him, and that the myrrh was a token of the sorrow in which he
was.
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