Some time ago I heard a radio speaker discussing the fall of Adam. He seemed to think that Adam should be held responsible for most of the troubles that are presently plaguing our world. He was greatly disturbed that the patriarch of the race shoud have inflicted so many woes upon an innocent posterity.

This old sectarian doctrine, built around the idea of man's natural depravity and weakness inherited from Adam, is at the root of innumerable problems among us. Adam was one of the greatest men who has ever lived upon the earth. In the ante-mortal councils in heaven before the earth was created, Adam was Michael, the archangel who under Jehovah led the hosts of heaven against Lucifer. Because of his merit as one of the greatest intelligences of heaven, he was chosen to be our earthly progenitor and the patriarch of the family of God upon the earth.

Under Christ Adam yet stands at our head. The Prophet Daniel had a vision about which he said, "I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire." (Dan. 7:9) The Ancient of days referred to by Daniel is Adam, the oldest man. Adam fell but he fell in the right direction. He tell toward the goal. Robert Blatchford says, "No fall, no atonement; no atonement, no Saviour." But the fall of man was not something that was finished and done with in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago. . . . Adam fell, but he fell upward. Jesus says to us, "Come up higher." Out greatest need is to raise to our standards, the standards of our thinking, and the standards of our living. We need to fill our hearts with greater devotion and more earnestly practice the principles of righteousness.