5:19
Instead he was more than ever determined to keep on trying until he did find out . Had Edwin been able to reason about the drunkard , the thief , or the liar , as not being fit for the good place , it might have been different , but to him the evils with which they were bound were a matter of choice . He had never heard the story of Adam and Eve , and so did not know that their first sin had severed not only them but also the entire human race from God 's family -LRB- Rom . 5:19 -RRB- . Had he known that it is impossible for any one to know God or to enter the better world without first realizing that he is already condemned and on the road to destruction , and that the only way to be transferred to the highway leading to heaven is to be forgiven and adopted back into the family of God as a redeemed child , it would not have been so hard for him to understand upon which road he was traveling . It was springtime , and as the days grew warm and bright , the tiny grass-blades in the meadowlands made their appearance . Then it was that the farmer for whom Edwin was working realized that it was time to gather the stones that were scattered here and there throughout the meadow into piles that they might be hauled away before they became lost in the soft , velvety carpet of green ; for should they be left where they were , later on the knives of the mowing-machine and the teeth of the hay-rake would be badly damaged and perhaps broken .