quaternary period of geology. The question of man's
antiquity, so much agitated now, demands, however, a separate and
careful consideration; but we must first devote a few pages to the
simple statements of the Bible respecting the Sabbath of creation and
its relation to human history.

CHAPTER XII.

THE REST OF THE CREATOR.

"And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the
host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work
which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all
his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it, because that in it God rested from all
his work which he had created to make."--Genesis ii., 1-3.

The end of the sixth day closed the work of creation properly so
called, as well as that of forming and arranging the things created.
The beginning of the seventh introduced a period which, according to
the views already stated, was to be occupied by the continued increase
and diffusion of man and the creatures under his dominion, and by the
gradual disappearance of tribes of creatures unconnected with his
well-being.

Science in this well accords with Scripture. No proof exists of the
production of a new species since the creation of man; and all
geological and archaeological evidence points to him and a few of the
higher mammals as the newest of the creatures. There is, on the other
hand, good evidence that several species have become extinct since his
creation. Those who believe in the continuous evolution of animals and
men, it is true, can see no actual termination of the process with the
introduction of man; but even they see that the appearance of a
rational and moral being at least changes the nature and order of the
development. Nor can they doubt that man is the last born of nature,
and that the whole animal creation is crowned by him as its capital or
topmost pinnacle. The later speculators on this subject have never
reached any truth beyond that long ago stated by the lamented Edward
Forbes--a most careful observer and accurate reasoner on the more
recent changes of the earth's surface. He infers, from the
distribution of species from their centres of creation, that man is
the latest product of creative power; or, in other words, that none of
those species or groups of species which he had been able to trace to
their centres, or the spots at which they probably originated, appear
to be of later