7. The Sixth Day

I. After the age of the reptiles, there was a long interval not marked by features sufficient to make of it an additional day of creation. The cretaceous beds average one thousand feet in thickness; they consist of the shells and skeletons of myriads of generations of minute animalculæ deposited on the bed of the ocean. After being formed and consolidated during long ages, they slowly rose, till now they form great plains, or hills and cliffs. Then followed the Tertiary epoch, when new species of animals began to appear, the forerunners of existing races, marsupials and mammals. Some of these have flourished, extended widely and become extinct. Such were the Megatherium, eighteen feet in length, the Palæotherium, a compound of rhinoceros, horse and tapir, and the Mammoth. Other species have lasted, more or less modified, into our times. The length of these periods is beyond our computation: we only know that it was enormous. Thus did God carefully, slowly, with enormous power and wisdom, prepare this world during millions of years to be your habitation. You have now to prepare your soul through countless thoughts and actions to be His dwelling.

II. Wonderful is the provision made by God in preparation for man! In every clime there are animals to help us in our work—the horse, the ass, the elephant, the camel, llama, yak. Others provide us with food and clothing—the ox, buffalo, sheep, goat. Some are domesticated to be our companions and guardians. Others are wild and fierce, like the lion, tiger, bear and wolf. Even these have important uses; they keep down the excessive multiplication of the lower animals, or maintain their standard by weeding out the inferior specimens; they exercise the strength and address of man, and furnish him with materials for science and for occupation. Other creatures adorn the earth by their beauty or their song; and others again exhibit to us a marvellous perfection of instinct, and of adaptation to various circumstances, like the beaver and migratory birds. Even down to ants and wasps, every creature, even the most insignificant, has a part to play, and often a most important one, in carrying on the great economy of the world. Though we may at times be unable to see it, everything reflects in some way the perfections of its Maker. Be grateful to God for the extraordinary multiplicity of His benefits. Recognize His hand in all things, and employ them all in His service.

III. The final work of the sixth day was the creation of man. Traces of him are found only in the newest strata, after everything else had been completed. Man is the most perfect, most capable, most beautiful of God’s creatures. He is the image and likeness of the Creator, and His representative towards the lower creation, holding full dominion over the earth, to fill it, and subdue it, and rule over the birds and beasts and fishes. Man touches both terms of being; in his body he is like to the animals, in his intelligence and freedom he resembles the Infinite God. He is the corner-stone which makes both into one; and in him the universe returns to the Lord who made it. The material world is summed up in man and completed in him; thenceforth evolution has passed to a higher plane, it becomes social, moral and spiritual. “So the heavens and the earth were finished and all the furniture of them” (Gen. ii. 1). What a marvellous ladder of progress to perfection from first to last! All the stages are connected, passing into one another by transitional forms, and gradually rising towards man and God. It is your duty to sum up the offices of all creatures by rendering praise and glory for them all to their Creator, and by recognizing the perfections that He manifests in them, His immensity, omnipotence, wisdom, beauty and love.