anatomy of man," says Galen, "discovers above six hundred muscles, and whoever only considers these, will find that nature must have, at least, adjusted ten different circumstances, in order to attain the end proposed; so that in the muscles alone, above six thousand several views and intentions must have been formed and executed." He calculated there are two hundred and forty-four bones; and the distinct purposes aimed at in their structure to be twelve thousand. Then consider the senses of touch, sight, etc.; and then, the structure of the mind of man, capable of directing and controlling all this machinery, and with powers almost boundless, fitted to subdue the world unto itself. Think also of the heart and immortal soul of man, capable of loving, serving, and enjoying God, and, alas! capable of hating Him. Consider man! with the destiny before him of living an everlasting life; or of dying an eternal death! So frail, that an atom can cause him agony; and with but a passing breath between him and his eternal state of happiness or woe! Well may we, with the Psalmist, exclaim, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" Man was called Adam, that is, red earth, either from the clay, from which he was formed, or from his ruddy appearance or flesh tint. "Adam called his wife's name Eve, that is, living, because she was the mother of all living."1 A fact worthy of remembrance; as we are apt to forget, through pride and the difference which sin, food, and climate have produced in the human family, that " God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth."2 Infidels, denying God's history of creation and of the Fall, and rejecting his plan of salvation, try to make it appear that our first parents were only full grown infants. To carry out their idea that man is his own saviour, they teach that the savages of the earth ever have been, and still are, in a state 2 Acts xvii. 26. 1 Gen. iii. 20. nearest the natural and original one of man; and also that all civilized nations have become so by their own power of improvement. If such had been the case, man would have been the only imperfect being created: he would have been inferior to the animals, whose natural instincts have been perfect from the first. History, as well as the word of God, shows this theory of the infidel to be false. No individual or tribe which was once in a savage state has ever risen from that to a civilized state without having had civilization brought to them. The famous historian Niebuhr has recorded his full conviction, "that all savages are the degenerate remnants of more civilized races, which had been overpowered by enemies and driven to take refuge in the woods, there to wander seeking a precarious existence, till they had forgotten most of the arts of settled life and sunk into a wild state." Criminals who had fled from society to escape punishment, also trappers and hunters in wild regions, would, with their descendants, lose the restraints and the arts of civilized life, and in time would become savage. In regard to the freedom enjoyed by man in a wild state, the pure simplicity, the magnanimity and generosity of character which he there exhibits, according to poets and romancing novel writers, Archbishop Whateley has well observed, "The liberty enjoyed by the savage consists in his being left free to oppress and plunder any one who is weaker than himself, and of being exposed to the same treatment from those who are stronger. His boasted simplicity consists merely in grossness of taste, improvidence and ignorance. His virtue merely amounts to this, that though not less covetous, envious, and malicious than civilized man, he wants the skill to be as dangerous as one of equally depraved character, but more intelligent and better informed." Surely such was not man as he came forth perfect from his Maker's hands, in the image of God, and only a little lower than the angels. We have no account of the personal appearance of those who figured in the early part of the world's history. We cannot but think, however, that when Adam was first created, formed after the likeness of God, in knowledge and holiness, with a free will, and with dominion over the creatures, made at once full grown, with all his faculties, with a body not yet weakened and defaced by sin, and which had a power, even while under the sentence, "dying thou shalt die," to last nearly a thousand years, we cannot but think that when he was thus first made, a perfect work, pronounced "very good" by the Great Creator, Adam must have been in appearance the noblest specimen of a man that ever walked the earth. "Not out of weakness rose his gradual frame; The sire of men transcended all mankind." "1 And Eve must have had concentrated in her person all that the world has ever conceived of as beautiful and lovely in woman. Humanly speaking we may well be proud of our first parents and we may well be satisfied, that we had such a representative in whom we were to stand or fall, as Adam was, when created. There is a second Adam, spoken of in history, "who is the image of the invisible God," "the express image of his person, "4 in whom " dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He also is the head and representative of a people; but they shall never fall for they will be forever perfect in Him, who is their head. He is represented to us as having "his visage marred more than any man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, having no form nor comeliness; 1 Montgomery. 21 Cor. xv. 45. 3 Col. i. 15. 4 Heb. i. 3. Col. ii. 9. Eph. i. 23; iv. 16; v. 30; John xiv. 19. and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him."1 Adam, created at once a man, lived nine hundred and thirty years; and, according to the Hebrew text, was cotemporary with all the patriarchs down to Lamech, the father of Noah. Lamech was fifty-six years old when Adam died. Thus Noah could have heard from his father, who had received it from Adam, a history of the world from the creation. How long Eve lived is not stated. It is a curious fact, that in sacred history the age, death, and burial of only one woman, Sarah the wife of Abraham, are distinctly noted. Woman's age ever since appears not to have been a subject for history or discussion. 'Isai. lii. 14; liii. 2. A CHAPTER X. THE FIRST MARRIAGE. DAM did not long remain a bachelor. Even in Paradise he found, for a short time, that something was lacking, "For Adam there was not found an help meet for him." 991 "The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone."2 A wife was therefore provided for him; and on the first day of his manhood, the first day of his life, Adam was married.3 There are several facts connected with this first marriage in the world deserving attention; as it was the great foundation of all the social relationships, and of all the dear family ties and joys which have ever been in the world. It was also the foundation of all government. And history, and the present experience of the world, show that so far as the plan of the first marriage has been followed, or departed from, so have men brought happiness or misery on themselves. There is some truth in the old adage that "marriages are made in heaven." They are so very often for the children of God. It was so with the first marriage. The Lord chose the wife for Adam, and prepared her especially for him. Adam was not even consulted. In accordance we find that the people of God afterward selected wives for their children. Abraham chose a wife for Isaac, and sent his servant to get her, saying, "The Lord God shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence."4 Isaac charged Jacob whom he should not marry, and directed him to take a wife of the daughters of Laban. The custom 'Gen. ii. 20. Matt. xix. 4, 6; Gen. ii. 25. " Gen. xxviii. 1. |