The Creation of Man

After the Creation of Man, and before his first sin, there intervened a sabbatical day or period of cosmic rest, during which the Lord God pronounces all things good. Two cosmic days, therefore, or periods of indefinite length, are indicated in the Genesis account of the Creation, as that portion of the Edenic period of Man in which he existed before his first sin; blessed and perfect in the companionship of God, and under the injunction:

In the beginning of the Tertiary era the British Isles were a land of palms, with species of fig, cinnamon, etc.; a vegetation [1] like that of India and Australia at the present time. At the end of the Tertiary period, Europe was an Archipelago; and the sea, which we now call the Arctic Ocean, was the Mediterranean of that period. The late discoveries of Professor Nordenskiold bring to our view the remains of the Tertiary period in the Arctic regions. In a letter [2] from him recently published in the London Standard, he calls attention to the New Siberian Islands, which, from a scientific point of view, are very remarkable.

Notes

[1] Vegetation: "Such a vigorous growth of trees," says Lyell, "within twelve degrees of the pole, where now a dwarf willow and a few herbaceous plants form the only vegetation, and where the ground is covered with perpetual snow and ice, is truly remarkable."

[2] Letter: "These (the New Siberian) islands," says the Professor, "open the book of the history of the world at a new place. The ground there is strewn with wonderful fossils. Whole hills are covered with the bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, horses, uri, bison, oxen, sheep, etc. The sea washes up ivory upon its shores. In this group is possibly to be found the solution of the question of the ancestry of the Indian elephant, and important facts with regard to the vertebrates which existed at the time of Man's first appearance upon the earth."