" And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
" And God made the beast of the earth after his, kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
" And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
" So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
" And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
" And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
" And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
" And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
The importance of the sixth day is seen in that no less than eight verses are required to describe its activities. On the third day the earth was covered by vegetation at the behest of God. Grass, herbs, trees in all their thousands of forms were created. But this was in view of the support of animal and human life. On the fourth day the sun and moon were set in their places-the sun, the source of light, heat and fertility; the moon, with its nocturnal usefulness; all was then in train for further development. On the fifth day the seas were stocked with life, and the fowls of the air were brought into existence.
Then came the moment for the creation of animal life, the living creature after his kind-cattle, creeping things and beasts of the earth, each after his kind. In two verses we get the phrase "after his [or their] kind" repeated. Why this fourfold repetition? We know that Scripture does not repeat itself in an aimless manner, but in this way emphasizes and draws particular attention to a striking fact.
We have already seen in our prefatory remarks why this is so, to emphasize that God will not allow confusion in His world. Left to themselves each animal mates with one of his own species. Any attempt at reproduction outside his own species is doomed to sterility.
Indeed these verses, and the succeeding verses most clearly rebut the evolution theory. We must either believe in the fact of God's creation of animal and human life as given in this masterly Chapter, or not. If we believe in evolution, in reality we give up the solemn testimony of Scripture as to the fall, the evidence of which is seen abundantly in ourselves and in the history of the world. We should have to give up the atoning sacrifice of Christ and the inspiration of the Bible, a solemn price to pay for believing in an unproved degrading theory, a mere guess without any scientific proof behind it, as first class scientists now allow.
Now we come to the highest part of God's creation, the consummation of these six days of reconstruction we have been studying. We have arrived now at the point when man was created. The Divine activities that have preceded this, we can liken to an architect designing and carrying out the plans of a palace for a royal personage to be its occupant. So God prepared all the beautiful world around; sun, moon, stars, clouds, inorganic matter, vegetable life, animal life, with their myriad astounding wonders, all prepared for this moment of supreme importance when God created man, a creature with whom He could commune. How simple, how profound, how elevating is the description given of the creation of man.
The writer remembers seeing two schoolboys examining with great curiosity a cage full of monkeys. He overheard them telling each other what they had been taught at school, how they were descended from such creatures. They evidently fully believed this degrading lie. It reminds the writer of a story he heard of how an ugly man, loudly asserting that he was descended from an ape, flew into a rage, when the person to whom he was talking said, " Well, narrowly examining your features, I can well believe that what you say is true." Why get into a rage, because you are like your great-great-grandfather in features?
What a contrast between the degrading fiction of the ape-man slowly developing into the man-ape, his simian features proclaiming his bestial origin, and the majestic dignity of God saying, " Let us make man in. Our image, after Our likeness."
The difference between man and the lower animal creation is very marked, physically, morally, mentally, spiritually. God says that He made man in His own image, and after His own likeness. Fallen man says that he is made in the image of the ape, and after its likeness. Believe God's statement, and immediately the mind is elevated and filled with right and true ideas. Believe the latter, and you gravitate to the beast you falsely claim to be descended from. The former belief is elevating, the latter degrading.
So God created man and woman, and gave them dominion over the lower world around them. For their sustenance He gave them every herb bearing seed, and every tree bearing fruit and yielding seed.
There are many things that differentiate man from the lower creation. Language is unshared by any but mankind. Compare a parrot's scream or an ape's grunt with the oratory of a Demosthenes, a Cicero, a Gladstone, a Spurgeon, a Daniel Webster, and you will find a gulf that cannot be bridged. Take writing, the complement of speaking; this too is unshared by the lower creation. You may compare a nightingale's song with Beethoven's melodies, but with writing there is absolutely nothing to compare in the lower creation. The same may be said of reading. Take calculation. The three Rs-the attainment of the plowboy and the seamstress-are really wonderful, and mark man off from the lower creation. What does a wise dog know of logarithms, or a goose of algebra, or an ape of quadratic equations? Take song. Birds sing, but their songs are confined to certain notes and trills, which never vary. Compare these with the magnificent melodies of Beethoven, and Mendelssohn and Hadyn, the massive and multitudinous harmonies of an oratorio. Birds never sing in parts. Man has tenor, baritone and bass voices; women, contralto and soprano, and can blend their voices in harmony. Much more could be adduced on these lines did space allow.
We must, however, refer to one outstanding feature that marks man, a feature, which is completely lacking in the lower creation. God has equipped man mentally and morally with a nature and understanding that can grasp the knowledge that there is a God. Man is GOD CONSCIOUS.
Put a Bible between the bars of a cage in which an ape is captive. What will he do with it? He will examine it, come to the conclusion that it is not edible, play with it perhaps, tear out its leaves, but it brings to him no message. No thought of a Creator remotely crosses the mind of the ape.
What a difference between the irresponsible ape and Burns' Cottar's Saturday Night.
"The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face,
They round the ingle form a circle wide,
The sire turns o'er with patriarchal grace
The big ha'-Bible, ance his father's pride,
Then kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King,
The saint, the father and the husband prays.
Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing,
That thus they all shall meet in uncreated rays,
No more to shed the bitter tear,
Together hymning their Creator's praise
In such society, yet still more dear
While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere."
The gulf between man and the beast is unbridgeable. A further point emphasizes this still more. We have noticed the phrase, " After his kind," repeated ten times in Gen. 1 Scripture never repeats itself in a meaningless way. The repetition of this expression points out its very importance. It completely bars the way to the theory of evolution.
But it is very noticeable that in relation to the creation of man this phrase is not used. Why is it not used in this connection? The answer is, Because it does not in the slightest way apply to man. In a species we have animals alike in many ways, such as in the canine species we have the wolf, the fox, the jackal, the dog, etc., all different animals, but all linked under the heading of one species, and having much in common in appearance and disposition. But man is man wherever he is found. He may be white or black, but still a man, just as a horse may be black or white, yet still a horse. So man, whatever the color of his skin, his language, his nationality, is man and nothing else.
Man is supreme in the creation of God. The Creator gave him dominion over the work of His hands, bade him be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth.
No wonder when the work of creation was complete, that we read, "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy " (Job 38:77When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)). No wonder that God as He viewed with deep complacency the work of His hands, proclaimed it as VERY GOOD.