God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multi- | every living thing that moveth upon the ply, and replenish the earth, and subdue earth. it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over

I. God created man.

Ps. cxxxix. 14. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

1. This is evidenced by his constitution.

2. It is attested by Scripture. God created one man and one woman: Gen. i. 27; ii. 7, 21, 22. This seems to be opposed to the new doctrine of the development of man from lower animals.

II. The nature of man.-He is a material and spiritual being. Scripture attests this:

1. By the account of his creation: first, the body was made out of dust; and secondly, the spirit was breathed into him: Gen. ii. 7.

2. By the account of the dissolution of body and soul by death: Eccles. xii. 7.

3. By words used in the New Testament, "spirit" and "soul," to signify the rational and immortal part of man: Luke i. 46, 47, viii. 55; Matt. x. 28; Heb. vi. 19. St. Paul uses three expressions-"spirit and soul and body:" 1 Thess. v. 23; Heb. iv. 12.

4. By stating that while the body waits in the grave, the spirit at death goes immediately to God: 2 Cor. v. 1-8; and is with Christ: Phil. i. 23, 24. III. Man was made in the image of God: Gen. i. 26.—This is not corporeal, but spiritual; for God is a spirit. Man is therefore a rational, moral, and free agent. This image is said to consist in—

1. Knowledge: Col. iii. 10. This refers to the understanding. He was capable of discerning and knowing.

2. Righteousness: Eph. iv. 24. This refers to the will. He was disposed to righteousness. His will was conformed to the law of God. The conscience was regulated by the will of God.

3. Holiness: Eph. iv. 24. This refers to the affections. He was pure, and loved good. He was capable of enjoying God as the highest good.

IV. Man was endowed with dominion over the creatures: Gen. i. 28.-The dignity and authority delegated to man may be said to belong to the image of God in which he was created. He was the vicegerent of God on earth. His constitution is royal. God's footstool was his throne: Ps. viii. How largely is this manifested in the supremacy of man over the earth still!

LESSONS.

1. Man as a creature is bound to fulfil his Maker's design.

2. Sin has marred the image of God in man. But the ruin contains evidence of former glory.

3. The soul may be renewed in the image of God through the redemption by Christ Jesus.

4. Man was created for social happiness. His wife was a help meet for him. He was to live in holy and happy fellowship.

ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

It is recorded of an atheist that after listening to a lecture by Dr. Marshall on the profound science that was visible in the double hinges of the joints in the human frame, the demonstrations of the lecturer produced such overwhelming conviction on his mind of the existence and wisdom of God, that with great emphasis he suddenly exclaimed, "A man must be a fool indeed, who, after studying his own body, can remain an atheist !”

Sir William Hamilton caused this sentence to be inscribed over his chair of philosophy in the University of Edinburgh: "The greatest thing in the world is man; and the greatest thing in man is mind."

Dr. Watts, the sacred poet, hearing one refer to his small size, made the following impromptu :

"Were I so tall as reach the pole,

Or grasp the ocean with a span,
I must be measured by my soul-

The mind's the standard of the man."

"It is evident that there is a manifest progress in the succession of beings on the surface of the earth. This progress consists in an increasing similarity to the living fauna; and among the vertebrates, especially in their increasing resemblance to man. But this connection is not the consequence of a direct lineage between the faunas of different ages. There is nothing like parental descent connecting them. The fishes of the Palæozoic age are in no respect the ancestors of the reptiles of the Secondary age; nor does man descend from the mammals which preceded him in the Tertiary age. The link by which they are connected is of a higher and immaterial nature; and their connection is to be sought in the view of the Creator himself, whose aim in forming the earth, in allowing it to undergo the successive changes which geology has pointed out, and in creating successively all the different types of animals which have passed away, was to introduce man upon the surface of our globe. Man is the end towards which all the animal creation has tended from the first appearance of the first Palæozoic fishes."-Agassiz.

"For him volcanic fires had fused and crystallized the granite, and piled it up into lofty table-lands. The never-wearied water had for him worn and washed it down into extensive valleys and plains of vegetable soil. For him the earth had often vibrated with electrical shocks, and had become interlaced with rich metallic veins. Ages of comparative quiet had followed each great revolution of nature, during some of which the long-accumulating vegetables of preceding periods were for him transmuted into stores of fuel; the ferruginous deposits of primeval waters were becoming iron; and successive races of destroyed animals were changed into masses of useful limestone. The interior of the earth had become a storehouse, in which everything necessary was laid up for his use, in order that, when the time should come for him to open up and gaze upon its treasures,' on the blessings of the deep that lieth under,' 'on the chief things of the ancient mountains and the precious things of the lasting hills,'-he might gratefully recognize the benevolent foresight of the Being who had prepared,

selected, and placed them there......And for him many of these successive changes of the earth had been commemorated by geological monuments, which, when uncovered and deciphered, should convince him that all its revolutions had been conducted under the superintending eye of Infinite Wisdom. All this may be said to have taken place for him; not, indeed, exclusively and supremely, but in the sense that, as every end to be answered by creation must be supposed to be included in the divine purpose, and as the coming of man was calculated to answer the highest end at that time attained, every preceding end may be regarded as a means in order to its attainment."-Dr. J. Harris.

"Man scarce had risen, obedient to His call

Who formed him from the dust, his future grave,
When he was crowned as never king was since.
God set the diadem upon his head,

And angel choirs attended. Wondering stood
The new-made monarch, while before him passed,
All happy, and all perfect in their kind,

The creatures summoned from their various haunts

To see their sovereign and confess his sway."-Cowper.

An officer in India having once rambled into a jungle adjoining the British encampment, suddenly encountered a great tiger; the rencontre appeared equally unexpected on both sides, and both parties made a dead halt, earnestly gazing on each other. The gentleman had no firearms, and was aware that a sword would be no effective defence in a struggle for life with such an antagonist. But he had heard that even the Bengal tiger might be sometimes checked by looking him firmly in the face. He did so. In a few minutes the tiger, which appeared to be preparing to take its final spring, grew disturbed, shrunk aside, and attempted to creep round upon him behind. The officer turned constantly upon the tiger, which still continued to shrink from his glance; but darting into a thicket, and again issuing forth at a different quarter, it persevered for above an hour in this attempt to catch him by surprise, till at last it fairly yielded the contest, and left the gentleman to pursue his walk, who, as may be easily believed, in all haste took a straight direction to the tent.

Matthew Henry says that woman was not made out of Adam's "head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."

"But man He made of angel form erect,

To hold communion with the heavens above;
And on his soul impressed his image fair,

His own similitude of holiness,

Of virtue, truth, and love; with reason high

To balance right and wrong, and conscience quick
To choose or to reject; with knowledge great,
Prudence and wisdom, vigilance and strength,
To guard all force or guile; and, last of all,

The highest gift of God's abundant grace,
With perfect, free, unbiased will. Thus man
Was made upright, immortal made, and crowned
The king of all; to eat, to drink, to do
Freely and sovereignly his will entire ;
By one command alone restrained, to prove,

As was most just, his filial love sincere,

His loyalty, obedience due, and faith."-Pollok.

QUEST. 11. What are God's works of providence?

ANS. God's works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

Ps. cxlv. 17. The Lord is righteous in all | hand, and satisfiest the desire of every livhis ways, and holy in all his works. ing thing.

ISA. xxviii. 29. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

Ps. lxvi. 7. He ruleth by his power for

ever.

MATT. X. 29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

Ps. ciii. 19. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom

HEB. i. 3. Upholding all things by the ruleth over all. word of his power.

Ps. xxxiii. 10. The Lord bringeth the

Ps. xxxvi. 6. O Lord, thou preservest counsel of the heathen to nought: he man and beast. maketh the devices of the people of none ACTS xvii. 28. For in him we live, and effect. Ver. 11. The counsel of the Lord move, and have our being. standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Ps. cxlv. 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Ver. 16. Thou openest thine

PROV. XVI. 9. A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

The evidence for this abounds.

I. There is a Divine Providence. 1. From the perfections of God. His infinite being, wisdom, goodness, righteousness, and power, all testify that he would not leave unregulated the world which he created. He had a definite object in view, and arranged for its fulfilment, in the course of nature.

2. From conscience. This gives us a sense of our responsibility to God. It is ever accusing or else excusing. Why? Because of responsibility. Our sense of dependence throws us upon God's providence.

3. From the history of the world. A design is apparent in movements of the world, and a higher and stronger hand than that of man brings out results.

4. From Scripture. The natural world is cared for: Ps. civ. 19, cxxxvi. 5-9, cxlvii. 8. The brute creation: Ps. civ. 21-29, cxlvii. 9; Matt. vi. 26, x. 29. The affairs of men: 1 Chron. xvi. 31; Isa. x. 12-15; Dan. ii. 21. II. The agency of Providence.

1. In preserving his creatures. He sustains them: Ps. cxlv. 15, 16. He provides for them: Ps. cxxxvi. 25; Col. i. 17.

2. In governing them: Ps. lxvi. 7; Acts xvii. 28; Job xxxiv. 13; 1 Sam. ii. 6-9; Luke i. 51-53; James iv. 13-15.

III. The extent of Providence.-All his creatures, and all their actions-a wide sphere. See under I. 4 (p. 42). It extends to the actions of man.

1. The free acts: Ex. xii. 36; 1 Sam. xxiv. 9-15; Ps. xxxiii. 14, 15; Prov. xvi. 1, xix. 21, xx. 24; Jer. x. 23; Phil. ii. 13. These are all subject to God's higher will.

2. The sinful acts: 2 Sam. xvi. 10, xxiv. 1; Ps. Ixxvi. 10; Rom. xi. 32; Acts iv. 27, 28. God cannot be the author or approver of sin, but he can overrule the sinful acts of men.

IV. The character of Providence.

:

1. Most holy Ps. cxlv. 17. All tend to promote holiness. All are consistent with his own holy character, and with the moral constitution of the creature, and with a righteous government. He permits sin: Acts xiv. 16; Gen. iii.; Job i. 12, ii. 6-10. He orders circumstances so that wickedness takes a course which he has determined to permit: Acts ii. 23, iii. 18. He restrains sin: Ps. lxxvi. 10. He overrules it for good: Gen. 1. 20; Acts iii. 13.

2. Most wise: Rom. viii. 28; Ps. civ. 24. The case of Joseph in Egypt, the career of Moses, David, and others, show this.

3. Most powerful: Dan. iv. 35. None can resist it. This is seen in the overthrow of empires in the past, and in the movements of our own time.

LESSONS.

1. It is our duty to learn from every providence. Thus David did from his deliverance from the lion and the bear, and argued for his future safety: 1 Sam. xvii. 34-37.

2. It is our duty to be submissive to providence. As Job when he said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord:" Job i. 21. "Thy will be done :" Matt. vi. 10.

ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

"God has the qualities of a good governor as well as of a great architect," said Leibnitz, the great philosopher.

The Book of Esther details a series of the most wonderful providences in behalf of the Jewish people, when in danger of a universal massacre.

In some parts of mechanism I have observed different artists employed in different branches of the same machinery: in this division of labour each man performs his allotted portion, in utter ignorance, perhaps, of the portion assigned to others, but also of the ultimate application of his own. Busy in executing his single pin, or spring, or wheel, it is no part of his concern to understand the work assigned to others, still less to comprehend the scheme of the master. In the meantime, the master unites, by apt junctions and articulations, parts which were not known to be capable of connection, combines the separate divisions without difficulty, and thus accomplishes the original plan which had previously existed in his inventive mind.

"Every department of existence in the universe is so intimately related to