the Romans, we find the Apostle asserting substantially what I am now trying to prove. "For the earnest expectation of the creature" (creation) "waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly," that is, it was not of its own accord, it was not the wish or act of the dumb brute creation, "but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." And then he says, "For we know that the whole creation," that includes the dumb brute creation, "groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." So strongly has this been understood, and so universally, to relate to the dumb animals, that some persons believe that brutes will be raised at the last day. Of course, they only guess, they cannot gather this from any clear passage of the word of God. And then he adds, "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

Now, it does seem to me, that all these passages prove that the brute creation became participants of death, because of man's primal and mother sin. But now the objection comes before us, how do you explain the fact that geologists assert, that death did exist prior to Adam? The geologist will say, you assert that death is the consequence of sin; but our discoveries in the subterranean caves of the earth show, written on records perfectly intelligible, that death and havoc existed in the animal creation long prior to the introduction of Adam's sin, the consequences and issues of Adam's fall.

In the first place, I observe in reply to this, that geology does not show death to have occurred in a single instance

amongst the animals created during the first six days of creation as existent prior to Adam. All the animals that perished in those enormous masses seem to have belonged to a different climate, to a different condition of the globe, and to be altogether of a more ancient race than those created during the six days before the crowning act of man's creation.

And in the next place, geology does not discover in the fossiliferous strata, as it is termed, which extends six or eight miles downward, a single remain of man; it is in the highest alluvium only that it does discover his bones: and thus, geology proves demonstrably that man must have been created last; and the animals created during the six days found immediately below him, must have been created just before him.

What is the amount of the discoveries of geology? It is this, that death took place among animal races that existed long prior to the creation of man. And among these races they discover, what I think we cannot deny, that not only did animals die prior to the creation of man, but that they also devoured each other; because fossil remains have been found with one animal inclosed in the body of another, one crushed in the teeth of another. Thus the destruction of many of the monsters that have been excavated from the depths of the earth, prove that death and havoc had raged together long prior to the present configuration of our globe, and therefore long prior to the sentence pronounced upon Adam, "Thou shalt surely die."

Still, after all this, I stand by the proposition in the word of God, that death is the consequence of sin. And to show how strongly this proposition is asserted, I turn to Romans v. 12, where the Apostle says, in language that cannot be mistaken, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all

have sinned." If we turn to 1 Corinthians xv. 22, we shall find these expressions: "As in Adam all die,” — that plainly is the death of the body, since he is speaking of its resurrection," even so in Christ shall all be made alive." In the twenty-sixth verse, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," that is, the death of the body. Then the fifty-fourth verse, "When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written," that is, at the last day, "Death' he is speaking of the resurrection of the body, and therefore he means physical death "is swallowed up in victory." I appeal to every honest reader of the Bible, if his very first impression has not been that death is the wages of sin.

Since we discover the great fact, that death is the effect of sin, and secondly, the other fact, that death existed before Adam's sin was committed, how do we reconcile the latter discovery with revelation? I answer, we have evidence in the word of God, as well as in the world of God, that sin existed before Adam's sin. We read of angels that revolted against God, of "angels which kept not their first estate," and are now plunged into everlasting darkness. We thus discover a great fact, that sin existed somewhere prior to the creation of man. Is it therefore improbable - I submit the thought for study is it improbable that this earth was the habitation of angels in a long prior, and, it may be, still more glorious state? May it not be that the havoc and disorganization which geologists discover as occurrences in distant ages, are the wrecks of an angel Paradise existing long prior to the garden of Eden and the creation of man? I do not say that it is so. I throw out the conjecture for study. It is not written, it is merely guessed. Angels fell, and they committed sin, a greater sin than Adam and Eve. Who knows the height and depth and extent to which this

sin of theirs may have gone? Who knows what havoc it may have brought upon creation all around them, how high toward heaven it may have reached, how deep toward earth's centre it may have shot? Who knows but that those subterranean traces of ruin, of disorganization, and of death, may not be the issues of angels' sin long prior to Adam's creation, and that the havoc and death that we see now is only the transference, not the first application, of a sentence, executed millions of years before, to a new dynasty introduced in new circumstances, and of which Adam was the federal head, who sinned and brought upon his race what angels brought upon theirs, - death, with all its misery, and all its woe. If this be the case, then the sentence of death pronounced upon Adam was not the creation of a new law, but the application of an old one; it was not the occurrence of a first fact, but the repetition of a long prior existent fact.

This, too, would explain how Adam and Eve should know what was meant by dying before they had sinned, and how they should know what evil was when they were only personally conscious of good. We may therefore conclude that the sentence, "In the day thou sinnest thou shalt die," was not the creation of a new penalty that never had been attached to sin before, but that it was only the declaration of an old one; and that it was not the occurrence of a new fact that never had transpired in the history of the universe before, but the repetition of a fact that had previously occurred in the case of angels. Jude speaks of "the angels which kept not their first estate,” — (tỷv ¿avtāv ἀρχὴν,) "their first state of dignity." Where was their first state? We are not told, but it seems probable that it was on this globe in its first existence; and so it seems that what geologists have discovered as the traces of ancient ruin were introduced by the previous tenantry, and that we

entered on a refurnished, not a new house. And thus this Scripture is illustrated in the subterranean caves and sepulchral depths of the earth, as in every home and churchyard of our present economy - "The wages of sin is death," and therefore that death had not been, if sin had not been previously committed. So much then for the attempt to reconcile what seems at first sight to be irreconcilable.

But there is another difficulty. Physiologists and anatomists say, Why then do we not find animals now as when they were first created? For instance, if we see a lion, we can at once perceive from his peculiar teeth, and visceral organization, that he is made to tear, to devour, and to live upon animal food. And any man can see, from the visceral organization of an ox, that he is meant to feed upon grass. And man is so constructed, that it is plain from a study of his visceral organization, that he is meant to live upon animal food, or vegetable food, or both together. Then the question is asked, If death were introduced by sin, how does it happen that animals were constructed as we now find them? If not originally so made, how do you explain the change? Do you think the naturalists will believe that after man sinned carnivorous teeth came where graminivorous teeth were before, or that the whole visceral organization of the brute creation was radically altered? I believe that the lion and tiger were created, just as we find them, as far as relates to their physical organization; but I believe that they were so made because of God's sure and certain anticipation of what would occur -the sin of man, the fall of the world, and the necessity of creatures being adapted to a world altered because a world fallen. He made them, in anticipation of that, just as we now find them. We cannot say how long Adam retained his innocence. We cannot say what opportunity was given for the exhibition of these animals' propensities. But we know