32 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
** Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let 
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth.’’ 
‘* Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, * * * 
and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding 
seed, to you it shall be for meat.’’ Truly a most gracious 
provision! but it does not follow, that because God saw 
fit thus to care for and honor man; that the earth was for 
his sole and exclusive benefit. We may well ask, amid 
the countless creatures called into being by His almighty 
fiat: ‘* What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the 
son of man that Thou visitest him ?’’ 
In the heavenly vision, vouchsafed to St. John, this was 
the ascription of praise addressed to Him that sitteth on the 
throne. <‘* Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and 
honor and power—for Thou hast created all things and for 
Thy pleasure, they are and were created.’’ There isa grand 
truth embodied in these words, which unveils, if I may 
so say, incidentally one of the moving purposes of the 
creation. The universe was called into being, doubtless 
because the Allwise and the Almighty willed it. It were 
as idle as presumptuous, to question His purposes, or to 
attempt to solve the mysteries, which at any time and in 
any direction, call forth the exertion of His almighty 
power. But, in this divinely inspired ascription of praise, 
there is the recognition of the mysterious truth, that in the 
infinite variety of objects called into being by His almighty 
fiat He was pleased to consult His own pleasure and to 
find delight in the work of His own hand. And this 
thought, if I may so express it, brings us into reverent fel- 
lowship with the Deity. This world out of the myriad 
worlds was not alone for man. Ages upon ages it existed; 
and the forests overspread the earth, and the fruits ripened, 
and animals roved at large, and the waters were alive with 
living creatures, myriads of years before man appeared. 
During these long periods of time, he who was created in 
the image of God, was as yet unborn. For whom then 
