Provision for Man. 239 



man reach where the footprints of the Creator can 

 be more clearly traced than in the crust of this 

 earth ; no part of His creation has more manifest 

 reference to man. 



It may seem, at the first glance, that design 

 in the structure of the earth's crust has special 

 reference to man as a physical being. But we must 

 not overlook the fact that some of the most wonder- 

 ful provisions in the crust of the earth for man's 

 physical wants, presuppose his intellectual nature, 

 and his progress in civilization. There was a cvr- 

 tain wise provision made for him, as there was for 

 the whole animal kingdom, in the outline of conti- 

 nents, the mountain ranges and the river systems, 

 and in the preparation of the earth for vegetation 

 by the mighty machinery of the glacial period. All 

 these provisions on a scale so vast, and with adjust- 

 ments so perfect for the support of vegetable and 

 animal lite, are so plainly ordained by some compre- 

 hensive Intellect that saw the end from the begin- 

 ning, and guided all the agencies through the geolo- 

 gic ages till the earth appeared in its present beauty, 

 that we can only wonder that any mind can be satis- 

 fied to regard them as the accidental results of fire 

 and water and living things. These have been mere 

 servants in the Master's hand. We see that second- 

 ary agencies have done the work ; but when we have 

 traced the plan through the whole structure, that 

 plan, according to which the earth moved on towards 

 its present state, by a process like the growth and 

 changes of a living being, until it was prepared for 



