133 
tried to prove that when the first animals died, man was not 
upon the earth. But this supposed fact, often attempted to 
be proved, has never advanced so far as to give satisfaction 
to geologists alone, and if tried by the light of Revelation, it 
is entirely subverted. We have the bones of man that have 
been found in the caves of the oldest formations in which 
geologists find the remains of creatures that must have had 
life, mixed up with the bones of extinct animals, carnivora 
of so devouring a character, that it would be impossible he 
could have long continued a denizen of the earth, had he 
not been destroyed in the Deluge, and certainly it is 
impossible that man could have spread over the earth at the 
same time that they existed. 
But one perfect creation is announced in Scripture. This, 
I think, geology cannot disprove, however men may differ in 
the questions without the aid of Revelation, how or when those 
parts of that creation became extinct, or how, or when, it 
became necessary to develop by some laws inherent in the 
particular animal, other parts of the same creation adapted to 
a later period. For this creation, which was pronounced so 
perfect, very soon came partly to destruction, and that from a 
cause which no one could have discovered simply by exploring 
the interior of the earth. 
Revelation was, therefore, at once needed to tell us that 
that cause was man's sin and fall, and that death was 
denounced upon every living creature then in existence, on 
account of his sin. So that, after this -statement in the sacred 
narrative,, we are prepared for the still more awful and direful 
description of the universal destruction of every living thing by 
water, wherein was the breath of life, except those which were 
appointed to be preserved. And this catastrophe took place, 
as you all know, at the Deluge. At this event, a large portion 
of those animals which, in their original formation, when blended 
with the rest, formed one perfect and unbroken chain or 
circle, was entirely swept away from the face of the earth. 
Ihey therefore became extinct. The varied forms and habits 
of these now extinct races, having been adapted to the state 
of the earth before the Deluge, rendered it necessary that at 
that catastrophe some of the animals should be exterminated. 
The food having been changed on which animals were to sub- 
sist, made it indispensable that several of the larger flesh- 
eating animals should be extinguished as well as those species 
they led on. This appears to be very naturally accounted for, 
if, as w r e find was the case, man was to occupy a wider surface 
upon the earth after this event. 
I wish here to allude to a circumstance which has doubtless 
