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OBJECT OF MAN'S CREATION

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 14, 1869

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 34, No. 12.

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OBJECT OF MAN'S CREATION.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

FOR what was man created? To live in the ether, beyond the bounds of space and time, an immaterial being, without occupation or employment? Let the Lord inform us, as he does very plainly at the time he made man: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepth upon the earth." Gen. i, 26. God had just created the earth, had caused the trees, the plants, and the flowers to grow; had filled the sea with fish, the air with fowl, and the land with cattle. Now he proposes to make man. What for? The object is stated, "Let them have dominion," let them rule over and govern. Then man was made to have dominion; hence the natural desire in man to rule. This was what he was created for. But where was he to rule? Over all the fowls, over the fish, over the cattle, and over all the earth. This was his dominion, this his home. Then God commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth, or fill it. At the same time he gave them a right to the tree of life, which would perpetuate their lives as long as they had access to it. This right they were to enjoy as long as they were obedient to God. Hence we see that if man had obeyed the Lord, and carried out the object of his creation, the earth would have been filled with people who would not have died, but would have lived on the earth, and have ruled over it. This was manifestly God's design in creating the earth, and man upon it. But man sinned, fell, died. Will God's plan then be defeated? No. Enough righteous will be saved out of the great mass of those born to yet fill the new earth with obedient, immortal men. Hence God said to the woman after the fall, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrows and thy conception."
D. M. CANRIGHT.