My answer therefore to all questioners upon the passage before us is: There is the Nile, there is the Ganges and there are other rivers still in existence; but they are not now such as they once were; they are not only confounded with respect to their sources, but altered as to their qualities also. In the same manner also man has indeed feet, eyes and ears, just as they were created and formed in paradise; but all these same members are miserably corrupted and marred by sin. Adam before his sin had eyes the most bright, a smell of body the most pure, refined, delicate and grateful; a body the most perfectly adapted to generation and to every purpose intended of God without the least let, hindrance or obstruction in the performance of those purposes as services in obedience to God. But how far removed from all this aptitude, this service and this natural vigor are all our members now! Just the same is the present nature of these rivers and of the whole creation if compared with its original state and condition. Let us look therefore in hope and faith for the "restitution of all things;" not of the soul only, but of the body also; believing that we shall have in that day a body better and more noble even than it was when first created in paradise. For we shall not then be placed in a state of animal life, subject by its nature to alteration and change; but in the state and enjoyment of a spiritual life; that life, into which Adam would have been translated, if he had lived without sin. Into the hope of this life Christ brings us by the remission of sins; and thereby makes our condition better and higher than Adam enjoyed, but lost in paradise. The Hebrew verb SAB, which Moses here uses, has a very extensive meaning; it signifies "to go round," as watchmen go their round in a city. Pishon, therefore, or the Ganges is still in existence, if you speak of its mere name and stream; but if you consider its fertilizing and fructifying qualities, its various other properties and the course of its waters, even the remnants of the original noble river are not to be found. The land of Havilah is India, situated towards the east. This country is celebrated both in the present passage and in other places in the Scripture as most rich and abundant in every respect. So that at this day the gems and the gold of India are considered the most precious and most noble. I believe however, according to the phraseology here adopted by Moses, that in "the land of Havilah" is included Arabia Felix and other adjacent regions.