Six thousand years ago our earth reached that degree of perfection that it was fitted for the abode of man; and it is interesting to note, in this connection, that geologists have found no evidence of the existence of man on the earth only in the strata of the earth's crust belonging to the latest geological periods, and most probably only in those made within the period of history. But while the Bible may teach that it was only about six thousand years since man was placed upon the earth, how long the period of formation lasted previous to that time, how long it required to prepare this planet with all its wealth of fruits and vegetables and animal life, for the abode of man, is not known. "It is called in the scriptures," says Apostle Orson Pratt, "Six days; but we do not know the meaning of the scriptural term 'day.' It evidently does not mean such days as we are now acquainted with--days governed by the rotation of the earth on its axis, and by the shining of the great central luminary of our solar system. A day of twenty-four hours is not the kind of day referred to in the scriptural account of the creation; the word 'day' in the scriptures seems often to refer to some indefinite period of time. The Lord, in speaking to Adam in the garden says, 'In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;' yet he did not die within twenty-four hours after he had eaten the forbidden fruit; but he lived to be almost a thousand years old, from which we learn that the word 'day' in this paragraph, had no reference to days of the same duration as ours. Again it is written, in the second chapter of Genesis, 'In the day that he created the heavens and the earth;'[F] not six days, but 'in the day' that he did it, incorporating all the six days into one, and calling that period 'the day' that he created the heavens and the earth.[G]" [Footnote F: These are the generations of the heaven and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Genesis ii: 4.] [Footnote G: Journal of Discourses, Vol. xiv: p. 234-5.] As a further evidence that "day" as used in connection with the acts of creation does not mean a period of duration of twenty-four hours, it may be mentioned that it was not until the period called the fourth day that the sun reflected his light upon our earth and ruled the day; and divided the light from the darkness, giving us the day and night regulated by the rotation of the earth upon its axis; so that the preceding three days were not of twenty-four hours duration, but certainly referred to some other division of time, which was also, doubtless, employed throughout in speaking of these acts of creation.[H] Moreover, it is said in this first chapter of Genesis, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. "And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."[I]