Note the method of creation and the distinctive work of each day. The process is that of separation. It is orderly and progressive. The first three days of preparation in which (1) light and darkness, (2) air and water (separated by the firmament) and (3) land and vegetation are created, correspond to the work of the second three days in which are created (1) the heavenly bodies, (2) the birds and fishes (which live in the air and water) and (3) land animals and man. The underlying conception of the universe is that held by most early peoples. Compare the diagram in _Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible_ I, 503 or Kent's _Student's Old Testament_, Vol. I, p. 52 which illustrates it. God's benign plan is revealed by the recurring words: "God saw that it was good." What was the culminating act of creation? "Created man in his image" can not mean with a body like that of God (for in this story God is thought of as a spirit), but rather with a God-like spirit, mind, will, and power to rule. III THE EARLY PROPHETIC STORY OF CREATION. The opening words of the second account of creation, which begins in the fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, imply that the earth and the heavens have already been created. "In the day that Jehovah made earth and heaven, no plant of the field was yet on the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up, for Jehovah had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground." It is possible that here only a part of the original story is preserved. What is the order in the story of creation found in this second chapter? The method of man's creation? According to this account, the tree of life was planted in the garden that man, while he lived there, might enjoy immortality. Was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil placed in the garden to develop man's moral nature by temptation or merely to inculcate obedience? The love between the sexes is apparently implanted in all living beings primarily for the conservation of the species, but the early prophet also recognized clearly the broader intellectual and moral aspects of the relation. "It is not good for man to be alone" were the significant words of Jehovah. Hence animals, birds, and, last of all, woman, were created to meet man's innate social needs. Man's words on seeing woman were: "This, now, is bone of my bone And flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called woman, For from man was she taken." What fundamental explanation is here given of the institution of marriage? Compare Jesus' confirmation of this teaching in Matthew 19:4-5: "And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and the two shall become one flesh?" IV.