MAN AND THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
As lord over creation, man is physically upright. Circus animals are taught to stand up on their hind legs; but the expression shows that it is in contrast with their usual position-down, on all four. Even though an elephant is much higher than a man, the latter stands up, and the former stands down. The difference between this normal up and down is plainly parallel with the fact that one is above, and the other is below, in the scale of creation; and we instinctively recognize the propriety of the one who is lord standing upright.
So God originally made man upright physically, as, well as morally.
There, is a marked difference between the back-bone of man and that of all other vertebrates. It has a hollow or reverse curve just above the hips, While in all others the backbone is a bone without the hollow. This hollow is evidently intended to act as a spring to relieve the brain of the shock in walking, for which there is no mechanical necessity when the backbone is more or less horizontal; the neck takes the entire shock. There is a hollow in the back of many animals-in the horse, for instance -.behind the withers, which are formed by a series of vertical bones above the vertebra; but there is 110 corresponding hollow in the vertebra, as a skeleton shows very plainly.
The anthropoid apes come nearest to man in having a suggestion of it. If the skeleton of an ancient ape could be found having one, it would be accepted by many evolutionists as one of the long-sought missing links between man and animals. This hollow is a proof that man was intended to walk upright, and that the animal, lacking it, was not.
The Animal Kingdom Bowed Down.
In contrast with man's vertical attitude, and just as suitable, all animals are bowed down; the body is more or less horizontal-all four-footed animals, birds when they fly, fishes, and worms. Even a caterpillar, when it crawls up a tree, is parallel with it, and even thus is horizontal, or bowed down. If a penguin sits upright on land, when it is in its natural element, water, it is horizontal. Though monkeys approach nearest to the vertical position of man, even the child of a savage would instantly decide between them, as far off as he could see, by this difference of attitude.
The bowed-down position is evidently a mark of subjection, and is generally so recognized. In the records of ancient Egypt (copies of which may be found in the back of a Teachers' Bible) it is plain that those men who are bowed down are taking the place of subjection. When Robinson Crusoe's man Friday wished to indicate his subjection, he bowed with his face on the ground, and put his master's foot upon his neck. This is fiction, but it shows that the writer recognized such an act as universal sign-language. When two friends meet and exchange a bow or nod of the head, it unconsciously means that each yields a deference to the other; each takes the second or lower place, giving the other the first place:it is really an act of worship in miniature. Worship, reverence, deference, subjection, service, obedience, etc., are all kindred thoughts; and bowing down is the natural expression of them.
The first and second commandments forbid worship or service to any but God; but even without the command, in view of the above considerations, every right-minded man must instinctively feel the impropriety of bowing down to an animal, much more, to the image of one.* *Rom. 1:23; 2:14, 15.* The first instance of deference, and one which ended in subjection, was in Eden. God's purpose as to man was,'' Let Us make man in Our image (or, our likeness); and let them hold in subjection the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the heaven, and the cattle, and all the earth, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. . . . And God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and hold in subjection the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens, and every living thing that moveth on the earth " (Gen. 1:26- Num. Bible).
The serpent (of all animals the one most plainly marked as horizontal) approached Eve with suggestions of independence of and insubjection to God. She should have rebuked him for stepping out of the place of subjection in which God had distinctly told them to hold him (ver. 28). It is plainly out of place for a servant, especially an animal, to assume to teach or offer suggestions to his master; it does not require much intelligence to know this. But she listened, and yielded deference, at least. One of the questions raised, really, was whether man was to defer to, or be subject to an animal, or the animal to him. The special attention called to the subtilty of the serpent is evidently intended as a hint for us to look for the principles involved.
As man is necessarily a dependent being, he cannot be without a master, nor have two masters (Matt. 6:24). Insubjection to God involves subjection to some one else. That one proved to be not a serpent, as Eve no doubt thought, but Satan hidden within it (Luke 8 :30-32). She gained not the promised independence, '' Ye shall be as God:" she but exchanged masters-Satan, instead of God.
When God allowed Satan to tempt man, He allowed him to present himself not in his angelic form (2 Cor. 11:14), above man; nor in human form, his equal; nor even in the form of a high-grade animal, just below him, but in the lowest, the most pronounced horizontal form-the farthest from the vertical form of man that could be:for a snake is always described by its length and thickness; never by its height.* *There is an impression abroad that, previous to the curse, the serpent's, form was different, remarkably beautiful, and that it walked upright, and that evolution accounts for its present form. This is the common explanation of the words " On thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat." But a previous life among trees would equally well explain the difficulty. Neither does the skeleton of a snake show any rudiments of legs, though other animals have such rudiments with no outward sign of them. But the subject invites further study.* It has greater length in proportion to its thickness than any other animal. On the other hand, man is always described in terms of height, not length.
Thus, in God's wisdom and solicitude for man, the temptation was allowed to be presented only in its weakest form. Contrast this with the Lord's temptation in the wilderness. Thus sin entered into the world; and since then every man has been in subjection to Satan until redeemed by another Master, and at the price of blood.
In large measure, Adam lost his mastery over creation ; still his vertical position remains a witness of God's original purpose to put all things in subjection under man:it is the burden of the 8th psalm; and the horizontal attitude of the whole animal creation is the expression of it in Nature's language.
The 8th psalm is millennial, and shows it to be still future. In Heb. 2:5 we learn that it is future; in ver. 9, that it is to Jesus, the Second Man, it refers; then, that the first parts of the prophecy, "Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels, Thou crownedst Him with honor and glory," has been fulfilled, and implies, by the word "yet," that of course the remainder shall be fulfilled.
We may wonder why God should care to have the whole animal kingdom brought into subjection, in a way that it is not now. Even though animals can never know God, creation will not be right nor perfect according to His mind until, not only men, an-gels, and all infernal spirits bow the knee, but all animate and inanimate nature is brought into subjection to Christ and speak His praise (Phil. 2:5-11; Psa. 148:). Not till then shall we know, in any ad-equate measure, the infinite satisfaction and delight of the Father in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. He deserves all the glory, because He voluntarily took the lowest place of subjection, and glorified God just where Adam dishonored Him.
How beautifully fitting it is, then, that the visible expression of God's purpose has all along been stamped on the bodies of all creatures in language not to be mistaken when once our attention has been called to it! And how blessed that the Holy Spirit thus takes us into His confidence in the deep things of God -His counsels as to the glory of Christ and the blessing for the world that awaits His advent!
Every time we see an animal it should be a fresh reminder of it. The world is blind to all this, and it awakens no response in the heart where Christ has no place. To them, all these things are done in parables. But blessed are our eyes, for they see; and our ears, for they hear.* *Psalms 24:and cxlviii; Phil. 2:5-11; Rev. 5:13; Matt. 13:10-17.* T. M.