Wisdom of the Creator.
The fact that the Creator is a Being who thinks, who exercises wisdom, and exerts power, is illustrated by the provision he has made for the wants of animals, arising from their peculiar condition. The human teeth afford a striking instance of this. The infant is to live by milk taken from its mother, and it can take its nourishment in without teeth much more conveniently to itself and its nurse, than with them. Accordingly, it has no teeth; nor do they come till about the time that it takes other food that may require teeth. We see the same careful foresight in providing that the horns of calves and lambs do not grow till they have done sucking, as they would be in the way in performing that operation. But in regard to the human teeth, a still further prospective contrivance is made at the very beginning. The jaw of a grown person is much larger than that of an infant, and the first teeth are therefore entirely too small to fill the jaw of an adult. It is accordingly provided that, at the age of eight or ten years, the first set of teeth shall be shed, and larger ones come in their place. And the preparation for them is made at the outset—a row of teeth being actually set in below the first, ready to grow when these are gone!
The providing of milk for young animals is another admirable proof of the designing wisdom of the Creator. Milk is a fluid of a very nutritious quality, and no art of man can make it. As soon as the young are produced, the milk is ready for it, and not before. And how wonderful, how ingenious, is the whole contrivance by which young animals are provided with food, in a manner the most curious, and of a kind the most suitable!
