Euphrates, near the garden of Eden. They had temples and priests, and,
therefore, religion prevailed as well as civilization. The first great
empires clustered around the places where Adam and Noah lived. No
other civilization recorded in any quarter reaches farther back.

We quote from the New International Encyclopedia: "The Sumerian
language is probably the oldest known language in the world. From the
Sumerian vocabulary, it is evident that the people who spoke this
language had reached a comparatively high civilization."

The monuments show that in early historical times, man was in a state
of civilization. There are no monuments of man's civilization prior to
historical time.

Higher critics have said that Moses could not have written the
Pentateuch because writing was unknown in his day. Yet Prof. A. H.
Sayce, D.D., LL.D., of Oxford University, one of the greatest
archaeologists the world ever knew, writes: "Egypt was the first to
deliver up its dead. Under an almost rainless sky, where frost is
unknown, and the sand seals up all that is entrusted to its keeping,
nothing perishes except by the hand of man. The fragile papyrus,
inscribed it may be 5,000 years ago, is as fresh and legible as when
its first possessor died.

"In Egypt, as far back as the monuments carry us, we find a
highly-developed art, a highly organized government, and a
highly-educated people. Books were multiplied, and if we can trust the
translation of the Proverbs of Ptah-hotep, the oldest existing book in
the world, there were competitive examinations, [civil service!]
already in the age of the sixth Egyptian Dynasty.... We have long