PRODUCTIVENESS OF THE EARTH. 45 



commanded man to " be fruitful and multiply, and replenish 

 the earth," will never suffer the world to become so populous, 

 tliat the demand for food sliall exceed the possible supply. 

 However multipied His human creatures may be, He will find 

 means to satisfy their wants, and to fill their hearts with food 

 and gladness. At any rate, " sufficient unto the day is the evil 

 thereof." And we at least may say, sufficient unto the day is 

 the food thereof. 



Our loaded tables, at these our annual feasts of harvest, 

 sufiiciently relieve us of all fear that we or our children will 

 have to be put upon " short allowance," in consequence of the 

 exhausted capacity of the earth to give us food. We may not 

 say, revising the ancient motto of improvident selfishness — 

 "after us the famine," — "let posterity take care of itself;" 

 but we may safely and trustfully leave posterity to the care of 

 that benignant and wonder-working Providence, which has 

 supplied so bountifully the wants of the generations that have 

 gone before us ; and in the mean time, we may " eat our meat 

 with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God." 



If our speculations have encouraged the expectation that the 

 earth is destined to be far more fruitful, and far more populous 

 than it has ever yet been, that expectation agrees with the 

 utterances of inspired prophecy. And if, at the same time, 

 our speculations have conducted us to the conclusion, that the 

 present system of things cannot continue always, that the rapid 

 multiplication of human beings upon the earth is tending 

 towards a crisis in the world's history necessitating some extra- 

 ordinary Divine interposition to meet the emergency, that 

 conclusion too is in accordance with the explicit declarations of 

 the oracles of God. And so we come back from our wide 

 wanderings over the earth, and down the ages, bringing home at 

 least this one sheaf of practical wisdom, that the laws of nature 

 and of human progress are working out the very results which the 

 Scriptures announce. Our speculations, however fanciful some 

 of them may have seemed, will have done more than to amuse 

 an idle hour, if they shall serve to present to our minds, in any 

 new aspect of evidence or impressiveness, the important truth, 

 that the God of nature and of providence, is the God of the 

 Bible, and that " the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise 

 the simple." 



