183 



brings forth most abundantly thorns, thistles, and 

 every other noxious weed, without the slightest 

 care of man, yet such is not the case with those 

 plants upon which we depend for our very ex- 

 istence ; and that its strength arid powers are 

 even exhausted by a few crops of the latter, and 

 which it soon fails to produce. The same is ap- 

 parent with our fruit trees ; if left to themselves, 

 their very fruitfulness will destroy them ; they 

 throw up such innumerable shoots that light and 

 air become excluded, and the tree dies, or at 

 least decays for want of proper nourishment. 



I cannot conceive a more satisfactory proof of 

 the truth of the inspired nature of the scriptures, 

 than the evident fulfilment, in these our days, of 

 sentences pronounced against sinful man thou- 

 sands of years anterior to them ; and where can 

 we find a more convincing fact than the one now 

 before us ; or where more palpably perceive the 

 ancient curse of God actively prevailing against 

 us ? It was decreed that man "in the sweat of his 

 face should eat bread ; " and where, let me ask, 

 without it will the earth yield her increase ? I will 

 not enter upon any argument concerning what 

 would have been the state of the earth in relation 

 to her productions, had not this curse been pro- 

 nounced ; suffice it for us to know, that the curse 

 has prevailed, seeking not to intrude our poor 

 and insignificant ideas upon the nature of things 

 hidden from us. We know that in most plants, 

 from the lowly weed to the towering and majes- 

 tic tree, comparatively few of the seeds produced 



2 B 



