XX 



ADDRESS. 



is forbidden by the voice of prophecy, assuring us that 

 such a calamity shall never be repeated, but that the 

 earth shall go on in its regular course of seed-time and 

 harvest and multiplying population, till the end of all 

 things. The seven-hued bow in the clouded heavens 

 settles that doubt forever. Is the end of all things, then, 

 as near as Dr. Cumming and his impatient adherents 

 suppose? Are we rapidly approaching the final con- 

 summation, when the world and the works that are 

 therein shall be burned up ? We do not undertake to 

 decide between these alternatives : we only say, that 

 unless there is some undiscovered error in our calcu- 

 lations, there is sufficient theoretical ground to justify 

 the raising of such questions. We are content to leave 

 the solution of them to an all-wise Providence. The 

 Creator of man placed him upon the earth with his task 

 explicitly set, to "replenish the earth and subdue it." It 

 is yet far from being replenished ; it is yet far from 

 being subdued. But our race is now accomplishing 

 both parts of this mission with a rapidity altogether 

 unprecedented in the ages past, — multiplying its num- 

 bers, subduing the wilderness, and yoking the powers 

 and forces of nature into its service, as never before. 

 Notwithstanding the doubts which our figures seem to 

 justify, we are persuaded that these two operations will 

 go on nearly parallel, so that the earth will not be 

 replenished long before all the dominion that man can 

 gain over nature shall be won ; nor the earth thus 

 subdued, until it is replenished nearly to its utmost 

 capacity. When those limits shall be reached, and 

 what shall thereupon ensue, we may calmly leave 

 to the decision of Infinite Wisdom. The matter 



