ADDRESS. 



XXI 



belongs to those times and seasons which the Father 

 hath put in his own power. He who commanded man 

 to "he fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth," 

 will never suffer the world to become so populous, that 

 the demand for food shall exceed the possible supply. 

 However multiplied 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, 

 sufficienty relieve us of all fear that we or our children 

 will have to be put upon " short allowance," in conse- 

 quence 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 expec- 

 tation 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 extraordinary divine interposition to meet the 



