i6o The Plan of the Ages.
This is an important point. How strange it would be If we should find that while the Bible declares a resurre&ion for all men, yet, by a6lual measurement, they could not find a footing on the earth I Now let us see: figure it out and you will find this an unfounded fear. You will find that there is an abundance of room for the *' restitution of all," as "God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets."
Let us assume that it is six thousand years since the crea- tion of man, and that there are fourteen hundred mill- ions of people now living on the earth* Our race began with one pair, but let us make a very liberal estimate and suppose that there were as many at the beginning as there are now; and, further, that there never were fewer than that number at any time, though actually the flood reduced the population to eight persons. Again, let us be liberal, and estimate three generations to a century, or thirty- three years to a generation, though, according to Gen. 5, there were but eleven generations from Adam to the flood, a period of one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, or about one hundred and fifty years to each generation. Now let us see: six thousand years are sixty centuries; three generations to each century would give us one hun- dred and eighty generations since Adam; and fourteen hundred millions to a generation would give two hundred and fifty-two billions (252,000,000,000) as the total num- ber of our race from creation to the present time, accord- ing to this liberal estimate, which is probably more than twice the a&ual number.
Where shall we find room enough for this great multi- tude? Let us measure the land, andsre* The State -of Texas, United States, contains two hundred and thirty-seven thousand square miles. There are twenty-seven million eight hundred and seventy-eight thousand four hundred squar* feat in a mile, and, therefore, six trillion six hundred and
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