Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/200

 John expressly tells us that he "beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne." From this it may be reasonably supposed that the procreation of the human race will never cease. For, if we were to calculate on some given data, the number who have departed from this earth since the beginning of creation, and assign to each a definite extent for his habitation, we should find that the space required— which could be easily measured—would be as nothing in comparison with the infinite. It seems, therefore, as if the supply of inhabitants which heaven obtains from this earth alone would not be sufficient for the occupation of that immensity by which it is distinguished. How futile, then, is the imagination that the human race will have an end.

But if we look abroad into the universe what do we see?—stars and planets. Science tells us that the stars are suns like that of our universe, and that each has a system of corresponding worlds: it demonstrates that the planets are earths similar to this which we inhabit. When seen through a telescope, planets no longer appear as stars, shining by virtue of a flame, but as earths, reflecting the light of the sun. Many of them very much exceed in magnitude the globe on which we live; some are smaller, and they all are subject to similar vicissitudes. Somewhere about fifty of these belong to our own solar system; they are carried round the sun, make their progress in the zodiac, and thus have their seasons and years. The winter of Mars has been most carefully observed and marked. Bäel and Mädler, two Prussian astronomers, have not only prepared maps of the geography of that planet, but they have watched and recorded the progress of winter at its poles by