ousand years ago. When God created man he said to him,
"Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over every living thing that moveth on the face of the earth." And
again, upon the re-creation after the flood, he repeated the command, in
almost the same words, to Noah and his sons. This command shows that God
had a purpose with regard to the physical world, in placing man upon it,
and that man has a mission to fulfill in subduing it, and acquiring a
control, not only over animate but also over inanimate nature. Indeed,
the one is essential to the other. Man can not control and subdue the
inferior animals, until he has acquired some control over the powers of
nature. Place him in the forest naked and unarmed, and many of the
animals are his superiors; but endow his mind with a knowledge of
nature's laws, and thus enable him to make them subservient to his
purposes, and he becomes irresistible; a god on earth. In fulfilling
this command, man elevates his nature as he increases his knowledge, and
thereby extends his powers. God requires that every part of the human
family shall fulfill this great command, and contribute their part in
rendering subservient to human use, all the faculties of nature. Nay,
even where the one talent is misimproved, he takes it away and gives it
to him, who has ten talents. It is on this principle that it is right
and in accordance with the ordinance of God, to dispossess of their
lands, mines, waterpowers, harbors, etc., a savage nation, possessing,
but not improving them, and convert them to the uses of the world of
mankind. This is the warrant for the conflict of civilization with
barbarism. Not to go back to former times, it is this precept which has
converted the former howling wilderness of this Western World, into an
earthly paradise, affording an ample subsistence to happy millions of
the most enlightened of the human family. It is this that causes effete
dynasties and nations to disappear from the face of the world, and their
places to be supplied by those full of life and energy. It is this that
is rolling back and blotting out the mongrel races of the New World, to
make room for the onward march of a higher civilization.

The manifest destiny men are not so far wrong after all; but instead of
destiny, it is the purpose and ordinance of God. Upon this principle has
England acted in refer