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threatened at the outset to crush them by its weight, wherein the inventions that subdue to man's use the unfatigueable powers of nature have arisen to displace and replace the old instruments in so swift a succession-as in all our career, so here, most of all, shall the principle of the text be vindicated to us: when the final demolition of Slavery shall have come; and when, as Pericles built the Odeum, for great musical performances, out of the masts of Persian vessels captured at Marathon, so the generations which come after us shall find that that magnificent and durable temple which is here to be erected to Universal Freedom, and within which shall arise, age after age, the Te Deums of millions, has taken its stateliest proportions and pillars from the shattered strength and the vanquished rage of this present Rebellion!

And, finally how the whole pressure of the theme bears instantly and always on OUR MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE; and what an animating view does it open of the prospects of this work in the ages to come! We can not close but with this thought.

Last year, as was fit, our minds were turned backward along the magnificent march of the work up to that anniversary; and with grateful hearts and praising lips we could but exclaim, at the end of the Half-century, "What hath God wrought"! We will not forget the successes then recited. We will not let slip from the hold of our minds the great memories then awakened. Our thoughts and hearts are anchored still to the colleges, churches, and schools of the prophets, in which this Society had its commencement. Our tender recollections cling still to the homes amid whose piety has been nurtured the faith which has signalized its annals; to the graves where so much devoted life, the dignity of man and the beauty of woman, has gone down in its service from the vision of men; to the scenes which are forever consecrated, by the labors of its teachers, and the sacrifice of its martyrs. Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him who hath raised it up, and girded and hallowed it, and given it his help! Its past is secure; and in the clear effulgence of that our souls grow bright.

But standing to-night at the end of the first year of its second Half-century, and assembled as we are in this beautiful city which was not in existence when its labors commenced-looking out on these regions, then almost untrodden, whose lakes and prairies and river-valleys, stretching on to the Pacific, are teeming now with so copious a life, which is organizing so fast into Christian communities-it is not possible but that we look forward, and an ticipate what the present period, in its swift circuit, shall also bring. And so looking on, what invigorating influences rain upon us from the text! What vistas of glorious and immeasurable advancement for the Kingdom of Christ open in bright perspective before us!

It is inspiring to think of those far-scattered preachers, some of whose associates are with us to-night, who are carrying the great truths which apostles first bore, to distant lands; again establishing missionary churches; again reducing the languages that are Pagan, and that have been from the start, to the mastery of Christ. From city and jungle, from coral islands and the echoing marge of ancient continents, we know their thoughts and hearts turn hither; and to them all our souls send back their glad All-Hail! But it is, if possible, more inspiring still, not to our affection, but to our courage, to think of those impersonal forces, unknown as yet even by us, which God has marshaled for his work; which can not die, and shall not fail, and which he will use, each in its time, for his fit end. It is wonderful that he should have set in Hindostan, two hundred and fifty years ago, in such uttermost weakness, and with such absolute unconsciousness on the part of his instruments, the seminal principle of that English dominion which, beginning when Elizabeth irradiated England with the brilliance of her reign, hath waited for its fulfillment to the day of her latest and loveliest successor. It is wonderful that Australia, first seen by the Portuguese, and whose neighboring islands, with the glittering name of Islands of Gold, were first linked to Europe by the commerce of the Spaniard, should still have remained for two centuries and a half unoccupied by settlements, till there as well English colonies were planted, and English influence made supreme. But who does not see that the Protestant energy which pervades those vast regions is to be henceforth the dominant power in Asia and the Pacific; and that the beginnings, so feeble and so distant, held in them the germs of Christ's ultimate victory? It was not known, when the missionary spirit first awoke in this country, that the era of steam-navigation was at hand, to give to commerce world-wide enlargement and lock all lands in alliances of trade. It was not known, when all Christian missions began to need a rapid expansion, that the picking up of a flake or two of gold in the dry beds of streams with which Indians and Mexicans had long been familiar, was to augment the wealth of this country and of Europe by incredible additions, and to furnish the resources for which millions had been praying. But so has God made the things unexpected, and the things that looked trivial, the things which he alone foresaw, to fit into and further his on-working plans. And so shall he do throughout the future.

The obstacles before us seem great sometimes, but how small they all are beside those which already have been overcome; and how certain it is that even already the forces are at work, not yet to be recognized probably by us, before which they all shall come to naught; before which worships, castes, and despotisms, shall melt as melts the morning mist; before which new men shall spring to action, new routes of travel and trade be opened, new

nations be inspired with evangelical fervor, our country be made more than ever heretofore a missionary land, and the fierceness of the world be subdued unto Christ.

Our grand prerogative is it to know this: that all things coming are our helpers; that as fast as the possible becomes realized and actual, it assists our advance! That which statesmen always fear, is these possibilities which they can not yet measure. What makes the hearts of monarchs quake, amid palaces and armies, is the chance that already, among the secret seeds of things, is germinating that which shall threaten their thrones. But all these boundless possibilities are ours. These germinating influences, every one of them is for us. God's mind controls and chooses all. They are indeed his selected auxiliaries, for the furtherance of his plans. And we have but to advance in the line which He marks out, to find them all our unwearied fellow-workers; to find the Half-cen-. tury of missionary history which we have commenced, full even to the end of still culminating successes! Over every discouragement, and to every fresh victory, He shall lift us by means which we least had anticipated. The most solid of the barriers that still stand in our path, already the unseen and impalpable agencies are conspiring for its downfall. And the great revolutions which, when they come, shall startle and amaze us, lie really infolded already, did we know it, in forces and causes which we have not discerned.

Let us know, then, beforehand, what the issue is to be, and take hold on it with our faith. Let us look upon nature, commerce, the arts, on the movements of states, the changes of dynasties, and feel that in all of them lie hid our helpers. Let us never be discouraged, and never be timid, till the end is attained, or till our life closes. And let us know that when the end has fully come; when the kingdoms of this world are all the Lord's, in loyal faith; when every shackle at last is loosed, and every home is free and secure; when from each hill to every other there rings abroad the shout of joy, and over every outstretched plain there streams the Gospel's radiant morn; when all the world securely rests in perfect love, and that various beauty which no autumn can typify has robed its coasts in hues and lights which are the reflection of that great Bow bended of God around his throne-it shall be seen emblazoned in light on the long progress, it shall be heard resounding in music from every part of the vast triumph: "THE THINGS THAT WERE"-so ancient, proud, and full of might-by "THE THINGS THAT WERE NOT," they are all brought to naught!

God make the truth our teacher here; and make its fruits our glory there; and unto Him be all the praise! Amen.

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