Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1867-09-13

Hon. VIM. f. Dodge in the course Of
his speech ut the Congregational Union
In Brooklyn, referred to our own State
as follows
And there never has been period I'm
the history of our county when all the
elements were combining as they are
now combining to increase, to acccls-
rate the growth of the West. Take
thNt noble State of Iowa, with its four
lines of railroads running across from.
east to west. / was conversing q few
days since with an enterprising maii
with whom have been associated for
years In railroad work, who has him
self, within the last four years, com
pleted a line of railroad from the Mis-
sissippi to the Missouri. And he told
me that they had planted, mapped out
forty towns on the line, of that road,
and that some of them already mum.
bered over 5000 Inhabitants. They
will all require churches, sir. They all
must have churches. They all will
have churches, ] trust. And when
you come to look at this mighty work,
this vast and rapid accumulation of
work before you; when you think
that line of railroad now fast making
its way toward The Pacific Is to be line
all along Of town and villages; and
that it 10 not only to carry the popula-
ton fr0m east to owest, but issto bring
in the thousands, aud perhaps the hum
dreds or thousands, from the Asiatic
World, who shall come by tire steamers
emigration steamers, built on pur-
pose for emigration, shall bring them
to the shores Of the Pacific, and thus
scatter them all through tile West-and
we shall have the emigration coming
across the Atlantic, and pressing its
way NEST, Willie those who come from
the AsiQtiq world are pressing their
way eastward. The mind sstaggers Mt
what sliallsbe the position Of this coun-
try in fifty years. Those old gentle
men to whom have referred, when
they were boys, could look around up
on nation OF 5 ,O00, ,00O. They yet live,
active old men, and they look out upon
8 nation OF B5,ODU, 600, tAppIause.
Who can begin toi imagine what this
country shall be fifty years hence !?
And what it shall be morally will de-
pend Very much upon your society,
upon the influence It shall exert, upon
the stimulus it shall give to the people
who shall build up these town and viii
lagos to commence early to build the
house of God and the sanctuary that
shall stand there; aud from IL shall ra-
diate neral influences that shall bless
that entire country. We have d very
great work before us and, while this
country has been spreading itself and
growing i'm Its vastness, God has been
giving to the church as lie never gave
before the power, the means to carry
out and extend all tlie privileges that
we have enjoyed ct the East to the
West. AS looked ut the map to-day,
and looked at New England, i thought
of the power and influences that has
emanated from it. Look at that little
space that it occupies on the map. The
whole of New England could be put I'm
the state Of Iowa-the whole of. il.
And Iowa will yet have, and perhaps
in fifty years, as many inhabitants as
New England has to day. And IL dc
ponds upon the East whether the i'm.
fiuence that shall en-; nate fom Iowa
shall be Of the same kind that has en-
anated from. New England. Let the
Puritan influence be extended. Let
this society go forward and Let every
society--nO matter whether it is Com
gregational, Presby terian, ,Episcopalian,
Methodist, or Baptist-let us.al1 work
t ge.her to save this mighty sIand for
the Lord [Applause.