Year: 1869




whether there shall not-this, at least, must be
admitted, that Christianity has magnificent ,
future before it, and that in that future and
through Christianity all nations shall ben
blessed. That this great future in some sense isl
already ours is not for moment to be doubted.
What it is to be in the fulness of its glorious
fruition we can as yet but imperfectly imagine.
The golden year, the great hereafter, the
reign Of universal brotherhood, as poets,
sacred and profane, have described it; when
the crooked places shall be made straight and
the rough places plain; when many shall run
70 and fro and knowledge shall be increased,
when science shall force her way, torch in
hand, into every secret place and dislodge the
mystery and the power; whom the curse
that followed sin shad be undone byt
the antidotes Of nature; when the curse that
fell upon impiety and pride at Babel shall be
rendered powerless by the universal diffusion
of one common tongue; when science, nov
longer divorced from religion and now the con-
troler of all mystery and all power, shall be the
willing handmade Of Christianity when the
earth shall bear upon its broad and generous
bosom but one people, one language, one
faith, and when liberty and suficiency shall
be the portion Of all-that glorious golden
time which as yet we can see but dimly is
rapidly Fastening on. It may not be ours to
witness the fulness of the splendor of that
happy day, but it is certainly ours to behold
<ho oe ;ks
not be ours to take part with the
merry reapers and gather in the golden har-
vest; but it is an occupation which is
scarcely less delightful, and which is certainly
more invigorating, to share in the activities of
the hopeful springtime; and that occupation is
ours. The present times are full Of activity.
The great future with impatient strides draws
nearer and nearer. As we gaze the visionv
brightens We see the nations contented and
at rest. The war drum throbs no longer; thev
battle flags are furled. We see Christianity
enthroned and welding the sceptre of univer-
sal empire, but ruling with gentle and benig-
nant sway, while by her side sits meek-eyed
Science, calm but conscious Of power and
ever rea0y 10 ODey. ~fers-.s'.'e


This great future is but the natural and ne,
cessary product Of the present. To Christianity
are we indebted for all the most admired char
acteristics of the age. With the poet we mustN
admit that 'sthrough the ages one increasing
purpose runs" and that ''the thoughts of men
are widened with the process of the suns"
We cannot doubt this, but we know that this
increasing purpose has run with heeter feet
since the advent Of Christianity, and that the
enlargement of human thought has gone on at
an increased and increasing ratio during the
Christian centuries. Christianity was feeble in
its infancy, but, like the stone cut from the
mountain, it gathered strength as it rolled. It
fostered thought and gave an impulse to
human ingenuity as no system had ever done
before. In spite of all the faults committed in
its name, the religion Of Jesus has proved
itself from the commencement the best friend
Of humanity, the best patron of science and
the most potent agency In the development of
human thought The mariners compass, they
printing press, the newspaper, the steam en-
gine, the electric telegraph, the railroad-thesel
and thousand other discoveries and inventionsl
attest the fostering genius of Christianity. OIL
such she may be regarded as the parent, and |
such she retains in her service. These are the |
true preachers Of the present, and more and
more they will become the preachers Of the fu- /
ture Not the surpliced mummers behind altar
rails, not the elegant coxcombs who, gowned or
lisp honeyed words to willing ears
not the vulgar demagogues who can find in
the GOSPEL only fire and brimstone-not these,
but the railroad, the telegraph, the printing
press, and especially the newspaper, now are
the great heralds of the cross. What have these
agents not done? What are they not doing
Time and space have ceased to be Instructions
in their way. They have bridged the mighty
waters, pierced the everlasting hills and
made the lightning the swift messenger Of
thought. They have bound the nations and
the continents together and created commu1
nifty of interest. They have quickened and
thought by almost unqualified facili-
ties of expression. They have given an inn
pulse to the process of unification which reveals
itself in swiftly changing boundary hnes-
boundary lines which show that as civil
lization advances nations become fewer
but larger, and that the tendency is to
obliterate all the distinctions of race, Ian
guage and religion. One great family, one
common language, one common faith, and that
faith Christianity-such is the future which
lies before the world. All the great forces of
the time are in the service of Christianity, and
everything indicates that we are on the eve OF
a great crisis, out Of which Christianity will
come simpler, purer, more like its original self,
but more powerful than ever


STATE RIaHrs.--If the Congressional COM
mittce incarcerate our County Clerk for con-
tempt in refusing to produce the papers Of
his Office. the motion for his release will bring