reat voice out of
heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will
dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be
with them, and be their God."

Friends of the Redeemer, the hastening of this blessed consummation
depends very much upon your will. God has intrusted great power in your
hands. In the revelation of his Son, he has given you that word, which
is "as a fire, and like a hammer, that breaketh the rock in pieces." In
shedding down a spirit of union, and guiding to the formation of great
benevolent associations, he has given you facilities for extended
influence hitherto unparalleled. He has given you wealth, and knowledge,
and all the means for using these facilities. And in the article of
prayer, he has endued you with a power well nigh omnipotent. His
condescending language is, "Concerning the work of my hands COMMAND YE
ME." I see among you men of wealth, who can count your tens, your
fifties, and your hundreds of thousands,--all of which has been solemnly
consecrated to God. I see among you men of talent,--"capable of
intimidating the collective vices of a nation or an age." I see among
you men of enterprise, and courage, and resistless perseverance. I see
among you men, who have strong confidence in God. And shall these varied
powers of resistance and aggression be circumscribed by the walls of
individual churches? Shall they not rather be combined for raising a
higher and higher tone of moral feeling, and Christian enterprise? Shall
they not send a strong, concentrated light into every dark retreat of
wickedness? Shall not the tide of dissipation, and crime, that would
overflow and mar every thing sacred, be met and turned back? Shall not
thousands and tens of thousands on our borders, and in our midst, be
rescued from the iron sway of the destroyer, and be saved from going
down to the pit? Shall not new temples be opened for their reception?
and shall not "God, even our God, be a wall of fire round about them,
and a glory in the midst of them?"

Do you ask more particularly, how this shall be done? Plant, for
instance, an able and devoted minister in the most degraded portion of
our city. Let him employ his time in the cultivation of one thousand of
these minds. Let him, by the aid of self-denying brethren, assemble them
in one place on the holy sabbath. Let him visit their houses, and pray
with them, every month. Let him collect the children and youth into