n organizations for the like
objects. The whole American church, in all its orders, was girding
itself for a work, at home and abroad, the immense grandeur of which no
man of that generation could possibly have foreseen.

The grandeur of this work was to consist not only in the results of it,
but in the resources of it. As never before, the sympathies, prayers,
and personal cooeperation of all Christians, even the feeblest, were to
be combined and utilized for enterprises coextensive with the continent
and the world and taking hold on eternity. The possibilities of the new
era were dazzling to the prophetic imagination. A young minister then
standing on the threshold of a long career exulted in the peculiar and
excelling glory of the dawning day:

"Surely, if it is the noblest attribute of our nature that
spreads out the circle of our sympathies to include the whole
family of man, and sends forth our affections to embrace the
ages of a distant futurity, it must be regarded as a privilege
no less exalted that our means of _doing_ good are limited by
no remoteness of country or distance of duration, but we may
operate, if we will, to assuage the miseries of another
hemisphere, or to prevent the necessities of an unborn
generation. The time has been when a man might weep over the
wrongs of Africa, and he might look forward to weep over the
hopelessness of her degradation, till his heart should bleed;
and yet his tears would be all that he could give her. He
might relieve the beggar at his door, but he could do nothing
for a dying continent. He might provide for his children, but
he could do nothing for the nations that were yet to be born
to an inheritance of utter wretchedness. Then the privilege of
engaging in schemes of magnificent benevolence belonged only
to princes and to men of princely possessions; but now the
progress of improvement has brought down this privilege to the
reach of every individual. The institutions of our age are a
republic of benevolence, and all may share in the unrestrained
and equal democracy. This privilege is ours. We may stretch
forth our hand, if we will, to enlighten the Hindu or to tame
the savage of the wilderness. It is ours, if we will, to put
forth our contributions and thus to operate not ineffectually
for the relief and renovation of a continent over wh