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Un des symboies suivants apparattra sur ia derniire image de cheque microfiche, selon ie cas: le symbols — ► signifie "A SUIVRE". le symbola V signifie "FIN". i\/li]ps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 A partir de Tangle suptrieur gauche, de gauche k droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant ie nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. rata teiure. Id H 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 %;■ THE SERMON i'Ui;.u iiKW AT THE CONSECRATION OK CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, FREDERICTON, N. B., AUGUST 31, 1853; »v IIIM RIGHT REV. HORATIO SOUTIKJA'I'K, D.D l.VIK MISSIONAIIY lilSIIOI- AT lUNSTA.NTI.NOI'l.i:, AM) ICKCTUIl OK TIIK CHUUCII OF THE ADVENT, HUSTON, MASS. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE BISHOP AND CLERGY 01- THE DIOCESE OF FREDERICTON. BOSTON: TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS M DCCC LI 11. "^'ii.-.^ . T (• A M It 11 I 1> (i E : .METCALF AND COMPANV, P1UNTEK8 TO TUE UNIVEIIBITV. T TO TIIK BISHOP, CLERGY, AND LAITY OK THK DlOCKSi: OK FlfKDKIMCTON, THIS KOITION OI' THE SKRBION PRKACHED AT THE CONSECRATION OF THKll! rATIIKDRAL CHTTRCH, IS nrSPF.f'TFVIJ.Y I'nrSR.NTKP MY THE I'ARTSH OF THE ADVENT, AS AN HUMIir.E OFFERING ON OrCA8ION OF THE CONSECRATION, AMI AH A •l()KI-\ ()F TIIK LOVE AND FELLOWSHIP IN WniCII TflEV Mil; iiNK WITH THEM IN THE COMMUNION OF TIIK CATHOLIC OHimcH. i T () Almighty God, who iiast built thy Ciiukcii upon tuk Foundation of the Apostles and pRoriiETs, Jesus Christ him- SELr BEING the IIeAD CoRNER-StONE ; GRANT US SO TO BE JOINED together in Unity of Spirit by their Doctrine, that ave mav BE made an Holy Temple acceptable unto Thee ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. SERMON. " Foil MY BUETHIIEN AND CoMl'ANIONs' SAKES, I WILL NOW SAY, PeACE HE WITHIN THEE." Psulm cxxii. 8. David hero doclarcs liis desire for the prosperity of Jerusalem, hccaiisc it was the home of his kin- (h-ed and his friends. But in the next verse, (which I woidd therefore incorporate as a part of my text,) he adds anotlicr argument of a still higher charac- ter: "Because of the House of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good." The sacred associ- ation hallowed the place. Jerusalem was linked in his affections with the worship which had de- scended from distant generations, and which had now found a home in his own royal abode. For, though he was not permitted to build a house to the Lord his God, yet there, upon Mount Zion, the ii 1 1 jirk nested, a tnlxMTiiiclo was [)itc'luMl for it, mid the micitnit \v()r.slii[) was revived with n, s])l(«iidor mid dignity wliicli it liad novcr before e(|u;dl(>d. Da- vid himself add(!d to its soiinihraeed the Saered City and all wlio dw(4t within its avails. There is something like this here. We arc fellow-countrymen, all, descended from the same stock, looking back to the same mcestry, niirtnrcd by the same literature, proud of the same history. We arc fellow-countrymen, all. Our motlier-bind is the same, whether wc ourselves came from it, having been nursed upon its bosom, or our fathers came hither a few centuries back. The links that connect us with the past, run into one chain. The streams of our lives flow from one fountain-head. England, Old England, is our common mother. There the bones of our ancestors moulder together beneath the same clods. The memorials of our race harig together over the same shrines. Our names commingle, and run back to the same fathers and mothers. The same blood flows in our veins. J) Surely tluTo is here a tic, a Imnd of \niioii, wliich every heart before lue must (le('i)ly feel. But there is another and a holier still. AVe are (leseeuded from the same j\[other in the faith, 'i'he same Creed is breathed from our lips. The same prayers ascend from our altars. Along the line of our sacred worship ■vve trace our sj)iriti((il ancestry back to the same dear ^Mother of us all, the jj^ood old Cliureu of J'.ngland. While, therefore, I, and such as I, come from another Lmd, from under another government, and meet you here, in holy greeting, to-day, and while we bear with us the thought that we arc Englishmen, all, in our ancient homes and our ancient descent, we bear with us also another thought, of far more thrilling impc^^'t, which, on such a day as this, ma^ well fill our hearts, and become the ruling spirit of the occasion. It is the thought that you arc one with us in the faith; that no national jealousies or national animosities can divide us here; that we have one spiritual genealogy, the remembrance of which has never been lost amidst scenes of strife 9-nd bloodshed; that it is one unsullied, unbroken chain of holv 2 10 I I I succession from the Martyrs and the Bishops of the early Church of England; that Ave look back to the same glorious Ileformation as the epoch of our common deliverance from the same corruptions of faith and worship, and farther back to the same origin of our Churches in times where the mists of antiquity obscure the record of the rising of the Sun of Ilightecusness upon our fixthers. We are Englishmen, all, far more in our faith and worship, than in our secular ancestry. It is this sacred tie, originated in heaven, which binds us most closely together; and while we speak "Peace" to you as "brethren and companions," be- cause we spring from the same stock, and claim the same progenitors, with a far deeper interest do we address you, and address the ancient land of our fathers, as partakers in, and the home of our com- mon faith : " For the sake of the House of the Lord our God among you, we will seek your good." For one, T have come to this place and to this event, with the earnest and controlling desire that I might do something to strengthen the bonds of union between the Churches of England and America. I have come with the hope that the 11 presence here of even one Bishop of the American Church might have a happy influence in extending farther that catholic mtercourse which lias heen so happily begun by my brethren in the Episco- pate who visited England during the last year. I do not come with official authority to represent the Church which I have the honor to serve. But I do come with the same spirit which prompted our Bishops to send their delegates to the jubilee of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gos- pel ; and the occasion, it seems to me, may, in some humble degree, be productive of the same benefi- cent results. I could have wished that other members of our Ex)iscopal body had found it in their power to be here. Who of us would not have rejoiced to see them standing side by side with the respected Pre- lates* of the Colonial Church whose presence adds associations of peculiar interest to the auspicious services of the day I Others, I know, had it in their hearts to be here. But the duty which has * The Bishops of Quebec and Toronto, both of them tinae-honored laborers in the service of the Colonial Church, and the former once Rector of Fredericton. ilM^-y 12 ! ! detained tliem, has left me, alone of all tlieir num- ber, free to come and express, ir» any wise, the greetings of the Church in the United States. I bring them to you cordially and heartily ; for I am well assured that I do not misinterpret the general feeling of our Cliurch when I say, that she rejoices in your prosperity, and that she hails the rising of another tower of strength, in the erection of this Cathedral, with unfeigned gratitude and hope. And now let us turn to thoughts more directly appropriate to the occasion, — the Consecration of a House of God to the sacred uses for which it is designed. Let our hearts linger about the scene which opens upon us here, — a band of brothers, met to witness, and to participate in, the setting apart of this sacred abode to the worship and ser- vice of the Triune Deity, for ever. Let us rise, if we may, to a just contemplation of the greatness of the event. What is a Consecration 1 What does it signify 1 It signifies the setting apart or devoting to God, — it may be of a Church, it may be of some minor article of property, it may be of a child, as in Holy 13 Baptism, it may be of a man, as in the conferring of Holy Orders. Here, and to-day, it is the Con- secration of a Church. This noble bnilding lias been erected by hnman instruments, with human means. Man's work is done upon it, or so far finished tliat the edifice may be regarded as com- pleted. It is now given to God, a holocaust, an entire offering to His service. Henceforth it is His, and His only. It cannot be taken away from Him. It cannot be turned to any secular purpose. It is His, alone, and for ever. It is no more man's, excepting to guard and keep it for God. Man can have no control over it, excepting as God's steward, to retain it for God's service, and to see to it that it remains for ever devoted to His glory. Who- ever lays upon it the hand of violence, whoever tunis it to any secular use, at any time, through all the ages to come, is guilty of sacrilege; he steals from God ; — and God is His own aven- ger. For what purpose is this Church consecrated I It is consecrated to the worship of God, and to all the uses and services of Religion ; for Holy Bap- tism and the Holy Eucharist, for Catechising and ill ■% u I ■, « il ; I I t Confirmation, for Holy Matrimony and Solemn Iki- rial, for the Keading and Preaching of God's Word, and particularly, hecausc most commonly, for the Ohlation of Prayer and Praise, of Confession, of Thanksgiving, and of Supplication. For what- ever public use a ministry is designed, to that use is this House of God for ever set apart. Here, through all ages, shall ascend the petitions of humble worshippers. Hither shall broken hearts be brought, and here shall they pour out their griefs before God, the Father of us all. Here shall the penitent hear the soothing sounds which pro- nounce his pardon in the Absolution. Here shall the firm believer, with mien erect, declare his faith in the adorable Trinity. Here shall the needy suppliant present his wants to the bounteous Giver of every good gift. These walls shall be vocal with the songs of Praise ; and the gushing tide of Thanksgiving shall swell backward to its Source, the Fountain of all mercies. Hither shall the mother bring her infant, with the deep yearnings of a mother s love, and here shall she consecrate it to her God in the regenerating waters of the Font. Here shall the faithful Pastor rightly divide the 15 I .jig word of truth. Here shall the Sacrament of the Eucharist raise its notes of penitence, present its oblation of thanksgiving-, and confer upon mortals a " banquet of most heavenly food." Here shall Catechumens kneel to receive the sealing of the Holy Ghost in the sacred Ordinance of Confirma- tion. Here shall vows be pledged, and trotli plighted, and the nuptial tic be blessed by God's Priest, in God's Name. Hither, at the last, when the labors of earth are done, shall men bring their dead, and here Avith holy prayer and requiem shall they consign them to their mother earth. Here shall the poor and rich meet together, before Him who is the ^laker of them all. Here shall they gain strength for their mortal pilgrimage, be re- minded of their sins and short-comings, and be stimulated to a more faithful service. Here shall the sons and daughters of want be fed and clothed from the Offerings of God's people ; and hence shall go forth faithful men, into the abodes of poverty and disease, carrying the ministrations of the Gos- pel, the voice of warning, the consolations of hope, the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the sick. Here shall children be trained w ';si> m m n 4 16 : I ■ : i ■I for Heaven under the skilful hand of the Catecliist, the Tiambs and the Sheep of Christ's flock alike fed, and old and young, rich and poor, one with another, conducted along the narrow way that leadeth to everlasting life. Such is this House of God. Such arc its uses. Such is the sublime purpose to which we now consecrate it. But it is to a more restricted use than might possibly be implied in such general tenns as tliese, that it is now devoted. It is to the use of all the means of grace, and to the administration of the same, according to the Imvs and usages of the United Church of England and Ireland. Only that which she has sanctioned, can be here adopted. Only the Faith which she professes, can be here preached. Only the Sacraments whi:h she ac- knowledges, can be here ministered. And it is hardly of less importance to declare that all these things should be administered in their fulness. It is thus alone that the uses of this sacred House can come up to the requisitions of its Consecration. If she has provided that daily prayer be said in her Churches, the act of Consecration implies that to that also this holy place is devoted. If she has n rccopfnizcd the commemoration of Suints and An- gels in her liturgical arrangement, and has made provision for it, the corisecration of a Church to the worship and service of God according to her order and standard^ involves its dedication to that purpcse also. If she has appointed the Athanasian Creed to be read on certain Festivals, or the Commination at the opening of Lent, or whatever else is provid- ed in her Book of Common Prayer, and there set forth for use, to those things and to that use is this Church now consecrated, — if so he that it is consecrated to the worship and service of Almighty (jod according to the laivs and usages of the United Church of England and Ireland. As you cannot justly exceed, so, if there be a possibility of per- formance, you cannot safely fall below the mark of her appointment. She is yours. Brethren, with the fulness of her rich provision for you, with her abundant means of grace, which lack not, and have nothing over. If she has supplied nothing use- lessly, notlimg superfluously, it is not well for you to omit what she has prescribed. There is naught but nutritive and healthful food in all that she has provided. Take it all, for it is all your own. Re- 3 iri 18 ;: 1 ' ceivc it all, as from a mother's hand, and it shall nourish you unto cvorlastinf^ life. But I must not forget that this Churcli has a peculiar use and purpose in heing the Cathedral Church of the Diocese. It is the seat of your Bishop, the Centre of your ecclesiastical unity, the source whence the most potent influences will ex- tend themselves, like concentric circles on a lake, throughout your Province. It is this which gives the day its most notable importance, which has brought us, members of the same Christian house- hold, from near and from afar, to this solemn, yet joyous assembly. It is a great event, — wliich will speak to generations yet unborn, which every Churchman in this Diocese will take note of, which will attract attention throughout our Communion spread far and wide over this vast continent, which will be heard of in the islands of the sea, in dis- tant India, in the homes and by the firesides of England, and throughout the illimitable reach of those unequalled dominions on wliich the sun never goes down. It is a voice for aU nations and for all ages that we utter here to-day. But that to which I would especially ask your at- -I't 19 \ tciition, in connection with this ahnost overpower- ing thought, is the character of this edifice among yourselves. It is like no otlier Church that rises on your soil. It is not simply a Parish Church, although it provides ahundantly for the spiritual wants of those immediately around it. It is not local, in its character, or its influence. It is your Diocesan Church. It represents the oneness of your faith, of your worship, and of your Christian fellowship. In olden times, heforc our modern parochial system was extant, when the Bishop's See was the common habitation of the clergy, and thence they wTut forth to their sacred ministra- tions among the scattered population of the land, the Cathedral Church bore this character of a typ- ical unity with a clearer manifestation than at pres- ent. But this essential feature and its signifi- cancy are still the same ; and fortunately, in your own case, the idea is strengthened and impressed by that conformity to ancient usage which has given to your Diocese the name of the Bishop's residence. It is the Diocese of Fredericton ; and this is the Cathedral Church of Fredericton. It indicates what the Church itself indicates, that here is the central point of your unity. 20 m' But it is iiocdful to add, that tlio ('{itli(ulnd Church derives this chai-aeter only from its heiu*^ tlie seat of the IJishop. It is hecausc your ecclesi- astical unity ^cr<^(?s towards and centres in him, that it is typified hy the Church in which he per- sonally presides. Otherwise, this would present no distinguishahle diftcrence from any parochial Churcli in your Diocese. The Cathedrid, therefore, teaches a great, and solemn, and religious truth, — a truth which, as faithful Churchmen, you have douhtlcss learned before, but which is conveyed to you anew, and with a deeper impression, in all the services of to-day. It reminds you that your Bish- op is your Head on earth, the Eepresentative of Christ in the seat of the Apostles, the Centre of your visible unity. You can have no other among men, for unity cannot have two or more sources of procession. The circle cannot have two centres. So neither can church communion have two con- flicting or diverse types. Your Bishop is one, even as this Church is one. Your fellowship in the Church Visible attaches itself here, to him, as the point of your common union. It is not else- where, throughout your Diocese. It is not else- where, on the face of the earth. 21 I had intrndcd at tins tiino to ofi'cr some pnicti- cal susti()iis ros[)('('tin<^ tlic offcctiiatiou of a CAitholic; and regulated iiitercoininuiiion between the ('hureh of England and the Chureh in the United States. But there remains for me space only to say, that it is of high hnportanee that tliis mtereonnnunion should s[)eedily attain a practical and efficient character. It will not be confined, let us trust, to messages of good-will and compli- ments of Christian courtesy. There is needed, im- mediately, a system of correspondence and com- bined action which will have to do with the tem- poral and eternal interests of men. As one subject which imperatively demands our attention, I will allude to the condition of members of the Church of England who come from the old country, and from the Provinces, into the United States. I will illustrate by my ow^n experience, premising only that I see no reason to suppose that Boston, the city in which I reside, exhibits a more melancholy picture than other large cities of the Union. Du- ring the last winter, I explored a small portion of that city, as much as I thought might be ftiirly included in the Parish of which I am Eector, if we I % hiid, jis we <;('ii(M'5illy li;iv(! not, in thn United StJitcs, jKirocliial limits. I cliost^ t\w portion which l.iy ini- ni(Mh;it(>ly sidjiiccnt to my Parisli C'lmnh. It \)VV' sciits, piohubly, noithcr an ovcn-favorahh*, nor a too nnf'avoral)lc view of rosnlts. I could liavo selected II much more needy jmrtion, or one where tlie con- clusion would have been far less startling than in the section of which I si)eak. It may be regarded, tlu^refore, as presenting a fair specimen of the con- dition of the poorer classes of your fellow-country- men who come to the United States, — and a great majority of those Avho come are of the poorer classes. 1 sent through this district, a Deacon, who is him- self an 1^'nglishnian, but has lately been admitted to Orders in the American Church. lie visited every house and every family. The result was, that, in this single section, embracing probably noi more than one tenth of the city of Boston, he found one hundred and seven families, comprising doubt- less more than five hundred souls, who were mem- bers of the Church, most of them of the Church of England and Irclard,who were living in utter des- titution of the means of grace, or were uncon- nected with any Parisli, most of them never going 2n to Church, and all destitute of pastoral ciue, tlieir cliildreu unhiipti/ed and uut;iu<;ht, th(^ ])in'(Mits in many cases aUeuated iu their aflections IVoni the Churcli. 'J'his estimate does not include* anothcT ])ortion, Avlio, liavinj^ heen l)ai)tize(l in the Churcli of J^nj^liuid, liave emi<;:rated to tlie United States, and, after a tinu*, have conn(>cted themselves with some Protestant sect. 'J'hesc; are now lost to the ('hurcli, many of them irrecoN erahly. 'J'li(>ir num- ber, judging from the frecjuency with which we meet them in our household visits, nuist be very considerable. Ihit these aside, the hundred and seven families of which I liave spoken, acknowl- edge themselves still as members of the Church of England. They wen^ baptizcul at your Fonts. They have been taught in your schools. ^lany of them have received the Apostcdic Benediction of the laying on of hands in your Churches. Not a few of them have been fed at your Altars. They arc your brethren in the flesh, as well as your brethren in the faith, bone of your bone, your very kith and kin. And yet, (for here lies the grand cause of tiic evil,) they have been allowed — almost without exception — to come to the United 24 I I States, from EngLind, from Ireland, and from the American Provinces, withont so much as a com- mendatory Letter from their Pastors at liome, with- out a certificate, or anv other written evidence of tlieir memhership in tlie Church. When we re- ceive your emi»2:rants to Holy Communion, (for, hesides such as I have described, there are others who do seek a connection with our Parishes, — in my own Parish I presume there must be a hundred such,) we are compelled, in numerous instances, to r(^ceive them without any other proof that the applicant has been baptized and confirmed than his own word for it. Surely, this most unprimi- tivc, most unchristian state of things ought not so to be. Our poor also, — the vast majority of them are of the Church of England. In my own Parish, which is largely engaged in labors among this class, probably nine tenths of our regular pension- ers were baptized in the Church of England, and more than nine tenths of our charities are devoted to such. Besides this, the occasional applicants for aid are, with rare exceptions. Englishmen ; and « yet an applicant next to never has with him any 25 proof of his being a deserving person. His Pastor lias allowed him to come to America withont any credentials. He fails, perhaps, to find work. He falls into a deeper poverty. He becomes sick. He lias no one to go to, to whom he can open his heart. He can show no evidence of his being an honest man. The more honest he is, the less willing he is to make his wants known, without some better proof of his good deserts than the aspect of his misery. Your best people suffer the most; and I have known them to suffer almost to starvation befon^ they would ask relief, when a bit of paper from tlieir old Pastors would have given them courage to make their situation knoAvn. But let me illustrate by an instance in point, which will more clearly convey, and more deeply impress, my meaning, than a \A'hole serinon full of generalities. I have seen a woman, one of your daughters, a young mother, baptized and nurtured in the Church of England, who, with her child, was left alone, in a garret, in one of the darkest alleys in one of our vilest streets, left alone, with her child sick, her means exhausted, her time occupied with attend- ing to her dying infant, no work to be found, even 4 : E i ill : 1 2() if she had been in a condition to do it, her furni- ture sold, excepting* the miserable bed on which the child lay, and a little table which stood by its side, while, as if all this were not enough to fill up the cup of her sorrow, her hard-hearted landlord (and yet why call him " hard-hearted," for he was a poor man and was obliged to live himself) was threatening to eject her from his premises for non- payment of rent. I found her in this condi^* n, one bleak night in winter. She was without a fire, for she had no money wherewith to purchase fuel. Her child was lying on the bed in the ago- nies of death. " Oh, if he may only be christened," she said, "before he dies! I cannot bear he should die without baptism." I baptized the child ; and, on inquiring into her circumstances, I found, and afterwards more fully learned, that she was of re- spectable parentage in her own country, that her husband was away in a foreign land, that she had shrunk from making her condition known because she had no recommendation, and that for two months she had been struggling with her evil for- tune, without a word of sympathy from any Chris- tian soul. Brethren, beloved in the Lord, thes(^ 27 things, I again say, ought not so to bo. That young woman told nic who her Pastoi at home was. A single line from him would have enabled her, and would have encouraged her, on her arrival in Boston, to have become connected v/ith some one of our Parishes. Iler wants would have been re- lieved; her sick child would have been nursed; perhaps (for he died a few hours after his bap- tism) his life would have been saved ; work would have been found for her; an honest livelihood would have been gained; and all this needless misery would have been spared. I need not say, after depicting such a scene as this, (and I have only illustrated by one out of many instances of suffering, of vice, of alien- ation from the Church, of ne^;^ "^t of children, of physical and mental and spiritual degeneracy, which have come to my knowledge among Eng- lish emigrants in Boston,) — I need not say that I deem it an imperative duty of our Churches to es- tablish some system of communication by which our members, passing from one to the other, shall never need to lose the pastoral care of the Church. It is a subject which requires our immediate atten- ^ I 28 i I tion ; and I would that my voice could reach e\ery Bishop and Pastor of our respective Cliurches, while I beg, in the name of needy thousands of men and women and children, for whoso spiritual oversight we are responsible, for the speedy resto- ration among us of that primitive style of inter- course which left no sheep or lamb of Christ's fold without the Shepherd's care in a foreign land, which enabled Christians abroad, as at home, to secure fraternal sympathy, to find an Altar whence they miglit be fed, a Church in which they might kneel as recognized brethren, and, amidst all the vicissitudes of a sojourner's life in a strange land, behold, realized to themselves, the privileges and benefits of the Blessed Communion of Samts. hi i i f Brethren, my words draw to a close. Let us, for a moment, turn our thoughts home to ourselves, and to the duty of the hour which is passmg away. If there arises in your hearts a single emotion of thanlvful gladness at the sight of this holy and beautiful House completed, if there sprmgs witliin you a feeling of sympathetic joy m the happiness which now crowns the protracted and patient and (" 'i{) sclf-sacrificing labors of your honored Head, the Bisliop of tlic Diocese, let that emotion of grati- tude and that feeling of sympathy find their just and appropriate expression in abundant offerings of your earthly substance laid upon the Altar of your God; and let this solemn Jonsecration of a Temple to His service be accompanied by the re- newed offering of yourselves, your souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Him. The day will come when we who are now assembled here, in God's Name, to consecrate this material edifice to His honor and glory, shall be gathered into a more august assembly, in His more glorious presence, for a more sublime, a more mo- mentous purpose. It will then be asked of us, whether we who have builded temples of wood and stone to His praise on earth, have raised the super- structure of our own hope upon the Rock of Ages. " Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." He is the sure Cor- ner-Stone, on which our choicest works must rise, based upon which alone they will surely abide. He is the Eternal Hock, upon which the Church, with her beautiful array of Sacrament, and Prayer, H- ^i ;k) h i jiiid Btuicdictioi), so.'irs towards licr grand and final coni})lction. Jlc is the Hock, upon ■Nvliicli our own feet must stand, while, within her safe en- closure, Ave feed upon the bounties of Ilis love. On Ilini reposes our sidjliniest faith. From Him springs upward, in glowing aspiration, our exult- ant hope. On Him is laid the firm foundation of those deeds of charity, which, done in Him on earth, are recorded in those unerring Books out of which we shall be judged in the last day, eveiy man according to his works. U])on that Rock may this your goodly Temple, reared to the glory and worship of the Triune God, firmly and for ever stand ! And when the waves of Time, beating upon the silent shore of Eternity, shall have borne thither us who now, amidst the ocean of life, celebrate the rise of this hallowed Fane, may He who preserveth His Church in every vicissitude and circumstance of her eartlily pilgrimage, keep this Beacon of truth to shed its light over the waters whereon so many voyage to life, so many, alas, to death. May that light never flicker, never fail ! But, leading wanderers to the Port of peace, and warnmg the guilty of the hidden 31 rocks on which they arc rushing, may it cease not to iUuniinc and guide, until the ocean of time itself shall disappear, and there shall rise, in its stead, that new earth which will need no light of hu- man temples to shine in it, because the Lamb of God will IIimsc4f be the Temple, Himself the Light thereof. .i'