No Herschel counts the stars, numbers the planets, measures the length of their years and computes the number of their days, unless his observatory is illuminated by the rays of the Sun of Righteousness.  No Luther thunders against priestcraft, shakes the thrones of tyrants, and wakes the nations to a new life and a new progress, save that Luther that finds a Bible in his cell.  No Franklin calls down electricity from the clouds to carry messages across a continent swift as the lightning flashes through the sky, save that Franklin whose fathers brought the Bible with them from their native land, and prized it more than all the gold of Ophir.  No mother country has had such reason to be proud of any colony that was ever planted on the face of this green earth, as Great Britain has had reason to be proud of her colonies in North America, and no colonies ever so loved the Bible.  Judson, Howard, Wilberforce, and Florence Nightingale drew the inspiration of their benevolence from a dying Saviour’s cross, and learned of him who, “though he was rich, yet for our sakes become poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.”

Christianity, as it was given by Jesus to the apostles, and by the apostles to mankind, was as perfect as the God who gave it.  Our whole duty then is this, that we should restore primitive and apostolic Christianity again to the world.  Many reformers have sought to do this; but they have only reformed in part.  Though they fled from Babylon they stopped short of Jerusalem.

We can not pause in this work which we have begun.  We can not allow ourselves to grow cold and our churches to die.  We must go forward in that path in which the rays of our glorious sun—­the Sun of Righteousness—­grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.

God does not make Christians as he created Adam out of the dust of the earth.  He works by means:  “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” God works through the voice of the Bible scattered over the world.  If any doubt this, let them reflect that among all the millions of men that inhabit the whole earth not one becomes a Christian save him who either hears or reads of a crucified Saviour.

Money is the sinews of this war.  True, there is peril in money.  It is not safe to be rich; and it is admitted that by wealth preachers may be corrupted.  But this is not the present danger.  The present peril is, that haggard want, stalking in at the preacher’s door, will paralyze his tongue, make his knees feeble and his hands heavy, and turn away his heart from his proper work to the question, What shall I eat? and what shall I drink? and wherewithal shall I be clothed?  The preacher is told to put his trust in the Lord.  But when, after long waiting, no ravens come to feed him, he sometimes loses his heart, and says, “I go a fishing.”  Surely the brethren will not have a controversy with the Lord.  They will not deny that he has appointed that “they that preach the gospel shall live of the gospel.”