stand before you, remember your wrongs and your misfortunes; and there is not one who does not rejoice that you have received that which your own genius won in the hands of another.  There is not one who does not rejoice that the evil influence of this house is departed, and that one now occupies it who thoroughly respects and honors the manhood and womanhood that labor in his service.  We are glad to acknowledge you as our master, because we know that we can regard you as our friend.  Your predecessor despised poverty—­even the poverty into which he was born—­and forgot, in the first moment of his success, that he had ever been poor, while your own bitter experiences have made you brotherly.  On behalf of all those who now stand before you, let me thank you for your sympathy, for your practical efforts to give us a share in the results of your prosperity, and for the purifying influences which go out from this dwelling into all our humble homes.  We give you our congratulations on this anniversary, and hope for happy returns of the day, until, among the inevitable changes of the future, we all yield our places to those who are to succeed us.”

Mr. Benedict’s eyes are full of tears.  He does not turn, however, to Mr. Balfour, for help.  The consciousness of power, and, more than this, the consciousness of universal sympathy, give him self-possession and the power of expression.

“Mr. Yates,” says Mr. Benedict, “when you call me master, you give me pain.  When you speak of me as your brother, and the brother of all those whom you represent, you pay me the most grateful compliment that I have ever received.  It is impossible for me to regard myself as anything but the creature and the instrument of a loving Providence.  It is by no power of my own, no skill of my own, no providence of my own, that I have been carried through the startling changes of my life.  The power that has placed me where I am, is the power in which, during all my years of adversity, I firmly trusted.  It was that power which brought me my friends—­friends to whose good will and efficient service I owe my wealth and my ability to make life profitable and pleasant to you.  Fully believing this, I can in no way regard myself as my own, or indulge in pride and vain glory.  You are all my brothers and sisters, and the dear Father of us all has placed the power in my hands to do you good.  In the patient and persistent execution of this stewardship lies the duty of my life.  I thank you all for your good will.  I thank you all for this opportunity to meet you, and to say to you the words which have for five years been in my heart, waiting to be spoken.  Come to me always with your troubles.  Tell me always what I can do for you, to make your way easier.  Help me to make this village a prosperous, virtuous and happy one—­a model for all its neighbors.  And now I wish to take you all by the hand, in pledge of our mutual friendship and of our devotion to each other.”