But the pageant has fled, and the very materials that gave it such depths of interest are rapidly perishing:  and a humble, perhaps a nameless grave, shall hold the last soldier of the Revolution.  And shall they ever meet again?  Shall the patriots and soldiers of ’76, the “Immortal Band,” as history styles them, meet again in the amaranthine bowers of spotless purity, of perfect bliss, of eternal glory?  Shall theirs be the Christian’s heaven, the kingdom of the Redeemer?  The heathen points to his fabulous Elysium as the paradise of the soldier and the sage.  But the Christian bows down with tears and sighs, for he knows that not many of the patriots, and statesmen, and warriors of Christian lands are the disciples of Jesus.

But we turn from Lafayette, the favorite of the old and the new world, to the peaceful benevolence, the unambitious achievements of Robert Raikes.  Let us imagine him to have been still alive, and to have visited our land, to celebrate this day with us.  No national ships would have been offered to bear him, a nation’s guest, in the pride of the star-spangled banner, from the bright shores of the rising, to the brighter shores of the setting sun.  No cannon would have hailed him in the stern language of the battlefield, the fortunate champion of Freedom, in Europe and America.  No martial music would have welcomed him in notes of rapture, as they rolled along the Atlantic, and echoed through the valley of the Mississippi.  No military procession would have heralded his way through crowded streets, thickset with the banner and the plume, the glittering saber and the polished bayonet.  No cities would have called forth beauty and fashion, wealth and rank, to honor him in the ballroom and theater.  No states would have escorted him from boundary to boundary, nor have sent their chief magistrate to do him homage.  No national liberality would have allotted to him a nobleman’s domain and princely treasure.  No national gratitude would have hailed him in the capitol itself, the nation’s guest, because the nation’s benefactor; and have consecrated a battle ship, in memory of his wounds and his gallantry.

Not such would have been the reception of Robert Raikes, in the land of the Pilgrims and of Penn, of the Catholic, the Cavalier, and the Huguenot.  And who does not rejoice that it would be impossible thus to welcome this primitive Christian, the founder of Sunday schools?  His heralds would be the preachers of the Gospel, and the eminent in piety, benevolence, and zeal.  His procession would number in its ranks the messengers of the Cross and the disciples of the Savior, Sunday-school teachers and white-robed scholars.  The temples of the Most High would be the scenes of his triumph.  Homage and gratitude to him, would be anthems of praise and thanksgiving to God.