Parents would honor him as more than a brother; children would reverence him as more than a father.  The faltering words of age, the firm and sober voice of manhood, the silvery notes of youth, would bless him as a Christian patron.  The wise and the good would acknowledge him everywhere as a national benefactor, as a patriot even to a land of strangers.  He would have come a messenger of peace to a land of peace.  No images of camps, and sieges, and battles; no agonies of the dying and the wounded; no shouts of victory, or processions of triumph, would mingle with the recollections of the multitude who welcomed him.  They would mourn over no common dangers, trials, and calamities; for the road of duty has been to them the path of pleasantness, the way of peace.  Their memory of the past would be rich in gratitude to God, and love to man; their enjoyment of the present would be a prelude to heavenly bliss; their prospects of the future, bright and glorious as faith and hope. * * *

Such was the reception of Lafayette, the warrior; such would be that of Robert Raikes, the Howard of the Christian church.  And which is the nobler benefactor, patriot, and philanthropist?  Mankind may admire and extol Lafayette more than the founder of the Sunday schools; but religion, philanthropy, and enlightened common sense must ever esteem Robert Raikes the superior of Lafayette.  His are the virtues, the services, the sacrifices of a more enduring and exalted order of being.  His counsels and triumphs belong less to time than to eternity.

The fame of Lafayette is of this world; the glory of Robert Raikes is of the Redeemer’s everlasting kingdom.  Lafayette lived chiefly for his own age, and chiefly for his and our country; but Robert Raikes has lived for all ages and all countries.  Perhaps the historian and biographer may never interweave his name in the tapestry of national or individual renown.  But the records of every single church honor him as a patron; the records of the universal Church, on earth as in heaven, bless him as a benefactor.

The time may come when the name of Lafayette will be forgotten; or when the star of his fame, no longer glittering in the zenith, shall be seen, pale and glimmering, on the verge of the horizon.  But the name of Robert Raikes shall never be forgotten; and the lambent flame of his glory is that eternal fire which rushed down from heaven to devour the sacrifice of Elijah.  Let mortals then admire and imitate Lafayette more than Robert Raikes.  But the just made perfect, and the ministering spirits around the throne of God, have welcomed him as a fellow-servant of the same Lord; as a fellow-laborer in the same glorious cause of man’s redemption; as a coheir of the same precious promises and eternal rewards.

Notes.—­Armada, the great fleet sent out in 1588, by Philip ii. of Spain, for the conquest of England, was defeated in the Channel by the English and Dutch fleets.  After the victory, Queen Elizabeth made a triumphal journey through the kingdom.