That blessing we have lived to see.  May it continue for yet many centennials, and grow as it endures!  May the faith and spirit of the men through whose piety and wisdom it has come still warm and animate the hearts of their successors to the latest generations!  May no careless or corrupt administration of justice or “looseness” or infidelities of the people come in to bring down the wrath of Heaven for its interruption!  May the sterling principles of our happy freedom be made good to us and our posterity by the good keeping of them in honest virtue and obedience, and in due reverence of Him who gave them, and who is the God and Judge of nations!  May those sacred conditions of the divine favor “which descend not with worldly inheritances” be so embedded in the training and education of our youth that the spirit of the children may not be a libel on the faith and devotion of their fathers!

Centuries have passed, but the God of Gustavus Adolphus, of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock, of William Penn, and of the hero-saints of every age and country still lives and reigns.  Men may deny it, but that does not alter it.  His government and Gospel are the same now that they have ever been.  What he most approved and blessed in their days he most approves and blesses in ours.  And may their fear and love of him be to us and our children a copy and a guide, to steer in safety amid the dangerous rapids of these doubtful times!

“And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named before thou wert born! what love, what care, what service, and what travail has there been to bring thee forth and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee!  My soul prays to God for thee, that thou mayest stand in the day of trial, that thy children may be blessed of the Lord, and thy people saved by his power.”

THE END.