Page:Bible testimony, on abstinence from the flesh of animals as food.pdf/5



It is with feelings of peculiar pleasure that I meet with you on each returning Sabbath in this place,—a house, which we have consecrated to the worship of Almighty God, and in which we have periodically assembled each returning Sabbath, for a series of years, to worship and honor, and magnify his Holy Name. But it is with the utmost gratification that I have the pleasure of meeting you here to-day, to celebrate once more the anniversary of our Church in this, the land of our voluntary adoption.—Twenty-three years ago, a few of us landed at this city, strangers, in a strange country, far from those scenes and associations that had been dear to us from childhood, and widely separated from our relatives and former friends. Poor and unknown were we to all whom we beheld around us, and there were none from whom we had any especial reason to anticipate the sympathies and consolations of friendship. We were not, however, discouraged by what we beheld, nor cast down by our seemingly disconsolate condition. Our motto was "The Lord will Provide." Like Abraham of old, we had left the land of our nativity, to accomplish an important work. Our purpose was nothing less than to introduce principles of religion and knowledge