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Rh details of a subject and a duty so vast. We have endeavored to collect and spread before you an array of facts and truths, from the due consideration of which the nature and importance of these responsibilities and duties, which every year, yea, almost every day, are increasing and multiplying around us, may be estimated.

And now to draw to a conclusion. In view of all the events of the past, the stirring transactions of the present, and the contemplation of the momentous and eventful future, with our country’s position and character in the foreground, is it too much to affirm, that under the dispensations of an all-wise and overruling Providence, the destinies, the future and ultimate condition of the nations of the earth, political and moral, are placed in our hands, and that He who ruleth the nations will hold us responsible for the same? We are warranted in making this solemn asseveration, the solemn truth of which I daily pray Almighty God to impress upon the minds of our Statesmen, Senators and Rulers.

Our continent is not sufficiently large and wide a field for the development, display and exercise of the Anglo-Saxon, or rather the Anglo-American mind, talents and energies: the world is that field; the entire globe, the ocean and its isles, is the field worthy of that mind which is making its power and influence felt upon the condition and character of the age. What a mission is ours! How exalted, how noble and glorious! What if Jehovah intends to restore to the world again, as it was at the beginning, one people and one language? The idea is neither preposterous nor impracticable; nor is a miracle required to do this. There are moral causes now at work—causes emanating from ourselves—sufficient, in the lapse of a few centuries, to effect this. The voice of prophecy in the oracles of truth, the mission of Christ into the world, and the nature and tendency of Christianity, intimate, we think, very clearly the truth of the idea we have advanced; and the signs of the times, with the tendencies of the age, all seem to approximate to and confirm the same end. All things are tending to the fulfilment of that promise which gives the kingdoms of this world to the Son of God, and to which the Redeemer evidently alludes in that sublime prayer of his, the night of his betrayal, when he prays for the unity and oneness of all his believers and followers. His kingdom shall embrace the ends of the earth, and shall be one kingdom; his people one—one in faith, one in heart, one in min, one in purpose; and why not one in language also? Then shall Emmanuel’s law (the perfect law of liberty) control, Emmanuel’s spirit transform, and Emmanuel’s love unite and bend all hearts and souls in one.

You see your position then, young gentlemen, as a part of the youth of our country, your calling; and how to meet the work and destiny before you, is the first question. No ordinary qualifications are demanded. The first thing requisite is knowledge, and that of the clearest and fullest kind, not alone of books and science and literature: this is all desirable and proper in its place; but its place is but secondary. It is a knowledge of things themselves as they are, a knowledge of the signs and tendencies of the times, a profound and accurate knowledge of the character and wants of the age. And all this requires time, long and laborious study, close, honest and independent investigation—an investigation carried on irrespective of the fear, or favor, or dogmas of men. Bear this truth always in mind, that you are first responsible to God—next to your country—then to yourselves and your neighbor. And the first is to be your guide and rule in determining all the others.