no age since the foundation of the world, which has demanded so great
contributions as this, and, perhaps, no subsequent age will, till the
desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. At least in a few
generations we trust the Gospel light shall illumine every shore. Then
there will be no such urgent calls on our charities; certainly none
pressing with such undying interests. This, therefore, is emphatically
the age of _giving_; for the bulk of the church can aid effectually in
bringing about the happy consummation of millennial glory in no other
way. Would that Christians of the present generation could be induced
to look at this truth in its intense application to themselves
individually. Would that its accents could be made to ring over every
hill top, and echo through every valley in Christendom; startling the
soldiers of the cross to deeds of love, as the voice of Peter the hermit
once bristled with arms the plains of Europe to shed the blood of
infidels.

Not long since, thousands were starving and dying in Ireland. A cry of
anguish came up, and thousands of generous American hearts responded to
the call. This was noble. It was thought to be an especial occasion
for benevolence. Who did not feel that every Irish landholder should
have shared his abundance with the suffering and dying poor around him?
But what is the death of the body to the death of the soul! What is the
temporal destruction of a few thousands to the eternal damnation of
hundreds of millions! Was it the duty of the wealthy Irish to feed
their starving neighbors? And since the providence of God has made the
remotest of earth's dwellers who are perishing for lack of vision our
neighbors, should we not supply them with the bread of heaven, and thus
prevent untold agonies? I ask every candid reader, is not the present a
_special occasion_ for benevolence? and if the church is to be the
instrument by which God has determined to work in restoring the kingdoms