through a period of years which may be less, and may well be more,
than I endured. And I do this with the more content and confidence,
that I have little doubt as to what the result will be. I have not
lived with you all these years gone by, without learning the
openness of your minds, the instinctive passion of your souls for
right, the quickness of your sensibilities to all sweet influences
of progress and good-will. If there be truth in my conviction for
change, it will in time be your conviction, as it is mine. If this
be

"The freer step, the fuller breath,
The wide horizons grander view,"

then it will inevitably work enchantment in your hearts as it has in
mine. And if not, then shall I trust those sweeping tides of change
which are now engulfing all the world and destined so soon, to
obliterate the barriers of denomination, so that this issue between
us must vanish for good and all. And in any case, we may ever have
the task of making our Unitarianism in this place of so new and
wonderful a character that this body to which we are bound, may
itself become transfigured by the service we perform for God and
man. I am quite content, therefore, to postpone this question for an
indefinite period. By the inward consent of converted minds, or the
outward logic of inexorable events, this problem will be settled in
due time, and with perfect amity and concord.

Lastly, may I congratulate you, as I am congratulating myself, on
the high adventure of the spirit which we undertake this day; and
appeal, without apology, in frankness unashamed, for your support in
this endeavor? I call to my people in this church, to join their