“And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.”  That we are living in an age of wonders none deny.  Time was, and that not two score of years ago, when the bare mention of achievements which now constitute the warp and woof of every-day life, were considered the wildest chimeras of a diseased imagination.  Now, nothing is too wonderful to be believed, nor too strange to happen.  Go back fifty years, and the world with respect to those things which tend to domestic convenience and comfort, the means of illumination, the production and application of heat, and the performance of various household operations; with respect to methods of rapid locomotion from place to place, and the transmission of intelligence from point to point, stood about where it did in the days of the patriarchs.  Suddenly waters of that long stream over whose drowsy surface scarcely a ripple of improvement had passed for three thousand years, broke into the white foam of violent agitation.  The world awoke from the slumber and darkness of ages.  The divine finger lifted the seal from the prophetic books, and brought that predicted period when men should run to and fro, and knowledge should be increased.  Then men bound the elements to their chariots, and reaching up laid hold upon the very lightning and made it their message-bearer around the world.  Nahum foretold that at a certain time the chariots should be with flaming torches and run like the lightnings.  Who can behold in the darkness of the night, the locomotive dashing over its iron track, the fiery glare of its great lidless eye driving the shadows from its path, and torrents of smoke and sparks and flame pouring from its burning throat, and not realize that ours are the eyes that are privileged to look upon a fulfillment of Nahum’s prophecy.  But when this should take place, the prophet said that the times would be burdened with the solemn work of God’s preparation.

“Canst thou send lightnings,” said God to Job, “that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?” If Job were living to day, he could answer, Yes.  It is one of the current sayings of our time that Franklin tamed the lightning, and Prof.  Morse taught it the English language.

So, in every department of the arts and sciences, the advancement that has been made within the last half century is without precedent in the world’s history.  And in all these the United States take the lead.  These facts are not, indeed, to be taken as a fulfillment of the prophecy, but they show the spirit of the age in which we live, and point to this time as a period when we may look for wonders of every kind.