pleasure had been forsaken; that our temples were crowded and overflowing with devout worshippers, and anxious inquirers; that the universal voice of our city’s population had become, What shall we do, that we may glorify God and extend his kingdom?  Suppose, I say, that this mighty change in our city could be told throughout the country; who can estimate the overwhelming influence it would carry along with it?  Where is the solitary village that would not feel the impulse, and have its eye and heart lifted to Heaven, in view of the bright cloud of incense, ascending from these hundred temples, and these thrice ten thousand family altars?  And to extend our view still further; suppose that every city of our land—­that every city of the world—­should experience such a change; what almighty strength and zeal would it give to the Angel having the everlasting Gospel to publish!  How soon would the universal acclamation of mankind be, “Glory, and honour, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne!” And how soon would that blessed voice be heard from the heaven of heavens, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord, and his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever!”

These are not mere pictures of the imagination.  The realities are at hand.  And the influence of cities, in introducing them, must be felt.  For “they of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth.”  “The name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there.”  “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, it shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities; and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts.”  Thus the day shall yet be, when the presence and power of the Holy God in cities shall so absorb the affections, and command the energies of their inhabitants, that, throughout the land, they shall be known and celebrated, not for their wealth, their splendour, their numbers, or their worldly enterprise, but as the places where God has fixed his tabernacle.  Yes, the day shall yet come when the intercourse between cities shall be chiefly for purposes of religious improvement—­when combinations for political intrigue, or mercantile speculation, which now waken such intensity of interest in our cities, shall dwindle to their comparative nothingness; and when the world’s redemption shall assume its proper magnitude; and all be stimulated to more holy devotedness, and more heavenly effort.  Oh, what a day, when all our increasing facilities of intercourse with the land, and with foreign nations, shall be used mainly for advancing that kingdom which consists in righteousness and peace!—­when thousands shall prayerfully wait the arrival of every post, and hail the coming in of every vessel, for intelligence, not of this world’s riches and glories, but of the glories and victories of Zion.