O, what a scene of grandeur and glory, when the thousands of the saints shall wrestle in the spirit of Jacob for the blessing:  when they shall rise up in the spirit of their Master, and display an untiring zeal for the salvation of man!  O, what a scene, when the immense crowds of immortal beings, who throng our streets, shall be deeply impressed with the conviction of their accountability!—­When every man shall feel that he is acting continually under the eye of God, and in full prospect of the judgment.  Let these scenes be realized, and already I see “the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”  And I hear “a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

Friends of the Redeemer, the hastening of this blessed consummation depends very much upon your will.  God has intrusted great power in your hands.  In the revelation of his Son, he has given you that word, which is “as a fire, and like a hammer, that breaketh the rock in pieces.”  In shedding down a spirit of union, and guiding to the formation of great benevolent associations, he has given you facilities for extended influence hitherto unparalleled.  He has given you wealth, and knowledge, and all the means for using these facilities.  And in the article of prayer, he has endued you with a power well nigh omnipotent.  His condescending language is, “Concerning the work of my hands COMMAND YE ME.”  I see among you men of wealth, who can count your tens, your fifties, and your hundreds of thousands,—­all of which has been solemnly consecrated to God.  I see among you men of talent,—­“capable of intimidating the collective vices of a nation or an age.”  I see among you men of enterprise, and courage, and resistless perseverance.  I see among you men, who have strong confidence in God.  And shall these varied powers of resistance and aggression be circumscribed by the walls of individual churches?  Shall they not rather be combined for raising a higher and higher tone of moral feeling, and Christian enterprise?  Shall they not send a strong, concentrated light into every dark retreat of wickedness?  Shall not the tide of dissipation, and crime, that would overflow and mar every thing sacred, be met and turned back?  Shall not thousands and tens of thousands on our borders, and in our midst, be rescued from the iron sway of the destroyer, and be saved from going down to the pit?  Shall not new temples be opened for their reception? and shall not “God, even our God, be a wall of fire round about them, and a glory in the midst of them?”