Of history, how little do we know by personal contact; we have lived a few years, seen a few men, witnessed some important events; but what are these in the whole sum of the world's past.

Taking it in its wider and generic application, I understand faith to be the supplement of sense; or, to change the phrase, all knowledge which comes not to us through our senses we gain by faith in others.

The realm of immediate or personal knowledge is a narrow circle in which these bodies move; the realm of knowledge derived through faith is as wide as the universe, and old as eternity.

There is a contest old as Eden, which still goes on - the conflict between right and wrong, between error and truth. In this conflict every human being has a part.

Washington and the elder Napoleon. Both were brave men; both were true men; both loved their country and dared to expose their lives for their country's cause.

We ourselves can die with comfort and even with joy if we know that death is but a passport to blessedness, that this intellect, freed from all material chains, shall rise and shine.

Not in purity or in holiness merely, for in Paradise man was holy, and he shall be holy when redeemed through the sacrifice of Christ and made an heir of heaven.

Another principle is, the deepest affections of our hearts gather around some human form in which are incarnated the living thoughts and ideas of the passing age.

If an honest man is the noblest work of God, then Mr. Lincoln's title to high nobility is clear and unquestioned.

If you live for any joy on earth, you may be forsaken; but, oh, live for Jesus, and he will never forsake you!

Nor was it only from the millions of slaves that chains had been removed; the whole nation had been in bondage; free speech had been suppressed.

If you live for your children, they may be smitten down and leave you desolate, or, what is far worse, they may desert you and leave you worse than childless in a cold and unfeeling world.

Passing into practical life, illustrations of this fact are found everywhere; the distant, or the unseen, steadies and strengthens us against the rapid whirl of things around us.

Angels are spirits, flames of fire; they are higher than man, they have wider connections.

I do not purpose to discuss faith in its dogmatic sense today.

If you live for fame, men may turn against you.

If you live for pleasure, your ability to enjoy it may pass away and your senses grow dim.

If, then, faith widens the connections, it elevates the man.

If, then, knowledge be power, how much more power to we gain through the agency of faith, and what elevation must it give to human character.

Man wants to be reconciled to God; wants to know that the past is forgiven.