The greatest outward and visible achievement of the idea and sentiment of the brotherhood of mankind was the abolition of slavery and serfdom. This was effected very slowly. We are, however, rather surprised that so Herculean a labour should ever have been achieved by it at all. When we consider the inveteracy and the universality of the institution; that it was the very foundation on which society was, almost everywhere, built; that it was everywhere the interest of the governing part of the community, that is, of those who had power in their hands, to maintain it; that, in the early days of the new idea, it never soared so high as the thought of so great an achievement; and yet find, notwithstanding, that the old institution has fallen everywhere; that no combination of circumstances has anywhere been able to secure it; we begin to understand the irresistible force of the idea. This was the greatest of all political and social revolutions ever effected in this world. The manifestations of the sentiment we are now thinking of have been very various, in conformity with the circumstances of the times, and the condition of those in whom it was at work. Some centuries ago it came to the surface in Jacqueries and Anabaptist vagaries. Now for some three generations it has been seen in volcanic operation in French outbreaks and revolutions. It is the soul of American democracy. It is at this moment working, like leaven in a lump of dough, in the hearts and minds of all Christian communities. There is no man in this country but feels its disintegrating, and reconstructing force. Every village school that is opened, every invention and discovery that is made, every book, every newspaper that is printed, every sermon that is preached, aids in propagating it. Its continued growth and spread gradually deprive governing classes of heart, thus betraying them from within, and of a logically defensive position in the forum of what has now come to be recognized as public opinion. It is at this day the greatest power among men. The future, whatever it is to be, must be largely shaped by it.