The fourth great idea necessary to a permanent and final civilization, is the true idea of childhood—its worth and place in the elevating forces of humanity. That civilization which holds in cheap esteem the life of a child, is a low and vanishing one. There is probably among the secondary tests of nobility no truer one than man’s regard for children. All the ancient civilizations were very low in this respect. Think of such a thing occurring in this nineteenth century, of any ruler commanding the slaughter of the innocents. No, the final civilization holds, must hold, to the sacredness of child-life. Jesus is bringing that about. He brought heaven to earth through the auroral gates of childhood. Bethlehem’s manger gave to the world a new and potent civilizing idea in the sacredness of child-life. These four constitute the elemental ideas, the living, molding, working forces of the higher civilization. The relation of the American Missionary Association to this higher civilization is now to be noticed, and so transparent is this relation that only a few words are necessary to set it forth. First. It is related in its work, in a similar way, be it spoken reverently, in which Jesus, the Son of God, is related to the children of men. He came down into humanity to its very lowest. So the A. M. A. goes down with its thousand tender hands and its five hundred beating hearts to the very bottom of the lower civilization. This is both human and divine wisdom. It is related to the higher civilization in the second place because it carries into and permeates the lower civilization with these great ideas of the higher. “No fleet can outsail its slowest vessel.” So no civilization can advance higher than the lowest elements or parts of it advance. These people to whom this Association carries these ideas are elemental factors in our civilization, and I know of no other royal road by which they can be brought into the higher civilization; and unless so brought they will drag higher civilization down, and give the victory to the lower civilization, and this nation will fall into the long procession of nations that, failing to rise to their great opportunities, have gone down in dishonor and disgrace to eternal death. To prevent this dire catastrophe, I believe God, whose favors have been manifold to our land, has raised up and commissioned this great Association. It is virtually related, therefore, to the higher civilization as its saviour, and also as the purifier and perfector of the higher by bringing the lower up to its proper place in it on these high idea lines. Incarnate these great ideas of the higher civilization into the lower, which, as I understand it, is the work of the A. M. A., and you have given the victory to the higher civilization in this the leading nation of the world; moreover, you have hastened the coming of the day of the Son of Man. * * * * * DEDICATION OF LIVINGSTONE MISSIONARY HALL.