“If we are to realize the possibilities open to us as pastor and people, we must keep a constant eye upon the land and age in which we live. Our age and our country speak to us to-day. Because our lot has been cast in them, they have a claim upon us, and their voice should be heard. Our age is an age telling of ages, and it commands us to meet the duties of the hour. No relations in life ought to be more helpful for this than our church relations. There is no place for mediæval fossils outside of a museum. The demand of the hour is for living men and living women. Our age is a pivotal age, a cardinal age, a burning age, a crucial age. Let us not forget that we are living under the westering sun of the 19th century, and that this lays us under obligations to be 19th century Christians. “While we forget not the age, we must not forget the land in which we live, and which expects an outcome of good from our church relations. America is the land where the battles of the future are destined to be fought. In push of discovery and of civilization there is no land beyond this. The fields of America are the outer rim of the earth, and here the nations of the world, crowded out of the old lands, meet, and here all the great problems and questions of ages must be debated and settled. Our land cries for help, and we can help it. We can give it the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is what it needs above all things. The gospel alone carries in it the principles which can solve with safety and finality the social and political questions which are coming to America to stay.” * * * * *