It was with these words of the Psalmist that Reverend Ralph Cutter began his review of the town’s history. No one seemed to realize that he spoke an hour. A library has been written about the best way to hold the attention of an audience. It might all be boiled down to this:--“Have something to say worth saying, and then say it in a way worth hearing.” Ralph Cutter knew his subject thoroughly. He could only give an outline of it in the time allotted to him; but, as little ten-year-old Jimmy Stetson said, “When Mr. Cutter tells an Indian story you feel as though the Red Skins were skulking around the church, and when he talks about bears you almost expect to hear ’em growl.” “Aunt Lyddy” Buxton, who came early and had a seat near the pulpit, said:--“That’s the first time I have heard a minister in a year, although I go to church every Sunday. Thank God there’s now and then a minister who thinks it a part of his duty to make people hear.” “That’s the minister I always like to hear,” said Farmer Gray. “I don’t have to go to a dictionary to find out what he means, and it’s all good, sober, solid sense, every word he has to say.” The speaker did not occupy a minute more than the time allotted to him. For a minister, or any other speaker, to take time which belonged to others, Ralph Cutter considered no better than any other kind of stealing, and he never practiced it. He always kept within his allotted time. He had saved a few minutes in which to consider the future of the town. “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and every hill shall be made low.” “I understand these words of Isaiah,” he said, “to be prophecy full of blessing to us all. These hills shall be brought low--that is to say, they shall be more easily reached. Not only this, but the working people in the cities shall be able to reach them. The time is coming, when the poorest one of our millions of laborers shall be able to enjoy a summer vacation, with his family, on these hills, or at the sea-shore, or wherever else on God’s beautiful earth he chooses to spend it. The multitudes, now scarcely earning their daily bread, shall not always toil to maintain the few in idleness and luxury. The good things, the best things of God’s bountiful earth shall be within reach of the toiling masses, not occasionally and sparingly, but at all times and in generous measure. The workman shall enjoy the full fruit of his labors. There shall be no idlers, as now, to fatten upon the laborers’ toil. God has provided an abundance for all His children, and the avarice of the few shall not always keep his gifts away from the many.