Excerpt from A Sermon Preached at the Installation of Rev. A. M. Bridge, as Colleague Pastor of the First Congregational Church and Society in Bernardston, Mass. Feb. 18, 1846 As I journey through the pleasant towns and Villages of our beloved commonwealth, 1 see, on every side, neat churches crowning the hills or \sheltered in the valleys - shining in the clear sunlight of winter, like pyramids of snow, or in summer, among the green trees, now seen and now hidden, as we pass along, looking chaste and graceful, like tutelary angels guard ing and blessing the fields and groves and my heart rejoices at the sight. 1 hail and bless them every one, asking not first, to what denomination they belong, but recognlzmg them each and all as tokens of a religious people centres of' Christian light and influ ence monuments of piety towards God, and means of benevolence, virtue and happiness amongst men; and as a patriot, a Christian, and a man, my heart is enlarged to embrace them all, and all who founded them, and all who frequent them, in one wide and Warm emotion of Christian sympathy, ln one fervent prayer for their prosperity and peace. It is under the influence of such sentiments as these, that I have selected as the subject of my discourse on this occasion, the words of our Saviour which I have just now read. Nothing can be more morally. Sublime than the position of Jesus, when he uttered these words, rela tively to the people in the midst of which he stood. In the bosom of the most exclusive and bigoted nation the world ever saw, his heart expanded till it embraced all the kindreds of the earth in its abounding love. They were expecting the restoration of the temporal kingdom to Israel: he was meditating the moral re novation of mankind. Their narrow patriotism longed only for the gathering of the outcasts of the children of Judah; his generous thoughts were busy with the extensive hope of collecting into the fold of heaven all the lost souls of the great family of God. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.