Excerpt from Sermon, Proceedings and Addresses in Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement: Of the Rev. John Nelson, D. D., As Pastor of the First Church and Society in Leicester, Mass, and in Celebration of His Golden Wedding II. By stating some of the conclusions - not unimportant, I trust to which my thoughts, reading, and observation have brought me. I. What I shall consider of the past, must relate chiefly to what is connected with my own ministry in this place. For, should I venture beyond this very limited circle of events, and only glance at what has been taking place in our country and in other parts of the world during the last fifty years; should I notice the discoveries and changes that have signalized this period should I pause at the wonderful developments of science, of art, and of civilization; or, avoid ing these more secular topics, should I confine myself to the changes that have been going on in the religious world since my ministry began, such as the subsiding of the metaphysical for the scriptural and the speculative for the practical should I dwell on all or any of these new elements of society, which have made the world of 1 862 so different from the world of 1812, I Should indeed have topics of discourse rich, varied, and exciting, but I should fail of meeting the demands and proprieties of the occasion. 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.