Excerpt from A Discourse, Delivered at the Dedication of the Church of the Messiah, in Broadway, New YorkWhen I think of this spiritual consecration, all outward adornm'ents, decent rites, Visible prosperity - the thronged gates and the gathering of a multi tude, sink to nothing before me, and I feel that the great and sacred intent for which we have built this structure, could make any place sacred and sublime. Nay, my brethren, I can well conceive of circum stances in which loneliness, and desertion, and danger, would ennoble and endear to us, a scene like this. If this, instead of being a temple of prosperous worship, were the altar 'of a forlorn hope, if we were met here to - day, to pledge a lofty and solemn fidelity to a rejected and scorned faith if this were the cave or the catacomb, to which the early Chris tians stole in silence and darkness, greater and dearer might it be to us, than this fair sanctuary. Better than cushioned seats and painted walls, might be the ragged stone or the cold sarcophagus on which they leaned, and sweeter than chant or anthem, the stern and deep-toned voice of their great resolve.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis 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.