Classic Poem

Dear Sisters in Christ:

We have journeyed on together, through another year, until we have
reached that elevated period, where it has been our wont to pause and
take a retrospective view of the past, and lay plans for the future.

Has the progress of our Association been satisfactory? I feel, my dear
sisters, that while we have some things to deplore, we have much to be
thankful for. No mother has been taken by death from our circle, and
we have been called to part with but one darling child; and while God
has taken from us one immortal spirit to bloom in his paradise above,
he has in his rich mercy bestowed upon us another to claim our
sympathies and our prayers.

Another year is gone--solemn thought! As we glance at the record of
its events, and contemplate its changes, we can but feel a realizing
sense of the shortness of time, and the necessity of improving the
present to the best possible advantage. One after another has dropped
from our little circle, till we are left but few in number; but enough
to claim the precious promise of the blessed Saviour, that he will be
with us if we meet in his name. And, my sisters, has he not verified
his promise unto us? for have we not felt our hearts burn within us,
when we have knelt together before a mercy seat, and poured forth our
prayers into the ear of that pitying Saviour, beseeching him to have
compassion upon us and our children. Have not the hours we have spent
together, conversing upon the things that pertain to the kingdom of
God, and the moral and spiritual improvement of our children, been to
us like the oasis in the desert to the weary traveller? and may we not
look back upon them as the spots where we rested beneath the shadow of
the Almighty, and drank from the healing waters of salvation. And my
sisters, though we may not see the immediate results of our labors,
let us rely upon the rich promises of God, that in due time the
seed shall spring up and bear fruit, some ten, twenty, thirty,
sixty--perchance some an hundred fold. Then let us be encouraged to do
with all our might what our hands find to do.

As we see the vacancies the past year has made, we can but feel, with
Job, "that when a few more years are come, I shall go the way whence
I shall not return." And truly we may adopt the language of Paul,
"Seeing these things are so, what manner of persons ought we to be, in
all holy conversation and godliness."

My dear sisters, it now devolves upon me to resign the office
necessity rather than choice compelled me to accept, and I feel that
in so doing, I shall best promote the interests of the Association.
I thank you for your kind forbearance toward my short comings, which
have been many. I regret that I have served you so inefficiently, and
hope the better offices of the succeeding year may tend to the greater
promotion of the holy objects of your Association. And while we meet
together, and pray together, and together wait for the harvest, may we
be bound together in the love of Christ, and each succeeding year add
new supplies of grace.