church unity in the future. When all the branches in each denomination
have united, then the great denominations nearest akin will unite, and
this absorption will go on until there will be one great millennial
Church, divided only for geographical convenience into sections as of
old, when it was the Church of Laodicea, the Church of Philadelphia, the
Church of Thyatira. In the event of this religious evolution then there
will be the Church of America, the Church of Europe, the Church of Asia,
the Church of Africa, and the Church of Australia.

We are all builders, bigots, or master mechanics of the divine will.

The number of men who built Brooklyn, and who have gone into eternal
industry, were increasing. One day I paused a moment on the Brooklyn
Bridge to read on a stone the names of those who had influenced the
building of that span of steel, the wonder of the century. They were
the absent ones: The president, Mr. Murphy, absent; the vice-president,
Mr. Kingsley, absent; the treasurer, Mr. Prentice, absent; the engineer,
Mr. Roebling, absent. Our useful citizens were going or gone. A few days
after this Alfred S. Barnes departed. He has not disappeared, nor will
until our Historical Hall, our Academy of Music, and Mercantile Library,
our great asylums of mercy, and churches of all denominations shall have
crumbled. His name has been a bulwark of credit in the financial affairs
over which he presided. He was a director of many universities. What
reinforcement to the benevolence of the day his patronage was! I enjoyed
a warm personal friendship with him for many years, and my gratitude and
admiration were unbounded. He was a man of strict integrity in business
circles, the highest type of a practical Christian gentleman. Unlike so
many successful business men, he maintained an unusual simplicity of
character. He declined the Mayoralty and Congressional honours that he
might pursue the ways of peace.