Dear Sir:—On behalf of your association, accept the expression of my interest as I peruse your letter and enclosures. I am glad to know your circle is making progress. The serious study of events in the history of mankind, taken in their course and connection, in parts of the world best known at various seasons, or synoptically in successive periods of the past, the course of every series traced to its present, the panorama surveyed and examined, must be an exercise exceedingly fruitful in the most instructive and delightful contemplations, interesting and solemnizing to the moral sense, yea, to the Christian heart. And the pictures of natural scenery, simple or mingled with art, in life or in ruins, in the various landscapes drawn from different parts of the earth and presented to the eye of the mind as in thought, we stand in the midst of them as they arise, admiring them in their own grandeur and loveliness, or finding in them a fit place for reflection and prayerful meditation, are well worth beholding, recalling, and gazing upon with quickened and cultured powers and imagination, extracting, combining and storing. I much admire the picture of the academic grove and structure which the engraving frontispiece of your pamphlets set forth. And I am very much pleased with the choice of expression observable in Dr. Vincent’s address, featured as it is in the excellence and particularity of the advice given to the students. I shall treasure your letter and its enclosures. Whilst studying the soberest facts of man’s history, and the creation of the earth and the world, and great principles of physical creation and natural science in their developments or capabilities, let me hope ardently that you will be led to give your most enjoyed and devoted thoughts and resolves, always depending on the spirit of the Lord, to the need of man in his heathen state, and command of Christ our Lord, taking care that all the dark places of the globe, each one carefully sought out, shall be illuminated with the light of the Christian Scriptures, and the Word of God. Some or many of you know the Lord. May the joy of the Lord in faith of the Father and of Jesus be your supporting power. To all I say: “Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened.” Yours faithfully,