THE present age may be considered an epoch of transition in the developement of the kingdom of God; and, as such, it is full of signs. Among the most striking of them is a greater zeal for the spread of the Gospel and the Bible through all nations, combining many and various agencies for that work; as well as a closer union among all earnest Christians, seekers of salvation and truth, of all lands, however widely separated--a new Catholic Church, which, amid all the diversity of outward ecclesiastical forms, is preparing that unity of the spirit which has Christ for its foundation. Especially is it matter of rejoicing to see a growing spirit of fraternal union between the Christians of the Old World and those of the New; a land in which Christianity (the destined leaven for all the elements of humanity, how various soever) developes its activities under secular relations so entirely novel.
