cams_benton_b029_f011_015

12 [upper right corner]

hope & fear, bloom & decay. It certainly
does accord well with our obvious wants
& our desires. We hope its fitness will be
apparent to all. We have not sought this labor
to gratify any questionable feeling. We did not
seek it at all. We would fair have avoided
it. We were content as we were, for the time.

But the providence of God has imposed this
task on us now, & in these circumstances.
We could not not defer, nor avoid it, without
seeming recreant to our duty to Heaven, nor
without doing violence to the needs of our own
souls; since a place of worship is one of the
necessities of our Christian life, power, and
influence. We can do little without it, for
the benefit of those whom we wish to reach.
For, not we alone, but this whole community
is to reap all those temporal advantages which
Christianity scatters with a liberal hand around
her temples; and, we trust; also, that many
whom we know not now as devoted to Christ

12 [upper right corner]

hope & fear, bloom & decay. It certainly
does accord well with our obvious wants
& our desires. We hope its fitness will be
apparent to all. We have not sought this labor
to gratify any questionable feeling. We did not
seek it at all. We would fair have avoided
it. We were content as we were, for the time.

But the providence of God has imposed this
task on us now, & in these circumstances.
We could not not defer, nor avoid it, without
seeming recreant to our duty to Heaven, nor
without doing violence to the needs of our own
souls; since a place of worship is one of the
necessities of our Christian life, power, and
influence. We can do little without it, for
the benefit of those whom we wish to reach.
For, not we alone, but this whole community
is to reap all those temporal advantages which
Christianity scatters with a liberal hand around
her temples; and, we trust; also, that many
whom we know not now as devoted to Christ