Mr. President, Vice Presidents, Members cf the Lexington
    and Vicinity Bible Society, and Friends.
    It is esteemed a high privilege and an honor, in accordance
with the resolution adopted at your last meeting to speak on this
Semi-Centennial anniversary of the Lexington and Vicinity Bible
Society of its organization and operations, and to tell the story of
its usefulness and of its blessings.
    And, as has well been said, let us feel that it is indeed a good
thing and very cheering to us all to be enabled once a year to put
aside all the differences that sever the Christian Churches, and to
unite in the most cordial and friendly way in this great work of
circulating this Blessed Bible, to which the world owes so much and
will owe more in the future.
    For the organization of the Lexington and Vicinity Bible
Society, for its continuous and increasing usefulness, with united
voice and grateful hearts, we praise and bless our God: for the
multiplied and incalculable blessings it has brought to you, my
Fellow Citizens, we now thanking God, do congratulate you and
your children; for so well do we know that a city hath no posses-
sions so precious and so enduring, as the actions of its benefactors,
living or dead, because they inspire it with noble impulses and
noble achievements.
    Prominent, if not chief of such achievements, is this Bible So-
ciety, conceived in inspiration from on High, brought forth in
holy labors of our ancestors, worthy, all of them, of all honor and
lasting remembrance.   And it is sacredly perpetuated in your
hearts, my friends, as is manifested by large and interested audiences,
which have attended our annual meetings, even as this, by which
this evening we are greeted and honored.
    Then with bosoms throbbing with joy and gladness and thank-
fulness we say, All hail this auspicious Semi-Centennial of our Bible
Society. What eye can survey, what heart can adequately feel its