PAPERS, ADDRESSES AND DISCUSSIONS OFFERED 

 AT VARIOUS MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



INVOCATION. 

 By Rev. F. M. Preble of Auburn. 



Our Father who art in heaven, it seems to us very fitting that 

 we should pause a moment in the exercises of this day and hft 

 our thoughts and our hearts to thee. We feel that the most 

 appropriate language of our lips should be the language of a 

 Psalm, and the Psalm of Thanksgiving. In the midst of the 

 things which surround us, upon which our eyes look at the close 

 of the harvest season, we should come with the song of praise 

 and thanksgiving, the glad song of the return of the harvesters. 

 "Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop 

 fatness. They drop upon the pastures in the wilderness. The 

 pastures are clothed with cattle. They also shout, they also 

 sing." 



We thank thee this morning for the close of the year and for 

 the exhibitions of our Father's continued prosperity and good- 

 ness to us. His children. We feel that each son and daughter 

 of our blessed and well favored commonwealth may say, "My 

 lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. I have a goodly heri- 

 tage." Surel}' every child of this beloved State may feel that he 

 indeed has a goodly heritage ; and for all that has come to us in 

 the past we feel profoundly thankful. 



And we are thankful this morning for the exhibition that is 

 being able to be made here at this time; the fruits of the field, 

 the flowers of the garden, the products of the orchards, are 

 showing the goodness and the mercy and the kindness of our 

 God. We pray thy blessing to rest then upon this exhibition 

 and upon the councils that are here had. Be with the officers of 



