OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE TIME FACTOR IN THE PROBLEM. 



There are certain great focal points, of history toward 

 which the lines of past progress have converged, and 

 from which have radiated the molding influences of the 

 future. Such was the Incarnation, such was the German 

 Reformation of the sixteenth century, and such are the 

 closing years of the nineteenth century, second in impor- 

 tance to that only which nuist always remain first; viz., 

 the birth of Christ. 



Many are not aware that we are living in extraordinary 

 times. Few suppose that these years of peaceful pros- 

 perity, in which we are quietly developing a continent, 

 are the pivot on which is turning the nation's future. 

 And fewer still imagine that the destinies of mankind, 

 for centuries to come, can be seriously affected, much less 

 determined, by the men of this generation in the United 

 States. But no generation appreciates its own place in 

 history. Several years ago Professor Austin Phelps 

 said: " Five hundred years of time in the process of the 

 world's salvation may depend on the next twenty years 

 of United States history." It is proposed in the follow- 

 ing pages to show that such dependence of the world's 

 future on this generation in America is not only credible, 

 but in the highest degree probable. 



To attribute such importance to the present hour may 



