PAPERS, ADDRESSES AND DISCUSSIONS OFFERED 

 AT VARIOUS MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



ANNUAL INVOCATION. 

 By Rev. Marcia Selman of Canton. 



Our Father who art in Heaven, maker of all created things, 

 we bow in thy presence with submission as we ask thy blessing 

 upon this gathering. We thank thee that thou has made this 

 earth such a goodly place for our habitation and that thy pres- 

 ence is so universally present in it, that every inch of its surface 

 is quick with the germs of intelligence and of life. We thanl<: thee 

 that even what seems to be decay and death is made under thy 

 wise laws to minister to the upspringing of new life. We thank 

 thee that thou hast made the very soil on which we tread to 

 bring forth that which is beautiful and bountiful to minister 

 to our comfort and our joy. 



And we thank thee that thou has so blessed man with intelli- 

 gent thought, that thou hast enabled him to tread thy path 

 throughout the universe and to think thy thoughts after thee. 

 Thou hast extended even to him thine own great divine pre- 

 rogative of creator, and hast made him able by finding out and 

 following thy laws to bring new life into existence. 



We come to ask thy blessing upon our gathering together — 

 and yet it is not so much that, our Father, as to ask thee to 

 remind us that thou art blessing us now and all the time ; that 

 the efforts of such societies as these are being continually 

 blessed by thee under thy wise laws; that thou hast blessed 

 our efforts in the past, that thou art blessing them in the pres- 

 ent, that thou wilt bless them in the future; that everywhere, 

 where man comes in contact with nature and learns her laws 

 and applies them, there he comes, wittingly or unwittingly, 

 into contact with thyself, and there he becomes, knowingly or 



