2'2 MR. COLMAN S ADDRESS. 



of wholesome food and good clolhiug, the means of rearing a 

 family, the opportunity of procuring the best education lor his 

 children, the power of gradually improving his property and 

 condition, and of accumulating some humble resources against 

 the time of old age and sickness, and above all the quiet and 

 comforts and endearments of home, and the perfect enjoyment 

 of his religious rights and privileges, are blessings as much 

 within the reach of the industrious and honest farmer in New 

 England as of the richest man in the world, and are sufficient 

 to satisfy any but an inordinate avarice and ambition. The 

 farmer's gains are honest gains. What he gets, he gets not at 

 the expense of suffering or loss to others, but as the lawful 

 fruits of his own industry and toil. He above all others should 

 be a religious man ; for the fruits which he gathers seem to be 

 poured at once into his lap from the divine bounty ; and the 

 various domestic animals, which depend on his care and ai'e to 

 be daily fed from his hand, remind him that he is the almoner 

 of a merciful and kind Providence. Every operation of husban- 

 dry, with all its beautiful and miraculous results, admonishes the 

 thoughtful mind of that unseen but omnipresent and beneficent 

 agency on which all creatures subsist ; and which is every where 

 diffusing life and happiness and good. The flowers of the field 

 in their splendor and beauty, the birds of the air, wlio, though 

 they have neither store-house nor barn, are fed b} a paternal 

 kindness, the invigorating sunshine and the fertilizing rain, the 

 fields glistening with the enriching dew or yellow with the 

 ripened harvest, and the cattle upon a thousand hills, all speak 

 to the husbandman, of God, in tones which find their way at 

 once to the feeling and pious bosom. Let his heart and life 

 pour forth a grateful response. In the exercise of an honest 

 industry, who can feel a juster claim to the peaceful enjoyment 

 of its bountiful returns ! The possession of these gifts of the 

 divine goodness should remind him of his duty to those whom 

 it gives him the power and privilege to succor and relieve. 

 When the peace and contentment and comfort, which reign in 

 his habitation, are thus enjoyed in charity to his fellow men and 

 in humble piety to God, this earth presents no condition more 

 privileged and enviable. 



