ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 13 



We thank Thee, our Father, that Thou hast blessed all that is honora- 

 ble, and made them effective so that our history is one of which we are 

 proud and grateful. 



We thank Thee, as we look around at the national life of science that it 

 has brought us to a brighter and better day, and we pray Thee that we may 

 have mind to understand that day, courage enough to try and equal it, and 

 by self denial to make this nation a greater nation than it has yet been, 

 That the wishes of our fathers shall be realized here. That the past shall 

 be only a prophecy of the future, and that all nations shall be glad that this 

 nation has been born, and that the rights of men shall indeed be realized 

 here, and through this country work and influence shall be realized through- 

 out the world. Bless the great farming industries of our nation, for we re- 

 alize that a nation's strength rests in large measure upon that which we 

 find in the country. We realize that its great men have come up often from 

 the farm 1 ; in contact with the soil. 



We pray that the farmers of the country, and all the interests that have 

 to do with them, all those great and vital things that are so intimately as- 

 sociated with farm life, shall indeed understand how much rests upon 

 themushall be equal to all demands that the nation puts upon them, and so 

 conduct even the business of the farm, and the business that is connected 

 with farm life, that it shall have to do with the strengthening of this peo- 

 ple; that it shall not be merely business of the soil, but shall have to do with 

 the great moral and political interests of the national life. 



Bless this company of men gath ered here today, coming from all over 

 the state. We pray that they may come with all wisdom which is needed 

 to conduct them on, but in such a way that it shall have to do not only with 

 themselves personally, but with the national life, and not only with its 

 financial interests, but with its moral and political interests; and so help us 

 to live that we shall realize that this is not a kingdom of this earth, but a 

 kingdom of God, a kingdom whose interests are heavenly; and so to live 

 that when we are called home to the great future, our influence shall aMde 

 in our nation, shall remain to strengthen everything that is good, and 



