Excerpt from Free Religion: Report of Addresses at a Meeting Held in Boston, May 30, 1867, to Consider the Conditions, Wants, and Prospects of Free Religion in America, Together With the Constitution of the Free Religious Association There Organized I say a new departure has already taken 6place. Egypt has by mul titudes been left. A great exodus has long been going on. The vast armies are on the march. Some are just lighting their first camp fires some are packing up their luggage for the move some have just stepped into the Red Sea; others are on the other side. Some are just tasting the waters Of bitterness, and some have just plucked the herb which sweetens the waters. Some are out among the sands, wandering about, tired, scattered, groping; some are at the foot Of the mountain, waiting to hear the trumpet; some have heard the trumpet, and passed on; some have gone beyond the wilderness and touched its utmost verge, and, ascending to the high land, are looking down upon the field before them; others again have gone into the field, have found the promised land, have brought back a report Of=the fruits and flowers and the people there, have found it a familiar land, the great promised land of the Lord, which the Lord originally gave to all his faithful children; they are at home there. These great masses of people, existing as masses, are, to a large extent, unconscious themselves of their own intellectual, philosophical and Spiritual condition. Some, as I have intimated in a figure, are organized, more or less.' Some are entirely disorganized. Some are already beginning to crystallize by the touch Of circumstances, and fall within their lines. Some, understanding themselves very well, and their own position, are utterly at a loss to understand the position of their neighbors, or to know how they are related to other classes of feelers, thinkers, and believers, who are out on the same general march. Now it is believed that all these persons, however named or declining to be named; however conscious or unconscious Of their Own position, have, nevertheless, started from the same centre; are heading for the same general point; are moving along in a zigzag course very much but still in the same parallel lines, and are related to one another by certain affinities of feeling, thought and purpose, which make them one in spirit and in faith. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.