Excerpt from The Proclamation of Freedom: A Sermon Preached in Dorchester, January 4, 1863 The New Year broke upon us in a fulness of natural Splendor. The stormy darkness of the day preceding served to increase, by contrast, what was in itself so inspiringly beautiful; while the freshly-fallen snow, mantling all be neath in radiant purity, reflected, through an atmosphere of transparent clearness, the cloudless glories of the blue above. But there was a charm in that morning to millions of hearts, of which this of nature was but the expressive sym bol, - a charm which it would have worn, though it had come swathed in darkness and cradled in storm. It was a morning which kindling anticipations had beckoned on its way; which had been prospectively hallowed and glorified for the blessed promise that it bore, as through a hundred days and nights it ripened to fulfilment. 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.