On the other hand, it must be remembered that in all really substantial buildings, especially if erected on doubtful ground, a large proportion of the cost and of the most valuable material, and also of the time, must be expended out of sight before it becomes a feature of the landscape.
In all religious movements it is especially true that much of the best material, and much of the cost, is utterly lost to sight before the world sees any result. In the South, for the past fifteen years, the foundations have been laid for a superstructure which is to arise in grand and glorious proportions, the joy of our land and the praise of all people. We are just reaching the surface, and others than the workmen themselves are now able to see that something has been going on during all these years.
If structures, however beautiful, which have no foundations, must topple, and we should feel no disappointment when they do, we would yet understand that much has been done when a foundation broad enough and strong enough has been laid.
The work will go on now with apparently tenfold rapidity, for, since it attracts attention it will also attract helpers, and those who doubted and sneered will co-operate in carrying it forward.
BENEFACTIONS.
It is reported that John I. Blair has recently given $40,000 to Lafayette College.
Hon. Levi Parsons has given $50,000 to Union College for the benefit of worthy students.
Mrs. Orra Bolles, of Hartford, Conn., has given $15,000 to different benevolent enterprises, mostly under the auspices of the Baptist denomination.
Ex-Secretary Delano has given $10,000 to Kenyon College.