last century, who can predict what may transpire in the next hundred years?

Casting forward a look into this vast unknown, I seem to see, in vision, this whole Western Continent, one people, one vast Republic, under one government, and that the best on which the sun ever shone. I see a nation, consisting of five hundred States, inhabited by hundreds of millions of educated, intelligent Christian citizens, of all colors, races, and climes, a homogeneous, free people, possessing equal rights before the law, and equal privileges throughout the western world. Then, as England once was,

When every

"'Ere her griefs began,

rood of ground maintained its man,"

all our citizens shall sit, every one under his own vine and figtree, and none shall make them afraid. Yes, the time is to come in the future, when this country, comprising every degree of climate, and every variety of soil, shall outnumber the teeming millions of China and India.

History, plainer than any thing else save revelation, proclaims the hand of an Almighty Ruler among the kingdoms of this world. "He setteth up and removeth kings. He planteth and plucketh up nations." He judges nations as nations. The fate of the ancient nations is well known. Where are the Jews, under David and Solomon the wonder and admiration of the world? Where now is this once mighty kingdom? Where now these Jews? Scattered and peeled, and a by-word among all the nations of the earth. Why? Because her kings and their subjects rejected and disobeyed the good advice of David to Solomon: "Keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies." "Know thou the God of thy Father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind." "If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but, if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever." What overturned the Chaldæan empire, which, under Nebuchadnezzar, was the most powerful on earth? The impious feast of Belshazzar, his son, tells the story. What destroyed Rome, the

mistress of the world? Rottenness and moral corruption. "Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness," have ruined, not Sodom only, but all the once flourishing nations of the world; and in their destruction is seen the very "finger of God."

If our nation, so prosperous for the past century, so glorious in this centennial year, is to continue and increase, and be the guiding-star of the world, if it is to be in the future, as in the past, the asylum for the oppressed of all lands, the freest, the best educated, the happiest, of republics, it will be only by acknowledging, reverencing, and obeying the statutes of the Most High, "the God of our Fathers."

THE CENTENNIAL GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS.

Passing up the Schuylkill from Columbia Bridge, on leaving the old Concourse Road, leading by the base of Belmont Reservoir, and winding up a steep ascent, we arrive at the summit of George's Hill, two hundred and fifty feet above tide-water. Here a tract of land, comprising eighty-three acres, was presented to the city by Jesse and Rebecca George, long the home of their ancestors. At the foot of this hill is a broad meadow or plain, on which it is proposed to hold the grand exhibition of a hundred years' progress of the United States.

Philadelphia, the birthplace of the nation, was the appropriate place selected for this anniversary; and the site chosen is well adapted to the purpose. These Centennial grounds cover four hundred and fifty acres, extending from the base of George's Hill almost to the Schuylkill River, and northerly to Columbia Bridge and Belmont mansion. Upon this level plain, known as the "Landsdown Plateau," at the intersection of Elm and Belmont Avenues, the principal exhibition edifices are erected.

The main building, in the form of a parallelogram, is eighteen hundred and eighty feet long, four hundred and sixty-four feet wide, seventy feet high, and has a central tower of a hundred and twenty feet in height. This building, with its towers and projections, covers an area of twenty-one acres and a half. It is built of iron and glass, and, in the interior, presents one grand hall seventy feet high, with a central pavilion ninety-six

feet in height. Through the centre there is an avenue, a hundred and twenty feet wide, running the entire length of the building. There are also two side avenues of the same length, each a hundred feet wide. These are intersected by three cross avenues of the same width, dividing the plan into nine open spaces, free from columns; the whole covering an area of four hundred and sixteen feet square. There are smaller aisles, forty-eight feet in width. The arrangement of the goods is such, that all the products of this country are placed in a line, side by side with similar products of all other countries.

The Art Gallery, or Memorial Building, stands about three hundred feet north of the main building, on a parallel line. This is designed to be a permanent structure, and is built of granite, iron, and glass, being thoroughly fire-proof. It is three hundred and sixty-five feet long, two hundred and ten feet wide, and fifty-nine feet high. It has a central dome a hundred and fifty feet in height, on which stands a figure of Columbia. It has a bell of enormous size. At each corner of the base of the dome are colossal figures, typifying the four quarters of the globe. The interior has a central hall, with galleries extending east and west, the whole making one grand Hall two hundred and eighty-seven feet long, eighty-five feet wide, and thirty-five feet high, rising in the centre, at the dome, to eighty feet. This spacious hall will contain eight thousand persons. There are many other halls, galleries, and studios in this building.

The HORTICULTURAL BUILDING is designed to be permanent, and is a fine, ornate, and convenient one, and will be a lasting ornament to the Park. It is located just north of the Main Building and Art Gallery, affording a good view of the Schuylkill River, and of the north part of the city. The Conservatory, of which the angles are adorned with eight fountains, is 230 by 80 feet, and 55 feet high, with a lantern 170 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 14 feet high.

The AGRICULTURAL BUILDING is north of the Horticultural Building, and is made of wood and glass. The nave is 820 feet in length by 120 feet in width, with a height of 75 feet from the floor to the point of the arch. The central tramsept is of the same height, with a breadth of 100 feet; and the two end transepts are 70 feet high, and 80 feet wide.