OUR  GOLDEN  JUBILEE,

           A  RETROSPECT.
 

    ['AY, 1884, completes a half-century of the work

     of the American Female Guardian Society, and

     we pause for a retrospect of these memorable

fifty years.  Our Saviour said of the kingdom of God,

." It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took,

and cast into his  garden; and it grew and waxed a

great tree ; and the fowls of  the  air lodged in the

branches of it."  This similitude  strikingly epito»

mizes the history of this Society, its small beginnings,

steady growth,  and present extent and prosperity;

and wc stand to-day  to express our wonder, lore and

praiso for what God has wrought.  We look back

upon the consecrated women who began the work,

with affectionate  admiration,  but  while we  praise

them, and wonder at their holy daring, we look be¬

yond, as they would have us do, in  adoring gratitude

to Him who went before, and gave  them grace to

follow after.  We  speak not so much of achievement

as of growth, not of what human will has wrought,