This maple-grove, which has now become ever memorable, is included within the boundaries of Mission Park. The park contains ten acres, and was purchased on account of its historical interest, and made part of the domains of Williams College. It is the design of the friends of the college to embellish the park with specimens of the trees and shrubs and flowers of every foreign land to which missionaries have been sent by the American Board, so far, at least, as such specimens can be successfully acclimated in this country.
When its embellishments have been perfected, Mission Park will become a place of delightful resort, full of sacred memories, which will accumulate and grow in interest with the lapse of time. Every year will bring within its inviting precincts hundreds of pilgrims, and every college commencement its missionary jubilee. Then will Mission Park possess, not only an attractive aspect, but a moral power which will awaken a renewed zeal in behalf of missions. And here may this consecrated monument, which is so expressive of a highly interesting fact in the history of missions, ever remain as an educator of coming generations, and as a landmark in the pathway of the citizen, the student, and the stranger! And here let the moral hero of the present, and of the future, stay his steps, and make still higher and holier resolves. Nor let us of the present generation forget that we have a great work still to accomplish in the moral field,--a field which is as broad as the earth, and in which we ought to renew our diligence,--feeling assured that with the final triumph of truth will come universal freedom, universal love, and universal brotherhood.
It is due to Williams College to say that her educational and Christian influences have ever been directed by a benevolent and philanthropic spirit,--a spirit that burned on the prayerful lips of Mills at the haystack, and which has inspired with heroic zeal in the cause of truth thousands of human souls throughout our Western Hemisphere. Humble as the college may have been in its infancy, time and the favor of Heaven have made it a power in the land. In every department of literature and of science it has furnished mental giants who have made their mark in the world. In addition to this, it has sent forth its thousands of faithful workers, who are engaged, far and near, in pulling down the strongholds of error, and in building up in their stead towers of strength, founded on a Christian basis. In its teachings of literature and of science, it teaches those still higher and diviner principles which give to man the graces of a true manhood. In a word, its refining and harmonizing influences are felt, not only by its sons, but by thousands of others, the world over. Few indeed are the men who have wielded a more extensive influence for good, or contributed more to the permanent value of our theological literature, than the learned and venerated President of Williams College, Dr. Hopkins.