It is expected, perhaps, that some allusion will be made to the motive which has induced the erection of the monument you see standing before you in its modest yet truthful significance. The motive was simply a desire felt in common with many other persons to see a spot which has become sacred in missionary history commemorated by some permanent expression of Christian gratitude. An expression of this kind seemed due not only to the great and good cause of American Foreign Missions, but to the revered memories of the five young men of prayer, who knelt here, under shelter of the haystack, and received from on high a divine commission. And permit me to add that the filial regard I entertain for my Alma Mater, and for my native State of Massachusetts, has had its influence in disposing me to make this contribution to a heaven-born enterprise, and in remembrance of those truly good, and therefore truly great, men, whose names are inscribed on the monument. The plan of the monument, as well as its erection here, it gives me pleasure to state, has received the cordial approval of the Faculty and Trustees of the college. The grand object for which the monument has been erected, is the commemoration of the "birthplace of American Foreign Missions;" and to this object we now dedicate it, in the name of a Christian philanthropy, whose "field is the world."
In its character the monument is not less unique than emblematical. It stands on the identical spot where the haystack stood. As a specimen of fine material and artistic sculpture, it is strictly a Berkshire production, composed of Berkshire marble quarried at Alford, and wrought in the workshops of The Berkshire Marble Company. Its entire height is twelve feet; its shaft, cap, and base, square; its surface polished; its color a silver-blue. It is surmounted with a globe three feet in diameter, traced in geographical lines. On its eastern face, and immediately below the globe, are inscribed these words, "The Field is the World." Then follows a similitude of the haystack, sculptured in bas-relief, and encircled with these words, "The Birthplace of American Foreign Missions, 1806." And beneath this appear the names of the five young men who held the prayer-meeting under the shelter of the haystack. The maple-grove, amid whose cool shadows we now stand, is the same grove from which the five heavenly minded young men were driven by the impending rain-storm.