but mingled with the spasms of their dying hour a last and implor

ing appeal to the parent of all | mercies, that he would remember,

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in eternal | blessings, the land of their birth; give us their devotion

— give us that of the young enthusiast of Pâris, who, listening to m SLC m SLC

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piring man, bàred his àrm for the lancet, and cried again and again,

with impassioned võice: "Hère, take it — oh! take it from mê! let

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mê die, so that Mirabeau and the liberties of my country may not BO wide

pèrish! Give us something only of sûch a love of country, and we f BO m S во turn to h are safe, forèver safe: the troubles which shadow over and oppress and to hs B ċ f

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us nów will pass away like a summer cloud. The fatal element of

all our discord will be removed from among us. (f) Let gentlemen be adjured by the weal of this and coming ages, by our own and our children's good, by all that we love or that we look for in the progress and the glories of our land, to leave this entire subject, with every accountability it may impose, every remedy it may require, every accumulation of difficulty or degree of pressure it may reach to leave it all to the interest, to the wisdom, and to the conscience, of those upon whom the providence of God and the constitution of their country have cast it.)

(pp) It is said, sir, that at some dark hour of our revolutionary cóntest, when army after army had been lóst; when, dispirited, béaten, wretched, the heart of the boldest and faithfulest díed within them, and áll, for an instant, seemed cónquered, except the unconquerable soul of our father-chiéf,—(p) it is said that at that moment,

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inspiration of his immortal wórk for all the trials it could bring, he

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and daring declaration: (ƒ)"Strip me (said he) of the dejected and

soldiers, a thousand strong, came to seize them and carry them over sea for trial, and so nip the bud of Freedom auspiciously opening in that early spring. The town militia came together before daylight, " for training." A great, tall man, with a large head and a high, wide brow, their captain,— one who had "seen service,' marshalled them into line, numbering but seventy, and bade "every man load his piece with powder and ball. I will order the first man shot that runs away," said he, when some faltered. unless fired upon, but if they want to have a begin here."

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Don't fire

war, let it

Gentlemen, you know what followed; those farmers and mechanics "fired the shot heard round the world." A little monument covers the bones of such as before had pledged their fortune and their sacred honor to the Freedom of America, and that day gave it also their lives. I was born in that little town, and bred up amid the memories of that day. When a boy, my mother lifted me up, one Sunday, in her religious, patriotic arms, and held me while I read the first monumental line I ever saw "Sacred to Liberty and

the Rights of Mankind."

Since then I have studied the memorial marbles of Greece and Rome, in many an ancient town; nay, on Egyptian obelisks, have read what was written before the Eternal roused up Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, but no chiseled stone has ever stirred me to such emotion as these rustic names of men who fell "In the Sacred Cause of God and their Country."

Gentlemen, the Spirit of Liberty, the Love of Justice, was early fanned into a flame in my boyish heart. That monument covers the bones of my own kinsfolk; it was their blood which reddened the long, green grass at Lexington. It was my own name which stands chiseled on that stone; the tall Captain who marshalled his fellow farmers and mechanics into stern array, and spoke such brave and dan

gerous words as opened the war of American Independence,the last to leave the field, was my father's father. I learned to read out of his Bible, and with a musket he that day captured from the foe I learned also another religious lesson, that "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God." I keep them both, "Sacred to Liberty and the Rights of Mankind," to use them both, "In the Sacred Cause of God and my Country."

99

49. IRISH GRIEVANCES.-Richard L. Sheil.

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If we were to adopt the language which is prescribed to us, the people of England would not believe that we labored under any substantial grievances. "I do not believe you" (said a celebrated advocate of antiquity to a citizen who stated to him a case of enormous wrong),—"I do not believe you." "Not believe me?" No." "What! not believe me! I tell you that my antagonist met me in the public way, seized me by the throat, flung me to the earth, and "Hold"exclaimed Demostheness. "your.exe is... their solemn shade; I appeal to you by that Bible-precious to us both; by that gospel which our missionaries alike proclaim to the heathen world, and by that Savior whom we both adore,—never let there be strife between nations whose conflict would be the rushing together of two Niagaras, but whose union will be like the irresistible course of two great rivers flowing on majestically to fertilize and bless the world.

Never let our beautiful standardsyours of the stars and stripes, suggesting the lamps of night and the rays of day, and ours of the clustered crosses, telling of union in diversity, and reminding of the One Great Liberator and Peace-Maker, who, by the cross, gave life to the worldnever let these glorious standards be arrayed in hostile ranks; but ever may they float side by side, leading on the van of the world's progress.

Oh, I can imagine that if we, the hereditary champions of freedom, were engaged in strife, all the despots of the earth would clap their hands, and all the demons in hell would exult, while angels would weep to see these two nations wasting the treasure and shedding the blood that should be reserved for the strife against the common foes of freedom.

Never give angels such cause of lamentation, never give despots and demons such cause for rejoicing; but ever Great Britain and America the mother and the daughter, or, if you prefer it, the elder daughter and the younger-go forth hand in hand, angel-guardians together of civilization, freedom and religion, their only rivalry the rivalry of love.

52. THE CAUSE OF TEMPERANCE.-John B. Gough.

Our cause is a progressive one. I have read the first constitution of the first temperance society formed in the State of New York in 1809, and one of the by-laws stated: "Any member of this association who shall be convicted of intoxication shall be fined a quarter of a dollar, except such act of intoxication shall take place on the Fourth of July, or any other regularly appointed military muster." We laugh at that now; but it was a serious matter in those days: it was in advance of the public sentiment of the age. The very men who adopted that principle were persecuted: they were hooted and pelted through the streets, the doors of their houses were blackened, their cattle mutilated.

The fire of persecution scorched some men so that they left the work. Others worked on, and God blessed them. Some are living to-day; and I should like to stand where they stand now, and see the mighty enterprise as it rises before them. They worked hard. They lifted the first turf-prepared the bed in which to lay the corner-stone. They laid it amid persecution and storm. They worked

under the surface; and men almost forgot that there were busy hands laying the solid foundation far down beneath.

By and by they got the foundation above the surface, and then began another storm of persecution. Now we see the superstructure-pillar after pillar, tower after tower, column after column, with the capitals emblazoned with "Love, truth, sympathy, and good-will to men." Old men gaze upon it as it grows up before them. They will not live to see it completed; but they see in faith the crowning copestone set upon it. Meek-eyed women weep as it grows in beauty; children strew the pathway of the workmen with flowers.

We do not see its beauty yetwe do not see the magnificence of its superstructure yet because it is in course of erection. Scaffolding, ropes, ladders, workmen ascending and descending, mar the beauty of the building; but by and by, when the hosts who have labored shall come up over a thousand battlefields waving with bright grain never again to be crushed in the distillery - through vineyards, under trellised vines, with grapes hanging in all their purple glory, never again to be pressed into that which can debase and degrade mankind—when they shall come through orchards, under trees hanging thick with golden pulpy fruit, never to be turned into that which can injure and debase- when they shall come up to the last distillery and destroy it; to the last stream of liquid death, and dry it up; to the last weeping wife, and wipe her tears gently away; to the last child, and lift him up to stand where God meant that child and man should stand; to the last drunkard, and nerve him to burst the burning fetters and make a glorious accompaniment to the song of freedom by the clanking of his broken chains-then, ah! then will the copestone be set upon it, the scaffolding will fall with a crash, and the building will stand in its wondrous beauty before an astonished world. Loud shouts of rejoicing shall then be heard,