"She's a golden sentence Writ by our Maker, which the angels may There is a violation of character, an aspersion on fair fame, and a blighting sneer at all goodness, which is as earthly and devilish as violation of another kind; after which reflection I turn, with a shrug, to another portion of my paper. There is no help for it. I have fenced and shirked with the dread subject as much as possible, have dallied over descriptions and errors of taste, have chatted eagerly and lengthily upon anything but the one topic; and now I must speak of the martyred ABRAHAM LINCOLN in spite of myself. The news of his death was received here as a public calamity. The grocer and general dealer, the linendraper and the ironmonger, put up half their shutters, as if one of their own family had departed; and, despite a certain sympathy for the South as fighting bravely against fearful odds, there has been but one expression of horror and dismay since the news of the assassination came. It has converted waverers to the Northern cause, and revived many a dormant feeling on the horrors of slavery. Above all, it has given a fervour and earnestness to our petition for "peace in our time," and heightened our profound sympathy for the noble nation now groaning under civil war. "The way of peace they know not," was the prophet's description of the greatest wickedness; and the greatest punishment he promised was that "they should not know peace;" and present events give force and vigour to the sacred passage. Where is the end? how will the olive branch appear? and, also, who will be its bearer? are questions to make one dizzy with over-thought. When Cæsar was engaging all the world in war, he wrote to Tully, "There was nothing worthier of an honest man than to have contention with nobody;" and so deceitful and desperately wicked is the human heart, that it may be many of the leaders of the dreadful war now raging-leaders not in a military, but a prompting sense-could utter platitudes like Cæsar's, even while they are adding insult to outrage, and casting fuel on the fire. One word as to the, as it seems to me, indecent comments which were passed upon the departed President's personal appearance during his life. Do we look for beauty in men in the foremost places? Are the world's affairs to be entrusted to a smooth skin, and curly hair, and drawing-room graces? or is brain and muscle, and soul and force, to command the respect which is its due? Heads wear well that have not got to think; but, as I read somewhere the other day, "looking over the portraits of those who have laboured longest and hardest in the fields of science, literature, theology, and human progress, we find that Nature has been niggardly with them in the matter of beauty. Possibly, the better the quality of her coin, the less pains she takes in stamping it for the world's market.” But the reflections to which my newspaper gives rise would fill a volume. If you could hear it talked over by the leaders of public opinion here—my parish clerk, the deafest of the two churchwardens, an old lady who loves her parrot, next to herself, better than anything in the world, our new schoolmaster, who is gravely suspected of being "new-fangled," and other great people, you would learn that, small and petty as are many of our provincial ways, we are in the main sound at heart. The diction would not seem to you very choice, or the style particularly clear, but the sentiments would be pretty much what you would hear in your own set; while that very habit of gossiping, which is so pernicious, perhaps gives the humble countryman a clearer insight into motives and a more thorough comprehension of character, than many of his social equality in large towns. But if it were not for a firm belief in the ever-abiding wisdom of God, who would not infer from the horrors recently recorded that the world had been handed over to the evil one, and that the people in it were stranded without hope? For, as has been happily said, "as the spirit expands, and perceives that it is one of an innumerable family, it would be in danger of sinking into the despair of loneliness if it were not capable of 'Belief In mercy carried infinite degrees Beyond the tenderness of human hearts," " while the very circumstance of multitude obviates the danger of undue elation. But though it is good to be lowly, it behoves every one to be sensible of the guardianship of which so many evidences are around all who breathe. While the world and life roll on and on, the feeble reason of the child of Providence may be at times overpowered by the vastness of the system under which he lives; but his faith will smile upon his fear, rebuke him for averting his eyes, and inspire him with the thought, "Nothing can crush me, for I am made for eternity. I will do, suffer, and enjoy, as my Father wills; and let the world and life roll on !" Such is the faith which supports, which alone can support, the many who, having been whirled in the eddying stream of social affairs, are withdrawn by one cause or another, to abide, in some little creek, the passage of the mighty tide. The broken-down statesman, who knows himself to be spoken of as politically dead, and sees his successors at work, building on his foundations, without more than a passing thought on him who had laboured before them, has need of this faith. The aged, who find affairs proceeding at the will of the young and hardy, whatever the grey-haired may think and say, have need of this faith. So have the sick, when they find none but them selves disposed to look on life in the light which comes from beyond the grave. So have the persecuted, when, with or without cause, they see themselves pointed at in the street; and the despised, who find themselves neglected whichever way they turn. So have the prosperous, during those moments which must occur to all, when sympathy fails, and means to much-desired ends are wanting, or when satiety makes the spirit roam abroad in search of something better than it has found. This universal, eternal, filial relation is the only universal and eternal refuge. It is the solace of royalty weeping in the inner chambers of its palaces, and of poverty drooping beside its cold hearth. It is the glad tidings preached to the poor, and in which all must be poor in spirit to have part. If they be poor in spirit, it matters little what is their external state, or "whether the world"-and oh, my town friends who despise our country gossip and country ways, do take this truth to heart-" which rolls on beside or over them be the world of a solar system, or of a conquering empire, or of a small-souled village." "THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS PRAISE THEE." HIGH in the cloudless skies, Where the full glory of the Godhead breaking Flooding our souls with light, our tongues awaking Yes, the fierce strife is done! The furious shouting of the war-cry ended, The struggle past, the hard-fought vict'ry won, Now stand we, who earth's roughest paths have trod, Yes, 'tis all over now! Over each sigh, each tear, each hotly burning sorrow,— Rest we each weary heart, each aching brow, Rest in the glory of that bright " to-morrow," Which dawn'd, when at Thy word, O King of kings, We who have bled and died, Counting our life but loss, death gain, O Lord, for Thee, Shouting a Conqueror's song, which like a free And boundless torrent shall through heaven pour, Father, each tired child, Whose form was bow'd by sufferings over-laden, "THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS PRAISE THEE." 271 We who have walk'd alone, Whose warm hopes wither'd e'en in their hour of birth, But on an iron road along the earth Have gone our weary way!—High God, we claim, Throughout the cloudless skies, Swelling and ever swelling shall our song |