LESSON XCIII. A SACRED MEMORY. WM. LEGGETT. 1. Ir yon bright stars which gem the night, Whom death has torn asunder here, 2. But oh, how dark, how drear, how lone, Ah! then these stars in mockery shine, 3. It cannot be !—each hope and fear That blights the eye or clouds the brow, Proclaims there is a happier sphere, Than this bleak world that holds us now! There is a voice which sorrow hears, When heaviest weighs life's galling chain 'Tis Heaven that whispers, "dry thy tears The pure in heart shall meet again." LESSON XCIV. · EULOGY ON WEBSTER. RUFUS CHOATE 1. But it is time that the eulogy was spoken. My heart goes back into the coffin there with him, and I would pause. I went, it is a day or two since, alone, to see again the home which he so dearly loved, the chamber where he died, the grave in which they laid him, all habited as when "His look drew audience still as night, Or summer's noontide air," till the heavens be no more. 2. Throughout that spacious and calm scene, all things to the eye showed at first unchanged. The books in the library, the portraits, the table at which he wrote, the scientific culture of the land, the course of agricultural occupation, the coming in of harvests, fruit of the seed his own hand had scattered, the animals and implements of husbandry, the trees planted by him in lines, in copses, in orchards, by thousands, the seat under the noble elm on which he used to sit to feel the southwest wind at evening, or hear the breathings of the sea, or the not less audible music of the starry heavens, all seemed at first unchanged. 3. The sun of a bright day, from which, however, something of the fervors of midsummer were wanting, fell temperately on them all, filled the air on all sides with the utterances of life, and gleamed on the long line of ocean. Some of those whom on earth he loved best, were still there. The great mind still seemed to preside; the great presence to be with you. You might expect to hear again the rich and playful tones of the voice of the old hospitality. Yet a moment more, and all the scene took on the aspect of one great monument, inscribed with his name, and sacred to his memory. 4. And such it shall be in all the future of America! The sensation of desolateness, and loneliness, and darkness with which you see it now, will pass away; the sharp grief of love and friendship will become soothed; men will repair thither, as they are wont to commemorate the great days of history; the same glance shall take in, and the same emotions shall greet and bless the harbor of the Pilgrims and the tomb of Webster. LESSON XCV. REMEMBER ME. MOORE. 1. Go where glory waits thee, Oh, then remember me. 2. Other arms may press thee, But when friends are nearest, Oh, then remember me. 3. When at eve thou rovest, Oh, then remember me; 4. Oft as summer closes, Once so loved by thee, Her who made thee love them; Oh, then remember me. 5. When around thee, dying, Oh, then remember me; 6. Then, should music, stealing Draw one tear from thee; LESSON XCVI. CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. H. W. BEECHER 1. Now, gentlemen, civil and religious liberty is a thing that governments may declare and recognize, but which govern ments never make, any more than governments make a man. God made a man, and he never made one without the hope of liberty in him; and if there be a man on this earth that has not got that, then he aint made! 2. And because this is a part of God's "talents" let to us, and let on interest, and which we are bound, as receiving it from Him, to trade well upon, therefore it is that every government and every nation that has citizens who are worthy to be called men, and are worthy to call their mothers "Mother" -therefore it is that every such nation is perpetually tending toward liberty-no matter under what oppressions—as a seed put under a rock, or under a board, or in the dark shadow of a wall, yet, so it has vitality, will attempt to grow, will seek the water, send its root down to it, and then seek out where light and heat may be found. So, put a man under what superincumbent oppression you please, there always will be reaching out a root that will have liberty-there always will be reaching out a stem for the light of God's precious civil and religious liberty! 3. But, gentlemen, it is an easy thing for us to speak about civil and religious liberty. It is easy for us who have it, to praise it. Oh, methinks we praise it, as I can imagine an old curmudgeon, to whom Providence has given gold, and who will not give it to the Hungarians-as I would give it, if I had it. And the first time I ever envied such a man was lately. 4. But I can imagine him dressed in velvet, with plush on which to rest his foot, flushed with wine, and surrounded with luxurious appliances, and fat and glowing in his abundance, this old usurer take out his gold, and talk and talk over and over about the benefits of life, while the beggars are on the sidewalk by his door, and get neither a crumb from his table nor a morsel of charity. I ask, what is the use of money to such a crea ture as that, except to damn him? So it is with every man who is talking, talking continually about civil and religious liberty. Now, I want to know what they do with civil and religious liberty. |