ed
of the holiday speaker. But to-day, when the very life of the nation is
threatened, when clouds are thick about us, and men's hearts are
throbbing with passion, or failing with fear, it is the living question
of the hour, and not the dead story of the past, which forces itself into
all minds, and will find unrebuked debate in all assemblies.

In periods of disturbance like the present, many persons who sincerely
love their country and mean to do their duty to her disappoint the hopes
and expectations of those who are actively working in her cause. They
seem to have lost whatever moral force they may have once possessed, and
to go drifting about from one profitless discontent to another, at a time
when every citizen is called upon for cheerful, ready service. It is
because their minds are bewildered, and they are no longer truly
themselves. Show them the path of duty, inspire them with hope for the
future, lead them upwards from the turbid stream of events to the bright,
translucent springs of eternal principles, strengthen their trust in
humanity and their faith in God, and you may yet restore them to their
manhood and their country.

At all times, and especially on this anniversary of glorious
recollections and kindly enthusiasms, we should try to judge the weak and
wavering souls of our brothers fairly and generously. The conditions in
which our vast community of peace-loving citizens find themselves are new
and unprovided for. Our quiet burghers and farmers are in the position
of river-boats blown from their moorings out upon a vast ocean, where
such a typhoon is raging as no mariner who sails its waters ever before
looked upon. If their beliefs change with the veering of the blast, if
their trust in their fellow-men, and in the course of Divine Providence,
seems well-nigh shipwrecked, we must remember that they were taken
unawares, and without the preparation which could fit them to struggle
with these tempestuous elements. In times like these the faith is the
man; and they to whom it is given in larger measure owe a special duty to
those who for want of it are faint at heart, uncertain in speech, feeble
in effort, and purposeless in aim.

Assuming without argument a few simple propositions,--that
self-government is the natural condition of an adult society, as
distinguished from the immature state, in which the temporary
arrangements of monarchy and oligarchy are tolerated as conveniences;
that the en