ties which this
marvellous union has enjoined upon us, the privileges with which it has
endowed us?

We shall enter many a home--some joyous with the mirth of children, the
hopefulness of youth, the serene happiness of useful and contented men
and women;--some shadowed by recent sorrow, where perhaps patriots, as
in the olden time, learn to endure for the sake of a beloved
country;--or others, perchance, where worldliness, discord, and egotism
have severed hearts that should be united. God grant the number of the
latter may be few! Happy should we be, could we know that our arrival
would bring one more smile to the lips of the gay, a single ray of
support or consolation to the souls of the sorrowing--could we cause the
world-worn to dream of better and brighter things than mere matter can
ever afford, give the thinker a pregnant thought, soothe earth's weary
art-children with the hope of wider comprehension and sympathy, lead the
rich to open upward paths to their poorer brethren, or the poor nobly to
bear or to better their humble condition--in a word, could we offer but
single drops of that wine of immortal life for which every human soul is
thirsting.

Frost and cold now are upon us; Christmas passing with its typal
evergreens and mystic chants; the old year dying fast with its weird
secrets buried until the Day of Doom; the New Year close upon us, with
its demands and duties. May the Heavenly Father bless its fleeting
hours, and enable us to sow them closely with the precious seeds of good
deeds,--germs to blossom on the Eternal Shore!

AMERICAN THANKSGIVING DAY IN LONDON.

NOVEMBER 25, 1863.

[The following report of the proceedings at the Thanksgiving Dinner
in London arrived too late to be incorporated in the body of
THE CONTINENTAL; in consequence, however, of its immediate
interest to our readers, we have decided upon giving it to them,
even if it must appear as a supplement. It is surely a very
pleasant thing to know that our patriots abroad consecrated the
festival by grateful thanks to the Giver of all good; and that
public and loyal utterances were made of the great national truths
which, in our present crisis, it is of such vital importance to
make known to the men and governments of other countries.--ED.
CONTINENTAL.]

In pursuance of the proclamation of the President of the United States,
addressed to all citizens, at home and abroad,