he fate of nations has been weighed! Ye have
checked the march of conquest, or inspired with new, defiant energy the
conqueror's will! Your ranges are the projecting lines which mark, on
the great dialplate of the world, the shadows of the rolling ages! On
your steep, bleak heights empires have been lost and won! Ye show how
weak is man, how great is God!

Ye are the home of meditation, the colossal pillars of the audience
chamber of the Deity! The Mount of Contemplation rises far above the
mists of partial opinion and the mire of conflict, the discords of
jangling interests and the refractions of divided policies, girt by a
serene and sublime horizon, and within hearing of Nature's everlasting
song.

Behold the holy family of mountains, on which the angels look with
reverential wonder: the Mount of Awe, black with clouds and vivid with
lightnings, whence descended the guide of wandering Israel, with light
divine reflected on his brow; the Mount of Transfiguration, where native
Deity gleamed from the face of the benign Messiah on adoring, rapt
disciples; the Mount of Sorrow, where the world's grief was borne, and
which celestial grace has made the Mount of Joy to 'numbers without
number;'--the Mount of Ascension, where last stood on earth Incarnate
Mercy. Look up! look up! See how the angelic guards point with
amaranthine wands afar, where glows, beyond the vale of tears, the
Mountain of Immortal Life.

Behold, in exalted vision, the mountains of Asia and of the islands of
the Eastern seas, of Africa, of Europe, of America;--see how they are
baptized with fire, one after, another, as the sun rises, to spread
around the world the light of its daily consecration. How sadly is the
world's morning glory soiled and dimmed by thoughtless man ere comes
again the dark and silent night!

NATIONAL FRIENDSHIPS.

Not long after the outbreak of the present war, the loyal portion of the
country discovered that the sympathies of the British Government, and,
in a great measure, of the British nation, were with the revolted
States. The expectations of those who looked toward England for at least
a hearty moral support, were quickly destroyed by the ill-concealed
spirit of exultation which she exhibited on more than one occasion.
Although it can hardly be asserted that the great body of our people
expected from her more than an impartial observance of strict
neutrality, it nevertheless occasioned considerable surprise that