leth in the earth. Verily His inquisition for
blood has been strict and awful; and for every stricken household of the
poor and lowly, hundreds of households of the oppressor have been
scattered. The land where the family of the slave was first annihilated,
and the negro, with all the loves and hopes of a man, was proclaimed to
be a beast to be bred and sold in market with the horse and the
swine,--that land, with its fair name, Virginia, has been made a
desolation so signal, so wonderful, that the blindest passer-by cannot
but ask for what sin so awful a doom has been meted out. The prophetic
visions of Nat Turner, who saw the leaves drop blood and the land
darkened, have been fulfilled. The work of justice which he predicted is
being executed to the uttermost.

But when this strange work of judgment and justice is consummated, when
our country, through a thousand battles and ten thousands of precious
deaths, shall have come forth from this long agony, redeemed and
regenerated, then God Himself shall return and dwell with us, and the
Lord God shall wipe away all tears from all faces, and the rebuke of His
people shall He utterly take away.

GOD SAVE THE FLAG!

Washed in the blood of the brave and the blooming,
Snatched from the altars of insolent foes,
Burning with star-fires, but never consuming,
Flash its broad ribands of lily and rose.

Vainly the prophets of Baael would rend it,
Vainly his worshippers pray for its fall;
Thousands have died for it, millions defend it,
Emblem of justice and mercy to all:

Justice that reddens the sky with her terrors,
Mercy that comes with her white-handed train,
Soothing all passions, redeeming all errors,
Sheathing the sabre and breaking the chain.

Borne on the deluge of old usurpations,
Drifted our Ark o'er the desolate seas;
This was the rainbow of hope to the nations,
Torn from the storm-cloud and flung to the breeze!

God bless the Flag and its loyal defenders.
While its broad folds o'er the battle-field wave,
Till the dim star-wreath rekindle its splendors,
Washed from its stains in the blood of the brave!

ANNO DOMINI.

It is right and fitting that this nation should enter upon the new year
with peculiar gratitude and thanksgiving to the Most High. Through all
its existence it has rejoiced in the sunshine of divine favor; but never
has that favor