ence, the highest of the gifts which He has bestowed on man. But
deem not that, because the day of Christian worship is chosen for the
great yearly assembly of a Christian commonwealth, the more direct
sacred duties of the day are forgotten. Before we, in our luxurious
island, have lifted ourselves from our beds, the men of the mountains,
Catholic and Protestant alike, have already paid the morning's worship
in God's temple. They have heard the mass of the priest, or they have
listened to the sermon of the pastor, before some of us have awakened
to the fact that the morn of the holy day has come. And when I saw men
thronging the crowded church, or kneeling, for want of space within,
on the bare ground beside the open door, and when I saw them marching
thence to do the highest duties of men and citizens, I could hardly
forbear thinking of the saying of Holy Writ, that "Where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is liberty." From the market-place of Altdorf, the
little capital of the Canton, the procession makes its way to the place
of meeting at Bozlingen. First marches the little army of the Canton, an
army whose weapons can never be used save to drive back an invader from
their land. Over their heads floats the banner, the bull's head of
Uri, the ensign which led men to victory on the fields of Sempach and
Morgarten. And before them all, on the shoulders of men clad in a garb
of ages past, are borne the famous horns, the spoils of the wild bull
of ancient days, the very horns whose blast struck such dread into the
fearless heart of Charles of Burgundy. Then, with their lictors before
them, come the magistrates of the commonwealth on horseback, the chief
magistrate, the Landammann, with his sword by his side. The people
follow the chiefs whom they have chosen to the place of meeting, a
circle in a green meadow with a pine forest rising above their heads and
a mighty spur of the mountain range facing them on the other side of the
valley. The multitude of the freemen take their seats around the chief
ruler of the commonwealth, whose term of office comes that day to an
end. The Assembly opens; a short space is first given to prayer, silent
prayer offered up by each man in the temple of God's own rearing. Then
comes the business of the day. If changes in the law are demanded, they
are then laid before the vote of the Assembly, in which each citizen
of full age has an equal vote and an equal right of speech. The yearly
magistrates