ore so wholly unspotted;
so clear of all wrong, so purely and simply the sign of justice and
liberty. Did I say that we brought back the same banner that you
bore away, noble and heroic sir? It is not the same. It is more
and better than it was. The land is free from slavery since that
banner fell.

When God would prepare Moses for emancipation, he overthrew his
first steps and drove him for forty years to brood in the
wilderness. When our flag came down, four years it lay brooding in
darkness. It cried to the Lord, "Wherefore am I deposed?" Then
arose before it a vision of its sin. It had strengthened the
strong, and forgotten the weak. It proclaimed liberty, but trod
upon slaves. In that seclusion it dedicated itself to liberty.
Behold, to-day, it fulfills its vows! When it went down four
million people had no flag. To-day it rises, and four million
people cry out, "Behold our flag!" Hark! they murmur. It is the
Gospel that they recite in sacred words: "It is a Gospel to the
poor, it heals our broken hearts, it preaches deliverance to
captives, it gives sight to the blind, it sets at liberty them that
are bruised." Rise up then, glorious Gospel banner, and roll out
these messages of God. Tell the air that not a spot now sullies thy
whiteness. Thy red is not the blush of shame, but the flush of joy.
Tell the dews that wash thee that thou art as pure as they. Say to
the night that thy stars lead toward the morning; and to the
morning, that a brighter day arises with healing in its wings. And
then, O glowing flag, bid the sun pour light on all thy folds with
double brightness while thou art bearing round and round the world
the solemn joy--a race set free! a nation redeemed! The mighty
hand of government, made strong in war by the favor of the God of
Battles, spreads wide to-day the banner of liberty that went down in
darkness, that arose in light; and there it streams, like the sun
above it, neither parceled out nor monopolized, but flooding the air
with light for all mankind. Ye scattered and broken, ye wounded and
dying, bitten by the fiery serpents of oppression, everywhere, in
all the world, look upon this sign, lifted up, and live! And ye
homeless and houseless slaves, look, and ye are free! At length
you, too, have part and lot in this glorious ensign that broods with
impartial love over small and great, the poor and the strong, the
bond and the free. In this solemn hour, let us pray fo