voices in celebrating the statesmen and the heroes, the men of
thought and the men of action, to whom that history owes its existence.
In other years this pleasing office may have been all that was required
of the holiday speaker. But to-day, when the very life of the nation
is threatened, when clouds are thick about us, and men's hearts are
throbbing with passion, or failing with fear, it is the living question
of the hour, and not the dead story of the past, which forces itself
into all minds, and will find unrebuked debate in all assemblies.

In periods of disturbance like the present, many persons who sincerely
love their country and mean to do their duty to her disappoint the hopes
and expectations of those who are actively working in her cause. They
seem to have lost whatever moral force they may have once possessed,
and to go drifting about from one profitless discontent to another, at
a time when every citizen is called upon for cheerful, ready service.
It is because their minds are bewildered, and they are no longer truly
themselves. Show them the path of duty, inspire them with hope for
the future, lead them upwards from the turbid stream of events to the
bright, translucent springs of eternal principles, strengthen their
trust in humanity and their faith in God, and you may yet restore them
to their manhood and their country.

At all times, and especially on this anniversary of glorious
recollections and kindly enthusiasms, we should try to judge the weak
and wavering souls of our brothers fairly and generously. The conditions
in which our vast community of peace-loving citizens find themselves
are new and unprovided for. Our quiet burghers and farmers are in the
position of river-boats blown from their moorings out upon a vast ocean,
where such a typhoon is raging as no mariner who sails its waters ever
before looked upon. If their beliefs change with the veering of the
blast, if their trust in their fellow-men, and in the course of Divine
Providence, seems well-nigh shipwrecked, we must remember that they
were taken unawares, and without the preparation which could fit them to
struggle with these tempestuous elements. In times like these the faith
is the man; and they to whom it is given in larger measure owe a special
duty to those who for want of it are faint at heart, uncertain in
speech, feeble in effort, and purposeless in aim.

Assuming without argument a few simple propositions,--that
self-governm