before the battle of Gettysburg a long procession of clergymen,
headed by Dr. Brainerd, marched to Fairmount Park with spades over their
shoulders to throw up entrenchments. The victory of the Federal troops
at Vicksburg and Gettysburg rendered those earthworks unnecessary.

A distinguished gentleman of the Civil War told me that Abraham Lincoln
proposed to avoid our civil conflict by purchasing the slaves of the
South and setting them free. He calculated what would be a reasonable
price for them, and when the number of millions of dollars that would be
required for such a purpose was announced the proposition was scouted,
and the North would not have made the offer, and the South would not
have accepted it, if made.

"But," said my military friend, "the war went on, and just the number of
million dollars that Mr. Lincoln calculated would have been enough to
make a reasonable purchase of all the slaves were spent in war, besides
all the precious lives that were hurled away in 250 battles."

There ought to be some other way for men to settle their controversies
without wholesale butchering.

It was due partly to the national gloom that overspread the people
during the Civil War that I took to the lecture platform actively. I
entered fully into the lecturing field when I went to Philadelphia,
where DeWitt Moore, officer in my church and a most intimate friend,
asked me to lecture for the benefit of a Ball Club to which he belonged.
That lecture in a hall in Locust Street, Philadelphia, opened the way
for more than I could do as lecturer.

I have always made such engagements subordinate to my chief work of
preaching the Gospel. Excepting two long journeys a year, causing each
an absence of two Sundays, I have taken no lecturing engagements, except
one a week, generally Thursdays. Lecturing has saved my life and
prolonged my work. It has taken me from an ever-ringing door-bell, and
freshened me for work, railroad travelling being to me a recuperation.

I have lectured in nearly all the cities of the United States, Canada,
England, Ireland and Scotland, and in most of them many times. The
prices paid me have seemed too large, but my arrangements have generally
been made through bureaus, and almost invariably local committees have
cleared money. The lecture platform seemed to me to offer greater
opportunity for usefulness. Things that could not be said in the pulpit,
but which ought to be said, may be said on the lyceum