"Halt!" -the dust-brown ranks stood fast. out blazed the rifle-blast.

"Fire!

It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.
Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf;
She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.
"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.

4 A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;
The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word:
"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.
All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet:
All day long that free flag tossed
Over the heads of the rebel host.
Ever its torn folds rose and fell

On the loyal winds that loved it well;
And through the hill-gaps sunset light
Shone over it with a warm good night.

5 Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,

And the rebel rides on his raids no more.
Honor to her! and let a tear

Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.

Over Barbara Frietchie's grave

Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!
Peace, and order, and beauty, draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;
And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town!

CXV. THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF

PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

REV. P. D. GURLEY, D. D.

[The following is an extract from the discourse pronounced at the funeral of President Lincoln, at Washington, on Wednesday, April 19, 1865, by the Rev. P. D. Gur. ley, D. D., pastor of the Presbyterian Church where the deceased was in the habit of attending public worship.]

1. PROBABLY no man since the days of Washington was ever so deeply enshrined in the hearts of the American people as Abraham Lincoln. Nor was it a mistaken confidence and love. He deserved it all. He deserved it by his character, by the whole tenor, tone, and spirit of his life. He was simple, sincere, plain, honest, truthful, just, benevolent, and kind. His perceptions were quick and clear, his judgments calm and accurate, and his purposes good and pure beyond all question. Always and everywhere he aimed both to be right and to do right. His integrity was all pervading, all controlling, and incorruptible. As the chief magistrate of a great and imperilled people, he rose to the dignity and momentousness of the occasion. He saw his duty, and he determined to do his whole duty, seeking the guidance and leaning upon the arm of Him of whom it is written, "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."

2. I speak what I know when I affirm that His guidance was the prop on which he humbly and habitually leaned. It was the best hope he had for himself and his country. When he was leaving his home in Illinois, and coming to this city to take his seat in the executive chair of a disturbed and troubled nation, he said to the old and tried friends who gathered tearfully around him and bade him. farewell, "I leave you with this request, - pray for me." They did pray for him, and millions of others prayed for him. Nor did they pray in vain. Their prayers were

from

heard. The answer shines forth with a heavenly radiance' in the whole course and tenor of his administration 2, its commencement to its close.

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3. God raised him up for a great and glorious mission3. He furnished him for his work and aided him in its accomplishment. He gave him strength of mind, honesty of heart, and purity and pertinacity of purpose. In addition to these He gave him also a calm and abiding confidence in an overruling Providence, and in the ultimate triumph of truth and righteousness through the power and blessing of God. This confidence strengthened him in his hours of anxiety and toil, and inspired him with a calm and cheerful hope when others were despondent.

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4. Never shall I forget the emphasis and the deep emotion, with which, in this very room, he said to a company of clergymen, who had called to pay him their respects, in the darkest hour of our civil conflict, "Gentlemen, my hope of success in this great and terrible struggle rests on that immutable foundation, the justice and goodness of God. Even now, when the events seem most threatening, and the prospects dark, I still hope that in some way which man cannot see, all will be well in the end, and that as our cause is just, God is on our side."

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5. Such was his sublime and holy faith. It was an anchor to his soul both sure and steadfast. It made him firm and strong. It emboldened him in the rugged and perilous pathway of duty. It made him valiant for the right, for the cause of God and humanity. It held him in steady, patient, and unswerving adherence to a policy which he thought, and which we all now think, both God and humanity required him to adopt.

6. We admired his child-like simplicity, his freedom from guile and deceit, his stanch and sterling' integrity, his kind and forgiving temper, and his persistent, self-sacrificing devotion to all the duties of his eminent position. We

admired his readiness to hear and consider the cause of the poor, the humble, the suffering, and the oppressed, and his readiness to spend and be spent for the attainment of that great triumph, the blessed fruits of which shall be as wide spreading as the earth, and as enduring as the sun.

7. All these things commanded the admiration of the world, and stamped upon his life and character the unmistakable impress of true greatness. More sublime than all these, more holy and beautiful, was his abiding confidence in God, and in the final triumph of truth and righteousness through him and for his sake. The friends of liberty and the Union will repair to his consecrated* grave, through ages yet to come, to pronounce the memory of its occupant blessed, and to gather from his ashes and the rehearsal of his virtues fresh incentives to patriotism, and there renew their vows of fidelity to their country and their God.

1. THE day, with cold, gray feet, clung shivering to the hills,
While o'er the valley still night's rain-fringed curtains fell;
But waking Blue Eyes smiled, ""Tis ever as God wills;
He knoweth best; and be it rain or shine, 'tis well.
Praise God!" cried always little Claribel.

2. Then sank she on her knees, with eager, lifted hands; Her rosy lips made haste some dear request to tell: "O Father, smile, and save this fairest of all lands, And make her free, whatever hearts rebel.

3. "And, Father,"

still arose another pleading prayer, "O, save my brother, in the rain of shot and shell. Let not the death-bolt, with its horrid, streaming hair, Dash light from those sweet eyes I love so well.

"But, Father, grant that when the glorious fight is done, And up the crimson sky the shouts of Freedom swell, Grant that there be no nobler victor 'neath the sun

Than he whose golden hair I love so well.

4. When gray and dreary day shook hands with grayer night, The heavy air was thrilled with clangor of a bell.

"O, shout!" the herald cried, his worn eyes brimmed with light; ""Tis victory! O, what glorious news to tell!" "Praise God! He heard my prayer," cried Claribel.

5. "But, pray you, soldier, was my brother in the fight?

And in the fiery rain? O, fought he brave and well?” "Dear child," the herald cried, "there was no braver sight Than his young form, so grand 'mid shot and shell."

6. "And rides he now with victor's plumes of red,

While trumpets' golden throats his coming steps foretell?
The herald dropped a tear. "Dear child," he softly said,
Thy brother evermore with conquerors shall dwell."
"Praise God! He heard my prayer," cried Claribel.

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7. "With victors wearing crowns, and bearing palms," he said. A snow of sudden fear upon the rose lips fell.

"O, sweetest herald, say my brother lives," she plead.

"Dear child, he walks with angels, who in strength excel. Praise God, who gave this glory, Claribel."

8. The cold, gray day died sobbing on the weary hills,

While bitter mourning on the night wind rose and fell.

"O, child," the herald wept, "'tis as the dear Lord wills: He knoweth best, and, be it life or death, 'tis well." "Amen! Praise God!" sobbed little Claribel.