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Show Services at Concord. around one who is passing from this world to another by the hand of violence, and from the midst of cruel men. Away from the dismal surrounding , away from the scaffold, away from the scoffing and tho strife of tongues, 0pen, we beseech thee, a clear pathway to that world where there is no hatred and wrong; where the wicked cease from troubling, and the slave is free from his master. And remember, we pray thee, those whose hearts arc now made to break and to bleedthose who at this hour are called to widowhood and orphanage ; fold them tenderly in the arms of thy providence, and lead them nncl preserve them. And remember the race who have been trodden clown for ages under the heel of oppression and wrong, and let their redemption come. Let those who have passed on through fire and blood, plead for them with thee. Let the blood of all thy martyrs for liberty, from ancient times down to this hour, cry to thee from the ground till the slave rises from his thraldom into the full glory of manhood. And ·when that day shall come, let it not be through the chaos of revolutions, not by staining this fnir earth with the blood of brothrrs, but let thy spirit descend in its gentleness, and change the heart of the master, and melt off the fetters of the slave. And 0, at this dark hour, give us a new consecration of oursclYcs to the cause of humanity! By Him who came from l1eaven and clothed himself in our nature, the nature of the humblest man that lives, that he might raise it up and glorify it ; by him who took up into his experience all the wants and woes of our common humanity ; by him who speaks from all thy lowly ones, "Inasmuch as yc did it to one of the least of these, ye tlid it unto me,"- by all these motives may we take with fresh zeal the vow of srlf-tlevotion to the cause of God and man. And to thee, in Jesus Christ, be all the glory forever. A:-.mN. This hymn wa::~ then sung by a choir, accompanied by the music of an organ, which bad been placed in the Hall for this occasion : HYMN. Go to the grave in all thy glorious prime, In full activity of zeal and power; A Christian cannot die before his time ; The Lord's appointment is his servant's hour. Go to the grave; at noon from labor cease; Rest on thy sheaves ; the harvest task is done; Come from the heat of battle, and in pence, Soldier, go home; with thee the fig!1t is won. Services at Concord. Go to the grave; for there thy Saviour lay In death's embrace, ere he arose on high; And all the ransomed, by that narrow way Pass to eternal life beyond the sky. Go to the grave; no, take thy scat above; De thy pure spirit present with the Lord· Where thou for faith and hope hast perfect 'l ove And open vision for the written word. ' 1\IR. THOREAU'S REMARKS. 439 HENRY D. THOREAU then rose and said : So universal and widely related is any transcendent moral greatness and so nearly identical ~vith greatness every where and in ~very age,- as a pyramtd contracts the nearer you approach its apex,- that, when I now look over my commonplace book of poetry, I find that the best of it is oftenest applicable, in p.art or wholly, to the case of Captain Brown. Only \vhat is true, and strong, and solemnly earnest, will recommend itself to our mood at this time. Almost any noble verse may be read either as his elegy or eulogy, or be made the text of an ora~ tion on him. Indeed, such are now di covered to be the parts of a universal liturgy, applicable to those rare cases of heroes and martyrs for which the ritual of no church has provided. This is the formula established on high- their burial service -to which every great genius has contributed its stanza or line. As l\iarvell wrote : \Vhcn the sword glitters o'er the judge's head, And fear has coward churchmen silenced, Then is the poet's time; 'tis then he draws, And single fights forsaken virtue's cause ; lie, when the wheel of empire whirleth back, And though the world's disjointed axle crack, Sing~ still of ancient rights and better times, Seeks suffering good, arraigns successful crimes. The sense of grand poetry, read by t.he light of this event, is brought out distinctly like an invisible writing held to the fire: |
