private charities, her sense of the grandeur of the ordeal through which this nation and all it involves of hope and promise for man is passing now, and, above all, her faithful adherence to the original ideal of a Puritan commonwealth, walking and talking with God, and holding his will everywhere supreme- an angel of mercy and guidance to our whole land, for this and for all after-times.

We congratulate the State rather than His Excellency that this occasion signals no retirement from the chair of her chief magistracy. It was not needed for him, for any completeness of personal or official honor, for the very summit of a just and wide fame, that the people of Massachusetts should once more with such large consent put the reins of her public affairs into those tried and skilful hands. She honors herself most by so placing this high trust. She knows, and beyond her borders the central government and the nation know, with what prescient forecast, what timely providence, what hopeful courage, what unquenchable loyalty, what indefatigable diligence, and what thoughtful tenderness her administration at home and abroad has been conducted through these dark days of revolution and conflict. Her internal order and prosperity, her renown in the high places of the field, both the spirit and the comfort of her sons doing brave battle for the sacred flag, her weight in the scale of right on the grave questions of the hour, are the bright record which justifies the inference that she is governed well.

If we could spare you, sir, we would give you release from these solemn cares, and follow you with our commemorative gratitude into the peaceful retirement of pri

vate life. But in these stern days of work, when our whole New England has so much to do to inaugurate the elect and waiting future, we pile our public burdens upon you once more, and beseech the God of our fathers to give you strength to bear them as worthily in the year to come as in these historic years that have gone.

And may the gentlemen of the Senate, the Council, and the House of Representatives, called of their fellowcitizens to the discharge of duties which would at any time have invoked their best wisdom and highest fidelity, be quickened to discern at what a point they stand in the history and fortunes of the republic, and the lengthening scroll of human progress; and forgetting their own ease and emolument, and rising above every personal and private interest, give to the care of the State, and the honor and safety of the nation in these troubled times, all their heart and all their soul and all their mind and all their strength!

And before the term of official duty which opens for you to-day shall have run out, may we be called to join, with all the people of the land, in keeping such a day of public thanksgiving to Almighty God as has never gathered our joy and praise in the past, over a nation saved, united, free, at peace with itself, with all the world, and with the throne of Infinite Justice and Goodness!

III.

GOD'S DELAY TO PUNISH.

AND THEY CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, SAYING, HOW LONG, O LORD, HOLY AND TRUE, DOST THOU NOT JUDGE AND AVENGE OUR BLOOD ON THEM THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH?-Rev. vi. 10.

A

en.

MONG the scenes that rose before the eyes of John

of Patmos out of the vast dark future, tracked only by these prophetic lines of light, was one that disclosed to him a company of earthly sufferers gone home to heavThere, under the shadow of the sacrificial altar, beneath the refuge of the atonement, they were grouped together, resting and waiting. They were resting, for earthly pain and woe were past. They were waiting, for their earthly indication yet lingered. It appears that they were martyrs whom the fierce hand of persecution had done to death for their fidelity to truth and Christ. They seem to be aware of the procedures of the divine Providence in the world they have left behind. They know that the cause for which they died is not yet triumphant. They see the proud crests of bigotry and oppression yet unhumbled. Have they given life in vain, suffered and bled for nought? God is holy and hates

evil. Why does he not smile down the crowned wrong? God is true and will redeem his promises. Why does he not show himself the friend of the righteous? And their voices, not fretful and querulous, but earnest for the final victory of the right, address the Highest, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"

There are many souls yet dwelling in the flesh, who echo that cry, "How long?" God reigns, we believe, we know; but evil also reigns. God is against it; he has declared that it shall not prosper; but, despite his holiness and his truth, the throne of iniquity stands. Power oppresses, rapacity robs, lust deceives and betrays, detraction stabs in secret, armed injustice defies law human and divine. "How long?" Men join together in earnest league against some specific form of evil, as of tyranny in government, or oppression in political institutions, or intemperance in morals, with God on their side and "the good time coming" before them. But what a dubious warfare ! How often are they baffled and defeated! How deep the roots of evil have struck! How securely it lifts its towering growth! They make slow progress. Sometimes it seems as though they did not gain at all. Is God on their side! Is there to dawn a bright, millennial day? The good despond, the bad grow bold. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily; therefore, the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Why not? The evil-doer is unpunished; he walks at large; no judgments make him afraid; God doesn't silence his proud boasting. Is it so

certain that virtue has an infinite ally? How these delays of the Supreme Justice lend heart to the wicked! What do they care for some distant, shadowy terror? Here are the prizes of their corrupt desires right at their feet. Before the crash comes, before the hour of reckoning chimes, they will have enjoyed the lawless sweets to the full, and have escaped into some refuge yet to open. And still God is silent; his hand is motionless; the heavens are serene. The righteous wait for a sign; but earth and sky are mute. "How long, O Lord?" Oh, if evil might be at once put down, and wrong righted now, treason to law, liberty, humanity, and all good brained at a stroke, the almighty thunders flashing instant wrath upon guilt and crime, then might the lowly lift up their heads, and the days of darkness would be numbered! Must we, then, chide these divine delays? Shall we not rather ask if they are not in God's sight both wise and good?

We must remember for one thing that this world is not a world of retribution. The great harvest law is, indeed, established in nature, Providence, and morals, that "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." But when and where the full harvest shall be garnered are still open questions. The supreme administration takes position in regard to good and evil, and declares it will visit for all wrong; but the times and seasons for such judicial visitation are not disclosed; whether the avenging judgments shall fall sooner or later God gives no pledges. Here and there he drops the bolts of doom visibly and suddenly upon the head of guilt, that men