come? That all the passion and violence, the fraud and falsehood and
corruption, which pervade the system of party, and burst out like a flood
at the public elections, are to be blotted from the catalogue of
unchristian deeds, because they are politics? Or that a minister of the
gospel may see his people, in their political career, bid defiance to their
God in breaking through every moral restraint, and keep a guiltless
silence, because religion has nothing to do with politics? I forbear to
press the argument farther; observing only that many of our difficulties
and sins may be traced to this pernicious notion. Yes, if our religion had
had more to do with our politics; if, in the pride of our citizenship, we
had not forgotten our Christianity; if we had prayed more and wrangled less
about the affairs of our country, it would have been infinitely better for
us at this day
J. M. Mason


STANDARD SELECTIONS.

POETRY


CLVII.

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming--
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming!
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,