W JOHN B. GOUGH. HAT is a minority? The chosen heroes of this earth have been in a minority. There is not a social, political, or religious privilege that you enjoy to-day that was not bought for you by the blood and tears and patient suffering of the minority. It is the minority that have vindicated humanity in every struggle. It is a minority that have stood in the van of every moral conflict, and achieved all that is noble in the history of the world. You will find that each generation has been always busy in gathering up the scattered ashes of the martyred heroes of the past, to deposit them in the golden urn of a nation's history. Look at Scotland, where they are erecting monuments— to whom?-to the Covenanters. Ah, they were in a minority. Read their history, if you can, without the blood tingling to the tips of your fingers. These were in the minority, that, through blood, and tears, and bootings and scourgings-dying the waters with their blood, and staining the heather with their gore-fought the glorious battle of religious freedom. Minority! if a man stand up for the right, though the right be on the scaffold, while the wrong sits in the seat of government; if he stand for the right, though he eat, with the right and truth, a wretched crust; if he walk with obloquy and scorn in the by-lanes and streets, while the falsehood and wrong ruffle it in silken attire, let him remember that wherever the right and truth are there are always glare of the headlight had shown to the engineer some stranger in peril, and the brakeman called out: "Yp-silanti! Change cars here for the Eel River Road!" "He is coming in fast," whispered one of the men. "And the end of his 'run' will be the end of his life," said a second. The dampness of death began to collect on the patient's forehead, and there was that ghastly look on the face that death always brings. The slamming of a door down the hall startled him again, and he moved his head, and faintly said:— "Grand Trunk Junction! Passengers going east by the Grand Trunk change cars!" He was so quiet after that that all the men gathered around the bed, believing that he was dead. His eyes closed, and the brakeman lifted his hand, moved his head, and whispered: "De-" Not "Detroit," but Death! He died with the half-uttered whisper on his lips. And the headlight on death's engine shone full in his face, and covered it with such pallor as naught but death can bring. LAG of the heroes who left us their glory, Borne through their battle-fields' thunder and flame, Think not the God of thy fathers shall fail thee, Striving with men for the birthright of man! Blazoned in song and illumined in story, Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted, Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw Then with the arms to thy million united, Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law! Lord of the universe! shield us and guide us, Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun! Thou hast united us, who shall divide us? While through the sounding sky I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER. REMEMBER, I remember The house where I was born, The little window where the sun Came peeping in at morn. THOMAS HOOD. He never came a wink too soon, Nor brought too long a day; But now I often wish the night Had borne my breath away! B ELIZABETH AKERS. ACKWARD, turn backward, O Time, Make me a child again just for to- Mother, come back from the echoless I am so weary of toil and of tears,- I have grown weary of dust and decay,- Take me again to your heart as of Weary of sowing for others to reap: |