and crime, which have followed with still accelerating steps in the train of the terrible struggle in which we are engaged. No one can fail to perceive the danger that a real or even a professed patriotism may be made the cover for a multitude of sins, and gallantry on the field of battle be regarded as a substitute for more than all the duties of the decalogue.

It is indeed a glorious sight, my friends, to see so many of our young men going forth bravely and heroically, at the call of their country, to contend against secession and rebellion, and to encounter all the perils and hardships of this gigantic conflict. God bless them all! May his banner over them be love, and may he be their shield and buckler in the day of battle! But it must not be forgotten that there is a secession worse than that from any political or earthly Union: the secession of the soul from its allegiance to its God and Saviour. It must not be forgotten that there is a rebellion worse than that against any human government: the rebellion of man against his Maker. This, alas, is a rebellion in which we are all more or less deeply involved. I have sometimes thought that the relations of the whole human family towards its Creator were nowhere so concisely and exactly summed up as in that well-remembered verse of one of the old prophets, in which he represents the Almighty as saying, "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." And you will all anticipate me in recalling that correlative verse of another of the old prophets, "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him." Rebellion, rebellion seems to be the favorite figure under which the Bible represents the attitude of earth towards heaven. And though this is a rebellion which may never wholly be suppressed while poor human nature is what it is, yet every man is called on to enlist for its overthrow, to struggle and fight against it, and to vanquish it, so far as may be, in his own soul and in the souls of others.

And we must not forget this, my friends, nor suffer others to forget it, even at a moment when we are engaged in a struggle for national unity and national existence, which is so well calculated to absorb all our thoughts and all our energies. On the contrary, this is the precise moment for remembering it, and for

calling upon others to remember it. The two campaigns, thank Heaven, are by no means incompatible with each other. The war can be carried on at one and the same time against earthly and against spiritual foes; and every victory which is achieved over temptation and sin will strengthen our hearts and nerve our hands for striking a stronger blow against the assailants of our national peace. And what is a hundred-fold more important, every such victory will aid in calling down upon our arms that blessing of God, without which we can have no success. Even the camps of our armies have proved to be among the choicest fields for labors like those in which this Society is engaged. There is a yearning and a craving, we are told by our agents, for the word of life, among those to whom the prospect of death is so immediately present as it is to soldiers on the perilous edge of battle. There is a hunger and thirst after tidings of a better world among those who feel how soon they may be summoned away from this world. And woe to us all, if we fail to meet the full demand for these moral and religious supplies! Woe to our country, if it fails to cherish and sustain this and other kindred societies which make up together the great Christian Commissariat of the war!

Let us hope and pray, my friends, that this terrible struggle may soon be brought to a triumphant termination. Let us hope and pray that the heroic Grant may follow up with vigor and success the blows he has already struck, and that God will at length vouchsafe to us a crowning victory. Meantime let us do all that we can to give assurance, that when our brave soldier boys shall return home, be it sooner or later, they shall not come reeking with the proverbial vices of camp life, but in a condition to resume their places as virtuous and valuable citizens, leading quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty, and reflecting fresh honor upon the free institutions which they have striven so nobly to defend. Heaven forbid, that through any default of ours, while they are accomplishing, as many are ready to believe, the ultimate emancipation of another race, they should become hopelessly subjected themselves to a bondage worse than that of any earthly task-master, the bondage of bad habits, the slavery of vice and sin!

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Finally, my friends, for I must not detain you longer from the eloquent gentlemen who are to follow me, — let us not forget, that whatever may be the results of the war, our work will still remain to be prosecuted. The operations of this Society did not begin with the rebellion, and will not end with it. Let us persevere with untiring energy in the noble cause for which it was instituted by the wise and good men who have gone before us; and God grant that each following year may be crowned with larger and still larger measures of prosperity and success!

THE

OFFICERS OF THE RUSSIAN FLEET.

SPEECH MADE AT THE BANQUET IN HONOR OF ADMIRAL LESSOFFSKY AND HIS OFFICERS, BOSTON, JUNE 7, 1864.

I THANK you, Mr. Mayor, for the privilege of being present on this occasion, and of uniting with the City Council of Boston in these marks of respect for their distinguished guests. The speech of the evening is already made; and made by him who is at once best entitled and most able to make it. But I cannot refuse to say a few words in response to your complimentary call.

As I look back on that long service in Congress to which you have alluded, I cannot forget the many kindnesses and courtesies for which I was indebted to the Russian Legation at Washington; and I gladly avail myself of this opportunity, before alluding to any other topic, to pay a passing tribute to the memory of the late Mr. Bodisco, who for nearly twenty years, I believe, represented His Majesty the Emperor of Russia at our Republican Court. True always to his own country, he was yet animated with the same spirit which dictated that noble despatch of Prince Gortschakoff, to which Mr. Everett has so eloquently referred. He seemed to have the welfare and honor of our country, as well as his own, honestly at heart; to desire earnestly the preservation of our domestic peace and of our National Union; and to watch eagerly for opportunities of reconciling any antagonisms which threatened to disturb the relations of the North and South. Enjoying the intimacy and the confidence of our most distinguished men of all parties and sections, of Clay and Webster,

of Calhoun and Benton, and many others not unworthy to be named in the same connection,- he took peculiar pleasure in bringing them together beneath his own roof and around his own hospitable and sumptuous board, and in doing all that he could to soften the asperities and animosities which are too often engendered by the controversies of political parties and the rivalries of political leaders; and more than one personal difficulty, which might have led to most unhappy consequences, has owed its amicable adjustment to his timely and effective intervention.

I am happy to believe, Mr. Mayor, that a similar spirit has ever been evinced by the present Minister of the Russian Emperor, M. de Stoeckl, who was long associated with M. Bodisco as his principal Secretary, and upon whom his mantle has worthily fallen. Both of them, let me add, paid our country the compliment of taking to themselves American wives, and very charming wives too; - and thus they had a right to feel that their relation to the United States was something more than one of mere diplomatic form and ceremony. I am sure, however, they were not induced to select American wives from any want of attractive and accomplished women in their own land. I have seen, indeed, but few Russian ladies. The only one, I believe, whom I have ever met on American soil, is the wife of the distinguished officer at my side, who may be called, after the phrase of Shakspeare," our gallant Admiral's Admiral; "—whom we have all seen here with so much pleasure, and who will be accompanied by our best wishes on her embarkation in the steamer for Europe to-morrow. But I have another in my mind's eye at this moment, whom I have been privileged to know in another land, she is now no more, and I may not presume to pronounce her name on any public or festive occasion, but whose varied and brilliant accomplishments, whose familiarity with almost every language spoken beneath the sun, whose graces of manner and charms of conversation and kindness of heart, and, above all, whose fortitude and heroism under the deepest personal and physical suffering, will never be effaced from my remembrance.

I do not forget, Mr. Mayor, the many estimable and excellent representatives of other lands whom I have had the good fortune to meet at the capital of our country; but Mr. Everett I am sure