Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall; And cowering foes shall sink beneath 4. Flag of the seas! on ocean wave Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave, 5 Flag of the free heart's hope and home, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us! 153 ABRAHAM AND THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER. HOUSEHOLD WORDS. * SCENE-The inside of a Tent, in which the Patriarch ABRA HAM and a PERSIAN TRAVELLER, a Fire-Worshipper, are sitting awhile after supper. Fire-Worshipper [aside]. What have I said, or done, that by degrees Mine host hath changed his gracious countenance, Until he stareth on me, as in wrath! Have I, 'twixt wake and sleep, lost his wise lore? Would fain be sleeping? I will speak to that. If mine old eyelids droop against their will, Even to the milk and honey of thy words. With my lord's leave, and his good servant's help, My limbs would creep to bed. Abraham [angrily quitting his seat]. In this tent, never Thou art a thankless and an impious man. Fire-W. [rising in astonishment]. A thankless and an impious man! Oh, sir, My thanks have all but worshipp'd thee. Abraham. And whom Forgotten? like the fawning dog I feed. I waited till he bless'd mine eyes at morn, And darest thou still to breathe in Abraham's tent? Will speak to thee this night, out in the storm, And on a night like this! me, poor old man, A hundred years of age! Abraham [urging him away]. Not reverencing The God of ages, thou revoltest reverence. Fire-W. Thou hadst a father;-think of his gray hairs, Houseless, and cuff'd by such a storm as this. Abraham. God is thy father, and thou own'st not him And if she learn my death, she'll not survive it, God made Husband and wife, and must be own'd of them, Fire-W. We have children, One of them, sir, a daughter, who, next week, Will all day long be going in and out, Upon the watch for me; she, too, a wife, And will be soon a mother. Spare, oh, spare her! She's a good creature, and not strong. Abraham. Who will this night condemn thee. [ABRAHAM pushes him out; and remains alone, speak ing For if ever God came at night-time forth upon the world, [A dead silence; and then a still small voice The Voice. Abraham! Abraham. Where art thou, Lord? and who is it that speaks So sweetly in mine ear, to bid me turn And dare to face thy presence? The Voice. Who but He Whose mightiest utterance thou hast yet to learn? I was not in the whirlwind, Abraham ; I was not in the thunder, or the earthquake; But I am in the still small voice. Where is the stranger whom thou tookest in? Abraham. Lord, he denied thee, and I drove him forth. The Voice. Then didst thou do what God himself forbore Have I, although he did deny me, borne With his injuriousness these hundred years, And couldst thou not endure him one sole night, And such a night as this? Abraham. Lord! I have sinn'd, And will go forth, and if he be not dead, Will call him back, and tell him of thy mercies Both to himself and me. The Voice. Behold, and learn! [The Voice retires while it is speaking; and a fold of the tent is turned back, disclosing the FIRE-WORSHIPPER, wh: is calmly sleeping, with his head on the back of a house lamb. Abraham. O loving God! the lamb itself's his pillow, And on his forehead is a balmy dew, And in his sleep he smileth. I meantime, Poor and proud fool, with my presumptuous hands, 154. PATRIOTISM AND CHRISTIANITY. CHATEAUBRIAND. 1. BUT it is the Christian religion that has in sted pa triotism with its true character. This sentiment d to the commission of crime among the ancients, because it was carried to excess; Christianity has made it one of the principal affections in man, but not an exclusive one. It commands us above all things to be just; it requires us to cherish the whole family of Adam, since we ourselves belong to it, though our countrymen have the first claim to our attachment. 2. This morality was unknown before the coming of the Chris tian lawgiver, who had been unjustly accused of attempting to extirpate the passions: God destroys not his own work. The gospel is not the destroyer of the heart, but its regulator. It is to our feelings what taste is to the fine arts; it retrenches all that is exaggerated, false, common, and trivial; it leaves all that is fair, and good, and true. The Christian religion, rightly understood, is only primitive nature washed from origi nal pollution. 3. It is when at a distance from our country that we feel the full force of the instinct by which we are attached to it. For want of the reality, we try to feed upon dreams; for the |