How the sweet chimes this Sunday morn,
'Mid autumn's requiem,
Across the mountain valleys borne,—
The bells of Bethlehem!
"Come join with us," they seem to say,
"And celebrate this hallowed day!"
Our hearts leap up with glad accord—
Judea's Bethlehem strain,
That once ascended to the Lord,
Floats back to earth again,
As round our hills the echoes swell
To "God with us, Emanuel!"
O Power Divine, that led the star
To Mary's sinless Child!
O ray from heaven that beamed afar
And o'er his cradle smiled!
Help us to worship now with them
Who hailed the Christ at Bethlehem!
James T. Fields, in The Granite Monthly.
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON DEVELOPED.
BY HENRY B. CARRINGTON, U.S.A., LL.D.
[Author of The Battles of the American Revolution, etc.]
By order of the President of the United States, a national salute was fired, at meridian, on the twenty-fourth day of December, 1883, as a memorial recognition of the one hundreth anniversary of the surrender by George Washington, on the twenty-third day of December, 1783, at Annapolis, of his commission as commander-in-chief of the patriotic forces of America. This official order declares "the fitness of observing that memorable act, which not only signalized the termination of the heroic struggle of seven years for independence, but also manifested Washington's devotion to the great principle, that ours is a civil government, of and by the people."
The closing sentence of Washington's order, dated April 18, 1783, may well be associated with this latest centennial observance. As he directed a cessation of hostilities, his joyous faith, jubilant and prophetic, thus forecast the future: "Happy, thrice happy! shall they be pronounced, hereafter, who have contributed anything, who have performed the meanest office, in erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom and empire, on the broad basis of independence,—who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature, and establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions."