PRESBYTERIANS AND THE REVOLUTION. IT CHAPTER I. PRESBYTERIANS AND THE CENTENNIAL. was to be expected that the approach of the one hundredth anniversary of our nation's birth would awaken a profound interest in the public mind and give rise to measures for a commemorative recognition in some degree befitting the occasion. Of necessity the national thought reverts to those stirring times that so grandly tried the souls of men and issued in the creation of this gigantic republic. Again on our eye flashes the light of those guns that laid the martyrs low on Lexington Green and at VIMU Concord Bridge. Again to our ear comes the report of "the shot heard round the world." The heroic devotion of those men who, for the sake of a principle, so calmly offered their breasts to the deadly leaden hail, stirs with a fresh impulse the patriotic virtues within us and lifts our manhood higher in our esteem. Anew there passes across the field of our vision that grand procession of sages and statesmen and military heroes, and we thank the God of nations for a generation of men so fitted for the exigencies of such a day and hour. History has abundantly verified the insight of Chatham as displayed in his fervid eloquence in the House of Lords, in January, 1775: "When your lordships look at the papers transmitted us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause and wish. to make it your own. "For myself I must avow that in all my reading and I have read Thucydides and have studied and admired the master-states of the world-for solidity of reason, force of sagacity and wisdom of conclusion under a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadelphia. The histories of Greece and Rome give us nothing equal to it." The bustle also of the town-meeting breaks on the ear. We hear the broad-browed yeomen discussing the foundation principles of free government, and closing the discussion with the high resolve for liberty or death. The provincial congress gathers, and thrills with the burning sentences that spring from the lips of an Adams or a Patrick Henry. The Continental Congress assembles, doubtful of its powers, uncertain as to what wisdom demands, hindered by countless obstacles, only one thing clear, and that is their inflexible determination not to submit to the tyrannies of the British king and his parliament. For a time apparent chaos reigns; but through all the will of God is working toward order and organization, and the result is, first, victory in the field, second, a confederacy of the colonies, and third, that wonderful embodiment of human ability and ripe statesmanship, the national Constitution. "The structure," says Judge Story, "has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity. Its foundations are solid; its compartments beautiful as well as useful; its arrangements are full of wisdom and order, and its defences are impregnable from without. "In the sunshine of peace and in the storm of war the Constitution of the United States of America has had a severe but impartial trial. It has amply fulfilled the expectation of its friends and completely dissipated the fears of its early opponents. "As a great rule of political conduct it has guided the country, through unprecedented |