The Great Victory.—Its Cost and its Value.

In ancient Rome the first solemnity which took place after a victorywas a thanksgiving. The prætor suspended his judgment in the tribunal.The wretched slave was unchained from his bench in the galley. Laborforsook its accustomed task. All the ordinary occupations of dailylife ceased, and the people went in processions to the temples oftheir gods to hang their statues with garlands of flowers, to salutethem with sacred odes, and to appease them with sacrificial victims.Then followed the feast, with music, dancing and the games. To-day, ina world undreamed of by those proud and conquering Romans, preparedthrough silent ages for the abode of liberty, we celebrate not onlythe commencement of the ninetieth year of our National Independence,but our deliverance from a peril which threatened our very existencewith annihilation. We celebrate the termination of a war conductedupon a scale of gigantic magnitude, and the return of blessed peacethroughout all the land. On mountain and river, on forest and prairie,on the crowded marts of commerce, on the humming hives of industry, onthe cultivated fields, on the unredeemed wilderness, on the palaces ofthe rich and the cottages of the poor, on the sea and on the land, thecalm sunshine of this gracious peace pours down; blessing, rejoicing,purifying, elevating, comforting, strengthening the hearts and homesand hopes of all men. At such a time we would, indeed, incur the guiltof an immeasurable ingratitude and be rebuked by a voice from the ashesof that heathen Rome itself if our first thoughts were not those ofgrateful thanks to the Giver of all Good for the blessings hehas bestowed, and our first words those words of humble acknowledgmentand thankful praise—“Thy right hand and Thy holy armhath gotten us the victory.”