Citizens of the United States, it has been said of us, with truth, that we are at the head of the popular party of the world. Shall we be ashamed of so glorious a rank? or shall we basely desert our place and throw away our distinction? Forbid it! self-respect, patriotism, philanthropy. Christians, we believe that God has made us a name and a praise among the nations. We believe that our religion yields its best fruit in a free land. Shall we be regardless of our duty as creatures of the Divine Power and recipients of His goodness? Shall we be indifferent to the effects which our religion may work in the world? Forbid it! our gratitude, our faith, our piety. In one way only can we discharge our duty to the rest of mankind--by the purity and elevation of character that shall distinguish us as a people. If we sink into luxury, vice, or moral apathy, our brightness will be lost, our prosperity deprived of its vital element, and we shall appear disgraced before man, guilty before God. ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC. JAMES A. GARFIELD, American general and statesman; twentieth President of the United States. Born in Orange, Ohio, November 19, 1831; shot by an assassin, July 2, 1881; died, September 19 in the same year, at Long Branch, New Jersey. From "Garfield's Words." By permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Publishers. The Atlantic is still the great historic sea. Even in its sunken wrecks might be read the record of modern nations. Who shall say that the Pacific will not yet become the great historic sea of the future--the vast amphitheater around which shall sit in majesty and power the two Americas, Asia, Africa, and the chief colonies of Europe. God forbid that the waters of our national life should ever settle to the dead level of a waveless calm. It would be the stagnation of death, the ocean grave of individual liberty. GREATEST CONTINUOUS EMPIRE. The Right Hon. WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, the noted English statesman and orator. Born at Liverpool, December 29, 1809. From his "Kin beyond the Sea."