"The Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely human production. This belief enters into the very depth of my conscience. The whole history of man proves it." Mr. Webster had repeatedly given his testimony in favor of the Christian religion. "Religion," he said, "is a necessary and indispensable element in any great human character. There is no living without it. Religion is the tie that connects man with his Creator, and holds him to his throne. If that tie be all sundered, all broken, he floats away, a worthless atom in the universe; its proper attractions all gone, its destiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing but darkness, desolation, and death." Once, at a dinner party of gentlemen, he was asked by one present, "What is the most important thought that ever occupied your mind?" The reply came slowly and solemnly, "My individual responsibility to God!" When the last of October came, Mr. Webster was nearing the end of life. About a week before he died he asked that a herd of his best oxen might be driven in front of his windows, that he might see their honest faces and gentle eyes. A man who thus loves animals must have a tender heart. A few hours before Mr. Webster died, he said slowly, "My general wish on earth has been to do my Maker's will. I thank him now for all the mercies that surround me.... No man, who is not a brute, can say that he is not afraid of death. No man can come back from _that_ bourne; no man can comprehend the will or the works of God. That there _is_ a God all must acknowledge. I see him in all these wondrous works--himself how wondrous! "The great mystery is Jesus Christ--the Gospel. What would the condition of any of us be if we had not the hope of immortality?... Thank God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to _light_, _rescued_ it--brought it to _light_." He then began to repeat the Lord's prayer, saying earnestly, "Hold me up, I do not wish to pray with a fainting voice." He longed to be conscious when death came. At midnight he said, "I still live," his last coherent words. A little after three he ceased to breathe. He was buried as he had requested to be, "without the least show or ostentation," on October 29, 1852. The coffin was placed upon the lawn, and more than ten thousand persons gazed upon the face of the great statesman. One unknown man, in plain attire, said as he looked upon him, all unconscious that anybody might hear his words, "Daniel Webster, the world without you will seem lonesome." Six of his neighbors bore him to his grave and laid him beside Grace and his children. When the Civil War came, which Mr. Webster had done all in his power to avert, it took the last child out of his family: Fletcher, a colonel of the Twelfth Massachusetts volunteers, fell in the battle of August 29, 1862, near Bull Run. [Illustration: Signature "Your friend & obe Serv H. Clay"] HENRY CLAY.