at the public elections, are to be blotted from the catalogue of unchristian deeds, because they are politics? Or that a minister of the gospel may see his people, in their political career, bid defiance to their God in breaking through every moral restraint, and keep a guiltless silence, because religion has nothing to do with politics? I forbear to press the argument farther; observing only that many of our difficulties and sins may be traced to this pernicious notion. Yes, if our religion had had more to do with our politics; if, in the pride of our citizenship, we had not forgotten our Christianity; if we had prayed more and wrangled less about the affairs of our country, it would have been infinitely better for us at this day J. M. Mason STANDARD SELECTIONS. POETRY CLVII. THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming-- Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming! And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; O say, does that Star-spangled Banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! On that shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses! Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines on the stream: 'T is the Star-spangled Banner!--O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! And where are the foes who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion, A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood hath washed out their foul footsteps' pollution! No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave; And the Star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!