Let man be free! The mighty word He spoke was not his own; An impulse from the Highest stirred These chiseled lips alone. The cloudy sign, the fiery guide, Along his pathway ran, And Nature, through his voice, denied The ownership of man. We rest in peace where these sad eyes Saw peril, strife, and pain; His was the Nation's sacrifice, And ours the priceless gain. O symbol of God's will on earth As it is done above Bear witness to the cost and worth Of justice and of love! Stand in thy place and testify To coming ages long, That truth is stronger than a lie, And righteousness than wrong. [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN Photograph by Brady, Washington, D. C., 1863] Theron Brown, born at Willimantic, Connecticut, April 29, 1832. Graduated at Hartford Theological Seminary in 1858; Newton Theological Institution, 1859. Ordained in Baptist Ministry, 1859; Pastor South Framingham, Massachusetts, 1859-62; Canton, Massachusetts, 1863-70; on staff _Youth's Companion_ since 1870. Author various juvenile stories; _Life Songs_ (poems), 1894; _Nameless Women of the Bible_, 1904; _The Story of the Hymns and Tunes_, 1907; _Under the Mulberry Tree_ (a novel), 1909; _The Birds of God_, 1911. He died February 14, 1914. THE LIBERATOR When, scornful of a nation's rest, The angry horns of Discord blew There came a giant from the West, And found a giant's work to do. He saw, in sorrow--and in wrath-- A mighty empire in its strait, Torn like a planet in its path To warring hemisphere of hate. Between the thunder-clouds he stood; He harked to Ruin's battle-drum, And cried in patriot hardihood, "Why do I wait? My hour has come! "Was it my fate, my lot, my woe To be the Ruler of the land, Nor own my oath that long ago I swore upon this heart and hand? "That vow, like barb from bowman's string, Shall pierce sedition's secret plea: God grant the bloodless blow shall sting Till brother's quarrels cease to be! "Should once the sudden wound provoke New strife in anger's zone The clash may be the penal stroke That makes a new Republic one."