This song, which wrote itself in a wonderful moment of inspiration, embodied the very soul of the Union cause. Yet throughout its twenty lines there is no hint of sectional feeling. It was like an electric shock to the people of the North, the call of a silver trumpet, the flash of a lifted sword. It inspired them with hope and courage, giving a new faith in the justice of God. The strength it brought to millions of men and women can never be measured. And in the world war of the twentieth century, somewhere in France, it was sung over and over. Phrase by phrase, the words fitting new conditions, as they fitted those of the sixties--the lightning of His terrible sword, the fiery gospel written in burnished rows of steel, the trumpet that shall never call retreat, sifting out men’s hearts before His judgment seat, let us die to make men free--these apply in any warfare or crusade where men are fighting not for self, but for ideals. After the war was ended Mrs. Howe continued to study, to write essays and poems, to give lectures, to serve in many great causes. But she is best remembered for the message which seemed to come to America, through her loving and sorrowing heart, from God himself, in the _Battle Hymn of the Republic_. CHAPTER XIII MARY A. LIVERMORE 1821-1905 Mary Ashton Rice was a little Boston girl, brought up very strictly. She was a restless active child, quick to learn at school, always enthusiastic over her tasks. A great favorite and a leader, she took the part of any unfortunate child in school; a cripple, a shabbily dressed youngster, one who was ridiculed because of her scanty luncheon, found friend and defender in Mary. There were few playthings for the Rice children and Mary invented a wonderful game called “playing church.” In the old woodshed they arranged logs for the pews and sticks of wood eked out the audience of children. Mary always conducted the services, praying and preaching with the greatest seriousness, while the others listened. And her father would say, “I wish you’d been a boy, child, we’d have trained you for the ministry.” None of them ever dreamed that she would become a great public speaker and would often give addresses in churches. Graduating from school at fourteen, she went to the Charlestown Female Seminary, and before the term closed was asked to take a position made vacant by the death of one of the teachers. Reciting and studying out of hours, she managed to complete the four-year course in two years and at the same time earned the money for this education. Then she went as governess in the family of a Virginia planter. She had heard Lucretia Mott and Whittier lecture, and determined to find out for herself whether the facts of slavery were as black as they were painted. She came back from her two years in Virginia, a stanch abolitionist.