[It will be remembered that 1861 closed with an alarming prospect of war between England and the United States, growing partly out of the arrest of Mason and Slidell on board the British steamship Trent. Of course had war been declared Canada would have been involved. On Christmas of that year therefore Miss JOHNSON wrote this appeal, which was published in a Canadian paper.]

To prayer! to prayer! O ye who love
Your country's peace, your country's weal,
To Him who rules supreme above,
In this dark hour of peril kneel.
To prayer! to prayer! before the cry
"To arms!" shall make your spirit quake,—
And ere ye dream of danger nigh
The dark portentous war-cloud break.

So long hath Peace o'er hill and vale
Waved her white banner to the breeze,
We thought her smiles would never fail,
And only heard from o'er the seas
The murmur of an angry host,
The clang of arms, the cannon's roar,—
How false our hope! how vain our boast!
War threatens our beloved shore.

Great God! to whom the nations seem
Like dust that gathers on the scales,
A drop within a mighty stream,
A breath amid the northern gales,
We pray, the hearts of men dispose
So that the sounds of war may cease,
And nations who should ne'er be foes
Embrace, and pledge themselves to Peace.