A Popular Testimony to Silence

     It was reported to us by an eye-witness that at the hour when the remains of our beloved President were committed to the tomb on the 19th inst., a great throng of people entirely surrounded Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, and filled the square in front of it, so that one could hardly find standing room. As the bell announced the moving of the funeral procession a wonderful silence spread over this great throng, and for ten minutes, at least, men and women stood with bowed heads in what seemed to our informant “the greatest Friends’ Meeting” he had ever witnessed. Similar reports were printed in the newspapers from other cities over the land.
     Where reverence is felt in its true depth, solemn silence alone is found as its worthy expression, and words and sounds do violence to the sacred covering that hushes the spirits of men as under the Divine Majesty. So the nation has once in one of the soberest moments of its history, set its seal to the validity of the Friends’ principle of Divine worship.