If pure benevolence was ever organized and utilized into beneficence, the name of the institution is the Sanitary Commission.  It is a standing answer to Samson’s riddle, “Out of the strong came forth sweetness.”  Out of the very depths of the agony of this cruel and bloody war springs this beautiful system, built of the noblest and divinest attributes of the human soul.  Amidst all the heroism of daring and enduring which this war has developed, amidst all the magnanimity of which it has shown the race capable, the daring, the endurance, and the greatness of soul which have been discovered among the men and women who have given their lives to this work shine as brightly as any on the battle-field,—­in some respects even more brightly.  They have not the bray of trumpets nor the clash of swords to rouse enthusiasm, nor will the land ever resound with their victories.  Theirs is the dark and painful side, the menial and hidden side, but made light and lovely by the spirit that shines in and through it all.  Glimpses of this agency are familiar to our people; but not till the history of its inception, progress, and results is calmly and adequately written out and spread before the public will any idea be formed of the magnitude and importance of the work which it has done.  Nor even then.  Never, till every soldier whose last moments it has soothed, till every soldier whose flickering life it has gently steadied into continuance, whose waning reason it has softly lulled into quiet, whose chilled blood it has warmed into healthful play, whose failing frame it has nourished into strength, whose fainting heart it has comforted with sympathy,—­never, until every full soul has poured out its story of gratitude and thanksgiving, will the record be complete; but long before that time, ever since the moment that its helping hand was first held forth, comes the Blessed Voice, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

An institution asking of Government only permission to live and opportunity to work, planting itself firmly and squarely on the generosity of the people, subsisting solely by their free-will offerings, it is a noble monument of the intelligence, the munificence, and the efficiency of a free people, and of the alacrity with which it responds when the right chord is rightly touched.  It is, however, not unnatural that doubts should exist as to the success of a plan so far-reaching in its aims and hitherto so untried.  Stories have been circulated of a mercenary disposition of its stores and trickery among its officers.  Where these stories have found considerable credence, they have been tracked to their source and triumphantly refuted; but it would indeed be hardly less than miraculous, if an institution ramifying so widely, with agents so numerous, and resources so extensive, should have no knaves among its servants, and no waste in its circulation.  The wonder is, that more leakage has not been proved