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1 2 3

rmA

®lui fii^jjitUnt'jj JpJh:

ANS

THE LESSOJfS IT TEACHES:

■♦«»'♦•

A SERMON

rAli€HEII IN THE BIPTIST CHiPEL, BEANTFOKD, C. W.

Q3S THE KVXKUia OF

SABBATH, APRIL 23rd, 1865,

S¥

«HB BBV. WILLUM STfiWAET, B. A.

iPUSLISHED BY EEQUEST,)

BRANTFORD:

PftijitftO i.T TSB orrica or the BUuVfroso ^^cotrniiR,"

1865,

O ■■■ -' i • V -i • ^ "-'' ''.'

» •

_•.!■ .

OP THE

BAITIST CHURCH, BRANTFORD,

THE rOLtOlrtWJ 81LBM05r
PREACHED IN THE ORDINARY COURSE OF HIS MINISTRY,

AMD

rUBLISBED ATTm REQUEST OP VALUED FRIEH^DS^
IS RESPEOTFULL.Y DEDICATK1>

BT tmm
OBMGED- ANB AFEECTIONATl PASTOE,

.•.Hi ;^.,
. ' • ♦

ffce f rwWent*!^ IJeatlu

^RD,

IISTBY,

lEiVDS_

4,U

" Thy hands wf-re not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters j as a
man fallfeth before wicked men, io fellest thou ; and all the peoptu
wept again over him.'* II Samuel, in, 34. ...

The first part of the veJ-se now read, contains the simple, yet touch-
ing lamentation uttered by King David ovor Abner, the son of Ner,
after he had fallen by the murderous hand of Joab. As he was fly-
io"' foora a bloody battle-field in Gibeon, Abner in self-defence had
reluctantly killed the swift-footed Asahel, Joab's brother. The wild
warrior-chief determines to be revenged. His young brother had
been the darling of the family, and the idol of the rude soldiery.
The revenge of Joab was postponed for a time ; but on hearing, that
Abner had been received into the favor of David, a feeling of jealousy
was mingleli with the passion of vengeance for his brother; and gained
the mastery over him. He broke out into violent remonstrance with
the king, and immediately sent a messenger after the departing
Abner. With the unsuspecting generosity of a noble nature, the
chieftain at once returned to Hebron. Joab met him in the gateway
of the town, took him aside as if with a peaceful intention, and then
treacherously smote him with deadly blow "under the fifth rib."
Diawd burst into passionate grief and invective when he heard of tlje
act. The assassin was too powerful to be punished ; but the king
compelled him to appear at the funeral in sackcloth and torn gar-
meota. David, over the rest of whose life fear of Joab, one of "tJ|eRe

men the .sons ofZoruiah," cast a A\:vV'. as r-. mirk of Wtpef t to flio

memory uf Abncr, iblbweil Iho bier, and poured forth a si m pi l; dir-.-
over the slaio, iiUichbas been rendered thus:—

At a villain i*!cs, ou^tlit Abiter to die 7

It)/ huiidii, nut fettered ;

Thy feel, not bound wiin chains;
As oite falti befuie tbu uuHcious, feitest tbou I

It U atniost unnecessary to state that these word:} bare not been
chosen aa a text containing truth to be illustrated and enforced, but
rather as a motto which strikingly depicts the sad end of him, the
k'ssons of whose losa we are thi? night met to learn. A wail has
gone throughout the length and breadth of this northern continent;
aud tidings of the great sorrow will soon bo flashed, as oa lightning-
wing through every corner of the civilized world. Thousanda of
homes in the neighboring republic have been suddenly darkened : it
ii as if one of their own household lights had been extinguished by
the chill touch of death. In our own province, an electric touch of
sympathy, that shows all the world to be akin, has awakened a uui-
varsal grief. As with blanched cheek and bated breath, men read tho
early telegrams of President Lincoln's assassination on that sad
Saturday morning, it seemed to many like some terrible dream, froji
which the sleeper would give worlds to awake, and find that it waa
all unreal. And when at length the mind took in the dread reality,
the sickened heart cried out. whereunto shall all this tend ? " How
k>ng, Lord, how long ?" In reply there came to the ear of faith
this voice of inspiration, " Be still, and know that I am God; I will
be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

No apology is offered for the choice of this sad calamity as the suV
joot of remark this evening. God, in revelation, finds a place for the
names, and deeds, and death of the noble, the ruler, and. the king;
and when in his providence, there has happened the death of one,
whose acts for four years past, have claimed the attention of the
civilized world, and whose name has been " familiar to tho ear as
liousehold words," surely we cannot be wrong if we turn our thoughts
to the sad and solcua event. Indeed, I hold it to be the* duty of the

it to IIm
pie dirge

not been
rce<], but
him, the
wail has

)ntineni;
lightning-
isandii of
vcned : it
lished by

touch of
id » uni*
n read the

that sad
3am, froj«
Eit it wa3
d reality,
f "How
f of fuitli
d; I will

18 the 8uV>
ice for the
the king;
h of one,
on of the
he car aa
r thoughtii
uty of the

to the «»uler:i<tumii»g u«U it«|>i"e?<siu^ tm theconacicncc I't'liis bcnrcrHi
the truths he ha»hccn coniml^pioncil by God to commttnicate to nun.
True, I should deem it alike a desecration of thi» day and of Uum
desk, were I to ohtrudo my own political opinions, or harangue this
audience in the venomous spirit of the third-rate doinagoguc. It i»i
as the Christian Minister, and notaH the paltry politician I desire t/»
spoak. Above the noisy, dusty atmosphere of njerc party faction, h-t
us seek to raise our thonghts, and while the grief of a common Icf^n
weighs on every heart, and the pithos of sympithy trcmhles on every
lip, let us " hear the rod, and who hath appointed it.''

I, The first and chief lesson taught by the tragic event U eon
of recognition o/ GixVg h'tud, and resujn'itlftn to htit tctlK " G<<1
TOovcs in a mysterious way.'* " His jmlgiucnts are ;t great deep. *
" Thy way, O God, is in the sea, and Thy path in the great wattT?',
and thy footsteps arc not known." " Shall there be evil in a city,
and the l4or<i hath not done it?" True indeed, God cannot be tlie
author of sin; but in his providence he hath permitted this nation.'tl
calamity to befall, an<l " He dooth all things well," History end
experience alike deujoustrate, that God often allows what he does not
approve. Faith is frequently staggered by the seeming ditcrcpancy
between what is taught in the word and what is permitted in the prr-
videncc. In the darkest dispensation, however, tho Christian may
rest assured of this, that ** all things work together for good to them
that love God." When the wildest storms are raging, tho believer
may derive comfort from the thought, that he has a friend in Omn^
poteuce, and a hiding-plicc within the talxirnacle of the Most High.
•* God is our refuge and strength, a \'ery present help in trouble :
therefore will not we fe.»r." Still with our weak faith and limited
vision, we are all too apt to think that the cause of truth or of lilv.
erty is laid low, if one of its chosen champions has been taken aw.iy
from earth. But 0, it is not so ! When will Christian men learn
that all things are undor the gnidmco of a better wisdom than theirs ?
and that out of tiio greatest cilanuty God can evtlve the hiijbost

tfood? Either with ur without liunmii iiintrLuiieiit;ilIty, he cm can/
on his undisturbed affuira. Frequently- it h.-ippenii that the very
events that wedccni most disastrous, aro b^ his iill-conti oiling rn1«,
made to work together for the ends that ]|« deeuin most desirable.
The sun has not set, although it disappear for a thae behind a cloud ;
and so, although God's dealings may, for a brief period, seem d;iik
and disastrous, yet in the end ho " will hrinq fo'th hi? nghteousne^.-^
«s the light, and his judgment as the noon-day." lii the present st te
the problem of providence is '* too high/' for U«; " we cannot attain
unto it;" but what we know not now, we shall know hereafter. Mean-
while, in this and every calamity, with humble recognition of God'j
hand, and holy resignation to his will, be it oura «v«r to say, "Just
and true are all thy ways, thou King of saint*!"

Still, the thought will recur to us, Such a death, effmh a inim,
nnd at such a critical crisis J What a threefold mystery have we
here ! What can be its design ? Has this great cahnnity been
permitted because the nations of the earth once more need to learn
the lesson, " Tut not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in
whom there is no help His breath goeth forth ; he returneth to the
earth ; in that very day Ids thoughts perish," Was there a danger
that the general and enthusiastic joy at the downfall of Richmond,
and he prospect of a speedy suppression of the r-ibollion, should de-
generate into self-glorification and even riotous reveh-y ; and did
this form another reason why God allowed the ruthless assassin to
fire the unerring shot, and lay the Chief Magistrate low in death
that the joy of the nation might be turned into mourning ? May
not the just anger evoked by the inhuman deed, be one of the chief
weapons which God will yet use, to punish the upholders of slavery
for their determined defence and maintenance of that God-dishonor-
ing isystem — that " sum of all villainies?" Or does the Judge of all
the earth design yet more strikingly to teach that great nation —
what he has been evidently teaching them " by terrible things in
righteousness," during the four years he has had a controversy with
them — that the glory of the emancipation of the slave belongs
only to himself? If by the stern logic of events, the Cabinet at

iiey
him.

J cnn cany
1 the ve»y
ilHng rul«,
dettirnblt.
(1 a cloud ;
seem clavk
hteousnt'^."^
esent st te
mot atttiiij
:er. Mcaa-
I ofGod'a
»y, "Just

nh a mtm,

have we
inity been
d to leara

of luaD io
ncth to the
e a danger
Richmond,
should de-
; and did
assassin to

in death
ig ? May
' the chief

of slavery
d-di^honor-
adge of all
t nation —
e things in
iversy with
e belongs
Dabinet ut

Washington has beea forced to the oonclusion«i. that the integ-
rity of the Uiuon could only ba conserved by the abolitioil
of slavery ; may not God's design in this terrible providence be, to
touch the nation yet further, that He k the aole Rulor — that
evea tl»e «lear head and tli^ kind licart of Abraham Lin-
coln arc not absolutely necessary (although men so judged,) to
the actual acoomplishmont of national freedom and unity ? Human
reason, groping blindly after trutli, asks questions like these. But
the answers are yet in the uncertain future. We know only in part ;
for we forget the past, misunderstand the present, and fear the fu-
ture. Yet still these great truths afford a firm foundation on whidi
faith may rest, that the Judge of all the earth will do right, and
that "though hand jom in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished."
God hath not forgotten the cry of the oppressed, nor refused to hear
the prayer of his people. He is still our hope and trust. For
though clouds and darkness may be round about God, justice and
judgment are the habitation of his throne. And all the more that
the murderous blow has fallen, to Him let us look, on Him let us call,
Attd ta Him alone let us liope. .

II. Another lesson taught by the calamity is, gratitude for the
memory of the departed President. Abraham Lincoln was an hon-
«st maa, and

*' An honeet man''3 the noblest work of Gad."

True, he had his enemies. No sooner did he assume the Presiden-
tial chair, than he was ridiculed as a mere pettifogging village attor-
ney : boor, beast, and even worse epithets were freely applied to
him. His very personal appearance was lampooned, and his jokes
were retailed with villainous additions. Yet heeding not these rail-
ings, this man pursued the even tenor of his way. So free wag he
from taint of selfiahuess or guile, so immovable by passion, and so in-
accessible to revenge, it was long before he was understood by wily and
time-serving politicians. But his simple honesty of purpose at
length won him a way to the heart not oi the North merely, but of

Cho civilited worM, He was one of nature's tme ffohilftj. %y j#r-
.eeveriiig industry and honest integrity, ho rose from the toil of a
backwoodg farm to tho chief magistracy of a mighty nation. Enter-
ing on oflSco under circumstances of peculiar and unparalleled
difficulty, he announced his policy with firm yet temperate resolve.
Wisely did he hold the reins of government, and steadily did he rise
in the affections of his countrymen and the respect and esteem oi*
the world. " Sic semper ti/rannig;' shouted the assassin : but this
man was no tyrant. No statesman of purer patriotism ever filled tho
presidential chair. When the question of a now elecrion came to l«
discussed, tho man who for four years had guided the Siiip of State
no skillfully through the terrible breakers, was again the all but un-
animous choice of the loyal people of tho nation. Could stronger
proof than this be given of his noble qualities alike of head and heart ?
jHis patent of nobility was a truer and worthier one than that whidi
is merely transmitted from sire to son. Who can think of nil fchj,t
he was, without recalling tho vevj^c of (mr greatest liviusi KivAhk

povt >••

" Howe'er it be, it seems to me
'Tia only noble to be good :
Kind hearts are more than coror,«K
Aud simple faith than Norman blaotf,"

It was not merely for what he was, however, but for what he did

that the name of Lincoln shoul'^ be held in grateful remembrance.

Although born in a slave state, he was a hater of slavery ftom tho
beginning,— at least, he always held it to be a great and grievous e\i) ;
and God in his providence made him the deliverer of the oppressed!
As the author of the noted Proclamation of Emancipation, his name
will be transmitted to generations yet unborn. Through many weary
years the poor slave had b:en praying for deliverance. He felt that
though a man in heart and soul, the dearest rights of manhood were
all denied him. He had been whipped and scourged, robbed and
imprisoned, and all for neither crime nor fault of his ! His children
had been snatched away from him and frequently sold into a bitterer
bondage than his own, among the deadly swamps oi' th^ CaroUnas ox

the loil of u
ion. Kntcr-

unparalleleU
irate resolve.
f did he riee
d esteem of
In : but this
ver filled th«
I cnmc to be
(lip of State

all but un-
ild stronger
1 and heart ?
1 that whidi
: of nil that
ing finglidi

rhut he did
jmbrance. —
y fiom the
ievou» evi? ;
) oppressed,
n, his name
many weary
Ele felt that
nhood were
robbed and
lis children
to a bitterer
UaroUnas ox

fftc canc-Bralcesr of iJouisTana. He had cried fd (Tod for help, and
yet cried in vuin, while tears of blood were wrung from his breaking
heart. Ho hud told his sorrows to Jesus ; and yet no helper came.
But the day of his deliverance has dawned ! The year ,if ju>»iloe has
eome ! And henceforth every lover of liberty ihronghout the world
will hold in grateful and admiring recollection, the name of Abrahaui
Linccln, the Emancipator of the slave, the true friend of freedom.—
Can we'wonder that, when he was 'n Richmond a few days before
his death, the negroes hailed his arrival with shouts of joy, and
gathered around him, as he moved simply and familiarly among then».
with reverence and admiration, such as they might have accordec! ' .-
Some superior being ? True indeed, it may bo said that Mr. Lincoln';*
views ot slavery were greatly changed during his four years of oflfico.
It may even bo added that it was for the restoration of the Union
an I not for the freedom of the slave that the N«)rth at first was fight-
iiitr. Man's object in the war might be the perpetuation of national
unity : God's object was the liberation of the down-trodden and op-
pressed. Still, granting fully that God did teach the late President
find his party by the progress of the conflict that the fetters of the
alave must be stricken from off his limbs, ere the national breach
could be healed ; were they not willing enough to learn the lesson,
and honest enough to act up to it ? Every close observer of the
struggle has seen, that during the past few months, the war had be-
come virtually an anti-slavery one. Never was there an honest cr
recognition of the fact that the origin of the war was slavery, — or
rather that the history of the conflict has been the history of God's
controversy with the nation on account of slavery — than is to be
found in President Lincoln's late inaugural address, a brief state
paper which for moral dignity, unaffected solemnity, and noble Chris-
tian sentiment has never been e<|ualled :

"Fondly," said he. "do we liope, fervently do we pray, that this
miirhty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yot, if it he God's will
that it continue until the wealth piled up by bondmen by two hundicii
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be eunk, and ui.til everj drop of
blood drawn with the lash shall ho. repaid by ar.other drawn with the
twoid, as was said three thousand years a^o, eo stiU ii \nm\ be sa.id \U\\

thi j.Klv,n^„t8 of l!,e Lord are iiue and ri-jh eous alto^other. \Yhh ma"
l.ue .„.vaKls no.,e, wuh charity for all, will, firmness in the nVht as God
jf.ves ns to see ih. right, let us strive on to finish the work wc are in to

W;."'^u'.?iV'''.V''"T'''^'' '", "T for those who shall have borne the

■U ' T ! V'".''- '"'^^*'' ^"'' '^''''''*"**- ^"^ ^'^'' "" tfais let us strive
Altcj c. just and lasUn« fieace among ourselves and with all nations."

These golde.1 sentences arc not the utterances of a mere earthly
potentate or party politician. Th^y are stamped with the seal of a
deeper wisdom and a truer simplicity than any words mere states-
man ever uttered. They seem to have been conceived more in tl^
spint of a prophet of the oldeu dispensation, or of a puritan of the
seventeenth century, than of a nineteenth century statesman. It
requires no prescient wisdom to foretell that they will be embalmed
tor a-es in the memory and heart of Christians and lovers of liberty
throughout the world. Devoutly tlxankful should we be to the
Giver of all good, that great men have not yet died out from the
earth ; that such a man was raised up by God at such a period-a
man whose sole principles of action seeined to be, the good of his
country, and, as far na he was given to know it, the glory of his
uod. *

There is just one event connected with his departure, that Chri*
tiun men will vot desire to embalm in their grateful memories. Need
1 suy that I refer to his presence in a theatre, when he was shot by the
cowardly assassin ? What Christian man, what thinking man would
seek to meet his end in such a scene ? The very first thought that arose
in ulmost every breast when the s^d news came was this ■ if he
was to die, would he had died elsewhere ! I have no desire at pre-
sent nor indeed is this the time for me to discuss the question as to
the lawfulness or moral influence of the stage. I hold and am
ready to prove, that the theatre is a place of vain and expensive
amusement, a place unfriendly to piety, and hurtful to morality-a
place, m short, wnost frequenters are " lovers of plea^sure more than
lovers of God." True, I am willing to throw the cloak of Christian
chanty over the President's presence there on that fatal ni-ht I
make every allowance for the fact that he was present on tha't Good
t nday evening (G-e^oc/ Friday-does not the name seem almost a moek-

tlier. VTitli va&-
the light as God
9rl{ \vc are in, to

I have borne the
this let us St live

ill nations."

a mere earthly
th the seal of a
Is mere states-
ed more ia the
puritan of the
statesman. It

II be embalmed
vers of liberty
we be to the
d out from the
ih a period — a
he good of his
lie glory of his

re, that Chri*
uiories. Need
^as shot by the
ng man would
ight that arose
his: 0, ifhe
desire at pre-
juestion as to
old, and am
md expensive

morality — a
re more than

of Christian
tal night. I
)n that Good
most u meek-

cry of a nation's grief?) rather to please thi pi^pulace than to ploase
hiiusalf. Yet still the sad fact rewiiijis. No wonder that his po(»r
widowed wife, as she wus led from the building where he breathed
his last, should have exclaimed, as she looked across the street in
sobs of hysteric;!! sorrow, " Oh ! th:tt horrible house ; take me awtiy
from it !" The spot had not always been the site of a the.ttrc. Holy
men had prayed there ; hymns of praise had been sung the*e ; souls
had been born agjiiu there. The first Baptist Church of Washing-
ton hid worshipped for ye irs on the very spot where the theatre
nc stmds B.tt I gladly louve this, ia one sanse, the saddest as-
pact of a std subject. More I do not desire to say : as a minis *r
of truth and rigliteou-iuoss, Icis I htve not dired to say. And, tnen
«ud brethren, is not this the lesson for every one, never to frcfjueut
any sjono wliere we would not want death to find us ?

III. The next lesson we miy leirn from the sad event, is one of
si/mpiOuj with the bereaved. It is a christian duty to weep with
those tiiat weep. So closely are we identified with our brethren
across the lines in languago and laws, in commerce and instituiions,
that what rejoices them must gladden us, and what afflicts them mu>it
grieve us. The loss of a chief ruler at almost any time, brings home
to every heart in a nation a sanse of sad bereavement. Were our own
beloved Queen to be suddenly removed by death, (a calamity which
may God long arresc,) what a wail of woe would arise throughout the
length and breadth of her mighty empire! History tells us that
when Mirabaau died, France groaned and wept as one man. For
days nothing else was heard or thought of, but the inestimable loss of
their sovereign mind, W^hen men met in coffee-rooms and at street
corners, and one said to another, " fine weather, Monsieur," the sadly
invariable reply was, *' yes, fine weather ; but JMirabeau is dead."
Far intenser, and better founded is the grief, not of the United States
alone, but of this whole Western Continent, and will be the sorrow
of Europe at the sad loss of Abraham Lincoln. The sympathy will be
general and genuine. The loss is not that of one country merely, bu*"
of the civilized world. A great man has fallen ; a friend ot peaoe

■i^ liberty and right his been remorcd; .i nation has been deprived

of its heatI,--of one who had lived in more hearts than ever American
President had lived in befbre,--of one whose memory will be handed
down to posterity, as second only to VVashingion, the father of his
country, if indeed he be secon i. What man, what lover of his kind,
wh it christian can refuse the tribute of sympathy ? We j^ricve be-'
cause hi w.is taken away at the time when his great work s'^eemed on
the eve of completion, when national re-construction and liberty
seemed well-nigh secured. We sympathize with the nation because
there seemed no man better fitted than he, to heal the wounds of the
conflict and repair the sad losses of war, to accomplish the great
work of national re-union, to teach that people the heroic, Cliris-
tian duty of forgetting injuries and forgiving enemies, and cultiva-
ting pjico with all the nations of the earth. ' And who that has tbe
heart of a man, could refuse the prayer and tear of sympathy to the
bereave.! family, and especially to her who has been so suddenly and
ruthlessly rendered a widow. Poor lady ! God pity and comfort her !
^Vhat Christian heart would refuse to pray th.-it she may have the
Hympathy of Ilim who was a man of sorrows and acriuainted with
grief, and the consolations of his glorious gospel ? Will not Britain's
Queen, our own loved Lad^?, who now sits a sad widow upon a lonely
tlirone, shed tears and send words of sympathy to her sister in sor«
row ? And when the cloud of this great grief drops its shower.^ of
bitterness over the fatherland, will not every Christian heart that
feels the thrill of sorrow pour forth its supplication to Ilim who
relieveth the \ Idow, who proclaims, « thy Maker is thy husband ;'*
and in who-u the fitherles* findeth morcy ? This general sympathy
will cam-nt the nations more closely th m ever. There cannot be
war now between the two greatest Christian countries of the world.
If there should be, I could almost imagine that the blood of the mur*
dered President '-ould cry out against it. But it cannot, must not
bo. Civilizition— liberty— human brotherhood -«. Christianity ^all
forbi<I. Surely enough of brother's blood has been shed during the
last four years, to te ich peace to the nations of the earth.

tUs

light

been deprived
ver American
nil be handed
father of his
r of his kind,
^e grieve be*
rk seemed on

and liberty
ition because
'ounds of the
ish the great
eroic, Chris-
and cuIHva-
that has the
ip.ithy to the
Hidden ly and
couifort her !
nay have the
ainted with
not Britain's
ipon a loneljr
sister in sor*
s showers of
i heart that
to Him who

husband ;"
al sympathy
e cannot be
f the world,
of the mur«
t, must not
itianity — all
1 during the

IV". A fourth !e9«)n to be learned from this bitter bereavement is
one of humility aud caution. When men read with almost blinded
vision the aad details of the atrocity, they were ready to hang the
head with shame at the thought, that any one in the shape of a man
conld have done the murderou.'U act. It seemed to many as if the
history of the world had been reversed, and we had suddenly been
thrown back into the darkness of the middle ages. And yet it was
a man that did the deed. Call him fiend, murderer if you will, the
fact remiius the same, th:»t he is still a wearer of our CDmmon na-
ture. Shall I shock you, my dear hearers, if I say, that but for
God's grace we might have been ecjually guilty ? True, if either the
thought or committal of such an act were laid to the charge of any
man here, he would indignantly ask with Hazael, " Is thy servant a
dog thai he should do this thing ?" And yet that foul crime was
tUs act of fallen humanity. We cannot tell with what temptation
Satan may have plied the miserable assassin ; we cannot tell whether
placed in his circumstances and looking at the deed from his perverted
light we might not have been equally guilty. While deeply thank-
ful to Gai, th.it by his providenoa and his grace, he has hitherto re-
strained these hearts of ours, from which proceed all evil thoughts,
let us pour forth our lamentations to-night over che defection of poor
frail human nature, a defection that has been exhibited not only in
this brutality J, but in the history of the human family, from the days
of Cain till ttdnr,— -a history stained with crime aud written in letters
of blood.

And h not tbU the lossoi of oautlon that we espocially need, .8^-
war* of indulging a revenge/ iU tpirii. Justice is one ^l^^Dg i and
justice demands, that " whoao sheddeth man's blood, by man shall
his blood be shed.' Let the cold-blooded miirderer, if caught ».live,
be m ide an example of ; let crimi b« punished openly and wiiltout
stint, according to the strict letter of the statute-book ; but be it
ever remembered, that a spirit of revenge is as impolitic m :t is wicked.
" Vengeanco belongeth unto me : I will repay, ftaith the Lord."
How hard it is to check the rising spirit^ and to enier in at iht
stmt gate of the Saviour'tS teaching, wo all may fiii4, wh«ll w« wme

to practice precepts like these : " Love youF enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them that
despitefully use you and persecute you." Yet this is duty, Christiaa
duty. If our hearts are burning with revenge, tliink you that our
Heavenly Father will ever hear our prayers ? Brethren, whenever
you feel an unholy thought arise within you, go in spirit to Calvary,
that centre of all holy motive and source of all divine strength. See
there the mangled, crucified Jesus, whose one life was worth infinitely
roore than that of ten thousand Presidents, and whose death involved
more guilt in its perpetration than that of ten thousand Booths, and
ask, what says he ? Do his dying lips breathe malice or revenge ?
Oh no ! When " he was reviled, he reviled not again ; when he
suffered, he threatened not,"

•' And when upon the cross he hun*,
With all hi? foes mi view—
'Father, forgive them,' Jesus said,
*They know not what thoy do.' "

Brethren, He is our pattern. The heart may have, probably must
have its own feelings; still let grace prevail, and let us learn to be
Christ-like and forgiving too ! God hjlp the neighbouring nation
and its rulers, while ever pursuing the path of justice and rectitude,
to keep revenge in check ; and God forbid that national guilt should
ever be augmented by the infliction of merely national vengeance]
May the mantle of the murdered President, who ever breathed tho
spirit of kindly forgiveness to his foes, descend on his successor I

V. Finally, is not this the solemn lesson to all, viz : — the uncertain
tenure of all car thlt/ possessions, and even of life itself f Nothing is
more frequent in the world, nothing is more neglected by the world
than death. When one eminent and illustrious in State has been
laid low in the dust cf death, it is one of God's ways of checking^
human thoughtlessness, and convincing man of his mortality. M
exposed to the fell dart of the King of terrors, peasant and president
stiand on a common level. Death spares neither the lofty nor th«
lowly. The tide of bereavement that rolls through our fallen world,
breaks on the threshold of the lowest log-cabin, and dmhes it» bladr

s them that
r them that
^, Christiaa
3u that our
I, whenever
;o Calvary,
ngth. See
h. infinitely
th involved
Booths, and
r revenge ?
; when he

bably must
3arn to be
ng nation
rectitude,
ailt should
i^engeancel

lathed
cssor I

tho

uncertMn
Nothing is
the world
has been-
check ing^
ality. A*
i president
ty nor th«
len world,
s itft blade

wave over the fiomniit of the highest earthly seat. The ebon wcpptrc
of the grisly king is strong in might j but, blessed be God f there \9
a stronger. It is wielded by the omnipotent arm of the King of
kings,— of Him who is the

"Death of death, and hell's destruction."

As dying men, then, let us take heed to tVie lessons of this awful
calamity. It is a great voice from the Infinite and Unseen, calling
on all who have ears to hear to listen, on all who have hearts to feel
to be impressed, on all who have loins to gird and lamps to trim, to
gird the one and trim the other, that they may be ready for the
Bridegroom when be is ready for them !

Men and brethren, " what is your life ? It is even a vapour that
appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." What is
fame ? A bubble which bursts,— a breath which expires. What is
dominion? A house built upon the sand. What arc thrones,
seeptres and presidential chairs? Shadows all, mere symbols of un-
; substantial, unsatisfying good ; and over them the wind of divine
I judgment passeth, and lot they are gone. Be persuaded then, to
I ''• set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth."
This evening's service will not have been held in vain, if by God's
grace only one soul here be brought to a eimple ard tincere trust in
the Crucified One, who died that men might live. Then, in what-
ever form death may come to us, — even if it should be by the dag-
ger of the assassin or the shot of the murderer, — or, as is far more
I likely, if it should be in our own quiet home-chamber, surrounded
by the ministrations of sorrowing loved ones, we shall experience
that for us " to depart and be with Christ, will be far better." For
by the mcritB and mediation of the Saviour in whom we trust, we
shall go to a position higher than earthly Prince cw President ever

oecnpied —

*• From g»ief and groan, •

To i» golden throne,
Beaiue the King of Heaven/'