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IMaps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included In one exposure are filmoc beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames es required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, plenches, tableeux, etc., peuv<«nt Atre fllmAs A des taux da rAduction diff Arents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre roproduit en un soul clichA, 11 est filmA A partir da Tangle supArieur gauche, do gauche A droite, ot do haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammea suivanta illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 XlSr liilL'Eili^OJS.X.A.T^. THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT OAKFISy, JULY 2nd. DIED SEPTEMBER 19th, 1881. -A- SEHli/LOli^ PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL OF THE HOLY TRINITY, QUEBEC, BY THE REVEREND ROBERT KER, SUNDAY EVENING, SEPT. 28th, 1S81. QUEBEC: PB1NTE1> AT THE " MOBNINO (JHRONKJLK " OFPI(!E. 1881. /-■■y^.^.^-".^:'-^'- ' '^ ■■■■-■ - ■ ; iWilf- '%■■'''■ \^-::,--' '^i., ,!'■ r^r „it.-,iiv,.-«i' ■.■■■,-,.> ■:"-> .'.f His presence for He dwelleth " in the thick darkness," or as the Psalmist saith, "clouds and darkness are round about Him." But, surely, if there are such mys- terious incidents — such periods of "awful silence" in our individual lives, there must be similar periods — nay there are such, deeply graven upon the human vNggregation of families and of nations. Tou pause at that heavily craped door — no sacrificial blood on the lintels and door posts is visible to guarantee the inhabitants against the fate ap- pointed unto all men — We are present with the shadow of a great sorrow, for within there lies in the unyielding embrace of death the loved one who has carried into the Great Loneland the sunshine of our lives, and a " great silence " becomes for the moment a necessity. Why is this ? Why do we move so stealthily in the presence of death ? Is it not that some impalpable bnt ever present potency claims the domain as its own and Samuel-like rebukes "the foot intrusive" with the startling spirit world in- quiry — "Why hast thou disquieted me ?" But, well indeed, will it be for such a family, if amid the gathering darknesn they can detect the presence of Him who saith — " It is I, be not afraid" — All such visitations are manifestly intended to prove that here we have no continuing city, that at best our life is a weary pilgrimage, " a tale told," "a dream" — disturbed and frequently painful, "a wearer's shuttle" or water spilt on the ground. These figures indicate the transitory character of human life and human hopes de- pending upon that life: so that we shall have entirely misapprehended the benefident intentions of our merciful and loving Father, if we fail to recognize, in our greatest I .»'l i loss, our greatest gain. Death is bat the portal to an inheritance " eternal in the heavens," so that the monologue of Death is : — " I tako all sorrows from the sorrowful, And teach the joyful what it is to joy ; I gather in my land-locked harbor's clasp The shattered vessels of a vexed world ; And even the tiniest ripple upon life Is to my sublime calm, as tropic storm When other leechcraft fails the breaking brain I only, own the anodyne to still Its eddies into visionless repobe The face distorted with life's latest pang I smooth, in passing, with an angel wing And from beneath the quiet eyelids steal The hidden glory of the eyes, to give A new and noble beauty to the rest. Belie me not. The plagues that walk the earth — The wasting pain, the sudden agony Famine, and war, and pestilence, and all The terrors that have darkened round my name — ■ These are the plagues of life— they are not mine, Vex while I tarry, vanish when I come Instantly melting into perfect peace. As at his word, whose master-spirit I am The troubled waters sleep on Galilee ###### Tender, I am, — not cruel : when I take The shape most hard to human eyes, and pluck The little baby blossom yet unblown 'Tis but to graft it on a kindlier stem, And leaping o'er the perilous years of growth, Unswept of sorrow, and unscathed of wrong, Clothe it at once with rich maturity. 'Tis rthat give a soul to memory ; For round the follies of the bad I throw The mantle of a kind forgetf ulness ; While canonized in dear Love's calendar I sanctify the good for evermore. MiBoall me not ! my generous fulness lends Home to the homeless ; the friendless friends To the starved babe, the mother's tender breast Wealth to the poor, and to the restless — Rb8T. " Looking at the matter in this way we can confidently ask— full of assured hope — '0 Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory? " It is to be deeply regret- ted that Christians have not always that personal conscious- ness of God's presence that they ought to have, and which it is their high privilege to enjoy ; we appear to forget what Christ intended when he declared, "My father worketh hitherto and I work !" It is the conciousness — the personal, experimental consciousness of an ever abiding Presence, — not in this religious ordinance or in that, but in the Believ- er's heart which gives vitality and potency to our Christian life. •' Lo, I am with you always " is the Divine promise ; therefore, in the very intimacy of the relationship we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. The operation is distinctly spiritual, and the mature Chris- tian reads a divinity on every incident, and he sees all things working together for ultimate good. So that in the darkest and most mysterious dispensation we can say : — " Through waves, and clouds, and stonns He gently olears thy way Wait thou this time, so sliall this night Soon end in joyous day. " Modern unbelief afraid, sometimes, to avow itself openly puts the matter half apologetically somewhat in this fashion, — " Well, we have been taught that such things are wisely ordered " So much is said, but what remains unsaid is that toe — the men of wisdom don't believe it. In this emergency they fall down and worship the Gods — " Blind t " Ohance " or " Fixed Fate," and this is modern scientific faith, on vrhat is termed ** a philosophic basis. " We are content to read the mysteries of redemption in the page of Revelation, and the mysteries of wisdom, of goodness and eternal mercy in the wide spread pages of nature and of Providence. The best and wisest of the sons of men have borne witness to the truth, that the Lord rcigneth be the people never so impatient, and thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory, such evidence is no^ wanting even in those trying times in which our lot has been cast. Just now, we have reached a period of the deepest silence, — a period of which it would be figuratively true in the future historian, were he to describe it in the very language of Apocalypse and say, "there was silence in the earth about the space of half an hour." Do we ask what are the causes of this unprecedented gloom ? Why are the marts of commerce deserted ? Instead of businesM topics, man without any particular volition of their own talk '^D«^th. " It is not with the value of stocksi but the value of lives— nay the value of one life, that the world is at present concerned. The great cities of civilization have put on the habiliments of mourning. The fleet messengers of commerce stand still. Sudden paralysis has fallen upon the world of pleasure. Justice takes the blind from ofi^her eyes to witness humanity in mourning — Meteor stars mark the strange event, and angel bands take note of the deep sighs that sweU from loving hearts, and heaven itself must be touched to its eternal depths by such a marvellous manifestation of human sympathy and human sorrow — No need to ask the cause — "Enow ye not that there is^ a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel ?" The name of President Garfield shall stand conspicuous on the brightest bead»roll of human excellence and human ll 8 greatness. Not alone shall it remain embalmed in the heart of a great nation, but the wise and good of all lands will claim a royalty in the inheritance. The Lustre of martial glory, even where most resplendent pales into a dim light in the preseace of simple christian worth. Garfield's assas- sination was more than a crime. How true to say that he — " Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been , So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking off And pity, like a naked newborn b%be Striding tho blast, or heaven's cherubin, hors'd tJpon the sightless couriers of the air Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye That tears shall drown the wind." ***** The assassination of President Garfield will stand unique in the annals of cruel and altogether meaningless crimes. But oi^r. just indignation must not be permitted to carry us beyond the dictates of a sober judgment. We have an abiding conviction that the good sense of the American 2 people will restrain the few wild spirits that would usurp j| n.e throne of offended justice, instead of waiting for the calm and dispassionate administration of the criminal h'vvs of the country. And now as we crowd around the open grave, and in company with countless thousands of his countrymen, pay our tribute of respect to the great spirit that has gone, there is a voiceless eloquence from his tomb that ought to stimu- late us to deeds whose record shall remain when we, too, shrill have passed from among the sons of men. To young men, tha history of the late President is beyond measure instructive. There are not a few young men born to wealth, even on this continent, where ancestral wealth is not so i K "rr IS- ir e \\ ||^:;k» 9 highly valued as elsewhere. In this respect James Abram Garfield was not among the favored ones. First of all it may be said of him that he was eminently American : he saw difficulties in the way, but he was never frightened at them ; he simply set himself resolutely to overcome them, and with a constant dependence upon God he, in the end, succeeded. " Gentlemen," said he to the authorities of Hiram College, " I want an education, and would like the privilege of making the fires and sweeping tlte floors of the building to pay part of my expenses." Need it be said that he ultimately graduated with distinguished honors, and in the end held high rank as a Public Instructor. Let me say just this in passing — how many young men in this city with the halls of such an admirable institution as " Morrin College" at their very doors, might become great and illustrious if only half the time devoted to the saloon and billiard tables was spent in useful study. We may be well assured it was not spending his time in bar-rooms or his nights upon the street corners that ma^e him President of the United States. Such lessons 'as these may be learned from his life. Ours is rather the duty of apprehending the christian testimony of him who has gone to his rest. He strikes the key note at a very early period in his life. Se- Icsting his college he says : — " I am the son of Disciple parents ; am one myself, and have but little acquaintance with people of other views ; and, having always lived in the West, I think it will make me more Liberal both in my religious and general views and sentiments to go into a new circle." So wrote Garfield when selecting his college, and few will doubt the wisdom of his course. He was pre*eminently wise in steering clear of " religious bigotry" — that fierce, godless and unchrist-liKe worship of our sys- tems, which damas tha river of charity at its source, and ^ ^MI B Wnig Mll i i il i A if. limm tUtmrnM 10- leaves tire Sdtllsfot whom Ohristdic^d toperiish throtighlack of food. A Bigot is rarely a good man and nev^t a Christian ; and, - therefore, when I say that President Garfield was both a good man and a true christian, I say very distinctly that his provision againist falling into the snare of bigotry was attended with the happiest results. Well would it be for America, well would it be for the church, and well would it be for the world if we had many such as he was ainong the ranks of professing christians. And here, I must draw your attention to an incident which transpired upon the assassination of that other illus- trious martyr to duty — President Lincoln.* It was the morning after the assassination in the city of New York. Placards in great black letters were issued calling upon the citizens to assemble at the Wall Street Escchange and give expression to their sentiments. Jt was a moment of su- preme .peril. The wrath of the people was something ter- rible. Not less than fifty thousand people, wo are told, were packed arpund the building. By this timet s&ys one writer, the wave of popular indignation had swelled to its crest. In an adjoining street two men lay bleeding — the aifter. We sow this mortal flesh in weakness, but it shall be raised in power; wesow it in corruption, but it shall be raised in incorruption ; we sow it a natural body, but it shall be raised a spiritual body. These are the hopes whose undimmed glory lights up the entire valley of the shadow of death. The echo of " earth to earth,", as it falls upon the coffin, is, " I am the Resurrection and the Life, flaith the Lord ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall n^ver die.*' But, in the meantime, let us read to ourselves the lessons of his life : " Still achieving, ^till pursuing, " Learn to labor and to wait. " \ 15 Our deceased brother was a true. master, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed ; examine his labors care- fully by all the instruments of your craft, and you will find that it bears the mark of . finished workmanship. Stich work in fact as is needed at the ^eat Spiritual Temple now in course of erection, for, " ye are," as the Apostle saith, ''God's Building." And, notwithstanding all his i qualifications, his column, as we have already said, has been broken almost at its base, and he himself called from labor to rest before high noon. This is not the first un- usual incident that has occurred among the workmen at the Temple, and, therefore, we take it to be a distinct warning not alone to the negligent craftsman, but to the skilled workmen to be ready at a moment's notice to present spe- cimens of their work at the gates of the Upper Sanctum. Builders in a greater than Solomon's Temple; this is a startling alarm at the outer court ! If you would ascertain the cause, you will find that it is no cowan voice which answers : ^ For the structure that we raise Time is with materiak filled ; Our to days and yesterdays, Are the blocks with which we build Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen ; ; ' , Make the house where Gods may dwell. Beautiful, entire, and clean. St. Paul, one of the Great Master Builders, cautibiift usin these words, — "Let every man take heed how he builds th thereupon. For other foundation can no man 1^^ than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ — " , ' * . / Let us go manfully to work and beneath the rubbish of human weakness and error seek for the lost word '^Chdrity," 16 and having found it, make it the Key-stone of the fabric of our lives, and at the same time draw as knights, valiant for the truth, the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. I think I may fittingly close by adopting the late President's own words when speaking of the assassination of Lincoln : " Divinely gifted man. Whose life in low estate bogni , And on a simple village green, Who breaks his birth's invidious bars, A nd grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blows of circumstance, And grapples with his evil stars : Who makes by force his merit known. And lives to clutch the golden keys To moT^'.d a mighty state's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throno : '■ '." And moving up from high to higher, Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope. The pillar of a people's hope, The centre of a world's desire." Such a life and character will be treasured forever as the sacred possession of the American people and of man- kind. * * * There are times in the history of men and nations when they stand so near the veil that separates mortals and immortals, time from eternity, and men from their God, that they can almost hear the breathings, and feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Such a time is the present. It remains for us, consecrated by that great event, and under that covenant with God, to keep the faith, to go for- ward in the great work until it shall be completed. Fol- lowing the lead of that great man, and obeying the high behests of God, let us remember I \ \ \ \ \ " He has sounded forth his trumpet that shall never call retreat ; He is sifting out. the hearts of men before his ' adgment-seat ; Be swift, my soul, to answer Him ; be jubilant, my feet, For God is marching on." And thus we strew our deceased brother's grave, not with the dead flowers of the Finite, but with the luxuriant foliage of the Infinite. We stand in the mystic circle of immortal hope, and with the eye of faith we penetrate into the land of rest — the habitation of the Saints of the Most High, who dwp^leth in the light that is unapproachable. It is a land without shadows. The burnished gold of the streets of the New Jerusalem shall never be dimmed by a fall- ing tear. No weary feet shall pass within the pearly gates. The sorrows and sighing and death of this nether world shall be swallowed up in the unspeakable glory to be re- vealed hereafter. Sleep on then and rest, thou man of worthy memory ; thy ashes— wet by a nation's tears — shall be cherished in the Sacred Urn of a world-wide sympathy, and the lives of men and women yet unborn shall be light- ed to the performance of great deeds by the moral heroism of James Abram Garfield and his hardly less heroic wife. \