UC-NRLF 
 
Goldstein 
 
SERMONS 
 
 PREACHED IN BOSTON 
 
 ON THE DEATH OF 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 TOGETHER WITH THE FUNERAL SERVICES IN 
 
 THE EAST ROOM OF THE EXECUTIVE 
 
 MANSION AT WASHINGTON. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 T ^N 
 
 1865. 
 
, 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, 
 
 BY J. E. TILTON AND CO., 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 STEREOTYPED Br C. J. PETERS & SON, 
 No. 13 Washington Street. 
 
 TRESS os 1 GEO. C. RAND & AVERT. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FUNERAL SERVICE AT WASHINGTON. 
 
 Page. 
 I. B URIAL SER VICE READ BY REV. MR. HALL. 7 
 
 //. OPENING PR A YER B Y BISHOP SIMPSON. 9 
 III. SERMON BY REV. D. P. GURLEY. ... 16 
 IV. CLOSING PRAYER BY REV. E. H. GRAY. 28 
 
 SERMONS IN BOSTON. 
 
 V. REV. E. N. KIRK. 33 
 
 PSALMS xlvi. : 10. 
 VI. REV. CYRUS A. BARTOL 61 
 
 VII. REV. J. M. MANNING 69 
 
 DEUTERONOMY xxxiv. : 4, 5. 
 
 VIII. REV. JOHN E. TODD 75 
 
 PSALMS xciii. : 1. 
 
 IX. REV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. ... 91 
 2 TIM. i : 10. 
 
 X. REV. GEORGE II. HEPWORTH. .... 109 
 MATTHEW ix. : 15. 
 
 XI. REV. W. R. NICHOLSON. 125 
 
 XII. REV. WILLIAM HAGUE 129 
 
 SAMUEL iii. : 38. 
 
 773221 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 XIII. EEV. E. B. WEBB 145 
 
 ISAIAH xxi. : 11, 12. 
 
 XIV. REV. R. H. NEALE 163 
 
 MATTHEW ix. : 15. 
 
 XV. REV. HENRY W. FOOTS 179 
 
 XVI. REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON. 193 
 
 XVII. REV. WARREN H. CUDWORTH. .... 199 
 DANIEL iv. 35. 
 
 XVIII. REV. CHANDLER ROBBINS 215 
 
 PSALMS Ixxvii. : 19. 
 
 XIX. REV. W. S, STUDLEY. 227 
 
 LAMENTATIONS v. : 15, 16, 17, 19. 
 
 XX. REV. RUFUS ELLIS 235 
 
 LUKE xxiv. : 5, 6. 
 
 XXI. REV. SAMUEL K. LOTHROP 245 
 
 2 SAMUEL xix : 2. 
 
 XX77. REV. EDWARD E. HALE 267 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS xv. : 57. 
 
 XXIII. REV. A. A. MINER 279 
 
 PSALMS Ixxxix. : 18. 
 
 XXIF. REV. JAMES REED 295 
 
 XXF. REV. GEORGE PUTNAM 309 
 
 XXVI. REV. GEORGE L. CHANEY. 325 
 
 JOHN xiv. : 18. 
 
 XXVII. REV. A. L. STONE 337 
 
 LAMENTATIONS v. : 15, 16. 
 
 XXVIII. REV. J. D. FULTON. 359 
 
 DEUTERONOMY xzxiv, : 7. 
 
REV, P. D. GURLEY, D. D 
 
 i* 
 
BURIAL SERVICE. 
 
 At ten minutes past 12, Rev. Mr. HALL opened the 
 services by reading from the Episcopal burial service 
 for the dead as follows : 
 
 " I am the resurrection and the life saith the Lord ; he 
 that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
 live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall 
 never die. John xi : 25, 26. 
 
 " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall 
 stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after 
 my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall 
 I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes 
 shall behold and not another. Job xix : 25, 26, 27. 
 
 " We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain 
 we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave and the Lord 
 hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." 
 1 Timothy vi : 7, and Job i : 21. 
 
 "Lord, let me know my end and the number of my 
 days, that I may be certified how long I have to live. 
 Behold, Thou hast made my days as it were but a span 
 long, and mine age is even as nothing in respect of Thee. 
 And verily every man living is altogether vanity ; for 
 
; SERMONS ON THE 
 
 .iftan -walitetli tfi.a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself 
 in vain. He heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who 
 shall gather them. And now, Lord, what is my hope ? 
 Truly my hope is ever in Thee ; deliver me from 
 all my offences, and make me not a rebuke unto the 
 foolish. When Thou, with rebukes dost chasten man 
 for sin, Thou makest his beauty to consume away, 
 like as it were a moth fretting a garment. Every man 
 is, therefore, but vanity. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and 
 with Thine ears consider my calling. Hold not Thy 
 peace at my tears, for I am a stranger with thee and a 
 sojourner, as all my fathers were. O, spare me a little, 
 that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be 
 no more seen. Lord, Thou hast been our refuge from 
 one generation to another. Before the mountains were 
 brought forth, or even the earth and the world were made, 
 Thou art God from everlasting, and world without end. 
 Thou turnest man to destruction ; again thou sayest, come 
 again, ye children of men, for a thousand years in thy 
 sight are but as yesterday, seeing that it is past as a 
 watch in the night. As soon as Thou scatterest them, 
 they are even as sheep, and fade away suddenly like the 
 grass. In the morning it is green and groweth up, but 
 in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered. 
 For we consume away in Thy displeasure, and are afraid 
 at thy wrathful indignation. Thou hast set our mis 
 deeds before Thee, and our secret sins in the light of Thy 
 countenance ; for when thou art angry all our days are 
 gone. We bring our years to an end, as it were a tale 
 that is told. The days of our age are threescore years 
 and ten, and though men be so strong that they come to 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. U 
 
 fourscore years, yet is their strength then but labor and 
 sorrow, so soon passeth it away, and we are gone. So 
 teach us to number our days that we may apply our 
 hearts unto wisdom. Glory be to the Father,and to the 
 Son, and to the holy Ghost ; as it was in the beginning, 
 is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen." 
 
 Then was read the lesson from the 15th chapter 
 of St. Paul to the Corinthians, beginning with the 
 20th verse : 
 
 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become 
 the first-fruits of them that slept. 
 
 For since by man came death, by man came also the 
 resurrection of the dead. 
 
 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
 made alive. 
 
 But every man in his own order : Christ the first- 
 fruits ; afterward they that are Christ s at his coming. 
 
 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered 
 up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall 
 have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. 
 
 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under 
 his feet. 
 
 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 
 
 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when 
 he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that 
 he is excepted which did put all things under him. 
 
 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then 
 shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put 
 all things under him, that God may be all in all. 
 
10 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 Else what shall they do, which are baptized for the 
 dead, if the dead rise not at all ? why are they then 
 baptized for the dead ? 
 
 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour ? 
 
 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 
 
 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts 
 at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise 
 not ? let us eat and drink ; for to-morrow we die. 
 
 Be not deceived ; evil communications corrupt good 
 manners. 
 
 Awake to righteousness, and sin not ; for some have 
 not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. 
 
 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up ? 
 and with what body do they come ? 
 
 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened 
 except it die : 
 
 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that 
 body that shall be, but bare grain ; it may chance of 
 wheat, or of some other grain : 
 
 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and 
 to every seed his own body. 
 
 All flesh is not the same flesh ; but there is one kind 
 of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of 
 fishes, and another of birds. 
 
 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial : 
 but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the 
 terrestrial is another. 
 
 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of 
 the moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star 
 differeth from another star in glory. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 11 
 
 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in 
 corruption, it is raised in incorruption : 
 
 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory : it is sown 
 in weakness, it is raised in power : 
 
 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 
 There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 
 
 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a 
 living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 
 
 Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but 
 that w r hich is natural ; and afterward that which is 
 spiritual. 
 
 The first man is of the earth, earthy : the second man 
 is the Lord from heaven. 
 
 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy : 
 and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are 
 heavenly. 
 
 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we 
 shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 
 
 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot 
 inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption 
 inherit incorruption. 
 
 Behold, I shew you a mystery : We shall not all 
 sleep, but we shall all be changed, 
 
 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
 trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall 
 be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 
 
 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and 
 this mortal must put on immortality. 
 
 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorrup 
 tion, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then 
 shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 
 Death is swallowed up in victory. 
 
12 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy 
 victory ? 
 
 The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is 
 the law. 
 
 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, 
 unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
 forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in 
 the Lord. 
 
 Bishop Simpson, of Philadelphia, then offered the 
 following opening prayer : 
 
 Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, as with smitten 
 and suffering hearts we come into Thy presence, we 
 pray, in the name of our blessed Redeemer, that Thou 
 wouldst pour upon us Thy Holy Spirit, that all our 
 thoughts and acts may be acceptable in Thy sight. We 
 adore Thee for all Thy glorious perfections. We praise 
 Thee for the revelation which Thou hast given us in Thy 
 works and in Thy Word. By Thee all worlds exist. 
 All beings live through Thee. Thou raisest up king 
 doms and empires, and castest them down. By Thee 
 kings reign and princes decree righteousness. In Thy 
 hand are the issues of life and death. We confess 
 before Thee the magnitude of our sins and transgres 
 sions, both as individuals and as a nation. We implore 
 Thy mercy for the sake of our Redeemer. Forgive 
 us all our iniquities. If it please Thee, remove Thy 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 13 
 
 chastening hand from us ; and, though we be 
 unworthy, turn away from us Thine anger, and let the 
 light of Thy countenance again shine upon us. 
 
 At this solemn hour, as we mourn for the death of 
 our President, who was stricken down by the hand of an 
 assassin, grant us also the grace to bow in submission 
 to Thy holy will. May we recognize Thy hand high 
 above all human agencies, and Thy power as controlling 
 all events, so that the wrath of man shall praise Thee, 
 and that the remainder of wrath Thou wilt restrain. 
 Humbled under the suffering we have endured, and the 
 great afflictions through which we have passed, may we 
 not be called upon to offer other sacrifices. May the 
 lives of all our officers, both civil and military, be 
 guarded by Thee ; and let no violent hand fall upon any 
 of them. Mourning as we do, for the mighty dead by 
 whose remains we stand, we would yet lift our hearts 
 unto Thee in grateful acknowledgment for Thy kindness 
 in giving us so great and noble a commander. 
 
 Thou art glorified in good men, and we praise Thee 
 that Thou didst give him unto us so pure, so honest, so 
 sincere, and so transparent in character. We praise 
 Thee for that kind, affectionate heart, which always 
 swelled with feelings of enlarged benevolence. We 
 bless Thee for what Thou didst enable him to do ; that 
 Thou didst give him wisdom to select for his advisers, 
 and for his officers, military and naval, those men 
 through whom our country has been carried through 
 an unprecedented conflict. 
 
 We bless Thee for the success which has attended 
 all their efforts, and victories which have crowned our 
 2 
 
SERMONS ON" THE 
 
 armies ; and that Thou didst spare Thy servant until he 
 could behold the dawning of that glorious morning of 
 peace and prosperity which is about to shine upon our 
 land ; that he was enabled to go up as Thy servant of 
 old upon Mount Pisgah, and catch a glimpse of the 
 promised land. Though his lips are silent and his arm 
 is powerless, we thank Thee that Thou didst strengthen 
 him to speak words that cheer the hearts of the suffering 
 and the oppressed, and to write that declaration of eman 
 cipation which has given him an immortal reward ; that 
 though the hand of the assassin has struck him to the 
 ground, it could not destroy the work which he has 
 done, nor forge again the chains which he has broken. 
 And while we mourn that he has passed away, we are 
 grateful that his work was so fully accomplished, and 
 that the acts which he has performed will forever remain. 
 
 We implore Thy blessing upon his bereaved family, 
 Thou husband of the widow. Bless her who, broken 
 hearted and sorrowing, feels oppressed with unutterable 
 anguish. Cheer the loneliness of the pathway which 
 lies before her, and grant to her such consolations of 
 Thy spirit, and such hopes, through the resurrection, 
 that she shall feel that " Earth hath no sorrows which 
 Heaven cannot heal." 
 
 Let Thy blessing rest upon his sons ; pour upon 
 them the spirit of wisdom ; be Thou the guide of their 
 youth ; prepare them for usefulness in society, for hap 
 piness in all their relations. May the remembrance of 
 their father s counsels, and their father s noble acts, 
 ever stimulate them to glorious deeds, and at last may 
 they be heirs of everlasting life. 
 
DEATH OF "PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 15 
 
 Command thy rich blessings to descend upon the suc 
 cessor of our lamented President. Grant unto him 
 wisdom, energy, and firmness for the responsible duties 
 to which he has been called ; and may he, his cabinet, 
 officers and generals who shall lead his armies, and the 
 brave soldiers in the field, be so guided by Thy counsels 
 that they shall speedily complete the great work which 
 he had so successfully carried forward. 
 
 Let Thy blessing rest upon our country. Grant unto 
 us all a fixed and strong determination never to cease 
 our efforts until our glorious Union shall be fully 
 re-established. 
 
 Around the remains of our loved President may we 
 covenant together by every possible means to give our 
 selves to our country s service until every vestige of this 
 rebellion shall have been wiped out, and until slavery, 
 its cause, shall be forever eradicated. 
 
 Preserve us, we pray Thee, from all complications 
 with foreign nations. Give us hearts to act justly 
 toward all nations, and grant unto them hearts to act 
 justly toward us, that universal peace and happiness may 
 fill our earth. We rejoice, then, in this inflicting dis 
 pensation Thou hast given, as additional evidence of the 
 strength of our nation. We bless Thee that no tumult 
 has arisen, and in peace and harmony our government 
 moves onward ; and that Thou hast shown that our re 
 publican government is the strongest upon the face of 
 the earth. 
 
 In this solemn presence, may we feel that we too are 
 immortal ! May the sense of our responsibility to God 
 rest upon us ; may we repent of every sin ; and may we 
 
16 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 consecrate anew unto Thee all the time and all the 
 talents which Thou hast given us ; and may we so fulfil 
 our allotted duties that finally we may have a resting- 
 place with the good, and wise, and the great, who now 
 surround that glorious throne ! Hear us while we unite 
 in praying with Thy Church in all lands and in all ages, 
 even as Thou hast taught us, saying : 
 
 Our Father which art in heaven; hallowed be Thy 
 name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth 
 as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. 
 And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those 
 who trespass against us. And lead us not into tempta 
 tion, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, 
 and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen ! 
 
 DR. GURLEY S SERMON. 
 
 As we stand here to-day, mourners around this coffin, 
 and around the lifeless remains of our beloved chief 
 magistrate, we recognize and we adore the sovereignty 
 of God. His throne is in the Heavens, and His king 
 dom ruleth over all. He hath done, and He hath 
 permitted to be done, whatsoever he pleased. Clouds 
 and darkness are round about him ; righteousness and 
 judgment are the habitation of his throne. His way is 
 in the sea and his path in the great waters, and his foot 
 steps are not known. Canst thou by searching find out 
 God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? 
 It is as high as Heaven, what canst thou do ? Deeper 
 than hell, what canst thou know ? The measure thereof 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 17 
 
 is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. If 
 He cut off and shut up, or gather together, then who 
 can hinder him ? for He knoweth vain men, He seeth 
 wickedness : also, will he not then consider it ? We 
 bow before His Infinite Majesty, we bow, we weep, 
 we worship. 
 
 " Where reason fails with all her powers, 
 There faith prevails and love adores." 
 
 It was a cruel, cruel hand, that dark hand of the assas 
 sin, which smote our honored, wise, and noble President, 
 and filled the land with sorrow. But above and beyond 
 that hand there is another, which we must see and 
 acknowledge. It is the chastening hand of a wise and 
 a faithful Father. He gives us this bitter cup, and the 
 cup that our father has given us shall we not drink it ? 
 
 God of the just, thou givest us the cup, 
 "We yield to thy behest, and drink it up. 
 
 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. Oh, how these 
 blessed words have cheered and strengthened and sus 
 tained us through all these long and weary years of civil 
 strife, while our friends and brothers on so many ensan 
 guined fields were falling and dying for the cause of 
 liberty and union. Let them cheer and strengthen and 
 sustain us to-day. True, this new sorrow and chastening 
 has come in such an hour and in such a way as we 
 thought not, and it bears the impress of a rod that is very 
 heavy, and of a mystery that is very deep, that such a 
 life should be sacrificed at such a time, by such a foul 
 and diabolical agency ; that the man at the head of the 
 2* 
 
18 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 nation, whom the people had learned to trust with a con 
 fiding and a loving confidence, and upon whom more than 
 upon any other were centred, under God, our best hopes 
 for the true and speedy pacification of the country, the 
 restoration of the Union, and the return of harmony 
 and love, that he should be taken from us, and 
 taken just as the prospect of peace was brightly opening 
 upon our torn and bleeding country, and just as he was 
 beginning to be animated and gladdened with the hope 
 of ere long enjoying with the people the blessed fruit 
 and reward of his and their toils, care and patience and 
 self-sacrificing devotion to the interests of liberty and 
 the Union. Oh, it is a mysterious and a most afflicting 
 visitation. But it is our Father in Heaven, the God of 
 our fathers and our God, who permits us to be so 
 suddenly and sorely smitten ; and we know that His 
 judgments are right, and that in faithfulness He has 
 afflicted us. In the midst of our rejoicings we needed 
 this stroke, this dealing, this discipline and therefore 
 He has sent it. Let us remember our affliction has not 
 come forth of the dust, and our trouble has not sprung 
 out of the ground. 
 
 Through and beyond all second causes, let us look and 
 see the sovereign permissive agency of the great First 
 Cause. It is his prerogative to bring light out of darkness, 
 and good out of evil. Surely the wrath of man shall praise 
 him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain. In 
 the light of a clearer day, we may yet see that the 
 wrath which planned and perpetrated the death of the 
 President was overruled by Him, whose judgments are 
 unsearchable and His ways past finding out, for the 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 19 
 
 highest welfare of all those interests which are so dear 
 to the Christian patriot and philanthropist, and for 
 which a loyal people have made such an unexampled 
 sacrifice of treasure and of blood. Let us not be faith 
 less, but believing. 
 
 " Blind unbelief is prone to err, and scan His work in vain ; 
 God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain." 
 
 We will wait for his interpretation ; and we will wait in 
 faith, nothing doubting. He who has led us so well, 
 and defended and prospered us so wonderfully during 
 the last four years of toil and struggle and sorrow, 
 will not forsake us now. He may chasten, but he will 
 not destroy. He may purify us more and more in the 
 furnace of trial, but he will not consume us. No, no. 
 He has chosen us, as he did his people of old, in the 
 furnace of affliction ; and he has said of us, as he said 
 of them, this people have I formed for myself; they 
 shall show forth my praise. Let our principal anxiety 
 now be that this new sorrow may be a sanctified sorrow ; 
 that it may lead us to deeper repentance, to a more 
 humbling sense of our dependence upon God, and to 
 the more unreserved consecration of ourselves, and all 
 that we have, to the cause of truth and justice, of law 
 and order, of liberty and good government, of pure and 
 undefiled religion. Then, though weeping may endure 
 for a night, joy will come in the morning. Blessed be 
 God. Despite of this great and sudden and temporary 
 darkness, the morning has begun to dawn, the morning 
 of a bright and glorious day, such as our country has 
 never seen. That day will come and not tarry, and the 
 
20 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 death of a hundred presidents and their cabinets can 
 never, never prevent it. While we are thus hopeful, 
 however, let us also be humble. The occasion calls us 
 to prayerful and tearful humiliation. It demands of us 
 that we lie low, very low, before Him who has smitten 
 us for our sins. Oh that all our rulers and all our people 
 may bow in the dust to-day beneath the chastening hand 
 of God, and may their voices go up to him as one voice, 
 and their hearts go up to him as one heart, pleading 
 with him for mercy, for grace to sanctify our great and 
 sore bereavement, and for wisdom to guide us in this 
 our time of need ! Such a united cry and pleading will 
 not be in vain. It will enter into the ear and heart of 
 Him who sits upon the throne, and He will say to us, 
 as to his ancient Israel, " In a little wrath, I hid my 
 face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kind 
 ness will I have mercy upon thee, saith the Lord, thy 
 Redeemer." 
 
 I have said, that the people confided in the late lament 
 ed President with a full and a loving confidence. Pro 
 bably no man since the days of Washington was ever so 
 deeply and firmly imbedded and enshrined in the very 
 hearts of the people as Abraham Lincoln. Nor was it a 
 mistaken confidence and love. He deserved it ; deserved 
 it well ; deserved it all. He merited it by his character, 
 by his acts, and by the whole tenor and tone and spirit of 
 his life. He was simple and sincere, plain and honest, 
 truthful and just, benevolent and kind. His perceptions 
 were quick and clear, his judgments were calm and 
 accurate, and his purposes were good and pure beyond 
 a question. Always and everywhere he aimed and 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 21 
 
 endeavored to le right and to do right. His integrity 
 was thorough, all-pervading, all-controlling, and incor 
 ruptible. It was the same in every place and relation, 
 in the consideration and control of matters great or small, 
 the same firm and steady principle of power and beauty, 
 that shed a clear and crowning lustre upon all his other 
 excellences of mind and heart, and recommended him to 
 his fellow-citizens as the man, who, in a time of unexam 
 pled peril, when the very life of the nation was at stake, 
 should be chosen to occupy in the country, and for the 
 country, its highest post of power and responsibility. 
 How wisely and well, how purely and faithfully, how 
 firmly and steadily, how justly and successfully he did 
 occupy that post, and meet its grave demands, in circum 
 stances of surpassing trial and difficulty, is known to 
 you all, known to the country and the world ; he 
 comprehended from the first the perils to which treason 
 had exposed the freest and best government on the earth, 
 the vast interests of liberty and humanity that were to be 
 saved or lost forever in the urgent impending conflict. He 
 rose to the dignity and momentousness of the occasion, 
 saw his duty as the Chief Magistrate of a great and 
 imperilled people, and he determined to do his duty, and 
 his whole duty, seeking the guidance and leaning upon 
 the arm of Him of whom it is written, " He giveth 
 power to the faint, and to them that have no might He 
 increaseth the strength." Yes, he leaned upon his arm. 
 He recognized and received the truth, that the kingdom 
 is the Lord s and He is the governor among the nations. 
 He remembered that God is in history, and he felt that 
 nowhere had his hand and his mercy been so marvel- 
 
22 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 lously conspicuous as in the history of this nation. He 
 hoped and he prayed that that same hand would continue 
 to guide us, and that same mercy continue to abound to 
 us in the time of our greatest need. I speak what I 
 know, and testify what I have often heard him say, when 
 I affirm that that guidance and mercy were the props on 
 which he humbly and habitually leaned; that they 
 were the best hope he had for himself, and for his coun 
 try. Hence, when he was leaving his home in Illinois, 
 and coming to this city to take his seat in the Executive 
 Chair of a disturbed and troubled nation, he said to the 
 old and tried friends who gathered tearfully around him, 
 and bade him farewell, I leave you with this request, 
 pray for me. They did pray for him, and millions of 
 others prayed for him. Nor did they pray in vain. 
 Their prayers were heard, and the answer appears in all 
 his subsequent history. It shines forth with a heavenly 
 radiance in the whole course and tenor of his administra 
 tion, from its commencement to its close. 
 
 God raised him up for a great and glorious mission, 
 furnished him for his work, and aided him in its accom 
 plishment. Nor was it merely by strength of mind, and 
 honesty of heart, and purity and pertinacity of purpose, 
 that He furnished him. In addition to these things, He 
 gave him a calm and abiding confidence in the overrul 
 ing providence of God, and in the ultimate triumph of 
 truth and righteousness, through the power and the 
 blessing of God. This confidence strengthened him in 
 all his hours of anxiety and toil, and inspired him with 
 calm and cheering hope, when others were inclining to 
 despondency and gloom. Never shall I forget the em- 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 23 
 
 phasis and the deep emotion with which he said, in this 
 very room, to a company of clergymen and others, who 
 called to pay him their respects in the darkest day of 
 our civil conflict : " Gentlemen, my hope of success, in 
 this great and terrible struggle, rests on that immuta 
 ble foundation, the justice and goodness of God ; and, 
 when events are very threatening, and prospects very 
 dark, I still hope, that in some way which man cannot 
 see, all will be well in the end, because our cause is 
 just, and God is on our side." Such was his sublime 
 and holy faith ; and it was an anchor to his soul, both 
 sure and steadfast. It made him firm and strong. It 
 emboldened him in the pathway of duty, however 
 rugged and perilous it might be. It made him valiant 
 for the right, for the cause of God and humanity ; and 
 it held him in steady, patient, and unswerving adher 
 ence to a policy of administration which he thought, 
 and which we all now think, both God and humanity 
 required him to adopt. We admired and loved him on 
 many accounts ; for strong and various reasons. We 
 admired his childlike simplicity ; his freedom from guile 
 and deceit ; his stanch and sterling integrity ; his kind 
 and forgiving temper ; his industry and patience ; his 
 persistent, self-sacrificing devotion to all the duties of 
 his eminent position, from the least to the greatest ; his 
 readiness to hear and consider the cause of the poor and 
 humble, the suffering and the oppressed ; his charity for 
 those who questioned the correctness of his opinions and 
 the wisdom of his policy ; his wonderful skill in recon 
 ciling differences among the friends of the Union, lead 
 ing them away from abstractions and inducing them to 
 
24 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 work together and harmoniously for the common weal ; 
 his true and enlarged philanthropy, that knew no dis 
 tinction of color or race, but regarded all men as 
 brethren, and endowed alike by their Creator with certain 
 inalienable rights, amongst which are life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness ; his inflexible purpose, that 
 what freedom had gained in our terrible civil strife 
 should never be lost, and that the end of the war 
 should be the end of slavery, and as a consequence 
 of rebellion ; his readiness to spend and be spent 
 for the attainment of such a triumph, a triumph, the 
 blessed fruits of which shall be as wide-spreading 
 as the earth, and as enduring as the sun. All these 
 things commanded and fixed our admiration, and the 
 admiration of the world, and stamped upon his charac 
 ter and life the unmistakable impress of greatness. But 
 more sublime than any or all of these, more holy and 
 influential, more beautiful and strong and sustaining, 
 was his abiding confidence in God, and in the final tri 
 umph of truth and righteousness, through him, and for 
 his sake. This was his noblest virtue, his grandest 
 principle ; the secret, alike of his strength, his patience, 
 and his success. This, it seems to me, after being near 
 him steadily, and with him often, for more than four 
 years, is the principle by which, more than by any 
 other, he being dead yet speaketh. Yes, by his steady, 
 enduring confidence in God, and in the complete, ulti 
 mate success of the cause of God, which is the cause of 
 humanity, more than in any other way, does he now 
 speak to us, and to the nation he loved and served so 
 well. By this he speaks to his successor in office, and 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 25 
 
 charges him to have faith in God. By this he speaks to 
 the members of his Cabinet, the men with whom he 
 counselled so often, and associated with so long, and he 
 charges them to have faith in God. By this he speaks 
 to all who occupy positions of influence and authority 
 in these sad and troublous times, and he charges them 
 all to have faith in God. By this he speaks to this 
 great people, as they sit in sackcloth to-day, and weep 
 for him with a bitter wailing, and refuse to be com 
 forted, and he charges them to have faith in God ; and 
 by this he will speak through the ages, and to all rulers 
 and peoples in every land, and his message to them will 
 be, Cling to liberty and right, battle for them, bleed for 
 them, die for them if need be, and have confidence in 
 God. Oh that the voice of this testimony may sink 
 down into our hearts to-day, and every day, and into the 
 heart of the nation, and exert its appropriate influence 
 upon our feelings, our faith, our patience, and our devo 
 tion to the cause, now dearer to us than ever before, 
 because consecrated by the blood of its most con 
 spicuous defender, its wisest and most fondly trusted 
 friend ! 
 
 He is dead. But the God in whom he trusted lives, 
 and he can guide and strengthen his successor as he 
 guided and strengthened him. He is dead. But the 
 memory of his virtues, of his wise and patriotic counsels 
 and labors, of his calm and steady faith in God, lives as 
 precious, and will be a power for good in the country 
 quite down to the end of time. He is dead. But the 
 cause he so ardently loved, so ably, patiently, faithfully 
 represented and defended, not for himself only, not for us 
 3 
 
26 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 only, but for all people, in all their coming generations 
 till time shall be no more, that cause survives his fall, 
 and will survive it. The light of its brightening pros 
 pects flashes cheeringly to-day athwart the gloom occa 
 sioned by his death, and the language of God s united 
 providences is telling us, that, though the friends of lib 
 erty die, liberty itself is immortal. There is no assassin 
 strong enough and no weapon deadly enough to quench 
 its inextinguishable life or arrest its onward march to the 
 conquest and empire of the world. This is our confidence 
 and this is our consolation as we weep and mourn to-day: 
 Though our beloved President is slain, our beloved Coun 
 try is saved ; and so we sing of mercy as well as of judg 
 ment. Tears of gratitude mingle with those of sorrow. 
 While there is darkness, there is also the dawning of a 
 brighter, happier day upon our stricken and weary land. 
 God be praised that our fallen chief lived long enough to 
 see the day dawn, and the day star of joy and peace arise 
 upon the nation. He saw it, and he was glad. Alas ! alas ! 
 He only saw the dawn. When the sun has risen full-orbed 
 and glorious, and a happy re-united people are rejoicing 
 in its light, it will shine upon his grave, but that grave 
 will be a precious and a consecrated spot. The friends 
 of Liberty and of the Union will repair to it in years 
 and ages to come, to pronounce the memory of its 
 occupant blessed, and gathering from his very ashes, 
 and from the rehearsal of his deeds and virtues, fresh 
 incentives to patriotism, they will there renew their 
 vows of fidelity to their country and their God. 
 
 And now I know not that I can more appropriately 
 conclude this discourse, which is but a sincere and 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 27 
 
 simple utterance of the heart, than by addressing to our 
 departed President, with some slight modification, the 
 language which Tacitus, in his lifo of Agricola, addresses 
 to his venerable and departed father-in-law. With you 
 we may now congratulate. You are blessed not only 
 because your life was a career of glory ; but because 
 you were released, when, your country safe, it was 
 happiness to die. We have lost a parent ; and, in our 
 distress, it is now an addition to our heartfelt sorrow that 
 we had it not in our power to commune with you on the 
 bed of languishing, and receive your last embrace. Your 
 dying words would have been ever dear to us. Your 
 commands we should have treasured up, and graved 
 them on our hearts. This sad comfort we have lost, and 
 the wound, for that reason, pierces deeper. From the 
 world of spirits behold your disconsolate family and 
 people. Exalt our minds from fond regret and unavailing 
 grief to the contemplation of your virtues. Those we 
 must not lament. It were impiety to sully them with a 
 tear. To cherish their memory, to embalm them with 
 our praises, and so far as we can to emulate your bright 
 example, will be the truest mark of our respect, the best 
 tribute we can offer. Your wife will thus preserve the 
 memory of the best of husbands ; and thus your children 
 will prove their filial piety. By dwelling constantly on 
 your words and actions, they will have an illustrious 
 character before their eyes ; and, not content with the 
 bare image of your mortal frame, they will have what is 
 more valuable, the form and features of your mind. 
 Busts and statues, like their originals, are frail and 
 perishable. The soul is formed of finer elements, and 
 
28 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 its inward form is not to be expressed by the hand of 
 an artist. With unconscious matter our manners and 
 our morals may, in some degree, trace the resemblance. 
 All of you that gained our love and raised our admi 
 ration still subsist, and will ever subsist, preserved in 
 the minds of men, the register of ages and the records 
 of fame. Others, who have figured on the stage of life, 
 and were the worthies of a former day, will sink for want 
 of a faithful historian into the common lot of oblivion, 
 inglorious and unremembered. But you, our lamented 
 friend and head, delineated with truth, and fairly con 
 signed to posterity, will survive yourself, and triumph 
 over the injuries of time. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 The Rev. E. H. Gray, D. D., of the E St. Baptist 
 Church, closed the solemn services with prayer, as 
 follows : 
 
 God of the bereaved, comfort and sustain this mourn 
 ing family. Bless the new Chief Magistrate. Let the 
 mantle of his predecessor fall upon him. Bless the 
 Secretary of State and his family. O God, if possible, 
 according to Thy will, spare their lives that they may 
 render still important service to the country. Bless all 
 the members of the Cabinet. Endow them with wisdom 
 from above. Bless the commanders in our Army and 
 Navy, and all the brave defenders of the country. Give 
 them continued success. Bless the Embassadors from 
 foreign courts, and give us peace with the nations of the 
 earth. O God, let treason, that has deluged our land 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 29 
 
 with blood, and desolated our country, and bereaved our 
 homes, and filled them with widows and orphans, which 
 has at length culminated in the assassination of the 
 nation s chosen ruler, God of justice, and Avenger of 
 the nation s wrong, let the work of treason cease, and let 
 the guilty perpetrators of this horrible crime be arrested, 
 and brought to justice ! O hear the cry and the prayer 
 and the wail rising from the nation s smitten and crushed 
 heart, and deliver us from the power of our enemy, and 
 send speedy peace into all our borders. Through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
REV. E. N. KIRK. 
 
PSALMS XLVI. 10. 
 
 BE STILL, AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD. 
 
 ON Sunday, the 2d instant, our army was exultingly 
 chasing the main army of the rebels from Richmond. 
 On Sunday, the 9th, the Commander-in-chief of the rebel 
 lious forces capitulated to General Grant. On Sunday, 
 the 16th, the voice of song has died in our streets. The 
 triumphant banner of the Republic wears the weeds of 
 widowhood. A word can start the tear in every eye. 
 Arrangements for rejoicing are suspended. A nation is 
 making preparations for a funeral ; the greatest funeral 
 but one it ever attended ; yes, the greatest : for, the 
 people never buried such a President at such a time, a 
 murdered President. 
 
 Which way shall we look ? what shall we do ? What 
 becomes a people so afflicted, so groat a nation under 
 so great a calamity ? If we should catch and execute a 
 thousand vile assassins, or their viler employers, would 
 it bring back our lost? would it place our practised 
 pilot at the helm again ? Where are we ? We had 
 
 (33) 
 
34 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 fondly hoped the experience of four such years as we 
 have passed would give us guaranty for the four years to 
 come. 
 
 But our hopes are blighted, our plans are frustrated 
 We are stunned by the suddenness of the blow; con 
 founded by the awful wickedness of the deed. Murder 
 is abroad ; murder, that seeks the highest mark ; that 
 dashes down one of the noblest of our race ; that blots 
 out the brightest star in our heavens ; that strikes at the 
 wisest, kindest, gentlest of us all ; that strikes at the life 
 of the nation in the man to whom the nation has 
 intrusted that life. 
 
 We are sad, we are sick at heart. We feel as if 
 our globe had lost its course, and were drifting down 
 toward the Botany Bay of the Universe. The reign of 
 Justice, of Law, of Order, seems to be past. 
 
 We seem to be struggling like drowning men, the 
 black, chill waters are blinding our eyes, stiffening our 
 limbs, stifling our breath. 
 
 What shall we do ? Shall we fill the air with our 
 clamors ? Shall we put forth our strength in some mighty 
 deeds of vengeance ? 
 
 What is the work and duty of the hour, of this 
 holy Sabbath ? 
 
 Thanks be to God ! a voice sounds from behind the 
 black cloud ; a voice from the upper throne ; a voice 
 from the world where no assassin lifts his hand ; where 
 treason and murder never are known. " Be still, and 
 know that I am God." That is just what our oppressed, 
 aching hearts rejoice to hear. It is, in the Psalm, as 
 really addressed to our enemies in their vain exultations, 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 35 
 
 as to us in our sorrow. But we need now to hear it for 
 ourselves. 
 
 This, fellow-citizens, is the great lesson of the day in 
 which we live ; of the horrid tragedy that makes a 
 nation mourn ; of the whole bloody plot of which this 
 is the culmination. What is the lesson ? 
 
 I. Suppress or modify all natural impulses by the 
 controlling power of religious feeling. 
 
 1. Distress must not be allowed complete control. 
 Nature quivers in agony under such a blow. Who is 
 this thus brutally murdered? The man who had won 
 our love and gratitude beyond any of the living. Around 
 him, the tenderest cords of our hearts were bound. We 
 had placed in his hands the most sacred of earthly trusts. 
 He had led us so wisely, so firmly, so kindly, through 
 such a wilderness, and brought us out as God s minister 
 into so large a place and so great a deliverance. We 
 had seen in him. so much of magnanimity, of sound 
 judgment, of gentle kindness, of robust manliness, of 
 tender sympathy, of lofty principle, we could not but 
 love him, strongly, tenderly. We have slept securely, 
 we have dismissed anxiety arid fear, because our father 
 was at the helm. But he is gone, dead ; murdered ; 
 basely assassinated ; with no last words, no time to tell 
 us where his hope was anchored, and whither he was 
 going. 
 
 Our hearts are weary with the dull pain of repeating 
 to ourselves he is gone, gone from us forever. 
 
 Hark, suffering hearts ! a voice from the upper world, 
 
36 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 " Be still, and know that I am God. If Abraham 
 Lincoln is dead, I live. If you loved him, love me, and 
 trust him in my hands. Mourn for yourselves, but 
 rejoice for him. His work was finished, nobly finished. 
 And I have removed him from the turmoil and confusion 
 of earth to the peace and rest of heaven." 
 
 2. We are liable to indulge in murmur ings. Why 
 should such wickedness be permitted to break in upon 
 the order of society ? Why should a wretch like the 
 leader of this rebellion be endowed with such executive 
 power and the ability to employ, directly or indirectly, 
 the black-hearted assassin to invade so noble a life, and 
 rob a nation of its polar star ? " Be still, and know 
 that I am God. Suppress all murmurs. Suffer, 
 weep, but do not murmur. Clouds and darkness are 
 round about him, but justice and judgment are the 
 pillars of his throne. My thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For, as the 
 heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
 higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your 
 thoughts." Wisdom, rectitude, power, is the trinity 
 of attributes on that eternal throne which presides over 
 all human affairs. We not only should not complain of 
 the divine government, we should cheerfully acquiesce 
 in its decrees, and in its permissions ; for it gives the 
 Devil the length of his chain, and makes him, in doing 
 his own work, accomplish the purposes that infinite 
 wisdom and love had formed. 
 
 You remember that Job anticipated the very features 
 of the divine government to perplex himself, that now 
 perplex us. And you remember God s method of reply. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 37 
 
 It was essentially just this, Be still, and know that I 
 am God. " Who is this that darkeneth counsel bywords 
 without knowledge ? Gird up now thy loins like a man ; 
 for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where 
 wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? 
 Declare, if thou hast understanding." If God walks on 
 the waves of the sea, only faith can follow him there. 
 Murmuring unbelief must remain on the solid shore, and 
 lose sight of his footsteps. Faith alone can walk on 
 waves, and sing amid the tempest, " In God is my 
 salvation." 
 
 Look, for instance, at this fact. He informs us in his 
 word that he chastens us for our good, though we cannot 
 always see how the end is secured. Faith believes his 
 statements and assurances. Sometimes it is obvious that 
 his chastisements are directed expressly to removing 
 that master-passion, the pride of our hearts. 
 
 If you are conversant with the history of Israel, you 
 will have discovered that a very prominent aim of the 
 Divine Providence is, to abase the pride of man. Man 
 has an utterly false standard, which teaches him to 
 admire most of the forms of pride in others, and all in 
 himself. Just study that history with this clew in your 
 hand ; God s providence is rebuking the pride of men s 
 hearts. That is what he is doing to-day among us. We 
 had doubted Mr. Lincoln s ability at first. But now we 
 have proved it, and trusted him. We placed him the 
 second time at the head of our affairs, with the most 
 unreserved confidence, and a fulness of joy and thankful 
 ness to God. We felt secure when the decision was 
 announced that he was ro-elected. We were sure of four 
 4 
 
38 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 years of wise administration, of integrity at the core of 
 the government. But there was one thing we did not 
 make sufficiently prominent ; the uncertainty of human 
 life. We forgot every morning when we arose that 
 Abraham Lincoln s breath was in his nostrils. We forgot 
 that his own clemency was harboring the villains that 
 were plotting his destruction, But this was all virtually 
 written in God s word ; and we should have retained an 
 humbler spirit had we kept that word in more vivid 
 remembrance. It bade us not to put our trust in an arm 
 of flesh, because, however strong to-day, to-morrow it 
 may be crumbling back to dust. It bade us not to put 
 our trust in man, for he is " crushed before the moth." 
 A pistol-ball closes his history, annihilates his strength, 
 turns him to dust. We were bidden not to put our trust 
 in princes, for their breath is in their nostrils. Abraham 
 was a prince, and we were proud of him, so proud 
 that we hid God behind him. And now we hear a voice 
 in providence, echoing the voice in Scripture, Be still, 
 proud heart, and know that I am God. Boast no more 
 of thy strength, of thy generals, of thy brave defenders, 
 of thy magnanimous leader ; but " he that boasteth, 
 let him boast in the Lord." This terrible event pro- 
 jclaims, Man is frail, God is eternal. There is another 
 natural feeling now called into active exercise, but 
 which we must attemper by the power of a higher 
 religious sentiment. 
 
 3. Revenge is in man a perverted instinct, but as 
 really an instinct as the love of life. It was placed in 
 man as the sting was given to the bee, to resist aggres 
 sion from superior force. But it has now become so 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 39 
 
 mingled with our selfishness, and so perverted we cannot 
 properly exercise it at all in personal matters, and scarcely 
 in public affairs. But it is impossible to look on a 
 dastardly oppressor or an act of cruelty, on any wrong 
 to another, without feeling an intense desire to make the 
 wrongdoer suffer. 
 
 How intensely this feeling is working to-day in the 
 length and breadth of this outraged country ! But to 
 that feeling to-day a voice from heaven speaks, "Be 
 still, and know that I am God. Vengeance belongeth 
 to me, I will repay, saith the Lord. * We have a duty 
 to perform ; a solemn duty, a stern duty. We are deal 
 ing with men who wear much of the image of their 
 father, who was a liar, and a traitor, and a rebel, and a 
 secessionist, and a murderer, from the beginning. The 
 magistrate must deal with them by the stern decrees of 
 law and justice, the soldier by the sterner decrees of 
 military usage ; but we, as men, as citizens, have no 
 personal or party revenge to gratify. All we have to do 
 in this matter is this ; that as we are citizens of a re 
 public, and the magistrate must be guided by two codes, 
 the statutes, and the public sentiment that sustains or 
 modifies them, we must form a correct public sentiment, 
 which is with us the backbone of law. Let traitors 
 carry personal revenge into their treatment of us. We 
 must let our revenge hear that voice, Be still, and 
 know that I am God. 
 
 Another sentiment is outraged by recent events. 
 
 4. Justice. The outbreak was a high-handed act of 
 injustice. The robbery committed on the government, 
 the robbery not only of forts, and ships, and arms, but 
 
40 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 of the territory purchased by our common treasury, and 
 of the men the government had trained to the art of 
 war at its own expense ; the enlistment of the selfish 
 ness of foreign nations against us ; the treatment of our 
 brave soldiers, when made prisoners of war ; the treat 
 ment of men who retained among them loyalty and 
 allegiance to the government that had always blessed 
 them, all arouse the" sense of justice more profoundly 
 in this nation, than any events of our history. Yes, if 
 there has been found in all that horrid region where 
 rebellion has scorched the very air men breathe, and 
 withered all the finer sentiments of the human soul, and 
 turned the very fountains of religious life into poisonous 
 springs; there, if an Abdiel has been found, "faithful 
 among the faithless, among innumerable false, unmoved, 
 unshaken, unseduced, unterrified," that one has been 
 marked out for scorn and cruelty, for rapine and for 
 murder, even though the reverend crown of age was on 
 his brow. 
 
 A thousand times in this war has the sentiment of 
 justice within us called for fire from heaven to fall upon 
 the monsters. To-day it calls for the extermination of 
 a miscreant race, that prove themselves unfit to breathe 
 the air of heaven. But even that sentiment must be 
 restrained ; for we hear another voice. It proclaims to 
 us, " Be still, and know that I am God. I will judge 
 nations, communities, individuals, bringing them to my 
 bar, to make every man answer for the deeds done in 
 the body. Ask no more, wish for no more than that. 
 When the time comes for your tribunals in my name to 
 try each man by the laws of his country, then stand by 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 41 
 
 your judiciary in its righteous decisions, and let no 
 mawkish sentiment check the execution of them." 
 
 Another sentiment is now called into action. 
 
 5. Fear. A new pilot takes the helm. Mysteriously, 
 he did not command our respect on the solemn day in 
 which the nation put the crown upon his brow, and he 
 took the solemn oath of office. He has repented : this 
 is all we ask of him. Everything else in his history 
 inspires hope, respect, and gratitude. But still, it is not 
 the hand that held the rudder-wheel on those tempestu 
 ous nights in which we were running through those 
 narrow channels where ruin lay on either side. Fear 
 naturally arises in such circumstances. It would come 
 up if you were in a steamship at sea, among icebergs, 
 with a captain who had sailed only river-craft until now. 
 
 And we have another source of fear. The man who 
 has held the powers of Europe at bay may also be 
 removed. A new man there would naturally awaken 
 solicitude. 
 
 And then, again : how do we know what new phase 
 this assassination may put upon a yet unfinished war ? 
 what new demonstrations of sympathy with treason may 
 spring up in the loyal States ? But when these fears 
 start up, we hear a voice saying to them, " Be still, 
 and know that I am God. I kill, and I make alive. Of 
 whom hast thou been afraid, and hast not remembered 
 me ? Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, 
 fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance ; 
 he will come and save you." " Fear not, thou worm 
 Jacob, and ye men of Israel ; I will help thee, saith the 
 Lord thy Redeemer, and the Holy One of Israel." His 
 4* 
 
42 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 aim is to produce in you that confidence which shall 
 say : " God is my rock, my buckler. In God have I 
 put my trust. I will not fear what man can do unto 
 me. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help 
 in trouble. Therefore will we not fear though the earth 
 be removed, and though the mountains be carried into 
 the midst of the sea." 
 
 " Be still, and kno"w that I am God." Do nothing 
 rashly, say nothing rashly. Wait until you see the 
 pillar of cloud go before you ; then move. Be still. 
 Quiet the agitated sea of your heart. Feeling was not 
 designed to hold the helm, but simply to fill the sails. 
 When trouble comes, be still ; so still that you can hear 
 every syllable God is whispering. For, you remember, 
 that when the prophet stood upon the mount before the 
 Lord, and the Lord passed by, there was " a great and 
 strong wind" that "rent the mountains, and broke in 
 pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not 
 in the wind ; and after the wind, an earthquake ; but 
 the Lord was not in the earthquake ; and after the earth 
 quake, a fire ; but the Lord was not in the fire ; and 
 after the fire, a still small voice." There God was. The 
 wind is raging and howling around us now, the earth 
 quake shakes the solid globe ; nay, our very hearts. The 
 fire is raging. But if we listen only to them, we shall 
 not hear the Lord. He is not in them. We must be 
 still ; for he comes in the still small voice, *in a whisper 
 within that soul which waits, above all things, to hear 
 him speak. 
 
 Now when we are thus tranquillized, what does the 
 Lord say to us ? He says : "I am God." 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 43 
 
 II. His existence, attributes, providence, grace, and 
 glory are what he would have us to know and permanently 
 recognize. " Be still, and know that I am God." 
 
 1. His personal existence he would have us know. 
 Just bring this test home to yourself. Imagine one of 
 your neighbors to deny that you had a personal exist 
 ence, to try to persuade others that you had not, to treat 
 you as if you had not. Nay, let" him affirm that you 
 lack any one attribute of a rational being, memory, 
 judgment, conscience, affection, how deeply he injures 
 and offends you. And if he be your own beloved child, 
 nurtured and cherished by you, how painful his treat 
 ment and estimate of you become ! Judge from that 
 how God regards pantheism, polytheism, atheism, 
 theoretic or practical. This nation has manifested 
 atheism very extensively. The Lord says do so no 
 more. Deny not, forget not my person, my attributes. 
 Be not blind, amid the works of my hands, to my glory. 
 Be not deaf when I speak to you in my word. Treat 
 me as having a heart, an intelligence, a will, of which 
 your own is an imitation. Come as children, and speak 
 to me daily. 
 
 Oh ! will this nation be still enough now to hear the 
 Lord God Almighty assert his own existence, and 
 declare that excellence which makes the command to 
 love him supremely, infinitely reasonable ? 
 
 2. His providence he would have us know. It is a 
 providence of care : " upholding all things by the word 
 of his power." States and families, like the individuals 
 that compose them, " live and move, and have their 
 being" in Him. It is a providence of forethought and 
 
44 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 purpose, directing all events to one glorious issue, from 
 the fall of a sparrow, or the shooting of an assassin s 
 pistol, to the overthrow of an empire, making the 
 Avrath of man to praise Him, and restraining the 
 remainder. Look at the shortsighted wickedness of 
 Joseph s brethren in sending him into what they sup 
 posed would be a lifelong bondage. Look at Pharaoh s 
 oppression, aiming at the extermination of the sons of 
 Jacob, resulting in their becoming the medium of salva 
 tion to the world. Look at these conspirators. They 
 have now sealed the verdict of the world ; the Confed 
 eracy is a conspiracy of assassins. It began with 
 attempted assassination of the chief citizen, the repre 
 sentative man of the nation. It ended in securing his 
 murder. They have murdered their strongest friend, 
 and broken down the last bulwark that kept the popular 
 will from being executed on them. A dark destiny is 
 now before them. And woe to the man that now comes 
 between them and the preparing blow ! They have 
 united the loyal citizens more completely in that pur 
 pose which will leave in some places no vestige of them 
 but the desolation their wickedness has wrought. They 
 have now made the issue. Die they, or the nation 
 must. 
 
 Is it not wonderful how God secures his ends by the 
 aims and endeavors of those who are attempting to 
 thwart his purposes ! See Him, fellow citizens ; recog 
 nize his purposes concerning us, and his employment of 
 his and our enemies to execute them. His time has 
 come to bring Israel out of bondage, and Pharaoh must 
 do it. His time has come to release our African 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 45 
 
 brethren, but the masters must do it. His providence 
 is one of moral judgment. He does not make up the 
 full issue for any individual until death occurs. But 
 communities He judges here. He declares by his servant 
 Malachi : " Then shall ye return, and discern between 
 the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth 
 God, and him that serveth him not. For, behold, the 
 day cometh that shall burn as an oven ; and all the proud, t 
 yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble." 
 
 What a development have the slaveholders made of 
 their character ! Some thought it severe, some untimely, 
 for a senator to utter that sentence of judgment on them, 
 pronouncing slavery barbarous. But the burning day of 
 judgment has now come, and they are witnesses on the 
 stand to the truth of the indictment, arrogance, trea 
 sons, perjury, breach of trust, brow-beating, cruelty, 
 assassination ; these are the epithets history will apply 
 to their conduct. The great white throne is set, and 
 black appears black before it. Davis and Stevens, Lee, 
 Toombs and Floyd, Mason and Breckenridge, every 
 naval and military officer that left our service, every 
 member of their Congress, every gaol-keeper that 
 guarded our soldiers in their prisons, every act of vio 
 lence to our negro soldiers in their hands, every loyal 
 man of the South that they robbed and murdered, the 
 corpse of Abraham Lincoln, the mangled frame of Wil 
 liam Seward are their witnesses. Truly there is a Ne 
 mesis. They have gone like Judas to their own place in 
 history. 
 
 To know God in his providence we must become 
 familiar with his treatment of the Jews. The Old Tes- 
 
46 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 tament must enter into our education. He made his 
 providence more marked and distinct with them than 
 with any other people. He blessed them when they 
 recognized his presence, and treated Him as their bene 
 factor and ruler. But see what terrible displays of his 
 displeasure followed their disobedience. Their various 
 captivities, of a duration of from five years to seventy, 
 and their final dispersion show Him to be a holy God, 
 holding nations and communities responsible to Him 
 under terrible penalties. 
 
 3. His grace is the other form of manifestation He has 
 employed. We must know Him as holy, requiring an 
 expression of the evil of sin as great as can be made 
 through the cross, in extending" mercy to sinners. We 
 must know Him as merciful, ready to be reconciled to 
 us in Christ ; as ready to make a covenant or compact 
 of friendship with us, a covenant containing the richest 
 promises of which the mind of man can conceive ; as a 
 hearer and answerer of prayer. 
 
 And this is the end at which He principally aims. 
 All the real value of nations recognizing Him is, that it 
 implies the personal knowledge of Him by individuals. 
 And He counts no knowledge of Him satisfactory and 
 complete, except that which leads us individually to 
 repent of sin, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 follow Him in the regeneration. Nations perish ; indi 
 viduals live forever. Hence God attaches a supreme 
 importance to the personal faith of each individual. So 
 it is said : " God so loved the world that he gave His 
 only begotten son that ivJiosoeucr believeth in Him 
 might not perish, but have everlasting life. As many as 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 47 
 
 received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons 
 of God, even to them that believed on his name." 
 
 This is, then, the great issue to which the events of 
 providence are pointing. The rebellion, this series of 
 victories filling the nation with joy and thankfulness, 
 this horrible crime filling the nation with grief and dis 
 may, are all revelations of God. His language in the 
 events which cheer and gladden you is, " I beseech 
 you by the mercies of God that you present" yourself 
 * a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, 
 The language of an event which arouses the turbulent 
 emotions of the heart, exciting grief or fear or anger, 
 is, Be still: hold that feeling in check, and observe 
 me. I have come forth from my hiding place, to show 
 you I am God. 
 
 Fellow-Christians, we never occupied such a vantage- 
 ground as now, for bringing a revolted race to its alle 
 giance to God. Our neighbors are beginning to see his 
 presence, to recognize his will and power in passing 
 events For his sake, for their sakes, let us help them 
 onward in this direction. Filled with adoration, sub 
 mission, confidence, and love to Him, let us speak of Him 
 in the convincing and persuasive words the quickened 
 heart can always supply. Oh, may this nation to-day 
 hear that voice as distinctly as it was heard from Sinai ! 
 Fellow-citizens, make this a religious clay, a day of 
 thought, of such deep reflection as becomes you as 
 rational beings brought into a wilderness of rugged 
 rocks and frowning cliffs, of desolation and death, 
 where you can, undiverted, hear the voice of God. Be 
 still. 
 
REV. CYRUS A. BARTOL 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 I AM unable to give, and you perhaps indisposed to 
 receive any regular preaching to-day. If I can but tell 
 you what is in the air ; if I can voice your feeling and 
 my own, still more that spirit of God which is ready to 
 be voiced by human lips, the real end of our meeting will, 
 however informally, be reached. I lay aside therefore 
 my written discourse. Though it be ecclesiastically a 
 festival this morning, no Romish or other rubric has a 
 right to prescribe our theme. I take no text save from 
 the Bible of providence, the great book of events, God s 
 finger is still writing in burning words every hour. I 
 accept his subject, and defer my own. 
 
 I need not even tell the youngest of you what has 
 occurred. How all too suddenly it was known ! How 
 on the wires it flashed, how in the atmosphere that over 
 hangs, and in every wind that sweeps across our borders, 
 it brooded and was borne ! The craped and drooping 
 flag, the slow-sounding bell, the minute-gun told it ; 
 and had the ocean-telegraph, yet to succeed, only 
 served, the brain and heart of the world would be trem- 
 
 (51) 
 
52 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 bling with one sympathy. California, from our farthest 
 bounds, is with us in the same sensation to-day. 
 
 I shrink from naming the deed by which we are 
 so stirred. An actor in a theatre performs a part, in a 
 scene of real life, which extinguishes all the interest of 
 the mimic stage. What a contrast the last tragedy to 
 our late jubilee ! God seems to have chosen sacred 
 days for his messages, on two successive Sundays 
 appointing celebrations of victory, and now giving to 
 Good Friday and Easter a new association indeed in 
 Christian minds ! 
 
 But, on this dark day, my purpose with you is not a 
 lament, but comfort. Let me try to mention some con 
 solations. 
 
 First, though our chief magistrate all of him that 
 could die is dead, THE NATION LIVES. "What is 
 your first impression ? " asked a brother clergyman, 
 adding that his was, the line must be drawn stricter 
 between the friends and enemies of this country. A 
 second said his first impression was, that an era of mis 
 rule had come. I said, my first impression, after the 
 shock of grief, was, though the President is gone, the 
 nation lives, and will live more vital and vigorous for 
 this blow. What did the madmen, that struck at the 
 Chief and the Secretary, so meanly at the one from 
 behind and the other in his bed think to do ? To kill 
 the nation, to assassinate liberty, to cut the throat of 
 law ? What a mistake ! This blow will hurt, not our 
 cause, but only the hand that struck it ; and no mis 
 chance to the truth be suffered by Him without whom 
 not a sparrow falleth. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 58 
 
 It is one consolation, too, that slavery died more 
 swiftly and surely by this very stroke. Most important 
 is it, that the act should be traced. We should not con 
 nect it with any quarter without proof. But we know 
 its general and most authentic origin. It is not from 
 any individual alone, but from the barbarism of slavery. 
 That demon whispered in the actor s ear ! That dragon 
 fired his passion, and nerved his arm ! His birth and 
 breeding were in the hot-beds and centres of slavery, 
 slave-breeding, and slave-trading. With indignation for 
 the crime, mingles in my mind infinite pity for the crimi 
 nal, whose personal guilt has what palliation depravity 
 so deep can find in early nurture, bitter prejudice, or 
 constitutional bias. He impersonated slavery itself in 
 that theatre, which will hang henceforth, one of the most 
 terrible pictures of history, on the walls of time forever. 
 The horror affords this solace ; that it hints the death- 
 agony of the deadly foe of our republic. The monster, 
 pursued in northern seas, is never more dangerous than 
 in his dying struggles. Let the boat beware, that ap 
 proaches him, lest the last lashing of his tail mix the 
 blood of its crew with his own ! With a worse monster 
 than ever swam the deep, this new evidence of malig 
 nity should move us to keep no terms. Let this last 
 precious life-current it has caused to flow be the mor 
 dant to set and seal the color of our eternal hatred, not 
 to its misguided supporters, but to itself! Now that 
 the assassination, which has been for four years and 
 more after our Head, has accomplished its end, let our 
 consolation be in the slavery s own unsparing destruc 
 tion. 
 
 5* 
 
54 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 But still another consolation is in the power of jus 
 tice returning to our hands. If we were going to be too 
 lenient ; if, to a lax and vicious good-humor, we were 
 sacrificing the law and honor of God, we have learned 
 that indulgence is not equity, and leniency is not love. 
 Not revenge should be our object ; for, spite of the text 
 that ascribes it to him, I do not believe it is God s ! 
 Nor can we compass the absolute justice which God 
 alone can measure out. But, for the protection of so 
 ciety, for the reformation of the criminal, for the guard 
 ing and nursing of the national life, we must watch 
 every motion, and strain every nerve. Such atrocities 
 of crime as can be traced should have condign sen 
 tence. Those who are responsible for the starving, in 
 Southern pens and prisons, of our captured soldiers, 
 should have due penalty. We cannot mete out the 
 fair desert to all who have committed treason. We can 
 not hang a community. But the wicked leadership, the 
 official malice, should feel our express displeasure, in 
 the solemn sentence of the law. Let us convert what 
 we can, disfranchise what has sinned basely, and banish 
 with the mark of Cain what can never belong to us ! 
 We are gathering power to do this. The wild beast, 
 which we have fought so long in the wilderness and the 
 woods, we are getting under. Quickly as possible let us 
 set up everywhere the civil and criminal courts ! What 
 the national stomach cannot assimilate it must vomit ; 
 and not keep it in the system, an indigestible and poi 
 sonous lump. 
 
 The last consolation is, that God can sanctify to us 
 our supreme earthly ruler s death. He would not have 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 55 
 
 permitted his life to be taken, had he not done his 
 work. He has finished it, how well and nobly! 
 Perhaps he would have been too gentle with evil-doers 
 in the time to come. " Sic semper tyrannis," shouted the 
 tragic actor, after discharging his pistol, as he brandished 
 his blade. A strange motto for a slave state ! For a 
 murderer, as he slew the softest-hearted of men, a mar 
 vellous cry ! Sic semper tyrannis ! "What ! for him, 
 Abraham Lincoln, the mildest among all he was set over, 
 mild as May, into whose soul, from others opposition or 
 ridicule, no resentment could get ; who never knew, in 
 the way of authority or manner, how to get up to the 
 dignity of his office ; whose fault, if he had one, was, 
 that he was not sufficiently stern with the vileness he 
 could not comprehend ; a man of the people, who waited 
 before he struck at crime ; a waiter on the people, 
 who also waited on the Lord, and harkened for the har 
 mony, yet to the coming of God s and the people s voice, 
 lie, among whose last accents were words of kindness 
 to the rebellious South, HE a tyrant ! The speaker on 
 the stage was playing indeed, though in a ferocious way. 
 He feigned or fearfully mistook the side tyranny was on. 
 Davis and Benjamin and Wigfall and Mason and Slidell 
 not the tyrants ? Nay, if such as they have not fallen by 
 any privy blow, the reason is not that they are not tyrants, 
 but we not assassins. Ah ! could the agents and plotters 
 of this ghastly crime have themselves only waited a little 
 while, the measureless toils of our beloved one, more our 
 servant than captain, might have worn him out. They 
 need not have been so eager to anticipate the fate for 
 
56 SERMONS. 
 
 him, toward which he was so rapidly consuming his own 
 strength. 
 
 But be it our consolation, that the chariot of the Lord 
 goes forward. He that takes hold of the spokes of its 
 wheels, shall not stop it. What were the gentlest lips, 
 that ever spoke, parted to say ? " He that falls on this 
 stone shall be broken ; but on whom it shall fall, it will 
 grind him to powder." Truly " the wrath of man shall 
 praise him," and " the righteous shall be in everlasting 
 remembrance." The " blessed martyr," that bore him 
 self so meekly in the greatest station on earth, has gone 
 to his harp and crown in heaven. 
 
 After toil, 
 To mortals rest is sweet. 
 
REV. J. M. MANNING. 
 
DEUTERONOMY XXXIV: 4, 5. 
 
 AND THE LORD SAID UNTO HIM, THIS is THE LAND WHICH I 
 
 SWARE UNTO ABRAHAM, UNTO ISAAC, AND UNTO JACOB, SAYING, 
 I WILL GIVE IT UNTO THY SEED ; I HAVE CAUSED THEE TO SEE 
 IT WITH THINE EYES, BUT THOU SHALT NOT GO OVER THITHER. 
 SO MOSES, THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, DIED THERE IN THE 
 LAND OF MOAB, ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF THE LORD. 
 
 "ACCORDING to the word of the Lord." Sweet 
 announcement to a broken-hearted nation, to-day ! 
 " Abraham Lincoln died this morning at twenty- two 
 minutes after seven o clock." That was the message 
 which the wires, heavy-laden with their tidings, sobbed 
 forth yesterday in all our pleasant places. And we awoke 
 from our troubled sleep this morning, and, lo ! it was 
 not a dream ! " According to the word of the Lord." 
 " Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." 
 We look above all human agency. We recognize the 
 will that never errs nor falters, and that worketh all 
 things, in Heaven and on earth, after its own perfect 
 counsel. 
 
 " So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there." 
 He had brought us through the " great and terrible 
 
 (59) 
 
60 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 
 
 wilderness," unto the borders of our goodly heritage ; but 
 was himself forbidden to enter. May the same God, 
 who made him so much better than our fears, such a 
 father to us all, do even greater things for the Joshua 
 who succeeds him as the leader of our Israel ! To this 
 petition, every heart devoutly responds Amen! New 
 responsibilities sober men oftentimes. Possessing real 
 goodness of heart, they bend their shoulders loyally to 
 the unexpected burden, and display great qualities of 
 which they were thought destitute before. Thus a 
 bereaved nation prays and hopes. 
 
 How incomplete, how complete, the dear life that has 
 passed on ! The surroundings, the hour, the instrumen 
 tality, how painful ! Why could not the name of one 
 whom we so loved, whom we so tenderly revered, have a 
 seemlier passage to its immortality ? Thou, Lord, 
 knowest ! Thou dost not respect the person of any man. 
 " Wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person 
 perish." " Man being in honor abideth not." " Like 
 sheep they are laid in the grave ; death shall feed on 
 them." We had traced a resemblance, often, between 
 our beloved President and the great Prince of Orange, 
 called William the Silent. The same devotion to country, 
 the same trust in a Divine Providence, the same cautious 
 and persevering wisdom, the same tender regard for the 
 people who confided in them. Oh, could not the 
 parallel have been left imperfect ? Must it be carried on 
 to the bitter end ? We loved to think that they were 
 alike in their patriotism ; but poor, blinded mortals ! 
 we did not foresee the dreadful event that was to make 
 them so much alike in their death ! Both slain with wife 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 61 
 
 t 
 
 and friends around them, in the moment of social free 
 dom and unconcern, by the assassin who long had been 
 waiting for his chance to strike. 
 
 Let me quote from history, On Tuesday, the 10th 
 of July, 1584, at about half-past twelve, the Prince, 
 with his wife on his arm, and followed by the ladies and 
 gentlemen of his family, was going to the dining-room. 
 William the Silent was dressed upon that day, according 
 to his usual custom, in very plain fashion. He wore a 
 wide-leaved, loosely-shaped hat of dark felt, with a 
 silken cord round the crown, such as was worn by the 
 Beggars in the early days of the revolt. A high ruff 
 encircled his neck, from which also depended one of the 
 Beggar s medals, while a loose surcoat of grey frieze 
 cloth, over a tawny leather doublet, with wide, slashed 
 underclothes, completed his costume. Gerard ( the 
 murderer ) presented himself at the doorway and de 
 manded a passport. The Princess, struck with the pale 
 and agitated countenance of the man, anxiously ques 
 tioned her husband concerning the stranger. The Prince 
 carelessly observed that it was merely a person who 
 came for a passport ; ordering, at the same time, a secre 
 tary to prepare one. The Princess, still not relieved, 
 observed in an under-tone that she had never seen so 
 villanous a countenance. Orange, however, not at all 
 impressed with the appearance of Gerard, conducted 
 himself at table with his usual cheerfulness, conversing 
 much with the burgomaster of Leewarden, the only 
 guest present at the family dinner, concerning the politi 
 cal and religious aspects of Friesland. At two o clock 
 the company rose from the table. The Prince led the 
 6 
 
62 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 * 
 
 way, intending to pass to his private apartments above. 
 The dining-room which was on the ground-floor, opened 
 into a little square vestibule, which communicated, 
 through an arched passage-way, with the main entrance 
 into the court-yard. This vestibule was also directly at 
 the foot of the wooden staircase leading to the next 
 floor, and was scarcely six feet in width. Upon its left 
 side, as one approached the stairway, was an obscure 
 arch, sunk deep in the wall, and completely in the 
 shadow of the door. Behind this arch a portal opened 
 to the narrow lane at the side of the house. The stairs 
 themselves were completely lighted by a large window, 
 half-way up the flight. The Prince came from the 
 dining-room, and began leisurely to ascend. He had 
 only reached the second stair, when a man emerged from 
 the sunken arch, and, standing within a foot or two of 
 him discharged a pistol full at his heart. Three balls 
 entered his body, one of which, passing quite through 
 him, struck with violence against the wall beyond. The 
 Prince exclaimed in French, as he felt the wound, 
 "O my God, have mercy upon my soul! O my God, 
 have mercy upon this poor people ! " 
 
 Such was the death, and such the last exclamation of 
 the great and good father of modern liberty, the son and 
 sire of illustrious princes, the wise subverter of despot 
 isms, the champion of popular rights, to whom, more 
 than to any other man perhaps, the world is indebted 
 for free institutions and free ideas. Who can doubt, 
 if strength had been left our good President when the 
 fatal bullet struck him, that he also would have exclaim 
 ed, O my God, have mercy upon my soul ! O my God, 
 have mercy upon this poor people ? " 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 63 
 
 So alike, in the circumstances of their departure, how 
 doubly consoling now to trace the previous parallel 
 between their lives. 
 
 Listen. " His constancy in bearing the whole weight 
 of a struggle as unequal as men have ever undertaken, 
 was the theme of admiration even to his enemies. The 
 rock in the ocean, tranquil amid raging billows, was 
 the favorite emblem by which his friends expressed their 
 sense of his firmness." Can you not, as you hear 
 these words, almost see the calm figure of Abraham 
 Lincoln in his cabinet, quietly meditating his wise plans 
 of deliverance, while the nation was quaking with fear, 
 and some were wildly urging him to take the archives 
 and flee ? That rock, " tranquil amid the raging bil 
 lows," has sunk to re-appear in another Sea where, as we 
 would fain hope, only the billows of peace shall kiss it 
 forever more. Hear, again, of the immortal Prince, 
 whom our chief magistrate so closely resembled. " The 
 supremacy of his political genius was entirely beyond 
 question. He was the first statesman of the age. The 
 quickness of his perception was only equalled by the 
 caution which enabled him to mature the results of his 
 observations. His knowledge of human nature was pro 
 found. He governed the passions and sentiments of a 
 great nation as if they had been but the keys and chords 
 of one vast instrument ; and his hand rarely failed to 
 evoke harmony even out of the wildest storms." Strange 
 that this man should have lived three hundred years ago ! 
 It seems to us that we saw him but yesterday, laying his 
 patient hand upon a sea of warring interests and opin 
 ions, and soothing them to peace and loyal co-operation ; 
 
64 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 moving so evenly that neither extreme was pleased at first, 
 though both were satisfied at last ; now seeming to go 
 beyond, and now to come short of our eager wish. Yet 
 true to his great duty, as the North-star to its eternal 
 vigil, high and calm and clear, always in his place, 
 shining with still and equal beam until our morning 
 began to dawn, then wrapping his mantle of light about 
 him, and joining the mighty host of the invisible. 
 
 " God alone knows the heart of man. He alone can 
 unweave the tangled skein of human motives, and detect 
 the hidden springs of human action ; but, as far as can 
 be judged by a careful observation of undisputed facts, 
 and by a diligent collation of public and private docu 
 ments, it would seem that no man, not even Washing 
 ton, has ever been inspired by a purer patriotism." 
 That was said of Orange, after all the history of his 
 public and private life had been carefully summed up. 
 But there is much in Abraham Lincoln the sweetest 
 and tenderest traits in his character of which we have 
 seen but glimpses yet. Still we feel no hesitation to-day 
 in placing him, so far as patriotism and honesty of 
 motive can go, on the same pedestal with Washington. 
 And then, beyond what we now accord him, how his 
 name will brighten as it rises out of present conflicts 
 into the serene sky of history, as all his little, half- 
 forgotten acts of love come welling up into the memo 
 ries of us all ; as prejudice and passion cease clouding 
 our vision, and we see him " travelling in the greatness 
 of his strength," one of the choice company of imperial 
 souls, garmented and crowned with the gratitude of the 
 ages, along the starry pathways of the immortal ! 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 65 
 
 "His temperament was cheerful. At table, the plea 
 sures of which, in moderation, were his only relaxation, 
 he was always animated and merry, and this jocoseness 
 was partly natural, partly intentional. In the darkest 
 hours of his country s trial, he affected a serenity which 
 he was far from feeling, so that his apparent gayety, at 
 momentous epochs, was even censured by dullards, who 
 could not comprehend its philosophy. He went through 
 life bearing the load of a people s sorrows on his shoul 
 ders with a smiling face. Their name was the last word 
 upon his lips, save the simple affirmative with which the 
 soldier who had been battling for the right all his life 
 time, commended his soul, in dying, to his great cap 
 tain, Christ. The people were grateful and affection 
 ate, for they trusted the character of their Father Wil 
 liam, and not all the clouds which calumny could collect 
 ever dimmed to their eyes the radiance of that lofty 
 mind, to which they were accustomed, in their darkest 
 calamities, to look for light. As long as he lived, he 
 was the guiding-star of a whole brave nation, and when 
 he died the little children cried in the streets." How 
 apt the characterization ! The Hollanders never said 
 "Father William" more affectionately than we shall 
 say " Father Abraham" henceforth. He did " bear the 
 load of a people s sorrows on his shoulders with a smil 
 ing face." We do understand, at length, " the philoso 
 phy of that jocoseness " which troubled some of us at 
 times while he lived. It was the oil lubricating the 
 overtasked mechanism of that patient body and mind. 
 It was the kind disguise, under which he concealed from 
 us the deep anxiety of his heart, and bade us hope on, 
 6* 
 
66 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 as though he were not himself almost ready to despair. 
 It is plain to us now. We would not have his quaint 
 stories one the less. Death has touched his unstudied 
 manners, and lo ! they are full of an immortal charm. 
 Woe to the biographer who attempts to make him any 
 thing less plain than he was ! Woe to the artist who 
 tries to soften one feature, or to take one line out of his 
 honest face ! We love him, just as he was. We cannot 
 spare one of his peculiar traits. He must be all there, 
 in history, in our memory, in imagination, forever al 
 lowed to be just what God made him. And we will risk 
 the verdict of the ages, for God s noblest work is an 
 honest man. 
 
 In one point the parallel between Mr. Lincoln and the 
 Prince of Orange fails. The Prince made a tour through 
 the provinces, " honoring every city with a brief visit. 
 The spontaneous homage which went up to him from 
 every heart was pathetic and simple. There were no 
 triumphal arches, no martial music, no banners, no the 
 atrical pageantry, nothing but the choral anthem from 
 thousands of grateful hearts. "Father William has 
 come ! Father William has come ! cried men, women, 
 and children to each other, when the news of his arrival 
 in town or village was announced. He was a patriarch 
 visiting his children, not a conqueror nor a vulgar po 
 tentate displaying himself to his admirers. Happy were 
 they who heard his voice, happier they who touched his 
 hands ; for his words were full of tenderness, his hand 
 was offered to all. There were none so humble as to be 
 forbidden to approach him, none so ignorant as not to 
 know his deeds." 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 67 
 
 " None so humble as to be forbidden to approach 
 him." Is there any but one man alone, of whom we 
 can think to-day, as we hear those words ? the tall, 
 swaying form rising to welcome the poor freedwoman 
 into his own family circle, bidding her sit down in his 
 own arm-chair, the tears gathering in his eyes as he lis 
 tened to her simple story of sufferings and wrongs, 
 introducing her to his wife and friends, and waiting upon 
 her as carefully as though she had been a queen. " His 
 words were full of tenderness." That we might know 
 by looking into his deep, sad, almost tearful eyes. " He 
 was very pitiful, and of tender mercy." And the tones 
 of his voice, falling on the ear of distress and wretched 
 ness, will linger, in sweet benedictions, until the ears 
 that heard them are dull and cold as his own. "A 
 patriarch visiting his children." Such he would have 
 been, no doubt, had he lived to indulge his goodness, 
 and to please the ardent wish of thirty millions of 
 people. We know what our welcome would have been. 
 But we cannot conceive the great love which would 
 have gushed up unto him out of the soft hearts of a 
 disenthralled and enfranchised race. His first concern 
 was to save " his children," then he would have leisure 
 to "visit" them. Thank God, we are permitted to 
 believe that he fulfilled the main purpose : may he 
 receive, in the streets of the Golden City, the offerings 
 of love which are due him from his delivered " children!" 
 " No triumphal arches, no martial music, no banners, 
 no theatrical pageantry," but a voice, as the voice of 
 many waters, saying unto him, next after the Lamb 
 
68 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 that was slain, " THOU HAST REDEEMED us BY THY 
 
 BLOOD ! " 
 
 How incomplete, yet how complete ! 
 
 " No waning of fire, no quenching of ray, 
 But rising, still rising, when passing away ! 
 Farewell, and all hail ! thou art buried in light ! 
 God speed thee to heaven, O star of our night !" 
 
 How complete ! Would he not say so, as to all that 
 concerned his country, if his spirit could stoop for a 
 moment, and touch those cold lips which are sealed for 
 ever ? Would it not have filled out the utmost stretch 
 of his ambition and earthly hope, when he came from 
 his simple home in the West, had he known, that the 
 State across which he was borne secretly and in dis 
 guise, would come first, singing the paeans of freedom, 
 to lay its offerings of thanksgiving at his feet ; that he 
 should live to issue, in the providence of God, a procla 
 mation giving manhood and womanhood to four millions 
 of slaves ; that he should hear of his own plain name, 
 tenderly spoken all over the earth wherever goodness is 
 revered and liberty loved ; that he should be permitted, 
 by his wise counsels, seconded by the able captains 
 whom he drew to his cause, to make his distracted 
 country feared and respected throughout the civilized 
 world ; that the very day on which his summons to 
 eternity should come, would be but the fourth anniver 
 sary of the day on which the Starry Banner stooped to 
 the dust at Fort Sumter ; and that on that day the 
 same banner, by the same hand which surrendered it, 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 69 
 
 should be lifted up to its ancient height, but covered 
 with more than its ancient glory, had he foreknown all 
 this, would he not have said, " Lord, that will be 
 enough : then let thy servant depart, for mine eyes will 
 have seen thy salvation ? " 
 
 " Follow now, as ye list ! the first mourner to-day 
 Is the nation, whose Father is taken away ! 
 Wife, children, and neighbor may moan at his knell, 
 He was lover and friend to his country as well ! 
 For the stars on our banner, grown suddenly dim, 
 Let us weep, in our darkness, but weep not for him ! 
 Not for him, who, departing, leaves millions in tears ! 
 Not for him, who has died full of honor and years ! 
 Not for him, who ascended fame s ladder so high, 
 From the round at the top he has stepped to the sky ! 
 It is blessed to go when so ready to die ! " 
 
 I will not attempt to scan the counsels of the Most 
 High, and to say why it is that we are thus bereaved. 
 Perhaps it is better for us that we should be orphans 
 to-day, than that he whom we loved to call " Father" 
 should have been spared. His paternal heart, had it 
 still throbbed in life, might have proved too tender for 
 the stern work we are yet to do. He disliked the sight 
 of blood. He was melted by tears. He was made soft 
 as woman by the tones of pleading wretchedness. We 
 do not know ; but there is One who does know. The 
 Eye which looks through all things, may see, in the 
 feeble man whom He now chooses, a strong, innate sense 
 of justice. That man, upheld by our sympathies and 
 prayers, and inspired by God s special grace, may prove 
 to be the sword of divine justice, executing wrath upon 
 
70 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 the evil-doers. Those who naturally exult over the 
 tragedy, may find that only mercy is slain, while ven 
 geance yet lives ! Lives, did I say ? ah, yes ! and 
 roused up to an intensity of fury which will require all 
 our might to restrain ! " Traitors ! would you have for 
 giveness ? go seek it of him whom your bloody hands 
 have slain ! " that is the voice which now rises up 
 and rolls over the land, from shore to shore. But God s 
 way is " far above." It is his glory to conceal a thing. 
 " Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath 
 been his counsellor ? " It seems to us, even in this 
 bitter hour, that we see the trailing splendors of the 
 inner light which he inhabits ; " but how little a portion 
 is known of Him ? the thunder of his power who can 
 understand ? " 
 
 We have one occasion of thanks, in this hour of 
 agony, in the fact that our departed ruler was not a 
 king. Had he been the sovereign, who can tell what 
 anarchy might now ensue ? But the people are the 
 sovereign, and he was their minister. We may thank 
 God that our " king never dies." He is myriad-handed 
 and myriad-eyed. We look for no disturbance, no be 
 wilderment, for no wandering up and down, as of sheep 
 not having a shepherd ; but for a full and clear compre 
 hension of the exigency of the hour ; for a calm wisdom, 
 and prompt energy, on the part of a great people, which 
 has successfully grappled Math so many dangers in the 
 past. Perhaps God is giving us our grand opportunity 
 to show to an incredulous world, that we are indeed a 
 government by the people. Had not our beloved Presi 
 dent been taken from us, had he lived until we were 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. <1 
 
 clearly out of all our troubles, it might have been 
 pleaded that his personal wisdom carried us through. 
 Not so now. That cavil against free governments can 
 not be made. We may solve the problem on its own 
 ground now, with no helping element to throw uncer 
 tainty around the result. We, by our steadiness to 
 duty and firm resolve, may now prove, that, whoever 
 dies and whoever lives, while the people live the gov 
 ernment cannot be overthrown, or falter in its course. 
 
 But ah ! poor human reason, be still. I seem to hear, 
 " Be still, and know that I am God. Shall I not do 
 what I will with mine own ? And may I not choose my 
 own instruments, with which to rule in the armies of 
 heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth ? " O my 
 brother mourners ! let us take refuge in the thought that 
 " the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." Not a sparrow 
 falleth on the ground without your heavenly Father. 
 The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, and 
 blessed be the name of the Lord. When father and 
 mother forsake me, the Lord shall take me up. He 
 careth for us in the day of our orphanage and grief. 
 His arm is stronger than any arm of flesh, an ever 
 lasting arm, and it is underneath us all. He saves us 
 from the terror by day, and the fear by night. All 
 events, and the passions and outfoaming wrath of men, 
 are subject unto Him. He holds them and us, and our 
 nation and the world, all the living, and the departed 
 whom we mourn, in the golden net-work of his purposes 
 of love. And He will show us, when He unrolls that 
 web to the eye of "the incorruptible," that all its threads 
 are mercy and judgment ; and that the hand which has 
 
72 SERMONS. 
 
 woven it through the ages, and wrapped it around all 
 the interests of all the children of men, has never been 
 stretched out or withholden, nor lifted up in seeming 
 displeasure, but to fulfil some kind and wise design. 
 
 " AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WEPT FOR MOSES IN THE 
 PLAINS OF MOAB THIRTY DAYS I SO THE DAYS OF WEEPING AND 
 MOURNING FOR MOSES WERE ENDED. 
 
 AND JOSHUA, THE SON OF NUN, WAS FULL OF THE SPIRIT OF 
 WISDOM ; FOR MOSES HAD LAID HIS HANDS UPON HIM : AND THE 
 CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HARKENED UNTO HIM, AND DID AS THE 
 LORD COMMANDED MOSES." 
 
REV. JOHN E. TODD 
 
PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 
 
 THE LORD BEIGNETH. Psalms xciii : 1. 
 
 GOD cannot die. Beyond the reach of the fatal dart 
 of disease, or the withering touch of creeping age, or the 
 breath of the pestilence, or the missiles of battle, or the 
 arm of the cowardly assassin, He lives and reigns ; and His 
 throne, girt with justice and judgment, mercy and truth, 
 is forever and ever, and the thoughts of His heart are unto 
 all generations. This is our only consolation to-day. 
 
 It would be in vain for me to attempt to speak to you 
 at this time on any other subject than the one which fills 
 every mind and heart ; and yet I have nothing to offer 
 but the confused and bewildered thoughts of a mind which 
 is still too much under the influence of the excitement 
 and horror of the recent shock, to be able to act clearly 
 and collectedly. 
 
 The tidings were too terrible to be comprehended or 
 credited at once : the President foully assassinated in 
 the very presence of the people, with deliberate fore 
 thought ; the Secretary of State stabbed while lying on 
 a sick bed, and his attendants killed and wounded. Other 
 
 (75) 
 
76 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 important officers of government, the Secretary of 
 War, the Lieutenant- General of the United States Army, 
 escaped only, without doubt, in consequence of unex 
 pected detention from the President s side. Such was 
 the dreadful story. It was ticked off at first, at mid 
 night, to a few blanched faces, and was rejected. It 
 came again with stronger authority. It stared out in 
 grim and terrible lines from the morning papers, making 
 the brain of the reader to reel, and the heart to grow 
 sick. It was told in husky and frightened tones by one 
 to another, and with voices choked with tears. It 
 leaped from face to face, pale and livid, as we never saw 
 the faces of the people before. It began to fringe the 
 flags, and darken the streets which were but recently so 
 gay. It began to create gloom, and a hush and loneli 
 ness in business haunts, which, but a few days since, 
 were filled with crowds and processions and cheers and 
 music. It began to wail from steeple to steeple. It 
 broke at last from the cannon s mouth in solemn thunder. 
 And, at length, we begin to realize to-day, that our 
 beloved President is no more. 
 
 It is a terrible national calamity, such as has not fallen 
 upon us since we became a nation. It is an atrocious 
 crime such as is almost unparalleled in history. It is 
 universally regarded as such by the people. Never have 
 they been so moved. No tidings of victory or defeat, 
 not even the intelligence of the first assault upon the 
 flag at Sumter has so stirred the depths of popular 
 feeling. The country is swept to-day by a storm of 
 silent but intense and very dangerous passion. 
 
 The feelings which these heavy tidings have univer- 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 77 
 
 sally excited, are I mention them in the order in 
 which they naturally arise horror, grief, rage, anxiety. 
 The country is convulsed with these emotions. 
 
 The first emotion experienced by every one upon 
 learning of this terrible event was one of unmitigated 
 horror, and it is a feeling from which we have not yet 
 recovered. There were various things fitted to intensify 
 it. We had not yet recovered from the ecstasies of 
 delight occasioned by victories unprecedented in modern 
 warfare, and which gave promise of speedy peace. The 
 horrible tidings found us on the heights of exultation, 
 and the fall in our feelings, and the shock, were propor 
 tionally tremendous. It was of all things the least 
 expected. At an earlier stage in our national troubles, 
 grave apprehensions were entertained of attempts upon 
 the President s life. But for four years the enemy had 
 forborne to resort to assassination ; and, among tho 
 people of the loyal States, the President had been stead 
 ily gaining in the confidence and esteem and love of all. 
 It was hardly imagined that he could have a personal 
 enemy. The crime seemed horrible, because perpetrated 
 upon a person of such high position, the head of a 
 powerful nation, the equal of a king, or rather the 
 superior ; for kings rule by birthright, Presidents by the 
 people s choice. It seemed horrible, because it was 
 committed upon a man of such unoffending goodness. 
 It seemed horrible, because it was committed from such 
 a motive. Assassination is a new weapon in politics in 
 this country. It seemed horrible, because it was a part 
 of a conspiracy against a number of the heads of govern 
 ment, and was executed, so far as it was executed, with 
 7* 
 
78 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 such brutal and blood-thirsty ferocity. It seemed 
 horrible from the circumstances of its commission. 
 With that confidence in his fellow-citizens which has dis 
 tinguished every President, and led him to dispense with 
 a body-guard, a confidence which President Lincoln 
 had especial right to feel, he had gone with a part of his 
 family, unattended, to the theatre ; not that he cared to 
 go, but that he did not care to disappoint the people. 
 He had been received with unusual demonstrations of 
 enthusiasm and affection. Seated in a rocking-chair by 
 the side of his wife, and with a multitude of his people 
 around him, and regarding him as a father, he rested 
 from the cares of office. Suddenly a man, a man ! 
 availing himself of the President s confidence, approached 
 him stealthily from behind, and, without a word of warn 
 ing, with a coward s hand and eye, fired at his head ; 
 then, rushing to the front, dropped upon the stage, 
 brandished a knife, and uttered a tragic exclamation in 
 his last role, disappeared behind the scenes, threaded 
 the familiar passages, emerged into the open air, and 
 escaped. Escaped? Ah, no ! he should have committed 
 his crime among some people less unitedly devoted to 
 their Chief Magistrate ; he should have done it in the 
 empire of some other God. He will not escape. He 
 may take the wings of the morning and fly to the utter 
 most parts of the sea ; he may make his bed in hell ; 
 but he will not escape. 
 
 The first feeling of uncontrollable horror is succeeded 
 by one of profound grief. It is not merely sorrow that 
 such a crime should have to darken the annals of Amer 
 ican history. It is not merely disappointment in being, 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 79 
 
 after all, cheated out of the ruler of our choice. It is 
 not merely the gloom which a great crime always throws 
 upon a community. It is not merely a regret for the 
 uncertainty which this event throws upon our future. 
 There is in the heart of the people a profound grief 
 arising from a sincere and very strong attachment to 
 President Lincoln. And well he deserved our attach 
 ment. This is not the time to enter upon any extended 
 or thorough examination of his life and character ; but 
 I cannot omit this opportunity to add my humble tribute 
 to his worth to those of my countrymen. 
 
 President Lincoln assumed the reins of government 
 when the whole country was in confusion, when whole 
 States were in rebellion, when the hands of the gov 
 ernment were paralyzed. He was bitterly hated and 
 opposed by a great minority, even in the States by 
 which he was elected. He was ridiculed and hooted, 
 not only by the press of the enemy, but by that of all 
 Europe. During his administration he has felt com 
 pelled to employ not a few measures which have created 
 very great discussion and feeling. And yet, after four 
 years of unprecedented difficulties and trials, he has 
 come forth, I need not tell you with what triumphant 
 successes for our country ; I need not tell you with 
 what enthusiastic admiration of his countrymen, even of 
 many who once opposed him ; with what admiration and 
 respect in foreign lands, and among the enemy.. Such 
 a record is one of which to be proud, and proves that 
 he had greatness. 
 
 He was never a leader, he always followed public sen 
 timent ; but he followed it with the accuracy and fidelity 
 
80 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 of a stag-hound. Some of us would have preferred a 
 bolder and fiercer leader ; but, on looking back, we can 
 see that such an one would either have ended our strife 
 prematurely before its results were accomplished, or more 
 probably would have divided us so that we never could 
 have done anything. Some of us have disapproved of 
 some of his measures, but the result has generally shown 
 that he was more sagacious than we. He may some 
 times have erred, in the opinions of some, from the strict 
 line of prerogative, but his sterling principle and noble 
 purposes kept such aberrations, if there were any, from 
 doing harm. He was a man of the purest and highest 
 motives, and the strongest principle. His chief aim was 
 the welfare of his people, and with the heart of a true 
 statesman he loved all, even his rebellious people. He 
 was willing to sacrifice himself to any extent. He never 
 used his office and power to enrich himself or his family. 
 He did not allow himself to be governed by his party, 
 or to become a tool in the hands of his political friends. 
 He never espoused theories, but was governed by expe 
 rience. He never took any notice of abuse, never lost 
 his self-control. He could not be brought to a hasty 
 decision ; could not be turned when once decided. He 
 endured the mistakes and disobediences of his civil and 
 military officers with a patience which was marvellous. 
 The people had learned to have confidence, not only in 
 his honesty of purpose, but in his strength and sagacity 
 of mind. His personal character was without a stain. 
 His manners were plain, but unaffected and hearty. His 
 benevolence was unbounded. Many are the hospitals 
 which he has visited, the soldiers whom he has grasped 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 81 
 
 by the hand, the widows and mothers to whom he has 
 sent a word or line of sympathy, the personal appeals 
 from the humblest individuals which he has answered. 
 Nothing is more remarkable than his kindness toward 
 the colored race, and the earnest and determined purpose 
 with which he set about their emancipation, and yet the 
 subordination in which he kept this sovereign purpose to 
 the work of extinguishing the rebellion. 
 
 His faults, for grave faults undoubtedly he had, were 
 principally those of over-leniency and generosity, delib 
 eration and patience, faults which would have been 
 excellences in less desperate times, and which even in 
 these times have probably been our salvation. His vir 
 tues were such as would have adorned a king. There 
 is another bond between President Lincoln and many of 
 us, a bond which not even death can sever. He was, to 
 all appearance, a Christian man, and in the sense in 
 which we understand the term. If a conversation which 
 has been reported really occurred, he professed to have 
 consecrated himself amid the graves of Gettysburg to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and to be endeavoring to live by the 
 faith of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. 
 The public documents which have issued from his pen 
 have certainly been remarkable, especially of late, for 
 their religious tone. This trait in President Lincoln s 
 character, so distinguishing him from all his predecessors, 
 rendered him especially interesting to the Christian mind, 
 and will irradiate his grave with a peculiar and glorious 
 hope. We have, at length, a President who " sleeps in 
 Jesus." 
 
 President Lincoln was remarkably a man of the peo- 
 
82 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 pie, and not merely in having traits which won popular 
 confidence. He was one of the people. He rose from 
 the humblest class ; he had a popular way of talking and 
 writing ; he could get hold of the popular heart. It is 
 doubtful whether any of our Presidents, even Washing 
 ton himself, was so thoroughly in the sympathies and 
 affections of the people as President Lincoln was. The 
 people themselves did not know how much they loved 
 him, till he was stricken down. There have been many 
 bitter tears shed in every city and hamlet of the North, 
 within the last few hours, over the tidings of his fall. 
 Strong men have wept, and been convulsed with grief, as 
 if they had lost a father or a brother. Oh, if votes could 
 raise him from that bier to that chair of state, what a ballot 
 would the North cast now ! The nation mourns, with a 
 sincere and sacred grief. No such sorrow has ever 
 touched the national heart. These draperies, in which 
 the land is dressed to-day, these solemn-tolling bells, 
 which speak to one another from valley to valley, from 
 hill-top to hill-top, give expression to no formal mourn 
 ing ; they tell of a real, profound, and mighty grief. 
 
 There is a consolation in the midst of this grief; in 
 the return of a day suggestive to very many minds of a 
 triumph over death. We do not follow our noble chief- 
 magistrate to the grave with the feeling that this is the 
 last. We are spared the sadness with which we are too 
 often compelled to witness the end of earthly greatness. 
 Gloom has no place around the grave of the Christian. 
 How sublime and comforting those words which seem to 
 float to-day over the whole land, echoing through its 
 numberless cemeteries and battle-fields, and lingering to 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 83 
 
 touch alike the bier of the Christian President and the 
 sod that covers the Christian slave, " I am the resurrec 
 tion and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he 
 were dead, yet shall he live" ! 
 
 There is another feeling which naturally succeeds the 
 emotions of horror and grief; it is rage. I would not 
 say a word to inflame the passions and exasperation 
 which are already filling the public mind. I would 
 rather say that which may soothe excited feelings. It is 
 a time for every man to lay upon himself a strong con 
 trol. It is easy at such a time to be ungenerous and 
 unjust. Let us discountenance all violence and passion, 
 and seek the punishment of evil-doers only through the 
 legally constituted channels. Let us not be violent even 
 in our defence of the fallen. Let us remember that there 
 is one thing more sacred than even friendship, and that 
 is liberty. The contemptible creatures who profess to 
 rejoice in the work of an assassin are not worth spend 
 ing rage upon ; there is nobler game afoot. Let us not 
 waste too much passion upon the perpetrators of this 
 dastardly crime ; not that they are not deserving of 
 indignant condemnation, and condign punishment; 
 they must receive it. But their importance is not com 
 mensurate with the mischief which they have done. To 
 lavish indignation upon them is to misuse and waste it. 
 
 Let us not jump hastily to the conclusion that the 
 perpetrators of this vile deed were in the employ or the 
 counsels of the enemy. For one, I do not believe that 
 the Southern leaders are too honorable to stoop to such 
 a deed ; I do not believe that they are too shrewd to see 
 that it would injure rather than serve them. But let us 
 
84 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 not come to conclusions without proof. We can wait 
 for the light of evidence. 
 
 But there is one direction in which the general indig 
 nation may be properly turned, always in lawful ways 
 and the appropriate channels, and that is against the 
 rebellion, and all who uphold it. The real spirit of 
 secession, the kind of men who are most devoted to 
 it, the conduct which it inspires, are made obvious in 
 one more notable instance. If, in the providence of God, 
 this last utmost stroke of malignity shall be the means 
 of opening the eyes of this people to the real character 
 and spirit of secession and secessionists, the calamity 
 will not have been sent altogether in vain. It will begin 
 to be found out at last, that the men who are rabid with 
 secession, the leaders, or rather, the mis-leaders of the 
 South, are not men to be paroled, and let off with politi 
 cal disabilities, and shaken by the hand, and feted : 
 they are men to be hunted down like wild beasts, and 
 sent to the prison and the gallows ; that secession is 
 not to be vanquished by leniency and kindness, but is to 
 be stamped out with the iron heel. This is said, not in 
 any spirit of vengeance and wrath, but from a solemn 
 conviction that the true interests of the country, and true 
 humanity and religion, require the prosecution of a vig 
 orous policy of extermination and utter subjugation. 
 
 The spirit of secession has at "last shown itself in 
 every possible variety of form. It is the spirit of hate, 
 the spirit of murder, the spirit of cowardly cruelty and 
 treachery, the spirit of barbarism, the spirit of hell. If 
 men will not renounce it now, and all connection with 
 it, and all sympathy with it, let them be, by the proper 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 85 
 
 authorities of course, cut down without mercy. Let our 
 indignation take the form, not of frantic and revengeful 
 passion, but a stern and united determination that this 
 rebellion, with its leaders, and with all who persist in^ 
 upholding it, shall be wiped out, so that no one will 
 ever be able to find the stain where it was. 
 
 There is one other feeling which fills almost every 
 mind, it is anxiety. 
 
 President Lincoln s life was one on which much 
 seemed to be depending. He had won the confidence 
 of the people ; he was meeting with triumphant suc 
 cess ; his policy was somewhat apprehended ; his plans " 
 seemed to be working well. But now a cloud is sud 
 denly fallen upon the future. What kind of a man the 
 new President will prove himself, who will be his 
 friends and advisers, what policy he will pursue, and 
 what the results will be, how well he will succeed in 
 uniting the people in himself, and what is before us, 
 are matters of blind conjecture. I might present to 
 you some considerations of a subordinate character, cal 
 culated to afford hope and encouragement ; I might 
 point you to the cheering features in the past career of 
 the new chief magistrate ; I might remind you of the 
 overwhelming successes already achieved, and how little 
 in the way of conquest remains to be done ; I might 
 show you, that the union and strength of feeling which 
 this very calamity has caused is auspicious : but of the 
 worth of such considerations, you are better able to 
 judge than I. I prefer only to remind you that we are 
 under the rule of a wise and benignant God, who dis 
 poses and ordains all things for the best. What He 
 8 
 
86 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 does we do not always know now, but we shall know 
 hereafter. The event which has crushed our hopes and 
 spirits seems to be one of those mysterious and inscru 
 table permissions, with which He is wont to remind us, 
 that His ways are not as our ways. To us it seems a 
 terrible and irreparable calamity. I confess, that as I 
 look at it from one side and another, I can hardly find 
 a single bright spot to relieve its darkness. But let us 
 have faith in God ; I doubt not that He has some wise 
 purpose to serve, some great end in view, though it is 
 now hidden from us. I cannot fathom His motive in 
 allowing this awful crime ; perhaps this was needed to 
 bring the people to some desired point ; perhaps He had 
 a work to be done fitter for some other hands than those 
 which have done so much noble work, and are now for 
 ever still ; perhaps He found that we were not hum 
 bled enough, and has more trouble in store for us ; I 
 will not pretend to explain the enigma, but I am very 
 sure that there is wisdom and mercy in it all ; and 
 wisdom and mercy for us. I do not believe that God 
 intends anything but that which in the end will be best 
 for our beloved but unhappy country ; the prayers and 
 tears of our fathers will not permit Him to give us up to 
 ruin. I do not believe that the safety and prosperity of 
 this country are dependent upon the life of any one man, 
 however great and good ; much less can I believe that 
 they are in the hands of an infuriated and probably 
 drunken actor. God is able to raise up other instru 
 ments instead of those that he lays down. Moses may 
 lie down to die, on the very borders of the promised 
 land, but a Joshua shall be raised up to lead the people 
 in to possess it. And it is remarkable how often it 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 87 
 
 happens, in the providence of God, that the Moses dies. 
 It is seldom granted to the same man to guide through 
 the desert, and to enter into the land of promise. 
 
 For President Lincoln himself, perhaps there was no 
 better time to pass away. He fell in the very height of 
 glory. Just re-established in the Presidential chair by 
 the overwhelming choice of his countrymen, risen into 
 the profound respect of the civilized world, permitted to 
 see his long watchings and toils crowned with success, 
 to rejoice in stupendous military achievements, in the 
 prospect of speedy peace, and in the assured approach 
 of universal freedom, to fall honored by all men, 
 wept by a nation, in the bosom of his family, with 
 his cabinet around him, with a nation waiting in 
 tears, in the hope of the gospel, was a death be 
 coming a Christian patriot, a glorious death to die. 
 It may be that he could not, in a hundred years, have 
 found a moment in which to fall so lamented, or leave 
 behind him such a memory. Henceforth a humble tomb 
 in the capital of Illinois will divide with Mount Vernon 
 the homage and pilgrimages of our countrymen. Perhaps 
 if these mighty dead, the leaders in the two wars for 
 freedom, are permitted to revisit their resting-places, the 
 murdered President will experience the greater joy, in 
 finding not only his head-stone worn with the kisses of 
 his own race, but the sods of his grave sprinkled with the 
 tears of eyes that used to weep in the house of bondage. 
 
 God bless the memory of Abraham Lincoln ! 
 
 God bless the President ! 
 
 God in his mercy bless and save these United States 
 of America ! 
 
REV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 
 
 8* 
 
2 TIM. 1 : 10. 
 
 WHO HATH ABOLISHED DEATH. 
 
 [Indiana-Place Chapel was decorated on Easter with appro 
 priate and symbolic ornaments. The entire chancel was covered 
 with a rich purple fabric looped to the wall at different points with 
 wreaths of white flowers. Over the chancel, fixed to the wall, 
 was a large cross surmounted by a crown, and at the side 
 appeared the words " He is Risen," each worked in foliage and 
 flowers. There were also numerous bouquets and single speci 
 mens of choice flowers and plants placed at different points in the 
 chapel, which, w r ith the national colors draped in mourning 
 drooping from the gallery, heightened the general effect.] 
 
 WHEN JESUS died, it seemed as if the last hope of the 
 world had perished. It seemed as if God had left the 
 earth alone, it seemed as if there was no Providence 
 left. It was the blackest hour in the history of the 
 human race. The power of darkness was at its height. 
 Satan had conquered God. One man had at last 
 appeared capable of redeeming mankind ; he had given 
 himself to that work, one man teaching and believing 
 a religion spiritual, humane, free ; above ceremony, 
 above dogmas, above all fanaticism, enthusiasm, formality. 
 
 (91) 
 
92 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 He was here ; the one being who knew God wholly and 
 human nature exactly ; who could say, " I and my 
 Father are one," " I and my brother are one." No sin 
 terrified him, for he was able to cure the foulest diseases 
 of the human heart and soul. From him flowed a life, 
 a vital power, which strangely overcame diseases of the 
 body and the soul. He was young : he had just begun 
 his work. A world dying of weariness, an exhausted 
 civilization, a worn-out faith, longed to be regenerated. 
 The great auroral light of Greek intelligence had died 
 away. The stern virtue of Rome had ended in effemi 
 nacy and slavery. The world, prematurely old, asked 
 to be made young again ; and here was the being who 
 could do it. And then men took him and murdered him. 
 They assassinated their best friend. BLACK TREASON, in 
 the form of Judas ; COWARDLY DESERTION, in his disci 
 ples ; SHAMEFUL DENIAL and FALSEHOOD, in the person 
 of Peter; TIME-SERVING SELFISHNESS, in Pilate; CRUEL 
 POLICY, in the priests ; BLIND RAGE, in the people ; 
 COLD-BLOODED BARBARISM, in the Roman soldiers, 
 all these united in one black, concentrated storm of evil, 
 to destroy the being so true, so tender, so gentle, so 
 brave, so firm, so generous, so loving. It was the blackest 
 day in the history of man. 
 
 And yet we do not call it Black Friday or Bad Fri 
 day ; we call it GOOD FRIDAY. We call it so, because 
 the death of Christ has abolished death ; because evil 
 that day destroyed itself; sin, seeming to conquer, was 
 conquered. And so we see, in the death and resurrection 
 of Jesus, the great law revealed, that we pass through 
 death to life, through sorrow to joy, through sin to holi- 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 93 
 
 ness, through evil and pain to ultimate and perfect 
 good. 
 
 We dress our church in flowers to-day in token of this 
 triumph. Nature, every spring, renews her miracle of 
 life coming out of death. The little, tender buds push 
 out through the hard bark. The delicate stalks break 
 their way up through the tough ground. The limbs of 
 the trees, which yesterday clattered in the wind, mere 
 skeletons, are now covered with a soft veil of foliage. 
 Earth clothes itself with verdure, and these spring flow 
 ers come, the most tender of the year. They come, like 
 spirits, out of their graves, to say that Nature is not dead 
 but risen. Look at these flowers, living preachers! 
 " each cup a pulpit and each bell a book," and hear 
 from every one of them the word of comfort : " Be not 
 anxious, be not fearful, be not cast down ; for if God so 
 clothe us, and so brings our life out of decay, will He 
 not care for you and yours evermore?" 
 
 On this day of the resurrection we commemorate the 
 subjugation of the last enemy, Death. " He has abol 
 ished death," says our text. Abolished it ; or, as the 
 same word is elsewhere translated, " made it void" ; that 
 is, emptied it of reality and substance ; left it only a 
 form ; "made it of no effect ; destroyed it; brought it to 
 nothing ; caused it to vanish away." Death to the Chris 
 tian ought not to be anything. If we are living in ter 
 ror of death, if we are afraid to die, if we sorrow for our 
 friends who die as those who have no hope, then we are 
 not looking at it as Christians ought. We ought to be, 
 and we can be, in that state of mind in which death is 
 nothing to us. 
 
94 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 For what makes death terrible ? First, it is terrible 
 because it ends this life, and all the enjoyment and inter 
 est of this life. We are made with a love of life, and 
 God means we should love it. 
 
 We are made to be happy in the sight of nature ; in this 
 great panorama of sky and land, hill and plain, sea and 
 shore, forest, mountain, rivers, clouds, day and night, 
 moon and stars, work and play, study and recreation, 
 labor and sleep. We are made to enjoy the society of 
 friends, the love of the near and dear, the quiet of home, 
 the march of events, the changes of the seasons, the 
 vicissitudes of human and national life. Death seems to 
 be the end of all this ; and so we shrink from death. But 
 that is because we do not see that all these things are 
 the COMING OF GOD to us ; that these are God s words 
 and God s actions ; that when surrounded by nature we 
 are in the arms of God, and that all these things are 
 from him, and through him, and to him. And as when 
 we die we do not go away from God, so we shall not go 
 away from all this beautiful variety and harmony, this 
 majestic order and transcendent beauty of creation. We 
 shall doubtless have more of it, know it better, enjoy it 
 more entirely. And so, since Christ makes us realize 
 the presence of God in nature, history, life, he abolishes 
 thereby that death which seems to come to take us from 
 them. 
 
 Another thing which makes death a terror is our own 
 consciousness of sin. The sting of death is sin. But 
 Christ removes this sense of sin, by bringing to us the 
 pardon of sin. The conditions are simple and practi 
 cable : repentance and faith. If we turn from our sin 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 95 
 
 and renounce it, and then trust in the pardoning grace 
 of God, we are forgiven our sin. Then not only the 
 mercy, but the truth and justice of God are pledged to 
 forgive us. " If we confess our sin, God is faithful and 
 just to forgive us our sin." No one need to remain 
 with a sense of unforgiven sin in his heart. In his 
 dying hour, as in his life, Jesus sought to lead mankind 
 out of the feeling of sin into that of reconciliation. 
 When he said to the sinful woman, " Go, and sin no 
 more ; neither do I condemn thee " ; when he said of the 
 other sinful woman, "Her sins, which are many, are for 
 given; for she loved much" ; when he told the story of 
 the prodigal son, to show how God sees us when a great 
 way off, and receives us back at once into the fulness of 
 his love ; when, at his death, he said, " This is my 
 blood, which is shed for you, and for many, for the 
 forgiveness of sin," he sent into the soul of men the 
 conviction that they could be at one with God notwith 
 standing their evil. 
 
 And the resurrection of Christ has abolished death, 
 because it shows us that death, instead of being a step 
 down, is a step up. It shows us Christ passing on and 
 up, through death, to a larger life. It shows that when 
 he died he did not close his work for man, but began to 
 do it more efficiently. The resurrection of Jesus was 
 the resurrection of Christianity ; the rising up of human 
 faith and hope. Jesus rose into a higher life, and his 
 disciples then rose into a higher faith. They became 
 strong, brave, generous, true. Their weaknesses and 
 follies fell away from them. Christianity broke the 
 narrow bands of Jewish ceremony, and became the reli- 
 
96 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 gion of humanity and of all time. The world seemed to 
 have lost everything when Christ died ; but it really gained 
 everything. His followers, "risen with him," "sitting 
 in heavenly places " with him, sought and found deeper, 
 higher, larger views of Christianity. And so his word 
 was fulfilled : " I, if I be raised up, shall draw all men 
 unto me." 
 
 When the awful news came yesterday morning of the 
 assassination of our President and of Mr. Seward, and 
 the other murders which accompanied those acts, it 
 seemed impossible to dress this church with flowers, 
 impossible to keep Easter Sunday with joy to-day. As 
 on Thursday we changed a Fast into a Thanksgiving, so 
 it seemed to be necessary to-day to change this feast of 
 joy into a day of fasting and sorrow. Yet, after all, the 
 feelings and convictions appropriate to Easter are what 
 we need to-day. When we say " Christ is arisen," 
 we are lifted into that higher faith which is our only 
 support and comfort in calamities like these. 
 
 Perhaps the crime committed last Friday night, in 
 Washington, is the worst ever committed on any Good 
 Friday since the crucifixion of Christ. It was not only 
 assassination, for despots and tyrants have been 
 assassinated, but it was parricide ; for Abraham 
 Lincoln was as a father to the whole nation. The 
 nation felt orphaned yesterday morning, when the black 
 tidings came ; for during these four years we had come 
 to depend on the cautious wisdom, the faithful con 
 science, the shrewdness, the firmness, the patriotism of 
 our good President. We have all quarrelled with him 
 at times ; we wished he would go faster ; we wished 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 97 
 
 he had more imagination, more enthusiasm : but we 
 forget all our complaints to-day, in the sense of a great 
 and irreparable calamity. Had he been a tyrant and 
 despot, there would have been the excuse for the act 
 which we make for Brutus and Cassius ; but the chief 
 fault of Abraham Lincoln was that he was too forgiving 
 to his enemies, too much disposed to yield to those from 
 whom he differed, and to follow public opinion instead 
 of controlling it. He could not bear to punish those 
 who deserved it ; and the man who will suffer the most 
 from his death is his murderer, for had Lincoln lived, 
 he would have forgiven him. Simple in his manners, 
 unostentatious, and without pretence ; saying his plain 
 word in the most direct way, and then leaving off ; he 
 yet commanded respect by the omnipresence of an honest 
 purpose, and the evident absence of all personal vanity 
 and all private ends. Since Henry IV. fell by the dagger 
 of Ravaillac, no such woe has been wrought on a nation 
 by the hand of an assassin. Good Friday was well 
 chosen as the day, a day dedicated to the murder of 
 benefactors and Saviours. We shall miss him often in 
 the years to come, for when shall we find among poli 
 ticians one so guileless ; among strong men one with so 
 little wilfulness ; among wise men one with so much 
 heart ; among conservative men one so progressive ; 
 among reformers one so prudent ? Hated by the South 
 from that instinct which makes bad men hate the good 
 ness which stands between them and their purpose, he 
 never hated back ; reviled by the most shameless abuse, 
 he never reviled again. Constant amid defeat and 
 disaster, he was without exultation in success. After 
 9 
 
98 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 the surrender of Lee, he caused to be written on the 
 Capitol the words, " Thanks be to God, who giveth us 
 the victory." 
 
 And so we find him mourned equally by the con 
 servative and the progressive wing of the loyal people, 
 because he was in reality a thoroughly conservative and 
 a thoroughly progressive man. Both could depend on 
 him as truly their own leader. For his moderation was 
 not the negative moderation of a compromise which 
 balances between two extremes, but the positive modera 
 tion of the large sincerity which accepts the truth on 
 both sides. The Conservatives knew that he was 
 sincerely cautious, and were sure he would never act 
 rashly. The Progressives knew that he was sincerely 
 ready to reform evils ; and though he might move slowly, 
 certain to move forward. 
 
 Fortunate man ! who thus exhausted the experience of 
 life, beginning as a splitter of rails and ending in a chair 
 higher than a monarch s throne ; studying his grammar 
 by the fire-light of a log-cabin when a boy ; when a 
 man, addressing the senate and people from the capitol 
 of a great nation ; tried by hardship, hardened by labor, 
 toughened by poverty, developed by opportunity, trained 
 by well-fulfilled duties, chosen by God to be the emanci 
 pator of a race, and the saviour of a nation s life ; and 
 then, having finished his work and seen the end near, 
 crowned with the martyr s halo, to be made immortal 
 through all history and all time as the chief actor in the 
 greatest drama of modern days. Happy in life ; happy 
 also in the opportunity of death, for when could death 
 come more welcome than on that day, when, having 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 99 
 
 emancipated the slave, having conquered the rebellion, 
 having walked into Richmond and written a letter at 
 Mr. Jefferson Davis desk, and having directed the flag 
 to be restored on Fort Sumter, he commanded recruiting 
 to cease throughout the land, and declared to Europe 
 that the blockade was at an end, and the war over as far 
 as foreign nations were concerned ? Macaulay says of 
 Hampden : " Others could conquer, he alone could 
 reconcile. It was when, to the sullen tyranny of Laud 
 and Charles had succeeded the fierce conflicts of sects 
 and factions, ambitious of ascendency, and burning for 
 revenge ; it was when the vices and ignorance which the 
 old tyranny had generated endangered the new freedom,, 
 that England missed that sobriety, that self-command, 
 that perfect soundness of judgment, that perfect recti 
 tude of intention, to which the history of revolutions 
 furnishes no parallel, or furnishes a parallel in 
 Washington alone." 
 
 " The history of revolutions has furnished another par 
 allel in Abraham Lincoln." So says a late London jour 
 nal; for even London journals have learned to look 
 through the rough shell to the rich kernel. Abraham 
 Lincoln is essentially of the same type as Washington. 
 Washington was born and bred a patrician, the lord of 
 slaves and of broad acres. Lincoln was born and bred 
 a plebeian, a man of the people. But subtract these 
 surface-differences and they were radically the same ; 
 each built up of CONSCIENCE and of COMMON SENSE. 
 Neither of them had imagination; but that was a bless 
 ing : it saved their lives. For if, in addition to the 
 heavy weight of real responsibilities, there had been 
 
100 SERMONS OX THE 
 
 added the sleepless anxiety of a mind which constantly 
 pictures to itself all possible contingencies, they would 
 both have died, worn out by exhaustion. In the gallery 
 of the world s great men our good Abraham Lincoln will 
 stand hereafter by the great shape of Washington, hav 
 ing as great a work to do as he, and having done it as 
 well. 
 
 But what shall we do without him ? What shall be 
 come of us, in this doubtful Present around us, this dark 
 Future approaching us ? We thought our trials over ; 
 they seem about to begin anew. But we have learned 
 in these years to see the hand of God in all things, and 
 how He makes the wrath of the wicked to praise Him. 
 Still let us believe that He knows what we need, and 
 that this black event will also turn to good. Let the 
 day on which he fell teach us a lesson saddest day in 
 the history of men. The death of Jesus, at the begin 
 ning of his work, seemed the direst calamity that could 
 befall mankind. It was the loss of the one being whom 
 the world could not afford to lose, the one perfect soul 
 the race had produced ; cut off, with his word appa 
 rently half uttered, his work seemingly half done, his 
 life half lived, leaving only a few half- taught disciples 
 behind him. 
 
 But as out of that evil came so much good, so out of 
 this God will educe the blessings and discipline we want. 
 tWe thought our trials over ; but perhaps we need more. 
 The people of the North, always hopeful and good- 
 natured, needed perhaps another example of the spirit of 
 barbarism which has grown up in slavery, in order not 
 to trust again with power any of this existing race of 
 rebels. Always audacious, they were just about to 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 
 
 .101- 
 
 come together to tell us how the Union was to be recon 
 structed. Having been beaten in the field, they were 
 quietly stepping forward to claim the results of victory. 
 But this murder has probably defeated their expectations. 
 As Abraham Lincoln saved us, while living, from the 
 open hostility and deadly blows of the slaveholders and 
 secessionists, so, in dying, he may have saved us from 
 their audacious craft, and their poisonous policy. We 
 are reminded again what sort of people they are. 
 
 It is idle to say that it was the work only of one or 
 two. When the whole South applauded Brooks in his 
 attempt to assassinate Charles Sumner ; when, during 
 these four years, they have been constantly offering 
 rewards for the heads of Lincoln and of Butler ; and 
 when no eminent Southern man has ever protested 
 against these barbarisms, they made themselves accesso 
 ries before the fact to this assassination. Throughout 
 the South, to-day, there is, probably, very general exul 
 tation. FOOLS AND BLIND ! Throughout the North, 
 this murder will arouse a stern purpose, not of revenge, 
 we trust, or only such a revenge as will consist with the 
 memory of Lincoln. The revenge we shall take for the 
 murder of Lincoln will be, to raise the loyal black popu 
 lation of the South not only to the position of freemen, 
 but of voters ; to shut out from power forever the leaders 
 of the rebellion ; to re-admit no Southern State into the 
 Union until it has adopted a free-state constitution, and 
 passed that anti-slavery amendment so dear to Abraham 
 Lincoln s heart.* We might not have insisted on these 
 
 * See, at the end of this discourse, an extract from the sermon 
 preached by the writer on Fast Day, the day before this assassi 
 nation, in regard to these points. 
 9* 
 
102 .>. SERMONS ON THE 
 
 conditions, perhaps it was necessary for Lincoln to 
 die, to bring the nation to the point of demanding them. 
 
 I suppose that since the beginning of the world, there 
 never was an hour in which a whole nation experienced 
 at the same moment such a pang as was felt from Maine 
 to San Francisco yesterday morning. The telegraphic 
 wires sent a thrill of horror into every city and every 
 large town on the Atlantic and Pacific, on the Kennebec 
 and the Missouri, at the same time. It was like the 
 blow of a hammer descending on the heart of the nation. 
 But such a hammer and fire welds together the soul of a 
 people into a strong, righteous purpose. As the attempt 
 of Guy Fawkes to destroy the British Parliament united 
 all England for two centuries against the Papacy ; as the 
 attempt of Brooks to murder Sumner united the free 
 States against slavery, so this crime will unite the whole 
 North to make thorough work with the rebellion, and 
 put it down where it can never stir itself again. 
 
 The word " assassin," it is said, was introduced into 
 Europe by the crusaders, and took its name from that 
 mountain chief whose followers devoted themselves to 
 murder any of his foes. He was named Ha-shish-in : 
 so named from hashish, the intoxicating herb, which 
 they took to give themselves the energy of madness. 
 Assassins are always madmen, they destroy the cause 
 they mean to help. 
 
 To-day, then, amid our grief and tears, let us not lose 
 that trust in Providence which the past four years have 
 been teaching to this nation, and which every Good 
 Friday and Easter Sunday, during eighteen centuries, 
 have been teaching to mankind. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 103 
 
 " Bear him, brothers, to his grave ; 
 Over one more true and brave 
 
 Ne er shall prairie grasses weep 
 In the ages yet to come, 
 When the millions in our room, 
 
 What we sow in tears, shall reap. 
 
 " One more look of that dead face, 
 Of his murder s ghastly trace ! 
 
 One more kiss, O widowed one ! 
 Lay your left hands on his brow, 
 Lift your right hands up, and vow 
 That his work shall yet be done. 
 
 " Patience, friends ! The eye of God 
 Every path by murder trod 
 
 Watches, lidless, day and night ; 
 And the dead man in his shroud, 
 And his children weeping loud, 
 
 And our hearts, are in his sight. 
 
 We, in suffering, they, in crime, 
 Wait the just award of time, 
 
 Wait the vengeance that is due ; 
 Not in vain a heart shall break, 
 Not a tear for Freedom s sake 
 
 Fall unheeded : God is true. 
 
 " Lay the earth upon his breast, 
 Lay our slain one down to rest, 
 
 Lay him down in hope and faith. 
 And above the broken sod, 
 Once again to Freedom s God 
 
 Pledge ourselves for life or death." 
 
104 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The following extract from a sermon preached by the writer, 
 two days before, gives a further explanation of the points touched 
 on our page : 
 
 No doubt much remains to be done. The gravest questions 
 rise before us. There loom up now the questions, " what shall 
 be done with the rebels ? Shall the leaders of the rebellion be 
 punished, and how ? What shall be done with the conquered 
 States ? How shall they be governed ; by military or civil power ? 
 
 In answering these questions it is evident, that, first of all, we 
 need guarantees that the substantial results of the war shall not 
 be lost that the cure of the South shall be radical that there 
 shall be no more treasons, no more rebellions. Any leniency 
 that overlooks this necessity is not moderation, is not generosity 
 it is folly, cruelty, and crime. We may forgive ; but we 
 have no right so to forgive as to leave the old conspirators with 
 power to conspire again. 
 
 What guarantees, then, do we need ? Plainly, the first is the 
 utter abolition and destruction of slavery in the South. We 
 must not have it in any form or shape. We must not allow it 
 to remain as apprenticeship, or as serfdom, or as pupilage. But 
 can this be done if we give back the power over the Southern 
 States into the hands of the old disloyal leaders, now made ten 
 times as bitter as before their defeat ? I see by the prints that 
 distinguished citizens of Virginia are on their way to Washing 
 ton to arrange terms for the reconstruction and re-admission of 
 Virginia into the Union. What do we want of distinguished 
 citizens of Virginia ? We want them all to keep out of the 
 way. We are to deal now with the real people of the 
 South, colored and white, not with the old slaveholding aristo 
 cracy. We do not want any Hon. Mr. Hunters or Breckinridges ; 
 no Governor Wise, no Governor Foote, to arrange terms with. 
 
 It seems to me that the question of punishment may be en 
 tirely set aside. We do not wish to punish any one. " Ven 
 geance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." They will be 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 105 
 
 punished enough, no doubt of that. If defeat, disgrace, and 
 utter ruin are punishments, if contempt at home and neglect 
 abroad are punishments, if to have shown a want of statesman 
 ship and ignorance of history, to have destroyed the peace and 
 prosperity of these States is punishment, they have it. We 
 have, no doubt, a right to punish them to any extent. The 
 crimes of rebellion, treason, and waging civil war without a 
 cause, are the blackest which can be committed by man. To 
 lose life, property, and all, is not too severe a punishment. But 
 what we wish is not to punish them, but to protect ourselves. 
 And the most moderate punishment which is adequate is the 
 best, because it is the most certain to be inflicted. And there 
 fore I say, that, in my opinion, what we want is to keep all the 
 old rebel leaders, and old slaveholding aristocracy out of the 
 way, until the States of the South can be re-organized on the 
 basis of freedom. We want to keep them from having anything 
 to do with the government or control of the South until every 
 Southern State is as loyal as Massachusetts. Now, every emi 
 nent Southern man is liable to be tried, convicted, and put to 
 death for treason under the law of 1790. It is true that he 
 can only be tried within the State where the act of treason 
 was committed. But when Lee invaded Pennsylvania, he com 
 mitted treason there, and so did the whole rebel government, for 
 in treason all are principals and the purpose of overthrowing 
 the government of the United States by arms is a treasonable 
 purpose and every one who deliberately aids in any way that 
 purpose, even by furnishing supplies, is held by the Courts to 
 be a principal. 
 
 The punishment of death for treason is therefore hanging to 
 day over the head of every man concerned in the rebellion. 
 They may be very grateful if allowed to escape by exile, confis 
 cation, and disqualification. But looking, not at vengeance or 
 punishment, but simply at self protection, it is my opinion that 
 we might agree to waive the trial for treason, and substitute for 
 it these penalties : 1st. In the case of Jefferson Davis, and his 
 government, and. all the chief conspirators, we might substitute 
 
106 SERMONS. 
 
 for death, exile for a term of years, say ten years. This would 
 be so moderate a punishment that it would pretty certainly be 
 carried out. 2d. Then for those who have left the service of 
 the United States to fight against it, and for the civil officers of 
 the rebel States let the punishment be disqualification for any 
 office, and inability to vote during ten years. So fast do things 
 move in this country, that in ten years, when the exiles return, 
 they will find no opening left for them, all their influence gone, 
 others in their places, the whole machinery of state re-organized, 
 and they all sent into obscurity and oblivion. 3d. Let all those 
 who have committed specific crimes, such as murdering citizens, 
 starving to death our prisoners, and killing colored persons in 
 cold blood, be tried and punished for those crimes under the 
 laws. 4th. Let all the common people who have been forced 
 and cheated into rebellion be pardoned on taking the oath of 
 allegiance and keeping it. 5th. Let no rebel State be re-admit 
 ted into the Union till its Legislature has passed the Constitu 
 tional amendment abolishing slavery in the United States. 
 
 This is my plan for reconstruction. Let the military govern 
 ment of the U. S. be continued over the States, and let garrisons 
 of colored troops be kept in all the large towns. Let no State 
 be re-admitted till a convention of the people has met, revising 
 its Constitution and abolishing slavery, and till its Legislature 
 has passed the Constitutional amendment. Let the Federal 
 Courts for the District of Pennsylvania find indictments for 
 treason against every member of the rebel government, rebel 
 Congress, and every head officer in the rebel army. Let the 
 Federal Courts in Ohio, Maryland, and Missouri, do the same. 
 Then let Congress be called together, and modify the law, substi 
 tuting exile for a term of years, and disqualification for office, 
 under certain conditions. So that by accepting and submitting 
 to the lesser punishment, they may escape the greater. 
 
REV. GEORGE H. HEP WORTH. 
 
MATTHEW IX: 15. 
 
 "CAN THE CHILDREN OF THE BRIDE-CHAMBER MOURN AS LONG 
 AS THE BRIDEGROOM is WITH THEM ? BUT THE DAYS WILL COMB 
 WHEN THE BRIDEGROOM SHALL BE TAKEN EROM THEM, AND THEN 
 SHALL THEY FAST." 
 
 BRETHREN, last Thursday morning I read to you the 
 first part of the verse which I have chosen for my text. 
 It was a day appointed for fasting, humiliation, and 
 prayer ; but so signal had been the victories of the few 
 preceding days, that this people, with one accord, united 
 their voices in a great chorus of thanksgiving. Little 
 dreamed we then, that so soon the latter clause of my 
 text would call this mourning nation to the saddest duty 
 of its life. 
 
 Who can measure the great grief of this people ? The 
 blow came so unexpectedly, that we hardly yet know 
 how to express our feelings in fitting words. Each man 
 weeps for a friend in the loss of this our Foremost Amer 
 ican Citizen. When the dreadful tidings first flashed 
 upon our hearts, it seemed too appalling to be credible. 
 We struggled against it. The wires have played us 
 10 (109) 
 
110 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 false, we said, and we almost grew indignant with the 
 tamed lightning which but a few hours before had 
 thrown the whole North into such a bewilderment of 
 joy as it told us the story of the fall of Richmond, and 
 which now changed our joy into the very bewilderment 
 of woe as it wrote upon the bulletin, " The President is 
 dead ! " We did not know how much we loved that 
 good man, nor how much confidence we had reposed in 
 him, until the fearful certainty of our loss assured us. 
 Was ever public officer so sincerely mourned before ? 
 Every home of the North will drop its tear of genuine 
 sorrow upon his grave, for mothers sent their boys to do 
 the dreadful work of war all the more willingly because 
 our commander-in-chief was so prudent, careful, and 
 thoughtful ; every hamlet will learn the lesson of the 
 hour from its draped pulpit when the preacher shall tell 
 how fell the unsullied patriot from the affections of the 
 whole people into the bosom of immortal life ; every 
 city, from where the Atlantic wave moans its sorrow to 
 the rising sun to where the Pacific sighs out its grief to 
 the sinking orb, testifies its respect and love for the 
 great man, by those emblems which sadly decorate 
 every public building, if not every private residence, 
 and which always tell us that the people s heart is 
 heavy. 
 
 Brethren, it is not merely a brave warrior whom 
 America mourns. No battle chieftain, however great 
 his exploits in the field of danger and o conquest, 
 could ever rouse such love as this we bear to Abraham 
 Lincoln. It is not merely the clearness and sagacity of 
 his mind that most we miss. No philosopher, however 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. Ill 
 
 gifted, ever rested so securely in the affections of the 
 whole community. No : these tears are shed for one, 
 who, standing on an eminence so high that few would 
 not be made dizzy by it, walked humbly, honestly, 
 and faithfully, doing the greatest work of many a cen 
 tury, as a servant of the people and a servant of God. 
 We felt that the Republic was safe while he stood at 
 its head. In those seasons of intense public excitement 
 when great and important questions were to be decided, 
 questions affecting our welfare in the distant future, 
 and our relations to foreign powers, he was the calmest 
 man in the country ; and many and many a time, when 
 we have rebelled against his judgment, and given way to 
 passionate criticism, we have learned to regret our own 
 heat, and wonder at his serenity. Ah ! where shall we 
 not miss him ? His influence was potent within the 
 halls of Congress, shaping the legislation which is to 
 affect the country when the glad morrow of peace 
 comes ; it was felt in all the ramifications of our 
 foreign and domestic policy, tempering all decrees by 
 a statesmanship not more remarkable for its sagacity 
 than for its kind consideration of all parties ; and it 
 will be felt by every soldier in the field in whose heart 
 the destinies of his native land and the name of Abra 
 ham Lincoln have been so intimately interwoven. 
 
 In 1809, in a little village in Kentucky, beneath the 
 thatched roof of a poor man s cottage, was born a child, 
 whose prospects for the future seemed very limited. 
 He received from his parents nothing but poverty and a 
 good name. His childhood was in no degree remarkable. 
 There were no foreshadowings of the greatness to be 
 
112 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 achieved, and very few of those traditions of wonderful 
 precocity, which, in some mysterious way, cluster ahout 
 every eminent name. His library consisted of a well- 
 thumbed Bible, and his fortune of an empty purse. 
 He spent the first thirty years of his life upon that 
 monotonous plane on which every poor farmer s boy 
 lives. He spent his days in driving the team afield, in 
 caring for the little flock as it wound slowly o er the lea, 
 and in the common drudgery which marks the lowly 
 position he occupied. 
 
 When he was on the threshold of middle life, a 
 resident of a village in Illinois, he was intrusted with 
 some slight responsibility by his fellow-citizens. He 
 was regarded with kindness because he had been some 
 thing of a traveller, and an observer of men and things 
 having made a voyage down the lordly Mississippi and 
 because he had given his services to the Government in 
 the Black Hawk war, and shown no lack of courage, but 
 rather a quiet persistency and fearlessness which added 
 to the lustre of the shoulder-straps which made him a 
 captain. Having served his constituents faithfully in a 
 minor position, he began that slow and toilsome journey 
 of promotion, which is marked at every step by honesty 
 of purpose; and which ended, when, obedient to the A\ ill 
 of the North, he assumed the position of President of the 
 United States. 
 
 Never have I been more proud of my country than 
 when, gazing upon the lowly spot on which he was 
 born, and the straitened circumstances of his youth, 
 and then upward to the proud position he won for 
 himself, I remembered that in America we have no royal 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 113 
 
 circle from whose narrow limits the rulers of the kingdom 
 are chosen, while the gaping multitude look on in open- 
 mouthed wonder ; but that every boy on the continent 
 has royal blood in his veins, and, if he but will it, he 
 shall rise, forgetful of his humble origin, nay, nay, 
 forgive me, proud of his humble origin, to the mo*t 
 responsible positions in the land. Happy country, which 
 sees the brilliant light of promise and of hope in the eye 
 of every boy ! Blessed institutions, which instead of 
 veneering the top of society, sends the school-book and 
 the prayer book to the lowliest, and electrifies the great 
 body of the people with an honorable ambition ! 
 
 If a stranger were to offer his criticism upon Mr. Lin 
 coln, I think the first characteristic of which he would 
 speak would be the extreme and charming Simplicity of 
 the man. This is so marked a peculiarity, that no one 
 can have failed to notice it. It is to be observed not 
 only in his daily talk, and in his always courteous 
 bearing, but also in his public speeches, and in those 
 documents, some of which are to become a part of our 
 national literature. He is the most truly Republican 
 President we have ever had. Occupying a position ae 
 important and as influential as that of the Emperor of 
 France, he carried to the White House the rigid sim 
 plicity of his Illinois home ; and in his endeavor to do 
 the work, the arduous work of the hour, he forgot 
 to put on any of the trappings or pomp of royalty. 
 
 So noticeable was this peculiarity, that many of us 
 
 regretted what we called a certain want of refinement. 
 
 We would have had him keep in remembrance that he 
 
 was President of the United States ; but he could never 
 
 10* 
 
114 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 ignore the fact, that he was simply Abraham Lincoln. 
 To say what he meant, was his ambition ; and to mean 
 what he said, was a matter of honor. Perhaps he did 
 not always indulge in court language ; perhaps he was 
 not as graceful as some lesser men have been ; but he 
 always acted the wise, prudent, and manly part. He 
 claims our forbearance for telling an apt story; for wit 
 and sarcasm, which sometimes seem out of place ; but 
 he has no need to seek our forgiveness for connivance 
 against the honor of the Republic. Grace of bearing is 
 a good thing ; but unswerving integrity is sublime, even 
 when it is awkward. For my own part, I am glad that 
 we have at last had a President who scorned to use the 
 privileges of his position for the study of the rules of 
 politeness ; and who, a yeoman, would not ape the 
 courts of Europe, but set himself at work to do a real 
 service for his country, at a time when she had been 
 robbed by so-called gentlemen of the first families, and 
 must be set right, if at all, by the great mass of the 
 common people and their representative. 
 
 If you should look this broad continent over to find a 
 man who came from the people, who knew their wants 
 and their troubles by experience ; who had been edu 
 cated only in the schools of the people ; who possessed 
 their confidence ; who was proud of his ability to do 
 them good ; who had been led neither by scholarship 
 nor ambition to a forgetfulness of their exact condition : 
 in other words, if you should search this nation through 
 to find a man who should be a true type of the America 
 of to-day, you could not discover one so fit for the pur 
 pose as Abraham Lincoln. In his earnestness and in 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 115 
 
 his wit ; in his persistency and in his good humor ; in 
 all the angles of mind, character, and life, he was the 
 best man of this generation to show the strength and 
 the peculiarities of the American. 
 
 He was pure-minded, seeking not for himself with 
 unhallowed ambition of conquest, but rather for his 
 country, with the holy ambition of the patriot. He was 
 pure-hearted, governed in all his dealings by a pervading 
 sense of moral responsibility. He was unsuspicious, 
 alas, alas, brethren, he was too unsuspicious ! he believed 
 too much in the honor of those around him, and for this 
 reason he sleeps upon his bier, while a nation bends in 
 tears because his slumber knows no waking. 
 
 Another marked characteristic of the man was his 
 Religious Faith, his often avowed belief that this people 
 are in the especial keeping of Providence, and that it was 
 his duty as President to await the expressed will of God, 
 and then to act. He was not of that company of heroes 
 who win the sympathy of many by electing themselves 
 men of destiny ; but he firmly believed that this nation is 
 a nation of destiny, and was modest enough, aye, humble 
 enough to forget himself in his honest endeavor to obey 
 the people s will. I delight to linger on this part of our 
 great leader s character; for our public men have so often 
 been mere politicians, winning their way to position by 
 those various arts which are recognized as legitimate in 
 the circles where they are used, but hardly looked upon 
 with favor by an impartial religion, that it is exceedingly 
 refreshing to know that in the time of our country s dire 
 necessity the highest officer of the nation was the 
 humblest of us all, and sought to know the will of God 
 
316 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 before he listened to the will of man. I verily believe 
 that the religious view of the war, and this seems to 
 me to be the sublimest fact of the war, which has 
 pervaded every class in the community, and shown itself 
 in the subdued manner in which, for the last two years, 
 we have received the tidings of every great victory, is 
 greatly due to the position assumed by Mr. Lincoln. 
 How easily he could Lave stirred this people to acts of 
 revenge, acts which we might never cease to regret, 
 had he but issued a series of documents filled with 
 revolutionary rhetoric. But instead of this, America 
 has often been quieted in the hour of intensest excite 
 ment by the moral weight of our President s character 
 and words. 
 
 I do not speak thus as one who blindly praises the 
 dead. I have no desire to lift Mr. Lincoln into the 
 upper region of a faultless manhood. I have no wish to 
 forget the fact that he had faults, ay, even grave 
 faults, in speaking of his virtues. At a more appro 
 priate time, I may give you an estimate of his relation 
 to, and influence upon, the age ; but now our sorrow and 
 our love are our only eloquence, and in reckoning the 
 qualities which so endeared him to us, we will not forget 
 that the tone of simple trust in God, which gave depth 
 and beauty to nearly all his public documents, and which 
 in private intercourse made so lasting an impression upon 
 those who were privileged to take his hand, did much, 
 very much, even more than we knew at the time, to 
 direct public opinion into those channels through which 
 the popular feeling and excitement naturally flowed 
 towards a religious view of our national affairs. And 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 117 
 
 who can tell the benefit of such a tendency ? Who 
 knows how much of the moral strength of this people 
 to-day comes from this fact ? 
 
 Many a time have delegations from various organiza 
 tions gone to this First Citizen of America, and said : 
 " Mr. Lincoln, this people believe that you have been 
 providentially placed in this position for the salvation 
 of the nation. Every village church in the land lifts 
 its fervent petition in your behalf, and every loyal 
 man feels that he may trust you to vindicate and 
 establish his dearest rights ; " and the old man, in 
 stead of drawing himself up to his full height, and, 
 in courtly fashion, receiving this language as hom 
 age done to himself, has bowed his head as in the 
 presence of sublime duties, and consecrated the memory 
 of the interview with tears. Brethren, these things are 
 not often written in the biography of great men. 
 
 One other characteristic of which I must not fail to 
 speak M r as his Firmness. Justice has never been done 
 to Mr. Lincoln in this respect. He was not one of those 
 boisterous men who herald the fact that they have strong 
 wills, and who seem to act as though an unbending will 
 was the chief element of heroism. He had his own way 
 very quietly, yet he generally had his own way,. He 
 knew the value of advice when given by his peers, and 
 was always courteous and deferential while it was being 
 bestowed. But he held it in about the same estimation 
 in which others of the world s best men have regarded 
 it, a something which it is very necessary to receive, 
 but not always necessary to heed. 
 
 It is rather a peculiar fact in the history of his admin- 
 
118 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 istration, that while so many have blamed him for lag 
 ging behind the people, nearly all have thrown the odium 
 of such sloth upon him personally, as though it were 
 the natural tendency of his character, and not the result 
 of any outside influence. The future historian will give 
 him credit for a degree of determination in the estab 
 lishment and execution of his public policy w r hich may 
 surprise us all. He made but little noise, yet he is more 
 responsible for the acts of his administration than any 
 President we have had for many a year. 
 
 And now he is gone. Alas ! a good man and a true 
 man has been taken away. Steadily our love and respect 
 for him has increased since 1860. He early won, and 
 has steadfastly kept our confidence in the progress of 
 this tremendous struggle ; and now we may say, without 
 fear of contradiction, that no man ever wielded such 
 power, and made so few enemies. I repeat it, no man 
 ever wielded such power during four successive years of 
 Hood and sacrifice, of tears and death, and made so few 
 enemies. 
 
 "He was a man, take him for all in all, 
 We shall not look upon his like again." 
 
 And now he is gone : gone when we seemed to need 
 him most, and when we loved him best : gone from a 
 good life to a better ; from the soldier s home on earth 
 to the soldier s home in heaven ; from his triumphs to 
 his reward : gone to the blessed company of great men, 
 who, in times past, have led tho people on from sin to 
 liberty, and laid down their own lives as a willing sacri 
 fice on the altar of progress. To-day, while we mourn, 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 119 
 
 he sits in the council-chamber where martyrs and heroes 
 are convened ; where are Washington, and Adams, and 
 Hancock, and Warren ; and he is their peer in the love 
 he bore his country, and the love his countrymen bore 
 to him. 
 
 O, exalted spirit ! if you can spare a single moment 
 to look from those heavenly realms which have so lately 
 burst upon your enraptured vision upon our bereaved 
 homes, you shall see how dear was the place you held 
 in all our hearts. You have been the people s friend, 
 and they put the evergreen of gratitude about your 
 name. Calmly you have led us, wisely, tenderly, and 
 yet firmly, through four times twelve months of woe. 
 You have gone with us into the valley of defeat, 
 where we have reckoned the fearful cost of life which 
 was marking the uncertain progress of the war. You 
 have been with us when the glad tidings of victory came, 
 and we have always found you our friend, faithful and 
 true ; our leader, just and wise. 
 
 You need no monument to tell your worth. These 
 tears are better than the marble shaft. These grateful 
 hearts, which will tell the children who sleep in the cra 
 dle the wondrous story of the times through which we 
 have lived, will not forget to say that all the nation 
 trusted, and all the people loved you. You shall live in 
 the new America that is to be, and your best monument 
 shall be your Redeemed and Free Country. You were 
 with us, with kindly word of counsel, when with one 
 voice we cried, " Our country shall be one and indivisi 
 ble," and when a million men, the flower of the genera 
 tion, stood side by side to battle and to die for the 
 
120 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 Union : you were with us when the voice of the people 
 was heard all over the world, saying, " Never more shall 
 there be slave upon this soil ; hereafter all beneath the 
 protecting folds of our flag shall be freemen ; " and 
 when in gratitude two hundred thousand dusky braves 
 sprang to arms, and fought for the honor of the country 
 that dared to proclaim that they were men : you were 
 with us when the weak and worn enemy flew panic-" 
 stricken from their last defences ; when the arch traitor 
 fled the avenging hand of justice, and hid himself in the 
 swamps of the South and the depths of his own crime ; 
 and when the commander-in-chief of organized rebellion 
 gave up his blood-stained sword to the noble chieftain 
 who was the representative of order, union, and liberty, 
 and now you have gone ! Nay, nay, we will not 
 believe it. You are still with us, and you will be with 
 us unto the end. 
 
 Brethren, we still trust in God. The meaning of this 
 event we cannot read. We are not robbed of our faith ; 
 and who shall dare deny, that Lincoln dead may yet do 
 more for America and Americans, than Lincoln living? 
 
 In my mind s eye, I see a stout and well-built ship, 
 lying a wreck upon hidden rocks. Bravely she has 
 breasted the storms of a score of winters. She has 
 battled with the tornadoes of Indian seas, bending her 
 proud masts until the frenzied wave threw its furious 
 spray upon the highest sail ; she has confronted Atlantic 
 tempests ; and, when she came into port at last, was just 
 enough defaced to prove the terrible character of the 
 struggles from which she had come in triumph. She 
 has brought her rich cargo of hope and faith, of good 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 121 
 
 laws and liberty ; and, but yesterday, her cargo safely 
 landed upon the wharf, she slipped her moorings and 
 playfully unbent her sails for an hour s enjoyment. But, 
 alas! there were rocks, hidden rocks, in the way, 
 rocks not laid down upon any chart except the chart of 
 Satan. She struck ; and tears filled our eyes as we saw 
 the noble vessel that had done her duty so well, lying 
 there, the victim of a mischief that could not have been 
 foreseen. So is it with our country to-day. 
 
 11 
 
REV. W. R. NICHOLSON. 
 
AT ST. PAUL S CHURCH. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Nicholson spoke as follows : 
 My Brethren, in the extraordinary circumstances in 
 which we meet together this morning, I feel unwilling to 
 begin our joyous Easter services without a brief word 
 of introduction. I am sure, you will pardon me for this 
 one moment s digression from our usual course. 
 
 Easter is the synonyme of joy and triumph, and 
 Easter-day has come. How sweetly its blessed light 
 has dawned upon us this morning. And yet it has 
 brought with it the saddest tidings, yes, in an im 
 portant sense, the saddest tidings, which have ever 
 concerned us since we were a people. To-day, our 
 whole land is filled with sorrow and mourning ; not 
 only so, but with the keenest sense of national shame 
 and mortification. It is a dreadful public calamity, 
 in every point of view a dreadful public calamity ; and 
 certainly it is God s call to us for a yet deeper self- 
 humiliation. The instinct of my heart would be to 
 observe this, the first Sunday after so grievous an afflic 
 tion, with such outward expressions of sorrow in our 
 public worship as might befit a worshipping congrega 
 tion. Were it another Sunday, the irrepressible grief of 
 
 11* (125) 
 
126 SERMONS. 
 
 our hearts would require us to do so. But it is Easter, 
 the Queen Festival amongst all the glories of Gospel 
 Truth. Oh, we cannot shove aside the grandeurs, the 
 heavenly grandeurs, of our Saviour s resurrection ! It is 
 the culmination of all saving truth ; the only light for 
 our darkness, the only joy for grief, the only solace in 
 our deepest troubles. Were it the festival of an earthly 
 joy, instinctively we should keep silence ; but our 
 Easter joys are the only medicine, as well for our na 
 tional wounds, as for the individual heart. 
 
 If properly looked at, then ; if these services are not 
 construed as an . aesthetic show, a mere parade ; if we 
 bear in mind that it is God s own truth which here con 
 cerns us ; surely nothing could be more appropriate, even 
 for so direful a calamity, than are these Easter services. 
 Let our hearts be chastened ; let us sink in self-humilia 
 tion deep and sincere ; let us lift our eyes to Jesus in 
 faith strong and simple, then, all the more because of 
 our present national grievance, oh, all the more, strike 
 the very highest notes of Easter joy and triumph ! 
 
 And may the benediction of our God descend and 
 brood over us, in these our precious services ! 
 
REV. WILLIAM HAGUE 
 
2 SAMUEL III: 38. 
 
 AND THE KING SAID UNTO HIS SERVANTS, KNOW YE NOT 
 THAT THEHE IS A PllINCE, AND A GREAT MAN FALLEN THIS 
 DAY IN ISRAEL? 
 
 WE have come into our sanctuary to-day, with heavy 
 hearts and weary step. "We are " bowed down to the 
 dust" beneath the weight of a calamity that has thrilled 
 a nation with anguish too deep for tears. 
 
 We are all mourners at one funeral; not a funeral 
 that leaves a vacant place in any one of our households, 
 nor simply the funeral of a father, son, or brother, of a 
 personal friend, champion, or protector, but of him who 
 combined the interests and endearments of all these 
 relations in one, and whose sadden loss a nation bewails 
 as inexpressible and irreparable. 
 
 The hand of the assassin that smote down our Presi 
 dent achieved its fiendish aim, and in that mortal stroke 
 inflicted a pang that throbs in the hearts of more than 
 twenty millions ; and though these all beat in unison, 
 yet as the Prophet Zachariah said of Judea in a time of 
 trouble, " The land mourneth, every family apart." 
 
 (129) 
 
130 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 Every one bemoans the affliction as a sorrow of his 
 own. 
 
 There is sorrow in the crowded streets ; sorrow in the 
 marts of trade ; sorrow in the council-rooms of States, 
 in the school-rooms of children and youth, and at every 
 hearthstone of the Commonwealth : but more than that, 
 there is sorrow in every solitude, even in the closet of 
 prayer, "the secret place" where emotion is quickened 
 by no sympathy except sympathy with God, who knoweth 
 the heart s bitterness better than it knows its own. 
 
 Never, we believe, since the death of Washington, 
 did the countenance of every man, every woman, and 
 every child, over the broad area of the republic, express 
 a sentiment of grief so profound and keen as that which 
 greets us now, whithersoever we may turn. 
 
 We have heard of monarchs honored as benefactors, of 
 kings loved as fathers ; but it is only in a free republic 
 that you can ever see such signs of love and devotion as 
 those which now glisten in the eyes, or quiver in the 
 tones of stalwart men, of war-worn soldiers, of mirthful 
 youth, of venerable matrons ; or such as rise to heaven 
 in the prayers of the vast masses who kneel at their 
 domestic altars in the mansions of merchant-princes, in 
 the tenant-houses of poor laborers who differ from each 
 other as to color and complexion, in the rough cabins of 
 backwoodsmen, and in the huts of emancipated slaves. 
 
 All these, spread abroad over the breadth of a conti 
 nent, make it one expanded " house of mourning," where 
 one bereaved family are prostrate in the expression of 
 a common woe ; unto all these voices the ear of God is 
 open, and over all these He watches with sympathetic 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 131 
 
 care, waiting to fulfil in the experiences of this afflicted, 
 storm- tossed nation that benign promise which gleamed 
 of old through the reft cloud of many a portentous 
 night in the history of Israel, " Call upon me in the day 
 of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify 
 me." 
 
 That word is as true to-day, and as apposite to our 
 condition as if an angel were uttering it for the first time 
 in the ears of the people, as a fresh message from the 
 throne of the Eternal King. We are still in the keeping 
 of our fathers God, to whom, in the fiery trials of the 
 revolutionary era, Washington was wont to pray in 
 forest solitudes. As the ancient Psalmist said, we say, 
 " He that keepeth us shall neither slumber nor sleep." 
 The assassin s dagger cannot reach Him. And though 
 the deadly stroke aimed at our chief ruler hath pierced 
 the nation s heart, He liveth to parry the force of the 
 blow, to heal the wound, to bring good out of evil, 
 strength out of weakness, life from death, to make the 
 wrath of man to praise Him, and its remainder tore- 
 strain. 
 
 All the events of our history, from the beginning even 
 until now, tally with the hopes which these promises 
 inspire. As a faithful woman in Israel said to her des 
 ponding husband when he trembled before the manifes 
 tation of the Divine Majesty, " If the Lord had been 
 pleased to kill us, He would not have received such 
 offerings at our hands, nor would He have showed us 
 such things as these." 
 
 Think of it. Can we, as a people, in this hour of 
 trial, recall to memory the last four years of devastating 
 
132 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 war, the superhuman malice of cunning foes acting in 
 concert with the educated craft and wealth of the aristo 
 cratic powers of Europe, the era of successful treachery 
 and intrigue, of victories over us on blood) battle-fields, 
 the taunts of triumph like those of old Philistia s daugh 
 ters in Oath and Askelon, rehearsed and wafted back 
 from beyond the sea, and all the terrible scenes of 
 national agony through which we have passed, along the 
 verge of an unfathomable abyss, under the chosen lead 
 ership of Abraham Lincoln, without being assured to 
 the utmost depth of our heart s capacity of grateful 
 feeling, that God raised him up, " made him great," 
 and then, at the set moment, GAVE him to us as an angel 
 of deliverance, in order to work out for us that " great 
 salvation " which has just now become the most amaz 
 ing and hopeful spectacle of the nineteenth century in 
 the sight of the whole civilized world ? 
 
 No, never : these years are " years of his right hand," 
 the remembrance of which has called forth over the rice- 
 fields and cotton-fields of the emancipated South, and in 
 the open streets and marts of Boston and New York 
 alike, songs of praise that rolled in all the lyrical majes 
 ty of " Old Hundred," and sounded forth the joy of 
 millions as in the deep thunder tones of ocean waves. 
 
 These grand anthems, God himself extemporized for 
 us ; He made the " logic of events " vocal with prophe 
 cies of our glorious future, as sure to us as any that ever 
 came from Isaiah s lips, that were touched by fire from 
 Heaven ; and shall we now, in this hour of sudden 
 gloom, be tempted to yield for a moment to doubt or 
 fear or dark forebodings, like those who adore no God 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 133 
 
 but chance or fate, or blind, inexorable law ? Oh, no ! 
 truth, love, faith, honor, gratitude forbid it. 
 
 I know how hard it is, at times, for the stricken 
 heart, under the shock of terrible and scathing bereave 
 ment, to school itself (I will not say into submission, or 
 resignation, for these are, comparatively, tame words) 
 into joyous, hopeful, filial trust. 
 
 I know what extraordinary and mighty reasons there 
 are to tempt us, in spite of all the signs of wise design 
 and overruling Providence in the past, to treat this 
 event as being too ill-timed to furnish occasion for the 
 exercise of these Christian graces, or to be regarded as 
 anything else than a bad chance-stroke, full of dis 
 astrous portent to the fortunes of our country. 
 
 I know how prone are the shocked sensibilities of 
 some to arouse the fear of strange evils that throw their 
 shadows before, (as a patriotic woman and mother 
 expressed it yesterday,) of a Reign of Terror like that 
 which racked revolutionary France in the days of Robes 
 pierre. 
 
 I know what a dreadful depression of spirit is likely 
 to be produced by the contrast between the tone of the 
 last public service in this sanctuary and the tone of the 
 present ; between the glowing scene of Thursday, when 
 a Fast was turned into a Festival by that last triumph 
 of our arms, which seemed like a new proclamation 
 from the Supreme Governor of the world, and the more 
 than funereal gloom that overcasts our lurid sky at this 
 hour, and turns the greatest Festival of Christendom 
 into a Fast, to the sickened heart of Christian patriot 
 ism. I know this, and I feel the oppressiveness of the 
 murky air laden with rumors of coming trouble. 
 12 
 
134 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 In view of all these things of sad significance I know 
 how hard it is for some to interpret an event, that seems 
 so mysteriously ill-timed, into harmony with a cheerful, 
 hopeful view of those kind designs and wise forecastings 
 of Divine Providence that insure our national welfare, 
 and our progress in a bright national career of honor, 
 glory, strength, freedom, and prosperity. 
 
 Nevertheless, I know at the same time what are the 
 rocky grounds of our trust, and adopt the words of a 
 French statesman, explanatory of his own conduct, amid 
 the moral earthquake in his own country in 1848 : " I 
 believe in God ! " 
 
 All these portents of evil are but as foil to the 
 diamond. 
 
 I welcome the hope with which Moses inspired Israel 
 when he said " God made him to suck honey out of the 
 rock, and oil out of the flint." 
 
 I remember the machinations of assassins against the 
 life of the President that were strangely baffled in those 
 times when success would have been fatal, and turned the 
 trembling scale of national destiny in favor of armed trea 
 son with a force that would have mocked resistance ; when 
 an announcement like that which flashed over the wires 
 yesterday would have been the signal for the rallying of 
 treacherous cabals, not only in the capital, but through 
 out all the North, from the St. Lawrence to the Potomac, 
 and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. 
 
 In those days of disaster, despondency, and weakness, 
 the faith of the people in our President was our great 
 bond of union, and the bulwark of our safety against 
 the complicated plots of open and secret foes. But now 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 135 
 
 he is gone ; and who fears them now ? Think of it : 
 who fears them now, when the rebel power is crushed, 
 its fortresses and cities and capital captured, its govern 
 ment dissolved, and its armies flying like chaff before the 
 storm ? 
 
 Surely, I know the answer that your hearts indite. 
 What a difference between now and then ! What a 
 cheerful light gleams out from this comparison of the 
 past and the present, spanning the dense cloud of our 
 sorrow with the bow of promise, the sign of a covenant 
 of hope, well ordered in all things and sure ! 
 
 The death of those we love, honor, and trust, at the 
 first sight, never seems well-timed ; the parting pang is 
 ever painful ; 
 
 " The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear; 
 The blood will follow where the knife is driven" ; 
 
 the tear will gush from the depths of nature where 
 the cherished ties of life are broken : but there is a time 
 of separation set, and that time is adjusted to a perfect 
 harmony with those far-reaching purposes of our 
 Heavenly Father, which, as Jesus teaches in the Sermon 
 on the Mount, take within their scope the fall of a 
 sparrow as well as the fall of an empire. 
 
 O, it is a .consoling truth, *" Our times are in his 
 hand " ; 
 
 " The voice that rolls the stars along 
 Speaks all the promises." 
 
 And yet, in the sweep of a great calamity like this 
 which we now bewail, where the immediate cause is not 
 
136 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 some mighty agency of nature, but a mere play of 
 human passion, or a mere freak of some perverse human 
 will, or some untoward thing which it was within a 
 man s power to have avoided, the troubled mind will 
 often stagger, through unbelief in providence, and lose 
 sight altogether of a divine, overruling wisdom. 
 
 In the view of many, the rough edge of the evil 
 would have been taken off, and the sense of fitness 
 would have been less shocked, if the President had 
 died by disease, or died in battle. In that case, the 
 sorrowing heart more readily bows before the inevitable, 
 more devoutly acknowledges the majesty of the Supreme 
 Arbiter of destiny. But death by the hand of an 
 assassin that might have been so easily arrested, or 
 death following a certain step that might have been so 
 easily omitted, seems like a malign agent jarring against 
 the order of the universe, trampling God s law in per 
 verse wantonness, provoking exasperation rather than 
 submission. 
 
 But then it must be remembered that this is a mere 
 seeming. 
 
 For God s comprehensive purposes are realized by 
 the free actions of men, and devils too, as well as by 
 the blind forces of material nature. The moral element 
 of free will may have ample play, without being able to 
 baffle the divine will any more than does the planet 
 which is never allowed to fly one hair s breadth from its 
 appointed track. 
 
 The grandest programmes of inspired prophecy have 
 often been pivoted upon some trifling act of man which 
 might have been easily avoided. The conquest of Old 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 137 
 
 Babylon, the oppressor of Israel, was predicted by 
 Isaiah two centuries before the birth of the conqueror, 
 whom God called by name, and said to Cyrus, " I have 
 guided thee, though thou hast not known me." Not only 
 was the event announced, but the funeral dirge of the 
 empire was written by the Hebrew seer, and the night- 
 scene of the overthrow described with as much of 
 graphical minuteness as if the prophet had lived to muse 
 amid the ruins of the imperial city. At the set time 
 her fall shook the world ; and yet one obscure man 
 might have prevented it. A single hand of an humble 
 official might have baffled the Persian and his army, if 
 the guard at the brazen gate had attended to his duty, 
 and moved the bolt to its place. 
 
 So, too, within the memory of living men, the grand 
 crisis of European history turned upon the action of a 
 single will, and that, too, the will of a man whose 
 name we should never have cared to mention but for 
 that one inexplicable decision. When General Blucher, 
 with his Prussians, appeared on the field of Waterloo, 
 to join the Duke of Wellington, and turn the tide of 
 battle, Napoleon was still confident of victory ; because, 
 as he said, " General Grouchy must be behind them." 
 In vain did he reason out the case ; in vain did he 
 watch. "Why does not Grouchy come?" He might 
 have come ; he had gained the bridge at Wavre ; the 
 way was open to him ; but he did not come. Instead 
 of marching forward with his counterpoise to Blucher s 
 force, he decided to wait for news from the field ; and 
 that decision, which even the sagacity of Napoleon 
 could not anticipate as being within the bounds of 
 12* 
 
138 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 probability, gave the day to England, and brought 
 down the empire that had ruled the continent. 
 
 All this is after the manner of God in the evolutions 
 of history ; and therefore, let none of us, O friends, in 
 our melancholy musing upon the loss which we mourn 
 as the strangest catastrophe of our times, interpret the 
 fatal effect of the assassin s stroke as a sign that the 
 fortunes of our country are abandoned of Heaven, or 
 regard the deadly play of perverse will and maddened 
 passion, in the removal of the nation s ruler, as a sort 
 of proof that it was, in the view of right reason, an ill- 
 timed event, and that the overruling wisdom of God is 
 no longer guiding our affairs to a happy and glorious 
 consummation. 
 
 Rather, O friends, amid the sorrows of the hour, 
 the stormy excitements of the public mind, and the 
 extraordinary combination of events racking the land 
 like the vibrations of an earthquake, let our weakness 
 grasp the hand of Omnipotence, like the royal Psalmist 
 of old, who, when his timid advisers said to him, "Flee 
 like a bird to your mountain, for the wicked make ready 
 their arrow upon the string, and righteousness amounts 
 to nothing," answered them in those living words of 
 religious trust, " The Lord s throne is in the heavens ; 
 his eyes try the children of men ; he will rain upon the 
 wicked, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest : this 
 shall be the portion of their cup ; the righteous Lord, 
 loveth righteousness, and his countenance doth behold 
 the upright." 
 
 It is to us a fact of great significance that this nation 
 has a history, which the leading minds of the Old World, 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 139 
 
 in courts, camps, and universities, are studying now as 
 never before. Hitherto they have never believed that 
 our republican government had enough of coherent 
 strength to withstand the shocks of a ^reat rebellion. 
 Its strongest bonds have seemed to them but as flaxen 
 cords, that " sunder at touch of fire." The poor emi 
 grant, who has purchased a voyage across the Atlantic 
 with the hard earnings of many years, and come to 
 build up the fortunes of his family on these shores, could 
 see where our great strength lay ; but the princes, 
 dukes, earls, the educated statesmen and diplomatists 
 could not see it. Nevertheless, He who raised Abraham 
 Lincoln from the farm and forest to the chair of state, 
 and called him to exchange the woodman s axe for the 
 sceptre of authority, has revealed to them, through him, 
 new ideas of the nature of real power. They have seen 
 his sterling character put into the crucible to be brought 
 forth like gold from the refining flame, and they have 
 learned, through him, as the ruler of free men and the 
 representative of free labor, how great a work this nation 
 has to do. The story of his life is the guarantee of our 
 national immortality. And thus to-day, our fathers 
 God, who hath wrought out our national emancipation 
 by this " chosen instrumentality," teaches them as well 
 as us, that his resources are not stinted, that " his arm 
 is not shortened that it cannot save" ; and that, as the 
 exiled prophet of Patmos said, He is " Alpha and 
 Omega, the First and the Last " ; the beginning is the 
 surety of the end. 
 
 And let it be observed in this connection, that the 
 event which engrosses the nation s thought at this hour 
 
140 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 will ever stand forth as a salient point of American his 
 tory. Its full effect, no human being can foretell ; but 
 it will surely accelerate the progress of the republic 
 upon its new career of a free, Christian civilization. 
 More than ever the millions of our land, whether of 
 Caucasian or African, of Teutonic or Celtic blood, are 
 fused into one vital nationality. " The day of the Lord 
 hasteth greatly," said the prophet Zephaniah to the 
 people of his time. Even the workers of mischief help 
 it forward, though not after the manner they intend. 
 Since the death of Julius Caesar in the Roman senate- 
 house, no assassination of a public man has exerted an 
 influence so profound and far-reaching. The murder of 
 Caesar was perpetrated in the name of freedom ; but it 
 established imperialism, and brought forth a race of 
 emperors, most of whom were unsurpassed as monsters 
 of wickedness ; the assassination of our President has 
 been accomplished in the interest of the slave-power; 
 but will it subserve, think you, the behest of that base, 
 barbarous despotism? No. Although the joy of victory 
 may have disposed the hearts of many to favor the invi 
 tation extended to some of the rebel champions to take 
 their places in the halls of legislation as the architects of 
 reconstruction, the loyal masses of the people will be 
 more wary now, and will not rest until the last fibre in 
 the heart of the slave-power shall have been crushed, 
 and its last " vital spark" of infernal flame extinguished. 
 True, indeed, our enemies still exult, Gath and 
 Askelon are yet merry ; they rejoice in their secret 
 cabals, in their haunts of violence, in their guerilla dens, 
 in their resorts of revelry and song. They say Abra- 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 141 
 
 ham Lincoln is dead, " Aha, so would we have it." 
 But we believe in the resurrection, yea, more; we 
 believe that Abraham Lincoln " still lives," that he is 
 " marching on," and time will soon teach them " What 
 this rising from the dead doth mean." Time shall soon 
 furnish a fresh commentary, a new unfolding of the far- 
 reaching sense of that saying which Jesus uttered on the 
 first day of the first " passion- week," in the year 33 : 
 "Verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall 
 into the ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it die, 
 it bringeth forth much fruit." The \vorld will see this 
 truth realized in our history. " By wicked hands " the 
 President " hath been slain ; " but the harvest of moral 
 fruitage from his death will be the garnered legacy of the 
 nation through the ages to come. The dark Saturday 
 of the Passion-week of 1865 will be the harbinger of a 
 brighter day, " whose sun shall no more go down." 
 
 As we trace the hand of God in history, it is a source 
 of comfort and strength to call to mind the proofs 
 evolved by the last five years, that God raised up Abra 
 ham Lincoln, and "made his name great" for us ; that 
 the singular combination and balance of forces that dis 
 tinguished his character was a special gift to this nation 
 for its " time of need ;" and the cheering truth that 
 gleams forth from this retrospect, inspiring fresh hope 
 touching the veiled future is, that there was the same 
 divine wisdom in the withdrawal of the gift that there 
 was in its bestowal. 
 
 Over the lifeless form of our murdered leader, there 
 fore, let it be ours to worship and adore, in the spirit of 
 the afflicted patriarch, " the greatest of all the men of 
 
142 SERMONS. 
 
 the East" ; who, as he sat in sorrow amid the ravages of 
 his fields, the desolations of his home and the corpses of 
 his children, exclaimed in those memorable words, more 
 than ever weighty with an emphasis of meaning for us 
 to-day, " the Lord GAVE, and the Lord hath taken away, 
 blessed be the name of the Lord." 
 
 Shall we, as a favored people, acknowledge the great 
 ness of the gift, the munificence of the giver, and then 
 fail to see and acknowledge the wisdom that hath deter 
 mined the time of its continuance ? Thanks be to God, 
 that the President lived to see the rebel power broken 
 by the surrender of its general-in-chief, and to walk the 
 streets of its capitol. Thanks be to God, that he lived 
 to see the close of the day that witnessed the restoration 
 of our insulted flag over the ruins of Fort Sumter by the 
 same hand that had unfurled it there, amid many prayers, 
 in an hour of peril, and then had withdrawn it without 
 dishonor ! Thanks be to God, that the last announce 
 ment of the President to the nation that he loved more 
 than life was, that he was drafting a proclamation of 
 national thanksgiving, calling upon all to unite in 
 anthems of praise unto Him who hath given us the vic 
 tory. That call a grateful people will answer in due 
 time ; and in the anthems of that festival he will join in 
 concert with the heavenly choirs that hailed the advent 
 of our Messiah over the plains of Bethlehem, when they 
 sang : " Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and 
 
 GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN ! " 
 
REV. E. B. WEBB. 
 
ISAIAH XXI: 11, 12. 
 
 HE CALLETH TO ME OUT OF SEIR, "WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE 
 
 NIGHT ? WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT ? 
 
 THE WATCHMAN SAID, THE MORNING COMETH, AND ALSO 
 THE NIGHT. 
 
 THESE words seem to me strikingly appropriate to 
 our present circumstances. Last Sabbath morning 
 it was my privilege to place before your minds some 
 reasons for thankfulness, thankfulness to God. Then 
 the streets were decked with symbols of joy ; gladness 
 in welcome accents broke from every lip. Men s coun 
 tenances were bright, as if reflecting the coming of the 
 morning. We clasped each other s hands with a jubilant 
 pulse, and every eye answered back hope, inspiration, to 
 the eye that looked into it. 
 
 But how changed is all in a moment ! Yesterday 
 morning flags were set at half-mast. Even Sumter s 
 flag is but half raised. As the day advanced, 
 emblems of mourning drooped from the highest win 
 dows to the sidewalk. The President is assassinated! 
 Men hold their breath, and turn pale at the appalling 
 words. Citizens meet, and shake hands, and part in 
 13 (145) 
 
146 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 silence. Words express nothing when uttered. All 
 attempt to express the nation s grief is utterly 
 commonplace and insignificant. An eclipse seems to 
 have come upon the brilliancy of the flag, a smile 
 seems irrelevant and sacrilegious. Even the fresh, green 
 grass, just coming forth to meet the return of spring 
 and the singing of birds, seems to wear the shadows 
 of twilight at noonday. The sun is less bright than 
 before, and the very atmosphere seems to hold in it for 
 the tearful eye a strange ethereal element of gloom. 
 Surely " the night cometh" And as we gather here 
 this morning, after an absence of only two days, how 
 appalling, in this cheerful home of our religious affec 
 tions, are these wide-hung emblems of grief and anguish ! 
 It is manly to weep to-day. The coming of the morning, 
 and also the night, are strangely mingled. 
 
 Had death overtaken any one of our brilliant military 
 leaders in the field, we should have said it was a thing 
 to be expected. Had any sudden reverse in the fortunes 
 of war visited one of our armies, it would have been a 
 terrible grief, but still a kind of calamity to which we 
 have become accustomed. Had the President fallen by 
 a chance shot in Richmond, or by the hand of some 
 lurking assassin, as he passed the fortifications through 
 which our hearts did not consent to his going, we should 
 but have realized some of our transient forebodings. But 
 after his safe return, and the triumph of our arms, which 
 he took so much pleasure in telegraphing to the people, 
 we had almost dismissed from our minds any fears for 
 the safety of his life. And hence the telegram an 
 nouncing the death of the President at such a time, in 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 147 
 
 such a way, falls upon us like a crash of thunder from 
 an unclouded sky. 
 
 Wearied with the duties of his high position, and the 
 persistent annoyance of petty office-seekers, and unwil 
 ling to disappoint the people even in their unreasonable 
 expectations, he sought an hour s recreation in the 
 theatre. And what a horrible tragedy ! The actor, 
 having thoroughly prepared his part, and being often 
 defeated in one way and another from the fiendish 
 acting of it, finds his opportunity at last. With the 
 stealthy step of a base, brutal coward, with a damning 
 lie on his tongue, and the heart of a demon in his breast, 
 he approaches the generous, unsuspecting man in the 
 rear of his seat, and, aiming the fatal weapon with prac 
 tised hand at the back of his head, puts the ball directly 
 through his brain, and then makes his escape through 
 the screens and drapery and doors with which his calling 
 had made him acquainted. There are no last words for 
 wife or children, no word for the people s heart to 
 which he always spoke, no parting counsel for a 
 bereaved and almost bewildered nation. The hand 
 that signed the emancipation proclamation hangs help 
 less in death : the mind which had borne so evenly the 
 tremendous strain of four unparalleled years is hurled 
 from its throne : the great, good, magnanimous heart is 
 stilled : those generous lips which have spoken mercy so 
 often, and would perhaps, like the martyred Stephen s, 
 have said in their last articulate speech, " Lord, lay not 
 this sin to their charge," are sealed forever. The nation 
 has lost a father ; the human race a sincere, devoted, 
 and able leader ! 
 
148 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 I have had no time to analyze the character, or choose 
 out words to express our sense of the worth of the late 
 Abraham Lincoln. But I may employ, with your appro 
 bation I am sure, the words used by Daniel Webster 
 concerning Zachary Taylor : "He has left on the minds 
 of the country a strong impression ; first, of his absolute 
 honesty and integrity of character ; next, of his sound, 
 practical good sense ; and, lastly, of the mildness, kind 
 ness, and friendliness of his temper towards all his 
 countrymen." 
 
 Yes, " towards all his countrymen." He was, on the 
 very day of his untimely death, exerting all the kindness 
 of his unselfish nature, and prepared, it is believed^ to 
 peril all his great popularity in inaugurating a policy 
 most lenient, most forgiving towards those who had for 
 feited everything except the right to be hung. They 
 have put aside their friend. They have murdered the 
 new-born mercy which waited to bless them. No man 
 could if he would, and no man was disposed to do so 
 much for them as Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 And how the loyal people confided in him ; how im 
 plicitly the common people trusted him ! The world 
 has scarcely seen the like. He came to the chair 
 of the chief magistrate from the rough experience of 
 frontier life. He owed his election, and the favor with 
 which he was received, to the belief in the minds of 
 the people, that he was an honest man. 
 
 And did he disappoint that confidence ? Did he show 
 himself unworthy ? Did he ever incur the suspicion of 
 dishonesty, or corruption ? Or did he ever swerve from 
 what he conceived to be the path of duty to win popular 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 149 
 
 applause ? Never. On the other hand, so impartial 
 was he in selecting men from all parties to fill the high 
 offices of government, so artless was he in all that he 
 did, so transparent were his deeds, and his motives, that 
 by a popular vote scarcely paralleled, the people called 
 him a second time to guide the nation for another four 
 years. He knew nothing of tricks, or double dealing, 
 or party shifts, or crooked policies. He was a sincere, 
 impartial, straightforward, honest man. And the people 
 saw it and felt it, and were glad of an opportunity to 
 honor him with an overwhelming repetition of their well 
 placed confidence. What a noble example is he to all 
 young men looking to office, or popular regard. With 
 no military reputation, with no brilliant oratory, with no 
 winning grace of manners, he was the foremost man for 
 the highest office in the gift of a great, free, and intelli 
 gent people, once and again because he was a man of 
 absolute honesty and integrity of character. 
 
 And besides these unselfish, impartial, upright ele 
 ments of character, there was a masterful common-sense, 
 a genial mother-wit, and a practical statesmanship, 
 which showed themselves in some of the most compact 
 specimens of argument, happy avoidances of difficulty, 
 and a thorough apprehension of popular instincts and 
 judgments. 
 
 He was unpolished in style, but he was profound in 
 thought. He was pithy in his sentences, but original 
 and patient in investigation : rough on the exterior but 
 a jewel within, 
 
 " Rich in saving common-sense." 
 13* 
 
150 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 How much we owe to his unambitious example ; how 
 much to his far-reaching discernment ; how much to 
 his good-natured hearing of all sides ; how much to 
 his steady calm judgment which held the scales, in the 
 fury and gusts of the storm, as equally poised as if in the 
 atmosphere of peace and calm ; how much to his great 
 forbearance under stinging reproach ; how much to his 
 knowledge of, and unwavering confidence in the people 
 and the people s cause, God knows, but we know not as 
 yet. May the day never come when by bitter contrast 
 we shall learn how wise and safe was the confidence 
 which we reposed in him. 
 
 This nation mourns to-day as it never mourned before. 
 The statesmen of the land had learned to trust him in 
 the greatest exigencies ; the impatient were restrained 
 by his moderation ; the immovable and morose were 
 moved and almost brought into time by his steady, sym 
 pathetic step forward ; the one-eyed were made ashamed 
 of then: ignorance by an hour in his society ; the revenge 
 ful learned magnanimity from his deeds. The soldiers 
 loved him, and the soldier s mother loved him, and con 
 fided in him. The negroes loved him ; oh how they will 
 mourn for him ! Moses was not allowed to lead the 
 children of Israel into the land of peace and plenty, 
 neither was he allowed himself to enter it, but only to 
 survey its broad prospect from Pisgah s top. And so 
 their deliverer and ours is only permitted to come to 
 the border, and in these last few days catch pleasing 
 glimpses of the glorious, opening future. And, as when 
 Moses died, his eye not dim and his natural force not 
 abated, there was mourning throughout all the camp till 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 151 
 
 the plain of Moab resounded with the cry of sires and 
 sons, mothers and maidens, so now there will be mourn 
 ing in the camp, and mourning on the prairies, and far 
 away over the mountains ; but nowhere keener anguish 
 and disappointment than among the sable hosts whom 
 his noble heart and hand has freed. All men uncon 
 sciously speak of him as our beloved President. And 
 the hand of the assassin has embalmed him with all his 
 virtues and greatness, and made him sacred and sublime 
 in our fond, loving hearts, and in the heart of the world 
 forever. 
 
 Were I to select some one thing by which to charac 
 terize Abraham Lincoln, I should name his profound 
 apprehension and appreciation of the popular instinct ; 
 that instinct which is true to the right as the needle to 
 the pole, in all storms, and on every sea. He believed in 
 God ; he believed God was to be recognized in this war. 
 He believed that the set of the loyal masses, the deep, 
 silent current, which bears on events is in the line of 
 God s advance. And, thus believing, he governed himself 
 by his apprehension of the people, and of God as mani 
 fest in their silent set or drift. As the philosopher 
 learns the plans of God from an unprejudiced study of 
 nature, so he learned the purposes of God from the 
 instincts of the people. As the naturalist discovers from 
 the structure of the animal what its mode of life and 
 habits must be, so he saw from the essential peculiarities 
 of our government whither our future must tend. He 
 did not mean to be ahead of the popular feeling, for then 
 there would be a re-action against his policy. He did 
 not mean to be much behind it, for then some other agent 
 
152 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 might be sought through which to give it expression. 
 And so regarding the voice of the loyal people in this 
 great crisis of the republic as the voice of God, he kept 
 his ear open and his eye attent, and marshalled his policy 
 not quite abreast of the divinely led masses. He sought 
 not to control an age thus moved and inspired, but to be 
 controlled by it. 
 
 Herein was his wisdom ; herein his greatness ; herein 
 his power. This was the secret of his success, the source 
 of that light which, in all coming time, shall gild with 
 unfading splendor the name of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 As the Netherlands mourned for William, Prince of 
 Orange, as France mourned for Henry IV., "we have 
 lost our father, we have lost our father ! " so America 
 mourns to-day. 
 
 " Such was he, his work is done ; 
 
 But while the races of mankind endure, 
 
 Let his great example stand 
 
 Colossal, seen of every land, 
 
 And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure ; 
 
 Till in all lands and thro all human story, 
 
 The path of duty be the way to glory. 
 
 But speak no more of his renown, 
 
 Lay your earthly fancies down ; 
 
 And in the vast cathedral leave him, 
 
 God accept him, Christ receive him." 
 
 1. And now, my friends, what are the lessons of this 
 great calamity ? First of all, submission. God reigns ; 
 we are absolutely dependent and sinful. The Emperor 
 Mauritius seeing all his children slain before his face at 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 153 
 
 the command of the bloody tyrant, and usurper, Phocas, 
 himself expecting the next stroke, exclaimed aloud, in 
 the words of David : " Righteous art thou, O Lord, and 
 upright are thy judgments." This event takes us by 
 surprise, but the origin, maturity, and perpetration of 
 this awful crime was all under the sleepless eye of God. 
 For reasons which we cannot fathom now, nor find, He 
 has permitted it. Perhaps when this day, the I4lh of 
 April, forever marked in our calendar ; marked by the 
 humbling of the flag at Sumter ; marked by the exaltation 
 of the flag four years after, perhaps, w r hen the 14th of 
 April comes round four years hence, we shall know more 
 of God s designs in permitting this foul murder of our 
 beloved President. There is ONE whom the hand of vio 
 lence cannot reach ; and He has not led us thus far to 
 desert and destroy us now. Meanwhile, as becomes us, 
 let us bow our heads in meek submission to the divine 
 will. Surely his footsteps are in the great deep ; his 
 designs are hidden from us in the dark : but let us trust 
 him ; let us cleave unto him. Submitting penitently 
 to the rod of affliction, let us put our hand in his, and 
 say, Father lead, Father spare and bless. 
 
 2. A second lesson is this : Execute justice in the land. 
 What is the foundation of our confidence in God ? Is 
 it not that he will do right ? Is it not what David says, 
 over and over again, in all his trials, justice and 
 judgment arc the habitation of his throne ? And just 
 these justice and judgment are the foundation of 
 every throne, and of every government. I spoke on 
 Thursday, as far as it was appropriate to rny theme, of 
 the tremendous mistake and folly and sin, for the 
 
154 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 people of a great nation to think that they can neglect 
 or violate the laws of God with impunity. Just here 
 has been our danger. There has been a miserable, 
 morbid, bastard philanthropy, which, if it did not make 
 the murderer s couch a bed of flowers, and set his ta.ble 
 with butter and honey, made him an object of sympathy, 
 and, after a while, of executive clemency. We are weak 
 in our sense of justice. Why, how long is it since a 
 man was pursued in the streets of Washington, and, 
 though begging for his life, shot to mutilation ? He was 
 guilty of a foul crime ? Yes. But did that give the 
 injured man a right to murder him ? Are there no 
 courts, no ministers of justice in the land ? But the 
 murderer was acquitted, \vith applause in the court-room. 
 Only this very spring, a young woman shot one of the 
 clerks dead in the hall of the Treasury-building. To be 
 sure, she said that he had broken his vow to marry her. 
 And when I was in Washington, a few weeks since, it was 
 confidently expected that she too would be acquitted. 
 And here in Massachusetts, not to speak of other States 
 now, where the punishment of murder is death, the 
 guilty wretch, who could brood over his infernal plan for 
 weeks, and finally, after several attempts on the same 
 day, execute it upon an innocent, unsuspecting young 
 man, and all for the sake of a few hundreds, or, at the 
 most, thousands of dollars, is allowed to live, and become 
 an object of sympathy. To shield his forfeited life 
 imperils that of every young man who stands behind a 
 counter in Massachusetts. Living, he is an encourage 
 ment to all persons like-minded to do likewise. Yea, 
 saith the Governor, ye shall not surely die. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 155 
 
 And so in regard to the leaders of this infernal 
 rebellion; the feeling was gaining ground here to let 
 them off really without penalty. They are our breth 
 ren, it is said. Then they have added fratricide to 
 the enormity of their other crimes, and are unspeakably 
 the more guilty. 
 
 The punishment which a nation inflicts on crime is 
 the nation s estimate of the evil and guilt of that crime. 
 Let these men go, and we have said practically that 
 treason is merely a difference of political opinion. 
 
 I do not criticise the parole which was granted, though, 
 for the life of me, I cannot see one shadow of reason for 
 expecting it will be kept by men who have broken their 
 most solemn and deliberate oath to the same government. 
 It was not kept by the rebels who took it at Vicksburg. 
 Nor will I criticise, for I cannot understand, the policy 
 which allows General Lee to commend his captured 
 army for " devotion to country," and " duty faithfully 
 performed." But I considered the manner in which 
 the parole was indorsed and interpreted as practically 
 insuring a pardon; and to pardon them is a violation 
 of my instincts, as it is of the laws of the land, and 
 of the laws of God. I believe in the exercise of 
 magnanimity; but mercy to those leaders is eternal 
 cruelty to this nation ; is an unmitigated, unmea 
 sured curse to unborn generations ! It is a wrong 
 against which every fallen soldier in his grave, 
 from Pennsylvania to Texas, utters an indignant and 
 unsilenced rebuke. Because of this mawkish leniency, 
 four years ago, treason stalked in the streets, and 
 boasted defiance in the halls of the Capitol ; secession 
 
156 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 organized unmolested, and captured our neglected forts 
 and starving garrisons. Because of a drivelling, mor 
 bid, perverted sense of justice, the enemy of the gov 
 ernment has been permitted to go at large, under the 
 shadow of the Capitol, all through this war. God only 
 knows how much we have suffered for the lack of jus 
 tice. And now to restore these leaders seems like 
 moral insanity. Better than this, give us back the 
 stern, inflexible indignation of the old Puritan, and the 
 lex talionis of the Hebrew Lawgiver. Our consciences 
 are debauched, our instincts confounded, our laws set 
 aside, by this indorsement of a blind, passionate phi 
 lanthropy. 
 
 Theodore Parker has a passage in his work on reli 
 gion, in which he gathers into heaven the debauchee, 
 the swarthy Indian, the imbruted Calmuck, and the 
 grim-faced savage, with his hands still red and reeking 
 with the blood of his slaughtered human victims. And 
 the idea, to me, of placing the leaders of this diabolical 
 rebellion in a position where they might come again 
 red-handed into the councils of the nation, is equally 
 revolting and sacrilegious. It makes me shudder. 
 And yet I think there was an indecent leniency begin 
 ning to manifest itself towards them, which would have 
 allowed to these men, by and by, votes and honors 
 and lionizing. The soldiers did not relish this pros 
 pect. They are not to be deceived by the misapplica 
 tion of the term magnanimity to an act that turns loose 
 into the bosom of society the men who systematically 
 murdered our prisoners by starvation, and again and 
 again shot prisoners of war after they had surrendered, 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 157 
 
 shot gallant officers, even in these last battles, after 
 being told that they were mortally wounded, and strung 
 up Union men in North Carolina because they had 
 enlisted in the federal army. 
 
 And now we see and feel just as the soldiers do. The 
 spirit that shot down our men on the way to the capital, 
 the spirit that shot Ellsworth at Alexandria, the spirit 
 that organized treachery, treason, and rebellion, the 
 spirit that armed those leaders to strike at the life of 
 the government, is the same hell-born spirit that das 
 tardly takes the life of our beloved President, is the 
 same atrocious spirit that seeks the bed-chamber of a 
 sick and helpless man, and cuts his throat, and strikes 
 the murderous dirk at the heart of every attendant. 
 We see its malignant, fiendish nature now ! 
 
 And what shall be done with these secessionists, if we 
 succeed in arresting them before they get out of the 
 country, with the blood of the President, and of the 
 Minister of State on their hands ? Pity them as insane ? 
 parole them as prisoners of war ? Doubtless, like the 
 St. Albans raiders, they have their commission from 
 Pvichmond ! Does this make your blood boil ? is this too 
 shocking to suppose ? Well : shall we hang them, hang 
 the less guilty, and let the more guilty go free ? hang the 
 miserable, worthless hirelings, and let the principals 
 and chiefs live ? To do that is to arm men, and goad 
 them to take vengeance into their own hands. The 
 instinctive justice of the human conscience must be 
 satisfied by the action of government, or it will have 
 private revenge. There is a consciousness of right in 
 the masses, that will not be tampered with, in such a 
 14 
 
158 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 time as this. Not the branches of this accursed tree, 
 but the trunk and the roots must be exterminated from 
 the land. Hear me, patriots, sires of murdered sons, 
 weeping wives and orphans, I say exterminated ! 
 " Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a mur 
 derer, and ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of 
 him that is fled, that he come again to dwell in the 
 land ; for blood it defileth the land, and the land cannot 
 be cleansed but by the blood of him that shed it." 
 And when David died, he charged Solomon to fulfil this 
 divine command in regard to Joab and Shimei, who had 
 been too strong for him during his life. 
 
 3. One thing more : Let us face the future, and all 
 the solemn responsibilities of these uncertain hours with 
 courage. We have God on the throne that no violence 
 can reach, the God who has always been with us. 
 "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art 
 thou disquieted in me ? Hope thou in God, for I shall 
 yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and 
 my God." 
 
 And then, such is the happy structure of our govern 
 ment that no assassination can arrest its wheels. A 
 terrible calamity has overtaken us, but it will only the 
 more exhibit the inherent vitality of our institutions, 
 and the greater strength of the people. 
 
 Andrew Johnson, who now becomes the chief magis 
 trate, by the mysterious providence of God, is unques 
 tionably an able man. He has been much in public 
 life, and never failed except in his speech on inaugu 
 ration day to meet the exigencies of his position. 
 Besides, he has had a schooling in Tennessee which 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 159 
 
 may have prepared him to lead at this very time. 
 When I was in Washington, four years ago, I heard 
 much in his praise. He told the secessionists, who 
 were just then leaving their seats in the Senate to 
 inaugurate the rebellion, told them to their faces, for 
 substance, "were I President of the United States, I 
 would arrest you as traitors, and try you as traitors, and 
 convict you as traitors, and hang you as traitors." And 
 judging from the speech which he made at Washington 
 after the news of the fall of Richmond, he has not 
 changed his mind. 
 
 We want no revenge : we will wait the forms and 
 processes of law. We want justice tempered with 
 mercy. We want the leaders punished, but the masses 
 pardoned. Let us confide in him as our President. 
 And do you make crime odious ; disfranchise every 
 man who has held office in the rebel government, and 
 every commissioned officer in the rebel army; make 
 the halter certain to the intelligent and influential, 
 who are guilty of perjury and treason, and so make 
 yourself a terror to him that doeth evil, and a praise to 
 him that doeth good, and we will stand by you, 
 Andrew Johnson. 
 
 Another ground of courage is, that the nation is a 
 unit against rebellion to-day as it never was before. It 
 is too much to hope, I suppose, that any traitor will 
 have his eyes opened to see the true character of the 
 awful work in which he has been engaged, though it 
 seems as if such an atrocious butchery were enough to 
 make him see it ; but of this be sure, that all loyal men 
 are united now ; and woe be to the secessionist who 
 
160 SERMONS. 
 
 does not instantly sue for mercy, or fly the country. I 
 have seen them launch a great ship. The ways are 
 laid, solid and secure. And then the workmen split 
 away, one after another, the blocks from underneath the 
 keel. Gradually the huge structure settles upon the 
 slippery ways, and glides majestically into her future 
 element. The two ways under our ship of state are 
 justice and mercy. In the providence of God, block 
 after block has been knocked away ; prop after prop 
 removed, till now, just ready to glide into the new 
 future, she is settling all her weight upon her ways, 
 ways made slippery by the blood of the murdered 
 chief magistrate, and minister : woe, ivoe, woe to him 
 who puts himself in the line of her course. Infinitely 
 better for him, had he been strangled at the birth. 
 
 Be sure, this people will mourn from sea to sea : but 
 be sure, also, that any provocation will bring out the 
 indignant, instant, sympathetic cry from every lip, "Die, 
 traitors, assassins, all; live, the republic, liberty, and 
 law." 
 
 The God of infinite justice and mercy be our helper. 
 Amen. 
 
 NOTE. Preached Sunday morning, April 16, after the news 
 of the assassination of President Lincoln. 
 
REV. R. H. NEALE. 
 
MATTHEW, IX: 15. 
 
 AND JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, CAN THE CHILDREN OF THB 
 BRIDE-CHAMBER MOURN AS LONG AS THE BRIDEGROOM is "WITH 
 
 THEM ? BUT THE DAYS WILL COME WHEN THE BRIDEGROOM 
 SHALL BE TAKEN PROM THEM, AND THEN SHALL THEY PAST. 
 
 I QUOTED the first part of this text last Thursday, as a 
 reason for turning the annual fast into a day of thanks 
 giving. They were used by the Saviour to show that it 
 was not required of his disciples to mourn on joyous 
 occasions, and we were then full of gladness. Sad looks 
 would have been sheer hypocrisy. So universal was the 
 feeling of gratitude for the recent victories of our armies, 
 that it would have been inconsistent and unnatural on 
 that day to have put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. It 
 seemed more befitting to improve the day, as I believe it 
 generally was improved, in songs of praise, and by the 
 voice of melody. How little did any imagine that the 
 occasion for sorrow, for appropriate fasting and universal 
 weeping, was so near at hand ! 
 
 So great was my joy on Thursday, that, as I then said, 
 I did not feel in a sermon-like mood of mind, though 
 religious considerations were never nearer, more vivid 
 
 (163) 
 
164: SERMONS ON THE 
 
 and sublime, than then. They appeared, however, not in 
 a mere clerical form, but as they presented themselves 
 to the whole community, and I wanted to throw off pro 
 fessional restraint and speak out freely, as a citizen and 
 a man; and so I went on, speaking from the heart, and 
 you obviously responding with equal fulness of soul, of 
 the great things the Lord had done for us ; we were 
 grateful and glad, and sang praises to the God of our 
 fathers, who had defeated the enemy and broken the 
 spear asunder. But how soon has our joy been changed 
 to sorrow ! I feel that there is a leaden weight upon 
 every heart. How can I preach to-day ? It would 
 seem more natural to do as did our citizens yesterday, 
 when news of the dreadful tragedy first came. They 
 took one another by the hand, pressed it in silence, and 
 " wept the grief they could not speak." Oh, it is hard 
 tc think, and must I utter the unwelcome thought, that 
 the President, the good President, is dead ! that 
 Abraham Lincoln, our Abraham Lincoln, whose name is 
 fraught with so many endearing associations, is gone ! 
 He has been with us during all this war ; the thought of 
 him, his sagacity, his fidelity, his buoyant hope, has 
 cheered us in seasons of despondency. We felt secure 
 while he was at the helm, and were confident so long as 
 he was not afraid. We leaned upon him as our stay 
 and staff. Alas ! and is the dear man to be with us no 
 more ! What familiar memories come sadly up at this 
 hour ! It is painful to think of pleasant things, his 
 looks, his anecdotes, the way in which we called him, 
 not disrespectfully, but lovingly, by his first name. He 
 was one of us, a member of the family, a parent and 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 165 
 
 brother, toward whom reverence and love were sweetly 
 intermingled, and must we part ? 
 
 He has gone, too, at such a time ! Just as the bright 
 period long looked for had come, the war ended, 
 slavery dead, the rebellion put down, the long conflict 
 over. The good President, we thought, will now have 
 some rest. He will need no disguise at Baltimore, 
 no military guard at Washington. He can rest upon his 
 laurels, and walk the streets when and where he pleases. 
 Everybody will be his friend. No one, surely, will wish 
 to hurt him, he is so kind-hearted himself. When did 
 he ever knowingly harm anybody ? It was a comfort to 
 him, he said recently, that he had never said a word 
 or done an act that was designed to inflict a wound 
 upon any heart. Anger and revenge were no part of 
 his nature. Like his Master, when reviled, he reviled 
 not again, but committed himself to Him that judgeth 
 righteously. 
 
 But while we are oppressed with bereavement, while 
 a nation mourns, and the people are in tears at their 
 loss, it is consoling to think that he is safe. He is 
 where no sorrow can reach him. As you have just 
 sung: 
 
 " No mortal woes 
 
 Can reach the peaceful sleeper here, 
 While angels guard his soft repose." 
 
 He was a good man, a truly pious man : he did not 
 wish to go to the theatre. The etiquette of public life 
 required him, sometimes, to sacrifice his individual 
 preferences ; besides, as General Grant had been adver- 
 
166 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 tised to be there, and could not go, he was afraid the 
 people might be disappointed. How much was this like 
 Abraham Lincoln, erring, if at all, always on the side of 
 kindness 1 He was a man of strong religious feeling. 
 How impressive was the scene at Springfield, Illinois, 
 when he was about to leave home for Washington ! He 
 stood on the platform of the cars, his friends and neigh 
 bors around him, and thinking as he did of the respon 
 sibilities he was to assume, the trials and dangers that 
 were before him, it was no mere formal request that 
 he made, that Christians would remember him in prayer. 
 The same request he has often made of the different 
 religious bodies that have called upon him at the Presi 
 dential mansion. 
 
 I remember the interview which he had with the 
 Christian Commission at our first meeting in Washing 
 ton. He received us cordially, and spoke warmly of the 
 enterprise. " Nothing," he said, " is better for the sol 
 diers than to be followed with Christian influences," and 
 seemed grateful for the privilege of giving to the cause 
 his official sanction. " Whatever the government could 
 do to give to our agents free access to camp and hospital 
 should be done." 
 
 In referring, on Thursday last, to the many good 
 things we should be grateful for, I mentioned the re-elec 
 tion of our present noble Chief Magistrate. It was an 
 occasion of gladness to the loyal people that he who 
 had been raised up of God to conduct us safely 
 through the wilderness had not been left like Moses to 
 die upon Mount Nebo, but had crossed the Jordan and 
 entered the promised land. It may seem now as if the 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 167 
 
 congratulation was premature. I do not think so. He 
 has in the highest sense entered upon the inheritance of 
 true patriotism and Christian hope. Gladly would we 
 have honored him here on earth. We would have 
 carried him in triumph through our streets. But God 
 saw fit to bestow upon him a higher reward than we could 
 give. A more brilliant assembly than ever was convened 
 on earth shall hear his approbation pronounced, and he 
 shall be crowned, not with fading laurels, but with 
 immortal honor. 
 
 It is consoling to think, also, that not only no war, 
 but no political animosities shall reach him more. No 
 shafts of calumny shall enter his breast. I am told that 
 the war is not half over ; that the process of reconstruc 
 tion will be attended with more difficulty and excitement 
 than the conflict of arms. And I confess, that, warmly 
 attached to the President as I am, I still felt afraid that 
 party divisions and party rancor might hereafter arise 
 that should disturb his peace. Whatever else might 
 happen, I wanted that there should be, in reference to 
 him, only kind words and kind thoughts. Such, I doubt 
 not, was the universal feeling of the loyal people. This 
 wish, at least, is gratified. His name and fame are 
 secure. There will be hereafter as now, and through all 
 time, and amid all controversies, a unanimity of profound 
 respect for the honesty, the moral integrity, the lofty 
 patriotism, the well balanced mind, and the adminis 
 trative ability of Abraham Lincoln, not surpassed, if 
 even equalled, by that which is paid to the memory of 
 Washington. No man in the history of the nation has 
 had greater responsibilities, and it will be the united 
 
168 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 voice of future generations, that no public man has ever 
 sustained them more satisfactorily. 
 
 How will the soldiers mourn this death ! Mr. Lincoln 
 was not a military man, but no officer of the government, 
 no military chieftain, not even the Lieutenant-General 
 himself, was more beloved by the army. The President 
 often visited them in the field. He went to the hospitals, 
 and was sure to take every soldier by the hand, and say 
 some comforting words to him. O, how their bosoms 
 will heave, and their heads bow in sadness, at news of 
 his death. 
 
 In the recent battles about Petersburg and Rich 
 mond he was near to the scene of action, and his great 
 heart throbbed with joy at the successes that were 
 achieved. He seemed to forget that he was President of 
 the United States, in the pleasure he felt of forwarding 
 telegrams to the rejoicing people. He was happy in 
 making others glad. With what childlike simplicity he 
 speaks of the honor the commanding general had con 
 ferred upon him, in allowing him to tell the good news ! 
 Noble hearted man! thy disinterested patriotism and 
 sublime goodness of soul shall be a treasure to this 
 nation and to humanity forever. 
 
 And the negroes. What a blow this death will be to 
 them? He wrote the proclamation of their freedom, and 
 enjoyed the comfort of doing it, more than all the honors 
 which the nation or the world can confer. He stood 
 against the combined influence of love and hatred, poli 
 tical opposition and partisan friendship, the unfaltering 
 advocate of African freedom, and the stern defender of 
 human rights. How those oppressed and grateful ones 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 1G9 
 
 welcomed him in his recent visit to Richmond ! And 
 how the good man enjoyed it ! He wished for no prouder 
 ovation. Men, women, and children, poor, ragged, and 
 black, met him at the wharf and attended him through 
 the streets, weeping, laughing, praying, singing, shout 
 ing, and dancing for yery joy. And he the happiest of 
 them all. I hope the scene will be photographed. It 
 will be an honor to our republic, and cause a thrill of 
 pleasure in the breast of benevolence and humanity the 
 world over. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln had strong domestic attachments. His 
 bosom was full of warm affection. He was so from 
 boyhood. He almost worshipped his mother. His 
 young heart was filled with grief when she died. He 
 was sorry, that, owing to the privations of pioneer life, 
 there could be no regular religious services at her 
 funeral. No church was nigh. No preacher could be 
 obtained in season. But he remembered his mother s 
 favorite minister in Kentucky ; and, having learned to 
 write, he gladly employed his newly acquired accom 
 plishment in sending a letter to him, requesting that he 
 would, if possible, come to Indiana, and perform the 
 rites of religion near the burial-place of his lamented 
 parent. The preacher came. Abe, as he v^as called, 
 built a platform, and the sermon was delivered as 
 desired over his mother s grave. Some natural tears 
 were shed; but filial love was gratified, and the boy s 
 heart was at rest. As with the boy, so it was with the 
 man. Home was his delight. His wife and children 
 were his choice companions. Every honor he received, 
 every joy that entered his own heart, he hastened to 
 15 
 
170 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 share with them. No wonder, when such a husband 
 and father was suddenly smitten down, his family should 
 be overwhelmed by the dreadful shock. They will have 
 the sympathies of the nation, and our earnest prayers 
 that God will support them at this hour, and impart to 
 them, in future days of grief and loneliness, the con 
 solations of our holy faith. 
 
 In the great calamity which has befallen us in the 
 death of the President, it is an occasion of devout 
 gratitude that the Secretary of State has been spared. 
 
 The nation is under great obligations to this officer, 
 for the manner in which he has conducted our foreign 
 relations during the perilous crisis through which the 
 country has passed. He has neither involved us in 
 complications with other governments, nor lowered the 
 dignity of our own. He has been wisely forbearing, 
 and, I doubt not, will be wisely firm. May he and his 
 stricken son soon be restored to health and their 
 country s service. 
 
 The fearful tragedy which has taken from us the head 
 of the nation is so recent, and our grief so deep, that we 
 are scarcely prepared to speculate upon its causes, or 
 probable consequences in the future. The immediate 
 perpetrator of the act will doubtless be arrested, and the 
 motives which led to it be fully ascertained. If found 
 to be in pursuance of a conspiracy on the part of slave 
 holders and secessionists, it will be one of the most 
 signal instances of folly, as well as wickedness, ever 
 known in the annals of crime. No event could occur, 
 which, in the indignation it has aroused, could be more 
 terrible to the conquered foe. If secession had been 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 171 
 
 compelled to capitulate before, it will now be arrested, 
 condemned, and executed. If slavery had received its 
 apparent death blow, the work will now be made sure. 
 It will be struck to the heart, and pierced through and 
 through, nor left until it is annihilated to the smallest 
 fibre. If this foul assassination has been done or coun 
 tenanced by men under the bitterness of defeat, they 
 will now find the cup filled to the brim with the water 
 of gall. Mr. Lincoln was disposed to be lenient ; but 
 if, in their malignity, they clash the cup of kindness from 
 his hand, they must not complain if the contents of the 
 apocalyptic vial should now be poured out upon their 
 land, till it shall consume every green thing, and turn 
 a third part of the waters into blood. If they smite 
 down their best friend, they must take the consequences. 
 We can only say, Thou art righteous, O God, who wast 
 and art, and art to come, the Almighty, because thou 
 hast judged thus. They have shed the blood of saints 
 and of martyrs, and Thou hast given them blood to 
 drink, for they are worthy ! 
 
 I do not doubt that the Lord God Omnipotent 
 reigneth, that He will bring good out of evil, and that 
 this tragedy, like all other events in human history, will 
 be overruled for his glory. But his judgments are a 
 great deep. His way is in the sea, and his path in the 
 mighty waters, and his footsteps are not known. Some 
 seem to think the President was in danger of consenting 
 to an unrighteous compromise, and that this was a 
 reason why God, in his wise providence, permitted his 
 removal. This may be so. But I had no misgivings on 
 this point. With all his good nature, he was firm. 
 
172 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 Wherever principle was involved, no man was ever more 
 immovable. His was the wisdom from above, first 
 pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated ; 
 full of mercy and good fruits ; without partiality and 
 without hypocrisy. He never would have consented to 
 any civil disabilities because of color. The hand that 
 signed the memorable proclamation never would have 
 signed any document that did not contemplate the full 
 citizenship of those who have proved themselves the 
 worthiest portion of the Southern people. He was kind 
 and forgiving, and I love and honor him all the more for 
 it. There was not a particle of hate or revenge in his 
 soul ; and this is one of the glories of his character, and 
 will be one of the brightest features in his enduring 
 fame. In the dreaded process of reconstruction, I do 
 not believe he would have been unjust to freedom, or 
 have made the slightest sacrifice of principle for the sake 
 of peace. In the settlement of difficulties, he would 
 have been guided by truth and justice as well as mercy. 
 On no occasion would he lose his temper ; and this 
 perfect self-control was his shield and buckler. He 
 might have met representatives from the Southern people 
 pleasantly, perhaps told a story or two, but there would 
 have been no parley with treason, no yielding to seces 
 sion ; and the leaders of the rebellion would have been 
 put down forever. 
 
 I have confidence in his successor. President John 
 son s opinions and policy are known, and will be approved 
 by the loyal people. There is now a roused but I believe 
 a healthful public sentiment, which will not be satisfied 
 until rebellion is exterminated and consumed, root and 
 branch, and its blossoms go up as the dust. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 173 
 
 Above all, let us have confidence in God. How won 
 derful are the ways of Providence ! Who can fail to see 
 the hand of the Lord, and to stand in silent and grate 
 ful adoration, as he goes forth to the accomplishment of 
 his purposes, in a way which we know not, and by 
 means which seem mysterious and awful ? The assassi 
 nation of the President occurred on the day which is usu 
 ally observed in commemoration of the Saviour s death. 
 The enemies of our Lord thought that by the cross 
 Christianity would be destroyed. So the authors of this 
 fearful tragedy thought thus to crucify and entomb our 
 national life, and to crush freedom and humanity through 
 that mangled form. But, my friends, to-day is the day 
 of our Saviour s resurrection ; and, as Christianity gath 
 ered fresh energies in the sepulchre, and rose to new 
 ness of life, so I believe that the spirit and principles 
 which have been embodied in our beloved and lament 
 ed President shall come forth from his freshly-opened 
 grave with greater vigor than ever. If any are weeping 
 over the tomb of freedom, or of any of those principles 
 for which our soldiers have fought, and for which our 
 Chief Magistrate has been called to lay down his life, let 
 me say to you, Dry up your tears. Ye that are walking 
 to Emmaus, silent and sad, come back to Jerusalem. 
 The angel of the Lord hath appeared, though in a strange 
 form, and rolled away the stone from the door of the 
 sepulchre. 
 
 The tragedy which has occurred is a most impressive 
 warning of the nature and evil of sin. This assassin 
 was a young man, but what a finish of depravity he 
 has reached ! Reckless of a wife s bereavement, of 
 
174 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 children s tears, of a nation s grief; reckless of God, 
 and reckless of himself. Such recklessness is traceable 
 in part to his diseased imagination. He lived on airy 
 and depraved fancies. He was an actor, and craved for 
 some tragic scene. He imagined it quite theatrical, no 
 doubt, to utter the words, " Sic semper tyrannis," as 
 he sprang, brandishing his dagger, from the scene of 
 murder. It is >:nceable, also, to the excitement of 
 liquor; but it all comes from sin. This is the root of the 
 whole. The heart s depravity grows up sometimes in 
 the form of treason, and sometimes shows itself in other 
 forms, profaneness, drunkenness, and murder; but it 
 is itself the father of all evil. Whoever cherishes it in 
 any form has the devil, and hell itself, in his own soul. 
 Depraved passions within are sure to tear and rend their 
 victim, or break forth in flames of unquenchable fire. 
 
 Let me, in conclusion, refer to one of the most 
 interesting incidents in the history of our departed 
 President. At the consecration of the Soldiers Ceme 
 tery at Gettysburg, after the eloquent address of Mr. 
 Everett (alas ! that he, too, is gone), Mr. Lincoln made 
 a few most impressive remarks. He said that the best 
 way to honor the heroes that had fallen on that bloody 
 field was to consecrate ourselves more fully to the cause 
 for which they bled. There was another thought within, 
 he afterwards remarked, in a private conversation ; and 
 it was, that he should himself consecrate his own heart 
 to God. He hoped, he said, that through divine 
 assistance he had done this ; and thus had arisen in his 
 bosom the sweet, precious, sublime emotions of a new 
 and spiritual life. It is well, my friends, that we should 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LIXCOLN. 175 
 
 manifest our grief under this great and oppressive 
 bereavement : we cannot and ought not to restrain our 
 tears. It is right that tokens of mourning should be 
 hung out from every dwelling. The whole nation and 
 foreign lands will unite in doing honor to the distin 
 guished dead. But no higher honor can be paid to the 
 memory of Abraham Lincoln than to imitate his example 
 in giving ourselves more fully to the cause in which he 
 fell a martyr, and individually in prayer, and on bended 
 knee, to consecrate our own heart to God. 
 
REV. HENRY W. FOOTE. 
 
ADDRESS SPOKEN AT KING S CHAPEL, 
 
 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1865. 
 
 WE are gathered here in this solemn service, that we 
 may have the last sad satisfaction of joining with a 
 whole nation in paying every rite of respect and honor 
 and veneration to him whose mortal part is this day 
 committed to the tomb. Our hearts, so recently, alas ! 
 throbbing with an exultant sense of security in the 
 blessed assurance of approaching peace, have been 
 quickly clothed again in the habit of anguish so famil 
 iar, but now in a sackcloth blacker than the loss of 
 many battles could have brought, whose hues of mourn 
 ing must hereafter darken all our lives. Not even vic 
 tory can come with notes so triumphant as to hush the 
 wail of our grief for the leader who gathered our armies 
 and chose our generals, and with patient heart brought 
 us to the very gates of entire triumph ; nor even can 
 God s whitest angel of peace return, save with tear- 
 dimmed eyes, and the disquiet of a mighty sorrow. 
 But the very greatness and permanence of our emotions 
 forbid us from trying to put them into speech. In this 
 
 (179) 
 
180 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 hour, the sob of a nation s overwhelming bereavement 
 fills our ears and our hearts, and best tells the story of 
 our loss. And, under the shadow and horror of a gigan 
 tic crime, we would fain learn the mysterious lesson of 
 Providence in silence. "Be still, and know that I am 
 God." Yet these services of sacred commemoration 
 would seem prematurely closed, did we not try to gather 
 up their meaning into brief and simple words. We need 
 to go out from this house of prayer into an atmosphere 
 of faith and prayer ; not into deeper and more hopeless 
 grief. And he, the good, the great man, whom we 
 desire to honor by doing as he would have us, could he 
 open those lips forever silent, would bid us carry hence 
 stronger and higher purposes with which to withstand 
 the cloud of sorrow that has settled down over the land 
 he loved so well. He would bid us say little of him, 
 but much of the great cause. He would bid us forget 
 the murderous deed by which one foul hand has brought 
 darkness upon twenty million loyal hearts, and remem 
 ber only that in this place we have been uplifted, by 
 communion with God s Spirit, into a truer allegiance to 
 the principles of freedom and justice, of mercy and 
 peace, as whose embodiment and representative he 
 stood before the world. We cannot, indeed, turn thus 
 aside from the contemplation of those qualities which 
 made him what he was. The man stands before us, 
 whichever way \ve turn, so identified with these great 
 and uplifting themes, that, when we mention them, we 
 must perforce think of him. He stands forever in his 
 tory their illustrious representative, giving them honor, 
 and receiving honor from them. 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 181 
 
 Not here in the short space which remains for us ere 
 we rise, and go in spirit with those who bear what was 
 mortal of our President to his burial, nor now, when 
 we are in the very presence of death, can eulogies be 
 spoken. That can be safely left for History, who will 
 find time enough in succeeding generations, and room 
 enough on the scanty roll of her greatest names, where 
 his henceforward stands forever written. 
 
 But, even here and now, the thought of what he did, 
 or had a part in, of what he was, and of what he 
 will be in the influence of example, is in all our hearts. 
 Out of the fulness of such thoughts, let us try to gather 
 up the lessons which we wish to carry hence. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the 
 United States, will be remembered as long as the annals 
 of this nation endure, as the ruler, who, under God, 
 guided us, through four years of a terrible civil war, to 
 the very borders of the peaceful restoration of national 
 unity, under the one lawful government of the land. 
 How the heart goes back (as we think of this, his 
 mighty work) over all the varying anxieties and mis 
 givings, the public calamities and the private sorrows, 
 the alternations of success and defeat, the vast pro 
 blems of public policy, the intricate relations with 
 foreign powers, which have filled the years with a 
 weary weight. They have been hard to carry, for us all. 
 They have seemed longer to those who were in the fierce 
 current and whirling eddies of the time as who was 
 not? longer than a lifetime of peace. But he who 
 was held responsible for everything which went wrong; 
 who stood in the central place of all, and held all the 
 16 
 
182 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 countless threads in his hand; yes, who gathered them 
 all up in his heart, with what a crushing burden have 
 the years rested upon him I No wonder that men said, 
 the other day, at Richmond, that he looked utterly worn 
 out. The wonder is, how with twenty lives he could 
 have endured so long. The most responsible place in 
 the gift of any people it devolved upon him to fill, when 
 its responsibilities were increased five hundred fold ; 
 when friends were few, and hostile critics too many to 
 be numbered, and all the way before us was dark with 
 unknown perils. And he has filled it, through good 
 report and through evil report, silencing his opponents, 
 one by one, and changing them to friends, until, when 
 he died, no tongue was mute to speak his praise. Has 
 there ever before been a recorded instance of a man 
 coming to power without experience, and almost un 
 known, guiding a nation through the shock and strain of 
 a vast war, welding them continually into greater unanimi 
 ty of purpose, and gaining constantly on their respect 
 and affection ? In all history, he is the first example. 
 It will stand written against his name, that he was the 
 means, through God, of arousing a great people to a 
 real national life. Look at it beforehand, and we 
 should have called it impossible. There was a time and 
 not so long ago when men doubted whether, under our 
 institutions, there could be a genuine loyalty. Surely 
 he was a providential man, to whom it was given to 
 wake that feeling in the public heart. He has waked it, 
 and kept it living, because it was in the deepest place of 
 his own heart. It spoke in that call, after the fall of 
 Sumter, which made the nation spring to its feet. It 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 183 
 
 held him up, when, through the watches of that July 
 night, he heard the ceaseless tramp, across the Long 
 Bridge, of the ai*my retreating from Bull-Run. And 
 through many reverses since, when hope deferred made 
 the heart sick, (need I name the battles and retreats 
 which are written on our remembrance in characters of 
 blood ?) it sustained him unfaltering. 
 
 The people wrought in him, and he again wrought in 
 the people," a sublime faith in our national ideas. And 
 that was work enough for any man. However men may 
 differ about the v\ r isdom or expediency of this measure 
 or of that, and it would be strange if in such a time a 
 man had not committed grave mistakes again and again, 
 none can doubt that he has done this one transcend 
 ent work of strengthening the spirit of nationality, with 
 out which all else were vain ; with which all else must 
 in the end go well. This being granted, all the detail 
 of questions about special acts can be let pass. It would 
 be an impertinence to descend to them in this hour of 
 our solemn mourning. It is enough to claim our ever 
 lasting gratitude that he has done this work : and 
 especially because this national spirit, so purified and 
 deepened, has become more and more imbued with the 
 ideas of justice and liberty. He, indeed, would be the 
 last to claim that he led the way in this. He has the 
 truer glory of having followed the popular will, and of 
 having caused these ideas, already accepted by the 
 people, to become a part of their fundamental law. And 
 so it comes, that, wherever the word Freedom is spoken, 
 there his name will be uttered with benedictions. 
 Through him, the starry flag has come to shine 
 
184 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 undimmed by oppression. That hapless race, who sat 
 in bondage so long, have learned to recognize him as 
 their great deliverer, and to lift their hands in prayer for 
 him toward heaven. They will feel that now they have 
 lost their truest friend. If we carry from these funeral 
 rites a quicker heart for the demands of justice, a 
 more living love of human freedom, and a steadfast pur 
 pose to do our part in the great work of re-organizing 
 the society of the South on a truer basis, we shall bear 
 the best witness to the reality of our sorrow, and the 
 sincerity of our affection. 
 
 But this work, wrought on the spirit of the people and 
 in our fundamental law, could never have been accom 
 plished save by such a man as he. A man of the people, 
 through and through, he has had entire faith in the 
 people. And this faith has been his tower of strength. 
 Out of the hardships of his early training, he brought a 
 heart thoroughly in sympathy with the common people. 
 Add to this the qualities peculiarly developed by that 
 wild, frontier life, and which were his to an eminent 
 degree by natural endowment ; that strong, plain, good 
 sense ; that practical shrewdness ; the power of ready 
 adaptation to unforeseen emergencies : add that capa 
 city for continual growth in character, which he has 
 clearly manifested, and those qualities which have been 
 the very ground- work of his character ; the absolute 
 honesty, the brave simplicity, the manly tenacity of pur 
 pose, the power of true and single devotion to a great 
 cause, and where, in all the records of the past, has 
 ever risen one who seemed more providentially prepared 
 for his great place, than he? Yet, with all this, so far 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 185 
 
 was ho from being stern, as we are apt to think a leader 
 must be, so far from the rugged hardness of character 
 which we attribute to the rude civilization where his 
 boyhood and youth were spent, that we have felt at 
 times that he erred on the side of gentleness. The 
 object of such contumely and violent hate as no other in 
 our history has ever had to bear, it never cast even a 
 shadow over his spirit. What nobleness of heart, what 
 grand magnanimity, has it not required to keep 
 him utterly free from words of unkindness or thoughts 
 of hate, so that the words of kindly good-will toward his 
 enemies, which he spoke on the last afternoon of his life, 
 came out of the transparent depths of a soul into which 
 no bitterness had ever entered ! And so it came, that, 
 more and more, the nation has felt that it could trust 
 him to the uttermost, and love him to the fullest. Here 
 in our need, was a genuine man, when " a man was 
 more precious than fine gold, even a man than the 
 precious gold of Ophir." Gradually all hostile tongues 
 have been stilled, and those who thought him too fast 
 or too slow, learned to think his judgment safe and wise. 
 So, too, with that criticism of his homely Western speech, 
 his unsophisticated ways, as beneath the dignity of 
 his great office. We have learned that character is a 
 jewel beyond price, and having that, we have more 
 and more learned to be grateful. 
 
 Shall I speak of those other qualities which so 
 strongly marked his character ; of that fearlessness 
 which could walk composedly in the streets of Rich 
 mond with a meagre body-guard of six sailors; and 
 which, in a different manifestation, has enabled him to 
 16* 
 
186 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 stand again and again, in the four years past, almost 
 alone in unpopular solitude on that height of place 
 where the cold Mind of criticism blows sharp and keen ; 
 or of that sublime self-forgetfulness which labored on 
 for the single end of his country s welfare, which never 
 sought to lay hold on the laurels of others, which mod 
 estly disclaimed his own honors ? Do not those gen 
 erous words yet ring in our ears, in which he put away 
 from him whatever credit of recent triumphs it was 
 sought to give him, saying that he had only been a 
 spectator; that all the praise was due to the generals 
 and the army ? Or shall I say how his conviction of 
 the right of our cause sustained him in our darkest 
 hours, so that that was true of him which John Maid- 
 stone said of Cromwell, " He was a strong man in the 
 dark perils of war ; in the high places of the field, hope 
 shone in him like a pillar of fire when it had gone out 
 in the others" ? Shall I speak of that simple religious 
 conviction which has manifestly been deepening in his 
 heart, till it uttered itself in that Inaugural where even 
 English eyes have read a sincere humility, and a true 
 religious spirit ? No ! these things are too sacred to be 
 touched with careless hand. In the silence of the heart 
 let us meditate on them ; and pardon me that I have 
 even put into words the thoughts which are the reason 
 of our deepest grief to-day. 
 
 I do not attempt to draw the portraiture of this great 
 ruler whom we have lost. My heart would not let me 
 do it. You do not need to hear it. He stands before 
 us all, as he has stamped himself ineffaceably on the 
 pure silver of the national heart, all fluent and melted 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 187 
 
 in the fervid heats of this time of fiery war. Six days 
 ago I listened to an earnest voice which claimed for him, 
 that his name stood side by side with the highest on 
 our history ; that, as one is called the Father of his 
 Country, so his successor should be known hereafter as 
 the Saviour of his Country. To-day the sorrow of a 
 whole people gives him the name, and the mysterious 
 consecration of death sets him apart forever from all 
 carping tongues or differing thoughts. He belongs to 
 us all, a part of our glory ; and even in our grief we 
 lift our hearts in thanksgiving that he has been ours so 
 long. Nor should we let the deed of violence which 
 took him from us cause us to forget still to be grateful 
 that he lived long enough to see the dawn breaking into 
 glorious day ; to know that his fidelity, his patience, his 
 bearing of weary burdens for us all, was to reap its great 
 reward ; that though, like the great leader of the chosen 
 people, he has died on the very verge of the promised 
 land, to his eyes, like those of Moses, it was permitted 
 to see the future which the Lord would give to a 
 nation chastened by suffering, and endeared to Him 
 by adversity. 
 
 Nor let us fail to join in our thought of him, as he 
 would have us, all that innumerable company of wit 
 nesses, whose blood has been given for our national life. 
 Our heroic dead ! from the general to the private, this 
 day we remember them all in our solemn commemora 
 tion. In our warmest love, in our deepest prayers, they 
 hold a place sacred and imperishable. That holy seal 
 of martyrdom is now set on them, and on him whose 
 word they obeyed. We bring hither our proud sorrow, 
 
188 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 our reverent affection, that it may be consecrated by the 
 Spirit of God ; and we do but repeat the voice of all 
 the future when we say, " Honor, honor, honor, eternal 
 honor to their names." 
 
 But in this hour, we turn, even from the purest 
 earthly fame, to the consolations which we need. For 
 the greatness of the honor tells us of the greatness of 
 the loss ; and we must have the faith that it is yet God s 
 will. Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that we do know, under mystery and terror, that still we 
 can recognize in him a God of infinite wisdom and 
 perfect love. The body may perish, but the soul lives 
 forever and forever ; and He has higher ways of service 
 for his faithful servant, than any ways of earth. Nor 
 will He, who suffers not " one of his little ones to 
 perish," let the long agony of this nation be in vain. 
 He may call his workman hence ; but the work of God 
 goes on, and is sure. 
 
 The long procession of a nation in sorrow bears him 
 with reverent hands to his grave and our hearts yearn 
 to bring him the offerings of our love and rever 
 ence. 
 
 That we may best remember him, we should carry a 
 deeper purpose into our own lives. I hear that voice 
 which spoke at Gettysburg, and the words seem 
 addressed to our own hearts this hour. " The world," 
 said he, " will very little note, nor long remember, what 
 we say here ; but it can never forget what they did 
 here. It is for us, the living, rather, to le dedicated 
 here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 189 
 
 nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here 
 dedicated to the great task remaining before us ; that 
 from these honored dead we take increased devotion to 
 that cause for which they here gave the last full measure 
 of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these 
 dead shall not have died in vain ; that the nation shall, 
 under God, have a new birth of freedom ; and that 
 government of the people, by the people, for the people, 
 shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 In a true devotion to our dear country, the mother 
 of us all, let us, standing here, as it were, by the bier 
 of our chief magistrate, consecrate ourselves anew to her 
 love and service. Let us resolve to give a true support 
 to him who is called to that lofty place by such an awful 
 messenger. Let not the shock of our bereavement cause 
 us to forget the Christian spirit which breathed six 
 weeks ago in that Inaugural. 
 
 "With malice towards none, with charity for all, with 
 firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, 
 let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind 
 up the nation s wounds ; to care for those who shall 
 have borne the battle, and for their widows and orphans. 
 And with all this, let us strive after a just and lasting 
 peace among ourselves, and with all nations." 
 
 With these words of peace yet, as it were, on his lips, 
 he has gone into the higher kingdom of perfect peace, 
 where the weary weight of cares, borne for our sakes, is 
 laid aside forever. We would not sit by his grave 
 desolate in our tears ; we would be grateful that He 
 whose cross is to us the sign of hope, has assured to us 
 
190 SERMONS. 
 
 the promise of eternal life. And, as we look up after 
 that departing presence, with the cry, " My father, my 
 father ! the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof," 
 it shall not be in despair, but in the spirit of perfect 
 trust. 
 
REV. F. D. HUN TING TON. 
 
EMMANUEL CHURCH. 
 
 It being the Easter Communion, after an extended 
 service, in which the liturgical and musical portions 
 were very rich and solemn, the rector, Dr. Huntington, 
 addressed the congregation from the chancel, substantially 
 as follows : 
 
 WE have finished a week of which it seems not too 
 much to say, that, in the concurrence of public glory and 
 public crimes, it is without precedent or parallel in the 
 human history of the world. No doubt, as these strangely 
 contrasted events have been announced to us, first filling 
 the land with a joy that could scarcely find moderate 
 expressions at the sudden prospect of an early, success 
 ful and righteous termination to four years of bitter 
 alienation and bloody strife, and then overwhelming it 
 with alarm, affliction, and indignation, equally sudden 
 and even more unspeakable, at that appalling act of 
 infamy that has struck the civil head of the nation from 
 his seat and his life together, many of us have inquired 
 within ourselves whether there is any one thought, or 
 truth, or doctrine, large enough, powerful enough, and 
 
 17 (193) 
 
194 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 reconciling enough to subdue this awful sense of discord, 
 and to harmonize the terrible contradictions, under one 
 benignant law of love. Is there any solid shelter, any 
 holy pavilion, where we can take refuge, and find these 
 distracting transactions falling into place as parts of one 
 perfect plan of God? And probably many of you have 
 already found a consoling answer to that question. 
 
 The solemn path through which the holy evangelists, 
 in their narratives of our Saviour s last days, and before 
 he suffered, have led us, to his sacrifice, to the sealing 
 of his grave, and to its miraculous opening as on this 
 morning, has brought us to just that comforting and 
 immortal truth, deep enough, high enough, and wide 
 enough to take in and interpret every one of these 
 conflicting emotions. For there is no possible joy of 
 deliverance, or jubilee of victory, where the feeling of 
 both public and personal sin, and the need of a Redeemer, 
 does not pursue us. Nor is there any secret heaviness, 
 nor any national mourning, where the cross of Christ 
 will not support us, and his resurrection from the dead 
 re-assure us. Here, then, is the reconciliation. Here 
 is the complete and sufficient declaration of our peace. 
 Here is solid rock, be the -earth never so unquiet ! 
 There is nothing we have felt, as citizens or as men, 
 that may not find its needed ministry in the scenes where 
 we have walked and lingered, Bethany, the Mount of 
 Olives, Gethsemane, Calvary, and the broken sepulchre. 
 In the most exultant emotion of triumph at a re-estab 
 lished government we have seen the Prince of Peace 
 marching, with palms and hosannas, in front of the 
 great procession of kings and commanders. The in- 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 195 
 
 tensest and most loyal patriotism is sanctioned by Jesus 
 weeping over Jerusalem. Every bereaved household is 
 solaced by going to Bethany, where Lazarus was raised, 
 and by hearing the Son of Mary commend his mother 
 to the beloved St. John, amidst the agonies of the 
 crucifixion. 
 
 When we lift up our hearty praises and thanksgivings, 
 as we must day by day, that the God of Liberty has 
 struck off the bonds from four millions of enslaved men, 
 and set our whole country free from that wretched 
 wrong, how can we help remembering that it is all the 
 working out, at last, of his infinite mercy by Whom all 
 the families of men are made of one blood, Who shed 
 his own most precious blood in sacrifice for all alike, 
 the poorest and weakest and darkest as much as any, 
 and whose Christian service, as our daily collect says, is 
 alone " perfect freedom" ? Nay, more, we learn how to 
 look on this appalling assassination, and every attendant 
 enormity, leaving retribution to divine and human 
 courts, when we hear the Crucified, who was anointed 
 to be betrayed, praying for his murderers, "Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do!" When 
 we turn our eyes forward into the future, with whatever 
 misgivings or anxieties, who can deny or doubt an 
 instant that all our best and sure hopes rest on the one 
 inestimable and transcendent fact, which we are now 
 commemorating, that the Blessed and Holy and Al 
 mighty Lord has so loved us as to give himself for us, 
 the just for the unjust, bringing life and immortality to 
 light ? Our only safety from coming evil, as a people, 
 is in righteousness ; and that not of our own obtaining, 
 
196 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 but obtained for us by the wonderful grace of an infinite 
 and everlasting Mediator. Therefore, dear friends, we 
 do and we will, to-day, joy and rejoice in Christ Jesus, 
 the resurrection and the life, by whom we have received 
 the atonement ; who hath broken down the middle wall 
 of partition, reconciling man with his brother man, and 
 with his Father, God. For God commendeth his love 
 to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for 
 us. And if we are reconciled by his death, much more, 
 being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 
 
REV. WARREN H. CUD WORTH. 
 
DANIEL IF.-35. 
 
 ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH ARE REPUTED AS NOTH 
 ING : AND HE DOETH ACCORDING TO HlS WlLL IN THE ARMIES OF 
 
 HEAVEN AND AMONG THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH; AND NONE 
 CAN STAY His HAND OR SAY UNTO HIM, " WHAT DOEST THOU?" 
 
 WE would have celebrated the joyous festival of 
 Easter to-day. Generous hands had provided the flow 
 ers that were to adorn our altar, and tuneful voices had 
 made ready the anthem that was to hail the resurrection 
 of our Lord from the dead. Next to Christmas, this is 
 the great feast-day of the Church ; and believers of all 
 denominations are uniting to appreciate and observe it 
 in a proper manner. 
 
 But, yesterday morning, like a clap of thunder from 
 clear skies, came the appalling announcement, " The 
 President has been assassinated." " Impossible; it can- 
 not be ! " we all exclaimed, because we felt it should not 
 be, it must not be. But when it was re-affirmed, and 
 the official statement, spread before our strained and 
 eager eyes, forced the unwilling conviction upon us that 
 it was, alas ! too true, how startling and dreadful the 
 blow ! We all felt personally bereaved. About our 
 
 (199) 
 
200 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 streets the people walked with mournful faces, as though 
 each one was bowed down by a personal sorrow. Wo 
 all seemed to have lost a father, a brother, a dear bosom- 
 friend. How much we loved, how much we trusted, 
 how much we leaned upon him, we never knew before. 
 How can we bear it ? what shall we do without him? what 
 could have provoked such an atrocious crime ? what does 
 it all mean ? Such were some of the questionings which 
 darted through all minds, and formed the burden of 
 conversation passing from lip to lip. 
 
 We can now understand, somewhat, how the apostles 
 felt when our Lord was arrested, and cruelly put to 
 death. They had leaned wholly upon Him, supposing 
 that it was He who should have redeemed Israel ; and 
 when He was taken from them, and ignominiously 
 crucified as a common malefactor, no \vonder they were 
 scattered, each one to his own place, leaving Him 
 alone. 
 
 The week through which we have just passed has 
 not been unlike that Holy or Passion Week, which, in 
 Judaea of old, was so eventful to the Saviour and his 
 disciples. 
 
 It began in triumph and rejoicing, not only because 
 Richmond had fallen, but because Lee and his army 
 had been compelled to surrender, prisoners of war, and 
 our country was saved at last. It seemed impossible 
 to express the universal exultation. Churches were 
 thronged ; cannon boomed from the forts ; assemblies, 
 gathered from all classes of society, were extemporized 
 in hall and mart ; flags fluttered on every breeze ; 
 buildings were gayly decorated with the emblems of 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 201 
 
 rejoicing ; schools were dismissed ; stores and work 
 shops closed ; bonfires, illuminations, and fireworks 
 brightened the night, and every loyal heart was full of 
 happiness. But, alas ! it ended like the week of sor 
 rows, in gloom and blood. And is it not strange that 
 Good Friday was the day, of all days in the year, 
 chosen by the murderer for his infamous deed ? It is 
 one of those remarkable historical coincidences, which, 
 whether we will or not, challenge observation and cause 
 remark ; and, no doubt, could our President have spoken 
 after he was shot, he would have forgiven the cowardly 
 perpetrator of this inhuman act, and rounded the par 
 allel with a final and complete imitation of our Lord s 
 example. 
 
 Let us not imagine that the evil of this deplorable 
 event is unmitigated and unrelieved; for, in the worst 
 condition of human society, and amid the most disastrous 
 circumstances connected with human affairs, " God is 
 our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 
 Therefore will not we fjar, though the earth be removed, 
 and though the mountains be carried into the midst of 
 the sea." God maketh even the wrath of man to praise 
 Him, and the remainder He restraineth. 
 
 " All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as 
 nothing ; and He doeth according to his will in the 
 armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the 
 earth ; and none can stay his hand, or say unto Him, 
 What doest Thou ? " 
 
 This awful occurrence has not taken God by surprise, 
 for known unto Him are all his works from the begin 
 ning of the world. 
 
202 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 Death is an experience of such magnitude, that, as we 
 are assured, not even a sparrow falleth to the ground 
 without God s notice ; and surely an event of such tran 
 scendent moment as the brutal murder of the ruler of a 
 great and free nation, in the zenith of his popularity and 
 usefulness, cannot occur without the oversight of an all- 
 controlling Providence. 
 
 " The very hairs of our heads are all numbered." 
 " The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, 
 and He delighteth in his way." 
 
 Let us never forget that God gave us President 
 Lincoln in the first place. That He led his father to 
 move across the Ohio River when he was as yet but a 
 child, leaving that condition of semi-bondage in which 
 all poor whites were then compelled to live in the slave 
 States, and settling down where he could breathe the 
 air of freedom. Let us remember the struggles, labors, 
 and aspirations of his boyhood, youth, and early man 
 hood ; how he toiled, as a boatman, up and down the 
 great rivers of that region ; how, axe in hand, he hewed 
 his own way through the world ; how he studied, 
 thought, observed, prepared himself for the bar, and 
 finally entered upon his political career ; how he dis 
 tanced all competitors in the nomination for the 
 presidency ; how he was elected, after the most exciting 
 canvass ever known in this country ; how his life was 
 preserved during the passage through Baltimore to his 
 first inauguration; how signally he has been directed 
 and sustained throughout his official career thus far, and 
 how really he has not been taken from us until his work 
 was done ; his enemies scattered, the rebellion put 
 down, the Union restored, and the country saved. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 203 
 
 Though dead, he yet speaketh to us, in that earnest 
 request of his, for the prayers of all Christians through 
 out the land, that he might be guided and controlled of 
 God. And who knows, but the Most High, how much 
 he owes to the prayers of righteous men and women, 
 which have been going up day and night for him, 
 accordingly, ever since he entered upon the discharge 
 of his duties. As a nation, we have relied too little 
 upon God. Ever since the war broke out, we have 
 been seeking and trying General this and General that, 
 feeling sure, at each fresh selection, that at last we 
 had hit upon the right man, and he would prove our 
 national deliverer. But as one after another our 
 Generals have been tried and found wanting, how 
 plainly has God revealed to us, that " all the inhabitants 
 of the earth are reputed as nothing ; and He doeth 
 according to his will in the armies of heaven, and 
 among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay 
 his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou ? How 
 clearly and irresistibly, after every fresh disaster, has 
 He led us back to himself, and taught us that Tain was 
 the help of man ; that " the race was not to the swift, 
 nor the battle to the strong," and that we were to 
 prevail over our enemies, not by might, nor by power, 
 but by his blessing and favor. 
 
 Never had nation stronger reason for reliance upon 
 God than has ours. The location of our Puritan ances 
 tors here, after a vain endeavor to settle in Holland ; the 
 Declaration of Independence leading to the Revolution 
 ary war, during the first years of which hardly glim 
 mered the hope of cur success ; the final achievement of 
 
204 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 national existence ; the adoption of the Constitution ; the 
 federal Union of States, growing stronger and more 
 numerous every generation, and the survival of political 
 convulsions caused by the overthrow and destruction of 
 powerful parties, these prove that God had a purpose 
 to accomplish in the preservation of the country, which 
 not all the malice of its foes nor the folly of its mistaken 
 friends could thwart. 
 
 Who may say that that purpose is yet attained ? And 
 if not, who can deny that God is ordering the course of 
 events so as to secure its attainment ? Let us rely upon 
 Him, therefore ; assured, that, having begun a good work 
 among us, he will carry it on to a successful termination. 
 
 Was it not a signal manifestation of Divine favor, that 
 the assassin was not allowed to triumph until the very 
 work he would interrupt had been completed ? No 
 doubt this deed had been long premeditated by more 
 than one of those domestic traitors who have been toler 
 ated in our midst, and opportunities may have been sought, 
 again and again, to take the lives of our honored Chief 
 Magistrate, and all associated with him at the head of 
 affairs. No doubt it was the hope of the miscreants, 
 directly and indirectly engaged, had their nefarious 
 schemes succeeded, to have thrown the administration 
 into embarrassment and confusion : profiting by which 
 they hoped to seize the reins of government, and have 
 everything their own way. Man may propose, but God 
 disposes. It was not to be. The cowardly assailant of 
 the President could not even pretend to any such motive. 
 He exclaims, " / am revenged!" His feelings were 
 wholly personal. His act was the wilful, deliberate, 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 205 
 
 execrable crime of a hireling cutthroat and ruffian, 
 unattended by a single palliating circumstance. 
 
 He was too late to arrest the mighty current which 
 this war has started in favor of universal liberty, and 
 his act must tend to make that current wider, deeper 
 and stronger than ever. 
 
 Thus will God overrule what was intended to be a 
 fatal blow to all our hopes and prospects, for their 
 speedier fulfilment and their brighter realization. 
 
 President Lincoln was the most prominent representa 
 tive and illustration of the great national idea upon 
 which all our free institutions are founded. He was 
 emphatically a man of the people. He spoke the lan 
 guage of the people. He thought and acted after the 
 manner of the people ; and his assassination, at such a 
 time, will lay broader and firmer the foundations of 
 popular liberty in the heart of mankind, than could 
 years of common life and labor. 
 
 God may have seen that a sterner hand than his was 
 needed to hold the helm of state during the next four 
 years of reckoning and reconstruction. We all have 
 marked how gentle and kindly he has been ; with what 
 forbearance he has treated enemies ; how he has warned, 
 expostulated, and entreated rebels to return to their 
 allegiance ; how he has given them time for repentance, 
 and foretold plainly the doom which sooner or later must 
 overtake their cause. Hundreds of men whose lives 
 were forfeit by the law, he has pardoned and released. 
 Of all papers, the hardest for him to sign was a death- 
 warrant ; and, whenever he could, consistently with his 
 duty as Chief Magistrate of a great nation, he has com- 
 18 
 
206 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 muted the death-penalty to labor or imprisonment. I 
 have seen him at many reviews of the national troops, 
 and his face always wore a genial and friendly expres 
 sion. He was approachable to all, and as courteous in 
 his manner towards the private in the ranks as the 
 \ officer on the line. The soldiers loved him. Thousands 
 who voted against him at his first election voted for him 
 at the second, not because their political preferences had 
 changed, but because they had come to believe in the 
 man ; and upon no hearts has fallen the burden of a 
 heavier grief than rests upon those who have fought for 
 the country he has served so well. 
 
 His death, under God, will do as much for the cause 
 he had at heart, as did his life : for all great causes need 
 martyrs quite as much as they do men. If the blood of 
 martyr believers is the seed of the Church, surely the 
 blood of martyred patriots is the seed of the country. 
 Not a few the noble souls who have risked and lost 
 all during the fearful conflicts of the last four years. 
 And now, as he led them in life, he leads them in death. 
 They were allowed the privilege of meeting their foes in 
 fair fight. He fell, the victim of unexpected butchery ; 
 and, as men can never get out of their hearts and souls 
 the honest indignation such a deed excites, so they will 
 never dismiss from their minds the noble principles for 
 whose dissemination he labored, and in defence of which 
 he died. 
 
 President Lincoln, as the victim of an assassin, will 
 have vastly more influence in the future than would 
 President Lincoln the successful ruler of a great people. 
 His very wound will cry out against the spirit and belief 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 207 
 
 of those who have connived at his destruction. The 
 man might provoke animosity ; the martyr will com 
 mand respect. We know that, already, several of the 
 leading supporters of his administration, hitherto, had 
 taken issue with him on important points connected with 
 reconstruction in the rebel States, the confiscation of 
 property, the unconditional abolition of slavery, the ex 
 tension of the right of suffrage, and the publication of 
 an act of amnesty offering pardon to everybody willing 
 to renew allegiance. Hundreds of perplexing questions 
 would no doubt have arisen, splitting up his former sym 
 pathisers into conflicting parties intent on compassing 
 their ends, and willing, for this purpose, to separate from 
 him. This was evil to come. He has been removed 
 from it ; and, high above the storms it may cause to 
 gather and break, his image will be treasured in every 
 heart, his example be an inspiration to every life. 
 
 He has left, in sacred trust to every person in this 
 country, a legacy of invaluable principles, far more likely 
 to be carried out because adherence to them has cost 
 him his life. 
 
 There is an element of reverence for the heroic dead 
 in human nature, which wields constantly-increasing 
 sway over human faith and action. We never know 
 how great or good are the prominent men among whom 
 we live ; or, if we know, we do not seem to realize it so 
 keenly while they are moving in our midst, as when they 
 have left us forever. So we ride past one of the stately 
 churches which adorn our streets. The symmetry and 
 grandeur of its proportions do not catch our eye when 
 near ; but as we are borne farther and farther from it, 
 
208 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 its walls and towers loom up higher and higher, its 
 harmonious outlines stand out more and more boldly, it 
 separates itself faster and faster from the ranges of 
 common buildings around it, and becomes in the distance 
 the most prominent and commanding feature of the 
 view. 
 
 Had President Lincoln lived on through the entire 
 term of his office, being in our midst, and not always 
 the representative of our ideas, no doubt he would often 
 have failed of appreciation, had he not provoked opposi 
 tion, and some of his measures or recommendations 
 would have been sharply criticised, if not severely 
 censured. 
 
 But. now, as it were, he has bequeathed to us the 
 principles of his administration as an inheritance bought 
 and sealed with his blood, all the more sacred and bind 
 ing upon us because he no longer lives to expound and 
 enforce them himself. The more they are examined, 
 applied, and tested, the more they miibt be valued ; the 
 more thoroughly and faithfully they are adhered to, the 
 more highly will they be esteemed. 
 
 God would have such principles though obnoxious 
 to a larjje number of the American people brought 
 into bold relief before the eyes of men ; and, in spite of 
 every effort to the contrary, it has been done. Truly, 
 ; All the inhabitants of the earth arc reputed as nothing : 
 and He cloeth according to his will in the armies of 
 heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth : and 
 none can stay His hand, or say unto him, What docst 
 thou ? 
 
 Let me remark, in conclusion, that the assassin s act 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 209 
 
 shows the terrible depravity of human nature. There 
 are many who call him fiend and demon, but to me he 
 seems to be only a bad man. So low will human nature 
 sink when left to the unrestrained control of hatred, 
 selfishness, and passion ; so vile and base and brutal 
 will a man become, if he is wholly bent on evil. Let us 
 not deceive ourselves with words. Call the act devilish 
 and infernal if you will, for it deserves all the epithets 
 that depravity has forced into our language ; but let us 
 not forget that once the actor was an innocent, harmless 
 child, and that he has been sinking to the infamy of his 
 present condition, step by step. His whole life seems to 
 have been filled with flagrant violations of the moral law. 
 A traitor from the beginning, without manliness enough 
 to induce him to enlist in the rebel army, he has pre 
 ferred, like thousands of others, to stay at home, and 
 meanly appropriate the blessings, comforts, and protec 
 tion of a country which all the time he was endeavoring 
 to destroy. 
 
 No wonder the conspirators against the life of our 
 beloved President found in such a man a willing tool 
 all ready for their purposes. What he has done is only 
 a practical re-affirmation of God s holy word, that The 
 heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately 
 wicked," and should convince us that the germs of all 
 possible iniquity, latent, undeveloped, it may be, are in 
 all our hearts ; and we need, without exception, the 
 presence and the grace of God to prevent them from 
 springing into a vigorous and powerful growth. 
 
 Finally, God has again providentially lifted the veil 
 that apologists for slavery Northern and Southern 
 18* 
 
210 SERMOXS ON THE 
 
 have drawn over its hideous features, and shown us just 
 what spirit it is of. Thank God, the utterances from 
 this desk, while I have been in it, have been uniform 
 and incapable of misconstruction upon this point. A 
 tree is known by its fruits. It was slavery, in the 
 person of Preston S. Brooks, that made the brutal and 
 cowardly attack upon Senator Sumncr, but a few years 
 ago, in the Senate chamber of the United States, 
 supported by armed abettors, approaching him from 
 behind, and beating him over the head until he fell from 
 his desk, bleeding and insensible ! 
 
 It was slavery that induced the mob of Alton, Illinois, 
 to surround the printing-office of E. P. Lovejoy, on the 
 7th of November, 1837, destroying not only the press 
 and building, but the life of their fearless and faithful 
 defender. 
 
 It was slavery that chained the Boston court-house, 
 some ten years ago, and led off its chattel in triumph 
 through our streets, escorted by an irresistible military 
 force. Slavery for years has controlled congressional 
 action, and forced even Presidents into compliance with 
 its wishes. 
 
 It M r as slavery that trained and fired the first gun at 
 Sumter, and, without justifiable cause or provocation, 
 precipitated upon this great country the horrors of a civil 
 war. And can I trust myself to speak of the starving, 
 shooting, and torturing of our captured troops in the 
 prison pens of Andcrsonville, Salisbury, Dalton, Colum 
 bia, Wilmington, and Danville, when, without the least 
 necessity, without the shadow of an excuse, their infernal 
 captors slowly and pitilessly forced them into their 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 211 
 
 graves by thousands ? No, I cannot ! They were all 
 slaveholders, or the tools of slaveholders, and they but 
 exhibited the temper slavery has developed and en 
 couraged from the beginning of time. 
 
 What but the barbarism engendered by this "peculiar 
 institution" has violated the sanctity of the grave, and, 
 disinterring the remains of fallen soldiers, made of their 
 bones trinkets and mementoes to amuse friends at home ? 
 
 Shall I remind you of the invariable custom of rebel 
 artillerists to shell our hospitals upon the field of battle, 
 and that again and again their troops have bayoneted 
 the wounded ? Who has forgotten the massacre at Fort 
 Pillow; the upsetting of a whole train of ambulances 
 filled with wounded men in Tennessee ; the hanging of 
 loyal persons, in the presence of their agonized families, 
 in all the Southern States ; the slaughter at Lawrence, 
 Kansas, of inoffensive citizens, and the burning of their 
 habitations and effects by the infamous Quantrell ; the 
 attempted destruction of all our Northern cities, crowded 
 with inhabitants, by incendiaries ; and the robbery and 
 murder at St. Albans ? It would have seemed impossi 
 ble to outdo the horror of such atrocities, but even that 
 has been done. This last act crowns and completes the 
 whole. Slavery has lost all disguises forever, and must 
 now stand forth to the end of time in all its natural and 
 revolting hideousness. 
 
 Because I have felt this to be its character for many 
 years, I have been unable to endure the thought that 
 members of this society, otherwise lovable and engaging, 
 should be ranked among its defenders, and so have 
 spoken strongly and repeatedly, though always in a spirit 
 
212 SERMONS. 
 
 of charity and affection to them. Let me entreat of 
 them again, if any there be here, or ask their friends to 
 entreat of them if not, to reflect upon the stand they 
 have taken, to view it in the light of this last deplorable 
 event which has overwhelmed our whole nation with 
 sorrow and gloom, and acknowledge that slavery has 
 indeed proved itself to be the sum of all human villa- 
 nies, and deserves the abhorrence and execration of man 
 kind. 
 
 " Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
 In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side : 
 Some great cause, God s new Messiah, offering each the bloom 
 
 or blight, 
 
 Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, 
 And the choice goes by forever, twixt that darkness and that 
 
 light." 
 
 Whether we will have it so or not, it is very evident 
 that God has decreed the abolition of American Slavery. 
 Whatever door He opens, man may not shut ; whatever 
 door He shuts, man may not open. God is now, and 
 ever shall be, what He has been from the beginning. 
 " All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, 
 and He doeth according to his will, in the armies of 
 heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and 
 none can stay his hand, or say unto Him, What doest 
 Thou ? " Amen. 
 
REV. CHANDLER ROB BINS. 
 
PSALMS LXXVII: 19. 
 
 THY WAY is IN THE SEA, AND THY PATH IN THE GREAT 
 WATERS, AND THY FOOTSTEPS ARE NOT KNOWN. 
 
 How mysterious are the ways of Providence ! We 
 have passed through such a week of wonders and con 
 trasts, through such quick alternations of fierce extremes 
 of emotion, out of long anxiety into sudden hope and 
 joy, and anon, from highest jubilee to lowest mourning, 
 that may God have mercy upon us we come into 
 the sanctuary to-day with our minds so agitated, jaded, 
 amazed, that we are unfit to offer anything except a pro 
 found acknowledgment of God s inscrutable designs, and 
 an humble prayer for his most needed succor. 
 
 How mysterious are the ways of Providence ! We 
 felt this, and we said it here but under what opposite 
 conditions ! only three days ago. We had assembled 
 then, at the call of a human magistrate, to humiliate 
 ourselves for our sins ; but He who overruleth all had 
 recently sent us such a joyful surprise as to turn our 
 Fast into a Thanksgiving. And now, on this blessed 
 Easter Sunday, which we were expecting to celebrate 
 with double gladness, through the association of our joy 
 
 (215) 
 
216 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 for our country s triumph with our rejoicings for our 
 Redeemer s victory, He has permitted our land to be 
 shrouded with such a tragic gloom as even the radiance 
 of the resurrection cannot wholly dispel. Alas ! that 
 the same loving hands which were preparing to grace 
 this sacred altar with those simple but fragrant tokens 
 of our Christian gratitude, should have been called, at 
 the last moment, to entwine around them those drooping \ 
 emblems of our patriotic woe.*" 
 
 How mysterious are the ways of Providence ! The 
 life which He had protected for four eventful years 
 amidst a thousand dangers ; the life which was dear, 
 and every day becoming dearer to all who love our coun 
 try ; the life which, in human view, was most important 
 to the nation s welfare ; the life upon whose continu 
 ance, more than upon any other mortal pillar, we hung 
 our hopes of a brighter era of justice and of peace ; the 
 life which the myriads who are coming out of bondage 
 have daily commended with prayers and thanksgivings 
 to God ; the life which foreign nations, both friendly and 
 jealous, were beginning to respect and honor ; the life 
 which, in its peculiar way, was exerting an influence 
 more powerful and extensive than that of any potentate 
 of the old world ; the life which legions of armed men 
 stood ready to protect with their own, He has permitted 
 a vile assassin s hand to destroy at one fell blow. 
 
 * Several ladies of the church had prepared a cross of " May 
 flowers " for the front of the pulpit, and a large basket of rich flow 
 ers for the communion-table, in honor of Easter Sunday. On 
 hearing of the President s death they draped the pulpit with flags 
 of the United States, dressed with mourning. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 217 
 
 We are told in his holy oracles, that, without Him, not 
 a sparrow falleth to the ground, nor a hair of His ser 
 vants heads can be harmed. But He has not interposed 
 secret hand to shield that honored head from such an 
 ignoble fate. We are told that He counts the tears of 
 His children, and hears every sigh of the solitary suf 
 ferer. But He has not thwarted that murderous purpose 
 which has flooded a nation with grief, and extorted a 
 simultaneous wail of anguish from millions of wounded 
 hearts. 
 
 Yes, His ways are indeed mysterious ! But who of us 
 would question His wisdom or His mercy? "As high 
 as the heavens are above the earth, so are His thoughts 
 higher than our thoughts." Only because they are so 
 exalted are they incomprehensible to us. The darkness 
 which shrouds His plans is caused by their unfathomable 
 depth. We fail to see His goodness, because His love 
 is infinite. 
 
 What know we yet of the purposes of His providence 
 in permitting this horrid crime? Who can tell us what 
 consequences God may have foreseen would have resulted 
 from the disappointment of that infernal design ? What 
 consequences to the distinguished victim himself, and 
 what to the nation and to humanity ? You must dis 
 cover that secret before you begin to question His wis 
 dom. Who can tell us that greater evil would not have 
 accrued from the arrest, than from the execution of that 
 satanic deed? greater evil to him whom we lament, to 
 the people to whom he was so unselfishly devoted, and 
 to the cause of those principles which, as he himself 
 once said, were dearer to him than life, and which 
 19 
 
218 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 ought to be dearer to us also than the life of any mor 
 tal, however honored and beloved. Yon must solve that 
 problem, before you can begin to arraign His goodness. 
 You must pry into the future, and foresee the results 
 which will actually follow from this tragedy, the influ 
 ence it is to have upon the course and welfare of the 
 country, upon the settlement of the momentous questions 
 that are opening before us, upon the feeling and action 
 of the North and of the South, upon our domestic and 
 foreign relations and policy, upon the great interests of 
 justice, freedom, and Christian civilization, you must 
 look forward and acquaint yourself with these things 
 before you begin to murmur at what He has done, " who 
 seeth the end from the beginning." 
 
 Yes, His ways are mysterious, dark, very dark, and 
 awful, as we contemplate them amid these first pangs of 
 bereavement. But not wholly dark even now. Already 
 gleams of light flash upon us through the gloom. Already 
 some tokens of loving kindness find their way to our 
 hearts. 
 
 He who so reluctantly inaugurated the war of defence 
 and retribution which treason had forced upon us ; he 
 who till the last moment cherished the delusive hope, 
 offspring of his own generous nature, that his rebellious 
 countrymen would relent ; he who, through all the stages 
 of the fierce conflict, in spite of the bitterness which it 
 has engendered and the spirit of retaliation it has pro 
 voked, has invariably leaned to the side of forgiveness 
 and mercy ; he who, whatever errors he may be judged 
 by any to have committed, has under God conducted the 
 nation safely and honorably through its long path of 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 219 
 
 peril ; he who, as the event has proved, was the provi 
 dential man for the last four years, and whom we could 
 not have spared during their progress without far worse 
 disasters than any which have befallen us, he has 
 been graciously preserved to rejoice with us all over those 
 last victories which have vindicated the violated authori 
 ty of the nation ; he has been spared to hear the shouts 
 of our armies hailing the glorious issue which has crowned 
 their valor, and repaid them for all their toils ; he has 
 been spared to see the flag of the Union floating over the 
 strongholds of rebellion ; to contemplate near at hand the 
 blessed prospect of peace ; to meditate a proclamation of 
 amnesty ; to consider with his Cabinet the terms of rec 
 onciliation, and to send abroad to foreign nations those 
 significant messages which re-assert the suspended rights 
 of the nation, and demand the unqualified recognition of 
 its re-established dignity and power. In these provi 
 dential favors, which come at once to remembrance, we 
 should be ungrateful not to recognize the divine benig 
 nity, both to him and to us. 
 
 Moreover, we cannot but feel that he has died in a 
 good time for himself; in a moment of joy, in an hour 
 of hope and triumph, in the midst of peaceful and gen 
 erous thoughts, while offering grateful aspirations to 
 God, and devising acts of forgiveness and magnanimity 
 towards man. Though the manner of his death is 
 shocking to us, yet we should not forget that to him it 
 was without a pang. Though we contemplate the vile- 
 ness of the instrument with indignation and abhorrence, 
 yet he himself had no suspicion of the malignity of 
 
220 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 which he was the victim, and no feeling of revenge 
 towards the murderer who hurried him to his rest. 
 
 Whether he has died also in a good time for his 
 country and for us, remains yet to be revealed. That 
 Providence designs this event for the ultimate good of 
 the nation we will not, we cannot doubt. But of what 
 nature that good may be, and in what ways it may be 
 accomplished, only the future will disclose. 
 
 Perhaps it may be His holy purpose to subject us to 
 yet new tribulations. Perhaps He sees that we have not 
 improved as we ought the discipline which has been 
 hitherto laid upon us. Perhaps He perceives that it is 
 necessary that we should pass through yet another fur 
 nace of affliction before we shall have become purified 
 like gold tried in the fire. Perhaps He has seen that 
 we have trusted too much to an arm of flesh. Perhaps 
 He knows that the awful lessons of the war have not 
 sunk deep enough into our hearts ; that ^ T anity and 
 pride, frivolity and luxury, intemperance and dishonesty, 
 reckless speculation and greed of gain, immorality and 
 ungodliness, have not been rebuked and abashed and 
 awed as they ought to have been by His judgments, by 
 the vast bereavements and calamities which have been 
 visited upon us for our public and private sins. 
 
 If such as these are among His purposes, and that 
 they may be, the consciences of many must boar witness 
 that there is too much cause for believing, then it rests 
 in no small measure with ourselves whether this sudden 
 chastisement shall eventuate in our good. O my country 
 men, my countrymen ! let us suffer ourselves to be 
 implored and admonished, by all that is solemn and 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 221 
 
 shocking in this bereavement ; by this startling evidence 
 of the brittleness of human life and the vanity of human 
 hopes ; by this awful warning of the fearful crimes to 
 which wicked passions lead ; by all that is instructive 
 and exemplary in the life, and all that is impressive 
 and touching in the death, of the honored head of our 
 nation ; by all that our country has suffered and is suf 
 fering ; by all the precious blood which has been shed 
 in its behalf; by all the claims it has upon its children; 
 by all we owe to God, to our families, to our fellow-men, 
 and to our own souls, let us be admonished and im 
 plored to put away the evil of our doings ; to cast out 
 all low and selfish passions from our hearts ; to watch 
 and pray that we ourselves may not fall into temptation; 
 to watch and pray and work, each one of us in his place, 
 for the promotion of public virtue and the correction of 
 the national sins ; to dedicate the remainder of our lives 
 to wisdom and righteousness. It is upon the moral 
 results of these times of trial that the salvation both of 
 our country and ourselves depends ; and for these, let 
 us remember, God will hold our citizens individually 
 responsible. 
 
 But the oppressive sense of our great bereavement 
 must not be permitted to draw our thoughts away from 
 that sublime and joyous event which the whole Christian 
 world commemorates to-day. Indeed, it is all the more 
 salutary and needful, amidst this national distress and 
 perplexity, while the winds and waves are roaring, 
 while the earthly foundations of our confidence are 
 shaking beneath us, and the pillars of human pride and 
 hope are falling around us, that we should turn anew to 
 
222 t SERMONS ON THE 
 
 the bright revelation of immortal life, and contemplate 
 afresh the radiant pledge of the incorruptible and un 
 fading inheritance. 
 
 Christ is risen ! Thanks be to God, who has set this 
 transcendent fact over against all the gloom and misery 
 and mystery of man s earthly lot; thanks, that the 
 interposing love of our Maker has inwrought it as a 
 vital reality into human experience and history ; thanks, 
 that the heel of the woman s seed is actually planted on 
 the serpent s head ; that redeeming energy has mani 
 fested itself in human flesh ; that the Eternal Word has 
 spoken its life-giving truths through human lips ; that 
 that " Eternal Life which was with the Father " has 
 been upon the earth, seen by mortal eyes and handled 
 by mortal hands ; that power and love divine have come 
 down from heaven and dwelt among us, healing our 
 diseases, comforting our sorrows, forgiving and taking 
 away our sins ; that the Son of God, the " Wonderful," 
 the " Conqueror," the " Prince of Peace," of whose 
 " kingdom there shall be no end," has taken upon him 
 self our own nature, dignifying it by his perfect life, 
 redeeming it by his obedient death, renovating it by his 
 quickening spirit, raising and glorifying it by his own 
 glorious rising, that he is bound to us and identified 
 with us by the ties and sympathies of a common human 
 ity, and has promised to love and guide and save and 
 sanctify, and bring home, at length, spotless and joyous, 
 to his Father s presence, every one who believes in him. 
 
 To-day, in the midst of our gloom, we will fix our 
 thoughts and our hearts upon this " mystery of godli 
 ness," this miracle of the divine mercy, wrought in with 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 223 
 
 the course of human events as palpably as the saddest 
 reality of our experience, more vivid and more im 
 pressive than the most tragic scene of history, till all 
 that is dark, disheartening and appalling fades into 
 comparative obscurity, and the whole soul is irradiated 
 with the glory of that majestic vision. 
 
 Come, then, all ye who believe that " Christ died for 
 our sins, and rose again for our justification " ; in this 
 hour of general Christian jubilee, lift up your eyes, 
 swollen with weeping, lift up your hearts, burdened 
 with grief, and bear your part with the vast chorus of 
 believers, who are raising, in ten thousand temples, their 
 song of Christian triumph, "Thanks be to God, who 
 giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! " 
 
REV. W. S. STUD LEY. 
 
LAMENTATIONS V: 15, 16, 17, 19. 
 
 THE JOY OF OUR HEART is CEASED ; OUR DANCE is TURNED 
 INTO MOURNING. THE CROWN is FALLEN FROM OUR HEAD. 
 
 WOE UNTO US, THAT WE HAVE SINNED. FOR THIS OUR HEART 
 IS FAINT. FOR THESE THINGS OUR EYES ARE DIM. * * * 
 
 THOU, O LORD ! REMAINEST FOREVER ! THY THRONE FROM 
 GENERATION TO GENERATION. 
 
 THIS bright Easter morning is one of the saddest, and, 
 at the same time, one of the most hopeful mornings that 
 ever dawned upon the American people. 
 
 In the vigor of his days, in the ripeness of his expe 
 rience as a ruler, in the midst of duties which no man 
 knew or was better qualified to discharge than he, the 
 foremost man of this nation has been struck down by 
 the hand of an assassin. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, our President, whose mental and 
 moral vision was as clear and true as a sunbeam, and 
 whose great heart was as tender and loving as a wom 
 an s, a man who possessed such a genial and generous 
 nature that he had scarcely a personal enemy in the 
 world, having guided the republic safely through the 
 darkest night of trial that ever gathered about any 
 
 (227) 
 
228 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 people since the foundation of the world, just when 
 the morning light begins to dawn upon us, giving prom 
 ise of a long and glorious day, this wise and just and 
 merciful ruler lies murdered in the capital ! 
 
 What language can express our horror of .the blow 
 which struck him down ? And what shall we say of the 
 hellish power which prompted and aimed the blow ? 
 
 We thought we had already seen the utmost reach 
 of barbarism and savagery of which the slave-power is 
 capable. We had seen it trample on the rights of four 
 millions of people, using them solely for its own infernal 
 lusts. We had seen it make war on the most beneficent 
 and kindly government that was ever devised among 
 men. We had seen it take the slam victims of that 
 war, and of their bones make toys and playthings and 
 personal adornments for its wives and children. We 
 had seen it take the living victims of that war, and 
 transform sixty thousand of them into idiotic skeletons 
 or ghastly corpses by the torturing process of starvation. 
 Ay, in a land teeming with abundance, in the very heart 
 of Georgia, tens of thousands of Federal soldiers, 
 under the direction of Jefferson Davis, and with the 
 consent of Robert E. Lee, were literally and delib 
 erately and vindictively starved to death, or into hope 
 less idiocy ; and the last breath of many a brave man 
 was spent in offering a pitiful but unanswered cry for 
 bread ! 
 
 And now, to fill the measure of its wickedness, 
 slavery has done WHAT ? How shall we characterize 
 its latest deed ? What lexicon contains the word by 
 which to fitly call it ? What shall we name the act 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 229 
 
 of one who comes behind an unarmed, unsuspecting 
 man, surrounded by his family, enjoying an hour s 
 respite from the weightiest burden of responsibility and 
 care that ever rested upon a single mind, and delib 
 erately shoots him down ? What shall we call the act 
 of one who goes to the darkened chamber of an almost 
 dying man, a man whose bones have just been 
 so shattered by accident as to make it doubtful if he 
 ever moves again, and, leaping upon the bed, with 
 the fury of a fiend, plunges a dagger, again and again, 
 into his helpless and almost lifeless form ? And these 
 nameless deeds slavery has just done to increase and 
 perpetuate its previous record of infamy ! 
 
 Marc Antony, standing above the body of the mur 
 dered Ca9sar, is represented by the great dramatist 
 as saying what we might say to-day above the scarred 
 remains of the late wise and generous President of this 
 republic : 
 
 " Thou art the ruins of the noblest man 
 That ever lived in the tide of times ! 
 "VVoe to the hand that shed this costly blood ! " 
 
 Ay, woe to Slavery! woe to its perjured, bloody- 
 handed champion, Jefferson Davis ! woe to its adher 
 ents and defenders, its advocates and apologists, whether 
 in Carolina or Massachusetts ! Behold, the hour of its 
 destruction is at hand ! Nay, this very Easter Sunday 
 is the day of its resurrection ! its resurrection to ever 
 lasting shame and contempt! its resurrection to com 
 plete and eternal damnation ! Its doom is sealed ! 
 
 To-day, for one, I would rather be the murdered 
 20 
 
230 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 President, or the wounded Secretary, than to be the man, 
 who, in this hour of the nation s sorrow, has no prayer 
 to offer for the final and utter extermination of that 
 system which has lifted itself so long against our peace. 
 
 When Slavery did this last and most brutal of all its 
 deeds, it doubtless thought to intimidate the future rulers 
 of this land from meting out to traitors the punishment 
 which their crimes deserve. But it made a fearful 
 mistake. In dealing with traitors, Andrew Johnson s 
 little finger will be thicker than Abraham Lincoln s 
 loins. If the OLD president chastised them with whips, 
 # the NEW president will chastise them with scorpions. 
 Here is what he said only last week in a public address 
 on the occasion of the fall of Richmond : 
 
 " Treason is the highest crime known in the catalogue 
 of crimes ; and for him that is guilty of it, for him 
 that is willing to lift his impious hand against the 
 authority of the nation, I would say death is too easy 
 a punishment. My notion is that treason must be made 
 odious ; that traitors must be punished and impoverished: 
 their social power broken. 
 
 " You, my friends, have traitors in your very midst, and 
 treason needs rebuke and punishment here as well as 
 elsewhere. It is not the men in the field who are the 
 greatest traitors. It is the men who have encouraged 
 them to imperil their lives, while they themselves have 
 remained at home, expending their means, and exerting 
 all their power, to overthrow the government. Hence I 
 say this : the halter to intelligent, influential traitors. 
 But to the honest boy, to the deluded man, who have 
 been deceived into the rebel ranks, I would extend 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 231 
 
 leniency. I would say return to your allegiance, renew 
 your support to the government, and become good 
 citizens ; but the leaders I would hang." 
 
 Nor is this a new-born sentiment in the heart of 
 Andrew Johnson ; for as long ago as the second of 
 March, 1861, in a thrilling speech, which created an 
 unparalleled outbreak of enthusiasm in the galleries of 
 the Senate Chamber, he said : 
 
 "Show me the man who makes war on the govern 
 ment, and fires on its vessels, and I will show you a 
 traitor. And, if 1 were President of tlie United States, I 
 would have all such arrested, and when tried and con 
 victed, by the eternal God, I would have them hung /" 
 
 There is hope, therefore, in the bright beams of this 
 Easter sun! Our new ruler knows how to deal with 
 traitors ! 
 
 Abraham Lincoln is dead: slain by the hand of 
 slavery ! He lived long enough, however, to see the 
 promised land from Pisgah ; long enough to witness 
 the triumph of that army and navy of which he was the 
 commander-in- chief; long enough to walk through the 
 streets of Kichmond, clad in magisterial authority ; long 
 enough to insure for the American people " liberty and 
 union, now and forever, one and inseparable " ; long 
 enough to insure for himself a spotless record a death 
 less name. That which the poet sung of the Greek hero 
 is peculiarly applicable to our departed leader : 
 
 " Thou art FREEDOM S now, and FAME S ! " 
 There is hope, I say, as well as sadness, in this hour ; 
 
232 SERMONS. 
 
 the joy of our heart may have ceased ; our dance may 
 have been turned into mourning ; the crown may have 
 fallen from our head, but " THOTJ, O LOUD, REMAINEST 
 FOREVER; THY THRONE FROM GENERATION TO GEN 
 ERATION. And, while God remains, truth cannot be 
 shorn of its beauty or strength by any of ihe m machina 
 tions of error. 
 
 On that dreadful Friday, when the enemies of Jesus 
 nailed Him to the cross, they thought that they had 
 silenced Him for ever ; but there was never a greater 
 mistake. They had only placed Him where His divine 
 beauty could be more clearly seen, and where His divine 
 power could be more widely exerted. 
 
 And so it will be always. Every purpose of evil is 
 certain to be overruled for good. No outrage upon relig 
 ion, or humanity, is permitted to go unavenged forever. 
 
 Four years ago the arch leader of the rebellion declared 
 that the _war should be waged on northern soil ; that, 
 within their own State lines, the people of the North 
 should smell southern powder and feel southern steel. 
 But God ordained it otherwise. His decree went forth 
 that the power of injustice should be destroyed on the 
 very spot where it had been exerted. And this latest 
 crime of treachery and oppression, which has filled every 
 loyal heart so suddenly with mourning, by God s over 
 ruling grace shall work out more perfectly the redemp 
 tion of our land. Amen. 
 
REV. RUFUS ELLIS. 
 
L UKE XXIV: 5, 6. 
 
 AND AS THEY WERE AFRAID, AND BOWED DOWN THEIR FACES 
 TO THE EARTH, THEY SAID UNTO THEM, WHY SEEK. YE THE 
 
 LIVING AMONG THE DEAD ? HE IS NOT HERE, BUT IS RISEN. 
 
 THE voices still sound for the ear of faith ; and he 
 who hath that ear, let him hear what the spirit saith 
 unto the churches to-day. It is our resurrection-morn 
 ing, a time consecrated to gladness ; and yet it finds a 
 nation in tears. Our tower of strength is fallen. Bloody 
 violence has invaded the high places of the land ; and 
 he who was in deed as well as in name the head of the 
 people, more and more trusted, more and more loved, 
 as he was better and better known, lies dead, our 
 country s martyr. Only on the last Thursday I tried 
 to acknowledge, in a few earnest words, the eminent 
 worth and high services of our noble President, and now 
 he is no more with us on earth ; and, saddest thought 
 of all, the wrath of man hath wrought for us this woe. 
 Let every believing soul exercise a high and serene and 
 Christian trust, according to the great necessities of an 
 hour which hath no precedent in our history, and be 
 wise and calm and faithful in the persuasion, that, in 
 
 (235) 
 
236 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 the providence of God, the wrath of man shall accom 
 plish all the more completely that divine purpose which 
 nothing can defeat or so much as delay. Our Easter * 
 flowers shall remain in the house of prayer, not because 
 we are glad, we cannot be glad to-day, but because 
 we are full of the great hope which is the Christian s 
 anchor, and which holds in the stormiest sea. They 
 are providentially here to grace the burial of our Chief 
 Magistrate, honored and well beloved, the best defence 
 of the nation, under God, only yesterday : they shall be 
 eloquent symbols of immortality, shining witnesses of 
 the light that burns behind the darkest clouds, and 
 of the love which is unchanging ; of the earth, earthy, 
 and yet fragrant as with the airs of heaven, and telling 
 us of things heavenly, that 
 
 " Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood 
 Stand dressed in living green." 
 
 I am not sorry that it is Easter-morning ; that the sad 
 message has found us at the open tomb of Jesus, thank 
 ful, with a Christian thankfulness, that death is for 
 ever abolished, and taught, by that look of triumph in 
 the eyes of our risen Lord, how surely and how swiftly 
 sometimes God brings the best things out of the worst, 
 and clothes the heaviest spirits in the most radiant gar 
 ments of praise. Let us confess his hand; and that 
 known unto him are all the works of man from the 
 foundation of the world ; and that this blow also was 
 needed, else it had not been given in the providence of 
 One who never willingly afflicts. 
 
 * Easter Sunday, April 16. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 237 
 
 " Why seek ye the living among the dead ? He is 
 not here, but is risen." It is a pious, faithful, and most 
 tender office to go to the graves of our loved ones ; and 
 not to weep there were to be less than human. Know 
 ye not, said the apostle, that ye are the temples of God ; 
 and that your very bodies are consecrated, fashioned into 
 majesty and beauty by the life within ? And \ve have 
 all seen how the departing spirit sets upon the lifeless 
 form its own lovely image ; and, in proportion as we 
 honor the soul, we deal very tenderly with the soul s 
 wonderful tabernacle. Nevertheless there is need of the 
 question, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" 
 need that, even here in Christendom, we should again 
 and again be told, " He is not here, but is risen." 
 They are not the words which man s wisdom teacheth. 
 Science does not announce them amongst her discoveries, 
 old or new. The heart of nature hath no such burden 
 as that to roll forth from its burning core, persistent as 
 is its hope, deep as is its desire of immortality. The 
 voices are the voices of angels; they come to us from 
 that tomb in which Christ and his gospel seemed to be 
 for ever buried ; they are the echoes of those early testi 
 monies which declared to all the world, beginning at 
 Jerusalem, that he who " suffered under Pontius Pilate, 
 was crucified, dead, and buried," rose from the dead on 
 the third day, to be called, ever after, the Lord s Day, 
 to be the Easter of each week, 
 
 " Till week-days, following in their train, 
 The fulness of the blessing gain ; 
 Till all, both resting and employ, 
 Be one Lord s Day of holy joy." 
 
238 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 It is an unspeakable privilege to live in days when 
 the angelic voices are to be heard ; and we never hear 
 them more distinctly, and are never more sure that they 
 are from heaven, than when, in our human weakness, we 
 are afraid, and our faces are bowed down to the earth. 
 It would be agony sometimes to look upon the poor 
 stricken body, over which the change may have passed 
 almost in the twinkling of an eye, if the spirit which 
 leads us into all blessed and consoling truths were not 
 waiting for the opportunity to say, " He is not here, but 
 is risen;" for that is what the spirit whispers in the 
 heart of every true believer since the Lord abolished 
 death. The bridegroom has been taken from them, and 
 the children of the bridechamber may well mourn ; but 
 it is a holy and hopeful sorrow which moves their hearts, 
 and they are lifted at once into heavenly places with the 
 departed, and he is transfigured before them ; and the 
 eyes which were holden before that they could not see 
 are anointed; and, because he lives, we live. Listen 
 now, as you never yet have listened, for the angelic 
 voices. It is a nation s opportunity to grow into a 
 deeper faith in the everlasting life, a faith that death 
 only sets free, and reveals the bound and hidden soul. 
 It is a faith which we owe to Christ. He changed the 
 philosopher s opinion and the people s hope into a prac 
 tical and abiding persuasion. The angels did not light 
 up the tomb with their glowing faces and shining gar 
 ments until he was laid in it. Then words of good 
 cheer were heard, which were not passed by as the idle 
 talcs of the superstitious, but were taken up as most 
 authentic gospels, and proclaimed wherever men, from 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 239 
 
 fear of death, were subject to bondage. It is our blessed 
 heritage from those who were glad because they had 
 seen the Lord. It is a faith which we can have in its 
 power and fulness only so far as we are thoroughly 
 Christian, not merely in the reception of the outward 
 facts, but in a conformity to the very heart and mind of 
 Christianity. It is a faith which must be proportioned 
 to our other faiths, and chiefly to our confidence in truth 
 and goodness and immortal love. Not to all the people 
 is Christ revealed, but to witnesses chosen before of 
 God, who, though like Thomas they might hesitate for a 
 moment, could not scoff like the Athenians when Jesus 
 and the resurrection were named together, since nothing 
 could be more credible than the rising of such a Lord. 
 Not of us is it to believe; and yet God s gift is also 
 our act, and we must exercise ourselves in this grace ; 
 and a public grief so heavy and so unlooked for, and so 
 suggestive of anxious questionings as this, which presses 
 upon all hearts to-day, may challenge and exalt our 
 faith in things unseen, and help us to taste the powers 
 of the world to come, even more than a private sorrow. 
 Let this be the measure of our Christianity. By this 
 let us know whether we have been the companions and 
 friends of Jesus, whether we look at the things 
 which are seen, or at the things which are not seen, 
 according as we shall be able to look up from the 
 grave, and to seek for the living in their appointed 
 and exalted places. God is not the God of the dead. 
 Truly to confess Him is to confess the life everlasting. 
 No hand of violence can rob you of aught living, or 
 consign you to hopeless sorrowing for the dead, if you 
 
240 SEKMONS ON THE 
 
 yourself are truly alive. Find the soul in the bod} whilst 
 the body lives, and you cannot be persuaded, no, not 
 though an angel from heaven should say it, that, 
 when the body dies, the soul too goes down with the 
 dust into the grave. " Neither wilt thou suffer thine 
 Holy One to see corruption." Oh, for that strong and 
 ardent faith, which, in losing a visible person, gains an 
 invisible life ! a life which is ours no more by virtue 
 of corporal contact or contiguity, but flows in upon us 
 through channels hidden and divine. 
 
 It is a blessed faith which enables us, when the man 
 is gone, to rejoice as we never rejoiced before in his 
 high and gracious manhood ; and, when the countenance 
 is changed, to walk more gladly and steadfastly than 
 ever before in the pure light which illumined it, and 
 made the hard lines of a plain and often sad face soft 
 and flowing and almost comely. It is a blessed faith 
 which so joins us to the wisdom and goodness, to the 
 honor and gentleness, and all the fair and sweet human 
 ities of our friend, that, when he is taken from us in a 
 moment, we find that what made him justly dear is 
 more ours than ever ; not to be groped for among the 
 dead, but already abroad in this world of the living ; 
 accomplishing still the will of God on earth, and 
 amongst the children of men. It is a blessed faith 
 which suffers us not to linger over our dead beyond the 
 just time of a natural and healthy sorrow, but commits 
 and commends us, as soon as may be, to the paths of 
 our daily life in which he walked ; to the works which 
 he was not permitted to do, and to the greater works 
 which he promised ; which makes him more to us, in the 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 241 
 
 way of inspiration and guidance, than he could have 
 been whilst he was in the body. In mourning for the 
 tabernacle which a mad and wicked hand hath invaded, 
 do not forget to seize and appropriate the great life 
 which hath been not so much unclothed as clothed upon. 
 Disappoint any who may have secretly desired or planned 
 this great crime, by showing forth, with the enthusiasm 
 of a new discipleship, the very being, the very persistent 
 purpose, which they would have put out of the world 
 had it been possible. And what vengeance is to be 
 compared with that divine vengeance which multiplies 
 a thousand-fold the one voice that a cruel death has 
 silenced, and makes of the truth which was buried in the 
 ground a word of strength and joy for the whole world ? 
 There is a crime unto death. It ought not to be 
 lightly dealt with. Let no man ask that it may be for 
 given ; but, when the ministers of God who bear not 
 the sword in vain have fulfilled their office, and the 
 criminal has received the stern sentence, let us remem 
 ber, were it only for the honor and the love which we 
 bear to our dead, the generous and humane spirit that 
 was so large a part of his noble manhood. I confess 
 that I have not thought that they mourn for him wisely, 
 who, renouncing his spirit before his poor outraged clay 
 was cold, propose to be bitter and revengeful in fact, 
 though not of course in name, as he was not. Friends, 
 Christian friends, followers of him whose first disciples 
 were as loving as they were just, let us not forget the 
 many sad warnings of man s history, the cheats which 
 his deceitful heart has put upon him ; let us not forget 
 that what is begun in righteousness and love is often 
 21 
 
242 SERMONS. 
 
 ended, and not well, in unrighteousness and wrath. We 
 shall have lost our noble leader indeed, if we lose his 
 spirit, the wise and considerate mind, the excellent 
 judgment, the tender, humane heart, that were in him ; 
 if, with all the wrongs, cruel wrongs, foul wrongs, that 
 we have suffered as a nation, we forget that we are a 
 Christian nation, and proceed to demand, and that, too, 
 in the name of our gentle sufferer, measures of severity 
 which he would never have sanctioned; so taking 
 advantage of his dying, to thwart one of the high aims 
 of his living. You know that I have spoken in but one 
 voice from the beginning of this war, pleading for its 
 rightfulness in the sight of the highest Christianity ; and 
 so you will not misunderstand my warning, lest, misled 
 by passion, and not following, as we suppose, our man 
 of peace, we inaugurate a reign of terror and blood. 
 God grant that our martyr may be our deliverer ; that 
 he who was raised up in the most manifest providence 
 of the Lord to be our counsellor and guide in our years 
 of sore trial, may still rule and bless the people from 
 the hiding-place of spiritual power ; and, if we have 
 had occasion to distrust him who is now called to the 
 highest seat, may our fears be changed into hopes, and 
 the desire of the nation be accomplished ! * 
 
 * The preacher desires that the paragraphs above may not be 
 interpreted as recommending lenity to the authors of privy 
 conspiracy and rebellion ; and he is glad to add that the circum 
 stances, well known to the country, which led so many to distrust 
 our present national "Chief Magistrate, have been explained, by 
 those who speak with authority, to his entire satisfaction. 
 
REV. SAMUEL K. LOTHROP. 
 
2 SAMUEL XIX: 2. 
 
 AND THE VICTORY THAT DAY WAS TURNED INTO MOUENING 
 UNTO ALL THE PEOPLE. 
 
 BRETHREN, but one theme can command your attention 
 this morning. Only the contemplation of one event, 
 solemn and momentous, looked at in the light of that 
 inscrutable providence which is ever wise and merciful, 
 studied in its social and civil, its moral and religious 
 aspects, is in harmony with the painful emotions that 
 swell our hearts, the troubled thoughts that are pressing 
 upon our minds. 
 
 Three days since, we gathered here for a service of 
 humiliation, of human appointment, at the call of the 
 civil authorities ; God so ordered it, that it became of 
 necessity a service of gratitude and thanksgiving. The 
 black cloud of treason and rebellion, which for four 
 years had lowered over the land, seemed distinctly 
 broken and scattered, floating away in the distance. 
 The dawn of approaching peace, of reunion, of pros 
 perity, of a glorious and honorable future for the nation, 
 gave clear indications that it must ere long burst upon 
 
 21* (245) 
 
246 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 us in splendid effulgence ; so that, though conscious of 
 our unworthiness, we could not think of our sins so 
 much as of the divine goodness and mercy. 
 
 We expected to gather here this beautiful Easter 
 Sunday with our thoughts far away from present scenes, 
 undisturbed by civil cares or anxieties ; travelling back 
 to that holy morning hour when the gates of the sepul 
 chre, sealed and guarded by all the power of the Caesars, 
 were riven, and " the Crucified " came forth, and the 
 world awoke to find itself bathed with new light, 
 clothed with an immortal hope, refreshed with a heav 
 enly benediction, that would be felt anew in our hearts 
 on this grand and solemn anniversary. But again God 
 has otherwise ordered. We cannot forget that blessed 
 and stupendous fact in his providence, the resurrec 
 tion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but the 
 echo, coming down to us through the ages, of that 
 glorious declaration, " He is not here, he is risen," 
 which we expected would break upon our ears, filling 
 our hearts with peace and gladness, is lost, as it were, 
 overborne by the stunning announcement which burst 
 upon us yesterday morning : " He is dead, Abraham 
 Lincoln, the President of the United States, is dead, 
 felled by the hand of a dastardly assassin, in the midst 
 of a scene of quiet and peaceful relaxation from the 
 oppressive cares of state." We cannot put from our 
 thoughts that sudden and startling announcement, that 
 sad and solemn event. It is not necessary that we 
 should ; nay, it is every way meet that we should not. 
 The true place to which we should bring this great be 
 reavement, this atrocious crime, this national calamity, 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 247 
 
 this loss to the world, this event, the magnitude of 
 whose influences, as they touch the relations and affect 
 the policy of our own or other nations, cannot be com 
 puted, the true place to which to bring it and all the 
 thoughts and emotions it awakens, is the altar of God ; 
 that we may bow there with a submission as profound 
 as our sorrow, with a trust as deep and strong as our 
 necessities. 
 
 Brethren, I feel almost incompetent to direct your 
 thoughts this morning, as I have scarcely been able for 
 the last twenty-four hours to collect and guide my own. 
 Language seems impotent to give utterance to all that I 
 think and feel. But, doubtless, your experience has been 
 similar to my own. Yesterday, after the first outburst 
 of my sorrow, and, I am not ashamed to add, of 
 righteous indignation against the fiendish author of this 
 terrific tragedy, the instincts of faith and the habit of 
 my heart prevailed, and I heard, as it were, the Holy 
 Spirit breathing in my ear the solemn and sublime 
 injunction, "Be still, and know that I am God;" and 
 there was borne in upon my mind, also, that declaration 
 of the patriarch Jacob, uttered for the comfort of his 
 children as they were about to be deprived of the coun 
 sels of his wisdom and the joy of his presence, " Behold 
 I die, but God shall be with you." Our first duty, my 
 friends, in this sad hour, now, as in all great emergencies, 
 public and private, the only help, comfort, and strength 
 of our souls is to turn unto God, and lean upon Him. 
 We must strive to be calm. This calamity which seems 
 unspeakably great, this bereavement which makes a 
 nation weep and covers a mighty land with mourning, 
 
248 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 this demon deed, instigated by the brutal passions, and 
 perpetrated in the utter moral bewilderment, which, as 
 many incidents in this war, and the war itself, so pain 
 fully and so conclusively testify, the barbarous institu 
 tion of slavery begets in the human heart, was within 
 the control of the Almighty Providence ; and, in some 
 way, which we cannot fathom, it will be made to con 
 tribute to our good, and the furtherance of the benignant 
 purposes of that Providence. We believe this ; we must 
 strive to feel it, and be calm. Many have been accus 
 tomed, of late, to regard, and to speak of Abraham 
 Lincoln, as a providential man. Political opponents, as 
 well as friends, have been disposed to acquiesce in the 
 epithet ; the idea was fast getting to be the general feel 
 ing, the conviction of the nation. It was natural that 
 this feeling should have arisen, have grown so strong, and 
 been so cherished as to become a conviction. His history 
 and character, his slender opportunities, and marked 
 abilities, the wonderful way in which, under providence, 
 he has presided over the nation, and by a singularly 
 wise, calm, unimpassioned, but firm and persevering 
 policy, carried the country, with honor before the world, 
 through four years of a civil war which has no parallel 
 in the record of the nations, seem to justify and demand 
 that he should be regarded as the man for the crisis, 
 " a providential man." 
 
 " I called thee from the shoep-cote to be ruler over 
 Israel," said the Lord to David, and the words have an 
 application and significance here. The shepherd of 
 Hebron, called to the throne of Israel, and the humble 
 citizen of Illinois, raised from the lowly sphere of private 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 249 
 
 life to the most august position, and the charge of the 
 most momentous affairs, as President of the United States, 
 have a providential similitude, which we may rightfully 
 recognize. The care of sheep seemed no meet prepara 
 tion for the cares of state : and the humble duties, the 
 limited range of action, and small experience in public 
 national affairs, embraced in Mr. Lincoln s previous life, 
 seemed but a meagre preparation for the exalted post he 
 was called to fill ; the weighty and responsible trusts he 
 was summoned to discharge. It will be the verdict of 
 history however, it is the admission of to-day, it is the 
 testimony of every honest and unprejudiced heart in the 
 land, that he has discharged these duties amid circum 
 stances of unparalleled embarrassment and difficulty, with 
 vast and singular wisdom. Even his peculiarities of per 
 son, manners, and character, unchanged by his elevation 
 to exalted station and large power, have contributed to his 
 usefulness and increased his personal influence, because 
 they have been rightfully interpreted as indications that 
 the man was greater than his office, and therefore com 
 petent to its duties and worthy of its honors. Never 
 before, I apprehend, has any man been invested with the 
 august dignity of the Presidency of this great republic, 
 and been so little changed by it ; so little affected by 
 the personal aggrandizement, so free from the intellectual 
 and moral giddiness often consequent upon the position. 
 He has grown, undoubtedly, since his entrance upon his 
 high office; grown immensely and continually; enlarged 
 intellectually, developed morally : but he has shown all 
 along, and concentrated in himself thereby, more and 
 more, the confidence of the nation, that his heart was as 
 
250 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 warm, his nature as simple, his purpose as honest, his 
 judgment as strong and clear, his head as cool, amid all 
 the grandeur and glory of the nation s palace, and the 
 shaping of the nation s course and policy, as they were 
 beneath the humble roof of his private dwelling, and 
 the little routine and the petty cares of his attorney s 
 office on the Western prairies. Such indifference or 
 superiority to the influence of outward position is a clear 
 indication of something great and strong in the character. 
 Forty hours ago, my friends, I presume we should all 
 have acquiesced in speaking of Abraham Lincoln as 
 * a providential man" ; and the expression would have 
 been an indication of a patriotic cheerfulness, trust, and 
 faith in our hearts. If called upon to justify it, we 
 should have spoken briefly of these four memorable 
 years ; of his unquestionable escape from assassination 
 on his journey to Washington for his first inauguration ; 
 of the dark prospects, the extraordinary embarrassments 
 under which he assumed the reins of government, and 
 entered upon the administration of our affairs ; of his 
 sagacity, his mingled moderation and firmness at the 
 outset ; of his wonderful wisdom in following the lead 
 ings of Providence and the course of events, as evinced 
 in his various proclamations and the successive steps 
 of his policy ; of the feeble life of the nation, its 
 existence hanging upon a thread, and of the all but 
 impotence of the government, as he received it from the 
 hands of his predecessor ; and cf the healthy, deep- 
 throbbing life of the nation at this hour ; and of the 
 government, strong, nay, mighty and irresistible, through 
 the nation s confidence, and we should have felt that 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 251 
 
 in all this there was an ample justification of the faith 
 which turned trustingly to him as a man of wonderful 
 endowments, raised up by Providence to meet a momen 
 tous emergency in our national career. 
 
 We should have been right in thus feeling ; but 
 and here is the point and purpose of what I have said 
 if his life was providential, is not his death prov 
 idential also ? If God raised him up for a grand 
 purpose, for a great and noble work, would he permit 
 his death, and that purpose unaccomplished, that work 
 not done ? He has not fulfilled all our wishes, answer 
 ed all our expectations, discharged all the trusts we 
 reposed in him ; but has he not done God s work, the 
 work God gave him to do for us ? Who shall dare to 
 assume that he has not ? Who shall refuse to hope and 
 to believe, that events will reveal the Providence in his 
 death to be as wise and benignant as the Providence in 
 his life. Ah, how sad, how bereaved the Israelites felt 
 when Moses went up into the mountain, and returned 
 not, but died there alone ! For forty years he had led 
 them in the wilderness, and, after many misgivings on 
 their part, become the object of their reverence and 
 their trust. By counsel and encouragement, by instruc 
 tion and example, he had sustained them in all the 
 perils and privations of their wanderings, and brought 
 them at length, under the divine guidance, to the banks 
 of the Jordan, which they were about to pass, and to 
 the sight of the promised land, which they were about 
 to possess. He beheld that land, and saw that it was 
 beautiful and good, but was not permitted to enter it. 
 Israel wept at his fate and mourned his loss, but found 
 
252 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 in Joshua another leader adequate to their great 
 necessities. So our Israel mourns this day its provi 
 dential leader and head. A resemblance to David, in 
 his elevation from a humble to an exalted station, there 
 is a resemblance to Moses in the time, though not in the 
 manner, of his departure. He has led us through four 
 years of terrible civil war ; amid the occasional mis 
 givings of some of his friends, and beneath the conflict 
 of parties, he has steadily gained upon the confidence, 
 the respect and affection of the nation : till at length 
 it may be safely said, that, on Friday last, there was no 
 man living in whose political wisdom and sagacity, in 
 whose moderation and magnanimity, in whose simple 
 honesty of purpose, and broad, unselfish patriotism, the 
 great mass of the people, of all sections and all parties, 
 reposed such confidence, as in Abraham Lincoln s. It 
 was the general, the all but universal feeling, that, in 
 some just and right way, he would pilot the nation 
 safely and honorably through to a glorious peace and a 
 blessed reunion. Like Moses on the banks of the 
 Jordan, he saw this peace in near prospect, and felt that 
 the object of all his noble efforts, his days and nights of 
 anxious thought and painful solicitude, was just within 
 his grasp. But, like Moses, he was not permitted to 
 enter into that peace, to attain personally that object. 
 Suddenly, like a bolt from heaven, the dastard hand of 
 an assassin did its work, and 
 
 "He who cared not to be great, 
 But as he served or saved the State," 
 
 passed from the scene of his glory and his usefulness; 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 253 
 
 and the universal joy in our recent triumphs and cheer 
 ing prospects, "the victory of that day is turned into 
 mourning unto all the people." 
 
 Brethren, our first and our last duty, the beginning 
 and the end of our consolation, our only help, is to turn 
 unto God, and trust ; to feel that the Lord God omnipo 
 tent reigneth, and that all will be well. Even beneath 
 this trust there is sorrow and anxiety in our hearts. The 
 death of our President at this crisis is a tremendous loss, 
 and I would not say one word to diminish your sense of 
 it ; for it can hardly be over-estimated. It is a great 
 national calamity, and I feel it to be so. Every nerve 
 and fibre of my being vibrates to it. I would not feel it 
 less, or have you feel it less. It comes also in the form 
 of an atrocious public outrage and murder, with a fear 
 ful shock to us and to the world. For the first time 
 that monster crime, to be abhorred by every citizen in 
 every land, but most of all under a government like ours, 
 political assassination from the unhallowed promptings 
 of political and party passions, stains our annals, startles 
 us from our security, ay, and from our dreams of for 
 bearance and tenderness. How far the rebel govern 
 ment or leaders, recently at Richmond, were privy to the . 
 fiendish purpose so fatally executed, remains to be ascer 
 tained and proved : it is not to be assumed. That they 
 were vindictive, desperate, and cruel enough for such 
 privity, the stories, too terribly authenticated to be 
 doubted or denied, of the Libby, of Belle Isle, and of 
 Andersonville, are conclusive evidence ; and I confess 
 that my strong disposition to forbear, forgive, and trust, 
 grows weak ; it melts away almost, before that indelible 
 22 
 
254 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 record of inhuman barbarities, deliberately, perseveringly 
 practised, month after month, upon defenceless men, 
 prisoners of war, within immediate reach, within sight 
 almost of the headquarters of the most distinguished 
 general of the Confederate armies, whose friends claim 
 for him that he is a chivalrous, magnanimous, high- 
 toned gentleman. Let him. show that he had no 
 knowledge of these barbarities, or having knowledge, 
 had no power to prevent them ; let him show that 
 he ever uttered to his soldiers or his government a 
 word of remonstrance against them ; then, but not 
 till then, may his claim to magnanimity, and the sym 
 pathies of his former fellow-citizens, and the compas 
 sionate regards of honorable and merciful men, be 
 admitted. Judging from what we know of his posi 
 tion and his power, the record is, at present, a foul 
 blot against his name. Let him wipe it out if he can. 
 None will rejoice more than I, if he can do so. I wait, 
 the country \\aits, the world waits for him to do it, ere 
 the decision is made as to the estimation in which his 
 treason, and his character as the great military chieftain 
 of the rebellion, are to be held. As the record stands, 
 the rebel government and leaders at Richmond have 
 shown themselves base and cruel enough to be privy to 
 this dastard deed of outrage and murder, but it is diffi 
 cult to conceive that they were weak enough for that 
 privity. All human experience, the history of all simi 
 lar crimes, would teach them that this would recoil upon 
 themselves with a terrible vengeance and fearful retribu 
 tion, would dishonor them before the world, make them 
 and their cause infamous in the- judgment of every civil- 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 255 
 
 ized government. They must have known, also, all the 
 leaders and people of the rebel states, if not utterly 
 bereft of reason, and blinded by passion, must have per 
 ceived and felt that the death of Abraham Lincoln would 
 deprive them of the best and strongest friend they had 
 at the North ; of the man whose disposition prompted, 
 and whose office and influence would enable him to 
 secure for them as large a forbearance, as generous and 
 magnanimous a treatment as could possibly be granted 
 to the authors of so much mischief, the instigators and 
 leaders in a political crime so gigantic in its proportions, 
 its monstrous purpose defeated at such cost of blood and 
 treasure to the nation. No ! There must be clearer 
 proof before I can believe that the leaders at Richmond 
 were so weak and bewildered as to be privy to this con 
 spiracy for assassination. There is no heart in the land, 
 I apprehend, to which this terrible event will bring a 
 sharper pang than to that of the President of the Con 
 federate States : a pang not of sympathy, but of fear ; 
 because he will read in it the foreshadowing of his own 
 doom, the closing of the gates of mercy against himself, 
 should he ever be brought within the grasp of that gov 
 ernment whose laws he has defied, whose liberties he 
 has trampled upon when he could, and whose existence 
 he has attempted to destroy. 
 
 But though there were no privity, and for the honor 
 of our common humanity, I hope it may be clearly shown 
 that there was none, a fearful responsibility rests upon 
 the rebel leaders and government. This crime, " the 
 deep damnation of this taking off" by assassination, 
 runs back to them by the irresistible logic of cause and 
 
256 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 effect. It is the natural product of the spirit and prin 
 ciples they have constantly manifested. It is the full and 
 perfect out-flowering of that ignorance and passion, that 
 rancor and hate towards the North which they have stu 
 diously endeavored to cherish in the southern heart. It 
 is the last, culminating, decisive testimony to the debasing, 
 morally bewildering, and unhumanizing influence of that 
 institution of slavery which they would have made the 
 corner stone of the political edifice they proposed to rear. 
 The judgment of the world, therefore, the verdict of his 
 tory, I apprehend, will hold them largely responsible for 
 a deed which secures to its perpetrator an unenviable 
 immortality in the records of crime, gives his name 
 a conspicuous place on the dark list of those around 
 whose memories gather more and more, as the years 
 roll on, the execrations of mankind. 
 
 But let us turn from these thoughts. They would 
 come up in my heart ; I could not prevent it. But I 
 did not wish to keep them there ; I preferred to let 
 them out, and so have given them utterance. We have 
 been stunned by a sudden calamity, and stand aghast 
 at the awful mode of its coming. In the midst of our 
 cheerfulness, under the smiles of a brighter day than 
 we had known for four years, and whose to-morrow 
 promised to be brighter still, we have been suddenly 
 thrown into utter darkness, by the foul murder of the 
 President of the republic. Without warning or prepa 
 ration, we have been visited by what to our short-sighted 
 wisdom seems an irreparable loss, and in a moment all 
 our joy in " the victory of that day is turned into mourn 
 ing unto all the people " ; and again I urge that our first 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 257 
 
 duty is to turn unto God and be calm, our only strength 
 to have the thought of our hearts and the prayer of our 
 lips, " the Lord s will be done." God is still with us, 
 here is the great consolation and help of the soul. 
 
 " Human watch from harm can t ward us : 
 God will keep, and God will guard us." 
 
 Human wisdom, the prophet, the counsellor, the mighty 
 man, may depart ; but the wisdom of God abides to 
 illumine a new generation, and to guide his children in 
 the way. From the beginning until now, and especially 
 in the great struggle, which, notwithstanding this sore 
 bereavement, we may still devoutly hope is approaching 
 its conclusion, our land has received so many tokens of 
 the divine favor, that to doubt the guardian care of God, 
 and the merciful purposes of his providence towards this 
 nation and the interests of liberty and humanity, so 
 bound up with its preservation, would be a sin. We 
 may still trust, it is our duty to trust, that behind this 
 dark cloud there is wisely hid some great mercy, which 
 shall one day be revealed amid the adoring acknowledg 
 ments of ourselves or our children. 
 
 After this trust in God, our next duty is to cherish 
 in grateful reverence the memory of the man and the 
 magistrate whose, to us untimely, fate we mourn, and 
 gather up the lessons which his example teaches and 
 his death enforces. I am not adequate, had I time, for 
 the presentation of the prominent points in his life, 
 or a sharp analysis and delineation of his character. I 
 remember, in the only interview I ever had with him, 
 22* 
 
258 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 in the autumn of 1861, at Washington, in company with 
 twenty or thirty other persons, each of whom had his 
 special purpose in the visit, and went up in his turn to 
 present it, that I was at first amused, not to say offended, 
 at what seemed an undignified levity, and a marvellous 
 facility in conveying or enforcing his answers to the 
 various requests presented, by telling some story, the 
 logic of whose application to the case in point was 
 unmistakably clear. During this part of the interview 
 I was led to wonder where was the power ? how had this 
 man so impressed himself upon the people of the coun 
 try, as to be elevated to the position he occupied ? That 
 wonder ceased, that inquiry was answered, before I left 
 the presence. A lady made application for the release 
 of her brother, who had been arrested for disloyalty by 
 the major-general commanding in the vicinity of Frede 
 rick, Maryland. The President declined to interfere, on 
 the ground that he knew nothing of the circumstances 
 but what she had told him, and that the arrest and de 
 tention were, necessarily, within the discretionary power 
 of the major-general commanding in the district. Con 
 siderable conversation ensued, and some tears were shed ; 
 and, at length, the President consented to indorse upon 
 her petition, which was to be forwarded to the major- 
 general, that he had no objection to the release, provided 
 the general thought it compatible with the public safety. 
 As he gave her back the petition, with this indorsement, 
 he said, and I think I remember very nearly his exact 
 words : " Madam, I desire to say that there is no man 
 who feels a deeper or more tender sympathy than I do, 
 with all cases of individual sorrow, anxiety, and grief 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 259 
 
 like yours, which these unhappy troubles occasion ; but I 
 see not how I can prevent or relieve them. I am here 
 to administer this Government, to uphold the Constitu 
 tion, to maintain the Union of the United States. 
 That is my oath ; before God and man, I must, I mean 
 to the best of my ability, to keep that oath ; and, how 
 ever much my personal feelings may sympathize with 
 individual sorrows and anxieties, I must not yield to 
 them. They must all give way before the great public 
 exigencies of the country ! " I shall never forget the 
 simple majesty, the grandeur and force with which these 
 few sentences were uttered, or their effect. In a moment 
 the room was as still as death. The little audience that 
 had, just before, been laughing at his stories, were awed 
 and impressed, thrilled through and through by these 
 few solemn and earnest words. They were a revela 
 tion of the man. They made me feel that there was 
 a power in him that gave him a right to be where he 
 was. That right he has vindicated more and more every 
 hour since his first inauguration. That he has made no 
 mistakes, that he was at all times superior to the weak 
 nesses of our nature, or the faults of humanity, it would 
 be neither wise nor truthful to maintain. I look for 
 light and explanation to be thrown upon some acts and 
 incidents of his administration ; but I have confidence 
 that that light will reveal reasons which will show them 
 to have been wise and right, and establish a patriotic 
 integrity of purpose that will do him honor. In general, 
 the exhibition of himself, made these last four years, is 
 proof to us, and to the world, that he was largely 
 endowed with many large and noble qualities ; and for 
 
260 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 his fidelity in his high office, for his wisdom, firmness, 
 and moderation, for his genuine simplicity and homely 
 ways, for his tenderness and compassion, his watchful 
 guardianship of the great interests of liberty, and all his 
 incalculable services to the country, which he has done 
 as much as any man to save, I hold him in grateful 
 reverence and honor ; and now that he has fallen, a noble 
 martyr to a noble cause, coming generations will rise up, 
 and bless his name, which will grow grander and brighter 
 through all coming time, and stand highest among the 
 names of those whom the world cannot afford to forget. 
 In some lines from Tennyson s Ode on the Duke of 
 Wellington, I find the most fitting description of his 
 character and our duty to his memory : 
 
 " O, friends ! our chief State oracle is mute ; 
 Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood, 
 The statesman, moderate, wise, resolute, 
 Whole in himself, a common good. 
 Mourn for the man of amplest influence, 
 Our greatest, yet with least pretence, 
 Rich in saving common sense, 
 And, as the greatest only are, 
 In his simplicity, sublime. 
 O voice, from which their omens all men drew, 
 O iron nerve, to true occasion true, 
 O fallen at length that tower of strength, 
 Which stood four square to all the winds that blew. 
 His life was work, his language rife 
 With rugged maxims hewn from life, 
 His voice is silent in your council hall 
 Forever ; and whatever tempests lower 
 Forever silent ; even if they broke 
 In thunder, silent ; yet remember all 
 He spoke among you, and the man who spoke." 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 261 
 
 But there is other work for us than remembrance. 
 We may not dwell always on the past. The exigencies 
 of the country, the duties of patriotism, the calls to be 
 faithful in the great struggle to which the nation has 
 been summoned, and which is not yet ended, these 
 abide ; and the national calamity over which we mourn 
 should be in all our hearts a quickening incentive to 
 persevering effort. " God buries his workmen, but carries 
 on his work." The individual dies, the generations pass ; 
 but the interests of humanity remain, and the nation 
 continues. Abraham Lincoln is dead. Peace be to his 
 memory, and immortal his fame. But the President of 
 the United States still lives, the embodiment of the 
 nation s life and power; and the first duty of patriotism 
 now, the duty to which this open grave around which 
 the nation is standing gives a mighty emphasis, is to 
 gather around that President, and by the fresh, earnest, 
 manly expression of our sympathy and confidence, give 
 him strength and assurance for the high duties he is 
 suddenly called to discharge. There is one dark hour, 
 which he perhaps remembers with a keener sorrow than 
 any of us. Is not a ray of light thrown upon that hour 
 by recent events ? What one conspirator accomplished 
 by a fatal pistol-shot, may not another in another instance 
 have attempted through the poisoner s drugs, so that an 
 incident of the fourth of March last, especially when the 
 subsequent illness and prostration are considered, ought 
 in justice perhaps to be interpreted not as a personal 
 fault, but the crime of others ? This is clear : we are 
 not to confound an accident with a habit, and our first 
 duty the first duty of the nation is to let the new 
 
262 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 President see that it remembers only, and recalls with 
 grateful confidence, his undaunted loyalty, his noble 
 efforts, his patriotic labors and sacrifices from the begin 
 ning of the war until now. As yet, he is to a certain 
 extent an unknown quantity to us, as Abraham Lincoln 
 was four years ago. It depends largely upon us, the peo 
 ple, to aiford the elements that shall solve the problem, 
 and determine what this unknown quantity is, its value 
 and its power. Let the new President feel that he has 
 the respect and confidence of the people, and it will help 
 mightily to make him and keep him worthy of them. 
 Let him feel that he has the respect and confidence of 
 the people and it will be to him a great power, whereby 
 to maintain the honor and glory, to secure the peace and 
 prosperity of the nation. 
 
 In conclusion, my friends, let me urge you to a 
 personal improvement of this solemn event. While it 
 reveals to us the depths of wickedness and of moral 
 madness into which the soul may be plunged, it gives 
 an impressive emphasis to the injunction, "Be ye also 
 ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of 
 Man cometh." Of what awaits us beyond the present 
 moment, we know with certainty but this one thing 
 death. Exalted station, important services, noble useful 
 ness, the charge of public trusts and interests of un 
 speakable magnitude, these nor aught else can avail to 
 stay the hand or avert the blow of death. In his 
 presence and before his power there is a stern and 
 solemn equality of all men. All must die. But how, or 
 when, or where ? All inquiry is baffled, speculation is 
 vain, reasoning at fault. In apparent peril, we escape ; 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 263 
 
 seemingly secure, we fall. The President at Richmond, 
 we feared. It was an exposure, but a beautiful and 
 touching drama. Returned to Washington, we breathe 
 freely. He is safe. Nothing can touch him in the 
 capital. But there, unannounced, with no foreshadow 
 ing, the destroyer met him ; and, in a moment, of all 
 that he had, and of all that he was, nothing is of import 
 ance to him, nothing stands him in stead now but his 
 goodness of heart, the simple honesty of faith, through 
 which he sought to do God s will and promote man s 
 good. Our death, the death of any one of us, can never 
 attract the attention, or be the great public event his 
 was, but to ourselves personally it will be more import 
 ant and solemn ; and, like his, may come suddenly, when 
 we least expect it. By holiness of heart and life, by 
 consecration of ourselves through faith in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ to great purposes for which he suffered and 
 died, by a daily walk in the light of his truth and the 
 culture of his spirit, let us be ever ready, so that life, if 
 prolonged, may be noble, useful, holy ; and death, when 
 it comes, may be gain, the gain of heaven and immor 
 tality. 
 
REV. EDWARD E. HALE 
 
 23 
 
1 CORINTHIANS XV: 57. 
 
 WHO GIVETH US THE VICTORY THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS 
 
 CHRIST. 
 
 THE contrasts of Passion Week are those of human 
 triumph, of death in agony, and of ETERNAL LIFE. 
 
 The week begins with the Sunday of victory, Palm 
 Sunday, when the Lord rides in triumph into the 
 city. From day to day the triumph takes different 
 forms, till on Friday the whole changes. His life ends 
 at the hands of treachery and murder. Then comes the 
 last of Jewish Sabbaths, that Saturday sad beyond 
 words. And then on this first day of the week, He 
 rises : all the chains of earth are broken forever ; and, 
 from that moment, man knows he is immortal. Human 
 triumph ! Then, death in agony ! Then, the unveiling 
 of Eternal Life. These are our contrasts. Hidden in 
 them are our lessons. Never since has the world 
 needed them as we need them this day ! 
 
 Of their Sunday of triumph we cannot paint the 
 picture, without recalling their year, as it had gone by. 
 These apostles, who could not understand, could feel 
 and wonder. They had walked up and down through 
 
 (207) 
 
268 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 the cities of Israel. They had proclaimed the new 
 kingdom. They had named the King. Nay, they had 
 heard him sometimes make fit promise of his empire. 
 He had spoken of it as the one thing certain. He had 
 laid down its constitution and laws. At his word 
 thousands had followed. To his word thousands had 
 listened. At his word, again, the multitudes had melted 
 away. The very voice of God had testified that here 
 was God s beloved Son. 
 
 Yet there was, till now, no sign of empire ! He 
 would not give a sign. If he fed these thousands, it 
 was that they might leave him. His prophet, John, 
 had been beheaded by a tyrant. His own overtures to 
 the rulers had been rejected with scorn. We can 
 imagine then the darkness which brooded over even the 
 faithful s faith, till the Sunday of victory came. Then, 
 after such anxiety, all seems changed. They have 
 endured to the end. Surely now they are safe. 
 Hosanna ! hosanna ! Victory ! victory ! Even the 
 capital has opened its gates to us. Here are coming 
 out its very children, with their palms and their songs. 
 " The Son of David ! The Son of David ! Hosanna ! 
 hosanna ! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
 the Lord ! Hosanna in the highest ! " Thus the week 
 begins. 
 
 Easy to picture such exultant joy, when seen on a 
 background of a year s defeat, anxiety, long-suffering, 
 and gloom. 
 
 Nor, as the week goes by, docs their mood change. 
 True, the capital can open its gates but once. There 
 can be but one triumphal entry. When the enemy sur- 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 269 
 
 renders Sunday, he cannot surrender again on Monday. 
 But the week scorns victory ! Speculators and brokers 
 are driven, crestfallen, from the temple. The lovers of 
 the nation s enemies follow them, the Herodians. The 
 lovers of wealth ; they are driven out also, set to scorn, 
 the Sadducces. The hypocrites who exalt them 
 selves and curse the people, all are rebuked in turn, 
 the Pharisees. " Lord, what shall be the sign of thy 
 coming ? " That question is key-note to the apostles 
 feeling, when the eve of Friday comes. 
 
 And then, victory is changed in a moment into 
 treachery, blood, and death ! 
 
 Of his feelings we can say nothing but what he tells 
 us. There is no likeness which we can compare to him. 
 But, his enemies : ah, wicked men and mean men are 
 so common, that we have seen them with these eyes. 
 Whether they deal with the son of God, or whether they 
 work in some mean cabal of their own lust, they are 
 always the same. What the soldiery of Herod could 
 not do ; what the officers of Caiaphas could not compass ; 
 what Pilate was not mean enough to descend to, 
 could be wrought out, when that fatal Friday came, by 
 this coward Judas, with his midnight kiss. Of Judas, 
 the world has never known precisely what was his 
 fate, or what his character ; whether he were finished 
 villain, or whether he were fanatic fool. Satan chooses 
 such accomplices. Such tool served the purpose 
 of crafty Caiaphas ; and, by the work of such tool, 
 even the Lord of Life can be betrayed. They seize 
 him ; they lead him out to Calvary ; they kill him, 
 the world s best friend ; nay, their best friend, if they 
 
270 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 knew it ; the only friend in the Universe of God, 
 who, at that hour, was seeking to save them. So that 
 never were words so terribly true as the words of his 
 prayer, " they know not what they do." From the 
 terribb retribution which came upon them so soon ; the 
 retribution in which women drank the blood of their 
 own infants ; in which brothers fought brothers to the 
 death, in the ruins of their own temple, he whom that 
 day they slew was the only being who could have saved 
 them. And so, praying for them, he died. 
 
 And his mother and his well-beloved crept out from 
 their hiding-places, and wept over him ! And they laid 
 him in a tomb, wherein never man lay. And his 
 enemies sealed the stone with such cements as man can. 
 devise ; and set over it such sentry police as Roman 
 wit in arms had trained. And then came the Sabbath, 
 the Jewish Sabbath, the last day of the week ; 
 saddest of days till then. 
 
 " Is this the end ? " we can almost hear Nathaniel 
 saying to Philip ; " better I had staid brooding under 
 my fig-tree ; my poet-dreams, so vague and dim, were 
 yet better than this horrid certainty ! " "Is this the 
 end ? " might Andrew say to Simon Peter ; " better we 
 had swept the lake, better traded fish in the market 
 place our lives long, than come to look on such 
 horror ! " " Is this the end ? " might John, son of 
 Thunder, say to his fierce, brother James. " Better had 
 we cast in our lot with Theudas, rushed on the Roman 
 spear and shield, and died in fight like men ! " "Is this 
 the end?" might Mary mother, whisper; " better had 
 my child died in his infant innocence, when Herod slew 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 271 
 
 the others in Bethlehem." But no, this is not the 
 end. 
 
 " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
 world." 
 
 " The works that I do, shall he do also ; and greater 
 works than these shall he do." 
 
 Such is the promise. And when the sad Saturday 
 has at last crept by ; and when the light of this darker 
 morning just begins to break ; when, on that night, so 
 cold, and black, there just creeps up the ray of promise, 
 lo, it is a blush of hope ! The grave cannot hold him. 
 These keepers fall fainting on the ground. This man- 
 sealed rock rolls, tottering, from its bed. And he is 
 risen ! as he said. 
 
 He was the well beloved Son of God. Yes ; and we 
 are all God s children. Children of God s nature, 
 and therefore immortal, as is he. We are his children. 
 Children ? Yes ! and therefore he gives to us the 
 victory. 
 
 God is with us, and we are with him. Therefore 
 there is no death to us, nor to his purpose failure. 
 It may please him to call away even our Saviour 
 from our sight. But if he goes away, the Holy 
 Spirit comes ! It may please him to bring in his 
 kingdom, as Israel has not dreamed. But, none the 
 less certainly, does his kingdom come ! It may please 
 him to win that victory by the Saviour s death on 
 Calvary ; nay, to give to a dying thief at his Saviour s 
 side the first laurels of triumph. The victory may bo 
 won when Stephen faints ; when James is beheaded ; 
 when Paul and Barnabas are stoned. But none the less 
 
272 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 is it victory ! It is not upon fields of battle only that 
 lie asks for his martyrs. At the hands of Herod, 
 dying of lust, he will call away St. James. At the 
 wish of a dancing harlot, will John Baptist give his 
 head. But they are martyrs still ! And when their 
 Master dies, because he has given a Judas the access 
 to his person ; when, on the morning of this " day of 
 days," he rises ; to all such martyrs, nay to all God s 
 martyrs in all time, to all their brethren nay, 
 to all his brethren, in all time, God promises, that, 
 while they will and do of his good pleasure, He will 
 give to them the victory ! 
 
 [The choir then sang the anthem, by Rev. Henry 
 Ware: "Lift your glad voices in triumph on high." 
 After the anthem, Mr. Hale said:] 
 
 I cannot think that it is necessary for me to try 
 to illustrate the lesson of scripture. The contrasts 
 which we have been tracing in the history, as we might 
 have traced them last year or any year since that history 
 passed, teach us the lessons of to-day, so that we cannot 
 fail to learn them. We often tell you from the pulpit 
 that there is no experience of your lives, however glad 
 or however painful, however great or however small, for 
 which you do not find fit lesson in these experiences of 
 your Saviour s life. I do not know whether you always 
 believe this. But I am sure you feel it and believe it in 
 the great trial of to-day, in these terrible contrasts of 
 the week that has gone by. Sunday, our day of triumph : 
 and, Monday, again, we thronged the temple here with 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 273 
 
 our praises. Each day, a new victory ; each day a 
 new congratulation; till, when Thursday came, the 
 fast day of our old Puritan calendar, we did not know 
 whether fasting belonged to us. Could the children of 
 the bride-chamber fast indeed ? Who were we that we 
 should condescend to fasting and humiliation ? 
 
 My friends ! in the few words which I spoke to you 
 on that day, the last words which I spoke to you 
 before this morning, I said that Christian humiliation 
 and Christian thanksgiving belonged together. We gave 
 God the glory, which we dared not claim ourselves. 
 "When I am weak, then I am strong." That is the 
 Christian s ejaculation, and on that Thursday of victory 
 and thanksgiving, it was very easy for us to repeat it ! 
 
 It ought to be as easy to repeat it to-day! Would 
 God it were ! Fasting and rejoicing are strangely min 
 gled indeed to-day. The day of a nation s grief is the 
 day of the church s rejoicing. Fittest day of all, indeed, 
 for the day of such grief; for, but for this resurrection, 
 this immortality of which to-day is token and symbol, 
 such grief were intolerable ! But for to-day s promise 
 of victory, what should we have worth living for? It is 
 not simply that this day assures us of the immortal life 
 of the good, great man, who, in an instant, puts off this 
 mortal body that he may put on his spiritual body. It 
 is not simply that to-day tells us all is well with him. 
 It is to the country, which he loved and served, that 
 to-day, in its promises, gives a like assurance. That 
 death has no power over the immortal spirit ; that is the 
 lesson of to-day. That Jesus Christ gives victory to his 
 flock, in giving them the help, comfort, and blessing of 
 
274 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 the Most High ; that promise is sealed to-day. That 
 the eternal laws of God reign in men s affairs, and that 
 men may trust him if they strive to follow those laws ; 
 that is the promise of his victory. That the republic is 
 eternal if it makes itself a part of his kingdom. If its 
 laws conform to his laws, no cerements can bind it, 
 and no tombs can hold it. If it serve God, God gives 
 to it immortality. 
 
 I dare not trust myself to speak a word regarding this 
 simple, godly, good, great man, who, in a moment, has 
 been called from the rule over a few cities to be master 
 over many things, in that higher service where he enters 
 into the joy of his Lord. To speak of him I must seek 
 some other hour. Our lesson for to-day is, that the 
 kingdom of God comes, and is eternal. The republic, if 
 in simple faith it strive to make itself a part of that 
 kingdom, lives forever. When we built this church, four 
 years ago, we painted here upon the wall before you the 
 beginning of the angels song, in the words : 
 
 " Glory to God in the highest." 
 
 It was in the very outset of war ; our own boys were 
 coming home to us bleeding from the field, or were lying 
 dead after the battle. And we stayed our hands at those 
 words. We did not add the other words of the promise. 
 But when last Sunday came, with its glad tidings, when it 
 seemed as if we had endured to the very end, we ven 
 tured, in the fulfilment of the glad prophecy, to complete 
 our imperfect inscription, and to add here the rest of the 
 blessed legend : 
 
 " And on earth peace, good will toward men." 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 275 
 
 The martyrdom of Good Friday does not make us veil 
 the motto, though we read it through our tears. Of 
 such martyrs, it is as true as ever, that their blood is the 
 seed of the church. Because they die, the kingdom 
 comes ! We do not forego our hope in the promise, 
 " On earth peace, and good will among men." The 
 President may be killed to-morrow, and his successor 
 may be killed to-morrow, and his successor, and his ; 
 but the republic lives ! While it seeks to do God s will, 
 to will and to do of his good pleasure, He works with it, 
 and gives it immortality. " Fear not little flock, it is 
 your Father s good pleasure to give you the kingdom." 
 
REV. A. A. MINER 
 
 24 
 
PSALMS LXXKIX: 18. 
 
 THE LORD is OTJR DEFENCE, AND THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL 
 is OUR KING. 
 
 MOST welcome truth when the current of events seems 
 sweeping us away. Scarce two short weeks ago, pow 
 erful armies were watching each other at the gates of 
 the rebel capital, as a beast of prey watches his victim. 
 The invincible army of Northern Virginia had been as 
 sailed in the terrible battles of the Wilderness, had been 
 forced to retreat, day by day, until they were driven 
 within their intrenchments at Richmond, and, for nearly 
 a year, had been held in the mortal grasp of the Federal 
 power. By a constant tension of forces, and a steady 
 pressure of military vigor, our Lieutenant-General had 
 extended his left, threatening the rebel communications, 
 until Petersburg and Richmond became untenable, and 
 the news of their hasty evacuation, leaving behind five 
 hundred guns and vast military stores, filled the whole 
 North with joy and exultation. 
 
 Hotly pursued by the cavalry of the eagle-eyed Sheri 
 dan, the retreating hosts were harassed on their flank 
 and rear, depleted in numbers, despoiled of their weap- 
 
 (279) 
 
280 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 ons and supplies, broken in spirit, and compelled to 
 surrender, as prisoners, an instalment of a half dozen 
 major-generals and thirteen thousand men. It was a 
 prophecy of what a few days more of unflinching pur 
 pose would accomplish upon the foe. 
 
 Scarcely had the echoes of this triumph died away, 
 when the stillness of our Sabbath evening was broken 
 by the news of final and triumphant victory in the capit 
 ulation of the rebel commander, and of all that remained 
 of his traitorous hordes. From within the city of Rich 
 mond, our noble President sent despatches to Wash 
 ington, assuring the country that the rebel stronghold 
 had surrendered, that the boastful army of treason had 
 become a humbled fugitive, and, at length, a subdued 
 and prostrate captive. Joy was unbounded. Gratitude 
 surged in our hearts, like the heavy swell of the sea. 
 Spontaneous assemblies burst forth in praise, rent the 
 air with their acclamations, and pledged anew, everlast 
 ing fidelity to country and to God. 
 
 But, while the glorious hope of coming peace and of 
 universal freedom was gladdening our dreams, we were 
 aroused by another voice. Our noble President is 
 dead, died suddenly, died by the hand of the foul 
 assassin, died surrounded by his friends, and in a 
 public place. Terrible is the revulsion of feeling occa 
 sioned by this event. The public heart is paralyzed. 
 We are cast down from the very summit of joy into the 
 deep abyss of grief. Oh, how changed the aspect of 
 the country ! Yesterday we were strong in the confi 
 dence we reposed in the best of earthly rulers. To-day 
 man seems as nothing; less than a feather borne on 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 281 
 
 by the breeze. We involuntarily feel after the Unseen. 
 We listen for the echo of Jehovah s footsteps along the 
 hillsides of our country. An audible voice from the 
 heavens seems to say, " Be still, and know that I am 
 God." 
 
 It were vain, in this hour of excitement, to attempt a 
 delineation of the good man s life. Born in a State 
 which could by no means claim to be in the van of our 
 civilization, of parentage in the narrowest circumstances, 
 with only the rudest and most meagre instrumentalities 
 for culture at command, he acquired but a veiy inade 
 quate education whether general or professional, and 
 entered upon the practice of the law. In the great school 
 of life he soon rose to eminence in his calling ; and the 
 people of Illinois, in an hour of sharp political conflict, 
 called him to bc?ar up the standards of liberty. It was 
 by his famous sonatorial contest with the late Hon. 
 Stephen A. Douglas for the championship of the State, 
 that he became most favorably known to the country at 
 large. They were accustomed to meet assembled mul 
 titudes, and, face to face, on the same day, canvass the 
 principles to which they were respectively consecrated. 
 I well recollect how deeply at the time I was impressed 
 on reading those debates in a western paper, by the 
 tone of candor exhibited by Mr. Lincoln, by his great 
 tact in the conduct of his argument, as well as by his 
 shrewdness of retort and quaintncss of reply. Th.3 
 argumentum ad honrinem was a favorite instrument with 
 him, and was rarely employed in vain. His fulness of 
 anecdote, so effective in quickening the pulse and cheer- 
 24* 
 
282 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 ing the heart, served a most valuable ulterior end, in 
 compassing all the elements of a forcible argument, and 
 carrying deep conviction to his auditory. 
 
 It was from the conspicuous position he had thus 
 gained, that he was called, in the providence of God, to 
 the first place in the gift of the nation. You remember 
 the great enthusiasm of the people as they skirted his 
 pathway from Illinois to Washington. You remember 
 his hair-breadth escape from the hand of the assassin as 
 he passed through the notorious city of Baltimore. You 
 remember the surprise of the dignitaries at the capital 
 of the nation when they awoke of a morning, and found 
 the "coming man" already there. You remember the 
 meekness with which he has borne himself through these 
 four long years of fratricidal strife. You have observed 
 his condescension to all classes of persons, official and 
 private, high and low, rich and poor, learned and ignor 
 ant, white and black. 
 
 Nor is our admiration of this great man excited alone 
 by his private walk and bearing. To the virtues of 
 temperance, integrity, and honor, he has added the 
 example of magnanimous and lawful rule. True, great 
 needs have compelled great sacrifices, and we have 
 reared our hecatombs of slain, and have poured our 
 treasures without stint into the seething caldron of this 
 rebellion. Great dangers have called for unusual meas 
 ures, unusual in a country where peaco is indigenous, 
 and the citizens are strangers to the arts of war. But 
 these have all been lawful and just. Whatever have 
 been our judgments in the past, the voice of calumny, 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 283 
 
 at home and abroad, is now hushed forever ; and craven 
 monarchs, strangers to his Virtues, will henceforth sing 
 
 "He 
 
 Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
 So clear in his great office, that his virtues 
 "Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongucd, against 
 The deep damnation of his taking off." 
 
 But this crime is not solitary. The bayoneting of 
 our colored prisoners of war, the tortures of death by 
 slow starvation, the stripping of prisoners and exposing 
 them to death by cold, the converting of the bones of 
 the cU-ad into amulets, the hanging of inoffensive citizens 
 for opinion s sake, and a thousand other untold enormi 
 ties, bear it dreadful company. The foul institution of 
 slavery is the accursed mother of them all. 
 
 Not only is this crime not solitary, but it is not the 
 crime of a single man. Whether the recognized con 
 spirators are few or many, the animus of the assassin s 
 blow flows from a million hearts. It is found in that, 
 wide-spread disloyalty that has brought upon the nation 
 all the woes of a protracted civil war. The crime itself 
 is but a single drop of the spray from the topmost wave 
 of the rebellion. 
 
 Hence it is a crime of startling magnitude. Loved as 
 was our revered Chief Magistrate, an assault upon him 
 is an assault upon the nation s heart. The constitutional 
 head of the government, the executive power centred in 
 his hands. The vast responsibility of our military and 
 naval operations ; the condition of our internal relations, 
 not undisturbed by the Indian tribes upon our borders ; 
 
284 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 our judicial, postal, financial, and industrial affairs; and 
 especially the delicate and difficult duties growing out 
 of our foreign relations, all demanded, and received, 
 his most careful and candid thought. The protection 
 we enjoy in our homes, the continuous workings of our 
 institutions, and the security we feel for the future, are 
 all promoted by the "fidelity of our now-lamented 1 res 
 ident. To twenty millions of people he has been a 
 leader in the darkest hour of civil war : to four millions 
 more he has been a deliverer from the infuriated oppres 
 sor ; to yet eight millions more he has been an unrecog 
 nized saviour from utter extermination by their own 
 suicidal passions. When the assassin deals a blow at 
 such a man, and breaks into the citadel of life, he deals, 
 at the same time a blow at the life of the nation itself, 
 and, consequently, at the liberty and justice and equality 
 which the nation represents. Such an act is most dam- 
 ningly infamous in the eyes of men, and inexpressibly 
 blasphemous in the eyes of God. Unhappy city that 
 gave the assassin birth ! The home of disorder, the 
 nursery of rioters, the sheltcrer of those murderers that 
 shed the first Massachusetts blood in this great struggle, 
 and now the mother of the nation s parricide ! Pity, 
 oh, pity unhappy Baltimore ! 
 
 Such a crime naturally begets sad apprehensions. It 
 breaks down our confidence and stuns the public heart. 
 It distracts and confuses the public mind. It produces 
 a chaotic state of feeling incompatible with the duties 
 of the hour, and unfavorable to unity of effort. The 
 executive chair being vacant, some may fear that the 
 affections of the nation will not so warmly welcome 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 285 
 
 another occupant, especially as lie will be a Southern 
 man. The blindness of the South may give new suste 
 nance to the rebellion, and the leaders may be inspired 
 (the Satanic influence seems sufficiently potent) to 
 renewed and more vigorous efforts, taxing the energies 
 and still further trying the patience of the loyal men of 
 the land. The news of such a crime may unfavorably 
 influence foreign governments. They little appreciate 
 the unguarded freedom with which our magistrates 
 mingle with the people. They may not at once compre 
 hend that this enormous crime is as foreign to the genius 
 of our government and to the spirit of the loyal North, 
 as is the accursed institution that inspired it. England 
 may forget her gunpowder-plot of two hundred and fifty 
 years ago, aimed at the destruction of the king and the 
 whole parliament, and defeated alone by one of the con 
 spirators desiring to save a Romish lord. She may forget 
 the unsuccessful attempts made upon the life of her noble 
 Queen. France may forget that her military Emperor 
 has been a target for the assassin s pistol. And, forget 
 ting those and the like transactions, they may find it 
 convenient to consider this great crime as a peculiar 
 symptom of Democratic turbulence, and thus construct 
 it into a barrier against Democratic tendencies in their 
 own lands. There may be new danger of foreign com 
 plications on another ground. Murder knows no rank. 
 Murderers at St. Albans, fleeing to Canada, have been 
 treated simply as raiders and belligerents. Should the 
 assassins at Washington make a similar escape, and 
 find a similar welcome, what can save us from a new 
 and terrible conflict? These and like considerations 
 
286 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 will have different degrees of weight in different 
 minds. 
 
 For myself, I turn to the future full of hope. Dark 
 as were the heavens yesterday, already the clouds begin to 
 lift. The people will rally from this stunning blow ; not 
 simply to the level of their former purpose, but to a more 
 discerning and a more determined purpose. The pro 
 bable comprehensiveness of the conspiracy is baffled. 
 However it may have aimed at the heads of several of 
 the departments, it counts but a single victim ; others 
 escaping by a seeming interposition of providence, 
 impressing us with the truth that " the Lord is our 
 defence ; and the Holy One of Israel our king." 
 
 Perhaps we were in danger of forgetting this. The 
 rebellion was manifestly waning : apparently breaking 
 up. We had out-numbered the rebels, out-generalled 
 them, out-flanked them, out-witted them, and whipped 
 them. Were we not too confidently feeling that we 
 owed it all to a few men ? Was nut our tru-4 too 
 much in man, too little in God? Did we sufficiently 
 remember that the " Holy One of Israel is our King r" 
 
 Perhaps, also, we were too little disposed to be 
 thorough in our work. The well-defined labor of war 
 appears to be chiefly past. The difficult, the untried, 
 the unprecedented task of re-construction is before us. 
 Pcrrui[ s we had not the nerve for it; were not equal to 
 the stern work of dealing with arch-traitors, of meting 
 out punishment to leading rebels, and hanging wholesale 
 murderers, as we would those of less criminality. Who 
 can say that we have not had a lesson on this point ? 
 Who can deny that the magnanimity we were cherishing 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 287 
 
 has received a severe shock, and that we have been made 
 to feel that we should deal with great villains as certainly 
 as with small offenders, and far more severely? Some of 
 our cotemporaries may, indeed, invoke endless perdition 
 on the heads of these assassins of a nation s life ; and 
 they as richly deserve it as mortals can. But between 
 endless ruin and absolute exemption from punishment, 
 there is a very broad margin within which the line of 
 duty may fall ; and when we remember the very general 
 inclination of the people, the various sects of religionists 
 included, to mitigate the punishment provided by human 
 laws, thus showing, on a broad scale, the popular notion 
 of justice unwarped by religious theories, such inclina 
 tion may be regarded, within certain limits, as the voice 
 of God, who always mingles mercy with judgment. 
 Let us, then, with one voice, grant forgiveness to the 
 ignorant and deluded, but now repentant masses, and 
 demand expatriation or death for the ambitious, crafty, 
 and fiendish leaders. Thus may we teach all future 
 traitors the hazards of their enterprise, and their pro 
 bable doom. 
 
 However such matters may be adjusted, let us not 
 doubt that the people of this widely extended country 
 will prove even more determined than ever. The insti 
 tutions of the land have lost none of their preciousness. 
 They are not weakened by this sad event. The assas 
 sination of our honored President shocks all our hearts ; 
 but it gives no shock to the machinery of government. 
 All the heads of departments, and every member of 
 Congress might be cut off, and we should spring to 
 our feet, extemporize another government, and demon- 
 
288 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 strate to the world that we live in institutions rather 
 than in men. 
 
 Why, indeed, should we be apprehensive ? The army 
 remains intact. Our military successes, under God, will 
 continue. Our Lieutenant-General has been thoroughly 
 proved, and bears with him the entire confidence of the 
 nation. His forces are now within supporting distance 
 of each other, while the army of treason is shorn of half 
 its numbers, besides being dispirited and broken. Hav 
 ing accomplished so much, with the blessing of God, 
 how can we fail to finish the work ? If there has ever 
 been an hour when we have faltered in our purpose, that 
 hour has now gone by. Henceforth we are a unit, whose 
 energies are consecrated to the most patriotic service. 
 
 And shall we not find a satisfactory leader in our new, 
 let me say, God-given President. It is true he is as yet 
 untried. But four years ago Abraham Lincoln was 
 untried ; and the trial has endeared him to all hearts 
 has called forth a nation s gratitude in his re-election 
 to the highest office in our gift, and made his death the 
 occasion of a deeper and more general sorrow than we 
 had ever before known. Who can say that his mantle 
 has not fallen on one altogether worthy of it ? President 
 Johnson, though untried in that office, is not unknown 
 to the country. Through a long public career, his fidel 
 ity has been unquestioned. Born and reared in the 
 midst of slavery, he knows its baneful influence and its 
 crushing power. Cherishing in purest affection the 
 Union and Liberty, he has felt the iron of secession 
 enter his soul,. Acquainted minutely and in detail with 
 the spirit and purpose of the rebel leaders, he may be 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 289 
 
 better prepared than Mr. Lincoln himself to estimate 
 their deep demerit, and mete to them the meed of justice 
 as traitors before the law. 
 
 It is narrated of Mr. Johnson that, in October last, on 
 an occasion of addressing some thousands of colored 
 people in the city of Nashville, if I remember correctly, 
 he exhorted them to patience, and assured them that 
 God would raise up for them a Moses to lead them out 
 of the wilderness. His auditors shouted, " You shall 
 be our Moses!" Mr. Johnson modestly replied that 
 he was not equal to so important a labor. But they 
 repeated their claim, " You shall be our Moses ; we 
 want no other than you." " Well, then," said Mr. 
 Johnson, " I will be your Moses." Was this incident 
 prophetic ? 
 
 I have rejoiced that our merchants and men of busi 
 ness, both in Boston and New York, have made haste to 
 give him assurances of confidence and support. He will 
 be surrounded, I trust, by the same experienced advisers 
 who have stayed up the hands of his predecessor, and 
 can command the same resources, and the support of 
 the same constituency, as have borne us through the 
 storm of the last four years. Shall we not all welcome 
 him, then, to our hearts, and pray the blessing of God 
 to be with him ? 
 
 These are grave experiences through which our nation 
 is passing. The discipline of a life-time is condensed 
 into the lessons of an hour. The significance of all his 
 tory from the beginning of the world is in the events of 
 the last few days. Can these events fail to bring us 
 profit ? Can we fail to discern the dangers whence we 
 25 
 
290 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 are escaping ; the deep wickedness whence they sprang ? 
 Can they fail to snatch us out of the ruts of custom and 
 of customary prejudices, and to teach us, mid the sharp 
 chastisements of the Divine hand, the dignity and the 
 glory of right, and the fearfulness of injustice and wrong ? 
 Can they fail to purify the nation s heart, and enlarge 
 the promise of its coming glories ? Will they not tone 
 down the rebellion itself, and make the leaders turn 
 back from their purpose as from a fathomless abyss ? 
 
 Who shall assign limits to the providential blessings 
 which late events, victorious and tragic, may be made to 
 yield ? A transcendentlygood man has been taken from 
 us ; but other good men remain. Since " God is our 
 defence," since " the Holy One of Israel is our King," 
 we may affirm his continuous watchcare. The very 
 existence of our nation seems providential. The great 
 eras in our -history reveal the divine purpose. But no 
 period is equally instructive with that of the last four 
 years. No work is more important or glorious than the 
 emancipation of the slaves. No agent has been more 
 conspicuously providential than Abraham Lincoln him 
 self. Startling, then, as is the manner of his death, 
 who will exclude the event from the overrulings of the 
 divine hand ? 
 
 " God moves in a mysterious way, 
 His wonders to perform." 
 
 Providence does not skip events, or omit opportuni 
 ties. If the crucifixion of our Lord, through the malig 
 nities of the Jewish hierarchy, is made a means of the 
 salvation of the world, is it too much to hope that the 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 291 
 
 death of Abraham Lincoln, through agencies not less 
 malignant, may be overruled to the good of our deeply 
 afflicted country ? Called from us at the culmination of 
 his fame, he may be more to us in the coming years, 
 than he could have been had he still tarried in the flesh. 
 He died as a martyr dies. 
 
 " The voice at midnight came ; 
 
 He started up to hear : 
 A mortal arrow pierced his frame ; 
 
 He fell, but felt no fear. 
 **-**# 
 
 " His spirit, with a bound, 
 
 Burst its encumbering clay ; 
 His tent, at sunrise, on the ground, 
 A darkened ruin lay." 
 
 Bowing here, at the altar of God, shall we not renew 
 our zeal in the great cause of liberty and righteousness ? 
 Standing upon those principles, which are the foundation 
 of our national edifice, shall we not hold ourselves ready 
 for every needed sacrifice, of time, of ease, of resources, 
 of sweet life itself, if we may perpetuate the blessings 
 which have been transmitted to us ? Especially should 
 you, young men, and particularly those of you, who, 
 through liberal culture, are seeking fields of widest use 
 fulness, enter in at the open door of opportunity, which 
 the new order of things proffers you. A nation waits 
 your service. Our country calls for help. " The Holy 
 One of Israel " sanctions the call. In patriotic devotion, 
 then, consecrate yourselves anew to the good of man and 
 the glory of God. 
 
REV. JAMES REED. 
 
ADDRESS.* 
 
 THE event which calls us together is unprecedented 
 in the history of our country. It seems almost incredible 
 that in this nineteenth century of the Christian era, and 
 in this land of free self-government, so horrible a deed 
 could have been perpetrated, as that which has taken 
 from us, almost in an instant, our beloved and honored 
 President. War is bad enough. It is tolerated by well- 
 disposed men, only as a painful necessity. The nature 
 and condition of mankind at present are such, that, so 
 far as we can judge, certain evils cannot be removed 
 without it ; and, as we have lately had abundant oppor 
 tunity to prove, individuals may be actively engaged 
 in it without any revengeful or unkindly feelings. 
 Yet, war, at best, is bad enough, and every good man 
 must rejoice when its ends have been successfully 
 accomplished, and a genuine peace is the result of it. 
 But there are no terms too scathing to designate the 
 bloody work of the assassin. It seems to be the very 
 sum and substance of human wickedness. The blood 
 
 * Delivered Wednesday, April 19, 1865. 
 
 (295) 
 
296 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 in our veins runs cold, as we read the harrowing details, 
 how the villain, armed to the teeth, pursues his inno 
 cent and unsuspecting victim ; watches his opportunity 
 from day to day, and from hour to hour ; then approaches 
 him stealthily from behind, and, all unseen, inflicts the 
 fatal wound. When at last, rejoicing in his infamy, he 
 shrieks out his exultant motto, it does, indeed, appear 
 as if hell itself had broken loose, and were enjoying a 
 momentary triumph. 
 
 The unparalleled atrocity of the crime is heightened 
 in the present instance by its striking contrast with the 
 character of its victim. However much many may have 
 differed from him on questions of political expediency, 
 all men bear witness to his singular purity and tender 
 ness of heart. If he had been capable of intrigue and 
 violence, if he had shown signs of a vindictive and 
 unforgiving temper, this deed, terribly dark at best, 
 would not have shown in such appalling blackness. But 
 it is probable that he who was thus remorselessly shot 
 down had not a single unkind feeling towards any one, 
 The saying is in everybody s mouth, that those, on whose 
 behalf this villany was done, have lost thereby their best 
 friend. 
 
 At this very moment the funeral obsequies are pro 
 gressing at the capital of the nation; and, by official 
 invitation, all churches and denominations are contribut 
 ing their part towards them. It is for this purpose that 
 we have now assembled here. 
 
 There is no reason why we may not perform all the 
 essential part of a funeral service. To be sure, the 
 remains of the illustrious deceased are not with us. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 297 
 
 But that matters not. He who considers the subject 
 will see, that the religious exercises in connection Avith 
 a burial are never for the sake of him who has gone, 
 but solely for those who remain. The departed spirit 
 stands in need of nothing which men can do for him. 
 He is entering upon a new and active life in the spiritual 
 world. He has left his material body behind him. It 
 is a matter of concern to him no longer. Nor are the 
 realities of his spiritual existence in any way affected 
 by the eulogies or prayers which may be uttered in this 
 world. But if by means of them those who listen are 
 lifted up to a higher and better state, so that they can 
 more clearly 
 
 " Assert eternal Providence, 
 And justify the ways of God to men," 
 
 then surely the services have fulfilled their legitimate 
 purpose. Hence it makes no difference whether the 
 corpse is present or not. The religious exercises can 
 be just as real and useful without it as with it. 
 
 It is a doctrine of the New Church that the Lord is 
 Love itself, and Wisdom itself; and has created all 
 things from Divine Love by Divine Wisdom. Because 
 He is Love itself, therefore has He created human 
 beings to the end that they may become angels of 
 heaven, and be conjoined with him in eternal blessed 
 ness. The infinite love yearned for that on which 
 it could be bestowed, and by which it could be 
 reciprocated ; and man was created. But, inasmuch as 
 freedom is the indispensable condition of all genuine 
 reciprocal love and all true happiness, therefore the 
 
298 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 Lord made man a free agent; and His constant effort 
 with regard to him is to lead him to shun evil and do 
 good in freedom. Yet he may abuse his freedom, and 
 act in opposition to the Lord s wishes ; and so obtain 
 eternal misery instead of blessedness. 
 
 If we bear in mind this great principle, that the Di 
 vine Providence has for its object a heaven of angels from 
 the human race, we can understand, in a general way, 
 all the Lord s dealings with men. By means of the 
 various events which befall them from sources beyond 
 their control, He designs to bring them into the highest 
 degree of happiness which they are capable of. "The 
 Divine Providence looks to eternal things ; and no 
 otherwise to things temporal, than as far as they agree 
 with things eternal." The Lord s view of events is not 
 limited and contracted like ours. Not only does He look 
 infinitely beyond the present moment, but, in all that 
 He provides or permits, He has regard to the effect 
 which is to be produced on every human being. We 
 may truly say, therefore, that no event can come to pass 
 except in the precise way which is best calculated to 
 benefit all who are in any degree affected by it, either 
 directly or indirectly, now or hereafter. The only con 
 dition imposed upon us is, that we should freely make 
 use of the providential opportunities which, in His 
 infinite wisdom, our heavenly Father offers. Unless 
 we do so, we throw away the benefit which forms the 
 chief part of His merciful designs. 
 
 Accordingly, even this barbarous and inhuman work 
 of the assassin has been divinely permitted for the good 
 of our beloved country and of the whole human race, to 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 299 
 
 the end of time. By means of it, each and all of us 
 may be strengthened, if we will, for the heavenly jour 
 ney. As for him who has been struck down, we cannot 
 doubt that he, in his new abode, is inspired with the 
 same trust in Providence Avhich was so conspicuous a 
 trait of his character while he was in the flesh. Nor 
 can we doubt that he is able to see more plainly, by far, 
 than he could here, the reasons why Providence leads 
 mankind through such strange and devious paths. 
 
 The Lord, I say, has permitted this shocking deed. 
 But let us remember that He has not caused it. He is 
 the cause of no evil whatsoever. But all evil has its 
 origin in man himself, and is occasioned by the abuse 
 or perversion of his divinely given freedom. No belief 
 could be more false, than that the Lord put it into the 
 heart of the murderer to do this thing. On the con 
 trary, His infinite love was extended over him, as it is 
 over all of us, to lead him to put away the fiendish lust 
 and thought which impelled him to the fiendish act. 
 But he would not yield to any divine or heavenly influ 
 ence, working within and upon him. He listened to 
 the voice of hell in preference to that of heaven. And 
 the Lord, knowing what was best for all concerned, 
 interposed with none of those events, which we call 
 accidents, but permitted him to carry out his bloody 
 purpose. The successful villany is no more wicked in 
 itself than if it had been unsuccessful. As far as the 
 spiritual condition of the criminal is affected, it is no 
 worse than if his plot had failed. The murderer of 
 the President is no more worthy of condemnation than 
 the would-be murderer of the Secretary of State. But 
 
300 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 as for the results, reaching far beyond the deed itself and 
 the doer of it, what a wondrous difference ! Who can 
 measure them ? Who can conceive of them ? Who 
 can adequately estimate them even during the past week, 
 if we take into account nothing more than what we have 
 seen in our own immediate community ? And who can 
 doubt that the Lord of love and mercy is directing, and 
 will direct, them to His own infinite purposes ? 
 
 That our heavenly Father provides good, and good 
 only, for all of His children, must be clear to those who 
 regard Him as infinitely good and wise. That at the 
 same time He permits the existence of certain evils, is 
 evident from the simple fact that they exist ; for how 
 could this be without His permission ? 
 
 It is a somewhat striking fact that the day on which 
 this terrible deed was perpetrated, is celebrated by the 
 greater part of the Christian world as the anniversary of 
 the Lord s crucifixion. The Sabbath following is, in like 
 manner, supposed to be the anniversary of His resurrec- 
 tiun. It matters little whether these suppositions are 
 correct or not. The great truth remains the same, that 
 the Lord was crucified, and that he rose again. So too, 
 there is no event, however dark and sorrowful, which has 
 not, if we but use it rightly, its day of resurrection, in 
 which it re-appears, not in the same form, indeed, but 
 transfigured ; its aspect changed from deformity into 
 beauty, from grief into gladness. So are the Lord s 
 doings made acceptable, as well as marvellous, in our 
 eyes. 
 
 We may not, and doubtless do not, see clearly why 
 the horrid events of the past week should have taken 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 301 
 
 place. But surely we cannot question the goodness and 
 wisdom of the Lord. We cannot doubt the tender 
 mercy of that Divine Providence which has so won- 
 drously preserved us hitherto, and has apparently brought 
 us to the end of this unnatural and distracting war. 
 Our Heavenly Father is not changeable as we are. If 
 he has been kind in raising up for us a great and good 
 ruler, He has surely been no less kind in suffering him 
 to be removed from us. 
 
 Certain it is that our President would never have been 
 taken away, if he had not finished his appointed work. 
 As for that work, the memory of it will live forever. 
 A greater work is seldom performed by a single man. 
 Generations yet unborn will rise up, and call him 
 blessed. 
 
 But, as for what remains, the true spiritual welfare of 
 the country and of mankind, requires that it should be 
 done by others. It may be that we need still further 
 discipline and trial before the full measure of national 
 prosperity can be allowed to us. Or it may be that he 
 who was the best leader in time of war is not best fitted 
 for the new exigencies which are arising. We cannot 
 tell now, but we shall know hereafter. Our present 
 duty is to trust. He who has guarded us hitherto will 
 not fail us in the time to come. In the hollow of His 
 hand let us rest, doubting not that if we strive to do 
 our part, He will do His ; and though we now are sorrow 
 ful, our sorrow shall be turned into joy. 
 
 The primary object in such services as these ou^ht 
 unquestionably to be, the effort to see and acknowledge 
 as far as possible the guiding hand of our heavenly 
 26 
 
302 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 Father. But in the case of a public man, whose obse 
 quies are performed by an entire nation, there is also the 
 further object of paying respect to him and his office. 
 In the present instance, the office has been foully dese 
 crated by the impious hand of violence. For this reason, 
 if for no other, the whole people would rise up as one 
 man in the fury of their indignation. But now we have 
 lost a magistrate, who, to the faithful discharge of his 
 official duties, has added the most endearing of personal 
 characteristics. His uniform gentleness of heart, his 
 almost womanly tenderness, his unaifected frankness of 
 manner, and straight-forward simplicity of speech, have 
 brought him wonderfully near to the hearts of his coun 
 trymen. We all feel to-day as if a father had been 
 taken away from us. 
 
 I shall not attempt any minute analysis of his char 
 acter. You all have a clear perception of the man ; for 
 it was his nature to make no concealment of himself. 
 Indeed, he was so transparent, that it seems almost as if 
 we had had a personal acquaintance with him, even 
 though we had never seen him. His acts and words show 
 what he was, more plainly than any labored eulogy can 
 do ; and I have thought that I could not show forth in any 
 better way his purity of purpose, his disinterested patri 
 otism, his genuine reverence for the Lord and the Word, 
 than by reading to you the inaugural address, which 
 stands, and will forever stand, as his last words to the 
 American people : 
 
 " FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN : 
 
 " At this second appearing to take the oath of the 
 Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 303 
 
 address than there was at the first. Then a statement, 
 somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed 
 very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four 
 years, during which public declarations have constantly 
 been called forth, on every point and phase of the great 
 contest, which still absorbs the attention and engrosses 
 the energies of the nation, little that is new could be 
 presented. 
 
 "The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly 
 depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; 
 and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encour 
 aging to all. With high hope for the future, no 
 prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion 
 corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts were 
 anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All 
 dreaded it, all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural 
 address was being delivered from this place, devoted 
 altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent 
 agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without 
 war ; seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the 
 effects by negotiation. 
 
 " Both parties deprecated war ; but one of them 
 would make war rather than let the nation survive ; 
 and the other would accept war rather than let it 
 perish, and the war came. 
 
 " One-eighth of the whole population were colored 
 slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but 
 located in the southern part of it. These slaves consti 
 tuted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that 
 this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. 
 To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was 
 
304 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 the object, for which the insurgents would rend the 
 Union by war, while government claimed no right to do 
 more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 
 Neither party expected the magnitude or the duration 
 which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that 
 the cause of the conflict might cease, even before the 
 conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier 
 triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. 
 Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, 
 and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem 
 strange that any man should dare to ask a just God s 
 assistance in wringing his bread from the sweat of other 
 men s faces. But let us judge not, that we be not judged. 
 The prayer of both should not be answered. That of 
 neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his 
 own purposes. " Woe unto the world because of offen 
 ces ; for it must needs be that offences come, but woe to 
 that man by whom the offence cometh." If we shall 
 suppose that American Slavery is one of these offences, 
 which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but 
 which, having continued through His appointed time, 
 Pie now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North 
 and South this terrible war as the woe due to those 
 by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any 
 departure from those divine attributes which the believ 
 ers in a living God always ascribe to Him ? 
 
 " Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 
 mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, 
 if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled 
 by the bondsman s two hundred and fifty years of 
 unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 305 
 
 of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another 
 drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years 
 ago, so still it must be said, that the judgments of the 
 Lord are true and righteous altogether. 
 
 " With malice towards none, with charity for all, with 
 firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, 
 let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up 
 the nation s wound, to care for him who shall have 
 borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, 
 to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a 
 lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." 
 
 26* 
 
REV. GEO. PUTNAM. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 What was mortal of Abraham Lincoln, President of 
 the United States, is at this hour being borne to the 
 grave. How are the mighty fallen ! He who but yes 
 terday was the top and crown of this vast political 
 fabric, the peer of the world s foremost men and might 
 iest potentates, stricken by the assassin s hand, has 
 fallen from that great height. His word of power is 
 hushed ; his great heart, embracing a nation in its love, 
 has ceased to beat. His body is given back to the dust 
 as it was, and his spirit returneth unto God who gave 
 it ; and the man who has filled so large a space in the 
 eye of the world has ceased to be an earthly presence. 
 
 The civil and military heads of the nation are burying 
 their chief, at the capital, with such poor earthly pomp 
 as befits his station ; and we, who are so far away, yet 
 as near as they in love and grief, do join in the obse 
 quies ; we, and twenty millions more, bowing d&wn our 
 heads, as one man, in deepest sorrow and awe ; the 
 whole land in mourning ; the drapery of woe festooning 
 the breadth of the continent ; bell answering to bell, 
 
 (309) 
 
310 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 and gun to gun, from tower and town and hill top, from 
 sea to sea ; a more than sabbath stillness fallen over all 
 the cities and the plains and the mountain-sides of our 
 vast empire. 
 
 Verily, this funeral hour, so observed, is an hour 
 filled with a solemnity, a sublimity, and a pathos, un 
 equalled in all the hours that we have lived, or that 
 our fathers have told us of; and such an one as might 
 scarcely come to us again though we should live for 
 centuries. 
 
 It is an hour to be much observed unto the Lord ; and 
 it was meet that we should come before his presence, and 
 bow down, and seek his face in submission, in supplica 
 tion, and in trust, if so be the hour might not pass away 
 without leaving its blessing. 
 
 Friends, we will not give these flying moments to the 
 indulgence of our sorrow, nor to vain attempts to express 
 that sorrow. Deep grief does not readily betake itself 
 to words : it rather craves the privilege of silence ; and, 
 if forced to speak, it does but stammer in half-thoughts 
 and broken utterance. It is the better way for us*, the 
 more manly part, and the more patriotic and more re 
 ligious, and a worthier tribute to the illustrious doad, 
 to hush down the sobs of grief, and rise up into the realm 
 of more tranquil meditation ; to remember the virtues 
 and the services of the departed ; to study the lessons 
 that Providence sets for us in his death ; and gird our 
 selves urj devoutly, bravely, for the work that is before us. 
 
 I will not cumber this day s brief solemnities with any 
 biographical detail or careful analysis. All is said in 
 two words : Abraham Lincoln was a GOOD and a GREAT 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 311 
 
 man. He must have had faults, and he must have 
 committed mistakes, for he was a man. But his worst 
 enemy, if, indeed, he had any enemy, except his 
 murderer, and those whose system of war, conceived in 
 treason, blazing in rebellion, and graced with thousands 
 of slow murders in the prison-house, has at last inspired 
 the heart and nerved the arm of the assassin, except 
 ing these, his enemy, if he had one, would not wish to 
 have his faults recounted, here, as it were, beside his 
 opening grave. Therefore, it is no matter that the 
 speaking of these funeral words has fallen to the lot of 
 one who has loved him with such a filial, grateful, and 
 reverent love, as never to have been able to see any 
 faults in him, and who confided in him with such 
 perfect confidence as never to discover his mistakes. 
 
 A GOOD man. I catch no voices of dissent on that 
 point, and never did, even in those dark days of national 
 adversity, when the heart of the people seemed to be 
 falling away from him. A conscientious and upright 
 man. Just and true in every known act and word of 
 his life. God-fearing, God-serving ; just and faithful ; 
 anxious unto prayer to see his duty and to do it. And 
 a warm-hearted man, disinterested, devoted ; tender 
 hearted as a woman, gentle as a child ; loving his 
 country with his whole heart, and yet room enough in 
 that heart for kindness to the humblest fellow-creature, 
 and compassion for every sufferer ; but with no room 
 for one malignant or vindictive feeling towards his own 
 or even his country s foes. If he could have had a 
 moment s consciousness, after the accursed blow was 
 struck, who will doubt that the sublime words of the 
 
312 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 Son of God would have been on his lips and in his 
 heart, "Father, forgive them, for they know no what 
 they do." 
 
 This conjunction, of so childish a simplicity, so gentle 
 and unselfish and tender a spirit, with imperial powers 
 and functions, is so new a thing in the history of 
 nations, such a strange spectacle to the world, that the 
 world has not known what to make of it, and has yet 
 to grow up to an appreciation of the unequalled beauty 
 and majesty of it. 
 
 A good man, and as great as he was good. I know 
 not that I could tell, if the occasion required it to be 
 told, just wherein his greatness lay, or where was the 
 hiding of his power. 
 
 The eye of the nation was first turned to him in that 
 great debate which he conducted in Illinois, some six 
 years ago, against an adversary who was regarded, 
 perhaps, as the ablest and most skilful debater then 
 known in the public councils of the country, Judge 
 Douglas. In that debate the great issues of the time 
 were entered on fully, and to their utmost depths. Mr. 
 Lincoln bore his part in it with such noble candor and 
 self-possession, such breadth of views, such clearness 
 and power of statement, and such masterly logic, that 
 he became henceforth a marked and representative man, 
 and could never again become anything less. 
 
 Since that time, whoso has been left to speak of 
 Mr. Lincoln in slighting terms, as an ordinary man 
 accidentally raised to power, shows himself forgetful, or 
 but poorly read in the forensic history of the few years 
 preceding the war. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 313 
 
 Many persons make great account of the manners and 
 personal bearing of eminent men, and not without some 
 reason, for manners are an index of the mind. 
 
 In private circles, in hours of social converse and re 
 laxation, there was undoubtedly in the President a 
 freedom and a homeliness of manner, that showed other 
 breeding than that of courts and fashionable assemblies. 
 For he was a genial, humble, kindly man, all undazed 
 by power and place, utterly devoid of egotism, and 
 almost of personal consciousness, and unaffectedly re 
 garding every man he met as his full equal before God. 
 Yet, where or when, in any public place or function has 
 he been found wanting in the stateliness and gravity 
 that befitted his rank ? 
 
 Our own consummate Everett, himself the embodi 
 ment of grace and dignity, has declared, that on the 
 occasion of the funeral solemnities of Gettysburg, where 
 were met together on the platform, and at the table, our 
 own most eminent men, and the ambassadors of foreign 
 courts, there was no man there who bore himself, or was 
 capable of bearing himself, with more propriety and 
 true dignity, than the President. And Goldwin Smith, 
 the candid Englishman, said that not a sovereign in 
 Europe, however trained from the cradle for state pomps, 
 and however prompted by statesmen and courtiers, could 
 have uttered himself more regally than did the plain, 
 republican magistrate, on that solemn occasion. 
 
 Passing from mere manners, to official words, I think 
 
 there is no potentate nor minister of state living, or who 
 
 has lived in this century, who has spoken so many words 
 
 so terse, so strong, so genuine, that history will make 
 
 27 
 
314 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 imperishable, as has Abraham Lincoln. I quote with 
 pleasure the saying, not of an American partisan, but of a 
 cold, critical, unsympathizing Briton, respecting the last 
 inaugural address of the President, that it is " a state 
 paper which for political weight, moral dignity, and 
 unaffected solemnity, has had no equal in our time." 
 
 Of those intellectual faculties, which have constituted 
 Mr. Lincoln s greatness in the administration of the 
 Government, I can speak now only in the most general 
 terms. It was not genius, inspiration, brilliancy : no 
 man ever used those words in connection with his name. 
 There was in him, the shrewdest common sense, a deep 
 sagacity intuitive and almost infallible, though not 
 rapid nor flashing. He had a strong grasp of principles, 
 reat patience of investigation, and a sound, sure judg 
 ment. These are not the shining powers of the human 
 mind ; and yet, wherever they are largely possessed, and 
 happily combined and balanced, they go to constitute 
 greatness, and produce the effect of greatness in any 
 sphere of human action. They border close upon the 
 moral qualities, and it has never yet been metaphysically 
 shown to what extent high moral qualities combine with 
 the intellectual ones to strengthen, enlighten, and direct 
 them, so as to produce greatness of thought, action, and 
 result. We cannot define how far a living, sleepless 
 conscience, a sacred, singlehearted regard for truth and 
 right, a fixed devotion to a noble end and purpose, a 
 fervent love of country and of humanity, an unswerving 
 fidelity to trusts, and a devout fear of God; we 
 cannot tell in what proportions these qualities have con 
 tributed to set the stamp of greatness on the name and 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 315 
 
 life of the President. Neither can we so far penetrate 
 the mystery of spiritual laws as to tell how far, or in 
 what way, the spirit of the mighty God, who holds the 
 hearts of all men in his hand, and by whom princes 
 rule, comes to those who piously seek it, and humbly 
 welcome and trust in it, and enters in by its secret course, 
 to inspire, assist, and lead the Lord s anointed in the 
 discharge of their great and solemn function. We only 
 know that the men who have achieved the greatest things 
 in any age, have been those who have been ready to say 
 in such dialect of faith as they had attained to, Not 
 unto us, O, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be the 
 glory. 
 
 But what need of these inquiries? Look at what 
 this man has done. He is great in the greatness of that. 
 A stupendous work was given him to do, and he has 
 accomplished it. Called, in God s providence, to a lofty 
 destiny, he has gloriously fulfilled it. Placed on a pinnacle 
 high as any earthly height, in the world s full view, he 
 has won the world s respect and honor. He came to the 
 capital, four years ago, and found it reeking with treason 
 in all its departments, threatened on every side by 
 gathering hordes of rebels, and the very roads leading 
 to it lined with banded assassins ; he leaves it to his 
 successor, purified, fortified, impregnable as any seat of 
 empire on earth ; and not an enemy near it, unless it be 
 another murderer lurking in its dark places. 
 
 Inheriting from his predecessors the seeds and neces 
 sities of a civil war of such vast dimensions and such 
 intense malignity, he has conducted that war and fought 
 it out through weary years, through seasons of darkness 
 
316 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 and discouragement ; threatened with reaction among 
 the loyal, threatened with bankruptcy and every form of 
 national exhaustion, with foreign intervention, he has 
 fought it out to a complete and final victory. The rulers 
 of Europe told him he was trying to do the impossible : 
 well, then, he has done the impossible. When he took 
 his seat of power, he found the nation drifting towards 
 disintegration and anarchy, division and subdivision, the 
 abyss out of which only could proceed ruin and eternal 
 strife ; and he leaves it compacted in unity, and power, and 
 more imperial than ever before. The ship of state was 
 strained in every joint, and crashing in the breakers, 
 and the great seas going over her, and the skies were 
 black with tempest, and the crew was in mutiny, and 
 the wisest knew not what to do, and the bravest blanched 
 with fear. Then this unknown and untried man comes 
 forth at the call of the all-wise Providence, which guides 
 and overrules the choice of men, and, with his eyes raised 
 to heaven, lays his firm hand on the helm. And behold, 
 now, the goodly ship rides at her anchors, and rests 
 beautifully on her shadow; and he, the helmsman, stands 
 confessed before the world as the pilot that weathered 
 the storm. Firm and unwavering throughout, whoever 
 might falter or play false, he has crushed the gigantic 
 rebellion. Its power of resistance is broken, and on the 
 verge of annihilation, and the day-star of peace is rising 
 in the eastern heavens ; and behold, now, it is accompa 
 nied, as it never has been before, with two glorious 
 attendants, so new, so beautiful, namely, absolute 
 and impregnable NATIONALITY, and universal FKEEDOM. 
 If to have done this is not greatness, what is great- 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 317 
 
 ness among men? If he who has done this is not great, 
 who is great among the living or dead of all ages ? 
 Shall we apply the title great to the man who composes 
 a treatise or a poem, who invents a machine, who argues 
 a cause, who wins a battle, or takes a city ? Truly we 
 may sometimes. But so applying the title, do we with 
 hold it from the man who saves a nation ? who, by the 
 guidance of his mind and the strength of his arm, raises 
 it up from the verge of destruction, leads it through its 
 night of gloom, its wilderness wanderings, its seas of 
 blood, and places it at last erect on the supreme heights of 
 power and peace and glory ? Truly, I think when the 
 history of this era is written, and our posterity shall read 
 it, and burn, as they will, with the admiration and the 
 inspiration it kindles, they will marvel to learn, that, in 
 the time of these great events, there was in any mind a 
 blindness and narrowness that could so much as raise a 
 question of the surpassing greatness of Abraham Lin 
 coln. 
 
 From his work so accomplished, this man, so great 
 and good, has gone to his rest, and his great presence 
 has faded from our sight. He, the saviour of his coun 
 try ; he, who has so watched and toiled for us ; our 
 head, our guardian, our best earthly stay and staff, is 
 fallen powerless and dumb ! Oh, the bitterness of the 
 grief ! Oh, the immeasurable loss ! Would God he had 
 lived, our yearning hearts cry out, lived, if it were 
 only to come forth among his people, that we might 
 throng his presence, and tell him of our love and rever 
 ence, and weave for him our garlands of honor and 
 thankfulness, and call down heaven s blessings on his 
 27* 
 
318 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 head, and see if we could not do something to make him 
 as happy as he was good and great. But our prayer is 
 denied, and we must submit ; and we will, meekly, devout 
 ly, God helping us. 
 
 And, indeed, apart from the yearnings of love and 
 sorrow, rising to the height of calmer thoughts, can we 
 not almost see already that God s time is the right time, 
 and that this death was not untimely ? He lived to see 
 the work assigned to him substantially accomplished, 
 and to witness his country s triumph. The measure of 
 his fame was full. There awaited him, had he lived, 
 duties less arduous, indeed, but harder for his tender 
 heart to perform. It needs not a better or a 
 greater man, but a sterner nature and a more iron 
 hand than his, to do what yet remains to be done. God 
 in his mercy has spared him the severe necessities that 
 will soon press upon his office. He has gone amid the 
 satisfactions of success and the rejoicings of victory, and 
 the loud plaudits and affectionate appreciation of his 
 countrymen ; gone in a moment, and without a pang, 
 from an earthly joy and glory to an heavenly ; ascended 
 into the bosom of his God, to whom he had lived so near 
 in firm obedience and pious trust on earth. Peace be 
 with him, the peace of God, which passeth all under 
 standing. 
 
 Though dead, he yet speaketh. Though gone, he is 
 still here. His memory and influence abide in his coun 
 try s heart forever. 
 
 The visitation, so solemn and sad, while it dissolves 
 us in tears, must also arouse us to our responsibilities, 
 and brace us to our duties. 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 319 
 
 First, not his gentle and forgiving heart, but the 
 sacred instinct of eternal justice, implanted in us by 
 our Maker, demands, in his name and in God s name, 
 that the whole earth be searched, in every nook and 
 corner, if need be, for the fiendish murderers, that they 
 may make to an afflicted nation and an outraged hu 
 manity the poor atonement of their accursed lives. 
 Hell is agape for them ; or, though God have mercy 
 on them (which we will pray for), man cannot. 
 
 And not they only, but the spirit that has bred so 
 many enormities, that has so long and in so many ways 
 struck at the nation s life, and has only shown its full devel 
 opment in striking down the nation s head, must perish. 
 The new President God bless, preserve, and guide him 
 is right. That spirit, together wdth the foul slave-system 
 that engenders, embodies, and perpetuates it, that 
 spirit, which is a murderer from the beginning, and 
 forever will be while it survives, must be crushed into 
 the earth. Justice is as divine a principle in God and 
 in man as mercy. An unfit clemency to guilty indi 
 viduals is cruelty to innocent millions and to unborn 
 generations. 
 
 Not from the kindly lips and tender heart of Lincoln 
 do we derive these stern counsels of duty ; but from his 
 gaping wound and flowing blood do we take them, and 
 must heed them. 
 
 The awful duties of retribution rest, where they best 
 may, with the law and the magistrate ; and there we leave 
 them in strong and faithful hands, I do believe. 
 
 And yet there are duties for the humblest citizens. 
 We must raise higher, and hold firmly up, the standard 
 
320 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 of loyalty. The country that has been saved to us, given 
 back, as it were, from the jaws of destruction, must 
 now be devotedly loved, and jealously watched for, and 
 guarded by all its people. No more careless paltering 
 with treason and half-loyalty, North or South. Our 
 grand and happy nationality, restored and rehabilitated, 
 is henceforth our most sacred trust from God ; and the 
 arm that is lifted against it, be it palsied rather ; and the 
 false tongue that would profane its majesty by a word 
 of treason, or of sympathy with treason, be it struck 
 dumb ere it speak. Whoso does not love his country 
 is unworthy to live in it. Let the people this day, 
 bending in tears over the bier of their beloved chief, 
 let them register in their hearts the solemn decree, 
 that they will hold their country so dear a possession 
 and so holy a trust, that they will not permit a drop 
 of the deadly virus of disloyalty to circulate in its veins ; 
 and that traitors, and the apologists and supporters of 
 traitors, must not share its blessings, nor enjoy its 
 protection, nor so much as breathe its air. Tens of 
 thousands of our dearest and our noblest have died to 
 save it, and our great chief has died, because he had 
 saved it; and shall not we, who are spared to enjoy it, 
 shall we not swear by that sacred blood, his and theirs, 
 that henceforth we will love it with all our hearts, and 
 live for it, and watch for it, and devote ourselves and 
 all that we are and have to it, hold its enemies as our 
 enemies, and have no friends that are not its friends, 
 and love none that do not love it ? 
 
 Perhaps at this moment, while we speak, they are 
 lifting up the remains of our noble patriot, deliverer, 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 321 
 
 martyr, to bear them from his palace-home to the dark 
 and narrow house. In such a moment, of so great 
 solemnity and tenderness, let the sacred fires of patriot 
 ism blaze up bright and aloft in millions of hearts ; let 
 hand clasp with hand in a solemn league and covenant 
 of loyalty, and all true souls renew their vows of devo 
 tion to the country which he loved, and lived for and 
 died for ; and make that country, in its unity, its 
 grandeur, and its peace, a fitting monument to his 
 memory, worthy to record his earthly fame, and accept 
 able to the contemplation of his glorified spirit. 
 
REV. GEO. L. CHANEY. 
 
JOHN XIV: 19. 
 
 BECAUSE I LIVE, YE SHALL LIVE ALSO. 
 
 GREAT lives are never finished; least finished when 
 the grave relieves them of their mortal part. Their biog 
 rapher only drops his pen at the open sepulchre, because 
 eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man 
 conceived the glories that succeed ; or because his search 
 is baffled as he seeks to trace the growing influence of 
 these ransomed lives upon the thoughts, the habits, the 
 principles and actions of an attentive posterity. Modern 
 scholars have sought to discover a philosophy of history 
 which should introduce into the reading of the history of 
 man the precision of natural science, and enable them 
 to predict the future as they review the past. Race, 
 climate, physical environment, all external conditions of 
 the human lot, and each new discovery of human wit, 
 have been ascertained to affect the history of man ; but 
 no sufficient philosophy of human history has been 
 reached, where the most potent factor in the problem 
 refuses to be classified. The great man is the controlling 
 power, and he cannot be anticipated. Guizot calls the 
 appearance of a special great man, at a special time, 
 
 28 (325) 
 
326 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 "the secret of Providence." "The great person, the 
 great man," says another, " is the miracle of history." 
 
 The only prophetic history which deserves the name, 
 that of the Hebrew prophets, turns with inspired truth 
 to the great person. " His name shall be called won 
 derful, counsellor, " and " the government shall be upon 
 his shoulder." 
 
 The only good and sufficient biography, also, is to be 
 found in the same sacred volume. For in the successive 
 books of the New Testament, the life of Jesus Christ is 
 given with a fulness that recognizes the truth we main 
 tain. The biographers of Christ do not leave him in the 
 grave, as if death were the end of life. To them was 
 revealed, by the will of God, something of the glory that 
 succeeds death ; and in the re-appearance, further teach 
 ing, and final ascent into the heavens, of their Master, 
 they describe his victory over death and the grave, and 
 immediate entrance into the life eternal in the heavens. 
 
 Nor does the record end here ; but, running over into 
 the Acts of the Apostles, it shows how the life of Christ 
 on earth was taken up and carried forward by His imme 
 diate followers. And, preserving the missionary epistles 
 of apostles, it further shows how foreign nations felt its 
 power and followed in its footsteps. 
 
 Taking the New Testament as a unit, it is the only 
 good and sufficient biography ; because it not only pre 
 serves the separate details of the thirty years of the life 
 of Christ on earth, but follows him beyond the grave, 
 adding that most glorious leaf from the Lamb s Book of 
 Life, and then traces in the lives of his near posterity 
 the quickening influence of his Master s spirit and life. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 327 
 
 "Because I live, ye shall live also." If Jesus had 
 designed to state the universal condition of life, he 
 could not have chosen fitter words to express his mean 
 ing. Till we reach the spring of life, the self-existent 
 God, every living thing implies a living author. And 
 when \ve reach that life of the spirit, that higher life, 
 which has no better definition than "energy of love, 
 divine or human," they have it not, who will not confess 
 that it was inspired in their hearts by some kindred life 
 in another. Often, most often indeed, the awakened 
 soul can gratefully remember the name, the word, the 
 act of its awakener, and can recall the occasion of its 
 waking. 
 
 Always some vitalizing word or deed of a living man 
 or woman has kindled them into life. " Thou art Peter," 
 says Christ, "and on this rock I will build my church." 
 Signifying that men and women animated by the Christian 
 spirit, speaking and acting out of their original concep 
 tion and interpretation of the gospel, were to constitute 
 the lively stones of his church edifice. 
 
 Only life is life-giving; and the more it gives, the 
 more it has to give. Therefore I said, "Great lives are 
 never finished." Therefore it is, that the life of Christ 
 can never be written in briefer form than in the life of 
 Christendom. For apostolic zeal and constancy, word of 
 preacher, prayer of saint, fidelity of martyr, patience in 
 suffering, comfort in sorrow, strength in temptation, 
 confidence in death, all the grand and beautiful virtues 
 that have graced Christian biography, acknowledge in 
 Jesus, the Christ of God, their inspiration and support. 
 Because he lived, they have lived also ; and the followers 
 
328 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 of Christ will never lose the holy emulation excited by 
 that one perfect life, till they all "come to the measure 
 of the stature of the fulness of Christ." If the life of 
 Christ could be studied in its effects, even if we could 
 search no farther than to the direct influence of the 
 New Testament record, doubtless it might be said with 
 literal truthfulness, of these things which Jesus did, if 
 they should be written every one, even the world itself 
 could not contain the books that should be written : with 
 such fulness has history verified that word of Christ, 
 " Because I live, ye shall live also." We find in these 
 words a profound statement of the law of spiritual 
 vitalization ; and, although their brightest illustration 
 is given in the life and influence of Jesus Christ, the 
 special application of their first statement by him can 
 not conceal their large and universal significance. Life 
 is life-giving ! with only this, the most natural and self- 
 evident interpretation of the text, we may venture to 
 take up the burden of this day. 
 
 How shall I speak of him, the mention of whose name 
 a few days ago, made our hearts glad and hopeful ? This 
 is no time for eulogy. All speech is so feeble in the 
 presence of the national grief and indignation, that I 
 would choose to be a silent worshipper with you, while 
 each should listen to the solemn preaching of the event, 
 as his own heart might inly interpret it. But since the 
 occasion, and your general expectation, not unfairly de 
 mand speech, I will try so to speak as not to disturb 
 your hearts conference with its own bitter grief. 
 Prayers, spiritual song, and hallowed word of Holy 
 Writ, must take, for the hour, the ministry of consola- 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 329 
 
 tion. In the words that I shall say, I am as one just 
 bereaved, who can only repeat the virtues of the dead, 
 and mourn. 
 
 He was a faithful husband and a kind father. All his 
 virtues were homebred, and a domestic sweetness fla 
 vored his public acts. He was too much a father to 
 conduct the pitiless discipline of an army. If a tired 
 boy fell asleep on guard, he had not the heart to have 
 him shot. Perhaps he was thinking of his own son, 
 his Isaac, whom God has since rescued from the sacri 
 fice of war, and restored to him, and in whose bright 
 description of the recent glorious victory, Robert s father 
 and our country s father took such honest pride, only 
 the day before he died. Or, perhaps, he thought of his 
 youngest, the little Benjamin of his home, the boy ever 
 at his side. I have read nothing more sad, among the 
 scenes of that saddest chamber death ever entered, than 
 this. " Little Thaddeus will not look upon his father." 
 Oh, with what poison did treason s malice inflame the 
 dull temper of the fatal lead, that it could unman such 
 a father, and estrange such a child ! 
 
 He was kind and forgiving, forgiving to a fault (some 
 have thought and said). But, my friends, if forgiveness 
 be a fault, methinks saints, not sinners, should make 
 the discovery. Our good President never knew, never 
 could know, the wickedness and spite of the enemies of 
 his country. We never knew them till they placed him 
 beyond the fatal knowledge which this day we know. 
 I say the " fatal knowledge;" for unless heaven forefend, 
 the act which has opened the eyes of this people, till 
 they stand out with horror, may wake such rage, hot 
 28* 
 
330 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 indignation, and vindictive fury, in the breast of an ex 
 citable army and populace, that crime shall fall on crime, 
 and the triumphant nation shall smear its garments with 
 the bloody fingers of revenge. Abraham Lincoln never 
 knew, while he lived with us, the hatred that was in the 
 rebellious heart. I thank God that his tender heart has 
 not been wrung and torn as ours has been, by the human 
 contemplation of enmity s last curse. I thank God that 
 if such depravity can be known by ransomed souls, the 
 knowledge has come to him where love has no limitation, 
 and where forgiveness is no fault. 
 
 In life, as every act shows, he was as little conscious 
 of the spirit that fired the Southern heart, as at the last 
 he was of the murderer s presence. When he left his 
 Western home, four years ago, he sowed peaceful 
 promises, of which his sincere soul was full, all along 
 the route Eastward ; and his first word in the Capitol 
 was an anguished appeal in the form of a most tender 
 remonstrance: "We are not enemies, but friends. We 
 must not be enemies", he said. He was scarcely better 
 schooled in enmity when he died. He could not learn it. 
 He who so easily forgave injuries could not comprehend 
 a hatred which had no injuries to forgive ; a hatred 
 which, with Jewish malignity, hated him because he was 
 a Christian, and clamored for its bond. 
 
 He had a working religion, which believed that God 
 helped those who helped themselves to right ends. He 
 said, and said devoutly, "God is over all"; but he 
 added, " We must diligently apply the means." He 
 had not profited so little by his pioneer life, as to wait 
 for the lightning to plough his land or the whirlwind to 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 331 
 
 fell his trees ; but he took the instruments that were at 
 hand, the plough and the axe, and having well used these, 
 he trusted to God for the increase. We must do our 
 best, if we desire the best gift of God. In the practical 
 application of this religious principle, he was never 
 remiss and never discouraged. 
 
 He saw clearly that there were moral results from 
 every act, but over these he disclaimed having any 
 power. Men could not restrain, or much increase them, 
 he said. 
 
 But he was sagacious enough to see that these moral 
 results would, in process of time, work a change of 
 policy in the administration of a people s government, 
 and he doubtless kept equal pace, at least, with the 
 advancing moral sentiment of the people. 
 
 The acknowledgment of a controlling Divine Power, 
 was a frequent and sincere expression with him. He 
 never forgot it, from the day when he parted from his 
 Springfield home, and said to his friends there, " Pray 
 for me," to the closing days of his life, when he ascribed 
 all glory unto the wonderful providence which had 
 guided the events of his administration. God was his 
 Counsellor, but man was his instrument. He could 
 counsel with God ; he must work with man : and he 
 showed a practical good sense in the use of his instru 
 ments. 
 
 Some have blamed him because he seemed to be so 
 distrustful of committing his government to the policy 
 which most engaged his moral approbation ; the policy of 
 emancipation : but events have showed that he only 
 bided his time. He thought, if God could wait a 
 
332 SEEMONS ON THE 
 
 hundred years for the destruction of American slavery, 
 man might wait a hundred days. 
 
 The real cause of this delay, however, was his respect 
 for the Constitution. He was scrupulously true to his 
 oath to support that. He spoke of himself, in homely 
 phrase, as of one who had engaged to do a job, and who 
 felt morally obliged to do it well, according to the terms 
 of the agreement, viz., the Constitution; and history 
 will declare that there never was a President who took 
 more conscientious pains to be faithful to constitutional 
 government. 
 
 All his public documents, and all his published letters 
 and speeches, bear witness to his fidelity to the Consti 
 tution as he understood it ; and surely any construction 
 less liberal than he put upon it, and any milder exercise 
 of its war powers, would have exposed that instrument 
 to the ridicule of the world, and flung us into the ancient 
 chaos of disunited States. He suffered for long the moral 
 disapprobation of men whom he profoundly revered, 
 because of his delay in assuming the power conferred by 
 war, to abolish human slavery; and when the proclama 
 tion of emancipation came, his impressive benediction 
 commends it not simply as an act of justice, but of wise 
 policy and constitutional validity : 
 
 " Upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, 
 warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I 
 invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the 
 gracious favor of Almighty God." 
 
 He was honest from the first, and lived so, four years, 
 in Washington. His fairness in dealing showed itself in 
 repeated offers of compensated emancipation to the Slave 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 333 
 
 States ; in temperate delays and profitable warnings ; in 
 a hundred days of grace, before the consummate word 
 was spoken that made us free. 
 
 A winning frankness made it impossible to double- 
 deal with him. He made short work with all super 
 refinements, curious subtleties, and specious insincerities. 
 His kindly nature made him value the approbation of 
 his people. To-day, when we cannot suffer a word to 
 his discredit, we almost resent his own words, when we 
 read, in a letter he once wrote to Mr Conkling, "But 
 many people find fault with me." We feel ashamed 
 that we ever doubted him, when we read further and 
 hear him saying : "I certainly wish that all men should 
 be free, while you, I suppose, do not." And then he 
 proceeds to state, with that judicial clearness so charac 
 teristic of his mind, the emancipation policy. 
 
 The same regard for fair-dealing which led him to 
 offer, again and again, compensated emancipation to the 
 slave-master, made him determined to protect the men 
 whom he had freed. " To abandon them now," he says, 
 " would not only be to relinquish a lever of power, but 
 would also be a cruel and astounding breach of faith." 
 
 He was a constant and self-sacrificing friend, and never 
 allowed personal ambition to pervert justice. Early in 
 the war, he showed a generous readiness to take upon 
 himself the responsibility of unpopular acts. He laid 
 aside the traditional dignities of his office, and mounted 
 the rostrum, that he might defend the character and dis 
 position of influential servants of the government. It is 
 the singular truth that in the death of him we mourn, 
 his enemies are even more bereaved than his friends. 
 His cool assassin was a lunatic suicide. 
 
334 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 But why prolong the mention of virtues that do but 
 prolong our grief? These memories only deepen our 
 sense of a loss already, at times, beyond our trustful 
 submission. 
 
 Let me leave with you these words of sober prophecy 
 and faithful advice. I need not tell you the name of 
 their author : 
 
 " Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope 
 it will come soon, and come to stay, and so come as to 
 be worth keeping in all future time. It will then have 
 been proved, that, among freemen, there can be no suc 
 cessful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they 
 who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and 
 pay the cost. Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a 
 speedy, final triumph. Let us be quite sober ; let us 
 diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just 
 God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful 
 result." 
 
REV. A. L. STONE. 
 
LAMENTATIONS V: 15, 16. 
 
 THE JOY OF OUR HEART is CEASED ; OUR DANCE is TURNED 
 INTO MOURNING. 
 THE CROWN is FALLEN FROM OUR HEAD. 
 
 WHEN, three days ago, the morning of the day 
 appointed for fasting, humiliation, and prayer, rose 
 upon a people jubilant with the joy of victory, many 
 felt that both the designation of the day and the ac 
 customed manner of its observance should be changed ; 
 that, instead of fasting, there should be feasting, in 
 stead of humiliation and supplication, thanksgiving and 
 praise. 
 
 But some of us remembered, and we called it to mind, 
 that the chief intent of the day, as our fathers kept it, 
 was prospective. It did not look backward with peni 
 tential review, so much as it looked forward with fore 
 casting deprecation to possible evils. The day was 
 appointed in the spring season, when the great venture 
 of the harvest was at hazard, and all the uncertainties 
 of elemental blight and blessing hung poised in the 
 scales of Providence. If there were confession, for 
 saking of sin, as was always tru?, it was as a 
 29 ( 33? ) 
 
338 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 preparation of heart for availing prayer, that " the 
 early and the latter rain " might fall, each in its time ; 
 the hand of the reaper bind and gather its sheaves 
 with joy, and the autumn granaries be full. Then 
 should follow the commemorative festival, looking to 
 the past, and celebrating the throned goodness that had 
 provided abundance for the wants of man and beast. 
 It was this ideal of the day recently observed, that held 
 so many Christian pulpits and Christian people so closely 
 to its first design. 
 
 We ought to have felt, more deeply than we did, that 
 the future might bring up, into that bright morning sky, 
 dark clouds big with storm and tempest, and have 
 stretched our hands up with a mightier reach of suppli 
 cation toward the sovereign hand holding the balances 
 weighted with coming events. 
 
 The thought was on our hearts and on our lips that 
 there might be perils brooding for our country, shadows 
 gathering over the path of its future. But who could 
 have looked forward to so dark a shadow as this which 
 has fallen ! who could have painted this sable cloud on 
 that smiling sky ! 
 
 There was talk, with some, of reversing our associa 
 tions with this month of the Spring, and our religious 
 observances wedded to its annual return, and making it 
 henceforth our month of most tuneful rejoicing, the 
 coronal of the year. But not now ! We cannot change 
 thee, oh, weeping April ! oh, month of tears ! Pour 
 down all thy warm showers : from our eyes the rain falls 
 faster yet ! Evermore, from henceforth, at thy return, 
 thou and the sorrowing nation shall weep together. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 339 
 
 How sudden the changes of the April sky, sun 
 shine ! shower ! And beneath, on our faces and in our 
 hearts, how faithfully copied ! What glad days they 
 were that followed those two memorable sabbaths, 
 freighted with such a gospel of victory and peace ! 
 What a deep and tender joy rested upon all our homes 
 and temples ! Richmond was taken. The sword of 
 Lee was broken. Loyal and honest hands were on their 
 way to run up the old flag above the battered and ruined 
 walls of Sumter. Every eye was sunny with gratulant 
 greetings to every other. How sudden the darkness ! 
 Night comes in nature with twilight herald running 
 before. Our night came without precursor, " in a 
 moment, in the twinkling of an eye," as though noon 
 and midnight had met. 
 
 There were beds the night before last, I suppose, rest 
 less with dreams ; but with all the sleepers there was no 
 dream so black as that awful fact that went pulsing and 
 tolling through the night, and lies now like an incubus 
 which memory cannot chase away, upon the shuddering 
 national heart. 
 
 We have lost great and good men before. They have 
 been taken from the high places of honor and of trust 
 with their robes of office on. They have been taken 
 from the scenes of retirement whither a nation s homage 
 followed them, bearing in its offerings before their feet. 
 Washington died leaving that one peerless title behind 
 him, ** The Father of his Country." Harrison and 
 Taylor died, sinking wearily down from that chair toward 
 whose great vacancy our dim eyes look to-day. Our 
 two great Massachusetts statesmen and orators passed 
 
340 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 away leaving us to feel that the world was less rich and 
 grand since they were gone. But these were all led 
 gently from our presence, by a messenger hand, whose 
 power and whose right none of us could question. The 
 Divine Will, by itself, and alone, made up and executed 
 the summons. 
 
 But our dear President was snatched from us by the 
 hand of violence. This was the bitter element in the 
 cup. He might have lived. He was not sick. He was 
 not old. " His eye was not dim, nor his natural force 
 abated." All wantonly and wickedly his precious blood 
 was shed ; unchilled by age, untainted with disease. 
 He had reached no natural bound of life. It was not a 
 treasure expended, but stolen by forceful robbery. It is 
 not simply bereavement, but bereavement by such 
 awful fraud, that tries us most sorely. 
 
 And yet none the less but how it strains upon our 
 submission none the less is it the solemn, sovereign 
 providence of the reigning God. Truly " clouds and 
 darkness are round about him." In this visit to us " He 
 maketh darkness his pavilion," and our hand cannot 
 draw back the heavy folds. He is trying, by a hard test, 
 our faith, our confidence, our resignation. Oh that our 
 struggling lips could say clearly, if not calmly, "It is 
 the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good." We 
 must say that, before we can have any comfort, before 
 our prayers can find acceptance, and before the divine 
 hand will take from our suppliant hand the loose-lying 
 reins of state. God help us to say out of the depths of 
 this great grief, without a doubt, without any reserve, 
 with our yearning affections still clinging around that 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 341 
 
 pale, dead form, lying in the chamber of the White 
 House, " Thy will be done ! " 
 
 How dear he was to the people ! That thought 
 comes first after the loss. He was of them. He was 
 not lifted above them, either in pride of place, or 
 pride of intellect, or the kingly style of his greatness. 
 He walked on our levels still. All his simple, plain, 
 homely talk, kept him near us. He spoke our vernacu 
 lar, the language of the fireside and common life, 
 and not the dialect of courts. He did not leave us, and 
 wrap himself in official stateliness, when he went up 
 the hill of the capitol. His kindly face and voice, his 
 cheerful, humorous, fireside English, his form and atti 
 tudes, and all his personal habits, made him seem of 
 kin to each of us. A familiar, friendly, neighborly air 
 hung about him everywhere. He put on nothing. He 
 was always his own, true, hearty, republican self. The 
 people loved him. That thin, swarthy face, that tall, 
 angular form, drew after them, more than all beauty and 
 grandeur in the land, the blessings of their hearts. And 
 he loved them. He was thoughtful for the comfort of 
 the aged, the poor, the hearts which war had made deso 
 late. The humblest could go to him, finding an open 
 door and an open heart. It seems to me that we have 
 never held any other President so tenderly in our affec 
 tions. And one reason is, we have never found any 
 other so accessible to our thoughts and sympathies, and 
 never one so much of our own mould and substance. 
 
 How we confided in him ! He was a man to build 
 trust upon. His honesty was a pillared rock. The 
 pleasant air, with which, against whatever importunity, 
 
342 SERMONS OX THE 
 
 he kept his purposes, covered and mantled the sternest 
 conscientiousness. The careless step with which he 
 walked toward his objects in the country s welfare, 
 neither wealth nor favor could make to swerve. All was 
 simple, easy, and natural, but firm-fibred as oak, true 
 as steel. The most faithful discharge of his great duty, 
 the highest good of the nation, to this fixed, unrevolving 
 star his soul was steady as the needle to the pole. He had 
 a sharp insight that cut through all the rind of sophis 
 tries to the core of difficult questions, leaving such light 
 on the stroke that other minds could follow. He was 
 a man of parables, and translated the dark and vexed 
 problems of political science into pleasant similitudes, 
 transparent to the dullest eye. Where a diplomatic 
 answer would have been dignified obscurity, he told a 
 story through which flashed the honest light of clear 
 intelligence. He was in this way a wonderful teacher 
 of the nation. His brief, pithy, humorous narratives 
 have made crooked things straight, through a thousand 
 tortuous walks of State policy. This quaint, ever-ready 
 humor was the soft cushion upon which the great burdens 
 of his public cares impinged, covering and shielding his 
 nerves from laceration. It saved him half the wear and 
 tear of his official work, It kept his friends, and con 
 ciliated those who differed from him. He could convince 
 with a smile, refute with a jest, turn the flank of heavy 
 reasoning with this agile lightness of wit and conquer 
 kind feeling, if not persuasion, generally both. 
 
 His goodness was his greatness. His honest heart 
 helped his straight-forward mind. He saw truth and 
 duty more clearly by this inward illumination. His 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 343 
 
 reach of genuine desire carried out his reach of intellect, 
 and became genius. He was more sagacious than his 
 advisers, partly because he was more single-hearted. He 
 sought so earnestly the best means to the noblest end, that 
 he was sure of an intellectual triumph in their discovery. 
 He kept the moral sky clear, and it reflected light upon 
 the mental. A pure patriot, who walked with honor, 
 faith, and truth, though walking amid the defilements and 
 corruptions of political life, and so kept his garments 
 unstained. But this is no time, in the freshness of our 
 affliction, for his eulogy. It is too soon to write that. 
 We must wait till the clouds have risen from all the 
 paths he trod, till the smoke of conflict and the haze 
 of prejudice are swept away by the sun-bright air of our 
 newly-risen day. By and by the future will lead us up 
 to calm heights that will give us perfect vision over all 
 these fluctuating levels. We are too near Abraham 
 Lincoln yet, fully to survey and respect his great nature 
 and his great work. Not till the wave on whose crest 
 he rode has receded with him a little, shall we be able to 
 discover on the back-ground of these eventful times the 
 true proportions of his greatness. Every coming day 
 will add to his fame ; and coming generations will testify 
 that no purer, no nobler, no more fruitful life has been 
 given to our nation and American history. 
 
 " We trusted it had been he," whom God had appointed 
 to lead us through both the Red Sea and the desert 
 beyond, to the Canaan of our future. But the dastard 
 hand of treason struck, struck as cowards always 
 strike, from behind, struck, with the confession of 
 weakness and desperate inferiority which the assassin 
 
344 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 and his cause always make in the very act that gluts 
 their hate, and the good, the great, the gentle, the kind, 
 the large-hearted, the beloved President is no more ! 
 Whatever else may be dark about this mystery of crime, 
 we cannot mistake the spirit that steeped itself in that 
 sacred blood. It is the same spirit that has been deaf 
 for generations to the groans and sighs of the bondman ; 
 the same that struck with parricidal hand at the breast 
 of the country s life ; the same that opened the murder 
 ous thunders of war in Charleston harbor, and has kept 
 them resonant over the land through four wasteful, tragic 
 years ; the same that sent hired incendiaries to fire the 
 mansions in our Northern cities, where women and babes 
 as well as men slept in unsuspecting security ; the same that 
 laid in wait for the President elect, with murderous intent, 
 when he first left his Western home for the Capitol ; the 
 same that advertised for bids upon his head, through the 
 consenting press of the South ; the same that administered 
 keepers discipline in Libby Prison and Castle Thunder, for 
 a step or gesture amiss, with bullet and bayonet ; that 
 made grim Famine jailer at Belle Isle and Andersonville, 
 over tens of thousands, to whom death only brought 
 release. This black, consummate crime is only the ripe 
 fruit of that system of barbarism which has struck its 
 roots so deep, and had such stalwart growth in this conti 
 nent. That barbarism has cheapened human life in hearts 
 where it has had its hour ; made shedding of blood like 
 the pouring out of water ; the cries of famishing men as 
 whisperings of the idle wind ; the striking down of 
 senatorial dignity in its own place of privilege and 
 unsuspecting safety, a deed of chivalrous gallantry ; and 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 345 
 
 now the cold-blooded murder of one who has led in the 
 great marches of liberty to a whole race, and is hailed 
 as deliverer and saviour by four millions of souls whose 
 fetters have fallen at his word, and has disappointed thus 
 the scheme to build a kingdom of darkness and of iron 
 upon the necks of those millions, an act of fruitless though 
 sweet revenge. It has delivered many a blow before, 
 that has wrung and pierced the individual heart ; but it 
 has found here at last its opportunity, Nero-like, to 
 gather in one the hearts and hopes of all loyal people, 
 and pierce them through with a single thrust. Will any 
 one say that I go too far in attributing this stroke of a 
 single hand to the whole system which it so fitly repre 
 sents ? The evidence found in the papers of the 
 assassin, the time at first arranged for the execution of 
 the plot, the hesitation of an accomplice at that time, 
 until WORD SHOULD COME FROM RICHMOND, and the 
 mysterious threats and prophecies of Richmond papers of 
 that date, of some great shock to the Union, and the world 
 even, then just impending, which would be the deliver 
 ance of the confederacy, all go to show that the secret of 
 this conspiracy, and its dark purpose, were in the hearts of 
 the rebel chiefs in the rebel capital. 
 
 But what has it gained for itself by such triumphant 
 guilt ? Any reversal of its own infamy ; a more clement 
 judgment in history ; the blossoming of fresh hope for 
 its own dark designs ; a change of sentiment and will 
 with the loyal people ; the blotting out of the great 
 victories of the fortnight past ; aught but a crimson hand 
 whose stain strikes all through the soul, and the curso 
 of earth and heaven r It has bought its revenge dear. 
 
346 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 And what, we may ask, is the extent of this revenge ? 
 or, rather, in what aspects may we view it, that shall help 
 us bear our loss, and show us the divine hand mingling 
 in it? 
 
 That deadly aim took the life of Abraham Lincoln. 
 But it could not touch his past. That is forever safe. 
 It could not blot out one of those pregnant years through 
 which his hand was on the helm of the ship of state, as 
 she drove reeling over the great waves of the storm. It 
 could not make good the threat, that he should never live 
 to take his seat in the Presidential chair. It could not 
 bereave the country of one counsel of wisdom, one firm 
 resolve upon which she has leaned so steadily in her 
 darkest hours. It could not put out the light of that shin 
 ing example of truthfulness and dutifulness which has 
 been to us all. in this night of gloom, a star of cheer and 
 of guidance. lr. could not undo the policy which has 
 gathered and marshalled invincible armies, and conquered 
 peace by the sword, without one compromise of right 
 ful, unfettered authority. It could not silence that voice 
 that spoke out on the most illustrious New Year s morn 
 ing of all our history, and said to Four Millions of 
 slaves, " BE FKEE ! " and the winds of heaven bore it 
 out, " Be Free ! " and the sea repeated it, on all our 
 shores, " Be Free !" and the eagle of liberty, looking 
 down on his own broad continent, screamed it, " Be 
 Free!" and the bending heavens with saluting angels 
 sent it back to all our dusky homes, " Be Free !" and 
 the echo rose in unnumbered voices of lonely lips, toned 
 with wondrous gratitude, "Free, Free, Free!" That 
 word has been spoken. In that word the murdered 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 347 
 
 President " though dead still speaketh." That voice can 
 never be silenced, though those pale lips shall never part 
 again. The work that has been done, and so well done, 
 by this faithful worker, cannot be undone. No power 
 beneath the sun can roll back this nation to where 
 she stood four years ago. Those grand acts of the 
 drama that have moved across the stage will never 
 retrace their steps. This final act of victory and 
 certainty cannot be exchanged for that first act of 
 surprise, confusion and fear. Our risen morning 
 cannot sink down behind the orient, and hide again 
 in the darkness of the past. The night of doubt 
 and defeat, the night of slavery, the night of defiant 
 rebellion, those deep shadows of the past, have fled ; and 
 the new day no man can sweep from the brightening fir 
 mament. All this has been gained, for us and humanity, 
 under that leadership whose stricken hand has dropped 
 the sceptre now. The sceptre has fallen, but this work 
 remains. The past is secure. No murderer s hand has 
 power to blot it. 
 
 In our hearts, too, our slain leader still lives. He lives 
 more vitally than ever. Many hearts that were cool to 
 him will have opened now, and taken him in. All 
 prejudice will forgive him and accept him. He is no 
 more an object of criticism ; he is beyond the reach of 
 hate. Hate itself will die out, and in its place will 
 come a concession of his many virtues and peerless ex 
 cellences. He is dead. All pens that write of him 
 will write forbearingly, if not tenderly and admiringly. 
 And those of us who loved and honored him before will 
 take his name and image into some more interior cham- 
 
348 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 her of our hearts, within some more sacred shrine, and 
 guard them there. It was not Abraham Lincoln, it was 
 our cause, the cause of liberty, the cause of humanity, 
 the cause of government, the cause of the Union, that 
 was doomed to the death by that felon hand. The vic 
 tim stood on that perilous height, as the representative 
 of this whole great scheme of human progress. He is 
 its martyr. He died for that. He was slain because of 
 his faithfulness to that scheme. Our hands led him up, 
 once and again, to that eminence, and set him there as a 
 target for the deadly malice of the conspirators. He 
 fell because we laid upon him such trust, and because he 
 discharged it all too well. We can but love him the 
 more for this. Our noble, murdered witness, with his 
 good confession, his home and his throne, are henceforth 
 in our heart of hearts. The assassin s steel, the deadly 
 aim, cannot reach him here. We will teach our posterity 
 to honor him. Our children, and our children s children 
 shall hear us speak his name as our fathers spoke to us 
 the name of Washington, and shall grow up revering 
 and guarding the hallowed memory of this second Father 
 of his country ; whom History will write, also, the Father 
 of a race. 
 
 His future, too, is safe. There is no question now, in 
 any mind, whether any eclipse can come upon his fame. 
 Would he have guided the vessel as wisely, through the 
 intricate channels of reconstruction, as over the tempes 
 tuous sea of civil strife ? Could he have gained such 
 wide assent and cheerful support to his measures, in the 
 new exigencies of ruling, as in those through which he 
 has safely brought us ? Might not some, who have been 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 349 
 
 his friends, have turned against him possibly, as the new 
 questions of the hour, and of coming hours, came into 
 sharp debate ? Already there were fears that he would 
 not prove stern enough for the stern work of retributive 
 justice, and that his great, kind heart, rather than his 
 bond to law, and to the destinies of the future, would 
 have guided him in his treatment of the chiefs of the 
 rebellion. But all fears, all questions, all doubts looking 
 toward any qualification of his well-earned renown, are 
 vanished now. He can show no weakness in the future, 
 to reflect upon his strength in the past, commit no folly 
 to reproach his old sagacity, make no blunder that shall 
 leave him shorn of influence, and mingle large qualifica 
 tion with the praise of history. He is safe from all these 
 possibilities of errors, frailties, and failures. History 
 must take his portrait as he is, standing at the very 
 highest eminence of a just and stainless life. Not one 
 laurel which he has won, and which he wears, is ever, 
 by any reversal of coming days, to be stolen from his 
 wealth of power. 
 
 He was permitted, too, to see the great triumph 
 toward which his hopes looked and his counsels helped. 
 Thank God for that. He knew the rebellion doomed, 
 the war ended, and the nation saved. That one supreme 
 moment when his feet trod the streets of the conquered 
 rebel capital paid him for all. He did not die like the 
 old prophets " without the sight." He gazed with 
 mortal eyes upon the glorious consummation, for which, 
 with such grandeur of constancy and diligence, through 
 four years whose weight would have crushed a weaker 
 man, and would have crushed him but that he leaned on 
 30 
 
350 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 Heaven, he had been toiling. If the assassin had 
 struck before the rebel banner fell at Richmond, and the 
 sword of Lee was yielded to the hand of Grant, if the 
 sun of the President had gone down before the sun of 
 our rescued nationality had fairly risen, that would have 
 been a darker and more trying providence. But that 
 sun was up. Those patriot eyes saw its morning radi 
 ance, and reflected it back. He might almost have 
 said, like aged Simeon, perhaps he did so say in the 
 silence of some secret and thankful prayer, " Lord, now 
 lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes 
 have seen thy salvation ! " 
 
 It will not be too bold to say, that his work was done 
 when it paused ; for God, who gives each man his task, 
 so judged and so appointed. His mission was accom 
 plished. That for which God raised him up he had 
 performed. All that was committed to him to do he 
 finished, and finished well. That which comes after is 
 assigned to other heads. God is not limited in the 
 number or in the variety of his agents. Nothing is 
 put in peril now by this falling of a trusted leader 
 which God cannot as well provide for, and make even 
 more victoriously secure. 
 
 Least of all are we to fear, that the great cause of 
 progress in this land must needs be turned back, or even 
 halt. That cause may be served and forwarded by men; 
 but it is not dependent upon their living or dying. It is 
 not invested in any vulnerable, human life. It is not 
 something material which bludgeon or steel may strike 
 to the earth. Its citadel is not within frail human flesh, 
 or within the truest and noblest human heart. It is a 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 351 
 
 kingdom of truth, a life of ideas, invisible, invul 
 nerable, on all the air, in the faith and testimony 
 of millions of confessors, in God s imperishable word, 
 linked with his invincible providence, in living 
 seed of thoughts and principles which righteous blood 
 shed by the hand of violence only quickens to a more 
 instant germination, and ripens to an earlier and broader 
 harvest. That cause is God s cause. It is hid in his 
 heart. It is carried on his eternal purpose. It is too 
 high and safe for human desperation to strike. 
 
 Let none of us in his great grief despair or despond 
 over his country. Recall to-day that word which has 
 become in these stern times our national motto, " In 
 God we trust ! " He did not lead Israel through the 
 Red Sea to forsake them in the wilderness. He will 
 not forsake us on the shore from which we have looked 
 down on our foes overwhelmed and broken. He has led 
 us hitherto. He can lead us on. His counsels have not 
 changed. His power is not baffled. He can appoint us 
 a leader. Moses was not permitted to go over Jordan ; 
 but there arose a new captain of the Lord s host, and 
 the sword of Joshua instead of the rod of Moses waved 
 in the van of advance. David was not permitted to 
 build a temple for the Lord his God, because he had 
 been a man of war, and had shed much blood ; but he 
 prepared the way, accumulated the means, conquered 
 the peace, and Solomon reared the magnificent, sacred 
 pile. Through our tears let us look up and confide in 
 that Supreme Leader. 
 
 He has mingled mercy even with this great tragedy. 
 Part of the bloody conspiracy was foiled. The Secretary 
 
352 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 of State, and those smitten in his defence, we may hope 
 will survive. The arm that conquered in the field, 
 doomed in the foul plot with those who were stricken, 
 the arm of our hero, Grant, is nerved still with life and 
 strength. God keep it so nerved. God shield the head 
 of Grant. How wide the murderous scheme, and how 
 many names were written on the assassins roll, none of 
 us can tell, but every great and precious life we can 
 commend to his vigilant keeping who has numbered 
 the hairs of our head, and without whom not a sparrow 
 falls to the ground. 
 
 What if the new unexpected responsibility settling 
 upon the legal successor of the slain President should 
 fill him with another heart, call him up to the height of a 
 great consecration, gird him with noble and faithful 
 purposes, so that the memory of one hour of shame 
 shall be remembered no more against him, in the splendor 
 of a long and just renown? That issue is more than 
 possible. This, too, may be given as the answer of 
 Christian intercession. 
 
 And oh, we have that stricken household to bathe with 
 a nation s sympathy; to beseech God s tenderest con 
 solations for them; to lift them, and lay them for 
 strength and comfort on the heart of Jesus. 
 
 Of what infinite worth to them now, and to us also, 
 those words of tender confession which came a few 
 months ago from the President s lips: "Yes, now I can 
 say that I do from my heart love the Lord Jeans Christ." 
 
 We feel, many of us, that we could have wished, for 
 him whom we mourn, a different scene for the last hour 
 of his health and consciousness on earth, that he could 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 353 
 
 have met the fatal missive on some stage of official duty, 
 or in the retirement of home, or in the circle of religious 
 worship, rather than within those festal walls. Yes, it 
 would have been better. 
 
 But they were scarcely festal walls to him. They 
 were a sort of refuge often, for one who had no retire 
 ment of home, from the incessant calls and wearying 
 importunities of aspirants for place and office. 
 
 And it has seemed to be rather one of the penalties 
 than pleasures of political rank and illustrious position, 
 that they must yield themselves to the popular welcomes 
 and fellowship in such festive gatherings. And the plea 
 that prevailed with the President to visit the theatre on 
 this particular night was that of his own kind heart, 
 unwilling, in the necessary absence of their idolized 
 general, that the waiting enthusiasm of the people should 
 be altogether denied an object for its expression; his 
 last thought not for himself, but for the gratification of 
 those whom he loved and served. 
 
 And so he has passed from the midst of us. Our joy- 
 bells have changed their merry peals for solemn tolling. 
 Our festive banners droop at half-mast. Our purposed 
 jubilant processions must become funeral marches to 
 this new grave. " The joy of our hearts is ceased. 
 Our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is 
 fallen from our head." 
 
 We touch, in this event, one of the great pivotal 
 points in our history and destiny, on which turn issues 
 more momentous than we can now discern. But our 
 future is with God, and not at the mercy of human 
 scheming and human crime. 
 
354 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 We shall not have much time for tears even over so 
 great a sorrow. Our work is stern and pressing. One 
 thing is beyond contradiction. Yielding rebellion has 
 lost its most lenient judge, returning rebels their best 
 friend. His successor has always entertained towards 
 these parricides a sharper and more incisive purpose. 
 They will meet in him a face set like a flint, a hand of 
 iron. They have not gained much by the exchange. 
 
 We shall none of us be any the more inclined to spare 
 the last remaining weakness of the old system, from this 
 new exhibition of its fell spirit, or to apologize for that 
 temper in the midst of us that can make this day of 
 broken-hearted mourning a day of glad tidings to itself. 
 It is not wise just now for such minds to speak out their 
 brutal gladness. Our hearts are too sore to bear it. 
 They had better hide it, if they feel it, so deep that 
 neither by look nor lip shall it get expression. We 
 shall not be very patient with it. The law officers have 
 found out that there is such a crime as being accessories 
 to murder after the fact, and the spirit of Andrew John 
 son is the downright kindred spirit of the Andrew Jack 
 son of other days, and treason, North and South, will have 
 a short shrift and a sharp doom. Perhaps we needed, 
 all of us, to see more clearly the wickedness against 
 which we have had to contend, and to be girded anew 
 for its utter extermination. Let us crush it quickly, and 
 forever. 
 
 And so, bereft of this one helper in whom we have 
 felt strong, let us turn to God with a new spirit of 
 dependence on his Almighty arm. and make our tears of 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 355 
 
 mourning the waters of a new baptismal consecration to 
 the service of our country and humanity, the supremacy 
 of law, and the safety, honor, and perpetuity of this 
 Union, for which we have paid so great a price. 
 
REV. J. D. FULTON. 
 
DEUTERONOMY XXXIV: 7. 
 
 "Hl8 EYE WAS NOT DIM, NOR HIS NATURAL FORCE ABATED. 
 
 AN inscrutable providence crowds this and other 
 sanctuaries to-day. A nation, redeemed by the blood 
 and toil of her bravest and best, mourns the loss of a 
 Chief Magistrate, who was the embodiment of a people s 
 hope, and the object round which the affections gathered 
 of every lover of liberty in the world. Abraham Lincoln 
 was sincerely loved. That "peasant proprietor," and 
 "village lawyer," whom, by some divine inspiration or 
 providence, the republican party of 1860 selected to be 
 their standard bearer ; whose election was regarded as 
 a calamity by many of his supporters ; and as a justifiable 
 cause for the most monstrous rebellion upon which the 
 sun ever shone, grew to be the peer of Washington, and 
 climbed to the highest peak of earthly distinction. 
 
 It was a great shock when half the nation attempted 
 to make the dream of secession a real fact, and when 
 the guns of Sumter sounded the call to arms ; but it was 
 trivial when contrasted with the emotions experienced 
 as the tidings reached us that Abraham Lincoln had 
 
 (359) 
 
360 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 been assassinated. We were glad when the armies of 
 the rebellion were beaten ; when Richmond fell ; when 
 Lee capitulated ; but we would rather have had 
 Washington environed with the enemy and have 
 had Lincoln alive, than to have had the armies defeated 
 and Lincoln dead. This is a new crime. We are not used 
 to the bloody hand in that shape. We have felt that 
 " slavery was the sum of all villanies," and that men 
 who could starve our brothers amidst abundance ; who 
 could suffer them to freeze, and go unsheltered amid 
 primeval forests, were capable of any act of cruelty and 
 injustice ; but we had forgotten that sin is blinding, 
 and that God often permits the wrath of man to work 
 out his own destruction ; and so we had somehow 
 fancied that rebels had hearts and brains as other 
 men ; and that they would discover, what we have 
 felt all the way, that our chief magistrate was a wall 
 between the wrath of an outraged people and the veriest 
 criminals of history. 
 
 They did not perceive the truth, and so they conspired 
 against the life of their best, if not of their only powerful 
 friend. There is no other like him. Death has frozen 
 and hardened that loving face, and embalms it in the 
 memories of mankind as a legacy of the past. That 
 heart which felt its need of divine support when the 
 nation s sky was o erclouded, and the air was full of 
 rumors and revolt ; which nearly broke as the eye gazed 
 upon the lifeless form of his idolized child; and which 
 surrendered itself to Jesus as the boom of the cannon at 
 Gettysburg assured us that the nation was in its Geth- 
 semane struggle ; which wrought, by the throes of an 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 361 
 
 indescribable anguish, Emancipation for this nation ; 
 which was so full of gentleness and love, and so longed 
 for peace, that already it was nearing the verge of 
 injustice, in its search for its ways of being merciful, is 
 stilled in death. 
 
 " Yet a few days and thee 
 
 The all-beholding sun shall see no more. 
 
 Thou shalt lie down 
 
 With patriarchs of the infant world, with kings, 
 The powerful of the earth, the wise, the good, 
 All in one mighty sepulchre." 
 
 Like Moses, he has died, not because of disease, nor of 
 advanced age ; his eye was not dim, nor was his natural 
 force abated. He died because his work was done. He 
 had passed through battle, sorrow, and war ; had climbed 
 the heights of Pisgah, and had gained a view of the 
 Canaan of peace lying in the distance ; and when the 
 Lord had showed him all the land, and had assured him 
 of the promise that the sons of freedom should possess 
 it, by his providence he declared, " Thou shalt not go, 
 over thither." 
 
 The purpose which God had to accomplish through, 
 his instrumentality had beeen fulfilled ; and, as there ar$ 
 dividing lines in time, drawn by God, over which men 
 never pass, it becomes us to bow in meek submission, 
 here as elsewhere, and to hear the words, "Be still, 
 and know that I am God." 
 
 Four years ago we remembered him as he abode in 
 hope. Then he found himself the object of Southern 
 abuse so fierce and so foul, that, in any man less passion 
 less, it would long ago have stirred up an implacable, 
 31 
 
362 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 hostility. Mocked at for his official awkwardness, and 
 denounced for his steadfast policy ; beset by fanatics of 
 principle on one side, who disregarded constitutional 
 obligations, and by fanatics of caste on the other, who 
 were not only deaf to the claims of justice, but would 
 hear of no policy large enough for a revolutionary emer 
 gency ; now tried by a long series of disasters which 
 distressed and depressed the nation, and now by a 
 series of successes that would have puffed up a smaller 
 mind, he has preserved his balance, and walked on in 
 the path of duty ; never in advance of public opinion, 
 and never far behind it ; going more as a passenger 
 on the ship of state, believing that the hand of God was 
 on the helm, than as a pilot and commander, capable of 
 mapping out new and untried paths ; never trying to 
 control events, but frankly confessing " that events have 
 controlled me ; " never attempting to compliment his 
 own sagacity, but gladly admitting that to God be 
 longs all the praise : like our Capitol, which has 
 been pushed on towards completion amidst troublous 
 times, though it lacks here a cornice and there a 
 column, yet the statue of Liberty crowns its summit, 
 and looks with glorious pride toward the east ; so 
 we remember that though his character was incomplete, 
 yet like the Capitol, its main portions stood out 
 in grand and type-like outline, crowned with the laurel 
 wreath of victory, and bearing on its ample frontlet, 
 the emblazoned word of Liberty. We remember that 
 a little more than a month before he died, he stood 
 forth on the day of his second inauguration, with a mes 
 sage so statesman-like, so imbued with Christian hope 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 363 
 
 and charity, that even English critics declare that they 
 can detect no longer the rude and illiterate mould of the 
 village lawyer s thought, but find it replaced by a grasp 
 of principle, and dignity of manner, and a solemnity of 
 purpose, which would have been unworthy of none of 
 the remarkable statesmen of the past : while his gentle 
 ness and generosity deserve to remain forever the wonder 
 and admiration of mankind. 
 
 Death has done its work ! That soul no longer lights 
 up that tall, frail body. The window is darkened. The 
 vital force is withdrawn. The heart ceases its beating. 
 The tabernacle is emptied of its inhabitant and goes to 
 decay. Rejoice that, though the assassin s bullet has 
 wrought this, it could not accomplish its fell purpose. 
 For though the earthly house of this tabernacle was 
 destroyed, he had a building of God, a house not made 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens. He obeyed his 
 Master s injunction and literally knew no fear of men, 
 who could destroy the body, but after that have no more 
 that they can do ; but having feared Him who can cast 
 both soul and body into hell, he had learned to put away 
 trouble ; having believed in God, and having believed, 
 also, in Christ. It is ours to rejoice. We had elected 
 him to the highest of earthly positions, and made him an 
 inhabitant of that house which is the goal of millions. 
 Christ has lifted him higher, and made him a tenant 
 of a mansion prepared for him in the heavens. Hence 
 the loved wife, and those children, one of whom was 
 just standing upon the verge of manhood, and the 
 other " Tad." whom he loved so well, a boy of hope 
 and promise, can exclaim, no\v that the soul has 
 
3G4 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 winged its way upward, " Our loved one is with God." 
 With the -Christian the separation of the soul from the 
 body is but the throwing aside the curtains of time, and 
 crossing the threshold of a blissful eternity. His 
 eternal Sabbath has begun. Sin, which fettered his 
 soul here, cannot touch him there. He has escaped, 
 like the eagle to the mountains ; the snare of the 
 fowler is broken. He has kept Christ s command 
 ments, and abides in Christ s love. He has fought the 
 good fight, and finished the course, and kept the faith ; 
 and henceforth there remains for him a crown of right 
 eousness. Let us rejoice that over his remains the light 
 of a Christian s hope sheds its radiance. In spiritual 
 death there is something frightful to contemplate. We 
 all understand the meaning of the word "death" as 
 applied to the body ; none of us can comprehend the 
 meaning of the term "death" as applied to the soul. 
 We have seen the footprints of the destroyer, now in 
 the wasted form, and sunken cheek and eye of those we 
 have loved. We have seen the child of tender years 
 lying, like a withered flower, in the lap of maternal 
 tenderness ; we have gazed upon the robust frame, 
 plump cheek, and closed eye, over which the sporting 
 ringlet played, and have cried, " He is not dead, but 
 sleepeth ; " we have seen death in horrid shapes on the 
 battle-field, where giant men have fallen in the strife ; 
 
 : we have walked beneath the shadows of the pestilence, 
 and have seen manly forms pierced by the arrows which 
 God s messenger has drawn from his quiver, and shot 
 
 i with unerring aim from his death-dealing bow ; in fancy 
 we have seen that bent head, that blood-crimsoned chair, 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 365 
 
 that room crowded with senators and statesmen, and, ever 
 and anon, vocal with the cries of a wife, who exclaims : 
 "Live!" " You must live ." "Bring Tad lie will 
 speak to Tad lie loves him so!" and yet there are 
 scenes worse than this, scenes which cannot be 
 compared with those witnessed daily by the eye of 
 faith ; seen by us as through a glass darkly, but seen 
 by Spirit eyes in all their hideous proportions, whenever 
 they gaze upon a world lying under bondage of death. 
 The sight beheld in the White House is full of touching 
 sadness, but the sight beheld by angel eyes within these 
 walls is still more gloomy. The dead in trespasses and 
 sins, without God, and without hope in the world, 
 what sight can be more pitiable than this ? " For the 
 wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungod 
 liness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth 
 in unrighteousness." 
 
 It was this which brought Christ to earth. He came 
 to bridge the bridgeless river, and to lead captivity cap 
 tive. He was and is the way, the truth, and the life. 
 His hand lifts heaven s window, and permits the eye to 
 behold the streets paved with gold, and trodden by the 
 feet of the redeemed. His revelation carries the torch 
 through the vail, and permits us to see the fountain 
 from whence the crystal stream flows forth, beside 
 which the trees of life forever stand, and beneath 
 which flowers bloom that delight the eye, and 
 fruits abound which satisfy the soul. You feel 
 that you have heard of that land as from a friend. 
 In that land there are no gray hairs, no wrinkled 
 cheeks, eyes do not grow dim with tears, forms are not 
 
366 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 bent with age. The step is always light, and the ruddy 
 glow of health is ever on the cheek. In that land there 
 are no creeping shadows, no wintry blasts, chilling the 
 blood, and driving men to seek shelter. It is a place of 
 rest, and a place of safety. Assassins cannot lurk there. 
 The vile cannot dwell there. " And there shall in no 
 wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatso 
 ever worketh abomination or maketh a lie ; but they 
 which are written in the Lamb s book of life." 
 
 Spiritual life and spiritual death are determined here. 
 As the tree falls so it lies. This hope animates our souls 
 to day. When a man s feelings are benumbed ; when 
 his inclinations tend downwards ; when his affections are 
 bound around the decaying things of time, and you 
 find it impossible to lift them up, and cause them to 
 twine about the living realities of eternity, and he dies, 
 you feel that the beyond is full of gloom. But when he 
 is good, reverent, loving ; when mellowness and great- 
 heartedness, when faith in God, in Christ, and in the 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit characterized him; when 
 love for God begets a love for man, and the tie that binds 
 him to the infinite links him to the finite ; when kind 
 ness broods over the actions ; when the blessings of those 
 that were ready to perish rest upon him, and the peace 
 that passeth knowledge flows like a river through the 
 area of his life, it is impossible not to think that death 
 is but the introduction to a more blessed companionship 
 with Jesus : 
 
 " "Where rivers of pleasure flow bright o er the plains, 
 And the noontide of glory eternally reigns." 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 367 
 
 You feel that, in the description of this good and rever 
 ent soul, I have described the character of Abraham Lin 
 coln. Never have we seen a nature more broad, a love 
 of justice more strong, an incorruptibility of character 
 more manifest, a loyalty to principle more binding, 
 than distinguished the man whom we so profoundly 
 mourn. As a denomination, we are indebted to him ; 
 for it was his innate sense of justice, and love of right, 
 that gave protection to some who are dear to our broth 
 erhood and to our hearts. Prison-doors have b?en 
 unlocked by his hand. Soldiers condemned to be shot, 
 rescued by him, have leaped into the embrace of heroic 
 death with his name upon their lips. The fatherless, the 
 stranger, the poor, and the desolate, rise up from this 
 stricken land, and praise God for the benefaction and 
 the benefactor. 
 
 We remember, with sorrow, the place of his death. 
 He did not die on Mount Nebo, with his eye full of 
 heaven. He was shot in a theatre. We are sorry for 
 that. It was a poor place to die in. It would not be 
 selected by any of you as the spot from which you would 
 desire to proceed to the bar of God. If ever any man 
 had an excuse to attend a theatre, he had. The cares 
 of office were heavy upon him. His brain reeled. His 
 frame grew weak. He longed for a change. He 
 desired to get away from the crowd, from the cares 
 and responsibilities of office. Washington s closet would 
 have been preferable. In conversing with a friend, he 
 said, * Some think I do wrong to go to the opera 
 and the theatre ; but it rests me. I love to be alone, 
 and yet to be with the people. I want to get this 
 
368 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 burden off; to change the current of my thoughts. 
 A hearty laugh relieves me ; and I seem better able 
 after it to bear my cross." This was his excuse. 
 Upon it we will not pronounce a judgment. This 
 we will say : we are all sorry our best loved died 
 there. But take the truth with its shadow. Moses was 
 forbidden to enter the promised land because, at the 
 waters of Meribah, he disbelieved God, was impatient, 
 and took to himself the glory that belonged to God. 
 Does not the rock in the desert stand as a finger 
 pointing forward to our danger ? does not Moses life 
 assure us that none of us can hope for heaven through 
 or because of any merits of our own ? 
 
 We have not tried to disguise his fault, if you choose 
 to give it that name. Is it not strange that there is no 
 other which suggests itself? But I know of none. 
 Admit this, and answer me. If you were to send a man 
 to heaven, to represent the American people there, 
 would you not cast your vote for him ? Who was his 
 match in virtues ? Who has used opportunities so well, 
 and so wisely ? 
 
 Some tell us that he would not have done for the 
 hour. God knows best ; and God took him : but do 
 you believe that was the reason ? Has he not always 
 met the emergency, and did not his last act show us 
 that he was ready to meet this ? If he erred in 
 leniency, did not he prove himself ready to be just, in 
 condemning men who evidenced that they were ready 
 to trifle with the imperilled interests of the country ? 
 
 Is it not more just to say, God looked in pity upon 
 a nation that had floated off the crime of slavery upon 
 
DEATH OF PKESIDENT LINCOLN. 369 
 
 the outflowing currents of its own crimson life ; and that, 
 in one blow, God intended to prepare us to understand 
 his purposes, and make us ready for his judgments ? 
 As another has said, " The cowardly crack of that pistol 
 was the fitting knell of the infamous romance which ever 
 belongs to feudal fierceness, and we shall probably hear 
 no more of it. On Good Friday, long ago, the God ot 
 Martyrs was sequestrated from all apparent hope ; but 
 on the tomb of the Sacrificed arose the banner of free 
 dom everywhere and forevermore. Coming ages will 
 hold our beloved President in perpetually augmenting 
 esteem, until the vestiges of his beneficent rule are 
 found, not along the strand of an inland sea, but upon 
 the highest range of central mountains, equidistant 
 between world-washing oceans, with the old flag above 
 and the youngest race beneath, free under every tint, 
 and fearing only God ! 
 
 In the future it shall be discoverable, as it is not at 
 this time, that his work was finished. Our country 
 resembled a magnificent war-steamer, lodged midway in 
 the Mississippi, but destined to sail the ocean. When 
 Abraham Lincoln stepped upon her deck, four years ago, 
 he found her prow in the muddy bank, her wheels were 
 clogged with flood-wood, and her stern was swept by 
 the resistless current. When he began his work he did 
 not do any remarkable thing. He loosened first one 
 wheel and then the other. He turned on the steam, got 
 her prow into the current, and began to sail down the 
 mighty river. It was a perilous passage. Now she 
 was swept along by rapids, now she moved amid frown 
 ing shores, alive with guerillas, and bristling with bat- 
 
370 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 terics. Now she was stopped by sand-bars, and now 
 driven through perilous channels, and the nation s hope 
 died out, at times, as night settled down upon the ship 
 and its brave commander. At last the gray dawn 
 appeared, and the morning broke. The ship was moving, 
 and he was on the prow, and the brave old crew stood 
 by his side. At last Vicksburg fell ; the ship moved 
 on. You remember his words : The signs look better. 
 The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. 
 Thanks to the great Northwest for it. Nor yet wholly 
 to them. Three hundred miles up they met New Eng 
 land, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way, 
 right and left. Nor must Uncle Sam s web feet be 
 forgotten. At all the water s margins they have been 
 present, not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the 
 rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and 
 wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been, 
 and made their tracks. Thanks to all for the great 
 republic, for the principles by which it lives and keeps 
 alive for man s future ; thanks to all. Peace does not 
 appear so far distant as it did. I hope it will come 
 soon, and come to stay ; and so come as to be worth 
 the keeping for all future time." Sustained by this 
 hope, how he worked, how he waited ! Peace was 
 coming ; the current of a national purpose grew stronger 
 and stronger ; our ship passed straight into the Gulf, 
 and our commander got a little taste of the salt sea, 
 and a slight touch of the billow when he confronted 
 the long swell of the Atlantic. At this point a strange 
 Providence startles us. The assassin s bullet causes him 
 to step aside, just as the nation begins to think of 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 371 
 
 closing up the rebellion; and so, in a moment, as if 
 summoned by God to new and fresh work, she lays 
 aside her glove of kid, and puts on her glove of iron, 
 gets ready to answer the difficult questions and solve the 
 knotted problems, and settle her running account with 
 the traitors at home, and with the sympathizers with 
 traitors abroad. A man falls, but a nation lives. A 
 fact which would have thrown France into a revolution 
 but steadies the American character, and solidifies our 
 government. Yesterday, we considered the effects of 
 this death upon the settlement of national questions 
 and the jurisprudence of the land. To-day, let us con 
 fine our attention to the delineation of his character, 
 and follow him as he enters upon his reward on high. 
 
 Consider now here God s goodness to our Chief 
 Magistrate. Come with me to the eternal city, ye 
 that know what it is to see a look of love come to you 
 from the hungry whom ye have fed, and the naked 
 whom ye have clothed, and behold Abraham Lincoln 
 walking humbly the golden streets bearing in his arms 
 the manacles of four million redeemed bondmen, and of 
 thirty million emancipated freemen, and saying in his 
 quaint way, Dear Master, these are the results of the 
 washing of thy blood, and of the proclamation of thy 
 glorious gospel. Behold the husbands and sons whose 
 spirits have preceded him from battle-fields and prisons, 
 from the slave-pen and from the dungeon, and hear 
 them in their ascriptions of praise to Him to whom 
 belongeth the glory forevermore. 
 
 It is hard to part with him, but it is cruelty to wish 
 him back. His life was round, full, and complete. Can 
 
372 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 you not see Jesus opening the record of him whose 
 footprints of love are found in every path where it was 
 possible for him to be useful ? Can you not see his face 
 light up as Jesus leads him into the mansions hung with 
 the pictures of his faithful acts ? There is one where 
 he saved the widow s son, whose father had been his 
 benefactor in his youth. There is another descriptive 
 of his thoughtful tenderness to his aged stepmother, who 
 has been supported by his munificent care. Another 
 reveals him writing sometimes five hundred notes per 
 day for the poor and the destitute in Washington, 
 asking a job for this laborer, a pass for this wife, 
 granting a pardon for this innocent, and bending his 
 tired frame over documents in which he can have no 
 personal interest, in his search for justice. There are a 
 few acts which will immortalize him in history. The 
 Emancipation Proclamation is the crowning act. This 
 secures him immortality. This lifts him to a niche in 
 the temple of fame an arrow s shot higher than any 
 ever held by any living American. But in heaven, 
 methinks, I see Christ s eye reading records our eyes 
 never will see, and hear him saying, " Inasmuch as ye 
 did it unto these, ye did it unto me." The form of his 
 beneficent face will be perpetuated in marble, and cities 
 will vie with each other in piling up monuments, to 
 attest their appreciation of his worth. 
 
 A Christian s monument is not built of any material 
 as decaying in its nature as marble. It cannot be con 
 fined to any given locality. Would you see the monu 
 ment of Moses you need not make a pilgrimage to 
 Mount Nebo, or search with your eye the plains of 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 373 
 
 Moab for a mosque or a marble shaft. His monument is 
 not there ; still, he has one visible to every eye. Look 
 over the records of the past and see how that name has 
 ploughed its way into the history of the world. The 
 monument of Abraham Lincoln rests in the heart-love of 
 the American people. It is composed of acts which will 
 glow with immortal beauty; with acts, rising higher 
 than any mere monument of stone, round which loving 
 recollections will eternally entwine themselves, and in 
 which the hopes of millions are enshrined. Such char 
 acters are creations of God. They exist. They had a 
 beginning, but their growth was almost unnoticed. All 
 we know about them is, they were ready to bear any 
 burden, to endure any hardship. Press them with cares 
 you but hold them steady, as the beams strung along on 
 the top of columns keep them from falling. There is 
 nothing superfluous about them. Equal to every emer 
 gency, ready for every task, failhful in every crisis, they 
 naturally become objects of almost idolatrous trust, and 
 of malignant hate. Their lives are full of toil and hard 
 ship. As a workman often uses his best instrument to 
 overcome the greatest difficulty, and to surmount the 
 most perplexing obstacle, as the strongest men are sent 
 to perform the hardest tasks, so God gives his chosen 
 ones heavy burdens, and sends them forward on perilous 
 enterprises, knowing that they have the nerve to attempt, 
 the courage to endure, and the faith requisite to the 
 accomplishment of the gigantic undertaking. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln s traits of character are easily 
 described. His power of trust was marvellous. He 
 believed in the structural power of our free institutions, 
 
374 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 which, without any statesman s cooperation, is slowly 
 building a free nation on this great continent. He felt 
 that the dogmas of the great past were inadequate to the 
 glorious present. "The occasion," said he, "is piled 
 high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. 
 We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our 
 country." He believed in the logic of events, because 
 in them he thought he saw the purposes of God. 
 
 He believed in the people, and longed to hear from 
 them. He asked for discussion as for light, and awaited 
 opportunity. At the outset he pledged himself simply 
 " to hold, occupy, and possess the property of the United 
 States ; " and when he accomplished the task, he passed 
 away. He was a conscientious and deeply honest man. 
 He was afraid of gratifying self at the expense of duty, 
 and of sacrificing duty for the sake of self. This ex 
 plains many mysteries. The hand that wrote, " If I 
 could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would 
 do it," wrote, also, " I am, naturally, anti-slavery. If 
 slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot re 
 member when I did not so think and feel. And yet 
 I have never understood that the Presidency conferred 
 upon me an unrestricted right to act, officially, upon 
 this judgment and feeling." 
 
 His integrity was thorough, all pervading and all con 
 trolling. He hesitated to put down his foot. There is 
 little doubt but thousands of lives were sacrificed because 
 of his slowness ; but when he put down his foot it was 
 as immovable as the rock itself, and his waiting may 
 have saved the nation. We all remember his message 
 in which he disclosed his purpose of giving freedom to 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 375 
 
 the slave. It assumed the form of a duty. " In giving 
 freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free, hon 
 orable alike in what we give and what we preserve. 
 We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope 
 of earth. Other means may succeed : this could not 
 fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just ; a way 
 which, if followed, the world will forever approve, and 
 God must forever bless." 
 
 The people confided in him, not so much because they 
 believed in his genius, or in the quickness of his percep 
 tions, as because of a sense of safety and security, 
 which was begotten by the methods chosen to reach 
 important conclusions. 
 
 He believed in God and recognized the value of 
 prayer. Hence, when he left Springfield for Washing 
 ton, fifty-three months before, he said to his old and 
 tried friends, " I leave you with this request : pray for 
 me." They did pray for him. Millions beside them 
 prayed for him. To a company of clergymen he said, 
 " Gentlemen, my hope of success in this great and terri 
 ble struggle rests on that immutable foundation, the 
 justice and goodness of God. And when events are 
 very threatening, and prospects are very dark, I still 
 hope that in some way which man cannot see, all will 
 be well in the end, because our cause is just, and God is 
 on our side " 
 
 He was one of the people. Well do some of us 
 remember standing upon the steps of the White House, 
 as he came forth from the Presidential mansion. He 
 bowed to us in passing. Our hearts were touched by 
 his careworn, anxious face. Passing into the grounds, 
 
376 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 on his way to the War Office, he stopped to give a 
 greeting to a couple of pet goats that waited for his 
 recognition. While thus engaged, one of the party 
 stepped up and said, "Mr. Lincoln, will you allow 
 me to introduce to you two Massachusetts women." 
 He drew himself up to his full height, swept his hand 
 over his face, and said, "Yes, bring them along." We 
 came, and were introduced. He chatted pleasantly until 
 we grew frightened, and begged him not to allow us to 
 intrude upon his time. We felt, it was said, that it 
 would be a great pleasure to shake hands with our 
 honored Chief Magistrate, here, beneath God s open 
 heaven, and on this green grass. " Ah ! " said he, 
 waiting a moment, " such a privilege is worth contend 
 ing for," and then, assuring us of his pleasure to greet 
 the people, he passed on to his laborious tasks. Well 
 has it been said, "No one who approached him, whether 
 as minister or messenger, felt impelled either to stoop or 
 strut in his presence." Edward Everett, after observing 
 his bearing, at Gettysburg, among the Cabinet and 
 foreign ministers, the Governor, and other notables, 
 pronounced him the peer, in deportment, of any one 
 present. 
 
 He was an affectionate man. He never forgot a favor 
 or a friend. The men he loved before he was President, 
 he loved even more tenderly after he learned the value 
 of their disinterested affection. 
 
 He was a temperance man, and never used intoxicating 
 liquors, or tobacco. After his return from Richmond, 
 we are told, a cask of old whiskey, taken from the cel 
 lar of one of the southern grandees, was brought to the 
 
DEATH OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 377 
 
 War Office, and opened. He was urged to take it in 
 honor of the occasion. He declined, and thus refused 
 to lend the influence of his name and position to the 
 support of a practice which has wrought such immense 
 mischief in the Army and in the State. 
 
 In the poem which he was so fond of repeating, and 
 which he learned when a young man, you discover a key 
 which unlocks many of the mysteries of that marvellous 
 life. There is a charm in them which will repay perusal 
 not only because of their intrinsic beauty, but because 
 when we read them we seem to get near his great and 
 loving; heart : 
 
 Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 
 Like a swift- fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 
 A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 
 He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 
 
 The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 
 Be scattered around, and together be laid, 
 And the young and the old, and the low and the high, 
 Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie. 
 
 The infant a mother attended and loved ; 
 The mother that infant s affection who proved ; 
 The husband that mother and infant who blessed ; 
 Each, all, are away to their dwellings of Rest. 
 
 The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne ; 
 The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn ; 
 The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave, 
 ATP K<* J and lost in the depths of the grave. 
 
 32* 
 
378 SERMONS ON THE 
 
 The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap ; 
 The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep ; 
 The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread ; 
 Have faded away, like the grass that we tread. 
 
 So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed 
 That withers away, to let others succeed ; 
 So the multitude comes, even those we behold, 
 To repeat every tale that has often been told. 
 
 For we are the same our fathers have been ; 
 We see the same sights our fathers have seen ; 
 We drink the same stream, and view the same sun, 
 And run the same course our fathers have run. 
 
 The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would think ; 
 From the death we are shrinking our fathers would shrink 
 To the life we are clinging they also would cling : 
 But it speeds for us all, like a bird on the wing. 
 
 They loved, but the story we cannot unfold ; 
 They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold ; 
 They grieved, but no wail from their slumber will come ; 
 They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. 
 
 They died, ay ! they died ; we, things that are now, 
 That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 
 And make in their dwellings a transient abode, 
 Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. 
 
 Yea ! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, 
 We mingle together in sunshine and rain ; 
 And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, 
 Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN". 379 
 
 Tis the wink of an eye, tis the draught of a breath, 
 From the blossom of health to the paleness of death ; 
 From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud, 
 Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 
 
 A man that revolved such thoughts in his mind was not 
 likely to be elated by his position or place. There 
 is one more fact which deserves to be mentioned, 
 because it places the last stone upon the monumental 
 pile of his greatness. He took time daily to peruse his 
 Bible, and was often found up at four o clock in the early 
 morning holding communion with the Father of Lights 
 in his word. Such is the character which America at 
 this time places in her gilded bark of hope, and sends 
 down the current of time to the distant future. Who 
 ever in Europe or Asia or Africa shall behold its heaven - 
 enkindling look, will find the face of him whose 
 
 "Patient toil 
 Had robed our cause in victory s light, 
 
 " A martyr to the cause of man, 
 His blood is freedom s eucharist, 
 And in the World s great hero-list 
 His name shall lead the van. 
 
 " Yea ! raised on faith s white wings, unfurled 
 In heaven s pure light, of him we say : 
 He fell upon the self- same day 
 A Greater died to save the world." 
 
A PROCLAMATION. 
 
 Whereas, it appears from evidence in the Bureau of 
 Military Justice, that the atrocious murder of the late 
 President, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, and the attempted assas 
 sination of the Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of 
 State, were incited, concerted, and procured by and 
 between Jefferson Davis, late of Richmond, Va., and 
 Jacob Thompson, Clement C. Clay, Beverly Tucker, 
 George N, Sanders, W. C. Cleary, and other rebels and 
 traitors against the Government of the United States, 
 harbored in Canada ; 
 
 Now, therefore, to the end that justice may be done, 
 I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do 
 offer and promise for the arrest of said persons, or either 
 of them, within the limits of the United States, so that 
 they can be brought to trial, the following rewards : 
 
 One Hundred Thousand Dollars for the arrest of 
 Jefferson Davis. 
 
 Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of 
 Clement C. Clay. 
 
 Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of 
 Jacob Thompson, late of Mississippi. 
 
 Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of 
 George N. Sanders. 
 
 Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of 
 Beverly Tucker, and 
 
 Ten Thousand Dollars for the arrest of William C. 
 Cleary, late Clerk of Clement C. Clay. 
 
 The Provost Marshal General of the United States is 
 directed to cause a description of the said persons, with 
 the notice of the above rewards, to be published. 
 
 In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand 
 
 and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
 
 Done at the city of Washington, on this 2d day of May, 
 
 in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 
 eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the 
 
 [L. s.] Independence of the United States of 
 
 America the eighty-ninth. 
 
 ANDREW JOHNSON. 
 By the President. 
 
 WM. HUNTER, Acting Secretary of State. 
 
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