•E2/4 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. \ d/x^. M/-^ (y <^k arlp to Stlri[rlg. ®be muU^v to f iliMtg." 44 THREE SERMONS PREACHED IN THE C^ it^i ^ImxHt^dht 41^1 PHILADELPHIA. Sunday, April 1 6 th,Wednesday, April 19th,and Tliiirsday, June 1st, By RICHARD EDDY, Pastor, PHILADELPHIA : n. G. LEISENRING'S STEAM-POWER PRINTING HOUSE, Jaync'8 Building, Nos. 237 and 239 Dock Street. 1865. And the Victory that day was tuuned into Mourning unto ai.i. thk People.— 1 Samuel, xix., 2. Uiitil within a little more than twonty-tbur hours what preparations had been made for a joyous keeping of this day and of to-morrow. How many had rejoiced in the assurance that the brightest Easter sun that ever shone upon the earth, would this day smile upon happy wor- shippers, and witness a beautiful and harmonious blending of political rejoicing and religious thanksgiving I Our hearts were full of gratitude and hope on the last Christian Sabbath. It was, opportunely and with singular felicity of appropriateness, Palm Sunday — the Sunday of victory, and all through the preceding week we had been filled with congratulations and rejoicings. Then we brought all our joy to the Christian temple, and felt that it had the approval and the benediction of God. Our cup of happiness was well nigh full. But on the open- ing of the busy week, yes, before we had closed our eyes in slumber on the Sabbath night, still more glorious tidings had come to us, and the joyous messages increased as each day brought us nearer to this day of blessed rest. How beautifully all material and religious influences seemed conjoined to make this day ever memorable for its joyous, instead of as now, alas ! its sad observance ! I had advertised that I would speak to you (as suggested by this Resurrection Morn,) on the New Life for Man, through the power of the revelation of immortal life by the liesurrection of Jesus Christ, and on the New Life for the Nation, planted as the richest shoot of Christian civilization, and now destined to a glorious career under Christian guidance, and the strong fidelity of the people to Christian principle. I had thought that we might thus honor God and profit our own hearts, by such an observance of Easter. How much there was to fur- nish analogy, illustration and suggestion, and to enable us to look with cheerful hope on the changing condition of our Country. I thought of the beautiful illustrations, the encouragement to con- fident trust, the incitements to patient and cheerful waiting, the every day increasing beauties, and the constant preparations for future harvests so beautifully visible in this joyous Spring-time How grandly do nature's types now shadow forth the realities of the Christian Dispensation, and seem in most genial keeping with our national hopes. Fruit trees loaded with pure white blossoms; forest trees that seemed but yesterday to be bending beneath their load of chilling snow, now unfurling their emerald leaves ; the daisy and the violet blossoming by the road side ; the fresh grass decking the earth that was but yesterday bare ; how all these sympathized or seemed to sympathize with our new and almost as sudden, though in reality quite as long preparing, national change. Oh ! what a long and dreary winter has our beloved Country passed through. Stripped of how many comforts, pinched by how many wants, agonized by how many chilling blasts of adversity, crushed by how many cold and heavy troubles, our hearts aching with their burdens. I thought, too, to have you feel a fresher and livelier interest in that great reglious event which makes this day so glorious. How appro- priate it was, that it should fall on this Spring-time of the year, — man's resurrection symbolized by nature, and realized by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. What fitness there was, that our Anglo- Saxon fathers should redeem this day from its heathen observances — from at least its merely natural uses, and make it evermore a religious — a Christian festival. I thought, too, to have said some word that should make it be felt, that this day celebrates that event which more than any other gives assurance that the Christian Religioo rests not in imagination, — a merely beautiful, but, perhaps, also, a fictitious theory, but on an unmistakable, an undeniable fact. And that at no time have the American people had greater reason to satisfy themselves of the positive truthfulness, and the absolute authority of the Christian Religion, than is now pressing upon them. A professed Christian land, with the great task before it of reconstruction of the Government of so many of its parts; with a crushed and hitherto despised race to provide for; with thousands of unfortunates, and thousands of criminals to dispose of — to conciliate — to discipline, and to save from being utterly cast away ; what momentous issues these raise, what grave responsibilities they impose, what faithfulness and patience, what justice and mercy they demand. The Christian Religion alone can help us to solve the problem — to do that which is right, and just, and true. How important, then, to know that the Christian Religion has authority, that it pro- poses God's methods, that it advocates nothing impracticable, but everywhere and always holds forth the eternal truth. Let us but establish our hearts in this, and God will make us equal to our work. Let us seek adjustments, settlements, reconstructions, on any basis foreign to the Christian truth, and we have all our work to undo, and can find no rest, no peace, till we set our feet on this immovable rock. I hoped, too, to have set forth some recent indications of the new life on which the Nation is about to enter. How the downfall of the main army of Rebellion, and the notice consequent thereon, that there was to be no more calls for soldiers, had given all encouragement and hope for speedy peace ; how the words of President Lincoln, on recon- struction, plain-spoken, full of good sense, evincing so much goodness and greatness of heart, had won their way to all men's consciences, and seemed to unite us still more closely and more warmly in the conscious- ness of one citizenship, and oneness of just pride in our honest, able, noble-hearted, patriotic President. These thoughts I had revolved in my mind ; had hoped to have presented them somewhat fully to you this morning. Rising at an early hour yesterday, that I might have time to arrange and write out my theme, I heard the tidings of the assassination of our Chief Magistrate, which I am sure must have affected you as they affected me — absorbed all other thoughts, and banished all other themes. How sudden, how terrible the calamity ! What else could have so changed the current of human thought all over our land ! What else have stayed the rejoicings whose enthusiastic waves were uiounting up to a height never before known among the American people ! What else could have induced the people to lay aside the flowers with which they were intending to deck the pulpits of the land, and to put in their stead the symbols of deepest gloom ! What else could have made us feel as we enter our churches this long-looked-for morning, that we are come to the burial of our fondest love, rather than to bask in the sunlight of an immortal day. and mounting up on the wings of an all victorious faith to shout, "0, death, where is thy sting? 0, grave, where is thy victory?" Surely, " the victory of our day is turned into mourning unto all the people." And here, under the pressure of this common, this deeply oppressive grief, what can I say ? what can any man say this day ? I find myself continually repeating : " The Nation is bowed heavily with mourning. The man beloved, trusted, honored, and worthy of all trust, honor and aifection, is suddenly taken away, and we, like bewildered travelers, are bereft of our guide ; like orphaned children, we mourn the de- parture of our father !" 6 Surely this expresses the common sentiment ; it tells for the time being all that, humanly speaking, can be said. Was there ever since the death of the Saviour of the world, a more brutal, a more uncalled-for murder? Private ambition, or personal hate, had nerved the hearts and hands of men in other days, to the destruction of their ruler. Patriots risking all, and applauded by the world, had driven the dagger to the tyrant's heart. The profli- gate kings and princes of the past had fallen victims to the lust or envy of the men whom they had corrupted ; and many a people have breathed more freely, as through such "sudden taking ofl:'," a change of administration was provided for them. But no such contingencies, no such circumstances distract our thoughts from the awf ulness of this murder, or alleviate the gloom of this terrible calamity. A good man, a pure patriot, a man unselfishly devoted to the best interests of his Country ; a man who was carried by the voice of mil- lions to the highest point of earthly trust and honor ; who bore him- self meekly ; who never failed to favorably impress either friend or foe brought in personal contact with him ; who seldom, though staggering under a burden of difiicult duty, such as never was laid on any mortal man before, made a mistake in his policy, but came to be regarded more and more as the one truly wise man of the land, and to be loved and trusted by the common people with an aifection and reverence hardly second to that which a grateful Country cherishes towards its Founder and Father, Greorge Washington. And here, in the midst of a career so glorious, while standing on the height from which he could survey the promised future of a united and free people, just as the words of peace wore to drop from his lips, and the promises of still greater mercy were about to be made to the guilty, he is taken from his work and from his earthly reward. Strange infatuation of his enemies, that they did not sec that he was their best and truest friend, who with truly Christian virtue was meditating their good. Fatal blindness that struck so murderously against the two men of the Nation, who more than all others in poAver and influence, were subduing the vindictiveness which war creates, and leading the people step by step to a willingness for the most kind and most merciful treatment of those who have sinned so deeply against the welfare of our land, and the interests of humanity. Woe unto them ! Alas for us ! Great need have we to strive and pray, that this w rong of theirs does not fill us with vindictiveness and hate ; and for him who thus suddenly steps into the place where one so loved and so worthily honored stood, that Divine wisdom would be given him, and the mantle of his great predecessor fall amply around him. Nor let us cease to hope and to pray for the recovery of that wise and able Statesman, whose judicious counsels, whose able diplomacy, whose far- seeing sagacity have kept us from trouble with foreign powers, and made us even in the day of our weakness and our trial, to be feared and respected among all the nations. May God be pleased to spare our Secretary of State to us ! My friends, though the pressure of a great calamity rests upon our hearts, and we know not what counsels may now prevail, let us not be discouraged. As on all future issues of our coin there is to be stamped the words, " In Grod we trust," so let us grave them upon our hearts. Our destiny is still in the hands of the Ever Living, though all trusted mortals fall and die. Though our victory is turned into mourning, yet let us not forget that he who this day rose from the dead, has pronounced all mourners blessed, and promises them comfort. He lives forever, and His truth is alone the salvation of man and of the Nation. Let us accept it, heed it, seek its influence, walk in the path which it marks out. To be a Christian people, and a Christian Nation, is ever possible to us ; and now more than ever its importance presses on our hearts. The Kebellion against our Country is in its dying gasps 3 let us not fear that this terrible woe that is upon us can at all revive it. The policy of him who has gone, will, let us trust, be so far commended to the judgment of his successor, that the difficulties of final adjustment will not be insurmountable, but that out of them we shall come forth united, free, and forever secure ! And for him who has gone ; for the loved ones of his home who are bowed in anguish ; for all whose tears flow that his earthly career is closed, how abundant the comforts beaming in the rays of the Sun of this Resurrection Morn ! Our beloved President still lives in the sight and in the enjoyment of his God. Lost to our sight, he yet dwells among the blest. Leaving his mangled and weary body, his spirit soared aloft, greeted by all the heavenly host, with the glad salutation, " Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into thy eternal rest ! " AXD THEV Bl'RIED lIlM, AND ALL ISUAEL MoURNED KOU HiM. — Ist. KillgS. xiv., 18. Soiuethiug less than lit'ty years agu, a young lad, strong, muscular, and somewhat overgrown, spent his days, axe in liaud, in laborious work among the thick standing trees of what is now a densely popu- lated State; and industriously gave the leisure of his nights to the acquisition of whatever knowledge might be gained from the few books he was so fortunate as to borrow from the neighboring settlers. Born in a State where honest toil was considered a degradation, whose laborers were but chattels, purposely kept in ignorance, his parents had souglit under circumstances of poverty and deprivation, a spot more congenial Avith efforts for manly independence ; and the son prizing his opportunities, but shrinking from ni> duties, was tlieir great helper in toil, while he also stored liis heart with noble principles, and his mind with every attainment possible to one in his circum- stances. How untoward were his surroundings, we, who dwell here at ease in a metropolis surrounded by conveniences and comforts which are the result of nearly two centuries of labor ansaid Abraham Lincoln, twenty-eight years ago, "on both injustice and bad policy." None so blind now that they cannot see that this curse created the Rebellion ; none should fail to note the warning voice of Mr. Lincoln, as he said to the convention which put him in nomination for the United States Senate : " This government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. It will become all the one thing, or all the other." And now. if justice demands the crushing out of the Rebellion, the punishment of its leaders, and the entire submission to the law, of all 25 who have in any way aided and abetted it. with what equal force does it also demand that the accursed root from which this deadly tree grew, shall be plucked up and utterly destroyed. Let it alone and you cannot prevent its growth. As in time passed it will control trade, commerce, offices, presses, pulpits, politics, and rule them all in the interests of unrighteousness, and whatever we may now do to the wicked wretches which it has created, it cannot fail, soon or late, to give birth to a kindred brood whose career will be run on a plane of equally ati'ocious depravity. Let the accursed thing die ! No com- promise, no covenant, no concession or conciliation should save it. President Johnson, all honor to him ! treats it in his Proclamation as a thing utterly annihilated in the States which have been in rebellion. Let us so second his effiirts, that it may soon be dead everywhere. We are not guiltless in regard to its existance or its spread, and ou us rests many of the consequences of its growth, to us much respon- sibility must attach for the fruits which it has borne. We have need to repent of our sins in regard to it; and while our condemnation of others must in a great measure react and fall back on ourselves, our way out of the trouble lies only in our doing the works of righteous- ness, confessing our folly and sin, and bringing forth " the fruits of repentance." 3. And this leads me to a brief mention, in conclusion, of the third great demand of justice upon us, which is, that we bring the State and the Nation to a recognition and maintenance of the equality of all men before the law. Slavery has not only ruled us in making us unjust towards those who were held in bondage, but it has filled us with vile and bitter prejudices against all whom it pleased God to create with a different complexion from ourselves. It has -^f, taught to regard them as so far our inferiors, that on account of their color we have shut them out from the right of suffrage, driven them from our institutions of learning, expelled them from our public conveyances. In all this we have been and we continue to be the perpetrators of outrai^e and wrong. We have been governed not by reason, but by blind and stupid prejudice. We have forgotten all the dictates of Christianity, all the lessons of history, and given the most emphatic lie to our national boast of universal suffrage, and that " governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed." Now in rebuking this, I am not asking for sympathy for the negroes, nor intimating what charity and good will ought to lead us to do in their behalf; but I make an appeal to your moral sense, to what 26 rigliteousness demands, and to wliat we must do in order to be just. Let us look back and see what we sprung from, and what a despicable thing our prejudice against race is. Six hundred years ago our fathers, the blue-eyed and fair-haired Anglo-Saxons, who were trampled into the dust by their Norman conquerors, were regarded as of coarser clay, and far inferior to the haughty ones who trampled them down ; our ancestor, yours and mine, was regarded as so low and so mean, that he might be found in the highways of England laboring with a brass collar on his neck, and the name of his master marked upon it. That is where we came from ; and it ought to smite us to the dust, that the prejudice which the Xorman then had against the Saxon, we the children of slaves have dared to transfer to others. Our assertion of the inferiority of the races is all a lie, falsified by all history, condemned by all the inspired testimony of God. And the very moment we attempt to say that the negro, trampled upon forages, accursed, despised by the proud, made the slave of the cruel, and the victim of prejudice without reason, is naturally inferior to the men of all other nations who have their homes and their voice here, we place ourselves in a position where fact cannot be our basis, but where pre- judice alone can serve for our unwarranted assertion. As another has well asked, " Will you exchange the negro for the Esquimaux — for the Pacific Islander — for the South American tribes?" An unqualified negative will be our answer to this, and in our answer behold the reproach of our foolish prejudice. Now our wickedness lies in this, that boasting of universal suffrage and of universal right, we suffer mere prejudice to give the lie to our pretentious. The question of universal suffrage I do not debate here, neither its use nor its dangers. I merely state our national boast as it is made, our political practice which gives to the stupid German and the ignorant Irishman the right to a voice in determining our afftiirs. on condition of a short term of residence, and denies that right to those born on the soil, but whom it pleased God to give a different color from what he gave ourselves. In all this we are doing unrighteously. If we make other conditions of suffrage, very well ; but no future con- ditions can excuse our present inconsistencies. And yet, how the events of this war caution us to care in placing the right to a voice in the Government on an}' grounds other than that broad one — the rights of man as a man. No mere property qualification is safe, for how wealthy were the rebel leaders ; and for the same reason no high standard of intellectual attainment can be set up, for as a class they had all the 27 culture of the schools, while in manhood, devotion 'to right, loyalty, integrity, the poorest and the humblest poor have stood above them all ; and the accuuiulated power of those simple-minded, true-hearted, inflexibly loyal negroes, who have bared their breasts to the Southern fire and steel, have been mightier and worth more than the heaviest brain that plotted treason against the land. No tribute to liberty, no homage to the Stars and Stripes has been more impressive and magnanimous than that offered by the despised ones who owed the Nation nothing ; but who freely gave their all, that the traitors who owed the Nation everything might not succeed in its overthrow. To these men and to their children we must be just. They must all stand equal in the law. In intelligence, industry, and all outward attainment, they already compare favorably and are more than equal to the mass of our foreign voters. In loyalty they are unsur- passed by none who tread our soil. Righteousness requires that for them we establish justice and secure liberty. Let us meet the demand. In hints, rather than by labored argument, still less of exhaustive presentation, I have given you, my brethren, these thoughts. I trust they have not been inappropriate in the memorial service of Him who has taught us that it is by following the right, and thus completing the work which others have begun, rather than by words of eulogy and praise, that we shall honor the memory of those who have died for us. He was fliithful to his duty, obedient -'to the right as God gave him to see the right," and the work which he left unfinished, we, if we love the memory of the righteous, will carry forward to successful completion. Let, I beseech you, his memory prove an incentive to the love of truth, to cou sg cratioa of heart and life to righteousness, and to harmony of eSift with the demands of eternal justice ; then shall we see what he so much desired, the Nation firmly and permanently established by Mercy and Truth meeting together, and Righteousness and Peace embracinu' each other. TtBRARYoTcONGRESS 011 839 354 5