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DAMON'S 
 LINCOLN 
 
 ft 
 
 SERMON 
 
 A Discourse Preached by 
 
 Rev. Samuel Chenery Damon 
 
 In 
 
 Honolulu, Hawaii 
 
 14 May, 1866 
 
 1917 
 WILLIAM M. CLEMENS 
 
 PUBLISHER 
 56 & 58 Pine Street New York City, N. Y. 
 
LH5J 
 
 .2 
 ■H\L 
 
 (Over a half a century ago, in the Seaman's Chapel, Honolulu, on 14 
 May, 1865, the Reverend S. C. Damon preached the following sermon on 
 the assassination of Lincoln. It was published in The Friend of 1 June, 
 1865, and is republished at this time as a chapter of historic and religious 
 literature that should not be forgotten.— Editor.) 
 
DAMON'S LINCOLN SERMON 
 
 IN THE ADMINISTRATION of the affairs of this 
 world God is ever doing and permitting things to be done 
 the reasons for which cannot be seen by shortsighted 
 mortals. Such is God's method of proceeding that we are 
 continually compelled to take many things on trust. 
 Faith in Him is the great lesson which He is ever teaching 
 mankind. He has drawn an impenetrable veil before our 
 eyes, shutting out the future from our view. "Ye know 
 not what shall be on the morrow," or "what a day may 
 bring forth." How impressively these scriptural declara- 
 tions and those of my text are illustrated by events which 
 have recently transpired on the other side of the globe. 
 All the loyal people of that great country, stretching from 
 the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf 
 to the Lakes, were preparing for such a day of thanks- 
 giving and jubilee as never had been witnessed on the 
 western continent. The national feeling, which, during 
 the four years of civil war had been repressed, was rising, 
 and about to burst forth in such scenes and shouts of re- 
 joicing as would have made the "welkin ring." The dove 
 of peace which had, during those four long years, been con- 
 fined to the ark, rocked and tossed upon the troubled 
 waters of civil strife, political contentions and cruel war, 
 had now been released, and with the olive branch in her 
 mouth, was winging her flight over mountains and valleys 
 broad savannahs and boundless prairies. The good news 
 was flashed with lightning speed over the land and the 
 world. The dark clouds were rolling away, and the sun 
 of the nation's glory was beginning to shine, and the rain- 
 bow of peace was distinctly seen spanning a continent, 
 
as in days of yore, when lo! from the receding black clouds 
 of secession, treachery and slavery, there darted forth a 
 fiendish arm, holding in its hand an assassin's dagger. 
 The whole scene is instantly changed. For a moment the 
 pulse and heart of the nation cease to beat, but the next 
 instant there follows a sigh of anguish and wail of sorrow. 
 Abraham Lincoln, our beloved president, is dead! I do not 
 believe, since the creation of the world, so many hearts, 
 in so short a space of time, ever mourned over the death 
 of a single human being. There is no disputing or gain- 
 saying the fact, Abraham Lincoln had gradually been 
 winning for himself a place in the hearts of the American 
 people second only to that of Washington, the father of his 
 country. But will not the people now call him the savior 
 of the country, when the life of the nation was threatened? 
 This most tragic event is not an accident. It is not 
 the work of chance. We do not live in a world ruled over 
 by blind fate. Never before did I realize there was so 
 much force and intensity of meaning in those words of our 
 Savior: "But the very hairs of your head are all num- 
 bered," and even a sparrow "shall not fall on the ground 
 without your Father." I do not think there ever was a 
 public man who recognized more clearly and fully this 
 doctrine of God's special providence than did our lamented 
 President. Gathered as we now are in the house of God 
 on this first Sabbath morning after having received the 
 news of his death, how can I more appropriately employ 
 the usual time allotted to a discourse than by directing 
 your minds to some of those moral and spiritual lessons 
 taught by this most sad and melancholy event. The 
 telegraphic intelligence which has reached the Island is 
 quite sufficient to disclose the naked facts, but insufficient 
 to portray the effects upon the country at large. Under 
 these circumstances, perhaps I may be allowed to dwell 
 upon the religious features of Mr. Lincoln's character. 
 He was a public man, and had been called to occupy a 
 
most responsible and trying public position. He fully 
 realized this fact from the very moment that he stepped 
 forth from the sphere of a private American citizen to 
 occupy the highest position within the gift of his country- 
 men His brief address on leaving his home at Springfield, 
 Illinois, is inimitably beautiful: "My Friends: — No one 
 not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at this 
 parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have 
 lived more than a quarter of a century; here my children 
 were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not 
 how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me 
 which is perhaps greater than that which has devolved 
 upon any other man since the days of Washington. He 
 never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine 
 Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that 
 I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sus- 
 tained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my 
 reliance for support. I hope you, my friends, will pray 
 that I may receive that Divine assistance without which 
 I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. I 
 bid you all an affectionate farewell." 
 
 During the delivery of this short address the audience 
 was much affected and when it closed there was the hearty 
 response, "We will pray for you." During his progress 
 to Washington he uttered similar sentiments at Columbus 
 and Steubenville, in Ohio, ever expressing the hope that 
 he should be sustained by the prayers of the American 
 people. In this address we have the keynote to all his 
 subsequent addresses, letters, proclamations and public 
 documents. I cannot recall a single one in which he did 
 not fully and frankly recognize God's agency in the man- 
 agement of the affairs of this world. His allusions to an 
 overruling Providence were not in a half-apologistic and 
 semi-infidel style, as if he wished to conciliate the feelings 
 of Christians, while at the same time he had no very clear 
 and definite idea of what he was saying or writing. Read 
 
 5 
 
his second inaugural, on the 4th of last March. The 
 staunchest and most orthodox divine could not have given 
 utterance to more evangelical doctrines or religious senti- 
 ments. He quotes and comments upon the very words 
 of our Divine Savior, in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew. 
 "Woe unto the world because of offences." Then, too, 
 with what masterly emphasis he quotes the words of the 
 Psalmist David, prefacing, "If God wills that the war con- 
 tinue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hun- 
 dred and fifty years of unrequited toil, shall be sunk, and 
 until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid 
 by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thou- 
 sand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments 
 of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' ' Noble 
 utterances and sublime language, which will live as long 
 as the English language shall be spoken. Such truthful 
 sayings will go forth from the Chief Magistrate of a great 
 people to break asunder the fetters of slavery throughout 
 the world. His name through all coming time will be 
 associated with that most important of all his state docu- 
 ments — his Emancipation Proclamation. It may well be 
 compared with the imperial ukase of the Emperor Alex- 
 ander, giving liberty to twenty millions of Russian serfs. 
 From the time and circumstances under which it was is- 
 sued it must ever be viewed as marking the transition 
 point from slavery to freedom, in the history of the Re- 
 public of America. I cannot stop to dwell upon Mr. Lin- 
 coln's efforts and labors in behalf of the slaves and the 
 colored people of America. It was noble and philan- 
 thropic, and it doubtedless accorded him unfeigned pleas- 
 ure, during the latter months of his eventful life, to learn, 
 in so many ways, that they appreciated his services. This 
 was apparent when he received a copy of the Holy Bible 
 from the loyal colored people of Baltimore as a token of 
 respect and gratitude. They hailed him as the "friend 
 of universal freedom." It never will be known in time 
 
how many millions of earnest prayers went up for "Massa 
 Linkum" from the Uncle Tom cabins scattered all over 
 the slave States, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. 
 Those sincere but enslaved people took hold of the arm 
 that sustained the universe. America stands forth today 
 disenthralled and saved, not merely by the achievements 
 of our noble soldiers and the masterly statesmanship of our 
 cabinet ministers, senators and representatives, but there 
 was a power behind all these outward manifestations. 
 That power was prayer— the prayers, too, of the poor. 
 Says the son of Sirach, "A prayer out of a poor man's 
 mouth reacheth to the ears of God, and His judgment 
 cometh speedily." "He will hear the prayer of the op- 
 pressed." "The prayer of the humble pierceth the clouds, 
 and till it come nigh he will not be comforted, and will not 
 depart till the Most High shall behold to judge righteous- 
 ly and execute judgment." Mr. Lincoln recognized that 
 power of prayer, as I have already shown, when he left his 
 home for the White House at Washington. 
 
 How intensely interesting the fact that while he was 
 thus occupied with the great and momentous affairs of 
 thirty millions of people — of whom four or five millions 
 were in open rebellion, and a million more were girded 
 as soldiers, yet even amidst all these cares he did not 
 neglect the poor who were his neighbors, as the following 
 incident will show: 
 
 A newspaper correspondent from Chicago one day 
 dropped in upon Mr. Lincoln and found him busy count- 
 ing greenbacks. "This, sir," said the President, in his 
 cheerful way, "is something out of my usual line; but a 
 President of the United States has a multiplicity of duties 
 not specified in the Constitution or Acts of Congress. 
 This is one of them. This money belongs to a poor negro 
 who is porter in one of the departments (the Treasury), 
 who is at present ill with the small pox. He is now in the 
 hospital and could not draw his pay because he could not 
 
 7 
 
sign his name. I have been at considerable trouble to 
 overcome the difficulty and get it for him, and have at 
 length succeeded in cutting red tape, as you newspapermen 
 say. I am now dividing the money and putting by a 
 portion labeled, in an envelope, with my own hands, ac- 
 cording to his wish." Such unostentatious acts of kind- 
 ness need no comment. Our Savior said, when upon 
 earth: "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of 
 these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a 
 disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his 
 reward." I doubt not that the good man is now reaping 
 his reward in glory for befriending the poor colored porter 
 who could not write his name — sick with the smallpox 
 in the hospital. It is an interesting fact that the American 
 citizen at home and abroad, however humble his lot, was 
 not forgotten by him. When it was reported at Wash- 
 ington through the correspondence of our minister, to Mr. 
 Seward, that a sailor had been ill-treated at the Marquesas 
 Islands, Mr. Lincoln immediately directs that five hun- 
 dred dollars in gold be devoted to the purchase of presents 
 to be distributed among Hawaiian missionaries and others 
 who had rescued the unfortunate man. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that the very last public 
 address which Mr. Lincoln ever made, March 17th, was in 
 reference to colored soldiers being employed by the rebels. 
 He remarked that he hoped they would try the experi- 
 ment! In all his efforts in behalf of the colored people 
 of America he has endeavored to manage the subject with 
 an enlightened regard to the highest Christian duty to his 
 country and to God. Having shown that Mr. Lincoln 
 was actuated as a public officer by Christian principle, I am 
 fully confident that he was truly an experimental Christian, 
 one whose Christianity did not begin and end in a mere 
 formal acknowledgment of Divine Providence. The fol- 
 lowing incident is reported by the Rev. Mr. Adams, a 
 Presbyterian minister of Philadelphia. He was on a visit 
 
 8 
 
to Washington, and had made an appointment to call upon 
 the President at the White House, at 5 o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. Says Mr. Adams, "Morning came, and I hastened 
 my toilet and found myself at a quarter to five in the 
 waiting room of the President. I asked the usher if I 
 could see Mr. Lincoln. He said I could not. 'But I have 
 an engagement to meet him this morning.' 'At what 
 hour?' 'At 5 o'clock.' 'Well, sir, he will see you at 5.' 
 I then walked to and fro for a few minutes, and hearing a 
 voice, as if in grave conversation, I asked the servant, 
 'Who is talking in the next room?' 'It is the President, 
 sir.' 'Is anybody with him?' 'No, sir; he is reading the 
 Bible.' 'Is that his habit so early in the morning?' 'Yes, 
 sir; he spends every morning from 4 o'clock to 5 in reading 
 the scriptures and praying.' ' How beautiful an illustra- 
 tion this is of the injunction of our Savior, "But thou, when 
 thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and pray to thy Father 
 which is in secret." How beautiful an instance of one who 
 followed our Savior's devotional habit, who, "in the morn- 
 ing, rising up a great while before day." went out and 
 
 prayed. 
 
 "Prayer ardent opens heaven, lets down a stream 
 Of glory on the concentrated hour 
 Of man, and audience with the Diety!" 
 
 The following incident, however, sets forth Mr. Lin- 
 coln's views upon the question of vital godliness, in the 
 very strongest light: Several months before his ever-to- 
 be-lamented death a gentleman called upon him on busi- 
 ness. After the business was closed and they were about 
 to part the gentleman said to the President, "On leaving 
 home a friend requested me to ask Mr. Lincoln whether he 
 loved Jesus." The gentleman makes the following re- 
 port: "The President buried his face in his handkerchief, 
 turned away and wept." He then turned and said, "When 
 I left home to take the chair of state I requested my coun- 
 trymen to pray for me. I was not then a Christian. When 
 my son died — the severest trial of my life — I was not a 
 
 9 
 
Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and looked 
 upon the graves of our dead heroes who had fallen in de- 
 fense of their country, I then and there consecrated my- 
 self to Christ. / do love JesusV This simple and touch- 
 ing confession needs no comment. It opens to the world 
 the heart and religious experience of the good man. The 
 people felt that he was honest in all his dealings with them, 
 and so he was equally honest with himself and God. These 
 few simple utterances, welling up from the depths of his 
 heart, and accompanied with tears, will ever be cherished 
 by Christians of every name and sect as the most precious 
 sayings of his life. They touch the tenderest chord in the 
 Christian's heart. Christians of every name will ever re- 
 gard him as a brother beloved, but departed, and when 
 thinking of him as departed the language of the burial ser- 
 vice will not be inappropriate: "It hath pleased Al- 
 mighty God, in His wise providence to take out of this 
 world the soul of our deceased Brother!" 
 
 Think, not, my hearers, that I have brought forward 
 these facts and incidents in the life of our lamented Presi- 
 dent because I think it requires an argument in the style 
 of special pleading to prove his adherence to the principles 
 of Christianity and the doctrines of the New Testament. 
 No; his Christian, as well as his public and political 
 character, is known and read of all men. With him there 
 was no reserve or concealment. His character was per- 
 fectly transparent. His faults as well as his virtues were 
 equally apparent. 
 
 "And e'en his failings Iean'd to virtue's side." 
 
 He went to the theater on that fatal night, the tele- 
 graph informs us, because he wished to please his friends 
 and not disappoint the people, who were expecting the 
 presence of Gen. Grant. 
 
 "His life was gentle; and the elements 
 So mixed in his that Nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world, This was a man!" 
 
 In turning our thoughts from a contemplation of his 
 
 10 
 
 HHjmjuuuwimjuuuimuiiLiuiu»i, 
 
character to our bleeding country, the question forces 
 itself upon every thoughtful mind, what will be the effect of 
 Abraham Lincoln's assassination upon the Nation? Our 
 latest dates afford us, as yet, no facts by which we can 
 satisfactorily answer this question. Time must de- 
 termine. Our minds must for the present find consolation 
 in dwelling upon the great truth that God lives and reigns, 
 and that He is able and "will make the wrath of man to 
 praise Him." We may also recall to mind some of those 
 pages of history wherein somewhat similar events are re- 
 corded. When Brutus and his fellow-assassins smote 
 down Caesar in the senate at Rome they supposed that 
 with Caesar's death Caesar's influence would no longer be 
 felt. They were disappointed. Caesar, disappeared, but, 
 exclaims Cicero, "All the acts of Caesar's life, his writings, 
 his words, his promises, thoughts, are more powerful after 
 his death than if he were still alive." So I trust, and 
 doubt not, it will be with the life, writings, words, prom- 
 ises, thoughts of Abraham Lincoln. His blood has 
 stamped an impress upon these which will immeasurably 
 increase their value throughout all coming time. 
 
 When the hired assassin, Balthazar Gerard, brought 
 to an untimely end the eventful life of William the Silent, 
 Prince of Orange, on the 10th of July, 1584, Philip II., all 
 the enemies of civil and religious liberty imagined that 
 with the death of the Prince of Orange would end his use- 
 fulness. But how dissappointed were these men. In the 
 beautiful language of Motley, The Prince was entombed 
 amid the tears of a whole nation. Never was a more ex- 
 tensive, unaffected and legitimate sorrow felt at the death 
 of any human being. 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." The commonwealth 
 which William had liberated forever from Spanish tyranny 
 continued to exist as a great and flourishing republic dur- 
 ing more than two centuries, under the successive stadt. 
 
 11 
 
holderates of his sons and descendants. So I doubt not a 
 similar result will follow the assassination of the illustrious 
 man whose most unexpected death we now lament. He 
 died the martyr to liberty. He was assassinated by the 
 hand of Booth, but it was negro-chattel slavery which 
 nerved that arm and prompted that basest of crimes in the 
 annals of nations. This was the crowning act of the 
 slaveholders' rebellion. Sumter was fired upon on the 
 12th of April, 1861, Booth shot President Lincoln on the 
 14th of April, 1865. The same bad animus that first 
 struck down the flag in '61 fired the assassin's bosom when 
 he smote down the President, commander-in-chief of all 
 the military and naval forces of the republic. No powers 
 of metaphysical analysis can separate the two. Perhaps 
 it was needed that this crime of crimes should be perpe- 
 trated to arouse the minds of the American people to the 
 awful enormity of the crime of slavery and treason. The 
 deed has been accomplished, and henceforth and forever, 
 in the minds of all loyal Americans and lovers of liberty 
 throughout the world, a stigma has been fastened upon the 
 crime of slavery and treason which can never be wiped 
 away. 
 
 The event to which your attention has now been 
 called will not pass into oblivion and be forgotten. It was 
 not done in a corner, but the crime was perpetrated, as it 
 were, in the presence of a gazing crowd of spectators in- 
 finitely larger than that gathered in the theater where it 
 took place. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on the 
 world's wide stage. There was a great cloud of witnesses. 
 Now what shall be its influence upon the Nation and the 
 world we know not now but we shall know hereafter. It 
 will be overruled for good. How unspeakably thankful 
 we all should be that he was spared thus long to the 
 Nation, even to see a virtual ending of the rebellion. 
 God permitted this stunning blow to fall for the accom- 
 plishment of some wise purpose. I do believe that in 
 
 12 
 
after years and ages it will be seen to have been necessary 
 for bringing about the final triumph of justice and truth, 
 and the punishment of the guilty. For a season clouds 
 and darkness may surround the throne of God and en- 
 velope His plans and purposes, but ere long He will make 
 all clear and plain. If we are watchful and take the word 
 of God for our guide we shall see the dark clouds revealing 
 a rainbow of glorious promise. I am confident that a 
 bright and glorious future is opening before our country. 
 Let us be hopeful. Great results must follow from these 
 tragic events of war and commotion. Surely we have 
 witnessed enough to make us trustful and confiding. It 
 seems to be a law or principle which God observes in his 
 management of nations as well as individuals, that when 
 He would bestow some signal favor He prepares the way 
 by severe chastisements. Surely, I think we may hope 
 that God has great good in store for that people when He 
 shall have chastised them for that great sin of slavery. 
 That must be removed before the millennium come and 
 the Gospel shall everywhere triumph. In the appro- 
 priate language of Longfellow, I would exhort you, "Look 
 not mournfully upon the past; it comes not back again. 
 Wisely improve the present; it is thine. Go forth and 
 meet the shadowy future, without fear and with a manly 
 heart." Let us not go forth, however, trusting in an 
 "arm of flesh," but in God, our Savior and Deliverer, most 
 fully believing the sentiment of the text, "What I do thou 
 knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." God 
 is the Judge! 
 
 13