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 THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 
 WHAT IT REPRESENTS. 
 
 A. S E R M O ISr , 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE 
 
 
 mt mtw Man 
 
 
 OP 
 
 PITTSBURGH, PENN'A. 
 
 THURSDAY, JUNE 1st, ISO a, 
 
 By Rev. W. H. BENVDli 
 
 W. (.t. Johuston \- Co., Vriiitcrs aud Stationorts. 57 Wootl :iii(l Id.) Third Stroets, PiUsburj,'li. 
 
 1865. 
 
 M 
 
THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN; 
 WHAT IT REPRESENTS. 
 
 j^ s E R M o isr , 
 
 PUEACIIED BKFOIIE THE 
 
 mi Mtw M$m^ 
 
 c^y 
 
 ^0i:!eii 
 
 "S 
 
 PITTSBURGH, PENN'A, 
 
 TIIUIISUAY, JUNE 1st, 1SG5, 
 
 -»4 
 
 W. O. Johnston & Co., I'lintuis aud StaUoiicite! ^7 Wood .and lo:. Third Sti-eets, ritlsburgli. 
 
 1865. 
 
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 45^ 
 
s E n M o isr 
 
 In accordance with the recommenclatioii of the Chief 
 Magistrate of the country, the men of all religions in 
 the loyal portion of the land, observe tliis day as a day 
 of fasting and humiliation, and have met together in their sev- 
 eral houses of worship, to offer prayers unto the Lord, 
 being specially led thereunto by consideration of the clos- 
 ing act in the fearful drama, whose tragic scenes have 
 convulsed the nation's life during the last four years of 
 its existence. 
 
 Moved by hell, the men of the South had conspired to- 
 gether from evil and selfish endg^ and had risen up in 
 wicked rebellion against the parental government, from 
 v;hich was born their national life, which had nursed 
 their infancy, which had reared them through their child- 
 hood, and which had . filled unto their manhood a fnll 
 measure of prosperity and honor. Moved by hell, with 
 hatred and malice in their heart, with murder and wea- 
 pons in tlieir hands, these men of the South had sought 
 to compass the death of their country, whicli, under Hea- 
 ven and the Church, was the nearest neighbor to the a ; 
 which ought to have been dearest to their natural affec- 
 tions, and the most cherished object of their hopes, aspi- 
 rations and strivings. 
 
 And, when in the slowly germinating, growing and ri- 
 pening conviction of the imminent and threatening danger 
 of the nation's existence, the men of the North and the 
 
handful of true and loyal men still remaining in the South, 
 had come to the rescue of their Government, and had put 
 forth ever more of the might which the Lord gives to the 
 right ; those men of the South, opening their hearts full 
 wide to every infernal form of hatred and rage, whetting 
 their malice upon the stones of every satauic falsehood, 
 and baring their arms to every fearful deed of blood, cru- 
 elty and revenge, gave themselves, soul and body, to the 
 work of death and destruction. 
 
 During four long and terrible years there had raged a 
 war, unparallelled in the magnitude of its proportions ; 
 unequalled in the ferocity of the one, and in the calm and 
 firm determination of the other party ; unmatched in the 
 manifestations of the cruelty of hate, and of the for- 
 bearance and long suffering of devotion to principles of 
 Truth and Right ; and, as unsurpassed in the grandeur of 
 its results, as in the enormity of the crime which gave it 
 birth, and in tlie vastness of the power put forth in the 
 interests of humanity to crush the worst of despotisms, a 
 despotism which decreed the destruction of the souls of 
 men, that it might enslave their bodies. 
 
 And, at length, when the dead on the battle-field, and 
 in the camp ; on the march, and in the hospital ; on riv- 
 er and ocean ; from secret blow and bullet ; from cruel 
 privation, and deliberate starvation, had been numbered by 
 hundreds of thousands ; v.hen desolation, utter and wide- 
 spread, had covered the fairest portions of the land ; when 
 malignant and open treason in the South, combined with 
 hidden and viler treachery in the North, had failed of its 
 purpose, by fire and sword^ by poison and pestilence ; when 
 the burning and raging lust of the rebellion's heart had 
 utterly exhausted the powers of its body, in desperate ha- 
 tred it called together all tlie forces of malice, revenge, 
 cruelty and cunning, and entering with them into the dark 
 
and secret council-charabers of hell, there bound them all 
 into one fell purpose to strike its last blow at the right. 
 To strike the last and fatal blow bj the hand of the 
 leading traitor ? No ! By the hand of the rebel sol- 
 dier ? No ! By the hand of an open and avowed foe ? 
 No ! — By the hand of one, whose miserable life had been 
 sheltered by the Government he sought to destroy ; by 
 the hand of one who, having failed to mimic well the 
 tragic words and deeils of other men, sought an infamous 
 immortality, and a filthy reward in a deed of actual tra- 
 gedy, in tlie name of a cause, to which he was no more 
 bound, by any selfish or worldly interests, than was the 
 bullet which he sped into the brain of the best friend 
 of those who upheld that cause. And, thus, did the re- 
 bellion prove itself, by its own last act, to have been all 
 a Murder, clothed in the dark and filthy rags of a Lie, 
 the very child and image of him who was "a murderer and 
 a liar from the beginning." 
 
 Because of the act of assassination, have the loyal men 
 of the nation met together on this day, in their several 
 houses of worship, at the invitation of the President of 
 the United States, to observe a day of Fasting, Humilia- 
 tion and Prayer. And it is right. It is right that they 
 should go up to the Lord, and fasting before Him, should 
 offer unto Him their prayers and supplications, — so that 
 they may come into states of mind and heart to be led 
 by Him into the way in which they shall walk, accord- 
 ing to His divine Will and Law. It is right, too, that 
 men should fast and pray according to the light which 
 they have received in respect to the things of true spirit- 
 ual life, in order that these things may flow in, and form 
 into correspondence and agreement with themselves Avhat- 
 ever is of civil and moral life with them. 
 
 In the faith wliich we profess, men and brethren, and 
 
6 
 
 according to which we worship the Lord, the act of fast- 
 ing is not an act of the hody, hut of the spirit. T!io 
 outward abstinence from accustomed food signifies to us 
 a corresponding state of the mind and life , a state of 
 grief, mourning and humiliation on account of a deficien- 
 cy of the Truth and the Goodness, which are the spirit's 
 food. And prayer, in our faith, is a turning of the whole 
 interior man, of all his afFections and thoughts to the 
 Lord, opening them to His divine influences, from an in- 
 most desire to receive them, to the end that they may 
 lead into truer conditions of thought, into better states ot 
 affection;, and into purer and holier ways of speaking and 
 acting ; that they may bring about a spiritual .consociation 
 of man with the angels, and a conjunction of his life 
 with the divine life. 
 
 In the light of this faith, it belongs to our fasting that 
 we seek to derive from the Lord's teachings to His Cliurch, 
 in His Word and Doctrine, a clearer and fuller under- 
 standing of the occasion of this our mourning and humilia- 
 tion ; of the great truths involved in its permision, and of 
 the meaning which it has to to us and to all men ; an 
 understanding which shall lead to a real and living ac- 
 knowledgment of the Lord's divine government in the 
 World, and over the World ; to a real and living ac- 
 knowledgment of Him as the all in all of life, the Crea- 
 tor, Preserver, Eedeemer and Savior^ whose only end in all 
 the operations of His providence with His hun^an creatures, 
 is the salvation of their souls, and their being made bles- 
 sed and happy from Himself to eternity. 
 
 If we can thus gather, from the fearful event, which is 
 the occasion of our fasting and prayer, the lessons of in- 
 struction concerning what is true and good, which it con- 
 tains, if it is made the means of enabling us to see what 
 great evils we ought to shun as sins against God, and 
 
what the good is which we ought to do, and how we 
 ought to do it, — then shall oui' mourning hecome to 
 us a tiling of real and actual life, not a mere emotion of 
 grief and sorrow, hut an intelligent appreciation of the 
 cause of our grief and sorrow, leading to an actual 
 reception of that truth which shall guitle us in light, and 
 to an actual doing of that truth, by which the light shall 
 become unto us the way of life, 
 
 And, in order that we may so regard this occasion, and 
 suffer it, first of all, to place our minds in a true posi- 
 tion towards itself and towards Him, who alone is Light 
 and Life, let us plant ourselves firmly on that great truth, 
 which, by universal acknowledgment, and by actual and 
 tangible manifestation and revelation, has been given to the 
 nation and to the world in the life and in the death of 
 Abraham Lincoln, the late and lamented President of the 
 United States; the great Truth, " Tliat there is a divine 
 Providence of the Lord, by which He rules and governs, 
 by provision and permission, in all the affairs of men — in 
 the least as in the greatest, and, by which, he brings 
 them to work together for eternal good to the souls of 
 men whom he has created to live forever with him in 
 the heavens," 
 
 I will not stop, at this time, to offer either argument, 
 or demonstration or illustration in support of this propo- 
 sition. For him who has lived through, and looked upon 
 the events of the last four years of our country's liistory, 
 there can be no possible need of them. For him who 
 denies the very evidence of his senses, to which it has 
 been brought so manifestly home, they would bo worse 
 than useless. He would deny the flict of a blow that 
 felled him to the earth, and the reality of the hand that 
 raised him to his feet again. What we do need to ob- 
 serve, however, in respect to this great truth of a divine 
 
8 
 
 Providence^ in and over all the affairs of men, is that we 
 must carefully distinguish two things therein: two things, 
 determined, on the one hand, by the nature of Him who 
 provides, and, on the other hand, by the nature of those 
 who are provided for. The Lord, who provides, is good. 
 He is all good, and only good ; and He is also wise, all 
 wise, and only wise. Whatever, therefore, in the operations 
 of Providence, is from Him, — that is only good and wise ; 
 that is the best and wisest, being for the promotion of 
 eternal good by means which are truest, and most per- 
 fectly adapted to the attainment of that end. Man, who 
 is provided for, is, by nature, altogether in evils and fal- 
 sities ; but, at the same time, so constituted by creation, 
 and so preserved by the Lord, that he is in freedom to 
 act according to his own reason and understanding, in 
 freedom to be good or evil, to be wise or foolish. 
 
 This essential constitution of the divine nature of the 
 Lord, and of the human nature of man, necessitates two 
 conditions of the Providence ruling and governing in the 
 affairs of men. In the one there is provision for good, 
 according to the highest wisdom, and, in the other, there 
 is permission of evil, according to the state of the human 
 understanding, determined by the will of man and its 
 loves. Human freedom absolutely requires the power of 
 determining human life, either towards good or evil ; the 
 power of choosing between truth and falsify. But, since 
 man is finite^ and eternal, only in the sense of immortal, 
 that is, only in respect to the continuance of his spiritual 
 existence, the Providence of permission must be regarded 
 as subordinated to that of i^rovlsion, seeing that the lat- 
 ter is of infinite good, and looks to what is eternal and 
 infinite, whilst the former relates to what is only temporal 
 and finite, or at most, to what is immortal. In permit- 
 ting evil and falsehood, the Lord has respect to the eter- 
 
nal good of all men, as well as to the liigliest good and 
 the least evil of the individual man. Thus, there enters 
 into the Lord's Providence of Grood from His own divine 
 nature this essential eletueut, that, whilst He governs 
 and rules men both by provision and permission, He 
 overrides all things of permission, which] are evil and false, 
 for the final and eternal well-baing and happiness of the 
 universal human race. By His wisdom He so orders and 
 arranges all the concerns of men, both spiritual and 
 natural, that even the evil and false things which 
 He permits, by acting as restraints upon other evil and 
 false things, and, by correctiug their results^ serve gradually 
 to restrict and diminish their power and influence, to re- 
 move them from their internal and ruling place in the 
 hearts and lives of men, towards the circumference, and, 
 thus, to raike wa,r for the entrance and in-dwelling of 
 the principles of truth and goodness, by which man is re- 
 formed and regenerated into the divine image and after 
 the divine likeness ; by wliich he is enabled to come into 
 the order of heaven, and to live the life of heaven even 
 on the earth. 
 
 If we will accept this teaching of the Cliurch, concern- 
 ing a ruling and overruling providence ; a providence which 
 provides whatever is good and true, and only permits what- 
 ever is evil and false for the sake of iiuman freedom 
 according to reason, and for the sake of the development 
 of a humanity in the image and after the likeness of the 
 Divine Humanity, by means of a rational acknowledgment 
 and doing of the divine Will and Law, it will not be 
 difficult for us to obtain a s )mewhat clear view and un- 
 derstanding of the occasion, which has brought us together 
 to-day, and ot its significance to us and to all men. 
 
 The occasion is the assassination of Abraham Lincoln", 
 late President of the United States. 
 
In considering this sad and terrible event, I propose to 
 notice, particularly, three things, the lessons which they 
 teach, and the results which they oaght to bring forth. 
 
 These three things are : 1st, The men ; — 2d, The time 
 and place : — 3d, The act itself. 
 
 And of these three things, I observe that, whilst each 
 of them presents itself in a dual form, representing what 
 is good and evil, all of them, as outward things, belong- 
 ing to this world, represent in themselves, and in their 
 manifestations, three internal and spiritual conditions of 
 good and evil, of truth and falsity. 
 
 I. The men ; — the victim and the murderer : the Chief 
 Magistrate of the land and the actor ; the loyal Presi- 
 dent, and the traitor assassin. 
 
 No man stands alone in the world. Every one is a 
 man because he belongs to the human family. Every one 
 has a neighbor and is himself a neighbor, having a cer- 
 tain relation to the men of his nation, tribe, family and 
 kindred. Every man has his own place in his own na- 
 tion, and among his own people. Every man belongs to 
 a certain class and order of men, as to his affections and 
 thoughts ; to a certain rank or degree of society, as to his 
 position, occupation, habits and actions. When any man 
 acts, his act represents, outwardly and visibly, not only what 
 there is in him to produce it, but also what there is in 
 others, who are of the same kind, of the same class, or 
 of the same degree of life. 
 
 Again, every man, by his affections and thoughts, is, in- 
 ternally and spiritually, associated with men in the spirit- 
 ual world, who are in similar affections and thoughts, and 
 when he acts, his act both manifests and represents the 
 quality and kind of affection and thought in which he 
 and his associates are ; it is an outward expression of what 
 is, and moves in their hearts and lives. 
 
11 
 
 And, again, every man's use, which is his office, business 
 or occupation, has an existence in the natural world, by vir- 
 tue of its correspondence to some spiritual form of use, busi- 
 ness or occupation, which it necessarily represents, and ot 
 which it is the express image and ultimate agent. 
 
 No man, therefore, stands alone, either in his bodily or in 
 his spiritual life and existence. And no man acts alone, 
 but Irom and with all those who are of his own kind and 
 class, in the spiritual and in the natural world, who are as- 
 sociated with him by community of affection and thought, 
 either in heaven, or in hell. On the ground of this i)rin- 
 ciple, I remark that, whilst Abraham Lincoln, as a man, 
 belonged to a certain class of men in the natural and in 
 the spiritual world, and as a politician, to a certain class of 
 political men, holding certain political ideas and views, which 
 flowed from higher spiritual ideas of law and order ; and 
 that, whilst his assassin, belonged no less to another class 
 and order of men, nationally, politically and socially, as well 
 as spiritually, morally and civilly ; both the former and the 
 latter were representative men in another sense, by virtue of 
 the office filled by the one, and of the occupation followed by 
 the other. 
 
 And, here, do these two men stand apart, at a distance 
 almost immeasurable. Wide as was the separation between 
 them, after leaving the common ground of humanity and na- 
 tionality, in all that constitutes character and quality and 
 class, as representative men, they are antipodal. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln held the office of l^resident of tlie Uni- 
 ted States. In this office he represented to the people of 
 the country the Lord himself, as to Divine Truth, ruling 
 and governing by Law. 
 
 John Wilkes Booth was, by occupation, an actor, and as 
 such, not a true but a false representative of other men, or 
 rather, of their supposed feelings, emotions, ideas and 
 
12 
 
 tlioughtSj as these were conceived in thought, and embodied 
 in language by still other men. 
 
 Note the distinction particularly. It is of importance to 
 the view of the subject, which I desire to present to you. 
 
 But the office of President of the United States, and un- 
 der the constitution of our government, is altogether ec[uiv- 
 alent to the office of King or Monarch, in those countries 
 in which the kingly form of government prevails. And, con- 
 cerning the nature of this office, we are thus instructed in 
 Arcana Ccelestia, No. 3670 : 
 
 "That it is a thing of indifference what be the qual- 
 ity of the man who represents, whether he be evil or good, 
 and that evil men may alike represent, and did represent, 
 the Lord's divine principles, may appear from the repre- 
 sentatives which exist even at this day ; for all Kings, lohaf- 
 soever they are, and of lohatsoever quality, by virtue of the 
 principle of royalty appertaining to them, represent the Lord ; 
 — the principle of royalty is holy, luhatever be the nature 
 and quality of the person luho ministers therein." 
 
 According to this teaching of the Church, drawn from 
 the Word, and confirmed by its literal sense throughout, 
 did Abraham Lincoln, as President and Ruler of this coun- 
 try, represent the Lord in that office, which is holy, by vir- 
 tue of the principle ot royalty appertaining to it : by virtue 
 of the Divine Truth, by which the Lord rules and governs 
 all things in the Universe, and of which the regal office 
 is the external civil agency and instrumental means. 
 In this office he did not represent the people, according 
 to the commonly received, but radically flilse, idea existing 
 among us ; but he represented the Lord to the people. He 
 represented that to the nation, in the civil plane of its 
 existence, which the Lord himself is to all men, in the 
 spiritual and natural planes of life. And, it is in the 
 light of this truth, that I desire to consider the nature 
 
13 
 
 of the act wliicli deprived him of his earthly existence ; 
 and that I pronounce it an act of rebellion against the 
 Lord^ and not against man; an attempt to destroy the di- 
 vine life, and not a human life. 
 
 The quality of the man, whatever we may conceive it 
 to have been, did not afleot the representative nature of 
 his office ; it merely affected his own position, as a true 
 or false representative in that office. But, even in regard 
 to this, his position^ I know of no man who can better 
 stand the test of truth or f^ilsity to his offi.ce, than this 
 man of the people. And the test is this, as laid down in 
 our doctrines : 
 
 " In proportion as a King claims to himself any por- 
 tion of the holy principle appertaining to his royalty, or 
 attributes it to himself, he is a spiritual thief ; and also, 
 in proportion as he does evil, that is, acts contrary to what 
 is just and equitable, and contrary to what is good and 
 true^ in the same proportion he puts off the representation 
 of holy royalty, and represents the opposite." (A. C. 367G.) 
 "ile never loses the representation of royalty, but merely ren- 
 ders it holy or unholy, according to his own state in it, 
 and according to the principles which determine liis ad" 
 ministration of its functions." 
 
 Who charges this man with the spiritual theft of claim- 
 ing, or attributing to himself any portion of the holiness 
 appertaining to his office ? If any, I will not be guilty of 
 the folly of attempting a defence in tlie face of that testi- 
 mony which covers every page of the history of these last 
 four years. Why, our charge against him, in the dark 
 hours of trial and danger, has been that he would not be 
 a spiritual thief; that he would not undertake to rule 
 events and make history ; that he would suffer himself to 
 be guided by events, and directed only according to the 
 exigencies of the hour. He did not even venture to pre- 
 
14 
 
 diet, he had only ''high hopes for the future," because he 
 believed in a Divine Providence, and acknowledged a Di- 
 vine Ruler of men. In that last, great word, which he 
 spoke to the nation, upon assuming anew the office, to 
 which the people, in most righteous recognition of his 
 faithful and worthy services, had called him a second time; 
 in that paper, which I do not hesitate to pronounce the 
 most remarkable State paper on record, he thus solemnly 
 discourses : 
 
 "The Almighty has his own purposes: 'Woe unto the 
 World because of offences, for it must needs be that offen- 
 ces come ; but woe unto 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 ap- 
 pointed tinle, He now wills to remove, and that He gives 
 both North and South this terrible war as the woe due 
 to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern that 
 there is any departure from those Divine attributes which 
 the believers 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 
 bondsmen in two hundred 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 thousand years ago^ so still it 
 must be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true 
 and righteous altogether?" 
 
 Is this the language of a spiritual thief? 
 
 Does any accuse him of having acted contrary to what 
 is just and equitable, contrary to what is good and true? 
 
 I reply — Many things of his administration may have so 
 appeared, even in the eyes of loyal men^ seeing that in 
 
15 
 
 his judgment lie was fallible and shortsighted, as all men 
 are ; that under the trying and difficult circumstances of 
 his position, with varying and opposing counsels, with new 
 and unheard of conditions, with perplexities arising from 
 want ot constitutional provision, as well as from defect of 
 governmental organization and experience, it could not 
 have been otherwise than that errors should be committed, 
 and measures adopted, which failed in their expected results, 
 and which actual results proved ill-judged. But apart 
 from these^ how much is there for which, in our haste 
 and impatience, we have blamed, and even denounced him, 
 and in regard to which events have most fully justified 
 his wisdom and prudence, and condemned our folly and 
 short-sightedness ; teaching us the lesson that the position 
 which a man occupies, not only determines his decisions, 
 but also enables him to decide more truly and justly than 
 is possible for those who are not similarly situated. 
 
 As President, Abraham Lincoln stood above the people 
 who observed him. His knowledge of conditions and cir- 
 cumstances was more exact and minute, his range of vis- 
 ion was wider and more extended than theirs, and, as 
 representative of the Lord, his office brought him, spiritu- 
 ally and mentally, into a higher and wiser spiritual asso- 
 ciation, under liiglier and wiser influences, and gave to 
 him greater ability and power to discern wiiat Avas for 
 the good of the whole. It was his duty to judge for the 
 whole, and to act for all. 
 
 And again, whatever errors of judgment he may have 
 committed, surely we dare not impute to him evils of in- 
 tention , we cannot charge him with any purpose to act 
 contrary to what is good and true, in the presence of 
 that life, wliich he sacrificed to the cause of his country, 
 and whilst the tone of true and pure benevolence which 
 pervades his last solemn words, still vibrates in our ears, 
 
16 
 
 and our hearts still burn within us from the kindling at 
 that warm flame of love to his fellow-man, which flashes 
 forth the firm and noble sentiments in the close of his 
 last inaugural address ; sentiments bequeathed to us and 
 to all future ages as the grand legacy of a life devoted 
 to the good of the human family. " With malice toward 
 none, with charity for all^ with firmness in the right, as 
 God gives us to see the riglit, let us strive on to finish 
 the work we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds, to 
 care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
 widow and his orphans, to do all which we may to achieve 
 and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and 
 with all nations." 
 
 If this nation will take to heart and life the spirit 
 and the truth of these words, Abraham Lincoln will need 
 no other monument to commemorate his life, and to con- 
 secrate his memory in all coming time. 
 
 This of him as a Kuler. As a man, Abraham Lincoln 
 was of an humble origin, as the world accounts these 
 things. Born in obscurity and poverty, early left to himself 
 and his own scanty resources, he began his active life with 
 out any advantages of position or education. He had to 
 labor for his daily bread, amidst privations and hardships, 
 and to gain knowledge as he might, by observation, by ex- 
 perience, and by such scraps of learning as he could gather 
 here and there, in the intervals of his work. But upon 
 this I will not dwell. The great fact amidst all these 
 circumstances, in which he was providentially placed, the 
 fact, chiefly of moment, and most noticeable to us at this 
 time, is, that he labored ; that he lived by labor ; that he 
 raised himself by his own labor out of his humble be- 
 ginnings to ever higher and higher social positions ; that 
 he disciplined himself, by labor, for the performance of 
 ever higher uses and duties, until he came, finally, even 
 
to the highest phice in the hind, a man of work ; a man 
 whose whole life was a guarantee of liis living faith in 
 labor, as the true destiny of the human race ; a man, 
 whose life and faith constituted him a most fitting and 
 exalted representative in the civil plane, of that divine 
 humanity of labor, against whicli the hells were marshal- 
 ling their hosts of slaveholders in both worlds, under the 
 banner of a confederation which proclaimed the divine 
 right of man to " wring his bread from the sweat of 
 other men's faces," and whicli laid its foundations on the 
 chains that creaked and clanked from the writhing of hu- 
 man lives, bound and prostrate before inliuman lusts. A 
 most fitting and exalted representative, was this man, I 
 repeat it, both in his life and in his office, of that di- 
 vine humanity of labor , of that inmost spiritual principle 
 of the life of Heaven and the Church, which it has in love 
 to the Lord and in charity towards the neighbor. What 
 is this love, what is this charity, but to do good, to 
 serve, to be useful to the neighbor from the Lord, for the 
 sake of good and use, and not for any sake of self or the 
 world, even as the Lord himself does good and performs 
 uses to man, not for liis own sake, but for tlie eternal 
 welfare and happiness of man, whom the Divine Love 
 would make happy from itself to eternity. Tliis flict I 
 notice as prominent in the career and life of Abraham 
 Lincoln, as characterizing the man, to whom, for this reason, 
 and for his earnest devotion to tlie principle it involves, 
 future ages will do even more honor, than has been ac- 
 corded to liim in the present ; as they themselves, shall 
 open to the life of that principle, and grow into the ful- 
 ness and perfection of the real manhood, which can alone 
 flow from its activity and power, seeing that it is the 
 very going forth of the Lord's life in the work of re- 
 generating man into the image anl after the likeness of 
 the Divine. 
 
18 
 
 And yet another thing, ])rominent in the disposition of 
 our murdered President, do I notice; his tender and gen- 
 erous heart ; his nature abounding in kindliness and 
 love to his fellow men. By this he won the affections of 
 the people as thoroughly as he established himself in their 
 confidence, by his entire earnestness and unswerving integ- 
 rity of purpose, and by the singleness of aim with which 
 he held on his way to the suppression of the rebel! ionj 
 and the restoration of the Union. In this he was strono; 
 and also — weak ; and since it would, unquestionably, have 
 been the means of hindering, if not of frustrating, the 
 great object whereunto he had devoted all his powers, ta- 
 lents, energies and life, so did it become the means of 
 ending his existence on earth, and of transferring it to a 
 sphere where true patriotism is changed into a love of the 
 Lord's heavenly kingdom. Had President Lincoln not 
 yielded to his super-abundant kindliness of disposition and 
 entered the theatre on the night of the 14th of April, 
 he would not have been the victim, and Booth would not 
 have been the murderer. For, whatever his intentions, 
 however wicked and devilish his purpose, the actor could 
 not have slain the President in any other place but in 
 that in which he was sustained, impelled and incited by 
 the infernal spirits, by whom he was supplied with a mo- 
 tive, and upheld in his purpose. 
 
 And this leads me to speak of him, of the assassin. 
 
 How unlike his victim ! Between them there was no- 
 thing in common, but the ordinary traits and appear- 
 ance of humanity. In their uses, in their characters of 
 heart and mind, in their origins, in their activity and in 
 their lives, they were opposites. The one, as tlie Ruler of 
 the nation, was a true representative man ; the other, as 
 an imitator and mimic of pretended and assumed charac- 
 ters, was a merely external and false representative, and 
 
19 
 
 a failure even in tliis. Born, doubtless, with some liered- 
 itary love for the actor's art, he possessed neither the en- 
 ergy nor the talents to achieve success. Dissolute in liis 
 tastes and habits, he shunned a life of industry and labor, 
 and sought to enrich himself by whatever easy methods 
 came within liis reach. A spurious Southerner, he had 
 not even the excuse of birth and hereditary disposi- 
 tion, of education and family influence and association, for 
 his rebellion against the government. A citizen of a bor- 
 der State, which had not seceded from the Uizion, he was 
 false to the very principle, the principle of State Uights and 
 State allegiance, for which the South professed to contend. 
 And thus did he represent most fully in himself, the cause- 
 lessness of the entire rebellion, as in his passions, and their 
 manifestation^ he represented the evils which moved to its 
 outbreak, the evil lusts of dominion anl of money, to be 
 gratified at the expense of the lives, the possessions and 
 labor of other men. He was an actor, for lame and for 
 money; he assumed and pretended evil passions, as well 
 as true and noble emotions anl feelings, for fame and 
 money ; and when he fiiled in mimic tragedy, he rushed 
 headlong into real tragedy, for fame — and for money. — 
 To him belongs not even the infernal credit of having 
 been animated by tbe unaffected evil lust which ruled 
 80 many in the rebellion. flis act was mere acting,, 
 from an actor's love. 
 
 It was all a lie, as it was only a murder. Me was 
 not a man of the South by parentage, or by birth ; he 
 was not a slaveholder ; he held not an inch of " sacred 
 soil;" he had not even "expatriated" himself to become a 
 rebel soldier. He lived under the government which he 
 professed to hate, and, whilst enjoying its protection, he 
 deliberately planned, and treacherously arranged all things 
 for the deed of death ; but so, that secure in its successful 
 
20 
 
 accomplishment, lie might also secure liis escape, and reap 
 and enjoy his reward. And, in all of it, though he did 
 succeed in part of his purpose, I can see nothing more than 
 the lowest cunning, without intelligence, without prudence , 
 without common sense. What great result could he possi- 
 bly have looked for? The war was at an end, the victory had 
 been won, the rebellion was crushed. The death of the 
 President could not restore the armies of the South, turn 
 back the tide of triumph, or begin the war anew. Not 
 even the desire of revenge, can be urged as a motive for 
 his deed. There was to him no cause of revenge ; most 
 certainly not in connection with the man whom he slew, 
 the very last of all men wliose life should have been ta- 
 ken by one who sought the safety or immunity of his 
 rebel friends. It was an act of sheer stupidity, of blind 
 folly and madness ; an act of wanton devilishness^ at its 
 heart an attempted and designed destruction of the Lord, 
 in the person of his representative, to the end that the 
 devil might rule and give him his well earned reward. 
 And yet, in all this, does this man represent the South 
 in its rebellion against a government of law and order, 
 in its life of selfish pride, and sloth and uselessness ; in 
 its dependence upon the labor of others ; in its hatred of 
 the principle and love of use, of the principle and love 
 of labor, which lay at the very core of the whole move- 
 ment, which was the hell in its lusts, that moved them 
 against the heaven which the Lord ever seeks to esta- 
 blish on earth, by means of the government of His truth, 
 and of the acknowledgment of law as supreme, and by 
 the promotion of every form of useful life, arising from 
 the grand republican principles of the common good, and 
 of devotion to the general welfare as the highest and pu- 
 rest civil charity towards the neighbor. 
 
21 
 
 II. Time and Place — 
 
 It is certainly remarkable, and cannot be regarded 
 otherwise than as most significant, that the assassination 
 of President Lincoln, who, in his office, represented the 
 Lord to this nation, should have taken place on the day- 
 set apart by the Church, or at least by a large portion 
 of the Churches, for the purpose of commemorating the 
 solemn event of the Crucifixion of the Assumed Human- 
 ity, after betrayal into the hands of His enemies by the 
 traitor Judas ; and, still further, that it should have been 
 accomplished in a Theatre, — a place of public amusement. 
 
 Had this political Judas covenanted with the Rulers of 
 his people, to betray him for a reward ? We cannot doubt 
 it. Most certain it is, that he strove hard to earn a 
 righteous retribution, according to the eternal law of re- 
 taliation, which decrees that man shall ever receive as he 
 gives. He slew, and he was slain. " Whoso sheddeth 
 man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." A brutal 
 murderer, he died the death of a brute. Of his hereafter, 
 we are not allowed to judge, any more than we are al- 
 lowed to judge of the eternal fate of the ancient traitor. 
 This is in the hands of Him who alone knows and tries 
 the ^hearts and reins of men ; who alone can judge an 
 eternally righteous judgment, concerning the future states of 
 men. To that judgment do we freely deliver him. 
 
 But here is the fact in relation to the time, and what will 
 we make of it ? Certainly the day was representative of 
 states and conditions in the Church, and in human life ; 
 and by virtue of this it must have had a connection with 
 the influences operative upon the minds of men, and with 
 the principles which governed and determined their ac- 
 tions. As in ancient days, when, during the Feast of the 
 Passover, the Lord, in His Humanity, accomplished the 
 divine work of Redemption, and Hell rose up in its final 
 
22 
 
 effort, and put forth all its infernal might to prevent that 
 accomplishment, so may it not have been, during this 
 feast of Easter, which holds in the Christian Church the 
 place of the Feast of the Jewish Passover, that the devilish 
 agencies, so long at work to destroy the very principle, 
 involved in our great struggle, the principle of the com- 
 mon good, as the soul and centre of all civil charity ; the 
 principle of use and a life of use, which the Lord had re- 
 vealed and fulfilled in His Humanity on earth, and which 
 He had given to the Church as tha essence of its life 
 and existence, exerted in one last, mighty endeavor all 
 their power to effect its destruction by a murder ? And 
 may it not have been that the rage of hell was in- 
 flamed to an utterly blinding and stupefying madness, be- 
 cause of the more powerful influx of goodness and truth, 
 in consequence of a turning of men's minds, at least in 
 thought, to Him from whom they are, by the season and 
 its worship, in which was commemorated his work of ren- 
 dering divine Truth perpetually present, and divine Good 
 perpetually acceptable to all those who will come unto 
 Him? 
 
 Be this as it may, sure it is, that Satan found as ready 
 and open a place in the heart of this modern, as in the 
 heart of that ancient Judas, and aimed his blow as cer- 
 tainly at the life of the Lord's Representative head of 
 this nation, as at the life of His Humanity itself, in 
 which He had come into the world to serve and to save 
 the human race. And sure it is, that, in neither case, did 
 hell seek to destroy a mere outward and corporeal life, but 
 that which it contained, that which it was and meant, the 
 divine work of redemption in the one, — and the Avork of 
 restoring to law, to the Truth in the civil plane, its right 
 to supremacy, and to man the just and inalienable right 
 to act in freedom according to reason, and to eat himself 
 
23 
 
 the bread which he earned in the sweat of his face. — 
 And sure it is, liually, that in neither case, was or could 
 the design of hell be accomplished. God's word of Truth 
 is eternal and cannot bo destroyed. Against his will in 
 that Word, the gates of Hell can never prevail. They 
 nailed His Human body to tlie Cross, but the human 
 race is redeemed. They took the natural life of President 
 Lincoln, but the rebellion is crushed, and the Union res- 
 tored. And so will it ever be, world without end, thanks, 
 eternal thanks to His merciful ruling and overruling Pro- 
 vidence. 
 
 But again, why, on this day, was the President found 
 in a Theatre? There are times and seasons for all things. 
 Had he thought of, or reflected on the fact that so many 
 christians in the land held this to be a sacred season, to 
 be devoted to special services of divine worship, even 
 though he himself may have received other religious in- 
 struction ; had his mind been led to dwell upon the great 
 events, which were then commemorated, I feel convinced 
 that even his strong desire not to disappoint the people, 
 would have given way to other and higher considera- 
 tions, and that his life would have been spared. But this 
 was not to be. His superabundant natural kindness and 
 good will had performed their great use. As oil upon 
 the troubled waters, they had served to mitigate the hor- 
 rors of the cruel and bitter strife, to restrain its fury, to 
 soften its iron hardness, and to preserve the feelings of the 
 men of tlie North from sinking into mere revenge. But 
 now, when all this was overpast, when the Truth was needed, 
 when the law had to be restored to its supreme 
 right, when justice had to bo vindicated and wrong-doing 
 punished for the good and lasting peace of the nation, 
 ttiat same disposition could only have tended to hinder the 
 course of justice, to fetter the hands of the government, and 
 
24 
 
 to prevent, what he himself so ardently desired and prayed 
 for, the achievement of a just and lasting peace among our- 
 selves, and with all nations. And thus, it came through his 
 own weakness, that this good and worthy man, this great 
 man, was led to the place of slaughter ; — humbly and 
 meekly led, even as a loving father suffers himself to be 
 drawn by the hands of his children to witness their play, 
 and, by his presence to give them joy. 
 
 As I have said, it was only in a theatre, that the actor 
 could have accomplished his deed of death. 
 
 Iir. The Act, 
 
 And what now do we say of the act? It was all and 
 only a murder, clothed in the dark and filthy rags of a 
 lie. As such, it is the last and lowest point of the abyss 
 of the rebellion, into which it had poured every particle 
 of its accumulated venom of rage, hatred, malice and re- 
 venge, and by which it struck not at the man, but at the 
 government ; not at Abraham Lincoln, but at the head 
 and heart of the nation ; not at the President, but at the 
 Lord^ whom lie represented. 
 
 It matters not, what theories may be advanced in regard 
 to the motives and thoughts of the chief actor in this 
 tragedy. Certain, most certain it is, that if the rebellion 
 had not been, if hell had not moved men to the rebel- 
 lion, Booth would not have been the assassin of President 
 Lincoln. It was the act of the rebellion, and not of this 
 miserable wretch. He was but the hand nerved from 
 Richmond, to do the work which Richmond had striven 
 for four long years to accomplish, the work of destroying 
 our free government, in order to establish on its ruins 
 the worst of despotism. 
 
 If it is true, as we believe, that our country is a neigh- 
 bor to us in the highest natural sense, then, is it true 
 also, that this rebellion was but one enormous murder. 
 
25 
 
 And if it is true, as we know it to be, that whatever 
 cause of freedom and right was put forth to justify seces- 
 sion and war, was but a pretence assumed to cover the most 
 selfish and wicked ends of dominion and avarice, then is 
 it true also, that this rebellion clothed itself in a lie, 
 whose rents and tatters only revealed more truly the hid- 
 eous deformity and foulness of the body within. 
 
 And in this, its true character, did Booth, the voluntary 
 representative, not fail the master who had sent him on 
 his devilish mission. As the leaders of the South had de- 
 liberately planned, and treacherously, perfected their scheme 
 of treason at the very seat of government, and whilst oc- 
 cupying its high places of power and emolument, so did 
 he, at the same seat of government, whilst enjoying its 
 protection^ and living unmolested in the pursuit of his 
 pleasures, .secretly arrange, and traitorously perfect his 
 scheme of murder. As they began their war of rebellion 
 by a sudden and overwhelming assault upon an unpre- 
 pared fortress, guarded by a mere handful of men, so did 
 he steal upon his unsuspecting victim, and do the deed of 
 death. Were Beauregard and his seven thousand less cow- 
 ardly assassins than this man ? Was his bullet sent on 
 a more devilish errand than the first ball v/hich tliey 
 fired at Sumter ? Were not these, in very deed and truth, 
 but the first and last acts of tlic same foul murder':' 
 And, when the men of the South, after the fall of Fort 
 Sumter, raised the cry of freedom, and proclaimed a war 
 of ".independence of northern tyranny and oppression, was 
 that other and less a lie than when the assassin, leaping up- 
 on the familiar stage, and brandishing a knife which had not 
 done the deed, with actor's mouthing hoarsely cried, ^^ Sic 
 semper tyrannis /" 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, the murdered President; a tyrant ! 
 That good^ kind, tender-hearted man a tyrant ! The 
 
26 
 
 man who saved more traitors' lives from a merited doom 
 than a hundred of his soldiers had slain in battle, and 
 who would, doubtless, have been ready to pardon them 
 all, a tyrant ! Could malice have invented a greater 
 falsehood ? 
 
 And this poor wretch, when he uttered those words, be- 
 fore he passed out into the darkness and the night, which 
 led to death ; and the j^roud men of that arrogant old 
 State which had inscribed them on its coat-of-arms, did he, 
 did they ever tliink that their motto might be made a 
 two-edged sword, cutting both ways ? Did they reflect 
 that the ancient words, ^^ thus ever to tyrants," need but 
 a little word, but a letter, to be read " thus ever hy ty- 
 rants." Who is the tyrant? The slave-driver, who would 
 wring his bread from the sweat of other men's faces ; 
 who would swing his cruel lash over the heads, and lay 
 it on the bare backs of all his brethren, in order that he 
 may be "let alone" to work out his selfish will in the 
 gratification of his vile lusts ; who would ruin all, that he 
 alone might rule ; or — that man of the people, who would 
 go forth to do his duty to his country and his God, 
 faithfully and fearlessly, because it is a duty, and for the 
 good, and freedom and happiness of all, ''with malice toward 
 none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right," as 
 God gave him to see the right ? 
 
 Was not this last act a full and perfect representation 
 of the whole rebellion in its moving causes, in its cher- 
 ished means, and in its intended results ; in its agent and 
 in its last victim? 
 
 And now, in conclusion, what of tbe results ; what may 
 we anticipate of them in the future ? 
 
 First and foremost, the nation lives, and the nation liv- 
 ing, acknowledges a Divine Providence ruling and overrul- 
 ing all the affairs of men for a good, greater, higher and 
 
27 
 
 better than the human mind can foresee, or human pru- 
 dence provide for. 
 
 And the President lives. For the principle of royalty be- 
 ing holy and from the Lord, cannot be destroyed, the of- 
 fice of Ruler is perpetual. And in the man who now 
 clothes that office, the nation has confidence ; it acknowl- 
 edges the right man in the right place. The man by 
 birth, by life and experience, best fitted to accompish the 
 work which needs now to be done. He has spoken, and 
 his proclamation meets the approval of all sincerely true 
 and loyal men, and fills their hearts with a full trust and 
 hope, that the rebellion will be effectually crushed out of 
 all that remains of it so as never again to raise its head 
 in the land. 
 
 Human slavery is abolished forever. The crime and the 
 curse have wrought their fearful results, by permission 
 of a merciful Providence; they have been burnt up in the 
 fire of their own building, and out of their ashes there 
 shall arise a new life, the life of the Freedmen, to add 
 to the nation's prosperity and glory, and to bring the 
 added weight of its influence to bear upon other lands 
 and other nations, for the promotion of the good of the uni- 
 versal race of man. And when these once chattels, these 
 once beaten and tortured, oppressed and degraded human be- 
 ing "without souls," shall have been admitted to the duties 
 ot citizenship, as they most surely will be, and in all jus- 
 tice should be, then will the great principle of the humanity 
 of labor, of the divine humanity of labor, stand fully vin- 
 dicated before the world. Then, too, will the church of 
 the Lord find in this principle, as the grand basis of all 
 human striving and activity, the real and true ground 
 whereon to rest the spiritual and divine principle of use, 
 and ul a life of use, in the doing of good, in the serv- 
 ing ot his neighbor by every man, whereby the divine 
 
28 
 
 life, coming down more fully and perfectly to all, shall jf 
 prepare a true, lasting and heavenly peace on earth, 
 and go forth in angelic good wiJl to all men. 
 
 And, as these results, slowly and gradually devel- 
 oping at first, shall go on ever more surely and rapidly 
 towards their perfection, this nation, and all nations, will 
 learn to know and to acknowledge the Lord himself, in 
 His Divine, spiritual, moral and civil law, and coming to 
 love them hetter, will obey them more gladly and faithful- 
 ly, and do His will more fully in the earth, as it is done 
 in the heavens. 
 
 And then, too, men and brethren, will their Fasting, 
 Humiliation and Prayer be not only on one day out of 
 many, but on all days. Grieved by any want or deficiency 
 of truth and good, which hinders their life of duty and 
 use, they will seek and strive to know rightly ever more of 
 the divine will and law ; they will humble themselves ever 
 more truly and internally, before the Divine Ruler and King, 
 and pray daily, pray always, pray with every affection and 
 thought, lor His continual presence in His Truth, for His 
 continual guidance by tlis Truth, for His continual leading 
 of their lives into all goodness, virtue, and holiness. 
 
 And then, finally, as men look back through the vista 
 of the ages to this day, and read the history of this time, 
 and ponder on its lessons, in the light of the Truth expe- 
 rienced and realized, they will say, of Abraham Lincoln: 
 
 "Surely this man, this foremost man of the nation in the 
 darkest hour of its existence, whose last dying look beheld 
 only the faintest opening dawn of the promised future, this 
 man of the people, and of labor, lived not in vain, he died 
 not in vain. He trusted, with humble and childish heart, 
 in the mercy of the Lord, and the Lord, in mercy, hath 
 granted his earnest and fervent prayer. There is peace on 
 earth." 
 
 " To His great name be honor, and glory and dominion 
 for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 C 
 
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