Qass. 
 Book. 
 
) » 
 
i"! 
 
 OF 
 
 ...rU 
 
 ^, ^ 
 
 Rev. ]Vrr. CA-REY, 
 
 ON THE DEATH OF 
 
 Preached on the day of his Funeral, April 19th, 1865,- in the 
 First Presbyterian Church in Freeport, Illinois. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Freeport, April 19 1865. 
 Rbv. I. E. Carey, Dear Sir. — Having 
 listened to the discourse delivered by yeu 
 to day in the Ist Presbyterian Church of 
 this city upon the death of President Lin- 
 coln, with the deepest interest, we lake 
 this occasion to request of you a copy for 
 publication if consistent with your views, 
 believing our citizens generally will be 
 gratified by reading it. 
 D. W. C. Tanner, L. S. Cowles, 
 
 U. D. Meacham, 
 Albert Page, 
 H. C. Burchard, 
 Geo. F. DeForest, 
 L. L. Munn, 
 Freeport, April 21st 18'i5. 
 To D. W. O. Tanner, Chas. L. Currier, 
 Robt. Little, C. K. Judson and others 
 Gentlemen: — I was taken with surprise 
 Ly your request for a copy of my discourse 
 preached on the 19th inst. for publication, 
 since it was preached only after a very 
 hasty preparation and expressed but very 
 imperfectly my estimation of this great 
 and good maa who has fallen. Relying 
 however upon your judgment and hoping 
 
 C. L. Currier, 
 Robt. Little, 
 
 D. S. Rohrer, 
 C. A. Sheetz, 
 C. K. Judson, 
 
 .; 
 
 some who did not hear it may be gratified 
 by the perusal of it, I will endeavor to 
 prepare a copy for publication. 
 
 Very Truly Yours, 
 Isaac E. Carey. 
 
 As appropriate to th3 reciarks which I 
 propose now to make, I have selected the 
 following words from Prov. 10, 7 : 
 
 "The memory of the just is blessed." 
 
 It is very undesirable to be under the 
 necessity of speaking without calm and 
 careful premeditation, especially upon so 
 solemn and memorable an occasion as this; 
 but as this necessity was laid upon me 
 last Sabbath morning, so now again to- 
 day. Gladly would 1 be exempted from 
 the duty which now unexpectedly devolves 
 upon me; but at the same time I am not 
 unconscious of a feeling of happinesss in 
 being permitted to stand up before you 
 once more and speak, though but imper- 
 fectly and unworthily, of our beloved and 
 lamented Chief Magistrate. 
 
 On reviewing in a calmer mood the re- 
 marks made in this place last Sabbath 
 morning, I find myself unwilling to take 
 back or modify the strong language then 
 used or the sentiments then expressed. I 
 
still believe that the atrocious crime which 
 has brought such sorrow to our hearts and 
 excited within us such feelings of indigna- 
 tion and horror, has no parallel for unoait- 
 igated depravity and pure diabolical malig- 
 nity in all the annals of history, with the 
 exception of the crucifixion of the Son of 
 God. I still believe that the guilty author 
 of this d)ik and terrible ciime is no other 
 than "that man of sin and son of perdi- 
 tjijn^" — American Slavery. The fiendish 
 spirit which has animated the rebellion and 
 its leaders from the first, and which was 
 exhibited in the Lawrence massacre, in 
 the Fort Pillow massacre, tn the mining of 
 Libby prison, in the plot for burning of 
 New York, and, still more fearfully, in the 
 persistent, barbarous and inhumafi treat- 
 ment of our capcive soldiers in the prison- 
 pens of the South, antained a still more 
 frightful manifestation in the deliberate 
 murder of our honored and beloved Presi- 
 ident, thus working out its infernal malig- 
 nity in full revelation, and putting the cli- 
 max to all the villainies and horrors of 
 which slavery is the author. It is difBcult 
 justly to characterize the astounding crime. 
 It is infinitely horrible. And I believe 
 with Dr. Nelson of St. Louis, that the 
 blood of a hundred thousand rebels would 
 not atone for it. 
 
 But, not to dwell on the depravity and 
 malignity manifested in this atrocious deed, 
 I judge it more appropriate to this occa- 
 sion to speak, in the first place of the worth 
 the greatnes-, the character, of him who 
 has fallen. And in so doing I would 
 speak in praise of Him who made Abraham 
 Lincoln the true man he was, and used 
 him as an instrument in doing a work 
 which only seems the greater and more 
 wonderful the longer we contemplate it. 
 Perhaps I shall seem to some of you to 
 speak extravagantly ; but I shall give you 
 my honest, mature and not hastily form- 
 ed convictions in regard to this most re- 
 markable man. 
 
 My first impressions of Mr. Lincoln 
 
 were received in 1856, when his fame bad 
 not extended far beyond the limits of our 
 State. They were received from his warm 
 friend and intimate acquaintance. Rev. Dr. 
 Smith — at that time his pastor in Spring- 
 field, now our Consul in Glasgow — who 
 spoke of him in warm and flowing terms 
 as possessing uncommonly noble qualities 
 of head and heart. He represented him 
 to be a man of excellent character and 
 commanding talents. Nobody at that time 
 dreamed that Abraham Lincoln would ever 
 be President, but it was natural that I 
 should eagerly improve the first opportu- 
 nity to .see and hear the man of whom I 
 had received so favorable an impression. 
 This opportunity was afforded in Peoria on 
 occasion of some political meeting addres- 
 sed by Mr. Lincoln. My expectations 
 were realized, more than realized. Not 
 only what he aaid, but his whole appear- 
 ance impressed me that he was a true man, 
 an extraordinary man, no party tool, no 
 demagogue, but a man who in his words 
 and acts was governed by his convictions 
 of truth and duty. What kindness, sin- 
 cerity, honesty, benignity, manliness shone 
 forth from every feature of that noble, ex- 
 pressive countenance! Those of you that 
 ever saw and heard him understand what 
 I mean. You believed in the man from 
 the first. You were drawn to him. You 
 were willing to trust him to any extent. 
 You could not doubt him to be worthy of 
 confidence. You went away feeling that 
 he deserved to be called honest Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 The intellect of Mr. Lmcoln was un- 
 doubtedly of a very high order. It was 
 as honest and straightforward as the heart 
 of which it was the instrument. It was a 
 clear, penetrating, comprehensive and pow- 
 erful intellect. It went straight to the 
 core of a subject to which it was applied. 
 t believe that very few men among our 
 statesmen hive been more nobly endowed 
 in this respect than was our lamented Pres- 
 ident. There could hardly be a severer » 
 
test of a man's intellectual caliber than 
 that to which he was suhjected in bc-ing 
 transferred, comparatively inexperienced, 
 from SpringBeld to Washington, to be as- 
 sociated with the wisest, ablest, greatest 
 statesmen of our nation. But who among 
 his learned and experienced associates but 
 that felt himself obliged to respect the 
 intellect of Abraham Lincoln? This alone, 
 to say nothing of his success in a work 
 of almost unparalleled difficulty, and the 
 marvelous wisdom, sagacity and skill 
 manifested by him in conducting the af- 
 t'iirs of the nation amidst the excitements 
 and perils of a long civil war, proves him 
 to have possessed uncommon strength and 
 power of intellect. And I can feel no sym 
 pathy with any wlio may be disposed to 
 speak lightly of his style of speaking an*) 
 writing. It was a true expression of the 
 man who was of the people, and who, be- 
 fore all others, knew how to speJik to 
 the people. The truth is that very few 
 men have sufficient strength of intellt^ct 
 and power of concentration to be capable 
 of such a style. Few men are good and 
 grt-at enough to speak as he did. Hi-< 
 truthfulness, parnestness, straightforward 
 ness, are expressed in every sentence. 
 How dense, clt-ar, comprehensive and full 
 of meanmg his sentences. He could not 
 let himself down to mere rhetorical flour- 
 ishes and sounding periods. He used 
 w )rds to express his thought-;, and he suc- 
 ceeded in expressing them with great 
 c'earness and force. The noble man will 
 long live in his noble utterances. 
 
 Think too of his c^k^hr foresight and dis 
 eernment of opportunity. How wise his 
 reticence at the first and all along. N<> 
 man ever knew better than he when tn 
 speak and when not to speak and what to 
 speak. He was the man to know and to 
 seize the golden opportunity. What wis- 
 dom, what comprehension of his work, 
 manifested in his never miking great prom- 
 ises, never trusting himself to utter proph- 
 ecies, never saying too much but just 
 
 enough, and never making a full declara- 
 tion of his purpose till the time came for 
 so doing. He knew his opportunity. He 
 did not take a step till it was time to take 
 it — did not take it to retrace it. He took 
 no backward steps, hut from the first mov- 
 ed steadily forward towards the great end, 
 all the while gaining ground and never lo.s- 
 ing it. Who has not felt that his great 
 act of Emancipation was in just the right 
 time, not a day too early nor a day too 
 late ? Two or three years ago, you perhaps 
 thought that you were wiser than Abra- 
 ham Lincoln — that you knew wh.at he 
 ought to do and when he ought to do it bet- 
 ter than he did. But let me ask you if 
 you have rot changed your mind? Are 
 vou not prepared to say that our lamented 
 President, while doubtless sometimes er- 
 ring in judgment, being only a mm, was 
 on the whole characterized by extraordina- 
 ry wisdom and foresight? ' 
 
 Rise into a higher region and think of 
 his moral qualities — his uprightness, in- 
 tegrity, conscientiousness, his inflexible ad- 
 herence to his convictions of duty and 
 right. Oh, men and brethren, where 
 among our rulers is one who fully equals 
 him in these respects? He was a truly 
 humble man, above pride and vanity ; per- 
 fectly free from any thing like dash, bravado, 
 bluster, show Carried up from his law 
 office in Sprintjfield to the highest positi"n 
 »n earth, put in command of the greatest 
 armies of modern times and of all the re- 
 sources of a great nation conspicuous to 
 all the world by reason of his high office 
 ind the unsurpassed giandeur of his 'york 
 IS the leader in the greatest of causes, be 
 semed unconscious of his elevation, and 
 hardly to think that the eyes of the world 
 jvere turned upon him, but only of doing 
 the work set to his hands with the utmost 
 H ielity. He was the same kind, genial, 
 approachable, brotherly man in Washing- 
 ton that he had been in Springfield, never 
 during his whole terra of office uttering 
 one word or performing one act, indicating 
 
'13 
 
 a desire to attract attention and praise to 
 himsflf or any consciousness that he was 
 rendering great services. The servant of 
 the people, he clainaed no reward for the 
 faithful doing of his duty. He affords us 
 an cXiTiple of a man carried up from a 
 comparatively humhle to the highest posi- 
 tion, without any feeling of exalta'ion, 
 without any sense of being separated frjm 
 the great mass of the people, without be 
 coming any less kindly, sympathetic and 
 approachable, than he was before his eleva- 
 tion. Does not this prove true greatness of 
 soul? And think of his noble magnamin- 
 ity. How careful to disclaim meiit not 
 belonging to him ! How utterly free from 
 all jealousy of his subordinates! How 
 utterly incapable of regarding them as ri 
 vals? Without the slightest ftar lest he 
 may not be duly appreciated and honored, 
 without a particle of the unmanly rivalry 
 and jealousy which have sometimes work- 
 ed out in the conduct of our Generals to- 
 wards each other, the great good man with 
 all his heart joins with the people in hon 
 oring the Generals for their noble exploits; 
 nor can he rest till he has told everybody 
 that the plan of the great campaign, which 
 gave us Richmond, did not originate with 
 him St all, but altogether with G(-neral 
 Grant, to whom therefore the whole merit 
 of it belongs. And what remarkable self- 
 maatery and calm self possession were his 
 amidst the storm and whirlwind of our 
 great war. Othcs sometimes in a tow 
 ering passion, but he never; the whole 
 nation rocked with excitements again and 
 again, but he apparently never excited ; 
 others often fearful and despairing, but he 
 always hopeful, cheerful, and standing un 
 flinchingly at the h-lm, with the firm de- 
 termination to save the ship and the firm 
 belief that it could be saved. Bitterly op 
 posed by rebel sympathizers in Congress; 
 plotted against by armed conspiracies in 
 the free States; pursued unremittingly 
 with abuse and detraction by those not 
 worthy to unloose his shoe-latchet ; some- 
 
 times distrusted, denounced and his ability 
 questioned even by his friends; counselled, 
 on one side, by ignorance and fanaticism, 
 to move f ster ; warned, on the other side, 
 by pro'slavery conservatism, that he was 
 moving too fast ; this man, doubtless some- 
 times carrying a bleeding heart in his bo- 
 som, yet conscious to himself of rectitude 
 and of having done his best to save the na- 
 tion, patiently and courageously pursued 
 his way, ruling his own spirit, and never, 
 throughout the whole stormy period of his 
 service as President, uttered one word of 
 impatience or comphint or resentment — 
 never one angry, passionate word — hardly 
 a word from which it could be inferred 
 that he had any knowledge of the shame- 
 less reproach and abuse of which he was 
 the object or the contempt and hatred with 
 which many regarded him. Was there 
 ever a more striking example of perfect self- 
 mastery ? 
 
 It is hardly necessary to speak of a 
 thing so manifest as his great Madness of 
 heart — an almost womanly tenderness. 
 How very hard for him to sign a death 
 warrant. How hard to say no to one who 
 applied for a favor. Hence doubtless he 
 sometimes yielded when he should not — 
 yielded in things of small importance or 
 only remotely connected with his great 
 work, while he never swerved for a mo- 
 ment from the great end, but pursued it 
 with unyielding firmness and without the 
 shadow of a turning. An extraordinary 
 man, a truly great soul, doubtless, has 
 been taken from us. I loved and revered 
 the man more and more. I never felt such 
 a regard for any other man among our ru- 
 lers. I have no reverence for mere intel- 
 lect, learning, eloquence, executive ability, 
 nor for all those qualities in combination; 
 hence I have not a particle of reverence for 
 some who have been regarded the great 
 men of the nation. There is a greater 
 thing than mere power of intellect and will ; 
 that greater thing is character, involving es- 
 sentially reverence for the eternal right, for 
 
the law of God — involving the fear of the 
 Lcrd; and that greater thing, that crowning 
 glory of a nian, Abraham Lincoln posses 
 8ed. For this reason, above all others, I loved 
 and revered him. He was in the true 
 sense a God fearing man. How frequently, 
 how nobly, did he speak from his high seat 
 in honor of the living God. How humbly 
 did he acknowledge that a higher than 
 any human will di'ected the affairs of tho 
 nation, regarding himself as the mere in- 
 strument of that will. In speaking of 
 successes with what unaffected humility 
 and faith did he ascribe the glory of them 
 to God in 'he words, "No human counsel 
 bath devised, nor hath anv mortal worked 
 out these great things. They are the pre- 
 cious gifts of the most High God, who, 
 while dealing with us in angt-r for our sins, 
 has nevertheless remembered mercy." And 
 what memorable, immortal wi-rds are those 
 of his last message, in which he recognizes 
 the justice of G )d in bringing upo'i us the 
 war as a punishment for the sin of slave- 
 ry, and declares that the judgments of th-- 
 Lord are true and righteous altogether. 
 The pious heart of the nation was touch- 
 ed by his request to he prayed for as he 
 was leaving his home for, the seat of Gov- 
 ernment. In the bfginning of his work 
 be recogoiz'd his dependence on G 'd li< 
 all success in the prosctution of it. D luht 
 less there never lived a m'ln for wlio n so 
 many earnest prjiyers were offered. M ne 
 than than this: h^^ was himself a prayi"j: 
 man. I h'iVe it on the ne-it nuthoritv ttia 
 he was in the habit of rising in the ino-n 
 in<j !»l f»u.' o'clo(!k and spendnig an hou 
 ill tfie study of the sciptures and in pra> 
 er. Thu- r lioii )o ap )e irs to our vi-'^v a 
 the croivf\inuj u;lory of his characte!'. H'- 
 excrHent natural qualitn s of miori -i 
 L-ait IV oe en 10 > eil aod adorned by a -i'- 
 C re and un ff ct'd piety. N) wond r tJie 
 r> itioii litVi-d hi(n -loved him as it nev.- 
 1 >ved aoorher. He was the best an 1 g'H.- 
 e-i, t'le gieatest b-'Cause the best, the in i-' 
 lovii g, the most lovable, the most broihei- 
 
 ly, the most fatherly man of all our 
 rulers. Who of us but that feels that ho 
 has lost in him a dear friend ? Alas, never 
 shall we see his like again — never in an- 
 other the same remarkable combinations 
 of noble qualities. The nation had but 
 one Washington, and it can have but one 
 Abraham Lincoln. How remarkable the 
 affection of the people for this man ! What 
 a proof of his real greatness and his un- 
 common nobleness of nature. Four years 
 ago we regarded dim siiupiy as able 
 and trustworthy ; after a long trial as se- 
 vere and searching as any one ever pass- 
 ed through, the man was fully revealed to 
 us: he came forth with such unquestion- 
 able proofs of great ability and profound 
 wisdom, and of his Btness for his high po- 
 sition, and with such evidences of extraor- 
 dinary loveliness and excellence of char- 
 acter and greatness of soul, that we 
 unconsciously yielded him not only our 
 respect but also our love and reverence ; 
 and now that he is taken from us, we 
 nourn a^ for a brother or a father ; even 
 rn iny of those who opposed his re-election, 
 f^^eling a deep and sincere sorrow in view 
 of his untimely death. Certainly this proves 
 one of the gre-itest triumphs ever achieved. 
 Our lamented President failed, I think, in 
 one thing: He never seemed to cornpre- 
 'lend fully the depravity and malice ani- 
 mating the rebellion and its leaders, and 
 hence was perhaps inclined to the extreme 
 if lenity. Dr. Breckenridge of Kentucky, 
 who years au;o spoke out so strongly 
 ■ gainst the policy of coi.ciliation, compre- 
 hends it better. Andrew Johnson compre- 
 ■ler.ds it better. But for Mr. Lincoln, with 
 'IIS great, loving, brotherly, heart, it was 
 .lm>st too much to believe that the rebel 
 leiders »re thoroughly malicious and re- 
 V n^eful, hardly capable of any generous 
 -ientiment, or of appreciating generosity 
 ifid kindness in others. Hi -as himself 
 incapable of a depravity so devilish, aiid 
 naturally found it hard to believe others 
 •apatile of it. '"With malice towards none, 
 
6 
 
 with churity for all, witb firmness in the 
 right;" hoping that those lost to all truly 
 manly noble sentiments mis^ht be concilia- 
 ted and brought back by kindness; believ- 
 ing that the incorrigible might possibly be 
 brought to repentance and reclaimed ; be- 
 lieving that none could be guilty of a de 
 pravity so deep and damnable as to carry 
 into execution the threats against his life; 
 the noble loving, trusting man went 
 on his way till at last he f«ll a victim 
 to the hellish malignity which so long and 
 patiently he had labored to subdue by 
 kindness. 
 
 Thus I have given you, very hastily and 
 imperfectly, my honest impressions of this 
 remarkable man ; good as he was great; 
 great as he was good. Thank God for so 
 shining an example among our statesmen, 
 f>rso pure a life, for so noble a->d great 
 a ch;iracter. 
 
 Turn now to contemplate for a moment his 
 death by vi' lence as a Prorndential event. 
 One of the most startling and powerful 
 events in the history of th« world, and by 
 far the most powerful in our history as a 
 nation, it is doubtless one of the great 
 master strokes of P.ovidence, a pregnant 
 und germinant event that will send its con- 
 sequences far down the ages. Think of the 
 peculiar and remarkable combination of 
 circumstances under which it took place— 
 a tumult of joy and thankfulness through- 
 out the land; illuminations, festivities, ju- 
 bilations everywhere; the great rebel ar- 
 my routed and ciptured ; slavery over- 
 thrown ; the war virtualy ended ; the reb- 
 el capital at last entered in triumph by the 
 worthy President, to be honored . s almost 
 never a man was honored before— not as a 
 conquerer exhibiting the spoils of the van 
 quished and followed by noble captives in 
 chaiws, but as the conqurrer of an iron, 
 heartless despotism, hailed with a wild 
 outburst of joy by an emancipated race — 
 the poor aad long oppressed greeting him 
 with transports of delight as their deliver- 
 er and Father, streachiog forth their sable 
 
 unfettered hands towards him, leaping, 
 dancing and singing around him, and 
 showering benedictions upon his head ! 
 Oh, my friends, what a triumph was that! 
 infinitely surpassing in true grandeur and 
 sublimity all the triumphs of all the des- 
 pots of all the ages ! Now how remarka- 
 ble that the fatal atrocious deed, following 
 so closely upon these events, was perpe- 
 trated just four years from the beginning 
 of the war in the storming of Sumter, 
 and on the very day of the ceremonies 
 connected with ' the raising of the 
 Hag upon th 5 bitterred wslls of 
 that Fortress — a sign that the great war 
 was virtually ended. Can we, th-n, help 
 feeling that the hand of Go! is revealed 
 most strikingly in the ci amitous event? 
 In the contemplation of this remarkable 
 conjuncture of facts, I have the sense of 
 completeness, of a dispensation closed, of a 
 noble work done, of a worthy instrum^;nt 
 used till it had served its purpose, and then 
 laid aside bec^iuse no longer wanted. One of 
 the greatestand most memorable triumphs, 
 in a'l history, having been achieved, how 
 fitting that the good man and wise leader 
 should die, taking his departure amidst the 
 general joy of a redeemed nation. Im- 
 mortal till his work was done, all the hate 
 of his enemies being utterly impotent 
 against him till he had fully served the 
 purpose of God, how fitting at hist that, 
 with so many and so manifest indications 
 thit his work was done, he should be re- 
 moved from the stage on which he had so 
 worthily and successfully acted the part as- 
 signed him. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, noble martyr of liber- 
 ty, his memory to be cherished evermore 
 in the deepest heart of the nation, his 
 name to breath forth to all coming genera- 
 tons the fragrance of a manly, noble 
 I'laracter and of worthy achievements, his 
 .;reat work in the cause of hu.uanity en- 
 snrining him forever in the hearts of the 
 niilions of the oppressed in this and other 
 lands, his death rousing a sorrowing in- 
 
dignant nation to the work of extirpating; 
 the last vestiges of sbivcry and rebellion 
 from the soil of the republic, and thus 
 powerfully heloing on the good cause — 
 Honest Abraham Lincoln had been honor- 
 ed as few men ever were or will be — honor 
 ed as the instrument of doing a work which 
 associates him with the world's greatest 
 benefactors ; he had fulfilled the purpose for 
 which God raised him up, and he passed 
 off the stage because socae different instru 
 ment was needed for the full accomplish - 
 ment of the Divine purpose in the affairs 
 of cur nation. 
 
 Nor can we fail to notice the hand of 
 God, not only in his death, but also in the 
 preservation of others who with him were 
 devoted to destruction. Of the six assas- 
 sins, how remarkable that only one did the 
 work assigned him. How remarkable that 
 
 melting power to all ages and gpni;ritio^ 
 there was a necessity that it should be 
 caused by the depravity of men, thus re- 
 vealing the terrible nature of human de- 
 pravity as murderously hostile to holy in- 
 nocence and righteousness, and being also 
 adapted to excite the deepest mdignation 
 against it as ra;ilia;nant and diabolical in 
 its own nature. In like manner, doubtles^J, 
 God intended deeply, and powerfully to 
 move this nation by the death ot Abraham 
 Lmcolr.. Hence his death by violence. 
 If he had died by disease, we should have 
 felt sorrow, but not in'iignation. It is not 
 simpy Ithe fact of his death, but specially 
 the fa'^t that he was foully murdered by 
 the hand of a cowardly traitor — murdered 
 because he was a good and wise man and 
 ^the friend of all humanity — murdered be- 
 cause he was so successfully crushing out 
 
 Mr. Seward was saved from death simply the rebellion and with it the despotism in 
 
 by the wire which had been used in 
 the setting of his fractured jaw-bone. How 
 remarkable too that, with the great and 
 difficult work of reconstruction yet to be 
 done, a man of Southern birth, education 
 and training is suddenly brought to the 
 Presidential chair ! Surely in view ot such 
 facts we must say, "This is the finger of 
 God." And the hand of God appears not 
 only in the death of the lamented Presi- 
 dent, bnt equally in the fact that it was 
 death by violence. In the murder of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln because he was a good and 
 just man, and the highest representative of 
 the cause of freedom and humanity in all 
 the earth, many have noticed a resemb- 
 lance to the death of the innocent holy Re- 
 deemer by the hands of wicked men. 
 There is no exact parallel, but there is a 
 manifest resemblance. The same lawless, 
 malignant spirit, which crucified the Son 
 of God, worked out in the murder of our 
 honored President. Now the purpose of 
 of God in the death of Jesus Christ would 
 not have been answered at all, if he had 
 died simply by disease. In order that the 
 death of Christ might be full of moving 
 
 which it is grounded — murdered by the 
 infernal malice of slavery — it is this which 
 has stirred the heart of the nation as it 
 was never stirred before — stirred i t from 
 the deepest depths against the great ini- 
 quity of slavery — stirred it not only with 
 sorrow for the irrepirable loss, but with 
 the deepest indignation against the terrible 
 evil which is the source of our troubles. 
 This evil is at last fu'ly revealed in its 
 truly fiendish and horrible nature, and we 
 hate it as never before. Thus ttie death of 
 Abraham Lincoln, caused by slavery, 
 which reached the culmination of its vil- 
 lainies in the astounding crime, is more 
 powerful against wrong and oppression and 
 on the side of freedom and humanity, than 
 was his life; and it is powerful unto all 
 ages. Thus plainly and remarkably does 
 the wisdom of him who is excellent in 
 counsel and wonderful in working, appear 
 in this most afflictive event; and we have 
 an il'ustration of the truth that God will 
 cause the wrath of man to praise him and 
 restrain the remainder. "The blood of the 
 martyrs is the seed of the Church;" and 
 doubtless the blood of this noble martyr 
 
8 
 
 of liberty is the seed of free institutions — 
 seed that shall spring forth in a glorious 
 harvest over the whole continent, and be 
 sown broadcast to spring up and bring 
 forth its excellent and beautiful fruits in 
 other lands and nations. 
 
 Notice now, in conclusion, some of the 
 lessons of the mournful event. 
 
 1. The frailty of man and the greatness 
 of God. 
 
 2. That we have to do with a Ruler 
 greater than the President and a law high- 
 er than the Constitution. The President 
 is not the mere creation of the people, but 
 '•the minister of God," raised to power to 
 serve a Divine purpose, and removed the 
 moment that purpose is served. God rules 
 in our national affairs, and our duty is en- 
 tire submission. 
 
 3. That God is working out a purpose in 
 our nation. How clearly is that purpose 
 now revealed. How clear that "the righteous 
 
 Lord loveth righteousness." How clear that 
 God "executeth righteousness and judg- 
 ment for all that are oppressed." Let us 
 be with our whole hearts on God's side, 
 and work earnestly towards the end which 
 he is seekins to accomplish. 
 
 4. Our absolute dependence. We owe 
 our successes to our armies, navies, gener- 
 als, only as the instrurants which God \\%& 
 used in furthering the great cause of free- 
 dom and humanity. "His own right hand 
 and his glorious arm have gotten him the 
 victory." Let us therefore humbly acknowl- 
 edge our dependence, work earnestly in the 
 direction of his will, and offer up our 
 prayers that he will carry forward his 
 work m our land till all our institutions 
 shall be established in righteousness. Then 
 our highest hopes shall be realized. "The 
 work of righteousness shall be peace, and 
 the effect of righteousness, quietness and 
 assurance forever." 
 
'i!&.:ji 
 
 "7oiV837 580 4»