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THE NATIONAL GRIEF; 
 
 ITS CAUSE AND ITS LESSON. 
 
 A SERMON ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 
 
 
 "EX.li, B. D. 
 
THE NATIONAL GRIEF; 
 
 ITS CAUSE AND ITS LESSON. 
 
 A SERMON ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 
 
 PREACHED IN THE M. E. CHURCH, DOVER, DEL,, SEPT. 25, 1881, RY THE PASTOR 
 
 J. H. QJLX.U WELL, B, 33., 
 #» 
 
 AND PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 I have read for tbe text on this 
 mournful occasion the 35th Psalm, but 
 will especially emphasize the 21st verse. 
 
 "Yea, they opened their mouth wide 
 against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye 
 hath seen it." 
 
 Panegyrics are abundant just now. 
 They sound out from platform and pul- 
 pit through the length and breadth of 
 the land, and echo and re-echo across the 
 continent and over the civilized world. 
 Newspapers — throughout Christen- 
 dom, draped in mourning, — are teem- 
 ing with encomiums, the like of which 
 were never before so pathetically and 
 universally bestowed on mortal man. 
 James A. Garfield might have had per- 
 sonal and political enemies in his life, 
 he has none in his death. Those who 
 were first and foremost in their en- 
 deavors to prevent his election to the 
 highest seat of honor and trust in the 
 republic, now, that he lies low iu death, 
 vie with his most ardent supporters in 
 doing honor to his memory, in pronounc- 
 ing encomiums of merit, in testifying 
 to the blamelessness of his life, the spot- 
 lessness of his character and the noble- 
 ness of his nature. This is enough. 
 No more need be said of a personal 
 character. Let him be all in greatness 
 of character, in splendor of intellect, 
 in wealth of endowment, in goodness 
 of heart that are claimed for him alike 
 by friend and by foe. There are no 
 diversities of sentiment concerning his 
 
 worth. The Nation, regardless of po- 
 litical, religious, sectional, or personal 
 distinctions, is one in its high estimate 
 of the man, as it is one in its profound 
 sense of the loss of the President. 
 
 My present purpose is not to deal 
 with the personal aspects of the case, 
 but with the event itself and the lesson 
 which may be drawn from it by the 
 Mation at large, and by the people of 
 God. For this purpose I have selected 
 as a mere index to my leading points a 
 portion of Scripture which suggests the 
 utmost extremes of thought in relation 
 to God and his providence, and to mor- 
 tal man and his destiny. This will ap- 
 pear if we but glance over the Psalm 
 which contains the text. But before I 
 ask you to consider a brief synopsis of 
 this Psalm, let me remind you that it 
 is one of several in which the inspired 
 writer divides the human family into 
 two great classes— the righteous and 
 the wicked ; and in which he exhibits 
 them in contrast, standing, as it were, 
 in an attitude of mutual hostility. The 
 extremes of the two great parties are 
 represented in this Psalm, and they 
 consist, on tbe one hand, of those who 
 are most pronounced in their religious 
 character, the most conspicuous in 
 their devotion to God ; and, on the 
 other hand, of those who are most bold 
 and outspoken in their enmity to God, 
 and in their hostile attitude toward his 
 people. But extremes only represent 
 
£87 
 
 themselves, or the strongest types of 
 character ; they do not represent the 
 majority on either side, except in so 
 far as they may be accepted and fol- 
 lowed as leaders. The following in 
 either direction may be with alacrity 
 by some, but languidly by others, un- 
 til the two parties gradually approach 
 and are only separated by a faintly dis- 
 cernable line. Still there are only two 
 great parties, the righteous and the 
 wicked. 
 
 Now there are many occasions in hu- 
 man history and many events in which 
 the two parties, with all their varying 
 hues and all their shades of differences, 
 are united in a common object, a com- 
 mon interest, a common struggle, a 
 common sorrow. And so we find it 
 now. The worst men in our nation, in 
 common with the best, are struck 
 dumb with horror at the appalling 
 crime which robbed us of our late Pres- 
 ident, and are overwhelmed with the 
 same grief, wearing the same tokens of 
 sorrow, using the same epithets of re- 
 gret or of indignation, expressing the 
 same sympathy and condolence and 
 moved by the same spontaneous im- 
 pulses. What we find among our- 
 selves, we see only with less intensity 
 among all the civilized peoples of the 
 globe. Notably so in Great Britain, 
 but appreciably so in all other enlight- 
 ened nations. How can we account 
 for it? On this ground : "God hath 
 made of one blood all nations of men 
 for to dwell on all the face of the earth, 
 and hath determined the times before 
 appointed, and the bounds of their hab- 
 itation." In a word, the nations of 
 mankind, despite race, language, insti- 
 tutions and religion, are one humanity, 
 influenced by like motives, moved by 
 like impulses, swayed by like hopes, 
 fears and aspirations. This is an ar- 
 gument for the unity of the race that 
 ought to sweep into oblivion all the 
 speculations that have been arrayed 
 against it. 
 
 Estimating the human inhabitants 
 of the globe at a billion and a quarter, 
 one twenty-fifth of the whole number 
 reside within the limits and under the 
 jurisdiction of the United State. The 
 
 population is composed of various na- 
 tionalities and races, is characterized 
 by different religious ideas, some of 
 which are irreconcilably hostile to each 
 other, is taught in different schools of 
 politics, and educated under systems 
 widely differing from one another, so 
 that it presents a heterogeneous aspect 
 scarcely paralleled in any other part of 
 the globe. Nevertheless, there is ap- 
 parent, and in practical operation 
 throughout all the States and Terri- 
 tories of this wonderful republic, a 
 mighty principle of homeogeneity. 
 What does it mean ? It means just 
 what we now realize more fully than 
 ever before — that the nations of the 
 earth, of whatever form of government, 
 whether republic, limited monarchy, 
 or absolute despotism, have been con- 
 strained to look upon ours with undis- 
 guised wonder and profound respect. A 
 stricken President touches all the na- 
 tions, and the tender chords of sympa- 
 thy vibrate to the ends of the earth. 
 An Orphean hand touches the harp- 
 string, and the dirge is heard beyond 
 the seas and across the continents, 
 while the nations bow with uncovered 
 heads as we consign the mortal dust of 
 a great ruler to the silence of the shad- 
 owy tomb. It means more— for during 
 the eighty days of languishing and 
 wasting, of bitter pain and domestic 
 anguish, of patient suffering and na- 
 tional solicitude, society lay as calm 
 and quiet as an infant sleeping upon 
 its mother's breast. There was 
 no tumult, no insurrection, no bois- 
 terous rabble clamoring for redress 
 of imaginary grievances, no disturb- 
 ances but such as are common in the 
 most tranquil times. The Ship of 
 State rode gallantly on a peaceful sea ; 
 no war save the border Indian trou- 
 bles ; no delay in the transportation of 
 mails; no friction in any of the De- 
 partments of Government ; no closing 
 of the courts or delay of justice through 
 all the weary weeks of the Nation's one 
 tender and pathetic concern. Even 
 the voice of partisan strife was hushed, 
 and men addicted to angry discussion 
 of political problems, recalled to their 
 better impulses, grew sedate and laid 
 
aside their asperities in tlie face of the 
 Nation's woe. Place hunters and po- 
 litical intriguers, abashed, and over- 
 whelmed with confusion, slunk away 
 to hide, as it were, in the dark dens and 
 caves where they were wont to practice 
 those abomniable arts by which they 
 too often succeeded in advancing them- 
 selves to the exclusion of the merito- 
 rious. What does this strange and 
 unwonted state of things in our na- 
 tional history unfold V Does it not be- 
 speak a Supreme and Almighty Power 
 that supervises the world, and guides 
 the destiny of nations ? Does it not 
 convey to the mind of each citizen of 
 the republic a conviction that there is 
 a God ? Does it not teach, in spite of 
 that philosophy that tries to rid the 
 world of His presence, that lie does 
 concern Himself with the affairs of 
 mortals ? Does it not convey silently 
 to every heart the admonitory message, 
 "Be still, and know that I am God ?" 
 
 Thus we view the situation from a 
 national standpoint ; from that stand- 
 point whence, without a discordant 
 note, all the people, whether religious 
 or not, may view it. A national grief, 
 felt by a nation bereft of its chief ; 
 who, though the breath had but just 
 left his body, when his successor occu- 
 pied the vacant seat, is nevertheless 
 mourned as ruler was never mourned 
 before, with a lamentation that drapes 
 our cities in the black shroud of woe ; 
 that caused tens of thousands to gaze 
 upon the funeral cortege bare- head- 
 ed and with emotions too big for utter- 
 ance, attended only by sighs and tears ; 
 that brought students from the recital 
 of their lessons to strew the path 
 of deceased greatness with flowers; 
 that brought all classes of citizens, of- 
 ficial and private, to the Uapitol where 
 he had wielded the sceptre. 
 
 There is another, and, in my view, 
 far more significant standpoint whence 
 we should view this great event. It is 
 the religious aspect of the case. This 
 cannot be ignored by any nation, much 
 less a Christian republic. Only a na- 
 tion of atheists, or of scoffing liber- 
 tines, like France in her Reign of Ter- 
 ror, when, as Carlyle represents her, 
 
 she danced her wild waltz on the verge 
 of perdition, would sneer at it. Even 
 heathen Rome in the most degenerate 
 age of her political history could not 
 afford to treat the religious sentiments 
 of the people— imbruted as they were 
 — with disdain. 
 
 Look at dead Ca'sar in the Forum, 
 his dress unchanged, his gown, gashed 
 with daggers, soaked in blood, still 
 wrapped about his noble form. The 
 conspirators, appalled at their own 
 deed, dreading the consequences, aban- 
 doned their purpose of declaring him a 
 tyrant and of casting his body into the 
 Tiber, hastily framed a new plea ; that 
 was "that Ca'3ar's death should be re- 
 garded as a sacrifice, and expiatory 
 offering for the sins of the nation." 
 (Froude's Cassar, p 110.) 
 
 Now look at dead Garfield in the 
 American Rotunda. Another, better 
 and nobler, if not greater, victim of as- 
 sassination. There are no conspirtors 
 there seeking to frame an excuse for 
 the blackest and wickedest deed, save 
 one, in our recorded annals. There 
 never was any conspiracy in this atro- 
 cious deed, and nothing but the wild- 
 est imagination of partisan prejudice 
 could ever conceive of there being any 
 conspirators in the affair. Not only 
 has it been disclaimed by the solitary 
 actor in the tragedy, but were he now 
 to declare otherwise, without the most 
 indisputable confirmatory evidence, he 
 would not be believed. No, the one 
 solitary arch-criminal is the wretched 
 Guiteau, be he demon or madman. 
 There lies in state the dead ruler of 
 50,U00 ,000 of freemen, wept by all, de- 
 plored by all, and greater than the Ro- 
 man Cffisar ; not, perhaps, greater in 
 intellect, in genius and in power to 
 mould and govern men, but still great- 
 er, because he was a Christian patriot 
 and statesman who lived and still sur- 
 vives in the hearts of his countrymen. 
 But,as Mark Antony said, "The services 
 of Caesar neither needed nor permitted 
 the exaggeration of eloquence,*' so we 
 say that the services of Garfield neither 
 need nor permit it. 
 
 There he lies on this Sabbath day, re- 
 moved from the Rotunda of the Capi- 
 
tol to the forest city on the lake shore, 
 in the State where he had been hon- 
 ored so often, where he had risen from 
 poverty stricken boyhood, struggling 
 through the mazes and difficulties of 
 life, to the very pinnacle of empire, 
 clothed in the inaugural suit in which 
 he kissed mother and wife as soon as 
 he swore fealty to the Constitution of 
 his country as Supreme Magistrate, the 
 ghastly mortal wound bid from view 
 and only the pale, emaciated features 
 in sight, while the Nation, bathed in 
 tears, laments his untimely death. 
 
 Is there to the inhabitants of a great 
 Christian country, a people accustomed 
 to think freely and independently on 
 all subjects, a cultured people, disdain- 
 ing all the restraints of power, despis- 
 ing all fulminations of priestly arro- 
 gance — I ask, is there no religious sig- 
 nificance to such a people in such an 
 event ? I do not know what may be 
 the religious sentiments of Dr. Bliss, 
 the chief surgeon of the martyred Pres- 
 ident, but I ask all thoughtful men 
 and women if there was no meaning 
 in his gesture, when, turning his back 
 to the dead Chief as soon as life was ex- 
 tinct, he pointed his ringer in silence 
 toward Heaven ? Did it not point to 
 the plane where every cultured heart 
 throughout broad Christendom points 
 — a life immortal beyond the grave ? 
 Was that gesture a mere ruse, like that 
 of the Roman conspirators, to amuse 
 and pacify imbruted ignorance, to stay 
 the storm of popular vengeance ? Was 
 it a trick, an artifice, a mere stratagem 
 to soothe and tranquilize the hearts 
 that were ready to burst with grief ? 
 Was it a mere sentiment that might 
 mean nothing more than an ephemeral 
 balm to ease the present pain ? Or 
 was it the speechless expression of a 
 lifelong conviction, a cherished hope 
 that spans the gulf which separates 
 time from eternity? lu a word, is 
 there a God ? Is there a future life 
 for mortal man ? Is there hereafter 
 an abode of peace to those who do their 
 duty on earth? Is there a scene of 
 sorrow and trouble awaiting the guilty 
 beyond the grave ? If not, what was 
 the meaning of the gesture? But if 
 
 there be a future life how will enemies 
 meet in that other world ? Can Gar- 
 field grasp the bloody hand of his slay- 
 er there ? Only in one way— that red 
 right hand must be washed and made 
 white by the blood of a greater victim 
 than that of him whose blood was shed 
 at the depot in Washington. We con- 
 cede the possibility of such a washing^ 
 for though human guilt be as scarlet, 
 it can be made as white as snow; 
 though it be red like crimson, it can be 
 made as wool. But this can only be 
 through the one only sacrifice for sin. 
 In the assassin's case it is scarcely 
 probable, however possible, that such 
 a cleansing can take place, for want of 
 a moral fitness to receive it. As yet 
 there has not appeared the first indica- 
 tion of a moral preparation to receive 
 absolution for his desperate crime. On 
 the contrary, there appears nothing 
 but a dogged persistence in self-justifi- 
 cation, a gloating self-gratulation over 
 the accomplishment of his dire purpose, 
 without the affectation of remorse, 
 and only the expression of regret that 
 his act had occasioned protracted suf- 
 fering to his victim. There is not as 
 yet a vestige of true repentance, of 
 genuine contrition, only of a cringing 
 dread of popular vengeance, such as 
 befits a dastardly assassin who, after 
 inflicting a mortal wound, would 
 sneak, if possible, into concealment, 
 or secure safety by flight. So long as 
 he cherishes the state of mind which 
 now prevails over him, true repentance 
 is morally out of the question; and the 
 forgiveness of his guilt finds no place 
 even in the compass of Divine mercy. 
 What then ? How can he appear here- 
 after among the stainless inhabitants 
 of Heaven ? 
 
 1 am aware that I now raise the 
 question that marks the dividing line 
 between the good and the bad, which 
 separates the righteous from the wick- 
 ed, which brings them face to face in 
 an open conflict in this Psalm. 
 
 Looking upon the unruffled surface 
 of society— ruffled on'y by the common 
 grief— we see no difference. But look- 
 ing to the unseen region to which the 
 surgeon's finger pointed in token that 
 
the martyr's spirit had ascended thith- 
 er, we see the difference which the 
 Psalm describes in vivid colors. 
 
 I have read several excellent analyses 
 of this Psalm. That of Dr. Clarke is 
 too elaborate and minute in its details 
 for my present purpose. That of Dr. 
 Alexander is sufficiently comprehen- 
 sive and more appropriate for this oc- 
 casion. He says, "This Psalm may be 
 divided into three parts, parallel to one 
 another, in all of which the elements 
 combined are complaint, prayer, and 
 the promise of thanksgiving for antici- 
 pated deliverance. The first division 
 is occupied with an invocation of di- 
 vine judgments on God's enemies, end- 
 ing with an expression of triumph in 
 God's favor, vs. 1-9. The second con- 
 tains a more particular description of 
 these enemies as oppressors, false ac- 
 cusers, unthankful Tenderers of evil for 
 good, and malignant scoffers, with a 
 prayer for divine interposition, and a 
 pledge of public thanksgiving, verses 
 10-18. The third reviews briefly the 
 description of the enemies, but is chief- 
 ly filled with prayer to be delivered 
 from them, and closes, like the others, 
 with a promise of perpetual thanksgiv- 
 ing, vs. 19-28." 
 
 In this synopsis we see that the line 
 of demarcation is clearly drawn, that 
 the two great opposing parties are de- 
 scribed with their distinctive charac- 
 teristics. Only the extreme represen- 
 tatives of each side are drawn. The 
 finer shades of difference, such as ap- 
 pear only to the eye of God and are 
 defined in the nice discriminations of 
 the Gospel, are not discernible. 
 
 On the one side we see prayer, de- 
 vout trust and gratitude, or holy 
 thanksgiving for benefits received or 
 anticipated. These expressions denote 
 the most striking phenomena of the re- 
 ligious life, and they have always been 
 notably intensified among the purest 
 devotees of religion. It is this class, 
 more than any other, that becomes the 
 target for the sharp weapons of ridi- 
 cule, of satire, of invective and con- 
 tempt, which the fiercer individuals of 
 the other party love to use,— which the 
 desperately wicked are wont to employ 
 
 in their warfare upon the righteous. 
 Then, on the side of the ungodly, the 
 notable traits set forth In the Psalm 
 are cruelty, oppression, false accusa- 
 tion, ingratitude and scoffing. Now 
 then, here are the parties which stand 
 in open conflict through all time, fiom 
 the fall of Adam to the Judgment Day, 
 all over this earth wherever the foot of 
 man has trod. Out of the spirit and 
 practice of the one party has sprung 
 every evil that has alllicted the inhab- 
 itants of this planet ; from the patient 
 toil and holy influence exerted by the 
 other, under the guidance and help of 
 God, has come everything that has 
 blessed the human race and lifted it 
 higher and higher in the scale of moral 
 purity and excellence. 
 
 Thus the righteous and the wicked 
 confront each other everywhere, mix 
 and mingle everywhere. Diverse in 
 character, in habits, in motives of ac- 
 tion and bound to different destinies. 
 The wicked, in the majority every- 
 where, claim the pre-eminence, arro- 
 gate superiority, and in political affairs, 
 as well as in commerce and all the sec- 
 ular activities of the world, exert the 
 greater control, a control that dues not 
 work for righteousness, for a corrupt 
 tree cannot yield good fruit. To which 
 side ought we to belong ? Which 
 should we trust as most competent to 
 guide us in matters pertaining to the 
 soul ? Grant' that among the oppo- 
 nents of righteousness there may be 
 genius, and learning, and rare accom- 
 plishments, and scientific acumen, and 
 splendid abilities, is it safe to trust 
 them in matters relating to the eternal 
 destiny of the soul? When they dis- 
 card the only chart that guides the 
 traveller to the immortal shore, what 
 do they know about the scenes beyond 
 the grave ? What can their science 
 teach them concerning a hereafter ? 
 What does their philosophy know about 
 God and eternal things? When they 
 rob you of your Bible, they extinguish 
 the only light that can illumine the 
 grave and irradiate the eternal shore. 
 When they rob you of your hope of 
 heaven what do they give you iu its 
 stead ? When they scoff at the finger 
 
(» 
 
 of science itself, pointing upward to 
 heaven, what consolation do they give 
 to the widow kneeling at the bedside 
 of the illustrious dead, or that octoge- 
 narian mother wailing out her bitter 
 complaint, "O why did they want to 
 kill my boy !" Trust them not! Trust 
 none who aid and abet them in their 
 unholy war against God and His truth 1 
 Better trust the other side, who from 
 the days of righteous Abel until now 
 have fought on the side of truth, have 
 suffered, have triumphed over the 
 world, and died shouting victory to God 
 and the Lamb! Yes, trust them, for 
 even if their hope should prove falla- 
 cious it is better than the others can 
 give, because it makes smooth the rug- 
 ged paths of this world and robs death 
 and the grave of all their terrors. A 
 conclusion like this may not meet the 
 demands of science falsely so called, 
 but it meets the demands of the heart. 
 A learned physician was once afflicted 
 with a cancer on the face, and a person 
 who had been healed by a cancer doc- 
 tor urged him to seek a cure by the 
 same remedy ; but he declared his 
 preference to die of the cancer rather 
 than have it extracted by any but what 
 he deemed a scientific method, and die 
 he did. So there are persons who seem 
 determined never to be saved unless 
 they can be saved in a scientific way. 
 All such are described by the Scripture 
 formula— Thou fool! Trust them not, 
 for their science — which they misinter- 
 pret as they misinterpret your Bible- 
 teaches them to trample under foot the 
 blood of the Son of God and count it an 
 unholy thing. 
 
 Faith and true science are not ene- 
 mies. They are only separated by fol- 
 ly. They are twin brothers when they 
 are under government and proper 
 guidance— when they submit to Him 
 who is the Way and the Truth and the 
 Life. Philosophy , under that guidance, 
 is led into all truth ; severed from its 
 governor and guide it becomes a truant, 
 a vagrant, and is sure to disgrace it- 
 self. 
 
 Turning from the general features of 
 this psalm to the one verse which I 
 wish especially to emphasize, we see 
 
 the trait of wickedness which asserts 
 itself more than any other in the pres- 
 ent crisis, that is scoffing. 
 
 See how it is expressed in the 21st 
 verse : "Yea, they opened their mouth 
 wide against me, saying Aha, aha, our 
 eye hath seen it." The word aha is 
 one of open contempt and utter dis- 
 dain ; it is spoken with an air of tri- 
 umph, and is often meant as an insult. 
 It is frequently used in the Psalms and 
 prophecies, and always as an expres- 
 sion of contempt. It was uttered with 
 a harsh, protracted, gutteral sound, and 
 evinced the bitter feeling of the scoffer, 
 the very essence of egotism and intense 
 self-assertion. Precisely in the same 
 sense and in the same manner it is 
 spoken even now, as when one, anima- 
 ted by the spirit and almost in the very 
 words of the text, exclaims, "Aha ! I 
 told you so, I saw long ago just how it 
 would be !" Thus the blatant objector 
 to revealed religion, or the unsanctified 
 formalist, or the speculative skeptic, 
 when he sees a professor of religion 
 step aside, or hears of the fall of a 
 minister, or the failure of a Christian's 
 faith in any matter of public concern, 
 opens wide his mouth to mock, scoff 
 and revile the Christian profession. 
 "Aha ! I told you so : I saw it !*' 
 
 Nothing can please such people bet- 
 ter than a bit of scandal. "Aha ! I 
 told you so ; I saw it !" Now that all 
 Christendom has prayed for the resto- 
 ration of our beloved President, and 
 death, notwithstanding their prayers, 
 has done its cruel work, and the asassins 
 stroke proved fatal, we find this spirit 
 exhibiting itself with all the triumph 
 of egotism, with all the air of atheistic 
 confidence and self-assertion. "Aha ! 
 aha ! I told you so ; I saw it all the 
 time!" I have seen this very spirit 
 manifesting itself within the last week, 
 and noticed the sneer, and heard words 
 implying reproof of the whole Chris- 
 tian world, as if its prayers were vain. 
 Nay, I have heard an unfriendly con- 
 trast made between Christianity and 
 Mormonism— a statement that the Mor- 
 mons had prayed that the President 
 might not recover, and then the com- 
 ment that the Mormons were favored 
 
and the Christians slighted. I do not 
 tenow how nor for what the Mormons 
 prayed ; I have read nothing about 
 them in this connection ; but I do know 
 how all Christendom has prayed, how 
 earnestly, how devoutly, how patheti- 
 cally. England's illustrious Queen, and 
 all her Christian subjects, have prayed ; 
 all Christian Europe has prayed ; all 
 America, including Roman Catholics, 
 Protestants, Quakers, Jews, Gentiles — 
 all have prayed. I do not know but 
 even Turks, in the Mosques dedicated 
 to the False Prophet, have prayed, for 
 the spirit of America is transforming 
 the spirit of the world, and penetrating 
 the oldest superstitions of the earth. 
 We have all prayed, and yet our Presi- 
 dent is dead ! And now, even before 
 the Christian minister can say "Earth 
 to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," 
 blatant skepticism opens wide its mouth 
 against all that prayed, saying, "Aha, 
 aha, our eye hath seen it." 
 
 Oh, why did not Christendom ask 
 scoffing skepticism's permission to 
 pray V How blind not to have seen 
 what the scoffer's eye had seen, that 
 Cod had made him the repository of his 
 secrets, that we ought to have gone to 
 him for revelations of the Unsearcha- 
 ble and the Infinite. 
 
 With pain we acknowledge it that 
 our prayers were not answered to the 
 extent and in the way of our wishes. 
 But we are consoled by the holiest ex- 
 amples of old. 
 
 David besought God for his sick 
 child, and fasted and wept, laying all 
 night upon the ground overwhelmed 
 with grief; but the child died, not- 
 withstanding his prayers. Paul prayed 
 three times that the thorn in the flesh 
 might depart from him ; but it departed 
 not. Even the Master prayed thrice 
 that the bitter cup of anguish might 
 pass from His lips ; but it passed not 
 away until he drank it to the bitter 
 dregs. What then ? Were the prayers 
 answered ? Yes, in a certain way. 
 David was consoled with the thought 
 that though the child could not return 
 to him, he could go to it. Paul was 
 comforted by the promise that the 
 grace of God would be sufficient for 
 
 him. Jesus was strengthened by an 
 angel who appeared in the hour of hia 
 human weakness to succor him. 
 
 So in a certain way the prayers of 
 Christendom have been answered in 
 the ease of our stricken Chief, and in 
 many ways, perhaps, which do not yet 
 appear, they may still be answered. 
 Nobody prayed that the President 
 might never die. No one fixed in Ins 
 prayers a limit for his life's duration. 
 Yet we believe that his life was pro- 
 longed in answer to prayer, and that 
 its prolongation worked for the good 
 of the Nation. 
 
 The wound was mortal. The autop- 
 sy shows this. The fatal shot put the 
 assassin's victim beyond the reach of 
 human skill. This is verified by ac- 
 credited science, and I suppose that 
 there is not a scientific man in the 
 world that will dispute it. The won- 
 der is that death was not instantaneous, 
 that the President survived for even a 
 day or an hour. But he did survive 
 lor eighty days. Was this not in an- 
 swer to prayer ? Look at one dark day 
 of his dreadful experience. It was 
 Saturday, the 27th of August. Hope 
 was extinguished from every breast 
 save that of the noble wife. The sur- 
 geons, the Cabinet, the whole Nation 
 despaired. Sunday came, and the 
 whole Nation, all sympathetic Christ- 
 endom prayed. The President grew 
 better, hope revived, and ultimate re- 
 covery was deemed possible by the most 
 despairing. The precious life was 
 spared for three weeks longer. The 
 Nation was not yet prepared for the 
 sacrifice. The people of God were not 
 yet ready to give him up, the Divine 
 purpose, inscrutable and mysterious, 
 was not ripened to its maturity. But 
 hopeless as was the case, was it beyond 
 the reach of Omnipotence ? Is any 
 thing too hard for God ? Could not He 
 have caused this man to recover and 
 live and finish his executive career in 
 spite of the broken rib, and the frac- 
 tured spine, and the lacerated tissues, 
 and the pus cavity, and the dreadful 
 pyaemia, and the exhausting drainage ? 
 Did not our faith compass all that 
 might be deemed impossible in the 
 
premises, and look with a naked eye to 
 Omnipotence ? If faith cannot do 
 this,prayer is a mockery, Christian hope 
 is a nullity, skepticism is triumphant 
 and all Christendom is stultified. Nay, 
 we may lay aside our Bibles, close up 
 our sanctuaries, and hail the Tyndals, 
 the Huxleys and the Spencers as the 
 great prophets of the nations. I plead 
 for God, I plead for truth, I plead for 
 righteousness against the blasphemy of 
 atheists,againstthe impiety of skeptics, 
 against the malicious egotism of scof- 
 fers. I aver that our faith is not in 
 vain, that our prayers have not been 
 powerless. True, our beloved Presi- 
 dent is dead. But whose fault is it 
 that he lives not, that he sits not in the 
 high seat of honor in which the popu- 
 lar suffrage placed him ? It is not the 
 fault of Christendom, it is not the 
 fault of any Christian teaching. All 
 the wrong comes from the side opposed 
 to God and the truth ; it comes from 
 the side of the infidel and the scoffer ; 
 it comes from the ungodly, that great 
 party which, unhappily, is still in the 
 majority, as it ever has been— the great 
 party that stands opposed to the right- 
 eous, that walks in the ways of dark- 
 ness, that treads all the paths of evil, 
 the broad and hard-beaten road that 
 leads to death. 
 
 If any who now hear me are on the 
 side of the wicked in the great battle 
 that is now waging between right and 
 wrong, between God and His enemies, 
 let me say to all such, behold your com- 
 peer, your companion, your brother — a 
 thousandfold worse, I admit, than you 
 — but still your companion, your com- 
 peer, your brother— the assassin. All 
 the wrong has come from your side of 
 the great line of demarcation, not from 
 the Christian's side. It was the con- 
 duct of the wicked in this Nation that 
 wrought such a state of things as de- 
 manded a National sacrifice. Garfield, 
 dying out of the Executive Chair, would 
 have died as an individual, honored by 
 many as a worthy citizen, but lamented 
 only by a limited numbpr. But he was 
 stricken as the chief ruler of fifty mil- 
 lions of people ; he suffered for the Na- 
 tion, and the Nation suffered in him. 
 
 His death was, in a certain sense, a 
 National sacrifice, because the Nation 
 had sinned. There comes out of this 
 awful crime of Guiteau a revelation 
 not merely of his own but of the Na- 
 tion's guilt. There slumbered beneath 
 it a moral putrefaction in the condition 
 of society which alone could make it 
 possible. Its perpetration has but 
 opened the fetid mass and spread the 
 unwholesome odor over the broad land. 
 The blood of our lamented President 
 could not atone for the sins of any in- 
 dividual, for he needed the blood of a 
 holier sacrifice for his own sms. 
 
 But a nation, as such, has no soul ; 
 yet it may grievously offend the Al- 
 mighty, and call for a visitation of His 
 wrath. 
 
 The Roman conspirators appealed to 
 a sentiment deeply imbedded in the 
 popular heart when they invented the 
 plea that Ca?sar's death was a sacrifice 
 to make expiation for the sins of the 
 Nation. All history shows that there 
 are times when such sacrifices are in- 
 evitable. Have our National sins 
 called for the sacrifice of our President ? 
 If so, might not the doom have been 
 averted, or the stroke mitigated, and 
 the precious life preserved in answer to 
 our prayers by timely repentance, by 
 the Nation's purging herself from her 
 most glaring iniquities ? 
 
 To avert Divine wrath nations, no 
 less than individuals, must repent and 
 purge themselves from their iniquities. 
 Something more than prayer is needed, 
 for "if I regard iniquity in my heart, 
 the Lord will not hear me." Has the 
 Nation repented of her sins ? Let us 
 glance at some of her iniquities. 
 
 1. THE CIVIL SERVICE INIQUITY. 
 
 It is an odious system as we have it. 
 It has long borne the appropriate ap- 
 pellation of "the spoils system." It 
 was invented and so named by a Pres- 
 ident, and therefore the Nation is re- 
 sponsible for all the vices which it has 
 bred. 
 
 It is based upon the infamous princi- 
 ple that the man who has rendered the 
 party some valuable assistance, even 
 though it may be at the expense of 
 
'.I 
 
 honor and morality, must be rewarded 
 with an office, regardless of merit or 
 qualification. The honest incumbent, 
 however well qualified, must be Bet 
 aside that the base tool of cliques and 
 rings and intriguing parties may occu- 
 py his place. Every party has Bome 
 dirty work which decent adherents 
 scorn to do — some slander to be propa- 
 gated, some fraud to be managed, some 
 falsehood to be circulated— and the fit- 
 ting instrument is sought for among 
 the hase and unprincipled. There aie 
 always plenty of such in the market, 
 and their services are in requisition 
 whenever a canvass begins. It is such 
 a system only that could breed and fos- 
 ter a Gniteau, but if it is not laid 
 aside, stamped out or reformed, it will 
 breed other Guiteaus in the future. 
 Our noble President was bent upon 
 reforming it, but he fell a victim to its 
 rage, and his death was a sacrifice for 
 this National sin. The reformer be- 
 came a martyr. 
 
 2. THE MORMON INIQUITY. 
 
 This is an eating cancer upon our 
 body politic. Hear what an intelligent 
 Judee — Judge Spear — an old resident 
 of Utah, says about it: "Rebellion is 
 slumbering in Utah, awaiting its op- 
 portunity. Every year the Mormon 
 church is growing richer and more 
 powerful; every year its followers aie 
 becoming more numerous ; polygamy 
 is on the increase right straight along ; 
 every foot of agricultural land in the 
 adjoining Territories is being eobbled 
 up by Mormons. In ten years the 
 United States will have several Utahs 
 to deal with." 
 
 Another, .Judge Campbell, says : "To 
 reflect t hat the greatest Republic in the 
 world should nurse and protect one of 
 the most abominable despotisms the 
 sun ever shone on is enough to make a 
 man lose all faith in the improvement 
 of political institutions." 
 
 Now I ask this Christian audience if 
 our Nation is not responsible for this 
 growing pollution? She must purge 
 herself, or untold evils will follow. 
 
 3. THE INIQUITY OF MONOPOLIES 
 
 These have grown fat on the labor of 
 the millions. They put employees upon 
 starvation wages; they pamper officials 
 with enormous salaries : they bribe leg- 
 islation and corrupt the fountains of 
 justice; they accumulate millions and 
 use them to aggrandize themselves and 
 make their power felt. They respect 
 neither God nor man. but violate the 
 Sabbath, and some of them, like the 
 "Star Line" iniquity, defraud the Gov- 
 ernment by corrupting its servants. 
 They feed the spirit of Communism, 
 provoke to riot, and will, if not arrested 
 
 in their course, bring about turbulence 
 and bloodshed and conflagration, a 
 
 foretaste ot which we had some yean 
 ago lo Pittsburgh and elsewhere. May 
 God save our Nation from the iniquity 
 of monopolies. 
 
 4. THE ALCOHOLIC [NIQUITT. 
 
 This is last but not least. In fact it 
 is the greatest Of all the iniquities for 
 which the Nation is responsible, and 
 for which it, should mourn more than 
 for the loss of a single noble life. The 
 Nation mourns to-day the death of a 
 single man, because he- was more than 
 any other the Nation's man. But who 
 mourns the loss of sixty thousand 
 slam annually by the liquor makers 
 and dealers of the United States ? We 
 sympathize and condole with the ven- 
 erable mother of our dead President, 
 and are touched with the beautirul 
 simplicity of her pathetic sorrow when 
 she talks, not about the great man at 
 the head of affairs, but of her boy, her 
 baby, whom she nursed id her lonely 
 widowhood, and trained up amid hard- 
 ship and want. But who mourns for 
 the thousands and thousands of moth- 
 ers who grieve with inexpressible an- 
 guish over the ruin of noble sons who 
 have been destroyed by the liquor traf- 
 fic ? We extend to the bereaved widow 
 of the noble President our tender and 
 heartfelt sympathy, and manifest 
 it by liberal contributions to make, her 
 comfortable through the remainder of 
 her life. But who thinks of the mul- 
 tiplied thousands of widows made 
 homeless and desolate by avaricious 
 and heartless liquor dealers ? We have 
 iead the touching story of the orphaned 
 son of the President making the lonely 
 j lurnev from a school in New England 
 to Long Branch on that dark Tuesday, 
 when his fond parent slept in the icy 
 embrace of death. All along the way, 
 unknown, he rode, passing through 
 crowds who were talking only about 
 the death of his father. Newsboys 
 thrust their papers into his face, telling 
 him that the President was dead. 
 Buildings were being draped in black 
 to remind him of his sore bereavement ; 
 but on he rode in solitary silence, with 
 his burden of grief, to look for the last 
 time upon the wasted form of an af- 
 fectionate father. Oh, what a touching 
 episode in the history of that dark and 
 mournful day! But who is touched 
 with the still more sorrowful spec- 
 tacle of many thousands of orphan 
 children turned loose upon society, 
 penniless and friendless, unknown and 
 unpitied,and all by the demon of in- 
 temperance ! 
 
 Oh, is not our Nation guilty of this 
 iniquity r 1 It must be wiped out, for in 
 every barrel of intoxicating liquors 
 
10 
 
 there is a Guiteau, ready, when occa- 
 sion serves, to assassinate father, 
 mother, wife, brother, sister, friend, 
 benefactor, anyone. There is in it 
 bubbling, sparkling, fascinating, a 
 Guiteau, ready to assassinate not the 
 President only, but the Nation itself. 
 The people must rise up in their might 
 and wipe out this iniquity. I call upon 
 you, my countrymen, to-day, in the 
 presence of the majesty of death, to 
 rise and assert your sovereign right to 
 deal with this monstrous iniquity. Slay 
 this destroyer, and you dispose of an 
 evil that fosters all other iniquities. 
 Destroy this, and you lessen the pos- 
 sibility of repeating the great National 
 tragedy which we now lament. 
 
 If now I have correctly hinted at 
 some of the causes which demanded 
 this costly sacrifice, what is the lesson 
 unfolded by the tragic event? It is 
 this. We must amend the standard 
 of our political ethics. Wemustbring 
 it nearer the Divine standard of recti- 
 tude. We must root out abuees, wash 
 the National skirts from the stain of 
 polygamy, curb the grasping avarice of 
 monopolies, and restrain the liquor 
 dealer from destroying his countrymen 
 with his poisoned fluids. God give the 
 people strength to do their duty. 
 
 Give them strength to war a good 
 warfare against iniquity in high places. 
 May this National requiem make a 
 lasting impression on our hearts. May 
 it work for righteousness, for purifica- 
 tion,^ reformation. May not the blood 
 of the martyred ruler be shed in vain. 
 
 Already a silver-lining. appears to the 
 dismal cloud that hangs over the Na- 
 tion. It is a fact that the two most 
 enlightened nations of the world, En- 
 gland and the United States, are gov- 
 erned by parties. It is a notable reat- 
 ure of their free constitutions and an 
 inalienable prerogative of a free peo- 
 ple to have it so. But in both coun- 
 tries it has been greatly abused by the 
 violence of party feeling. In ours, for 
 two or three decades, it has grown to 
 such a pitch of violence as to bring us to 
 the verge of dissolution and anarchy. 
 It was this that gave the assassin the 
 only pretext for his murderous deed. 
 The fatal blow was struck when the 
 great party in power was rent in twain, 
 and it was supposed that the Vice 
 President openly favored, if he did not 
 lead, the faction opposed to his Chief. 
 The moment was a critical one in an- 
 other respect. By reason of political ma- 
 Doeuvering, or otherwise, the House of 
 Representatives had no speaker and the 
 Senate no President pro tempore; so 
 that in case the President should die, 
 and the Vice President succeed to the 
 vacant Presidency, as lias proved to be 
 the case, we are left with but a single 
 
 life between constituted order and an- 
 archy. But the Nation has been chas- 
 tened by the suffering of her Chief. 
 All parties have vied with each other 
 in sympathy and condolence. Patriotic 
 fervor has proved itself superior to 
 partisan bitterness. The Vice Presi- 
 dent succeeds and retains the Cabinet 
 of his predecessor. The Government 
 moves on without a change of policy. 
 The Senate will soon be convened, we 
 are authoi itatively informed by aWash- 
 ington paper, mid will speedily remedy 
 the alarmiug deficiency. These are 
 hopeful signs of a better day to come, 
 the harbinger of peace and good will 
 between the parties. And it will be 
 attended, the same paper leads us to 
 believe, with a new aud blessed change 
 in the demeanor of parties. A leading 
 representative of the party in power 
 openly concedes to the other party the 
 right to organize the Senate and elect 
 its president. Such magnanimity has 
 scarcely ever been paralleled in the his- 
 tory of our politics. It is a hopeful 
 sign of political regeneration. It be- 
 tokens that amid the National throes 
 there is born a new principle. It leads 
 us to hope that out of this sad death 
 there will come a new National life. 
 The various paities may hereafter treat 
 one another with politeness and manly 
 courtesy, spurning chicanery and re- 
 nouncing all trickery, encouraging vir- 
 tue and frowning down all slanderous 
 imputations, rejecting the vicious and 
 uudeserying, and promoting only the 
 meritorious. Should such transforma- 
 tion take place, our National loss will 
 be richly compensated, our night of 
 sorrow be followed by a bright day of 
 reformation. Discord will be succeeded 
 by harmony in all our public councils, 
 and the most glorious monument that 
 can be erected to our murdered Presi- 
 dent will be a prosperous country. 
 
 If this renovated National life is 
 really the boon which this awful calam- 
 ity brings us, it will be fairly tested in 
 our treatment of the new Administra- 
 tion. Let all our people, irrespective 
 of party, give to President Arthur their 
 cordial support. The untoward cir- 
 cumstances under which he assumed 
 the functions of his office command 
 our sympathies, let them also enlist our 
 generosity. Let there be no dark sus- 
 picion lurking within us. Let no man 
 prophesy evil. Give him a fair chance. 
 lie is as truly our President now as his 
 lamented predecessor was before him. 
 Unknown and hitherto untried in a 
 great position, he may prove to be the 
 right man for the times. May no ob- 
 stacle be interposed to hinder his suc- 
 cess. May it be in every heart to pray, 
 God bless our new President, and give 
 him a prosperous career. 
 
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