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 A DISCOURSE, 
 
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 DELIVKREU BY THE 
 
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 AT CANAAN CENTER, ^'^i ^~ 
 
 APRIL 19, 1865, 
 
 On the occasion of the Funeral Obsequies of our late 
 President, Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 PrBLISHED BY SPECIAL REQUEST. 
 
 REPUBLICAN STEAM POWER PRESS, WOOSTER, OHIO. 
 1865. 
 
-J 
 
A DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED BY THE 
 
 REV. T. H. BARR, 
 
 AT CANAAN CENTER, 
 
 APRIL. 19, 1865, 
 
 On the occasion of tlie Funeral Obsequies of our late 
 President, Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL REQUEST. 
 
 ¥IEPUBLICAN STEAM POWER PRESS, WOOSTER, OHIO. 
 1865. 
 
 Co^-^- 
 
E + 57 
 
 CORRESPOI^DENCE, 
 
 Rev. T. H. Barr, 
 
 Sir : — Believing that the discourse delivered by 
 you at Canaan Center, on the I'Jth inst., would, by its general 
 circulation, have a beneficial influence, we respectfully request 
 the same of you for publication. 
 
 ISAAC NOTESTINE. 
 
 .1. H. WALLACE. 
 
 THOMAS KEENEY. 
 
 CALVIN ARMSTRON(;. 
 
 JAS. A. McCOY. 
 
 C. G. CRANE. 
 
 J. H. POLLOCK. 
 
 J. HOUGH. 
 
 WM. P. VAN DOORN. 
 
 Messrs. Isaac Notestine, J. H. Wallace, Thomas Keeney, 
 Calvin Armstrong, Jas. A. McCoy, C. G. Crane, J. H. 
 Pollock, J. Hough and Wm. P. Van Doorn, 
 
 Gentlemen : — I acknowledge with feelings of 
 gratification your kind note of the 19th inst., and on reflection 
 have concluded to defer to your, perhaps too partial, judgment, 
 and submit the discourse to your disposal. 
 
 With highest regards, I remain truly yours, 
 
 T. H. BARR. 
 Canaan, April, 1865. 
 
A DISCOURSE, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 We ought to endeavor to rise in our conceptions to tiie great- 
 ness and solemnity of the occasion on which we have met. We 
 are but a fragment of one vast assembly, from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf, which at this hour stand 
 mourning in worship before Goa under a great national calamity. 
 I know no more appropriate words in which to bring the occa- 
 sion and object of this meeting before you than these, taken from 
 the pathetic lament of David over the death of Abner, assassi- 
 nated by the hand of Joab : ' ^Know ye not that there is a prince 
 and a great man fallen T' 
 
 The mighty are fallen in the high places and an afflicted nation 
 is bowed in mourning. Abraham Lincolx, President -of the 
 United States, is dead, cruelly, basely murdered by a wicked assas- 
 sin, in the capital of the nation, in the midst of the rejoicings of a 
 loyal people over the triumphs that God has given us through 
 his instrumentality, in the high position to which the voice of a 
 free nation had called him. We are invited by the highest au- 
 thority in the land to meet at this time and manifest our sense of 
 the nation's loss by appropriate religious exercises. It is no 
 common occasion on which we are met. This is no common 
 funeral. We have before been called as a nation to mourn the 
 death of Chief Magistrates, snatched away while in the chair of 
 office. The drapery of mourning has hung over the land for a 
 
 Harrison and a Taylor. But great as was the loss occasioned 
 
 hy their death, and deeply as they were mourned, in the canse 
 
and manner of their death there was no outrage done the na- 
 tion's feelings — no indignity, no insult offered its honor and au- 
 thority. Had our lamented President fallen by disease, or the 
 common casualties to which human life is exposed, it would still 
 become the nation to lie in the dust and niourn. That he should 
 fall by the bloody hand of an assassin — the victim of a deep laid, 
 desperate conspiracy against the life and majesty of the nation 
 represented by him, calls for deeper humiliation and profounder 
 sorrow. 
 
 Truly a great — and even by the confession of his enemies, a 
 good man — has fallen in our high places. If he was not greater 
 than thousands of others in natural talents and personal endow- 
 ments, none can deny that he was great in official position and 
 dignity ; great in the responsibilities that rested on him, and the 
 invaluable interests staked in him for the loyal millions of our 
 own land, and for humanity. The murderous hand that struck 
 him down, struck at the common rights and liberty of man. The 
 
 ; assassin's bullet that was aimed at him was aimed at the author- 
 
 \ity, the honor and the life of the nation, and againsi the au- 
 thority and majesty of God. In view of the bloody tragedy thus 
 enacted in the face of the nation, let all partizan feelings be laid 
 aside. Let all feel and speak and act as the enormity of the 
 
 ^ crime demands ; as having a common interest in the perpetuity 
 and honor of the nation, a common duty in maintaining law and 
 order, and upholding the principles of morality and religion. 
 My convictions of truth, based on numerous and impartial ev- 
 
 ■ idences, constrain me to say that our beloved and lamented Pres- 
 ident was no common man in natural ability and attainment in 
 the qualities that constitute the true statesman. The gold may 
 have been encrusted with some quartz, but it was the pure metal. 
 The diamond may not have been so nicely cut or so finely pol- 
 ished as it might have been, but it was a gem of the first water. 
 He was liable to err because he was merely a man, but his mis- 
 takes were few and unimportant compared with his many acts of 
 wise, far-reaching and beneficent statesmanship. His action and 
 course on one single matter — the complicated and beyond doubt 
 the bitter root of all our troubles, Slavery — which he was led to 
 take after much hesitancy and travel of SQul, will entitle him to 
 rank among the first of statesmen. 
 
He was called, in tlie Providence of God, to no common task 
 of statesmanship, in a time of no common confusion and peril. 
 Few men, if any, in the world's history, have been called to the 
 kingdom at such a time as he was. He was placed at the helm 
 when the ship of State, either through weakness or treachery, 
 was drifting among rocks and hidden shoals, tost and wrenched 
 in erery joint by the raging waves of jJarty and opposing currents 
 of conflicting interests. Most on board were confounded and 
 paralyzed by fear, and the rest were treacherous or in open mu- 
 tiny. Our hereditary enemies and the minions of Monarchy 
 were already exulting that the vessel, freighted with the world's 
 last hope of liberty and Republican government was water-logged 
 and foundering, and gave their moral, and as far as they dared 
 their material, influence to make sure what they so eagerly de- 
 sired and hoped for. Thank God! their exultation and efforts 
 were equally vain. We can even now see that it was to test and 
 manifest the strength of the ship and its ability to weather 
 through a tempest that would have shattered and sunk the proud- 
 est government of the old world. It was to make it necessary 
 to throw overboard some lading that ought not to have been 
 there, and which might one day have sunk her, even in an open 
 and a calm sea. 
 
 To succeed in righting the ship in such condition — piloting it 
 safely through the shoals and rocks to an open sea — restoring 
 order and subordination on board — renewing rigging and sails 
 and spreading them to a fair wind, and starting her again rejoic- 
 ing on her course, is what no mere demagogue could do, and 
 what God never called a weak and incompetent man to do. An 
 exception might seem to lie where a people had filled up their 
 cup of iniquity and God designed to destroy them. But even 
 th«n his more ordinary method of procedure is "to destroy the 
 wisdom of the wise and bring to nothingness the understanding 
 of the prudent." Yet, und«r God, Abraham Li^rcoLy, with\ 
 those whom he selected to act with and under him, has brought \ 
 this nation through the most fearful struggle for life that evev a ' 
 nation was called to pass through, and restored us to peace uu- 
 shattered, op so nearly restored us as to thrill with joyful hope j 
 the heart of every loyal man and woman, and even make glad. ■ 
 thousands that are not. This makes good his title to take rank 
 among the wise and great. 
 
6 
 
 As a Christian and a Calvinist, I must come to the same conclu- 
 sion. God governs the world, and he governs it by wisely selecting 
 and using suitable agents and instruments. He does not raise 
 up and place at the head of victorious armies men weak in head 
 and heart. Neither does he call imbeciles or poltroons to save 
 a sinking nation or found an empire. He selects or fits the in- 
 strument for the work — the agent for the task. When I look at 
 the task this man was called of God to do, and how nearly he 
 accomplished and how well he did his part, I feel that it would 
 be impeaching the wisdom of the Supreme Ruler to deny that 
 the man he chose for the work was an eminently wise and com- 
 petent statesman. Great men, however, may be bad men. Em- 
 inent statesmen have sometimes been eminently wicked. But it 
 was not so with the statesman whom the nations mourn to-day. 
 He was eminent for goodness and kindness of heart. His very 
 foults, so far as he erred in his public duti«s, had their origin in 
 these traits. If, through their own professions of loyalty, or the 
 solicitations of their friends, he placed traitors in heart to posts 
 of important trusts, it was because he was so honest himself. If 
 he failed to deal with sufficient sternness with the rebels and their 
 abetters, it was because his nature was so kind and forgiving. 
 He was to a proverb what one of the English classics calls th(; 
 crowning work of God — "An honest man." Such not merely 
 in the judgment of partial friends and interested partizans, but 
 such in the judgment of the disinterested and impartial, and by 
 the confessions of his enemies in both sections of our land and 
 beyond the Sea. I think it within the bounds of sober truth to 
 say that the like accumulation and concurrence of evidence as to 
 the possession of these qualities by our lamented President, 
 never before entered into the person of any statesman. I will 
 not insult the memory of the dead by adducing further proof of 
 this. It will only be denied by the reckless portion or the in- 
 curably prejudiced. 
 
 For such a man the nation sits in mourning. The sun of his 
 public career has ineeed gone down at noon, but for him it sits 
 in glory. The only gem wanting in his coronet of honor was 
 martyrdom for his countr}' and human liberty. His death sup- 
 plied it. 
 
 Were it for rae to propose the epitaph to bo graven on the mar- 
 
ble that shall point the stranger to his grave, I would say, let it 
 be written without addition and "without date, Lincoln, the 
 Honest Statesman. There never was and never will be but one 
 Lincoln, and the time and cause of his death any child will tell 
 you while the nation exists. Such are my settled and hcnest 
 convictions in regard to him whose funeral obsequies we cele- 
 brate. I am fallable and may be wrong, but with my present 
 light I am willing to stand by them. 
 
 The tragical death of our Chief Magistrate is moving the heart 
 of the nation as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. 
 It is right. The heart that is not moved thereby is stone— the 
 heart that cherishes complacency or joy in view of it, is worse. 
 It is right that the heart of the people should be moved, and it is 
 important that this uprising of feeling should be rightly and in- 
 telligently directed, to right ends and in a right manner. 
 
 There are others to whom it belongs to set before the nation 
 and the world the civil and political consequences of the sad 
 event, and direct to the proper civil and political action in the 
 case. I assume no such task. But when the judgment of God 
 is thus upon the nation does it become the church of God to be 
 silent and indifferent? Must the ministers of the Gospel be 
 dumb ? May they not point to the judgment and show the hand 
 of God in it, and call upon men to consider it aright, why it was 
 sent and what they ought to do morally and religiously in view of 
 it ? When the great deep of human feeling is heaving and surg- 
 ing, must the lips of Christ's ministers be sealed, and leave it 
 entirely to politicians and men of the world to guide this tide of 
 feeling and tell men in what light to look at things, how they 
 ought to regulate their feelings, and what they ought to do, and 
 how ? Is the mind and will of God in these things not to be 
 heard or regarded ? Where is his mind and will to be looked 
 for if not in his word ? If ministers are not to explain, apply 
 and enforce that word in all its bearings on the relations, inter- 
 ests and duties of men, what, I would ask, are they for? 
 
 On these points I cannot understand how Christian men can 
 differ. As I understand the duty of a minister of the Gospel, it 
 is wrong to pass such awful providences in silence and not call 
 the attention of men to look at them in a moral and religious 
 light. They have it in solemn charge not only to point out the 
 
8 
 
 way of salvation to men, but to tell them how they ought to live " 
 and act ; to inculcate the rules and principles of morality from 
 the word of God ; to hold up to the light, for abhorrence and con- 
 demnation, the crimes and wickedness of men, without respect of 
 persons or station. With such convictions I would do what in me 
 lies to have you view and feel aright in regard to this great wick- 
 edness that has been done in the land. If this deed of treach- 
 ery and blood does not draw out the united, hearty and indignant 
 condemnation of the moral and Christian people of this nation, 
 we may well tremble for the safety and continuance of our 
 heaven-given government, all our social and religious institutions, 
 and we may prepare for confusion and every evil work. It is 
 not enough that we shudder at and condemn the deed in our 
 hearts. We are in duty bound to speak out, to let our abhor- 
 rence of it be known clearly, decidedly and unequivocally. To 
 be neutral is to approve the crime. If you are a Christian you 
 are one of God's called and commissioned witnesses. You are 
 to bear testimony for God not only to the truth but against the 
 violations of his law, against crime ot every degree. And the 
 more terrible and heaven-daring the wickedness, the more 
 prompt, clear and decided ought your testimony to be. This is 
 one of those clear cases in which good men ought to be found 
 standing together on the same side, bearing the same testimony. 
 We ought to have ourselves, and help others to have, right views 
 of the nature and magnitude of the atrocious deed that to-day 
 shrouds the nation in mourning. 
 
 It is no common deed of wickedness whether we consider its 
 nature and circumstances or the designed consequences of it to 
 the nation. It is not easy to grasp it in its^full dimenS'ions. We 
 cannot,.readily take it in, in its full extent. It is o-ne of those 
 crimes that nations are shaken with only after the intervals of 
 centuries, and in times of darkness and violence. In our coun- 
 try heretofore we have known and spoken of it as a thing of his- 
 tory. That it should be repeated in this stage of the world's 
 advancement in Christian knowledge and civilization, of natural 
 refinement and respect for government and law, that it should 
 take place on such a theatre, under such a government, at such 
 a time, when we are on trial before the world as to the fact 
 whether a free and intelligent people can govern themselves. 
 
ihese things, and others like them, stamp it a crime of the great- 
 *" t enormity — the crime of the age. No nation on the face 
 of the earth could less afford to have it perpetrated in their 
 midst, when we look at the panciples of our government and 
 the emergencies that are upon us. It is not simply that we have 
 been deprived of an able and faithful ruler. That has often hap- 
 ened to other nations, has often happened to ourselves, is hap- 
 pening constantly, because the wise and good cannot live forever. 
 It is the reason why it was done, and the unmitigated baseness 
 of the manner of it, that should startle and arouse every Amer- 
 ican citizen. It was done in violation and contempt of and -with 
 the design to overthrow and destroy the fundamental principles 
 upon which our governraen* rests — the right of the people to 
 govern themselves, to choose their own rulers and make their 
 own laws, and that the will of the majority, constitutionally ex- 
 pressed, is the LAW. Our murdered President died a martyr to 
 these principles. If we palliate or justify his assassination, we. 
 abandon and renounce these principles which as a nation we have 
 gloried in, and to purchase and maintain which rivers of blood 
 have flowed and thousands of precious lives have been sacrificed. 
 I solemnly believe this to be true, spite of the contradictions of 
 sophistry and prejudice, and therefore call on you to denounce 
 this atrocious deed. 
 
 The crime is aggravated by the interests of the millions repre- 
 sented by the Chief Magistrate who has been murdered. It was 
 not the man Abraham Lincoln alone that was struck by the as- 
 sassin's bullet. It was aimed at the millions of law-abiding and 
 loyal citizens of this great nation. This flows not only nor main- 
 ly from the theory of our government, but is the clear teachings 
 of the Bible. Legitimate rulers represent and stand as it were 
 in the place of the people governed. Hence the people are pun- 
 ished for the sins of the rulers, and the rulers for the sins of the 
 people. The lives, the honor, the material interests of every 
 good citizen, so far as government can go, was vested in, held in 
 trust and represented by our lamented President as the head of 
 the nation. It was because he held that position that he was 
 marked for death. Had the power been equal to the design and 
 uncontrolled tendency of the act, all the vested interests of th* 
 American people as loyal citizens would have fallen with him. 
 
10 
 
 That they dif! no\, is due to the want of power and not to the want 
 of will. God takes the will for the deed, and will judge men 
 accordingly. 
 
 We have not brought to your attention circumstances attending 
 the mournful event of a personal and private nature. These' are 
 no more than has been in thousands of other cases, and perhaps 
 less aggravating and affecting. It is not these things that make 
 St national indignity and injury, and call for national indignation 
 and" mourning. 
 
 There is still another thought demanding our serious attention. 
 In permitting the nation to be deprived of her highest civil ruler, 
 God has spoken to this people in trumpet tones. What does it 
 mean? What does it portend? We cannot read the secret 
 counsels of Heaven, or presume to determine whether he de- 
 signs to overrule it for mercy or for wrath to the nation. He 
 can do either. '^He can make the wrath of man to praise him, 
 and the remainder he can restrain." But although we cannot 
 tell what results are to follow these things, there are some obvi- 
 ous duties to which this nation, and especially the Christian por- 
 tion of it, are called by the event : 
 
 1. To acknowledge the hand of God in it. We are to own his 
 agency in what he permits, as well as in what he does. If God 
 had not permitted it, it could not have taken place. "He doth, 
 according to his pleasure in the armies of Heaven, and among 
 the inhabitants of the earth." He permitted it as he permitted 
 the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews by 
 Nebuchadnezzer, the proud ambitious king of Babylon ; as he 
 permitted the betrayal of Christ by Judas, and his crucifixion by 
 the scribes and elders. 
 
 2. We are called to humble ourselves under the mighty hand 
 of God, and to confess yet again our sins. We have been called 
 to this duty, during the past four years, both by the voice of 
 Providence and the call of him who will no more call the nation 
 to acknowledge the hand of God in sorrow or in joy ; under re- 
 verses or in the midst of victories. In public and official docu- 
 ments, by the highest authorities of the nation, this has been re- 
 peatedly done. The people have responded to these calls with 
 promptness and apparent fervor. It would argue too great a want 
 of charity to set all this down as a mere outward form — hypo- 
 
11 
 
 critical mockery. That there has been much sincere humiliation 
 and acknowledgment of our national sins before God by thousands 
 in our land and by a goodly number in the highest positions civil 
 and military, cannot be more reasonably doubted than we can 
 doubt that God has a church in the land. It would be equally 
 faithless and ungrateful to think and say that it has all been iu 
 vain. We have had, many times, reason to say with Israel, "If 
 it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up 
 against us, then they had swallowed us up quick when their 
 wrath was kindled against us." And it was while the nation was 
 singing "The Lord has done great thing for us whereof we are 
 glad," that the shadow of this great calamity has fallen upon us. 
 Still we should turn to God, confess our sins and seek forgive- 
 ness and help from him. He has been our nation's help in ages 
 past, and he may be so for years to come. Let us then adopt the 
 language of the Psalmist, "Why art thou cast down, my soul, 
 and why art thou disgusted within me ? Hope thou in God for 
 I shall yet praise him, for he is the help of my countenance, and 
 my God." He may lay calamities upon us, and cause men to go 
 over us shod, yet surely he will not utterly forsake us and give 
 us over to destruction. Let us then say, in the confidence of 
 humble faith and hope, with the church of old, "Our help is in 
 the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." 
 
V)^, 
 
L£ S'I2