Gass ^ Book though He knew us too well to trust us in such entire absence of all sensible comfort, He has not left Himself without witness in this time of national calamity. For He lias been with us all through the war, and led us by a way which we knew not, which nevertheless was the best and most beneficent way to victory. So that we may boldly say, "The Lord is our Helper, we will not fear what man can do unto us ;" " Because Thou hast been our Hell), there- fore in the shadow of Thy wings will we rejoice." God has not led us all through this war to such a commanding posi- tion only to destroy us now. He has not answered so many prayers only to forsake us to-day. But this is one of the all things that shall work together for our good — yea, lift as up to a serencr height of blessing. ^\Ve have been accus- tomed to regard the rebel inhumanity to prisoners as one of the darkest clouds in the whole horizon ; but look round you : sec how that inhumanity is opening the eyes of men at home and abroad to the true character of this rebellion. 24 See how it consolidates the loyalty of the loyal States, and calls forth the condemnation of Europe and the world ; making men whom nothing else could have induced to do so, to abhor the rebellion with an unmitigated and unchange- able abhorrence ; and do you not see that not one iota of those lingering agonies of thousands of brave men has been endured in vain ? And what if this last and. foulest crime clenches the nail thus driven home? What if it makes popular sentiment — proverbially fickle — as inflexible as the orbits of the stars ? What if it secure a condemnation of this whole rebellion as lasting as the race ? But there is another view of this matter no less encour- aging. It is not in my heart to breathe one syllable in disparagement of the departed. I know it is the opinion of many that the heart now forever at rest Avas too tender for the stern work of punishing evil-doers. But I am not so sure of that. Never yet has he been found wanting either in appreciating the duties of the hour, or in meeting its demands. The great trouble has been in the popular feel- ing, that if the rebellion could only be put down, it was expedient to be generous, and forget the past. The idea has been that it would be magnanimous to forgive, and let traitors go unwhipt of justice. Magnanimous indeed ! Is it magnanimity to efface the brand of infamy from treason ? Methinks it has not produced such pleasant fruit these last four years as to merit a better standing than before. Is it magnanimous to approve the effort of traitors to destroy our country — an effort held back from success only by the life- blood of thousands of her bravest sons ? If this be magna- nimity, may God keep you and me from so great a crime. 25 Look around you on the multitude of the slain, from Gal- veston to Gettysburg, and from Yorktown to our Western territories — sec them in the narrow beds, where they were laid tenderly by patriot hands, or piled rudely in shallow trenches, where traitors tossed them in with insult and reviling; and as your eye takes in the countless multitude, tell me, " Who slew all these?" Go through the now silent prison-houses — pardon the word — not houses, but living graves, scooped out with their tin cups, for which, alas ! they had little other use — where, in the storms of winter, naked, starving patriots sought in vain for shelter, and when you have repeopled them with the shivering shadows that once were men, but now the lifeless victims of rebellion, again I ask, Who slew all these? and how? And is it magnanimity to say to the next generation of traitors, '" Go on. Do the same thing over again. You will never be called to account for it. Succeed better than these if you can, and if you can't, you will not suffer?" For one, my hearers, I do not so understand either duty or justice. It is one of the attributes of our God that He will by no means acquit the wicked. It is said in His praise, " Also unto Thee, O Lord ! belongeth mercy, for Thou renderest to every man according to his works." , I said that public sentiment stood in the way of our departed President, and hindered his performance of duty here ; but his death has transformed that public sentiment. In murdering him, rebels removed the last barrier that stood between them and retribution. They struck down their kindest benefactor. They turned a latitudinarian public sentiment that cared nothing for justice, provided it enjoyed 26 present prosperity, into a stern demand for righteousness. The great danger now is that the righteous demand for justice shall degenerate into a ferocious cry for vengeance, and so err as far on one side as it has done on the other. It is a significant fact that at this moment Providence has called to the chair, so sadly vacated, a man who thus ex- presses his views and purposes : " I am in favor of lenity, but in my opinion evil-doers ought to be punished." "Trea- son stands highest in the catalogue of crimes." " The halter to intelligent, influential traitors ; but to the honest man, deluded into the rebel ranks, I would show mercy." Later, " Let it be engraven on every heart, that treason is a crime, and traitors shall suffer its penalty." Take it, my hearers, as a mark of Divine favor, that in a day like this, He calls a man to be the President of our country who advances sentiments like these. Let us cherish revenge towards no man ; but if blood must be shed, it is better that it should be that of the evil-doer ; better that traitors should suffer, as a warning to those who may be hereafter tempted to tread in their steps, than that the loyal families of our land should be devoted to another decimation. A wiser, holier, and more loving heart than yours or mine has said, "It must needs be that offences come, but woe unto that man by whom they come ;" let us be content to echo the words of Jesus : ' ' Woe to the offender, rather than to those who do not offend." God punishes because he is holy and benevolent, and he requires rulers to do the same, as his ministers, because that course is holy and benevolent — a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that do well. You and I cannot be wiser or more 27 l)cnevoleut than God. He calls us to no spirit of vengeance, but to such a reverent regard for right as shall make us willing to maintain it in His appointed way. Four years ago we did not dare to hope that God would be. acknowledged in our land as He is to-day; that our coins would bear the inscription, " In God we trust;" that our rulers would implore the prayers of Christians ; that our victories would be ascribed to God. But see what hath God wrought. Yet one thing was lacking — a reverent re- gard to justice. The current of public sentiment ran strong in the opposite direction. It seemed as if the whole people would be content with victory, and utter no solemn testi- mony against treason. The very proposition would have been hooted down as bigoted fanaticism. But by one touch what a change ! ' Surely if Abraham Lincoln looks down to-day on the change his death has wrought, he feels that he has accomplished something by his death as well as by his life. Let us give to his successor the confidence and love that we gave to him, and seek to turn the rushing stream out of the channel of blind revenge into that of holy, loving loyalty to God and right. DISCOURSE III. Preached on the Sabbath after the Assassination. Gen. v, 5 : And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. Man was formed of the dust of the ground, and so was named Adam : i. e., red earth. Was it not intended that thus his name should be a constant memento of the word, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return"? It may seem inconsistent with this that he should live through the long period of nine hundred and thirty years. Think of it, not far from ten centuries — nearly one-sixth of the whole period from his creation till this moment. He lived to see his posterity of the eighth generation. Lamech, the father of Noah, was fifty-six years old when Adam, his first parent, died. It was a long life indeed, and yet were not the words of David true even then, that its strength was labor and -sorrow. Think of those nine hundred and thirty years, commenced in Eden, but spent and ended in a world cursed through his transgression. There must have been something very sad in that curse, for even Lamech said of his little babe, "This child shall comfort us concerning our work 29 and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." "VVc can almost hear the sigh of the old man as he unburdened his grief and sorrow, in the dim hope of relief ; and if the sin and suffering of earth seemed so grievous to him, who had never seen anything else, what must it have been to Adam, who could contrast it with the glories of Paradise, and primeval holiness? Then our first parent had witnessed all the wrong and violence with which earth was tilled, from the blood of righteous Abel down to the crimes that, in his old age, were fast ripening a world for the Flood. Surely his nine hundred and thirty years, spent in looking on the ruin which his sin had wrought, are not to be envied. It almost seems like one of the wondrous retributions of Providence in this life that he " who brought death into the world, and all our woe," was detained here so long, ere he could go to that world where nothing entereth that detileth, and wherein dwelleth righteousness. But even after so long a life, Adam died ; and though Jared and Methuselah both lived longer than he, yet of them, also, the short biography closes with the same record: "and he died." It might not be profitable to dwell on the life and death of our first parent. For we know so little of the incidents that filled up those nine hundred and thirty years, that we can only imagine what they were. But we need not go so far away. These emblems of mourning point us to a recent' bereavement. We find it difficult to-day to keep our minds away from our great loss, and so while on Wednesday we gave ourselves up to meditation on the fact as citizens, to- day let us look at it as those to whom it is appointed once 30 to die, and after death, the judgment. Yes, we shall follow after him — every one of us in his time — and of us it shall be true, as it now is true of him, that we shall not return. The death of our beloved President, then, admonishes us that exalted station is no shield from death. Men some- times have the feeling that while ordinary mortals die, those lifted up to responsible positions have a firmer hold on life ; that Providence owes it to such to give them a longer lease of earth ; that as so much more depends on •them, so they should have a longer time in which to form their plans and carry them out. But if any of us have indulged such thoughts for a moment, how are we rebuked to-day ! God is no respector of persons. Both high and low, rich and poor together — the ruler and his people — must go whenever God shall call them, and go, too, at the moment, without delay. And if it was so with him on whom rested so much of responsibility and such great interests, much more is it true of us. As with a trumpet voice this Providence says to you and me, " Prepare to meet thy God." There is another feeling somewhat akin to this, which leads us to expect that a man zealously engaged in a good work will be allowed to finish it ; that if it involve the wel- fare of millions of his fellowmen, and he prosecutes it with rare discretion or unusual success, God will not suffer him to be interrupted, but will ward off danger till the under- taking be complete. But does our recent bereavement endorse such views ? Does it tell us that if we would secure long life, we must diligently engage in some work indis- pensable to human wellbeing, and so secure safety till the work be carried through ? Nay, my hearers ; but it tells us 31 that however important may be the work in hand, and how- ever successfully we may prosecute it, only the present moment is ours. The next, God may give or withhold as He pleases. He is so rich in His own resources that He does not need our services. And He has so many instruments at His control that He can take the unfinished work from one and confide it to another, as He pleases. And if it be so with the strong ones, who use their strength so profitably, how is it with* us ? Does not this Providence say to you and me, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work nor device nor knowledge ner wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." After these things, I noed not speak of that very common but far less reasonable feeling, that when, after passing through much tribulation, our feet are on the verge of quiet enjoyment, God will surely suffer us to live to see it ; or that when, through much toil and suffering, we have earned the love of our fellowmen, God will spare us to enjoy that love. Look on yon casket, containing all that is left of the man whom the nation delighted to honor — the man of our affections, and in whom our hearts did safely trust, — and read what it saith concerning such hopes. After long and patient toil we may say to our souls: "Soul! thou hast much good laid up for many years ; take thine ease." But another may say : "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." So, too, me may have said, Life is indeed uncertain, but God will give me some warning ere he takes it away. He may not allow me to finish the undertaking in which I am engaged, but He will let me know when He would have me 32 stop — at least He will give me time enough to attend to the one thing needful before probation ends. My hearers, it is written of one, " I gave her space to repent, and she re- pented not." God is now giving us the same, and of how many may the recording angel write this moment, " not repented ?" But let this Providence speak — " The Lord said unto Moses, get thee up into this Mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children *of Israel, and when thou hast seen it, thou shalt be gathered unto thy people." But did He give any such warning to our beloved President ? Was there any hint such as was given to good king Hezekiah, when the Lord said unto him — " Set thy house in order?" We speak of sudden death. But think of never knowing that we are in danger, — never being con- scious of a stroke or a pain, till the soul recovers conscious- ness in the presence of its Judge. Has such a Providence no voice to you and me, and every soul in this great nation? Oh, that it might be heeded ! Oh, that along with the universal grief might be a heart to hear the voice of Him who says, " Be ye therefore ready also, for in such an nom- as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." And here I am constrained to turn aside a moment to another lesson of this great national sorrow : From whatever side we view it, we are appalled by its magnitude. Like some lofty peak that rises so far above the rest of the mountain ranije that it seems to stand alone, so does this bereavement overtop all similar distresses ; but among all its other aggravations, we cannot forget the scene where it occurred. Fain would our affection have chosen some other 33 place for the closing scene of such a life. That agonized cry of his bereaved companion, as dawn revealed its dim outlines, " Oh, that dreadful house ! that dreadful house !" still rings in our ears. It is a relief to know that our beloved President went with reluctance to the fatal spot. Even if Ave did not know that he went from regard to the feelings of others, yet in such a matter Love would hope all things, and think no evil. But we are startled to see the blow struck in fcuch a place, by one whose whole character was molded by its influences. And Avhat a revelation of those influences does that character present ! Not only reason distorted, and heart perverted, but conscience so seared as to glory in his shame. How could he commit so amazing a crime in so theatrical a way ! That one word " theatrical " explains it all. No other could express such commingled wickedness and insensibility. That stupendous crime was the fitting fruit of an education that, passing by the ordinary manifestations of depravity as too commonplace, brings the soul into contact, and holds it in communion, with all that is most intensely exciting in human crime. An education that, making the heart familiar with the foulest and most bloody deeds, bends the whole energy not to be good, but to put on its seeming. It has nothing to do with goodness, save to ape its attitudes and steal its words. It teaches a man to pass by genuine piety as beneath regard, and heaps its praises on the clever counterfeit of its most impassioned manifestations. At the same moment vice is equally applauded, if the expression of its most violent out- breaks be only vivid and intense. In that case, the greater the verisimilitude the louder the applause. What education 34 could be better contrived to obliterate moral distinctions than that which subsidizes both crime and virtue as means of amusement? Oh, if that assassin, instead of being thus trained to counterfeit and win applause by the perfection of the counterfeiting, had learned of Him who teaches to make the tree good, that the fruit may be good also — not to hang painted fruit amid painted leaves — would he ever have committed so foul a crime ? If he had sat at His feet who bids us keep the heart with all diligence, because out of it are the issues of life ; to cultivate those inward graces, whose praise is not of men but of God — the nation might have been spared the tears it weeps to-day. Through such a crime, in such a place, b} r such a hand, God points us to those words of Jesus : " By their fruits ye shall know them ;" and bids us decide which we shall choose for our children — the education of the theatre or of the church : of the book of plays, or the book of God. On this side, are clever counterfeits of vice and virtue for amusement, thrilling scenes that move to tears, and ex- haust, in selfish excitements, the sensibility God meant should prompt us to noble deeds. On that, is a daily taking up the cross, a steady conflict with evil, that makes meet for an inheritance among the saints in light. Here is the training for adultery, treason and murder. There is the training to be like Christ, and be with Him where He is. Some may fear that the death of so good a man in such a place may draw multitudes within its gates. But the fact that it trained his assassin for that deed of blood; that it blinded him to its damning infamy so as to glory in shame, from which a good conscience would have shrunk back appalled, ought to produce the opposite effect. — Whether it will or no depends on the character of each spectator of the crime. But its testimony concerning the influence of the theatre is one which no good man will fail to regard ; and in this matter, as a parent soweth, so shall not only himself but his children reap. We speak of being prepared for sudden death. It has become a stereotyped phrase, " so to live every day as if it were our last ;" but have we a definite idea of what such a life involves? It is not a few hasty prayers sandwiched between a life of ungodliness and our appearance before the Judge. It is not a flood of tears shed over a life up to that moment spent in deliberate disobedience. Nor is it a regu- lar round of Pharisaic devotion that leaves us where it found us — prayer preceding, following, and enclosing round about, unvarying sinfulness. But it is the discharge of daily duties as so much service owed to God. It is whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, doing all to the glory of God. Is the merchant who indulges through the day in what are so pertly called " the tricks of trade," but which are in fact so many sins against God and our neighbor — is he ready at night to hear Christ knock and open unto him immediately ? Is the man who to-day curtly refuses the claims of missions, or stops his ears to the cry of so many millions of freedmen for the gospel, ready to give in his account to-night to Him who knows each expenditure for luxury, and each new investment? How easy it is to steel the heart to God's commands in the daily life, and then in His house harden the same heart against His truth, so as to go forth and reneAv the disobedience of Saturday on Monday morning. 36 It is easy to do this ; but that is not laying up treasure in Heaven. On this point the life of our martyred President speaks as loudly as his death. Says one who knew him intimately ever since he entered on the duties of the office he per- formed so well, and here I condense somewhat the testimony of his pastor, Rev. Dr. Gurley : " He deserved the confidence and love of the nation by the whole tenor and spirit of his life. Always and every- where he endeavored to be right and to do right. His integrity was thorough and incorruptible, all pervading and all controlling. It was the same in great things and in small, in every place and in every relation. When he assumed the presidency he saw his duty as the leader of a great and imperilled people, and determined to do the whole of it, leaning on the arm of Him who " giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might increaseth strength," we admired his child-like simplicity, his perfect freedom from guile, his forgiving temper, his persistent devotion to every duty of his high position, his readiness to hear the cause of the poor and the oppressed, his charity toward those who questioned the correctness of his course ; his large philanthropy, that knew no distinction of race, but looked on all men as brethren ; his unswerving purpose that what freedom had gained should not be lost, and that the end of war should be the end of slavery. All these things commanded our admiration ; but holier and more lovely than all of these was his abiding confidence in God, and in final triumph, through Him and for His sake. This was the secret alike of his strength and his success, and by this 37 more than by any other excellence, he being dead, yet speaketh." So did President Lincoln perform the duties of each day ; and so through trust in the atoning blood of Jesus was he prepared to die. God grant that while we seek to be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ, we do not forget those words of our Great Example, " I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." For in like manner God has given a work to every one of us. He has not given the same to all, but to each one his own work, for which he and not another is responsible. There is one work to the man of property, and another to the man of mind, and to no individual in the two classes is there precisely the same. There is one to the leader in society and another to the follower ; one to the mother and another to the daughter. The duties of no two persons are identical, but the}' are assigned by One who perfectly knows our capacities and opportunities. Their performance is watched by One whose eye suffers nothing to escape its notice — neither the positive transgression nor the unperformed re- quirement. And judgment will be pronounced on all by One who has left it on record, " To him that knoweth to do good, and docth it not, to him it is sin." Think of these things, and in the light of that instant arrest of thought and speech and consciousness Friday before last, sec how far those of us who profess to obey Christ are obeying his command, " Be ye therefore ready also, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.*' We have need to do this, for God will not regard vain excuses. Nor will He 38 fail to render to every man 110001x11110' to bis deeds ; to them who by patient continuance in well-doing, mark the words, not spasmodic efforts in times of rivival, but patient con- tinuance in icell-doing, to those who thus seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life ; but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, preferring to cavil rather than to serve — to such He will render indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jews first and also of the Gentiles ; of the two, I had rather be an ignorant slave in Africa than a barren professor in New England. And ye who make 110 profession, look after the fatal stroke, at that heaving breast, that unconscious brain, and think what had become of him had the work of preparation for eternity been put off till then ? And is your preparation all made ? If not what security have you that your death will not be as sudden , that your sick bed will not be equally incapable of thought and feeling. God is not shut up to one method of arresting mental activity. And have you any claim, that Abraham Lincoln had not, to a continuance of consciousness even to the last? Finally, my hearers, this event is eminently fitted to correct some popular errors concerning death. One of these errors is, to search the death-bed for evidences of piety rather than the life. But where does the Bible sanction such a course ? Does it describe the death-bed of Paul, or the beloved disciple ? Does it record the dying experience of Moses on the top of Pisgah? or of Joshua, his successor? Look at the lamp of David going out amid the senilities of second childhood, or at the good Josiah, slain in his chariot 30 tit Megiddo. Read the short narrative of the death of ou r first father. It is all contained in the brief sentence "and he died,'' and not even so much is said of our first mother. How long she lived, or when or how or where she died, who can tell? Of Samuel it is simply said, "And Samuel died," and not even so much is said of Ezra, or Isaiah, or any of the prophets. And was that death at Washington an exception ? Another popular error is an expectation that everything pleasant and peaceful will attend the death of the righteous. But it is of the wicked that it is written, " There are no bands in their death — their strength is firm." And how many of the people of God have perished by the hand of violence, in foul dungeons, and at fiery slakes, and " others were tortured, not accepting deliverance ; they were stoned , they were sawn asunder; were tempted: were slain with the sword ; they wandered about in sheepskins and goat- skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented." Go ask the noble army of martyrs whether a death even of shame and insult be a token of perdition. Then enter many a house of luxury, and enquire whether death in tapestried chambers and amid all the alleviations of earthly love and wealth, be a token of salvation. My hearers, even in death man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart, and on its prep- aration for heaven — not the physical comforts of a dying hour. What are all the comforts of the home of Dives, if they end in perdition? What arc all the discomforts of the death of Lazarus — I do not say death bed, for he may not have had one — if all ended in Abraham's bosom? What is 40 a little more pain or a little less, if the eternity that follows be with God? My Christian friends, that death-bed in the capital bids us drop all anxiety about externals, and fix eye and heart on that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Leave all outward things for Christ to order as He pleases, but be sure that ye commit your soul into His holy keeping, till he presents it holy, unblamable and uurebuk- able before the throne, and so rest, singing " The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." "Even in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy presence is all, all else is nothing." And you who do not call yourselves disciples — you who do not look to Jesus as your Saviour— think what would all his well-earned fame, what would all £his affection, this uni- versal mourning avail for our beloved President, if he were not washed from his sins in the blood of Jesus ? And will you live longer without coming to Him, that you too may have this life? Come to Him, and He will give you grace to live, grace to die, and then share with you His home and His throne in glory. Few will ever become Presidents of these United States ; very few will ever be mourned for as Abraham Lincoln is mourned to-day. But "as many as receive Christ unto them does He give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name," yea, He makes every one of them kings and priests unto God, and they shall reign with Him forever. Shall we not accept this grace, so that, finding us ready to open unto Him immediately, He shall welcome us into the kingdom pre- pared for us from the foundation of the world ?