Lincoln, Lincoln, beloved, fare thee well! Our country's flag around him fold, What shroud more meet for heart so brave, A nation's prayer shall bless his mould, A nation's tears bedew his grave.

And shall we bear one word of scorn? One rebel taunt, one hostile sneer?

No! freemen, no! his foes we spurn, And pledge our fealty round his bier. Freemen ! behold your murdered chief, His memory to your care we trust;

Let mercy mingle with your grief, But strike the traitors to the dust.

Sleep on, brave chief, the flag you bore O'er North and South, shall surely wave, And Union, peace, and love once more Shall meet and mourn around your grave."

SERMON XV.

REV. J. E. ROCKWELL, D. D.

"All ye that are about him bemoan him; and all ye that know his name say, how is the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod."-JEREMIAH xlviii. 17.

"The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name; hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it."-MICAH vi. 9.

THE solemn providence which has called our nation to mourning in the very midst of its joy and exultation over the hopes of returning peace, finds a most appropriate expression in these words of inspired wisdom. For the third time since our existence as an independent government, we have been called upon to mourn over the death of our Chief Magistrate. Yet never before has the nation passed through such an experience as this. At the close of four long and weary years of bloody war against the foulest and most causeless rebellion that had ever stained the annals of the world, our nation was exultant over the tidings of victories which it was evident to all were soon to end the struggle. Our President, but lately taking the oath of office for a second term of service, had returned home from a visit to the city which had been the seat and centre of rebellion, and from which the grand and only important army in the interest of traitors had been 273

12*

driven, only to be followed by the stern hosts of freedom until it had broken up forever, while the leaders of the conspiracy were fugitives from the arm of avenging justice, seeking safety in an ignominious flight. The rancor of party feeling was fast dying out in the nation; men were fast honorably submitting to the voice of the people expressed through the ballot box; and they were gradually yielding to the conviction that Abraham Lincoln was an honest and a good man, and, under the guidance of heaven, was pursuing a wise and judicious policy, which would result in the restoration of peace upon the great and immutable principles of truth, liberty, and righteousness. On him the eyes of the whole people were turning as the man by whose wisdom, prudence, and conciliatory course treason was to be crushed out and the rebellious States brought back upon the great platform of the Constitution, with only the one condition of a destruction of the great system of slavery, which had been the weapon used by their leaders against the life of the nation. It was evident to all that this institution had received its death-blow at the hands of its friends. Aready Missouri, Maryland, and Tennessee had accepted these terms and broken the last shackle that had held their fellow-men in bondage; and even in South Carolina-the very hot-bed of treason-such a man as Governor Aiken led the way in emancipation by striking off the chains of his one thousand slaves, and giving them farms to cultivate with free labor. A few more blows only were to be struck and the whole system would fall, and the South, restored to the Union and to the affections of their brethren, would resume its place, out of which it had only been jostled for a time by ambitious and unprincipled leaders, who had held over the seceded States a reign of

For the solution of all the intricate and delicate

questions which would arise in the final restoration of the Union; for the proper punishment of the men who had instigated the rebellion; for a wise and just discrimination between the leaders and the misguided victims; for a course of kind conciliation towards the men who had been forced into the war against their better judgment and wishes, and for a discovery and due reward of those who had all the while been loyal to the Union-the nation were looking to Abraham Lincoln with increasing confidence and hope. No man had ever gained more rapidly in the respect and affections of his political enemies; never was man more warmly loved by his friends since the days of Washington. He seemed to have been raised up by a kind Providence to meet the most solemn and momentous crisis in the history of this nation, and to deal with the most gigantic rebellion that had ever been witnessed in the world's history. Again and again was the anxious whisper heard, as it was known that he had gone to the front of the army, and then to Richmond: Is it safe for the President to put his life in jeopardy, on which so many interests are suspended? And the whole nation. breathed more freely when his safe return to Washington was announced. It has been said a man's life is immortal till his work is done. And so has it proved. Our honored and beloved President, who had safely reached the capital when traitorous fiends were determined to prevent his first inauguration; who had for four years been unharmed, even while bitter and open enemies were plotting against him under the very shadow of the vast dome beneath which our national Congress gathers; who had safely passed through Richmond, around which were still lingering traitorous bands who had for four years nursed against him their most bitter hatred-returned to his home only to die. In the midst of a scene of pleasure,

whither he had gone that he might not disappoint the crowds that had assembled to see him and the gallant and glorious general under whose giant blows rebellion had staggered and fallen-surrounded by his family and friends he was struck down by the hand of an assassin, who, for many weeks, had been watching his opportunity, and whose act turned that scene of festivity to a house of death and woe, sending a thrill of horror and agony over the whole nation. Who can describe the gloom that settled over our land like a pall of death when the dreadful deed was announced, and the tidings spread from city to city, from ocean to ocean, with the speed of the lightning: The President has been assassinated! The Pres ident is dying! The President is dead!

How appropriate might the murderer have repeated, as he was preparing for his fearful deed of blood, the words- which must have been familiar to his mindplaced in the lips of Macbeth when contemplating the assassination of his king:

"He hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking off.
And Pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim horsed
Upon the sightless courier of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind."

Yet no such reflections entered his mind or heart to bid him pause in his horrid work. Abandoned of heaven, nerving his arm by the intoxicating draught, fully bent upon his fiendish purpose, resolved to accomplish what had evidently been in his heart, and in the hearts of his accomplices and abettors-he deliberately entered the scene of mirth and festivity, where sat his victim, and