aversion to the seductive influence of the theatre throughout our religious community, and may thus be a blessing in the divine providence to arise from this sad incident in his departure.

But he has gone before the settlement, and without the settlement of this great problem of the coming influence and relation of his administration. That his death will change in some degree the character and measure of that influence cannot be doubted. That a restriction shall come as the consequence of his death upon the freeness of the action of mercy to the conquered is most natural and just. Human law knows no crime greater in its malignity, or in its effects, than the murder of the ruler of a nation, the final, heaviest guilt of treason against its authority. That others, whose influence and example have nourished this spirit, whose words and avowals have often before encouraged and incited it, shall be held responsible for it, is inevitable and just. And our Government owe it to the majesty of the nation, and to the authority of God, which they represent, not to allow such an abhorrent violation of human authority and safety to pass without a very clear and distinct retribution upon the guilty inciters and accessories in such a crime.

Still, let not a spirit of individual vengeance be allowed to rear the monument to our fallen head. Let not passion seize the reins of guidance in an hour so momentous. Let the widest possible door be opened for the exercise of kindness, and the utterance of welcome to those who honestly desire to return to their loyalty and duty to the nation which they have outraged, and the Government which they have insulted and despised. The intelligent leaders

in this rebellion deserve no pity from any human being. Let them go. Some other land must be their home. Their own attained relations and results will be punishment and sorrow enough in time to come. Their property is justly forfeited to the nation which they have attempted to destroy, and to the oppressed, over whom they have tyrannized and triumphed. If the just utterance of law condemns them personally to suffer as traitors, let no life be taken in the spirit of vengeance. Let the world see one instance of a Government that is great enough to ask no revenge, and self-confident and self-sustaining enough to need no retributive violence to maintain the majesty of its authority. Let the Lord's own example be, to the utmost extent of personal relations, our rule and purpose, determined in the spirit of union and patience and kindness, to edify and restore, in the widest possible application of the spirit, consistent with the nation's safety and the honor of the laws, the multitudes who have been swept down the current of rebellion, by the dominant influence and example of those whom they have been taught to regard as their leaders in the path of public duty.

There may be great difficulties in the details of the resuscitation of our afflicted land. But there can be none which such a spirit and purpose as were displayed in President Lincoln would not soon overcome and remove. And upon nothing will memory more delight to dwell than upon that high forgiving temper which lifts up a fallen foe, restores a wandering brother, and repays the cruelty of hatred by an overcoming benignity and love. Little was he known in character and tendency by those who met his first administration with violent threats, and re

proachful libels. And little has the real spirit of this Northern people been known by the great body of the South, who really know but little upon any subject, but as their accredited superiors have been accustomed to teach them. They have heard from their highest rebel officers nothing but terms of low and ribaldrous reproach and scorn applied to us. They have called us hyenas, and satisfied their hatred by the freedom of unlimited abuse. But in reality there has never been a time when this whole Northern people have not been ready to meet the first offer of conciliation with the most cordial response of kindness. Let that spirit now prevail. Open the arms of fraternal concord. Spread through all the land the priceless blessings of liberty and education to all the people. Give the full rights of respected and acknowledged citizenship to all. Blot out, cover up the last remnant of that slavery which has been the parent and the child of every species of oppression—the one line of division between a free North and a beggared South-ard plant around the grave that holds the monument and the memory of our beloved President a mingled grove of the pine-tree and the palm, the orange and the apple, to flourish in immortal union, and to rival each other only in the beauty of their growth, the abundance of their fruit, and the perennial verdure of their living foliage, that God may be glorified in all and by all for ever.

SERMON V.

REV. CHARLES S. ROBINSON.

He was a good man, and a just.-Luke xxiii. 50.

ONE other Sabbath like this I remember, and only one; that of which this is the exact anniversary, four years ago. What humiliated the nation then is now measurably rectified. The ensign of our country floats once more on the ramparts from which it had just been torn by the fierce hand of treason. The same batteries that hurled shot and shell at the fortress, whose name has become historic, have been forced to pour forth their empty salutes in honor of the restoration. And the proclamation is already in the air, which was to summon a grateful Republic to a thanksgiving for the manifold mercy of Almighty God.

Right in the midst of our rejoicing we are dashed into sorrow deeper than ever. To-day it is not the humbling of our pride that makes us mourn, but the wounding of our hearts in their keenest sensibilities. For he who has been our leader lies low in his coffin; foul murder has been done at the capital; and the nation stands hushed in the presence of its unburied dead.

Have the old days of barbarism returned upon us? Is

assassination become civilized? Has the bullet of a murderer recognition as a belligerent right? In what age do we live? Is justice dead? Where are we? How happens it that the wires quiver with tidings of deeds worthy only of the darkest years of Venetian conspiracy and shame?

I said, we have got the flag back again on Sumter. So we have. But only at half-mast. It reached the staff just in time to droop. Men began to cheer-suddenly they turned to wailing. The triumph seems a mockery. Victory waits recognition unheeded, for the bells are tolling. He who made our success welcome is not here to share it. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the honored and beloved head of the nation, is no more!

My brethren, bear me record here to-day. This pulpit has never uttered one timid, troubled word in these four years. I have not lost heart for a moment in the essential righteousness of our cause, nor confidence in the final success that would come to it. You will misunderstand my language now, and mistake my temper, if you imagine I am cowed into any wavering, startled into any irresolution, or grieved into any distrust, by the terrible events of the hour. But I shall not attempt to conceal from you that I am shocked more than ever before, and under the cloud of God's providence as I never expected to be. I do not know the meaning of this awful transaction. I could almost wish it was the custom to wear sackcloth, and put ashes on mourners' heads. All the day would I fittingly sit silent under the shadow of a common grief with you. I speak truly when I say, I have met no greater sorrow in my manly life than this. "I behave myself as though he