shrink in utter aversion and horror from the sight of such a crime. The whole race of humanity is stained by it, and the very heavens are blackened, and weep for shame.

But I would not use this hour to utter even the just indignation and anguish of horror that fill us at the cause of this national calamity and grief. Justice to society, the honor and progress of humanity, may in such a case demand that there be no act of human pardon; but with God—with God-while He looks down with a keenness of paternal sorrow, that we can have no conception of, upon the crime,with God, there is yet always some way of forgiveness for the criminal, because, what is not always the case with man, there is with Him always some way, at some time, in some world, for bringing even the greatest criminal back, through the path of repentance, to newness and purity of life. With Him also, with God, is almighty power in some way to overrule all evil, even the blackest and most 'grievous, to draw from it its poisonous and agonizing sting, and to transmute it by degrees into the pure gold of truth and integrity and holiness. None but the Infinite One has this power and so to Him we turn in this hour, seeking through this thought, on the wings of this faith, to mount up, up, above all this earthly darkness and woe and sin and despairing grief-up to the unshaken, eternal, unchangeable wisdom and might of the Infinite,-up to such point of spiritual elevation that we can see how, amidst all the conflicts, and perplexities, and complexities, and evils, and crimes, and sorrows of our finite lives, an overruling, universal Law, holding them all firmly in its grasp, works out unswervingly its wise designs; and how, over all special

wills and deeds, with their warrings and weaknesses and aberrations, there is one general will and providence, aiming always at the utmost possible good, and never moved from its path, never thwarted for a moment, by what passes on this little planet, among our little race.

Yes, my friends, in this hour of all hours do we need faith in God,― in a God who is a present Providence and Ruler in the earth, and whose designs cannot be circumvented by any wandering will, or disobedience, or even heaven-defying crime, of man. In God is our trust, our refuge, and our hope, in the eternity of His Laws, in the eternity of His Love. Over all the failures and sins and crimes of men, the great Law still works on, taking up and solving all these lower disturbances in its higher spiritual harmonies. Look up, O friends, even from out of this depth of national humiliation and grief, — look up into the heavens, above the earth, above its clouds and ills, and see ever "beauty for ashes." See how, in the pure vault above our heads, the eternal stars come out, and take our little earth into their company, take it with all its disorders into the harmony of the celestial spheres, its very perturbations being provided for and cancelled in their grander revolutions. And so we may ever read in the wise beneficence of the great providential laws, even in the midst of our strifes and wars and deeds too black to name, the everlasting gospel of "Peace on earth, good will to man." All things are transformed for man's eternal welfare, and the evil doers themselves are compelled to nullify their own purposes; their crimes, however black, and though wholly the result of human will and human depravity, and never foreordained by God, are yet

not outside of His eternal laws, and are not unprovided for in His benign plan of the universe. No sooner is crime committed than it touches some secret spring in these infinite, all-embracing laws, which the wicked men who plotted it had no thought of, and which sets in motion moral forces that are freighted with sure retribution for them and sure overthrow of the evil principle and passion out of which their wickedness came. Or where we cannot see the operation of this benignant law, we can at least bow in silent trust, as we do before the infinite Providence to-day, with hands upon our lips reverently hushing all questions, all doubts, satisfied that the grand centre around which all these finite spheres of life revolve is Infinite Love, which is therefore amply able to cancel all their errors, to redeem all infamies, satisfied that whatever else may go down, the Heart of the universe cannot fail;

"And so, by faith correcting sight,

We bow before His will, and trust

Howe'er they seem, He doeth all things right."

To-day the nation buries its president. And such a president than whom we have had none better, none more honored and beloved since our first. If Washington was the father of our country, Lincoln was its savior. And in many respects he came nearer to the heart of the people than did even Washington. A gentle, kind, lovable man, who, in all the bitterness of this civil war, with all its political and personal strifes, has never said a harsh thing of any of his enemies North or South, and who never did a cruel thing in all his life. His faith in human nature and

in the good intentions of even his worst foes, and his tenderness in judging others' conduct and motives, were almost pathetic in their simplicity. Perhaps he had not severity and roughness enough for the stern work that the time demands. And yet, as we look back from his grave upon this trait of his character, so christian in its type of mercy, so constant always in all his words and deeds, so forever characterizing him in all history as our good president, we can hardly wish that he had been otherwise. His few public faults, which were relative only to the times in which he had to act, all lay on the side of great virtues, and at any other time would have been great virtues. An honest, conscientious, unselfish, philanthropic man was he; thoroughly incorruptible; devoted with single, uncompromising aim to the good of his country and the interests of humanity; and believing most earnestly in the God-given equal rights and privileges of all men. Not an enthusiast, but wise; reticent of his opinions and public purposes, yet familiar, and unwillingly turning his ear from any comer; exquisitely modest and unassuming,—always Abraham Lincoln still, though president, the man always more than, and above, the president; never in all the events of these years claiming anything for himself, but giving the credit ever to others, and to events, and to the people, whose servant he always called himself, and to God, whose will, without any affectation of piety, he meant religiously to follow. Not a rapid man in coming to an opinion, but coming surely, he never had to take a step backward through having taken a misstep; he never went farther than he saw to be clearly right, but always just as far as he saw, and held to his position, until

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new light should lead still farther forward, with a heroic persistency;—a man seeking new light, constantly progressive, and meaning to do his whole duty; a man of great sagacity, and knowledge of men, intuitively quick in perceiving the means necessary for any proposed ends, keen in the use of arguments, believing in the application of absolute principles to politics, and possessing large common sense for devising the practical policies necessary for making the application; therefore a true and eminently successful statesman.

And this man, thus gifted, thus devoted, has led the country through four years of unexampled civil war and peril to the final glory of military triumph, and to the very verge of assured peace; and, crowning honor of all, under God he has been the instrument of delivering from bondage a whole race among us that former administrations of the government for long years had helped to oppress,—a race who now gaze wistfully after him as their ascended savior,— while the country advances through this door, which his hands have opened and no man's now can shut, to a new career and to a glorious destiny,-free, united henceforth in institutions and spirit as well as in form, and the hospitable home and helper of universal humanity.

Here, my friends, in these capacities and in these opportunities and deeds, are the elements of a rare greatness as well as goodness; and history, I believe, will adjudge that Abraham Lincoln was not only our good president, but also one of our few great presidents. Here are elements of deed and character, which, if we will put them together, not essentially different from what they were in his life, will