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while the shadows were gathering in the chapel of that seven-hilled city, our light appeared to go out, and the nation was in the gloom.

But to-day, let us look on the heavenly side. How sweet and calm it is to think of that great, brave heart, this Easter Sabbath! He is not here, but risen. Far beyond the sound of battle, far beyond the turmoil of state, in the infinite realms of gladness, that troubled mind has found its rest. Mourned, as never before martyr was mourned; loved, as never before statesman was loved; honored, as never before patriot was honored; he has gone down to a spotless grave. High over all human passion that disembodied spirit stands, free as the thought that follows him; the eye of faith seems to behold him even now on the radiant plain of eternity; on either side falls away every official adornment; the soul of the Christian man bends in all humility before his Maker's presence, saved by grace; saved, not because he wore the robes of the highest station on the globe; saved, not because of his rare gifts of affection or intellect; saved, not by reason of the blessed deeds he had done; saved, merely because of his faith in the Saviour, that he learned by the graves of the boys that fell at Gettysburg; and, as you gaze after him, with a subdued and tearful heart, you can only pay him the tribute that trembles on the lip that speaks it

"HE WAS A GOOD MAN, AND A JUST!'

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SERMON VI.

REV. WM. IVES BUDINGTON, D. D.

"Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."-Ps. 76: 10.

OUR honored, trusted, and beloved President is dead, and by the hand of an assassin. Can we believe it? Can we bear it? He has been growing upon our confidence and affection, so constantly and so largely, that it is both a personal and a national bereavement; it is a loss to each of us and to all of us. We have lost a friend who was a father to the humblest in the land, and a Ruler who was the Saviour of the country. I have been looking for comfort for myself and for you; I have found it, and I think you will, in the familiar, but still unexhausted and inexhaustible truth contained in the text. The wrath of man shall praise God! Suppose it were not so; that God could not do it, or would not? What then? God would not be God; he would not have the power, or he would not have the love, that is the very essence of his nature. So sure is the doctrine which is the foundation of our

peace and hope before God. "Surely," says the psalmist, and "shall"-observe how strong the words he chooses'Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee." The latter clause is susceptible of another and better rendering:

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"The remainder of wrath shalt thou gird about thee." It is not that he restrains it; his power and wisdom are still more conspicuous in giving it license, and yet making it his servant. It is not necessary for God to restrain human wrath, as if any parts, or consequences of it, passed beyond his control, and he was compelled to meet power with power; but having made men free, he uses their freedom, so that the remainder of wrath, its last shreds, he girds himself with, as a man buckles his sword-belt around him. He makes it his strength and ornament. It is not enough to say, human malice effects nothing against God; it praises him, it brings about his purposes, he uses it as a weapon, it is made so subservient as to seem to be, what the wisdom of God forbids us to believe it is, necessary to his glory. This is a strong statement of a precious truth. We may repose the most perfect confidence in God, that instead of being thwarted by the rage of men, he will use it as an instrument, and whether men are good or bad, they will be made to serve him: the good, of their own accord; the bad, in spite of their evil designs.

I might show the truth of this by many examples, some of which are familiar, and have been cited by inspired authority to establish the doctrine. Pharaoh and Sennacherib are said, in Holy Scripture, to have been raised up for the very purpose of exhibiting God's power in them, and making him known throughout all the earth. And this, without in the least abridging human freedom and blameworthiness, as was most conspicuously shown in the killing of the Lord of glory, "delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," but "taken by wicked men, and by wicked hands crucified and slain."

But we need not go to past histories, not even when interpreted by inspired penmen. The event of to-day proclaims God, his power, and wisdom, and love, as really as any event which ever provoked a nation's tears, and clothed them in sackcloth. The wrath of man has praised God, shall praise him, and is praising him now. Be not afraid of any manifestation of human wickedness and rage. Be not surprised, and let no sense of loss and defeat overwhelm you, because the spirit of Rebellion, in its dying throes, mad with shame and despair, has stung itself to death by striking at the sacred person of the Chief Magistrate. Even now, amid the wild excitement of this hour, with the surges of grief sweeping over the nation, every patriot bosom tumultuating with conflicting emotions, we already see enough to say, "The wrath of man shall praise God." It is not all darkness above us; through the rifts of the clouds the light is shining, glimpses of the infinite flood filling the eternal heavens.

Let me, now, ask your attention to a few of the considerations, which may aid you to understand how the wrath of man, in compassing the death of our President, shall yet praise God.

1. In the first place, it shall do it by revealing the wickedness of this rebellion.

There would seem to have been evidence enough of this already; with bursting hearts we are ready to exclaim, we did not need this last act to make the rebellion the most tragic of crimes. Considered simply as rebellion against just authority, it must be held to be a sin against God, so long as the 13th chapter of Romans maintains its place in the Bible, and binds the consciences of Christians. Nor

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