fear; remembered the words of him who, more than any man, slew her with his tongue; and so her last assault was upon the jugular veins of the Secretary of State. Her bloodhounds sprang at the throat of him who had denied their right and broken their power to spring at the neck of the slave himself!

But thus far, thank God, slavery is baffled in her last effort. Mr. Seward lives to tell us what no man knows so well—the terrible perils through which we have passed at home and abroad; lives to tell us the goodness, the wisdom, the piety of the President he was never weary of praising. "He is the best man I ever knew," he said to me, a year ago. What a eulogy from one so experienced, so acute, so wise, so gentle! Ah, brethren, the head of the Government is gone; but he who knew his counsels and was his other self, still lives, and may God hear to-day, a nation's prayer for his life.

Meanwhile Heaven rejoices this Easter morning in the resurrection of our lost leader, honored in the day of his death; dying on the anniversary of our Lord's great sacrifice, a mighty sacrifice himself for the sins of a whole people.

We will not grudge him his release, or selfishly recall him from his rest and his reward! The only unpitied object in this national tragedy, he treads to-day the courts of light, radiant with the joy that even in Heaven celebrates our Saviour's resurrection from the dead! The sables we hang in our sanctuaries and streets have no place where he is! His hearse is plumed with a nation's grief; his resurrection is hailed with the songs of revolutionary patriots, of soldiers that have died for their coun

try. He, the commander-in-chief, has gone to his army of the dead! The patriot President has gone to our Washington! The meek and lowly Christian is to-day with him who said on earth, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest," and who, rising to-day, fulfils his glorious words, "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoso liveth and believeth in me shall never die."

SERMON IV.

REV. STEPHEN H. TYNG, D. D.

"And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them. Wouldst thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master."-II KINGS vi. 21.

THE point of this story is very manifest. The principle which it establishes is also very clear. The simple question proposed to the prophet and answered by him was: What shall be our treatment of an enemy subdued? One class of sentiment demands, in the very language of man's nature: "Shall I smite them ?" Another replies in the spirit of the divine teaching: "Set bread and water before them, and let them go." The combination of both would be in the analogy of the divine administration. "Behold

the goodness and the severity of God." There are those involved in every such crisis, the sparing of whom is false to the true operation of mercy. There are those also, the punishing of whom would be an avenging undue to justice.

Both mercy and justice derive their very nature and power from a proportionate discernment. When man describes either of them as blind and unlimited, he paints them as arbitrary, tyrannical, and unreasoning. In a just and equitable administration of government, whether dis

tributing its rewards or its penalties, there must be the most accurate discerning of varied responsibility. The leaders in crime should never be excused from the just penalty of their offence. The subordinates-subjects of relative influence,-victims of determined power, often more sinned against than sinning-are never to be dealt with, on the same plane of responsibility. For them, mercy delights to rejoice against judgment, and the highest sovereignty may well display itself in the most complete forgiveness.

In the story which lies before us now, four separate facts are very remarkable, and to our purpose extremely appropriate. I. The warfare was really against the God of Israel. II. The power which prevailed was the providence of God. III. The victory attained was the gift of God. IV. The resulting treatment of the captives was the example of God.

These are very important propositions in any earthly crisis. The field of their illustration was very limited in the history of Israel. The extent of the field, however, will not affect the propriety of their application. I deem them remarkably applicable to our own national condition. And as you require and expect me, on these occasions of a nation's worship, to speak on the subjects of the nation's interest, I shall freely speak of the elements and obligations of the present crisis. I assume these four propositions as absolutely and minutely illustrated by our national condition.

I. The warfare which this Southern rebellion has made on our Government and nation, has been really a warfare against God. Not Israel was more truly a nation divinely