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there are yet considerations which we shall do well to remember, lest our hands be weak at the very time when our Government needs the greatest support both of hand and heart.

Happily, indeed, for us, God has made our dependence in this land to rest not on the life of one man, nor of ten men. There is no royal line made extinct; there is no usurper ready to mount a throne by a coup d'état, like that of Napoleon the Third; there is no military leader, wishing that all things may yield to arms; but in the midst of war we have chosen that a man of peaceful, not of military training, should be our Chief Magistrate; and none have been more ready in the choice than our soldiers, attached far more to native land than to any military idol. Above all, our dependence is not in man nor government, but in God. Many are the faithful hearts who have reversed the foolish action of the Israelites, who rejected God, and demanded a king, — who have long since left off to trust in princes or in man, and put their trust in GoD. They have asked him to be the Ruler of this nation, whoever might preside in its councils, whether an administration of imbecility or one of wisdom and growing strength. And just in accordance with their faith in such a prayer will be their tranquillity, and the answer of God in accepting this election. So that, to every one who asks, “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day?" we may reply, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace! "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." (Ps. cxviii. 8, 9.) And here is a steadfast source of consolation, if we are willing God shall rule our nation, as well as rule in our hearts.

Let it console us, also, that this most terrible blow did not come at a time when, as a nation, our very existence was trembling in the balance. It would then have been hailed with

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fiendish joy by every State in rebellion. Now, however, they are so reduced that they can take no encouragement from our severe affliction. Then, also, many things were undecided, which now will cause no perplexity. Then much more power was centred in the Executive, which has at last found a faithful repository in the person of the Lieutenant-General. Much has been wisely, cautiously, firmly decided, which left inchoate might have involved us in far more serious economic difficulties. And when we consider the ease with which this act might before this have been perpetrated, the preservation of our ruler's life amid the tides of party passion, and against the will of hostile and disappointed politicians, may well seem to us a gift from the hand of One who is wonderful in working-though for wise reasons now showing us that only his power has stayed this national calamity from long ago coming upon us.

one was more

Could his removal have been anticipated by himself, it must have been a source of gratitude to our late President that he has been permitted to accomplish so much. In no portion of our nation's history has progress been so rapid as in the years of his administration. And as no one has been more worn down. not even the generals upon the battle-field-by the evils of all kinds which this rebellion has caused, so no one was ready to welcome the signs of returning reason in those territories where anarchy has ruled, more ready to rejoice in the victories of our arms, to give honor to whom honor is due,or to hail the quiet of retirement when all should have been firmly reestablished. Sad it seems that this might not be but though the voice of the people might call him to his place, it was powerless to preserve his life; no majority that rules or governs can say how long its chosen chief shall abide. There is the will of God above the voice of the people.

Sadly are we reminded by this event that even so death first

2

struck down the human family,

that the first instance of his coming was one of violence, a murder, actuated by the same spirit of hatred to goodness as this base massacre. Sadly also do we remember the death which on that very day, eighteen centuries ago, the great deliverer of man suffered on the cross of Calvary, because a wicked earth could no longer endure the presence of such excellence. And now he to whom an enfranchised race have looked up to as their liberator, their earthly savior, next to Him who died for all mankind, has also fallen. The brain that planned, the hand that wrote, the Emancipation Proclamation, are silent in death. This act of freedom was never the thought of a despot, but of a wise lover of liberty; and in the beneficent results which it has already produced, he might well have rested satisfied, had this one work been the sole result of his life-long labors and his public administration. For so long as the world shall last shall the name of Abraham Lincoln be dear to a people who remember their two hundred and fifty years of bondage in a land of liberty, and whose hand it was struck off from them their fetters, and whose voice it was proclaimed them free.

Personally and our President was so eminently a man of the people, so genial, so approachable, so social, and kind toward the afflicted and needy, that we all seem to have lost a personal friend, whether we have met him or not personally, it is a matter over which every one will feel consolation, that, in view of his sudden death, we have the most acceptable assurance of his Christian preparation. It is not often, even in this Christian nation, that our rulers are Christian men. A lack of courage, and a most fierce opposition around them, combine to frighten such away from the toils of political life. Many there are, who, like our own Webster, sacrifice their once firm hold on heaven to gain some delusive earthly popularity or ad

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vantage. Many, like Jackson and Clay, hide their candle carefully under a bushel, suffering only a flicker of its rays to light up their death-bed. But such was not the case with him. I am relating nothing new when I call to mind his testimony of a change, of which, since he had been elevated to his office, he had been the subject. We all remember the unusual request with which he left his Western home. And yet many a man may desire, as he did, the prayers of Christians, without himself being one. His religious experience has been placed on record, and in his own words. A man, a few months since, who had some business with him, in closing, said to him plainly, "Before I left my home an aged neighbor said to me, 'You are going to Washington; you will see President Lincoln. Now I want to ask you to ask him one question for me. Ask him if he is a Christian if he loves Jesus.' if he loves Jesus.' And this question, sir, I would earnestly and affectionately now make you." The President was touched to the heart, buried his head in his handkerchief a few moments, and wept. He then said, "I will answer it. When I left home to take this place, I requested my countrymen to pray for me; but I was not a Christian then. When my son died the severest trial of my life I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg, and looked upon the graves of our dead heroes who had fallen in defence of their country, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. I Do LOVE JESUS." Noble profession of faith! Shall we doubt that Christ failed to recognize the allegiance of that great heart?

DO

Nor is a practice conformable to this confession to be sought for vainly. Rev. Mr. Adams, a clergyman of Philadelphia, stated in his discourse on last Thanksgiving Day, that, having an appointment to meet the President at five o'clock in the morning, he went some fifteen minutes before that hour. While waiting in the ante-room he heard a voice near by, and asked the servant,

"Who is talking in the next room?" sir." "Is there anybody with him?"

"It is the President,

"No, sir: he is read

ing the Bible." "Is that his habit so early in the morning?

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Yes, sir: he spends every morning, from four o'clock to five, in reading the Scriptures and praying."

These testimonies are dear to the heart of a Christian nation, called in a moment to bewail the loss of its most cherished son. So also are those manly traits of character, that frankness which seemed to delight in saying, as in his letter to Sherman, "You were right, and I was wrong,"

unreached by any in his station before,

a greatness of soul that tenderness of

heart which, passing the cold, dry, dreary statistics of the Military Department over, seized upon the fact that one poor woman had sent five sons to fight for freedom and lost them all,

and sent to her those words of sympathy which are more than gold, which are mint-drops of the heart.* So is that practical wisdom dear, likewise, which aimed not to teach more advanced centuries so much as to be sure that he brought up his own to the highest attainable degree.

These qualities have been well commemorated in these lines of Bryant, read on the occasion of the reception of his remains in New York City

* PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S SYMPATHY. The following letter from the President of the United States, Nov. 21, 1864, was received by Mrs. Bixby, a poor widow in Boston: "Dear Madam, I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they have died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.