clearly out of all our troubles, it might have been pleaded that his personal wisdom carried us through. Not so now. That cavil against free governments cannot be made. We may solve the problem on its own ground now, with no helping element to throw uncertainty around the result. We, by our steadiness to duty and firm resolve, may now prove, that, whoever dies and whoever lives, while the people live the government cannot be overthrown, or falter in its course. O my But ah! poor human reason, be still. I seem to hear, "Be still, and know that I am God. Shall I not do what I will with mine own? And may I not choose my own instruments, with which to rule in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth?" brother mourners! let us take refuge in the thought that "the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." Not a sparrow falleth on the ground without your heavenly Father. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord. When father and mother forsake me, the Lord shall take me up. He careth for us in the day of our orphanage and grief. His arm is stronger than any arm of flesh, an everlasting arm, and it is underneath us all. He saves us from the terror by day, and the fear by night. All events, and the passions and outfoaming wrath of men, are subject unto Him. He holds them and us, and our nation and the world, all the living, and the departed whom we mourn, in the golden net-work of his purposes of love. And He will show us, when He unrolls that web to the eye of "the incorruptible," that all its threads are mercy and judgment; and that the hand which has woven it through the ages, and wrapped it around all the interests of all the children of men, has never been stretched out or withholden, nor lifted up in seeming displeasure, but to fulfil some kind and wise design. "AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WEPT FOR MOSES IN THE PLAINS OF MOAB THIRTY DAYS: SO THE DAYS OF WEEPING AND MOURNING FOR MOSES WERE ENDED. AND JOSHUA, THE SON OF NUN, WAS FULL OF THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM; FOR MOSES HAD LAID HIS HANDS UPON HIM: AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HARKENED UNTO HIM, AND DID AS THE LORD COMMANDED MOSES." PRESIDENT LINCOLN. THE LORD REIGNETH.- Psalms xciii: 1. GOD cannot die. Beyond the reach of the fatal dart of disease, or the withering touch of creeping age, or the breath of the pestilence, or the missiles of battle, or the arm of the cowardly assassin, He lives and reigns; and His throne, girt with justice and judgment, mercy and truth, is forever and ever, and the thoughts of His heart are unto all generations. This is our only consolation to-day. It would be in vain for me to attempt to speak to you at this time on any other subject than the one which fills every mind and heart; and yet I have nothing to offer but the confused and bewildered thoughts of a mind which is still too much under the influence of the excitement and horror of the recent shock, to be able to act clearly and collectedly. The tidings were too terrible to be comprehended or credited at once: the President foully assassinated in the very presence of the people, with deliberate forethought; the Secretary of State stabbed while lying on a sick bed, and his attendants killed and wounded. Other |