E 687 .M16 Copy 1 The Death of GarfieU. 15.3 A SERMON DEATH OF GARFIELD Rev. JAMES McLEOD PREACHED IN THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BUFFALO, N. Y September 2jtii, i88i. BUFFALO: PRINTING HOUSE OF MATTHEWS, NORTHRUP & CO. Office of the "Buffialo Morning Express,^' 1881. V ^^ Columbia. Univ. Uh^ Buffalo, Sept. 26th, 18S1. Rev. James McLeod : Dear Sir, — The undersigned having li.stened to the very patriotic and aisle address which you delivered yesterday on the death of President Garfield, request a copy of the same for publication. Yours truly, EDWARD HOLMES, GEORGE W. TIFFT, BRITAIN HOLMES, ROBERT DUNBAR, A. S. CARPENTER, GEO. A. DUNBAR, C. F. STERNBERG, E. C. WARNER, M. L. CRITTENDEN, CHAS. E. SELKIRK, C. J. CANDEE, PATRICK SMITH, JOHN CRAIGIE, . WM. WILKESON, JOHN DONALDSON;. • • . C. C. F." GAY, T. B. SWEET. Buffalo, N. Y., Sept. 27th, 1S81. Genilemen : The address which you do me the honor to ask for publication is not likely to win the approval of the professional politician, or of the narrow partisan. But if it has won your approval, and if it deserves to be called not only patriotic but Christian, I am satisfied. The occasion which called it forth is at once so deplorable and so noteworthy in the history of our country, that for that reason, rather than because of any special merit in the address itself, I cheerfully comply with your request. Faithfully yours, TAMES McLEOD. THE DEATH OF GARFIELD. And Samuel died ; and all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. — I Samuel, xxv.: i. Our Nation is to-day in tears. She has clothed herself in a robe of sorrow, and, like a fond mother, she weeps over the loss of her noble son. The awful tragedy begun at Washington has ended at Elberon. The dark cloud which enveloped the Nation on the second of July, instead of being dissipated in accordance with our hopes and prayers, grew darker and darker, until at last it settled down into the black night of September 19th. The whole world now knows that Garfield is dead. To-morrow a great host will gather together in Cleve- land to join in the funeral march, and there in the city he loved so well, and which is so near his own house, they will with sad hearts and tender hands bury our dead out of our sight. The attitude of Israel towards its dead Priest is the attitude of America towards its dead President. As all Israel lamented the death of Samuel, so all America laments the death of Garfield. There is something very touching and very tender about the early life of Samuel. Every child loves to read it. He grew up to be a favorite with both God and man. He became the Nation's Priest and Prophet, its wise Counselor, and its upright Judge. He was a noble patriot and always eager to do what he could for the welfare of his country. He kept his hands clean and his heart pure. He was so loyal to God, and so true to his trust, that no bribe however great, and no temptation however strong, could swerve him from the path of duty. Was it because he possessed such noble qualities that his death was so greatly lamented ? Certain we are that if these qualities had been absent the grief for him would neither have been so profound nor so universal. We have read the story of his life and we find that — in his pious youth, in his vigorous manhood, and in his more public career, as a patriot, a statesman, a judge, and a God-fear- ing ruler of the people — he has left behind him so bright an example that its lustre has not been dimmed by the lapse of three thousand years. Samuel left behind him something that the world will not willingly let die, and God has taken care that the record of his noble life shall never be blotted out. Knowing what we do of Samuel's life we do not wonder that all Israel lamented him. But Israel's grief for Samuel was only a small thing compared with America's grief for Garfield. The land of Canaan was not as large as the State of New Jersey. We have no idea that the Philistines and Moabites and other tribes joined in any expression of sorrow on ac- count of the death of Samuel. But in the case of Garfield not only his own Nation but the whole civilized world bewails his untimely end. Such a wide-spread manifes- tation of grief has no parallel in history. There must be some good reasoi for this. It is no new thing, indeed, in the world's histoiy for a Nation to mourn its mighty dead, or to be bowed down with sorrow in the presence of some great calamity. That has often happened. But when until now, and where but in our own land, have the sufferings and death of a single man moved the whole world to tears ? This great honor was re- served for Garfield and for this Nation. When the Czar of Russia, and the Patriarch of Con- stantinople, and the Pope of Rome, and the President of France, and the Emperer of Germany, all sent messages expressing their sympathy with our President and with our people, and when they all joined in the prayer that God might spare the life of our illustrious sufferer, we read the news, and wondered. When Princes and Poten- tates, when the good and great in every land, expressed their abhorrence of the foul crime that had been com- mitted against this Republic, and when they fervently prayed that our President might live, we rejoiced, amid our sorrow, for the kindly interest they manifested toward us. And when, with an expression of womanly grace and Christian tenderness that has never been surpassed, England's noble Queen whispered her words of Christian love and sympathy into the ear of our dying President, the Nation bent forward and listened, and when she heard the royal and loving words, she could not restrain herself, but amid her great grief she lifted up her voice and from the depths of her great heart she said, God bless Queen Victoria ! The Queen of England and her great and good Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, have endeared themselves to us in the hours of our great sorrow in a way never to be forgotten. Many a strong man wept as he read Victoria's tender message to Mrs. Garfield, and Mrs. Garfield's touching reply to Victoria. They came and went from the heart to the heart. They were words fitly spoken, and are more lovely in our eyes than apples of gold in pictures of silver. And may we not say just here that these two noble Christian women truly represent the feeling towards each other of these two great Nations ? The bonds which bind England and America so closely together are stronger by far than those of trade and commerce. They are not woven in the loom of selfish- ness, nor are they manufactured by Parliament or Con- gress. No. These bonds are bonds of kinship, of friend- ship, of love. They are the result not only of an enlightened civilization, but of a common Christianity. May they so remain for evermore. But was it Garfield's character, or his heroic struggle for life, or the admirable conduct of his wife -and family, or was it the fact that he was our President, and that in striking him down a great calamity has befallen the Nation ; to which of these causes are we to attribute the wide-spread sympathy that has been evoked ? // is to be attributed to all these causes combined. I need not rehearse the story of his life. It is familiar to you all. His early years are in their way as full of interest as the young life of Samuel. He grew to be a favorite with God and men. He had to struggle hard with poverty, but his noble spirit buoyed him up. He was early thrown upon his own resources and so brought into contact with a wicked world ; but the good seed sown in his heart by a pious mother had taken deep root, and he always maintained his integrity. His filial affection was a marked characteristic until his dying day. He learned to master himself, and hence he readily overcame obstacles which to others would have proved invincible. He loved his home, and those who knew him best loved him most. He won the favor of the good because of his large warm heart, and because of his personal worth. The story has been told a thousand times, and it will be told to the generations following, how the lad, who was so enamored with a sea-fearing life, became a Canal boy, how the Canal boy became the Student, and the Student the Teacher, and the Teacher the Jurist, and the Jurist the Warrior, and the Warrior the Statesman, and the Statesman the President ! He will be held up before the youth of this land as a bright example, with the hope that by it they may be inspired with a loftier purpose and urged to nobler action. The fathers of this nation will hold up for their sons' emulation the man who began life under such adverse circumstances, but who, by his energy and per- severance, by his integrity and ability, rose from the low- est step on the ladder of honor and fame, until at last he reached its topmost round, and how standing there in the full strength of his manhood, he became " The pillar of a people's hope, The centre of a world's desire." lO 9 This is the story briefly told. He was a great and good man, who, as the chosen leader of fifty miUions of freemen, occupied, as we beheve, a position more honorable than that of any King or Conqueror who ever lived. To be stricken down just then by a murderous hand is surely enough to excite the sympathy of the world. And when we add to this his patient endurance under great suffering, his tender thoughtfulness of others, the entire absence of anything like a spirit of revenge, and, above all, his Christian resignation, we have, I think, the secret of this universal lamentation. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that the grief of this Nation over this dreadful calamity is all moulded after the same pattern and all traceable to the same motive. Far from it. All Israel lamented Samuel, and all America laments Garfield. That is quite true. But there were those in Lsrael who were more attached to Saul than they were to Samuel. They wanted a change. They thought the administration of Samuel was a failure. It could not be expected that their grief would be quite the same as that of those whose feelings toward Samuel were very different. And even so it is in our own land to-day. There is a great abundance of grief It is truly national. But it arises from widely different causes. The grief of his own immediate family must differ both in kind and degree from that of all others. That aged mother who nursed him in his infancy, who struggled with him against hardships and poverty, on whose brow he im- II printed the kiss of affection in the presence of an admir- ing Nation that had called him to be its Chief Magistrate ; that mother grieves to-day as only a loving mother can. Her grief is unutterable. And who can fathom the depth or measure the in- tensity of the grief of that devoted wife, who has been the sharer of her husband's joys and sorrows, and on whose strong arm she was wont to lean ? By her devotion and love, and by the manner in which she has borne herself during the trying ordeal through which she has passed, she has, like her husband, won the admiration and sym- pathy of the world ; but yet there is in her heart to-day an aching void the world can never fill ! And how sad must be the hearts of those children who have been left fatherless. Theirs is a peculiar sorrow. It is intensified not only because of the cruel wrong inflicted upon their father, but also because of the fact that he occupied so exalted a station. But the great grief of his family is doubtless tempered, as indeed it should be, by the thought that no son, no husband, no father that ever lived, has had so great honors heaped upon him both in his life and death as those which have fallen to the lot of James Abram Garfield. This Nation has not, and it will not, forget that weeping widow and her children, nor that aged mother. But, better still, we believe they will be sustained and comforted by the God of the widow and the fatherless. Already, I doubt not, they have found Him to be their Refuge and Strength, and a very present Help in their trouble. The mother, and wife, and children, can surely 12 trust that blessed Saviour in whom their beloved one has fallen asleep, and, leaning upon Him, they can afford to watch and wait for the dawning of a brighter day. But aside from his own immediate family and relatives, there is a great multitude who mourn the death of Garfield. Let me try to classify them. I. And first let me speak of those whom we may call, not improperly, political mourners. They constitute a large class. Their grief is deep and their sorrow sincere. But it does not all come from the same source nor run in the same channel. These mourners may be divided into at least three bands. I. There are those who mourn for Garfield, because they are afraid that they will now lose their office. This feeling stimulated them to pray mightily that his life might be spared. The motive to prayer was in their case largely tinged with selfishness. They prayed that Gar- field might live, because they did not see how they could provide for their families if, as they were led to expect, they should be turned out of the service of the Govern- ment. " 'Tis true, and pity 'tis 'tis true." If the murder, the struggle for life, and the death of our President have drawn not only the eyes and heart of the world to this country as never before, let us hope it may have a more important effect, namely : that it may lead this Nation to look at itself, and to gaze with horror on the spoils system in connection with our politics, that foul 13 blot which has so stained our National escutcheon. God grant that this Nation which now weeps over its mur- dered President may wipe this stain out with its tears lest it be necessary by and by to wash it out in another President's blood ! It is high time that the citizens of this Nation, irrespective of party, should strangle this young monster and hand it over to the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection. 2. Another class of political mourners is found among those who are deeply grieved because of tJic uiamiey of our President's death. If he had died of disease, or by accident, or a natural death, their hearts would not have been greatly afflicted. They might appear to mourn, but inwardly there would be gladness rather than grief. The charge is a serious one, I know, but then it is the exact truth. They had no love for Garfield. They regarded him as their enemy and as the enemy of their party. They looked upon him as the very embodiment of treachery ; and, having the courage of their convictions, they did not hesitate to " speak evil of dignities." They paraded our Chief Magistrate before the world as untrue to his word, and as unfaithful to his trust, and alas ! they gloried in their shame. We surely do no sort of injustice to these fellow citizens when we say that their present grief finds its source in something very different from that of those who have always regarded Garfield as true and honorable, and who stood by him in the proper exercise of his high prerogative. It is true, indeed, that the lips of these mourners and the newspapers controlled by them now overflow with eulogies of the mighty dead, and it is to 14 be sincerely hoped that all this finds a glad response in their hearts. I believe in sudden conversions; but modesty in a young convert is always highly becoming. Let us, however, hope for the best. We are glad that for any reason they mourn the loss of the noble man whom so recently they tried to kill — politically. They will pardon a word of counsel, perhaps. Let them remember that the time came in Israel's history when Samuel was needed. His clear head and steady hand were missed at the helm. Saul himself felt the need of Samuel's wise counsel. He adopted a shameful course in order to obtain it. It should have been otherwise. Saul brought ruin upon both himself and Israel. The people were loyal to him, but he was not loyal to the people, nor to his God. He grievously departed from the path marked out for him by Samuel, although he solemnly engaged to walk therein. God forbid that this old history should ever be repeated in our beloved land 1 It need not be, and, if wise coun- sels prevail, it shall not be. 3. Another class of political mourners is found in the ranks of the great party which was politically opposed to Garfield. Their grief seems to be tempered with an exquisite feeling of tenderness. They do not seem to feel now as they did a few months ago during the heat of our Presidential campaign. Those, however, who still believe that the charges then made are true, cannot grieve in the same way as do those who regard them as wholly false. Garfield did not change his views of his opponents so far as we know. They, however, seem to have changed their views of him. If he was guilty of 15 the crimes then charged against him, he does not deserve the praise now showered upon him. What kind of grief they have I know not, who be- heving in their hearts that a man is base and dishonest yet laud him to the skies. Would it not be well at this time, and especially in view of this conspicuous example, for those — and they are to be found in both of the great parties of this Nation — whose chief stock in trade seems to be the invention of coarse and cruel slanders against political opponents, to resolve that henceforth they will place principle, honor, and truth far above party, and that they will treat an opponent with common fairness? Garfield was by no means perfect. Nobody would be more willing to admit that than he. But that he was an honest and truthful man we may confidently affirm. That he was the base character his opponents a few months ago represented him to be does not comport well with the elaborate eulogies they now pour out over his remains. A few such words uttered before he was murdered would have been more in harmony with their present adulation, as well as with their strong expressions of grief II. But, aside from these, there are in this Nation a great multitude of patriotic moiirtiers to-day. Alas ! that politics and patriotism are not always synonymous, Happy would it be for this country if such were the case. But it is not. Still, there are millions of true patriots who lament our dead President not simply because of his personal worth, but just because he was our President. These patriots are to be found all over our land ; North and South, East and West. They are fearful as to where- unto this thing may grow. They love this country as they love the apple of their eye; and just because of this love they are now sick at heart. They see, or think they see, in our land a spirit of lawlessness and of insubordi- nation, a partisan spirit, and a greed for office, which, unless wisdom prevails, and a merciful God interpose, cannot but bring upon us swift destruction. This is the thought that fills their hearts with deepest sorrow. Gar- field sinks out of sight compared with this. They are thinking now of that horrid thing that has led, as they believe, to the assassination of Garfield. They know that he was a true patriot ; that his great ambition was to remedy existing evils; to be the President in fact as well as in name of the whole Nation. Why should any party or any citizen in whose veins there is the least drop of patriotic blood seek to encompass both the moral and political ruin of such a man as Garfield ? In the sight of high heaven those who tried to ruin his reputa- tion, and who denounced him for what they were pleased to call his perfidy, are only a little less guilty than is the miserable wretch who took away his life ! But is not such a view of things both very severe and very gloomy ? Is this quite patriotic ? There are patriots and patriots. True enough. Some patriots are, I know, afflicted with a pessimistic spirit. They see things with a jaundiced eye. Everything is wrong. Our country is going to ruin. But, on the other hand, there is a class of patriots who seem to be influenced by an unwarranted optimism. This country has been so 17 prosperous, and has crowned itself with such glory during its short history, that they do not dream of any danger. They see no danger to the countr)- from the spread of infidelity, nor from intemperance, nor from Sabbath desecration, nor from the spoils system in connection with our politics, nor from a wide-spread disregard of law and order. Even the assassination of our Chief Magistrate is scarcely sufficient to arouse their dormant sensibilities. " A madman shot our President," so they say, and the only lesson we are to learn from that fact is, that madmen ought to be confined in an Asylum, or that our Presidents ought to keep out of the way of madmen. Now, that is political optimism run mad. No intelligent and patriotic citizen can close his eyes to the fact that great evils have been tolerated in our land ; evils, too, Avhich threaten the foundations of our government. Surely an autocratic spirit is out of all harmony with this Republic. The spirit that is determined to rule or ruin is abroad in the land, and it must be put down, let it cost what it may. There are political sorcerers among us who are more dangerous by far than that Elymas of whom , we read in Holy Scripture. Like him, they are full of all subtilty and all mischief, children of the devil, enemies of all righteousness, who will not cease to jpervert the right ways of the Lord, until the people rise up against them in their might. The people can and must do this. It will hurt these sorcerers. It will leave them in the dark for a season. But it will convince them that there is a God in Israel, and it may lead by and by to their conversion. A genuine patriotism will seek to eradicate evil as well as to propagate good. There is much in this land — more than in any other land — over which we may well rejoice. We thank God for this goodly heritage. But there is also much to sadden all our hearts. The shot that killed our President was a shot at the heart of the Nation, and hence there are millions of patriots who are mourning his loss to-day. III. But there is still another class of mourners to whom we may briefly refer before we close. They are the Christian inoiirners, and they constitute a mighty host. Their grief differs widely from that of the mere politician or patriot. We are glad to know that the Christian Church embraces within her fold the purest patriots and the ablest statesmen. They are all the better patriots and statesmen just because they are Christians. But if the politician or the patriot be not a Christian, then his grief to-day is far from Christian sorrow. While the Christian laments the death of Garfield no less than any , patriot in the land — for all Christians are patriots — yet his grief as a Christian is tempered by the blessed truths of our holy religion. The Christian Church of America has not been a silent or uninterested spectator of what, in some respects, has been the greatest event that has ever happened in our country's history. She has for weeks been praying and weeping before God, beseeching Him to spare our President. It has been a bad time for infidel lecturers to go through the land declaring that Christianity is a sham, and prayer to 19 God a mockery, and our holiest instincts a lie. But still the prayers of this Christian Nation, and of the whole Christian world, have been denied. The life of Garfield was not spared. What then ? Is prayer to God a failure ? By no means. The heaven-born instinct that prostrated an afflicted nation before God will do so, if need be, again and again. The Church of God will continue to pray with the utmost confidence. She knows that God is the hearer of prayer, and that if our pra\^er be not answered in our way, it is yet answered in His way, and His way is always the best. The skeptic may sneer at prayer as being unreasonable and illogical, but the Christian knows that " Deft Logic is but Reason's tool, Reason a child in Nature's school ; We may not joy nor grieve by rule, Nor syllogize a prayer." And so Christians will go on and pray. They cannot help it. They prayed that Garfield might live, and now they lament his death. But they sorrow not as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them, also, that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. Our President was a Christian. He was inspired with Christian hope. He was actuated by Christian principle. This is better than all else. It is this more than anything else that moderates the Christian's grief to-day. He died, as we believe, clinging to the Cross of Christ. In this hope the Church of God will to-morrow take in her holy arms all that is mortal of him and lay them tenderly away. As for his noble spirit, that has 20 gone into the presence of its God, and to the full enjoyment of a blessed immortalit>\ We mourn our beloved dead, but in the midst of our grief we also rejoice. He was cruelly stricken down. But the Nation's loss, and our loss, and his family's loss, is his everlasting gain. For " When the righteous had fallen and the combat was ended A chariot of fire through the dark cloud descended; Its drivers were angels on horses of whiteness, And its burning wheels turned on axles of brightness. A .Seraph unfolded its doors bright and shining, All dazzling like gold of the seventh refining, And the Soul that came forth out of great tribulation Has mounted the chariot and steeds of salvation. On an arch of the rainbow the chariot is gliding, Through the path of the thunder the horsemen are riding ; Glide swiftly, bright spirit I the prize is before you — A crown never fading, a kingdom of glory." Only a word more. We lament the dead Garfield. But, thank God ! we hav^e the living Arthur. We feel sure that every patriotic and Christian heart in this broad land bounded with joy when President Arthur uttered those noble words in which he expressed his determination to carry out the reforms inaugurated by his predecessor. In doing this, he may rest assured that he will be lo}'ally supported by the people, and our prayer is that he may be spared to carr}^ out his good resolution. The President is dead, but the President still lives. God save the President ! God save the Nation ! LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 785 784 4^ 0- iHil 013 785 784 4 pennulipe* pH8^