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 Book. 
 
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 GOD'S WAY OF LEADING THE BLIND. 
 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 OOMMEMOEATIVE OF THE DEATH 
 
 P 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 / 
 
GOD'S WAY OF LEADING THE BLIND, 
 A 
 
 I3ISCOUKSE 
 
 GOMMEMOEATIVE OF THE DEATH 
 
 O F 
 
 ABRAHAM LIi\GOLN, 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 REV. HENRY E. BUTLER 
 
 IN THE 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 
 K eese vi I le, 1\. Y., 
 
 APRIL 23, 1865. 
 
 ^nrltngton : 
 
 FREE PRESS BOOK AND JOB PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 1865. 
 

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 5>^ 
 
 .^OfCONGfif^ 
 
 
Keeseville, N. Y., April 24th, 1865. 
 Rev. H. ¥,. Butler, 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 We, llie undersigned, for ourselves, and on behalf 
 of mail}' otiiers who listened to the eloquent and christian discourse, delivered 
 by you in the Congregational Church in this village on the last Sabbath, in 
 commemoration of the death of the late lamented President of the United 
 States, respectfully request a copy of the same for publication. 
 Kespectfully yours, 
 SILAS ARNOLD, WILLIS MOULD, 
 
 N. KIXGSLAND, W. C. WATSOX, Jr. 
 
 J. R. ROMEYN, 
 
 Keeseville, N. Y., April 26th, 1865. 
 Gentlemen : — Your request affords me grateful evidence of the kind 
 sympathj' of my congregation with their pastor. If the interests of Truth 
 and Christian Freedom, with which our late Chief Magistrate was identified, 
 can bo advanced by so humble an efibrt, the accompanying discourse is at 
 your disposal. 
 
 A^ery truly yours, 
 
 II. E. BUTLER. 
 Messrs. Silas Arnold, N. Kingslaxd, and others 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 Js\i.\ii M.ir. IC. — And 1 will bring ihe blind hij a ivay tliut Ihey knew not ,• 
 / will lead them in paths that they have not known ; I will make dark- 
 ness liijht before them, and crooked things straight. These things will 
 T do nnio them and notforsdke them. 
 
 There are times in human history Avheu we re- 
 alize how full of meaning are the words we use in 
 daily speech. In ordinary life they seem the product 
 of a breath, the common coin which passes with car- 
 rent stamp at all the marts of trade. The word, wdiich 
 is the body, seems to have capacity unfilled. The 
 thought, which is its soul, is only a germ, into wdiich 
 new life being thrpwn, the growth is manifest. But 
 when the thought receives impulse from the feeling ; 
 when emotion with overflowing stream crowds upon 
 its barriers in speech, and the heart is filled to its ut- 
 most with the great tidal wave that comes surging in- 
 land from the wide deep ocean of human passion, 'tis 
 then the infant goes forth to do a strong man's labor, 
 'tis then that ordinary sounds born upon the lips are 
 intensified with meaning, and the great depths of feel- 
 ing, broken up, refuse to be contained within the 
 bounds of articulate expression. At such a time, a 
 tear writes volumes as it trickles down from the im- 
 
6 
 
 passioned eye ; a low deep sigh, a broken wail of 
 sorrow moves multitudes to pity; a warm, close grasp 
 of the hand writes love and sympathy on every cham- 
 ber and gallery of the heart, and the deep full breath 
 tells of heroic resolution, such as conquers armies and 
 saves nations from destruction. 
 
 Four years ago, a word came trembling over the 
 magnetic wire. Unconscious of the woe it was to 
 bring to millions of before happy hearts, it came, a 
 spectre sad and terrible, and sat beside the hearthfire 
 where the children play, and where the parents find 
 their sweetest joy, and where the loved ones meet to 
 share their home of sympathy. It was but the echo 
 of a single gun, taking life in word ; but there was 
 no hamlet so obscure, or street so busy that it did not 
 grimly stalk through, tossing gaunt arms of desolation, 
 and in dim shadow then retreating as if a nearer view 
 might bring forth horrors not yet ripe for the gaze. 
 We had read in olden story how discord sometimes 
 rent nations in twain ; how brothers of common blood 
 and language had sometimes sheathed their weapons 
 in each other's bodies, and traitors sometimes strove to 
 overturn established governments, till on the ruined 
 wall they could erect their own impious building. — 
 Perchance we who are younger had listened to some 
 aged grandparent, as with youthfui fire still kindled 
 by warm feeling in his heroic heart, he had told us of 
 the early struggle to establish here a home of liberty, 
 a land of free hearts and brave hands. We had read, 
 too, in the inspired Book, how brother should deliver 
 
up the brother unto death, how father should be ar- 
 rayed against the son, and son against the father. But 
 all these were in the past. On other national life the 
 demon of destruction might fasten his fang, on ours it 
 were incredible : to other households the sword might 
 be given to separate, to ours some guardian angel 
 would be sent for sure defence. And thus it was that at 
 the first, civil war meant little more than a dress par- 
 ade with burnished arms unused to cut through bone 
 and sinew, a pleasant excursion for home-bred youths 
 to sunnier climes, and in a few short months a happy 
 welcome to homes of loyalty and love amid the proud 
 rejoicings of admiring throngs. We did not know then 
 that civil war meant blood and carnage, fire and deso- 
 lation. We did not know that it meant weeds of 
 mourning in every street and by-way of the broad 
 Republic — a vacant seat at every hearthfire, a man- 
 gled corpse laid low at every threshold — a heroic 
 heart going to its Maker amid the iron tramp of the 
 war horse, the roar of cannon and the fierce cry of 
 armed combatants. We thought when that brave man, 
 heroic Ellsworth, was murdered in the streets of Alex- 
 andria, that the foul demon let loose upon us had 
 done his full Avork. We thought when tidings came of a 
 discomfited army fleeing from the battle field, choking 
 the streets with the rush of fugitives which so short a 
 lime before witnessed the gay advance, that we knew 
 fully what the words meant, and no dark spirit from 
 the deep abodes could cast more awful meaning into 
 words we now were forced to hear. But the word was 
 not yet filled. It needed more brave hearts hushed to 
 
8 
 
 (ice I) stillness, more widows' tears wrung from eyes 
 long watching for returning husbands, an*l reaching 
 out their hand in night dreams only to be mocked at 
 wakinii", or with still more bitter mockery opening the 
 house door to receive at last a broken body, or a blood- 
 less corpse. It needed the wail of orphaned children, 
 asking in childish wonder for the father who had 
 tossed them on his knee and promised new joy Avhen 
 he should come back from the wars. It needed sterner 
 resolution in the patriot hearts at liome, stronger en- 
 deavor to uphold the national honor. It needed too 
 the wan, pale faces which flit before us, skeleton-like, 
 in the southern darkness; starved by exquisite cruel- 
 ty; perished by inhuman neglect; buried, if at all, by 
 hands almost as dead as theirs who had passed the 
 suffering, or tossed aside with pitiless unconcern by dead 
 hearts, yet cumbering God's earth in living bodies. It 
 needed defeat, again and again, more widows and more 
 orphans, more bereaved parents and sorrowing sisters; 
 and in it all we were taught what meaning might be 
 thrown into a single word, Avhen God's Almighty 
 Hand was busy filling up its history. 
 
 But one day, not long ago, the bells rang out a 
 merry peal, and then we heard a new word — Victory. 
 The nation went wild with great delight. Joy took 
 h)Ose rein : and while some lone hearts wept to think 
 of those who never should come back to them, others 
 wept that soon in joy they should welcome returning 
 loved ones, and others shouted in gay exuberance of 
 delight. At last we had sounded the depths, and 
 
9 
 
 knew that in the end civil war meant victory and 
 peace. The bells might ring, for they were ringing 
 life and death — life to a regenerated nation — death 
 to all rebellion. No wonder peace seemed a word 
 most beautiful. The grey streaks of the morning light 
 had come from over the eastern mountain — now we 
 could discern the sun's disc not fully risen, but surely 
 the sun in all his beauty. Soon the broad circum- 
 ference should stand forth in beams of glory, and the 
 world should see a spectacle such as it had never 
 seen — a re-united nation, not bound together by bonds 
 of brass and iron, but by that stronger chain, forged 
 in Heaven, common love, common respect for what is 
 good and true. 
 
 Were we blind'/ By a way that we knew not 
 of, a wise guide had been leading us. Had the word 
 which became real to us lour years ago yet deeper 
 meaning ? 
 
 A week ago another word came trembling over 
 the magnetic wire. It sped throughout the villages, 
 it lingered in the cities — a sound of awful omen — a 
 word which Americans will henceforth shudder to re- 
 peat, just as in other times there were some names so 
 full of evil, direful import,that king nor peasant would 
 dare to speak them. It seemed as if the lightnings of 
 heaven, chained by man to do his bidding, strove to 
 assert their natural freedom and spurned so terrible a 
 messiige, almost conscious of the woe such news would 
 bring to a million happy homes. It almost seemed as 
 
 if having carried the first tidings far over the land, 
 2 
 
10 
 
 they too were paralyzed and for a little while could 
 not be roused to tell the full details of the monstrous 
 crime. For they must tell that the great national heart 
 was wounded in the person of its chief, and the life 
 blood oozing from the brow of that noble sufferer was 
 crimsoning a broad land and draping every heart with 
 the sadness of a funeral train. They must tell that be- 
 neath the clear, pure sky of heaven, was wrought a 
 deed so fearful, so malignant, that Baal, Ashtaroth and 
 Lucifer, princes of the lowest depths of darkness, might 
 strike hands with a mortal man in horrid glee at its 
 consummation; that a miscreant yet breathed God's air 
 and walked God's earth, .whose heart could calmly plan 
 and whose hand could coolly execute a peerless crime 
 in christian history. Poor human nature ! Is it then, 
 Christ Divine, so low a depth of sin from which 
 Thou didst leave Thy pure abode to save us ? Is it 
 then possible, Holy God, so fearful a downward 
 growth shall be permitted when Thy restraining hand 
 is taken off? Is it then, Spirit Wise, a soul un- 
 heeding Thy kind pleading, refusing Thy beseechings, 
 that rivals demons while he yet walks in the sem- 
 blance of a man ? Pity us, great Savior, restrain us 
 good Lord, make us to heed, kind Spirit, and change 
 human nature to Thy perfect likeness. 
 
 Thus we learned in the moment of our joy when 
 the end seemed nigh, that to those words, civil war, 
 whose meaning has by God's providence been unfold- 
 ed daily during the past few years, a deadlier element 
 might be added — the assassination of our nation's chief, 
 
11 
 
 the attempted murder of those whose counsel gave the 
 nation wisdom. So have we learned how human hate 
 and fierce malignity in these latter days can rival that 
 of ages long ago. It was not merely that our Execu- 
 tive died in office; such had been the case before. Not 
 merely that a man had been murdered who was dear 
 to us; such happens often in this world of sin. But 
 the whole transaction combines refined cruelty with 
 pagan barbarism, cunning invention with desperate 
 resolution, cool hatred with the sneaking meanness of 
 a coward. We feel that it is no wonder a paralysis 
 seemed to deaden every heart, and make men speech- 
 less with the tide of great emotion, soon to burst forth 
 in united cry for merited justice on the abettors and 
 executors of a deed so terrible. 
 
 And who was he thus stricken ? The Nation's 
 Head — the Power ordained of God, since God by Pro- 
 vidence had placed him in the honored position, to 
 whom a willing people had made themselves subject for 
 their good. To raise the red hand of murder against 
 the private citizen is to dare the vengeance of Jeho- 
 vah, to mar His image in whose likeness man was 
 made. To pierce the Ruler's breast is to stab the 
 national heart, to destroy the sacredness of social bonds, 
 insult the majesty of law, to invoke the demon anar- 
 chy, a crime of double dye, in that by declaration of 
 Holy Writ : "Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth 
 the ordinance of God." 
 
 And who was he thus stricken? The Nation's 
 Guide. We do not claim unerring judgment of the 
 past. We only take the history, and in it see God's 
 
12 
 
 hand writing lessons for our instruction, where men 
 who live and speak are the letters, Avhere the daily 
 and yearly events are the syllables and sentences. In 
 this no one can but see, whatever may have been his 
 own personal desires, that Divine Power raised up 
 and brought forward this man whom we now mourn, 
 to be our leader through the Red Sea of great trouble, 
 through the wilderness of weary tribulation. For 
 this God fitted him by early training. For this He 
 gave that temperament and disposition which drew 
 forth from the people a confidence in him who went 
 before, and caused the nation once and again to trust 
 his leadership. Had he been more rash, more impe- 
 tuous, mistakes would have occurred more often, and 
 the lurking fear lest sometimes a fatal step should be 
 hastily taken would have withdrawn that growing 
 confidence which felt so much secure as long as he 
 was at the helm. Had he been less ardent the eager- 
 ness of the follower would have oftener outstripped 
 the leader, and watchful enterprise rebuked the tardi- 
 ness of delay. As it was, we see in reading what now 
 is history, how Divine wisdom gave us at the right 
 time the man best fitted for the carrying on of His 
 purpose, whatever tbat purpose may have been, as 
 we believe to the uniting of our nation. 
 
 He was a patriot. It is not the means used, the 
 words employed that make a true loyalist ; and this 
 has been a fault in public opinion during these 
 last years — the assertion that loyalty consists only in 
 allegiance to any one set of opinions. It is the pur- 
 
13 
 
 pose straightforward and earnest to seek in every du- 
 teous way the country's good. The single object be- 
 fore the patriot's eye is the honor, glory, in a word, 
 the well-being of his country. Single acts may fail 
 of furthering this end, because to none of us is given 
 an omniscient eye. And so we cannot doubt, before 
 him always stood the Union and well-being of his 
 country. To join again the separated parts and make 
 a nation strong and righteous was the object of his 
 effort. Union as he declared was first, whatever 
 stood in its path must be put aside. It might be 
 that blood alone could thoroughly cement the bond. 
 It might be that an institution subversive of humani- 
 ty's best interests must be uprooted ; but the patriot 
 saw the end, kept close to that, and would use the 
 means which Providence should place within his 
 power. 
 
 And who was he thus stricken ? A philanthropic 
 lover of humanity. To love mankind not for the sake 
 of the benefit they may be to us, not for our own se- 
 curity or improvement, to do them good and seek 
 their happiness is both noble and rare. For this a 
 kind heart and generous purpose are required. To 
 drop a penny into the beggar's open hand, because 
 his cry is troublesome, is selfishness. To aid the suf- 
 fering merely because the sight of woe distresses re- 
 fined taste, is deserving of no praise. To do both from 
 hearty love for human good, is to be like the blessed 
 Master. And as we stand beside his grave, there's 
 none but feels that within that breast now stilled. 
 
14 
 
 malice and malignity were strangers. The good he 
 sought was to unite this people. Hence there was 
 respect to every class, and all unite to-day in giving 
 him credit for great honesty of heart, when with his 
 own words he says he has no desire to triumph over 
 anybody, but rather that the right should prevail by 
 whatever means God chooses. Even his enemies who 
 wickedly have striven to subvert good government, 
 were such only because they were opposed to right ; 
 and when they would accept a peace, he was ready, as 
 the events of the last few weeks were showing, to 
 proffer them the olive branch. And when all other 
 tongues shall have done telling his human love and 
 friendship — if such a time should ever come — that 
 race down-trodden for long ages, but destined in 
 God's OAvn good time and way to play a mighty part 
 in human life and destiny, will, if true to their high 
 privilege and duly, take up the harp of praise and 
 join the glad acknowledgement of their indebtedness 
 to the philanthropist, who, loving men whom God has 
 made, whatever be their rank or color, lifted from them 
 the degrading yoke, and left them free to develop 
 every capacity toward the grand perfection of all 
 good. 
 
 Once again we ask, who was he thus stricken? 
 And the answer comes from every congregation in this 
 land which met to join his funeral train, from every 
 home where his name is spoken with respect, from all 
 these habiliments of woe which a nation sadly puts on 
 as a poor expression of her grief; He was the nation's 
 
16 
 
 friend. No stately potentate with guards and lack- 
 eys to do him honor and drive away the approaching 
 subject. The sad circumstances of his death prove, 
 alas, how much he trusted the people, his brothers. 
 From humble life he rose by the force of his own me • 
 rit, and to the people he always seemed as one of 
 them. The pioneer boy became the murdered Presi- 
 dent, and through all these intervening years he nev- 
 er was aught than a citizen among citizens, though 
 w^earing a crown more imperial than that of Ctesar. — 
 That single request, " Pray for me, my fellow coun- 
 trymen," as he left his western home to enter on new^ 
 duties at the capital, took him straightway to the 
 Christian heart and made the ruler's name a familiar 
 sound at many a family altar. The frequent occa- 
 sions since, when even better tidings have been told, 
 that he himself consulted the Divine oracles in the 
 midst of his arduous duties, and on his bended knees 
 sought Divine guidance and Divine pardon for his 
 own soul, coupled with those now remarkable utteran- 
 ces of his last public message, give us ground for 
 Christian hope that the eternal crown of glory is won, 
 and his name is now written among the saved. For 
 however noble, brave and patriotic, wanting this, a 
 humble belief in Jesus Christ for pardon and salva- 
 tion, the loveliest natural graces will be found to lack 
 the one good thing which counterbalances a uni- 
 verse of worldly riches. The Christian hope is the 
 greatest joy, the crown of earth, the glory of the 
 skies. With ic the lowest servant in royal court shall 
 
16 
 
 rule a, Heavenly Kingdom in which the proudest mon- 
 arch with only earthly possessions is unworthy to be- 
 come a servant. 
 
 But we cannot in a few brief words fitly charac- 
 terize the event which has robbed us of a President, 
 or iti full measure portray his life and mission whose 
 death the friends of liberty throughout the world will 
 mourn. We are yet too blind, we are yet groping in 
 paths we know not of. But thank God, a hand of un- 
 erring wisdom prepares the way, and through tlie 
 thick and murky gloom comes a voice clear as heaven's 
 own breath, saying, " I will make darkness light be- 
 fore them and crooked things straight." This is the 
 ground of courage for the future. And that we may 
 not spend this hour without some attempt to know 
 His will more fully and to do it with more readiness, 
 let us take this thought to our hearts as we stand be- 
 side his grave with all the nation. It is God who 
 thus leads the blind. Mysterious though it be, taken 
 just when his services seemed to be most needed, 
 when he was about to add to his other names the most 
 glorious of all, that of the Peace Maker ; yet be 
 assured it was Almighty wisdom that brought the 
 event to pass, and if Almighty wisdom, then Almigh- 
 ty love. We may never unroll the concealed lesson. 
 Those who come after certainly shall. 
 
 We may strengthen faith in His good providence 
 from the history of the past. It is not the first vile act on 
 record. France has more than once witnessed the like. 
 In the sixteenth century a king sat on the throne in a 
 
17 
 
 time of terrible confusion. Contending parties sprinkled 
 the streets of Paris with each others' blood. The king, 
 to give strength to his throne, allied himself with the 
 Protestants. In three months afterward, a Dominican 
 monk was prevailed upon to regard the murder of the 
 king as not only lawful but meritorious. He fasted, 
 prayed, partook of the sacraments, sought access to 
 the monarch, and plunged the fatal knife into his body. 
 God's providence was soon seen overruling the wrath 
 of man, for the next king was the recognized leader 
 of the Huguenots, and gave to France the memory of 
 the White Plumed Henry of Navarre, brave and he- 
 roic. He, too, having reigned for years with wisdom, 
 and just beginning a scheme for pacifying the reli- 
 gious wars of P]urope, which, if carried out, would 
 have changed sooner the intolerant superstitions of 
 Europe into the freedom of the Reformation, was 
 murdered basely as w^as his predecessor. God's provi- 
 dence again was seen, though the lesson took more 
 years for its unfolding, and the God of nations was 
 acknowledged. 
 
 So in another country, parallel to our own in the 
 deep sorrow it excited and the interest with which 
 the friends of liberty everywhere regarded it. For 
 long years a heroic people had been struggling for 
 independence. Battled and disappointed they would 
 never yield. Better open the dikes which shut the 
 sea from off the land, than submit Holland and her 
 Protestantism to a foreign yoke. But one man was 
 the head, heart and hand. His voice guided, his arm 
 controlled, his heart devised all for public good. His 
 
18 
 
 people loved him with self-sacrificing devotion, equal- 
 ling that of any nation since. They would make him 
 king, but no other. The freedom-loving world ad- 
 mired, loved, looked upon his life as the most import- 
 ant to the cause of liberty of any man's wdio had lived 
 within the century. The assassin struck a blow. — 
 England was paralyzed, Germany put on mourning, 
 Holland reeled and staggered, blind and faint ; and 
 when the Prince of Orange sank to earth, it seemed 
 as if the death of liberty was an accomplished fact. — 
 But from above another eye was watching the event, 
 and though it took yet more long years, the result was 
 that Holland became free and Protestant, and Wil- 
 liam's cruel death gave Freedom new life. So is it 
 in every mystery of His dealing. It is a power divine 
 that governs thus. 
 
 If He thus governs then be assured the instru- 
 ments of His will shall never be wanting. No man, 
 or set of men, are indispensable to Him. When one 
 is removed, having accomplished His will, the plan 
 goes on. His purpose is not hindered, it ripens eve- 
 ry hour. So was it in the cases noted. So was it in 
 the early ages of the Church. The l)lood of the mar- 
 tyrs was the seed of the Church. So is it now. Another 
 by the harmonious working of our Constitution steps 
 into the vacant place, to whom our duty is trans- 
 ferred, for whom we pray unerring guidance. If He 
 rules, then we have ground for confidence and joy. It 
 may not suit our little plans, our seeming wisdom, 
 but He works majestic on — Blessed be His name, 
 
19 
 
 unmoved by aughfc from the accomplishment of His 
 own wise plan. 
 
 There is one duty in such startling providences 
 which for a moment claims our notice. It is to con- 
 sider fully and act Avith wisdom. The recoil from 
 such a blow awakens passions which only the most 
 strong and prudent will govern wisely. We have, as 
 citizens and christians, great duties to perform, duties 
 which, with the memory of the illustrious dead before 
 us, render all appeal to excited passions — passions 
 too which are among the worst of human nature, en- 
 tirely out of place. Considerate determination is de- 
 manded. It is " no time for angry declamation. This 
 act may be made to embitter present divisions, may 
 rouse the dormant passion of revolution, may sharpen 
 the axe of the executioner." Let justice have her 
 due, let judgment be measured to the guilty, let the 
 majesty of law be sufficiently vindicated — but let 
 America never forget she is the foremost christian natioii 
 of the world. The Bible is her corner stone, a Christ- 
 ianity of Bible-teaching her glory. America then 
 must do a thoroughly Christ-like work. He is the 
 model of nations as of individuals. I yield to no 
 man in my love for the land that gave me birth, for 
 the flag that symbolizes our best national hope. I 
 yield to none in desire to honor the gallant dead 
 slain on every field ; in pity for the thousand wid- 
 owed homes and orphaned children ; in love and ad- 
 miration for the virtues of him so lately filling a 
 martyr's grave; or in abhorrence of all attempt to se- 
 parate the nation Heaven hath joined. And with full 
 
20 
 
 belief in that strong Calvinistic creed which makes 
 justice the central attribute of God's immacuhite na 
 tiire — an attribute that demands satisfaction tliough 
 it cost the death of His beloved son — I yield to none 
 in desire that justice should bo measured to all who 
 contributed to such iniquity. But when I remember 
 that if justice be unmixed with mercy it would make 
 two-thirds of this people executioners of the other 
 third, and possibly " convert ruined conspirators into 
 martyrs," v*dien I remember the seventy times seven 
 of the forgiving Jesus, even then not marking the 
 limit, when I consider the interests of the future, the 
 days when the feelings now roused in our breast shall 
 be forever stilled, and we in some forgotten grave be 
 mouldering into dust, while the nation great and glor- 
 ious lives, I am not prepared to join the mad cry, 
 "let there be no more mercy." When, too, I recall 
 that scene of the world renowned dramatist — a Jew 
 cruel, unrelenting, yet completely just, demanding 
 justice in his bond, and then look on the noble Portia 
 confessing judgment, pleading while she yet acknow- 
 ledges the claim, I cannot but think that every Shy lock, 
 if he choose, shall take his pound of flesh, but shall 
 forever miss the immortal glory of forgiveness, and 
 the chance to make the bleeding, dead Antonio, his 
 eternal friend. 
 
 Nor so long as I remember that if justice had 
 been meted out to you and me, if justice had let fall 
 the blow, long, long suspended over our heads, we 
 should ere this have been forever punished ; so long 
 as I remember how God himself, upholding justice, 
 
21 
 
 sent Incarnate Mercy for our salvation ; and when I 
 turn to Calvary's cross, and from the pale, bloodless 
 lips of Him suspended in mid-air, hear that last cry of 
 sinless man, "Father, forgive them, for they know 
 not what they do," — a cry which pardoned an adul- 
 terer, took a thief to paradise, welcomed a murderer 
 to His company, and has given grace and Heaven to 
 many an outcast taken even from the vilest sinks on 
 earth ; Avhen I remember that I myself, guilty in his 
 sight, need mercy, must have mercy if I live forever, 
 then and so long I cannot, nay, 1 dare not with up- 
 raised hand pray God to send any man to hell, or be- 
 lieve that his grace is insufficient to save, as he de- 
 clares, to the very uttermost, the meanest wretch who 
 crawls upon His footstool. 
 
 Do not misunderstand my words. Conspira- 
 tors against national and individual life must 
 be punished. Their lives are forfeit. Treason 
 must be made so black a crime that the very word 
 will be ominous. Our country under God's favor 
 must be made securely one. But there is danger lest 
 revenge, a passion always base, should mingle with a 
 righteous indignation. America's spirit should be 
 that of Samuel when he hewed the guilty Agag in 
 pieces, sad, serious, determined, God-like. Above 
 all, let America never forget, while she is powerful 
 and proud, while she yet wears the widowed weeds of 
 mourning, while she is just, as just she should be, — that 
 she is Christian, and Jesus-Christ in all His excel- 
 lence is her exalted model. In His spirit we may 
 drive the miscreant traders from the temple they have 
 
22 
 
 profaned, and be the instruments of bringing such 
 woe as He denounced on every Chief Ruler and High 
 Priest who wickedly has compassed to defile our na- 
 tional Jerusalem, and with him we may weep with 
 yearning love for those misguided ones who have not 
 known the things which were for their peace. 
 
 In such a spirit America can go forward in her 
 proud mission, secure of the result, for God is with the 
 nation which is his servant. To high and noble des- 
 tiny he has called her, and if she twines in every fold 
 of her starry flag the banuer of the peace-loving Im- 
 manuel, the Prince of Peace shall always make her 
 His abode. The end may yet be distant. But in His 
 favor the work of judgment shall yield to one of mer- 
 cy. The bow of promise spans the cloud, and so sure- 
 ly as it does we know that God is love. Courage 
 then. Christian nation, even in this dark hour. Dark- 
 ness is made light by Him. Onward in the glorious 
 race for human progress. If true to God, ages hence 
 shall find thee growing better. Add more stars to 
 thy banner, if pure and peaceful thou canst save them 
 all. Be the foremost to elevate and bless the race, 
 and God will not forsake thee. 
 
 Once more we turn to thee, thou illustrious 
 dead, and lay the chaplet of our love upon thy tomb. 
 Mid all the dangers through which thy way was past 
 God kept thee till thy work — that which thyself an- 
 nounced — the re-possession of the places and proper- 
 ty seized from the Union had been done. City after 
 city re-taken, the chief army of the enemy surrender- 
 
23 
 
 ed. On the day when the flag of thy love was to be 
 again raised where it had first been lowered, thou 
 wast slain. Not for a life unfinished do we mourn, 
 though thou wast now girding thyself for the greater 
 victories of peace. God saw the end though we do 
 not. An earlier death might have left the world in 
 doubt. New measures might have been depreciated. 
 Now by a single stroke, and that too by an oneuiy, 
 thy deeds are passed to history, thy name becomes 
 immortal. A friend would not have placed upon thy 
 brow the martyr's crown. An enemy has made the 
 cause of which thou wast the representative hallowed 
 with thy blood. The altar fires of liberty burn anew. 
 A world looks on their glow. Thy name shall live, 
 thy memory shall be a nation's care. That hand 
 which gave America a community with other nations 
 in a murdered ruler, shall receive the execration of a 
 world ; while round thy tomb the generations taught 
 by thy name heroic self devotion, shall come from 
 every land where Freedom is no strange word, and 
 with the wreaths of an undying love crown thy grave 
 anew, or pressing low the bended knee thank God for 
 human freedom, rising to swear new fealty upon an 
 altar where America's murdered president has laidhis 
 martyred life. 
 
LB S '12 
 
^