Gass. 
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 3IOURNFUL EASTER 
 
 n 
 
 _A. DISCOURSE 
 
 HEL1VERED IN THK 
 
 Hj£ 
 
 CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY, 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 On EASTER DAY, APRIL 19, 1865, 
 
 BY THE RECTOR, REV. CHARLES H. HALL, D. D. 
 
 Being the second day after the Assassination of the President of the 
 
 United States, and a similar attempt upon the Secretary of 
 
 State, on the nic.ht of Good Friday. 
 
 &^>- 
 
 WASHINGTOX : 
 GIDEON tt PEARSON, PRINTERS. 
 
 1865. 
 
A. MOURNFUL EASTER. 
 
 -A. IDISCOTTIE^SIE 
 
 DELIVERED 1\ THK 
 
 CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY, 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 On EASTER DAY, APRIL 1<>, 1865, 
 
 BY THE RECTOR, REV. CHARLES H. HALL, D. D. 
 
 Being the second day after the Assassination of the President of the 
 
 United States, and a similar attempt upon the Secretary of 
 
 State, on the night of Good Friday. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 GIDEON & PEARSON, PRINTERS. 
 
 1865. 
 
IE- 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 359 H Street, 
 Washington City, April 17, 1865. 
 
 Rev. Charles H. Hall, D. D. 
 
 Dear Sir: — At a meeting of the Congregation of Epiphany Church, this 
 evening, the undersigned were appointed a committee to express to you the 
 gratification with which they listened to the sermon which you delivered on 
 Easter morning, and to request a copy thereof for publication. 
 
 We, therefore, respectfully request that you furnish us a copy at your 
 earliest convenience. 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 CHARLES KNAP, 
 
 St. JOHN B. L. SKINNER, 
 
 THOS. R. WILSON. 
 
 Washington, Epiphany Rectory, April 19, 18G5. 
 To Messrs. Charles Knap, St. John B. L. Skinner, Thos. R. Wilson. 
 
 Gentlemen :— The wish of the Congregation of Epiphany Church in a matter 
 of this kind is, of course, law with us ; and I herewith send you the manu- 
 script of the Sermon of Easter Sunday morning. It is a simple word of feeling 
 from all our hearts, and may possibly be interesting and useful to others. 
 We who have known the private history of the distinguished subject of the 
 Discourse as a neighbor, as well as his official actions as the Chief Magistrate 
 of the nation, I doubt not all, without exception, will feel disposed with 
 me to complete the passage of the poet to which I have alluded : 
 
 " Besides this Duncan 
 Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
 So clear in his great joffiu', that his virtues 
 Will plead like angel.', tr-umpet-tongucd, against 
 The deep damnation of'h'-s taking off." 
 
 As my own small tribute to his memory, who has given me reasons of my 
 own for lamenting him, I commit the Discourse to you and the Congregation 
 of the Epiphany, with assurances of my esteem. 
 
 CH. II. HALL, Rector. 
 
These Prayers for the Country were used between the Morning Prayer and 
 the Order of the Holy Communion. 
 
 PRAYEE. 
 
 Almighty God, whose kingdom is everlasting and 
 power infinite ; Have rnercy upon the whole Church and 
 Country; and so rule the hearts of those who are in chief 
 power and authority in this Nation, that they, knowing 
 Whose ministers they are, may above all things seek 
 Thy honor and glory ; and that we, and all those who are 
 subject to their administration of the Constitution and 
 Laws by which they and we are governed, duly consider- 
 ing Whose authority they bear, may faithfully serve, 
 honor, and humbly obey the law of the land by them ad- 
 ministered and executed, in Thee and for Thee, according 
 to. Thy blessed Word and Ordinance; through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, Who, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, 
 liveth and reigneth ever, world without end. Amen. 
 
 Most Gracious God, we humbly beseech Thee, as for 
 the people of these United States in general, so especially 
 for all those who in Council are now called on to assist in 
 restoring to peaceful and orderly course the affairs of this 
 whole Nation; that Thou wouldst be pleased to direct 
 and prosper all their consultations, and to guide and fur- 
 ther their proceedings, to the advancement of Thy glory, 
 the good of Thy Church, the safety, honor, and welfare 
 of Thy people; that all things may be so ordered and 
 settled by their endeavors, upon the best and surest 
 foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, 
 religion and piety may be established among us for all 
 
generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, 
 for ns, and Th} T whole Church, we humbly beg in the 
 Name and mediation of Jesus Christ, our most blessed 
 Lord and Saviour. Amen. 
 
 O merciful God and heavenly Father, who hast taught 
 us in Thy Word that Thou clost not willingly afflict or 
 grieve the children of men; we humbly beseech Thee of 
 Thy goodness to comfort and succor all those w T ho are at 
 this time suffering in the miserable calamities brought 
 upon this Nation and Cit}- by violence and civil war. 
 Mercifully vouchsafe supplies of spiritual strength and 
 consolation to the wounded, sick, and dying, and raise 
 up friends for them in their need. Be a Father to the 
 fatherless and a Husband to the widow. Furnish shelter 
 to the homeless, sustenance to the impoverished, support 
 to the bereaved and destitute. Lighten the bonds of 
 those who are captives or in prison. Give all, in their 
 several visitations, a right understanding of themselves 
 and of Thy threats and promises, that they may neither 
 cast away their confidence in Thee, nor place it anywhere 
 but in Thee. Relieve the distressed, protect the innocent, 
 and awaken the guilty; and forasmuch as Thou alone 
 bringest light out of darkness, and good out of evil, make 
 the manifold forms of human suffering now darkening our 
 land effectual tor the' conversion of many souls to Thee, 
 thai among us fruits meet for repentance may be abund- 
 antly broughl forth, and that the glory of thy grace may 
 be made known among all nations, now and forever- 
 more; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 " I am the Resurrection and the Life." — St. John xi. 25. 
 
 The words of the Burial service are the appropriate 
 words of tins troubled Easter morning. We had prepared 
 to leave behind us the gloomier thoughts of the tomb, 
 and decking it, as it were, with flowers and palm branches, 
 to gaze with serene eye steadfastly on the glorious morn- 
 ing of the Resurrection ; to forget for a while the instinctive 
 repugnance of the human heart at the short interval of 
 the grave ; to look beyond it to the abodes of our expected 
 reward, where tears shall be wiped from all eyes, and the 
 disquieting fears which beset us here in the world of 
 chances and changes would give way to eternal repose 
 and joy. But we are called in the providence of God to 
 look more at the sorrows than the joys that surround the 
 Christian's hope; to weep with those who weep rather 
 than dwell upon the topics of our exulting hope. On the 
 night of that first Good Friday, the narrow tomb of the 
 rich man of Arimathea, which he had hewn out in his 
 little rocky garden spot, wherein he hoped himself, after 
 a quiet departure from the troubles of earth, to sleep with 
 his fathers, held the hastily buried remains of his Master. 
 Violence and crime Lad done their work, and the One 
 who came to bless our race had been slain by wicked 
 hands; and a few trembling disciples, shocked by the 
 overthrow of all their hopes, outraged by the horrible 
 passions of their unbelieving countrymen, were hiding in 
 retired places, and telling with scared faces, That this 
 
 f 
 
6 
 
 was He Who, we had thought, would bring salvation unto 
 Israel. Words would fail to picture their grief and horror. 
 Perhaps nothing could communicate the sense of it to 
 our hearts more effectually than the feelings which now 
 weigh heavy upon all our hearts in common, as we mourn 
 together in our national bereavement. There can, of 
 course, be no proper comparison made between any mor- 
 tal man and the Son of God. We need not be suspected 
 of making it, after joining, as we have done, in the words 
 of the ancient Creed, that Jesus Christ was " God of 
 God — of the same substance with the Father." But He 
 became a man and was found in the form of a servant, 
 and stooped to the death of the Cross, with all its indig- 
 nities and cruelties, that we might always draw together 
 under the shadow of that Cross, and feel in Him our 
 mutual sympathy in all sudden calamities, and draw from 
 His religion the strength to do our common duties; the 
 hope to sustain us under our common griefs. We gather 
 now around an open grave, permitted to be opened on 
 this Easter Day by the awful and wicked tragedy of this 
 last Good Friday, to temper our pious gratulations as be- 
 lievers with the sorrow which has befallen us as citizens. 
 The grave and gate of death opens before us as a people, 
 and we mourn the sanguinary crimes which have made 
 our Good Friday so marked an event in the history of the 
 world. It becomes us to mingle the Easter-chant, with the 
 minor wail of the Miserere, and to pray God not to forsake 
 us, nor let the ungodly get the upper hand. We are an 
 afflicted nation, horrified by the darkest crimes which can 
 befall a people. Yet, even here, let us pass beyond the 
 thinsrs which are seen; and our common faith at once 
 opens to ns its own lessons of trust in I linivho is the Resur- 
 
rection and the Life, who ever liveth to make intercession 
 for ns. The frightfulness of the times may make the 
 blood well nigh stop at the core of the heart; the success 
 of crime appalls the reason of the bravest. That one 
 horror, which had thus far been spared us, now to fall 
 so suddenly, so unresisted, causes the mind to pass back 
 in gloomy retrospect, to recall the like events in the past, 
 and the miserable accompaniments that attended them. 
 We are paralyzed. That our people — so free to debate 
 their perplexities, so fair and manly in the almost un- 
 licensed discussion of them, so patient in waiting for their 
 normal solution — should be thus defeated of their hopes 
 and robbed of their rejoicing in the very moment when 
 we were all taking breath after the trials of the past 
 struggle; when we were hoping that God's great boon of 
 love and reconciliation was about to glide down upon 
 bleeding hearts in all this land — it is the most tremendous 
 blow, the most fearful calamity that has ever befallen us. 
 We can only stand appalled. We can only gather in our 
 homes, where tears and sighs have attested our instinctive 
 sympathy with the afflicted, and bow before the Supreme 
 Ruler of all events, and cry to Him, " Spare thy people, 
 Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach." We 
 may wisely strive to gather such comfort as we may, by 
 our faith, from the assured hopes of the Christian 
 covenant. 
 
 Christ is the Resurrection and the Life — not merely 
 promises it, not only has sought out the causes of it, but 
 Himself is it. He died that He might go down into the 
 dark hopeless chambers of the grave, and there prepare a 
 way for us — there get the victory over death — and rising 
 again from the grave ascend on high, leading captivity 
 
captive, and give us men the pledge of a like resurrection. 
 He gave us the profound assurance that He rules over us 
 in all the ages; that He guides for us the world and all its 
 changes; that there can nothing die which is His truth; 
 that even if individuals pass away the Truth, guided by 
 Him, lives and moves on, and will have its due success by 
 His care. This resurection of Christ gave us not alone 
 the pledge of individual resuscitation from the grave. 
 Great as that advantage is to each individual; as pure and 
 blessed a revelation as that personal hope is to each soul 
 which goes down to the grave ; the other lesson is as 
 grand and replete with comfort. The apostles, each pro- 
 claimed his single belief in his own resurrection, cheered 
 his disciples in all the Churches with the exulting argu- 
 ments which told that as in "Adam all die, even so in 
 Christ shall all be made alive;" yielded each his spirit in 
 peace, like St. Stephen, as seeing the Lord Jesus standing 
 at the right hand of God. 
 
 But there is another lesson in it, which they and all 
 Christians have received deep into their consciousness — 
 the fact that in Christ, the great law of Truth and Love, 
 which underlies all our civilization, can never die. I do 
 not fancy an Apostle of Jesus, as he felt his life slipping 
 away in agony, as lie looked around on faces of enemies, 
 taunting him with every epithet of shameful abuse, and 
 glaring upon him with the scowlings of brutal rage, com- 
 forting himself with the individual consolation: "] shall 
 rise again: I shall turn to tin' dust, but that dust of mine 
 shall be watched by angels, and at the resurrection recalled 
 and changed into a glorious and spiritual body." No; 
 this may have formed their subject of rejoicing, as they 
 sang psalms and hviiius in hours of respite. This became 
 
9 
 
 their grand argument as they combatted unbelief or re* 
 buked sin. This was the theme of their discourse as they 
 bent over the parchment on which with the stylus they 
 wrote the words of quiet and serenest comfort to the 
 Christians, who were not yet "resisting unto blood," but 
 only bearing up under ordinary trials. But when the 
 hour of their own final trial came, they doubtless (as I 
 conceive of them) were wrought up to a grander theme : 
 that in Christ, the Truth could never die. Even pagans 
 had taught them the great fact, that it was easy to die for 
 one's country, When the faith iu their country was strong 
 in them. Even old jSTorsemen have set before us the 
 image of this great consolation ; and their scalds represent 
 their heroes when overcome in battles, chanting the songs 
 of their national glory; that while they as individuals fly 
 away to the halls of Valhalla, the life of the people ever 
 lives on. And those loving hearts, which had endured 
 and dared all things for others* — who, moved by Divine 
 pity had learned to forget self in charity to the miserable 
 of all countries — when their hour of martyrdom came at 
 last, laid down their lives in sublime trust, that while they 
 as individuals perished, the Church could never perish. 
 They felt themselves to be but particles running in the 
 veins and arteries of the Spiritual Body. That Body 
 would live on, though they passed out of sight. " The 
 gates of death" could never prevail against it. It had 
 risen in Christ and would live even by their sorrows; 
 Would gain new strength from their defeat, would yet 
 crown their names with testimonials of gratitude for the 
 blessings purchased by their >w faithfulness unto death." 
 It is that profound faith in the spiritual oversight of 
 Christ over us. in our Christian civilization, which has 
 
10 
 
 made the deaths of individuals tolerable — which gives us 
 a solemn strength in the midst of the most agitating 
 doubts and the gloomiest disasters. Martyrs in all ages 
 have taught us the meaning of that quaint merriment of 
 the noble old bishop at Oxford, as he said : " "We 
 shall light this day a candle which shall give light to all 
 England." 
 
 When in old Rome, Osesar fell before the daggers of 
 assassins, there was a gloom which hang like a pall over 
 the whole laud, unrelieved by one certain, assured hope 
 of the future ; but to-day, much as we have quaked in hor- 
 ror at the atrocious crimes which have defiled the land with 
 the blood of unresisting victims, we unconsciously rest as- 
 sured of our Future. There may yet be circles of trouble 
 and fear, but the stream will again run smooth, and the 
 Country, after its scourging has passed and its wild pas- 
 sions are quieted, will once more pass on to its high place 
 in the catalogue of the nations. We have this faith deeper 
 fixed than we think it, till some severe trial brings it 
 to the surface. We may call it up as the true lesson to 
 us of this great Christian festival. And if any one has 
 made the wretched mistake of doubting this deep faith 
 in this nation, or supposing that our life has hung en- 
 tirely on any single individual, he has only by a dastardly 
 cowardice given us the opportunity of showing the vi- 
 tal force of the institutions which we have received from 
 our forefathers. Let us in that sublime conviction loan 
 back on our trust in God and "dwell in the land and be 
 doing good." Let us join to remember that vengeance 
 belongeth to the Lord, and administer justice upon the 
 guilty, unruffled by the passions or the fears of the first 
 shock of alarm. Our country will enshrine the fallen in 
 
11 
 
 her inmost heart, will forget their errors, if they had them, 
 will pardon their faults, such as they were, and give them 
 a glorious record of her love and gratitude, such as they 
 might have missed by a gentler exit. I do not make 
 them out to be martyrs to Religion, but to their Country. 
 They have died in the midst of a community, that has 
 thrilled with horror at the utter wantonness of the deed ; 
 its mere stupid, brutal, theatrical revenge. No cause of 
 all those for which men are struggling can be supposed 
 by the most fanatical imagination to be advantaged by 
 this deed. If it has been plotted to defeat our national 
 life and to hurry us into anarchy, it will take but one calm 
 hour of reflection to show the madness of such a hope. 
 We are not the Christian people I wish and pray we may 
 be ; we are in many things too careless and profane ; we 
 have too often forgotten God, and neglected too many of 
 the duties that we owe Him ; but there is yet a deep con- 
 sciousness under all these visible faults of character, which 
 will suffice to carry us through these dangers. We can 
 call up our faith in the Truth, the Christian charity for 
 all men, the deep innate struggle in us as a nation for 
 the Rights of man, and believe that individuals may perish, 
 policies may rise and fall, great mistakes may be made 
 and repented of; but the normal life of the Nation will 
 increase in vigor, and prompt to new and better epochs. 
 Trusting to this, let us be calm. Let us be brave, and 
 consider our own sins and beg God to watch over us and 
 mercifully pardon us the past. 
 
 I conclude with a word or two concerning the distin- 
 guished individual, who has been struck down by a das- 
 tardly, cowardly crime. How fair was that Good Friday ! 
 The sun came up with purest, whitest light ; the buoyant 
 
12 
 
 air was full of Spring, and the calm hours glided away — 
 the truest, best picture possible of peace. How many 
 hearts were exulting thatPeace and Spring seemed coming 
 in together; that magnanimity was becoming the theme 
 of common consideration ; that as the quiet after a thun- 
 der-storm, so the social scenery would Avitness the pause 
 and tears of reconciliation and renewed brotherhood. I 
 had received a letter from the distant Diocesan of Maine, 
 (a man loyal to the core,) occupied with delicate scruples 
 concerning our returning brethren of the Church. And 
 for such a day to pass into such night — 'the heart is para- 
 lyzed by it! 
 
 But for the immortal soul, which was called so sud- 
 denly to meet the award of death, has there been one 
 day in all the past four years of his administration that 
 Would have such an idea of Divine mercy mingled with 
 it for him, When we think of him as immortal, and as 
 having passed the change which meets us all ? He is be- 
 lieved by all men, by his political enemies as well as his 
 intimates, to have been a kind man — one easy to be en- 
 treated. In mercy he Was simple and sincere. He had 
 long since given orders that no one on a mission to him 
 of life and death should ever be refused an audience. I 
 have heard those who differed from him in political life 
 declare him to be beyond question a merciful man. At 
 one recital of grief I know, he broke down, and mingled 
 his tears with those of the suppliant. I can testify from 
 personal knowledge to his quaint but honest mercifulness 
 of disposition ; willing to spare suffering to a tale of woe, 
 and then struggling to conceal, Under a blunt exterior 
 the tenderness of his own almost womanly sympathy. 
 But on last Good Friday, of all the days of his adminis- 
 
13 
 
 tration, he was probably most bent on thoughts of mercy. 
 The benign influence of it had permeated the time. "We 
 all felt a new hope rising up in us. Something of the old 
 look had come on the faces of men and women, as we talked 
 together of the future. The images of a book of an Irish 
 Lord* came stealing into my own mind all the day — as he 
 caresses the figure-head of his little vessel, in which he 
 had been tossed in the storms and beset by the fogs and 
 icebergs of the Spitsbergen seas, as she rises proudly in 
 the clear water, and leaving her dangers behind, begins 
 to fling the snowy foam from her bows, on her passage 
 home ; and he sings how the waves 
 
 " cowered, and ranged themselves on either side, 
 
 Like vassal ranks who watch some passing queen 
 Through her white-columned halls in silence glide, 
 Nor mingling meet till she no more is seen." 
 
 So came to me the hope of our Country, which was steal- 
 ing into all hearts; of our progress out of night and perils 
 to a brighter and better day. 
 
 The Draft was suspended. What anxious multitudes of 
 mothers and wives thanked God for that message! The 
 materials of destruction were not to be increased. Swords 
 would give way for peaceful implements of agriculture ! 
 And thus I imagined him, led by the Father of him and 
 us alike — mysteriously led — to thoughts of forgiveness 
 and conciliation and mercy to all — led possibly un- 
 consciously to imitating Him, Whose blessed words had 
 moulded the civilization by which he was held, as He said, 
 on that other Good Friday, "Father, forgive them, for 
 they know not what they do" — and thus made ready to 
 go, by ways and means beyond our finding out. 
 
 *Lord Dufferin. Yacht Voyages, LeUera/rom high Latitudes. 
 
14 
 
 Brethren, I would that he had been a church-member, 
 in all the proprieties of our appointed modes of thought. 
 But I wish also the same of very many of you, whom I 
 shall be too weak, when the time comes, to give up, with 
 Admah and Zeboim, if you do not conform as I would 
 have you. But there is a perverse education in our land, 
 which moulds us all to some unhappy errors of life and 
 thought; and the matter is a sore perplexity. But fail- 
 ing this appointed relation, which our disputes and sects 
 so misrepresent and confuse in the public mind as to leave 
 a divided painful responsibility, I ask you ; Could he have 
 gone up to meet his Judge with a more merciful spirit 
 than we suppose him to have had? He has always de- 
 clared himself a believer in the Christian religion.* He 
 has, beyond question, believed himself to be an appointed 
 apostle of the Rights of man, as he conceived them. And 
 then, with his heart full of the one grand principle of recon- 
 ciliation and peace, I can leave him to the mercy of Him 
 Who is the Resurrection and the Life, and to Whom we 
 too shall need to appeal for mercy, rather than justice. The 
 very central element of all Christian ethics rests on these 
 words : "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who 
 
 * The following words of farewell to his neighbors, on leaving them, Feb. 
 11, 1861, have now a fresh and mournful interest : 
 
 My Friends : No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at 
 this parting. To this people I owe all that 1 am. Here I have lived more 
 than a quarter of a century ; here my children were born, and here one of 
 them lies buried. 1 know not how soon 1 shall see you again. A duty de- 
 volves upon me, which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon 
 any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded 
 except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I 
 feel thai I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him, 
 and on the same Almighty Being 1 place my reliance forsupporl : and 1 hope 
 you, my friends, will all pray that 1 maj receive that Divine assistance, 
 without which 1 cannol succeed, but with which success is certain. Again 
 I bid you all an affectionate farewell. 
 
15 
 
 trespass against us.*' The one side of it lie was striving 
 to do fully and nobly. The other side is with his God, 
 who searches and judges the heart. We lament his loss, 
 with detestation at the crime ; " the deep damnation of his 
 taking off." May God give comfort to the afflicted 
 families, whose losses will make Good Friday memorable 
 in our national records. May He give repentance to the 
 wretched criminals who have stained their hands, wantonly 
 and stupidly in innocent blood, before they are called 
 upon to meet the just punishment of their attrocities. 
 May He give us grace to understand the seriousness and 
 solemnity of our duties to the government over us; and 
 as He only can, bring good out of this evil.