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COI, LECTION

THE CLAIMS OF GOD TO RECOGNITION

¦''';¦;' INTHE

ASSASSIHATIOH OF PRESHJENT LINCOLH.

PREACHED ON THE DAY OP NATIONAL HUMILIATION
AND PRAYER,
m THE
CHANCEFORD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
LOWEE OHANOEFOED, YOEK CO., PA.,
AND IN THE
PROSPECT METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
FAWN, YOGBK 00., PA.

THE REV, JOHN PARQUnAR,
PASTOK OP THE POHMEK chttuch,

LANCASTER, PA.:
PEARSOL 4 GKIBT, PRINTERS, DAILT EXPRESS OlrFICE.
1865.

THE CLAIMS OF GOD TO RECOGNITION

IN THE

ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT UNCjOlN.

PREACHED ON THE DAY OP NATIONAL HUMILIATION
AND PRAYER,
IN THE
CHANCEFORD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
LOWEE CHANCEFOED, YOEK CO., PA.,
AND IN THE
PROSPECT METHODIST EPISCOPAL [CHURCH,
FAWN, YOEK CO., 'PA.

THE REV. JOHN FARQUHAR,
PASTOK OP THE PORMEE CHVECH.

LANCASTER, PA.:
PEAESOL & GKIST, PRINTERS, DAILT EXPRESS OFFICE.
1865.

Lo-WEK Chancefobd, June 5, 1865.
Kev. John Faeqdhae — Dear Sir : In accordance -with a resolution adopted
unanimously by many citizens assembled on the evening of June 1st, 1865,
the undersigned solicit for publication a copy of the discourse delivered
by you in Chanceford Church, on the morning of that day.
Yours truly, JOHN BAIR,
ROBERT SMITH,
JOSEPH MANIFOLD,
STEPHEN McKINLEY,
SAMUEL M, PEDAN,
JOSEPH PEIRCE,
HARRY KEYSER,
WILLIAM G-, ROSS,
JAS, B. AMOS,
JAMES S. FULTON,
JOHN SMITH.
Ret. John Farquhae — Dear Sir : In behalf of many citizens of Fa-wn
and Hopewell, the undersigned beg leave to join iu the above request, hav
ing heard the same discourse repeated in the afternoon of the day of Na
tional Humiliation, in Prospect Methodist Church,
Yery truly yours, DAVID WILSON,
SALEM MANIFOLD,
WILLIAM LIGGET,
WILLIAM WALLACE,

Chanceford Manse, Lower CHANCEroED.
Gentlemen: I submit the sermon -with some slight alterations, -which you
may readily discover, but -which do not materially affect it, to be disposed
of as you solicit. Yours respectfully, JOHN FARQUHAR.
To Messrs, John Bair, Robert Smith, Joseph Manifold, David Wilson,
Salem Manifold, &c.

THE CLAIMS OF GOD TO RECOGNITION IN THE
ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

Be still, and kno-w that I am God, — Psalm xlvi: 10,
The general belief of commentators is that this Psalm refers
to the deliverance of Judah from the hand of Sennecharib the
Assyrian, by the miraculous des'truction of the army of that
powerful and '^boastful heathen -king. Though the exhorta
tion of the text may have here a limited impart, the limit ari
ses not so much from its nature as the circumstances in which
it is given. In its own character it is general. In either joy
ful or sorrowful events, prosperous or adverse circumstances,
the voice of the Lord may be heard, ever saying, "Be still,
and know that I am God." Both in joy and sorrow men are
apt to forget their Maker, and as a consequence to give expres
sion to their feelings without due reference to him w;hose over
ruling providence has ordered the events over which they re
joice or grieve. Thus exultation or depression, with their res
pective manifestations, may be sinful : and the very danger
that they may become so, justifies the imperative counsel in
the text. Be still — still your undue and Ggdless feelings —
cease from them — leave them off so far as they ignore the
hand of the Lord or render you forgetful of his wisdom, and
unmindful of his providentially-indicated purposes. The
duty is, not to cease from either joy or griaf,«itr their mani
festations, but from those phases of either which shut out the
sovereign ruler ; and to learn the lessons of his Supreme.God-
head — his uncontrolled direction of the affairs of men.
We have assembled this day under circumstances which
render the consideration of the 'text peculiarly appropriate.

(4)
He who was the chief magistrate of our nation, was but a few
weeks ago most foully murdered in the incumbency of his
office ; and his successor, in view of the fact that " our Coun
try has become one great house of mourning, where the head
of the family has been taken away ; and believing that a
special period should be assigned for again humbling our
selves before Almighty God, in order that the bereavement
may be sanctified to the nation ;" and " in order to mitigate
that grief on earth which can only be assuaged by commu
nion with the Father in Heaven," has appointed this day " to
be observed wherever in the United States the flag of the coun
try may be respected, as a day of humiliation and mourn
ing," and has recommended his "fellow citizens to assemble
in their respective places of worship, there to unite in solemn
service to Almighty God, in memory of the good man who
has been removed, so that all shall be occupied at the same
time in contemplation of his virtues, and sorrow for his sud
den and violent end."
I can think of no text, the consideration of which will
come more fully up to the flesign of this recommendation,
than the one I have chosen.
I. Let us look at the cikcumstances which give dikec-
TION and weight TO THE ADMONITION OF THE TEXT AS AP- •
PLIED TO US. ' '
The general circumstances are the murder of the President
of the United ^tes, and the feelings thereby engendered.
The murder of ?chief magistrate of a nation has been no un
common event in the history of the world, though heretofore
unknown in our annals. Emperors, Kings and Chiefs have
often fallen victims to private animosity, ambitious rivalry,
vile treason, «ncL mistaken patriotism. Sacred and profane
history abound in instances. But, in all the list, I can think
of only two which approach in their circumstances or atro
city that of Abraham Lincoln. In the latter part of the six.
teenth century, the people of the N etherlands— a protestant
people— threw off the yoke of a persecuting papist, Philip of

(5 )
Spain, and bravely fought for their liberty. Philip offered a
reward for the life oftheir leader, William, Prince of Orange,
called the Silent ; and urged on by fanaticism and the hope
of reward, a wretch n|^ed Balthazar Gerard murdered the
Prince in the year A, IJ[. 1584. The other instance is that of
Henry IV., King of France. Henry had been King of Na
varre, and head of the protestant faction in the civil wars of
France. Though rightful heir to the French throne after
Henry III., the Catholic League refused to recognize him on
the death of that monarch. After much fighting he reconciled
the opposing party by turning Roman Catholic. Though this
step is a blot on his fair fame, he nevertheless soon won all
hearts but those of the most fanatical, by the generosity and
gentleness of his reign. After escaping many conspiracies and
attempts to murder him, he fell at last, in the year A. D. 1609,
by the hand of one Ravaillac, a blood-thirsty bigot, who, when
the King's carriage was temporarily obstructed in a narrow
street, mounted the wheel, and stabbed him in the heart
with a knife, over the shoulder of one of his courtiers, and
in the midst of six others. The assassin, thinking he had
committed a commendable act, as he regarded the King as
still a heretic in heart, made no attempt to escape,'and seemed
surprised that any one should detest his horrid crime. These
two murders, although they cdme nearest in horror to that of
our President, do not by any means fill up the measure of
atrocity attained by it. And while to the names of Gerard
and Ravaillac another will be added in the execrations of all
history, that of J. Wilkes Booth will stand most conspicuous
in the roll of infamy. But we look at the circumstances of
this crime not to increase our hatred of the poor wretch who
has already passed into the hands of Him to whQjn vengeance
belongeth, but to prepare us the better for the lessons of the
Lord. Let us look at some of the circumstances in detail,
yet briefly.
First : The murder we mourn is that of one occupying the
most exalted earthly position — the Chief Magistrate of a

( 6 )
nation. I need not before this audience attempt to prove
that " the powers that be are ordained of God" — that law:ful
magistrates are "God's ministers," appointed for the promo
tion of good and the suppression of evib you all know it. In
all history the murder of the Chief o^tate has been looked
upon as the vilest of crimes. Whether he be King or Presi
dent, occupying his seat for life by hereditary descent and
the silent acquiescense of the people, or only for a time and
by their expressed choice, he is, while he rules, " the LorcPs
anointed;" he is in a certain sense the father of the nation,
and his murder is parricide. David expressed the general
horror of the crime when he said to the man that boasted of
having slain Saul, " How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth
thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed ?" and when he
put him to death, saying, "thy blood be upon thy head: for
thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the
Lord's anointed." — 2 Sam. i: 14-16. Men have often, in our
own land especially, attempted to separate the office from the
man. Whether they have ever been successful, and if so,
whether to any beneficialjpurpose, may b^questions. In this
case no such effdrt can be successfully made. It was not sim
ply Abraham Lincoln that was slain; it was the President of
the United States. No pretense of private wrong was set up ;
it was his ofiicial position and efcts that were obnoxious to the
conspirators. This opposition was not the mere party disap
proval that results from a legitimate difference of opinion, but
traitorous sympathy with armed insurrection and treasonable
effort to stab the Nation in a vital part, that a vile rebellion,
in its desperate fortunes, might be revived, or else in its dying
agonies, revenged. And yet no one can doubt that though
no private wrong was avowed, there was the most intense per
sonal ill-will and malice ; and that the deadly purpose of
avenging fancied public wrongs, derived fixedness and inten
sity by the transmutation of criminal political animosity into
the most causeless private hatred. This deed was then both
treason and murder, both in intent and fact.

(7)
It adds to the enormity of the crime that the victim was
the Chief Magistrate of the Nation, by its free choice, selected
by such an overwhelming majority as set at rest every ques
tion of fairness, and secured the ready acquiescence of the can
did, patriotic and intelligent portion of his political oppo
nents. If the slaying of a hereditary ruler, or the choice of
an aristocracy, is looked upon as an atrocious crime, what
shall we say of Such an end of such a man as we mourn ?
Humanly speaking, our Nation is the hope of the world. She
as far transcends in dignity and prospective usefulness the
other natioils of the earth, as do the mighty principles of
civil and religious liberty embodied in her constitution and
practice, the dogmas and customs of which other nationali
ties boast. This man then filled the most exahed position ;
not merelj' in the sense of being a ruler, and because rul
ing is that position, but in the higher and more exclusive
sense of being the highest ruler of the first of nations. By
so great then as was his exaltation, by so much the more
deep, and black, and hellish, was his taking away; and by so
much the more 4t our horror and indignation increased.
Second : This murder is that of a man of exalted deeds.
Every effort by which he rose from his original obscurity to
his final eminence was of this description. Some men at
tain high position by crawling: on the belly they squirm
through sloughs and creep over rocks which honest men
who prefer to walk erect as God made them, find difficult to
overcome, or with their measure of talents impossible. Not
so with Lincoln. His public career from the lowest station
to the highest, was singularly pure. It challenges investiga
tion. To him as rightfully as to any man in all the land,
was applied by his admiring countrymen the term, honest.
But this exaltation of deed was seen not only in the steps
by which he rose, but also ih his noble advocacy of right,
and his utterance of immortal principles, even when to advo
cate right and utter such principles were far from being
sure means of rising. His was the nature that disregarding

(8)
present consequences to himself, ever trusted in the final tri
umph of justice, and bent all its energies to its success. These
same traits accompanied him into the chair of state, and
rendered his deeds there the most famous and widely honor
ed of the age. Neither William of Orange nor Henry of
Bourbon, skilful generals and wise statesmen as they were,
equal him here. Intelligent Europe with almost one voice, at
length concedes the glory of his acts ; the majority of his
countrymen welcome the tribute from the old world as a con
firmation of their own estimate ; nor will the rest of his fel
low citizens be long in joining the general judgment and
making it all but universal.
To our army and navy we can never be too grateful for
their heroic deeds — their sufferings and their triumphs ; but
more than even to them are we indebted to the brain that toil
ed, and planned, to the constancy that bore us up and in
spired us with courage and hope in the hour of disaster, to
the moderation that respected the laws and the rights of the
people in the midst of unparalleled provocation, faction and
sedition, to the patience and skill that *^e with and cor
rected mistakes in subordinates, and to the wisdom that di
vested victory ot its most potent dangers. It was Lincoln
more than any other man, who, under God, subdued the re
bellion and saved his country. And this is not all ; more
than any other man he has purified and exalted his coun
try. The example of so pure a magistrate will not be lost
on future occupants of office, nor on the people when they
select men to administer the laws. In one respect his puri
fying influence is most conspicuous ; and the world will nev
er let its memory die. To efface the foulest blot upon our
nation — slavery ; to wipe out which has cost more thought
among good men, given rise to more diversity of sentiment,
and been the cause of more heart-burnings, jealousies, en
mities, than any other public question, his practical ge
nius seized upon a plan of pre-eminent wisdom. While the
main design was to break the back of the rebellion and pre-

( 9 )
vent the like from ever again cursing the nation, in its own
nature it opened up a course from which when entered on
there could be no receding. I know that many of us doubt
ed at first, I know that many, though in diminished num
bers, doubt now ; I know that some honestly doubt the wis
dom of the plan. But I know also that in the opinion of
the vast majority of the enlightened and christian world, it
is the greatest, the most glorious^feature of his administration.
And I am convinced that however we may differ now as to
the policy of this scheme, judging its policy by immediate
consequences; when sufficient time has elapsed to efface
from our memories the differences to which it has given
rise ; and when the remoter steps which it necessitates, and
the maturer plans for which it has prepared the way, rise up
in their acknowledged wisdom ; and when the ultimate re
sults are seen in their beauty and glory ; — that then we shall
all acknowledge as exalted the deed of him, who, disregard
ing the fanaticism of pro-slayery conservatism on the one hand,
and the fanaticism of ultra-abolitionism on the other, issued
on the first day of .January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, the Emancipation
Proclamation. I feel assured that we will yet all rejoice in the even now
largely conceded honor, that our country has produced the
most remarkable man of our times — that as Germany gave
to the world, in Luther, the great man of the sixteenth,
England, in Cromwell, the great man of the seventeenth,
the new-born America, in Washington, the great man of the
eighteenth, so redemed and regenerated America has given, in
Lincoln, so far at least, the great man of the nineteenth
century. That such a man as this should be cut off from
his exalted career by a vile assassin ; that he should, by such
a mean and murderous act, be deprived of the rest and enjoy
ment so fairly won by his toil and faithfulness — "Be still, and
know that I am God."
Third : This murder was that of a man of exalted

( 10 )
worth. As was his course, so was his character — pure. That
he was a.sinner in the sight of God, as are all men, is true. That
he was a sinner saved by grace— a christian, we have strong
reasons for believing. But putting that question aside, as one
which God only can settle, we look at his life— his acts and
-^ords — and find a clear testimony to the wonderful combi
nations of his character. A man is presented, light-hearted
and cheerful, yet of deep and earnest thought and correct
morals, patient, persevering, energetic, gentle, kind-hearted to
a proverb, yielding in matters of expediency, yet firm as a rock
in what he deemed the right, ever dependent on God and
ever appeaUng to him for wisdom and aid. Those who were
brought in contact with him in the administration of public
affairs, can bear testimony to his remarkable quickness and
clearness of apprehension, to the masculine grasp with which
he seized and held important principles, and to the wisdom
with which he weighed and sifted proposed plans before he
adopted them. The world is compelled from his public doc
uments to allow that he possessed a wonderful mastery of sub
ject and an unusual faculty of making his opinions plain to
the most ordinary intellect. With little rhetoric or fine writ
ing in his productions, there was a lucidness of thought and
clearness of expression for which you may search in vain the
works of manyfauthors and orators of world-wide .fame.
But his chief praise were his exalted deeds and exalted mo
ral worth. It is impossible not to see the soul of the man
breathing through the closing paragraph of his last Inaugural
address. The words will live as long as time. " With ma
lice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to fin
ish the work we are in, to bind up the nations wounds, to
care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow
and his orphans ; to do all which may achieve and cherish
a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
Words like these might win any heart but that of a traitor
and assassin.

( u )
" Oh, slo-w to smite and e-wift to spare,
Gentle and merciful and just !
Who in the fqar of God didst bear
The sword of power, a nation's trust !
"In sorrow by thy bier we stand,
Amid the awe that hushes all,
And speak the anguish of a land
That shook with horror at thy fall.
" Thy task is done ; the bond are free !
We bear thee to an honored grave.
Whose proudest monument shall be
The broken fetters of the slave.
"Pure was thy life ; its bloody close
Hath placed thee with the sons of light,
Among the noble host of those
Who perished in the cause of right." Bryanfs Hymn.
Fourth : The victhn of this murder was a man held in ex
alted esteem and love. When he first entered on the discharge
of his high duties, he had but a slight personal hold on the
affections of his countrymen. He very soon, however, began
to gain the esteem and love of his political friends and the re
spect of many of his political opponents. This advance was the
more valuable, because there were mingled with the oppo
sition of many the most bitter and violent personal attacks.
Ridicule and abuse the most unmeasured were heaped upon
his head. And as at home so abroad. The organs of public
opinion in Europe, especially in Great Britain and France,
with a few honorable exceptions, were unsparing and out
rageous in their attacks. Some of this continued to the
end, but to the honor of humanity be it spoken, much
was gradually softened down and much abandoned; so
that at the time of his death no ruler was so generally
respected throughout the civilized world ; and never
one in our own land more dearly loved, and never one loved
by so many hearts. The testimonials of Foreign Govern
ments, the resolutions of public bodies, and the editorials of
foreign papers show the high honor in which he was held in
other lands ; and exhibit how his noble life had overcome
the most bitter prejudices, and turned derision, scorn and ha-

( 12 )
tred, into esteem, admiration and love. No paper was more
scurrilous than the London^ Punch^with both pen and pencil.
Now listen to its candid confession of error and to its noble
tribute to despised worth. After alluding to its own ridicule
of his personal appearance and of the difficulties of his posi
tion, it proceeds :
"Beside this corpse, that bears for winding sheet
The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear anew.
Between the mourners at his head and feet,
Say, scurril jester, is there room for you ?
"Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer,
To lame my pencil and confute my pen —
To make me own this kind of prince's peer.
This rail-splitter, a true bom king of men.
" My shallow judgment I had learned to rue,
Noting how to occasion's height he rose,
How his quaint wit made home truth seem more true,
How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows,
" How humble, yet how hopeful he could be ;
How in good fortune and in ill the same ;
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he,
Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame.
" He went about his work— such work as few
Ever had laid on head and heart and hand —
As one who knows where there's a task to do,
Man's honest will must heaven's good grace command.
"Who trasts the strength will with the burden grow,
That God makes instruments to do his will.
If but that will we can arrive to know,
Nor tamper with the weights of good and ill.
" So he went forth to battle on the side
That he felt clear was Liberty's and Right's,
As in his peasant boyhood he had plied
His warfare with^rade nature's thwarting mights.
" So he grew up a destined work to do.
And lived to do it : four long-suffering years'
Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report, lived through.
And then he heard the hisses changed to cheers,
"The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise,
And took both with the same unwavering mood •
'Till, as he came on light, from darkling days, '
And seemed to touch the goal from where he stood,
"A felon hand, between the goal and him,
Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest—

( 13 )
And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim,
Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were laid at rest. t
" The words of mercy were upon his lips,
Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen,
When this vile murderer brought a swift eclipse
To thoughts of peace on eiarth, good will to men,
"The Old World and the New, from sea to sea,
Utter one voice of sympathy and shame !
Sore heart, so stopped when it at last beat high ;
Sad life, cut short just as its triumph came.
" A deed accurst ! Strokes have been strack before
By the assassin's hand, whereof men doubt
If more of horror or disgrace they bore;
But thy foul crime, like Cain's, stands darkly out.
" Vile hand that brandest murder on a strife,
Whate'er its groimds, stoutly and nobly striven;
And with the martyr's crown, crownest a life,
With much to praise, little to be forgiven."
The man who could draw such a tribute from jealous ene
mies, and excite in them such emotions, was no common
man. And yet this noble man, so exalted in his position,
deeds and worth, and in the esteem and love of others, was
slain by the hand of a miserable assassin, in the very pres
ence of his wife, and in the confidence engendered by con
scious rectitude and the overflowing kindliness of his large,
loving heart. No wonder that men were at first stunned!
No wonder that then they were filled with grief and indigna
tion, and doubt and dread ! No wonder that in the thronged
thoroughfares of the cities they united as one man to express
their deep yet overflowing feelings by speeches, resolutions,
sermons, prayers, and by many silent tokens of mourning ! No
wonder that in retired, rural districts, on that sad succeeding
Sabbath — set apart by so many christians as the joyous anni
versary of the resurrection of the world's Redeemei^s many
for the first time, at the house of God, heard the terrible news,
their hearts sank within them, and their pastors were almost
unfitted for their pulpit ministrations.
But I now recite these circumstances simply because they
justify the application of the text which I wish to make and
give point to its lessons. " Be still and know that I am God."

( 14 ) ,
II. What then are the lessons conveted in these cir
cumstances BY the admonition OE THE TEXT ?
First: The admonition comes with terrible significancy to
those who compassed the horrid deed, or who now approve it.
The hand that actually perpetrated the murder now Hes
rotting in the ground, and the soul that directed the act,
knows, as none on earth can know, that the Lord is God.
But he had many assistants — how many God alone knoweth.
Let every conspirator, whether still at large, or now on trial
for his life — everj'^ one who employed the assassin, or urged
him to his crime — every subordinate in its accomplishment,
be still and know that the Lord is God. Let them not think
success a criterion of divine approbation ! God for his wise
purposes has allowed the foul deed, but only as he allows
every other murder. Let them cease to rejoice; and tremble
while they remember that God wrote on tables of stone amid
the thunderings of Sinai, " Thou shalt do no murder," and
that he says, in the words of his servant, to each of them,
" How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to
destroy the Lord's anointed ?" Let them learn even though
they may have yet escaped and may continue to escape the
just -punishment of man, not to gloat over their successful
villainy ; for in the end, God will not allow them to escape
his righteous judgment. Let not even the most reckless of
them rejoice that whatever becomes of them, their work is
done. They have not even this miserable consolation. It is
true that the highest and the best has fallen, but the rest of
their intended victims have escaped with their lives — most
of, them without the slightest harm. Nor is it in this aspect
alone th-at their failure is most complete. Their ultimate
schemes, to which these murders were to be the means, have
failed. Let them know that God's providence has turned the
death of their only victim to the more thorough destruction
of the cause and friends in whose behalf they have so griev
ously sinned.
Let those ivhose teachings led to this wicked act, be still

( 15 )
and know that the Lord is God ; for to them he has a very
important lesson. I do not allude to those who within the
bounds of reason and propriety opposed the measures of the
late president's administration, from an honest conviction
that they were not the best for securing the integrity of the
Union and the restoration of peace. Whether they were wise
in their opposition or not, many of them look upon this deed
with the most profound disgust and unfeigned sorrow. But
there are others who have no right to shelter their misera
ble utterances behind an allowable party opposition — who
from ignorance or malice, by pen or tongue, heaped the foul
est abuse on the head that now lies low in the dust, called
him usurper, despot, tyrant, blood-thirsty wretch, even
branded him as one destitute of the common attributes of civil
ized humanity ; and who coupled with their abuse predic
tions of his murder, and proclaimed such a fate as his desert.
Such teachings, working on weakly-balanced and ill-trained
minds, produced a wide-spread demoralization as to the prop
er repect due to lawful authority, fostered if it did not gene
rate a partiality for the cause of rebellion, familiarized men
with the idea of ridding the country by one bold stroke, of
the man they were taught to consider its worst enemy, nour
ished the idea of murder, and by a logic irresistible t6 fanati
cal minds, convinced them that such murder was the highest
service to their country and to God. A letter of the murder
er, given to the public afterthe assassination, shows how thor
oughly he was imltued with the spirit of such instructions;
and the miserably prostituted use of a noble motto, "sic sem
per tyrannis," revealed to what preverted motives his crime
could be traced. • Let those then who directly or indirectly
made use of such counsels, consciously and with a desire to
produce a state of public feeling from which the crime might
perchance spring, "be still and know that the Lord is God."
Let them cease alike their secret rejoicings and their hypo
critical wailings, and know that God will hold them, even
them, guilty of this martyr's blood unless they repent and

( 16 )
bring forth fruits meet for repentance. And let those who
without such heUish motive joined in this fearful educational
course, but who — their eyes being opened by the appalling
consequences — now shudder at the horrible results, also learn
to be still. Let them cease from the vituperation of those
they oppose. Let them know that the Lord is a God who
demands even in the conduct of partisan politics the absence
of malice and slander, and hatred, which is itself murder;
and the application of the - principles of his holy religion.
Happy will it be for our county if the people of every party
read this lesson ; and over the tomb of a slandered, abused
and murdered public servant, learn to practice the respect for
law and lawful rulers enjoined in the Bible, and to apply to
others the moderation, candor and common honesty, with
which they would themselves be judged and treated.
There is yet another class guilty of this murder, to whom
the Lord says, '^Be still, and know ihat I am God." I mean
those, who, too cowardly themselves to execute, and too in
significant and ignorant to give shape to public opinion, yet
regard the deed with unfeigned approbation, and rejoice over it
with all the joy of their contemptible and evil nature. Strange
that in a Christian land any such could be found ! Candor
compels us to say there are not a few. From many parts of
the country — from some, not far off— we hear of public and
private demonstrations of applause. The Lord says to such,
"cease your evil jubilee, and know that I am God; learn that
however you may be looked upon by men, I will hold you
guilty even as the wretch whose personal act you approve;
cease from this your sin and repent of this your iniquity be
fore you are involved in its terrible punishment— cease to
boast, for though I have, for my wise purposes, permitted
this event, I will resent and avenge it on the guilty ; yea, I
will make it the deadliest foe of the interests you most fondly
cherish. Second : The text comes with an arousing call to those
who are indifferent to the deed.. There are many men who

( 17 )
cannot approve it — for it is murder — but whose disapproval
seems to be more of the intellect than of the heart — whose
indignation is not excited, nor their horror, nor their grief—
who regard it with only speculative or selfish questions as to
its influence on their own or public affairs ; or who not even
interested in these considerations, turn from it as coolly as
from any case of ordinary crime, the record of which, in their
papers, they may read perhaps, but hardly regard — and who
pursue the even tenor of their way as if God were not sha
king the heavens, and upheaving the foundations, to arrest
the attention of men and teach them wisdom. To all such
the Lord says, "be still, cease from your cold and heartless
speculations, or your absorbing occupations, and know that
I am God — that I haVe permitted one of the great and exalted
of the eartlJ^n whose life, in the estimation of men, hung
the fate of millions, to fall by the hand of folly and wicked
ness ; leave off your guilty indifference, and learn the lessons
I would teach by this event." Let such, besides learning
that there are lessons to learn, read the lessons themselves —
both those to which our minds have been already directed,
and those to which attention is now invited.
Third : To those who regret, deplore and detest the deed,
the Lord says, "Be still, and know that I am God. These are
the mass of the people. To all such — to the nation — are
these lessons given :
1. Cease your vindictiveness toward the miserable wretch
es who are guilty, and know that I am the God to whom
vengeance belongeth. The desire to have justice executed on
the vile causes of this our sorrow, is both natural and right.
But there ought to mingle with this desire no feelings of vin
dictiveness. Hatred of the crime is demanded, but hatred
of the criminal the laws of God expressly forbid. When
men first hear of such a hideous deed their indignation de
mands to see the murderers slain ; yes, eVen to slay them,
without trial, red-handed in their guilt. In view of all such
feelings the Lord says, " Be still, and knoto that I am God;"

( IS )
by the civil magistrate, who "beareth hot the sword in vain,"
I will in due course of law vindicate its outraged majesty,
"for he is the minster of God, a revenger to execute wrath up
on him that doeth evil" — Rom. 13:4. Or if it please me
by more direct providential visitation to express my displeas
ure, let no murmur escape your lips but know that I am still
a God who judgetb. "Shall not the judge ef all the earth
do right ?" Or if it please me that no human or direct pro
vidential judgment overtake many of these criminals, and
that they ever remain unknown to me*i as participants, cease
from every rebellious thought and know that I am a God of
whom neither the omniscience nor omnipotence will allow
the impenitent guilty to escape his final and eternal sentence.
2. The Lord hy this event bids the nation ceas^.from weak
and perverted views of the awful baseness ana^pttmshment^
of treason. Public sentiment — after all, the great controller
of official action — was fast degenerating into a state alike dis
honoring to the great establisher of civil government, and
dangerous, if not to the re-establishment, at least to the con
tinuance of the law's supremacy. Universal mercy to reb
els was the increasing cry. From a short-sighted view of a
fancied advantage in policy, we were in danger of forgeting that
treason is the highest crime agains,t spciety. We were in
danger of even offering a premium on skill, perseverance, and
cruelty in its prosecution, by exercising a false and pernicious
magnanimity toward those who had been its very head and
front. It needed some shock to make the people stop and
think whereunto they were tending, and to impress on them
as they had never before had impressed on them even by its
countless atrocities, the unrelenting, unscrupulous, fiendish
character of this rebellion. How much Mr. Lincoln was in
fluenced by the rising cry among some of his friends I can
not say ; nor can I say at what point he would have restrain
ed his overflowing pity, and when presented with the practi
cal question, yielded to his sterner sense of right and justice.
There is reason to fear that, had he drawn the sword to pun-

( 19)
ish, circumscribing even narrow circles as would have been-
the case in its sweep, this mawkish sentimentalism would
have joined its clamor to the howl of defeated enmity, and
wrought unspeakable embarrassment and mischief. The re
port of his death-shot should rouse the nation from this mor
bid condition, lead the people to examine the fundamental
principles of government and law, and discriminate as to
where mercy is'in place, and where, inflexible justice. And
I think I can see how the well known gentleness and com
passion of the martyr, have been over-ruled — shall we not
say, were ordained ¦'•not only to render his murder itself more
detestable in the sight of men, but to impart to his successor
a more determined purpose to make the treason that inspired
it odious in the eyes of the world, by the well deserved pun
ishment of the leading traitors, and to secure to him in so
doing the useful support of a healthy and invigorated public
sentiment. 3. Let us further " be still" — cease from our trust inman
and from the exaltation of but an' instrument in the hand
of the Lord, into the agent absolutely indispensable to the
accomplishment of his work. God is jealous of his honor,
which he will not give to a creature. Gradually there had
been growing in thj^^m^jj^fi conviction that of all men liv
ing the late President was the man chosen of God, and best
fitted by experience and character to accomplish the great
work of restoring to the nation the blessings of Union and
peace. Circumstances had caused strong doubts — doubts, I
think now,seen to be unwarranted — of the hands into which
in case ol his decease, the reins of power would fall. These had
at home and abroad added .intensity to the wish and fervor
to the prayer that Lincoln's life might be spared to the nation
and to the world. Looking at the respective characters of
Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, men would have
supposed that the latter was better fitted to carry on the war
•than to close the contest and pacify the country ; and that
the former was better suited to the work upon which he was

(20 )
about to enter than the task he had so successfully accom
plished. But God sees not as we see : his thoughts are not
as our thoughts. In his , providence' he gave Lincoln to a
work which he accomplished well, but took him from one
which many thought would have filled up the measure of his
glory ; while he placed the power of peace in the hands
judge^ by many best fitted for war — nay more, in the hands
of the very man we doubted. Who will* say that God is
wrong ? Who will even dare to regret the change ? The
assassins were permitted to work their will on the one, and
frustrated in their desire to destroy thS^ other. God gave to
the one his work which he did, to the other he has given a
work yet to do. The one did his allotted work well ; have we
a right to say the other will fail? In one sense Lincoln was
necessary to the work of the future; but it was his deaththat
was necessary, not his /i/e. In the fall of the one and the
rise of the other, God rebukes — not our love of the lost — but
our almost idolatrous dependence on a mere agent — a crea
ture of his hands — a potsherd of the earth. " Be still, and
know that I am God."
4. «/? fourth lesson is to cease from despairing of the na
tion and of the advancement and final triumph of liberal
principles. When the news e^iginptaaak of this murder reach
ed Europe, the organs of aristocracy predicted the wildest
anarchy as the result. The fabric which had withstood the
shocks of a four years' hard war, weakened by the contest,
would, now that its head was slain, surely exhibit to all the
world its inherent instabihty, in a mighty and inevitable fall.
And even we — at least many of us — who ought to have
known better, in that dark hour questioned with one another,
"What are we coming to ?" Some seemed to fear that the
very foundation.s of social order were destroyed, and that eve
ry man's hand might soon be against his brother, and that
rebellion in its secret ramifications, and by a new St. Bar
tholomew's massacre of the most eminent leaders of the na
tion, might even yet triumph. And npt a few began to ques.

(21 )
tion whether the wide-spread inculcation and acceptance of
such principles as had led to this barbarous result, did not
indicate a state of society unfit for free institutions and re
quiring to be governed by the strong hand of despotic power.
I cannot think that this is the lesson. When God says, "be
still and know that I am God," he reproves such doubts. He
tells us to cease our gloomy and evil prognostications. He
tells our jealous and envious foreign neighbors to cease their
ill-concealed pleasure at a national ruin, the wish for which
is father to the. thought. He bids men rise above the low and
narrow views that first present themselves, and take in the
whole range of his revealed designs for the elevation of the
race, and for filling the world with nations enjoying the high
est good — nations free — civilly, socially, spiritually free. He
bids them look back to the unexampled career of prosperity
and advancement hitherto vouchsafed to this nation, and
asks if these have been bestowed in vain ; and in view of
them and of her glorious adherence to her noble principles
in the time of sore trial — in view of the very trial itself, if
she be not destined to continue the first of nations, to exert
a wider influence, to exhibit a more ennobling example, until
her principles and perhaps her polity adopted by every peo
ple, shall fill the earth«ilr4ija,e.§ti-ll, and know that 1 am God."
5. A fifth lesson is to cease from overwhelming sorrow
and vain regret. Nowhere in the Bible are we taught that
it is wrong to mourn for departed friends or because of pub
lic and private calamities. But the whole spirit of God's
word is against carrying our grief to the point of repining at
the decree of the Almighty. In this dispensation men have
no right to sorrow as those who have no hope. Even were
we unable to see any specific good resulting from this blow,
the thought that he who permitted it is God, holy, wise, good
and merciful, should still our wailings when they approach
the verge of complaint, into the humble and sanctified sotrow
of those who acknowledge the perfection of him who applies
the rod. This lesson is suited to those who most keenly feel

( 22 )
the affliction — the bereaved wife and children of the dead.
And it is applicable to us in our sympathy with thejn. While
we sorrow for them, let us sorrow as those who can and who
do at the same time, commend them to the Lord that they
may know him as the God who is the widow's husband and
the orphan's father.
6. A sixth lesson is so to know God as to humble ourselves ^
under his mighty hand. As a nation we needed this chas
tisement for our sins. Many sins have fdr a long time cha
racterised a large portion of the people — profanity, drunken
ness, sabbath-breaking, pride, boasting, covetousness, indiffe
rence to, yea positive approval of the foul sins of slavery and
rebellion, and a general recklessness to the claims of God iu
the support of public men and measures. To all this we
must add not only the failure to repent, but even an increase
of these iniquities under the very chastisements of God. Cor
ruption and peculation, and heartless speculation on the
very calamities of the land, have alarmingly prevailed — one
sin butrece^ntly made itself sadly prominent — an almost de
lirious and Godless rejoicing over the "crowning mercies"
for which we should have been profoundly aiid religiously
thankful. That there was thankfulness, and great and hear
ty rejoicing before God for our.yicjtories, that was right, it
would be sinful to deny : but in too many instances God was
forgotten, and in far too many, instead of thanksgiving, were
unseemly revelry and beastly drunkenness. To a land in so
large a measure guilty in these respects, the Lord says in this
dispensation,- '^Be still, and know that I am God."
7. Last of all — for we have no time to carry our lessons
further — God teaches us in this event the personal lesson of
preparing for our own death. Let lis cease to confine all our
attention to the lessons already presented. Let ns learn that
God is the Lord, in whom we live and move and have our
being ; that our times are in his hand ; that we will be called
to pass through the gates of death at some time and in some
way now to us unknown. And let us farther know that the

(23)
Lord is the God in whose hands are our eternal interests, and
that he will by no means clear guilty sinners such as we,
but through faith in his son. Let us know him also as a God
calling, urging us to prepare for death, judgment and eterni
ty ; and let us heed him ; for we know neither the day nor
the hour when the son of man cometh. Let us then "seek
the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he
is near." Of all the lessons taught by this providence, so
prolifio of lessons, may not this be the one least heeded !
" Be STILL, AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD."

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of
STUART W.JACKSON
Yale 1898

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