to overflowing. Our friend went thither, and found the whole congregation upon their knees, giving vent to their feelings in convulsive sobs and piteous moans. Even their patriarchal leader was too full for utterance; and, on his knees, he was crying with his afflicted people. At length, an old woman, bowed with age and trembling with emotion, rose to express her grief in words. Clasping her dusky hands together, and lifting her streaming eyes heavenward, she exclaimed:

"Bress de Lord; bress de Lord! Dey hab killed Massa Linkum, but dey can't kill God!"

"Amen!" "Amen!" "Amen!" was the response from every part of the house, showing, not only the greatness of their bereavement, but, also, their gladness that God was left. From that moment their tongues were loosed, and they found relief in the inspiring thought, "They can't kill God."

The Atlantic cable flashed the terrible news across the sea, PRESIDENT LINCOLN ASSASSINATED," startling foreign governments, and eliciting expressions of profound sympathy.

Queen Victoria instructed Earl Russell to convey her unfeigned sorrow to the government of the United States, and, at the same time, with her own hand, she addressed a letter of touching condolence to Mrs. Lincoln.

The London Spectator declared that all England wept for "the noblest President whom America has had since the time of Washington; certainly the best, if not the ablest, man ruling over any country in the civilized world."

The Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon, the Emperor of France, addressed a letter of true sympathy to Mrs. Lincoln; and the French government seconded the address of the Emperor to the United States, expressing the deepest sorrow over our national bereavement.

The governments of Russia, Italy, Prussia, Belgium, Turkey, Austria, and Switzerland, were equally demonstrative in their expressions of grief and condolence.

The Hon. George Bancroft, the historian, said, "The echoes of his funeral knell vibrate through the world, and the friends of freedom of every tongue and in every clime are the mourners."

Speaker Colfax said,

"Of this noble-hearted man, so full of genial impulses, so selfforgetful, so utterly unselfish, so pure and gentle and good, who lived for us and at last died for us, I feel how inadequate I am to portray his manifold excellence-his intellectual worth-his generous character—his fervid patriotism. Pope celebrated the memory of Robert Harley, the Lord of Oxford, a privy counsellor of Queen Anne, who himself narrowly escaped assassination, in lines that seem prophetic of Mr. Lincoln's virtues :

"A soul supreme in each hard instance tried ;
Above all pain, all anger, and all pride,

The rage of power, the blast of public breath,
The lust of lucre, and the dread of death.'

"Murdered, coffined, buried, he will live with those few immortal names who were not born to die; live as the Father of the Faithful in the time that tried men's souls; live in the grateful hearts of the dark-browed race he lifted from under the heel of the oppressor to the dignity of freedom and manhood; live in every bereaved circle which has given father, husband, son, or friend to die, as he did, for his country; live with the glorious company of martyrs to liberty, justice, and humanity, that trio of Heaven-born principles; live in the love of all beneath the circuit of the sun, who loathe tyranny, slavery, and wrong. And, leaving behind him a record that shows how honesty and principle lifted him, self-made as he was, from the humblest ranks of the people to the noblest station on the globe, and a name that shall brighten under the eye of posterity as the ages roll by

"From the top of Fame's ladder he stepped to the sky.'"

XXIX.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

IMMEDIATE preparations were made for the

obsequies. The dead body of the President was removed to the White House, where it was embalmed and placed in a costly casket resting upon an elaborate catafalque.

On Monday, a meeting of Congressmen, with other notable persons in Washington, was held in the Capitol, when Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was appointed Chairman of a Committee to arrange for the funeral ceremonies. At four o'clock in the afternoon this Committee reported Wednesday for the time of the funeral, and the names of six Senators and six Representatives for pall-bearers, and one gentleman from each State and Territory as a National Committee to attend the remains to Springfield, Illinois.

On Tuesday morning the White House was thrown open to the tens of thousands anxious to behold once more the face of their beloved ruler. All day, until far into the evening, a steady stream of visitors, of all ages and classes, passed into the presence of the dead. Thousands were unable to gain admittance to the Executive Mansion during the day, on account of the multitude, and they turned away in disappointment.

When the hour of the funeral arrived on Wednesday the city, with all its public buildings, was elaborately draped in black. The symbols of mourning were of

the most varied and expensive character. Decorative art was taxed to its utmost to express the sentiment of grief that pervaded the city. A public man, looking at the sable drapery, remarked,

"As it should be. The nation would have it so. It tells the real sorrow of the people."

The funeral services were conducted in the East Room, where the family and relatives of the President, with many distinguished men, were seated. Mrs. Lincoln was too much prostrated to attend the funeral service. Many governors, senators, judges, representatives, and other men of note were present from different parts of the Union. Governors Fenton of New York, Andrew of Massachusetts, Brough of Ohio, Parker of New Jersey, Oglesby of Illinois, and Buckingham of Connecticut, were there. The ceremonies were simple and touching, very appropriate for the truly Republican statesman for whom the nation mourned. Rev. Dr. Gurley paid a just and eloquent tribute to the dead. He said:

"Probably no man since the days of Washington was ever so deeply and firmly embedded and enshrined in the hearts of the people as Abraham Lincoln. Nor was it a mistaken confidence and love. He deserved it; deserved it well; deserved

He merited it by his character, by his acts, and by the tenor and tone and spirit of his life. . . . He rose to the dignity and momentousness of the occasion; saw his duty as the magistrate of a great and imperilled people, and he determined to do his duty and his whole duty, seeking the guidance and leaning upon the arm of Him of whom it is written, 'He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.' . . . Never shall I forget the emphasis and the deep emotion with which he said, in this very room, to a company of clergymen and others, who called to pay him their respects in the darkest days of our civil conflict :

Gentlemen, my hope of success in the great and terrible struggle rests on that immovable foundation, the justice and goodness of God. And when events are very threatening, and prospects very dark, I still hope that, in some way which man cannot see, all will be well in the end, because our cause is just, and God is on our side.' Such was his sublime and holy faith; and it was an anchor to his soul both sure and steadfast. It made him firm and strong. It emboldened him in the pathway of duty, however rugged and perilous it might be. It made him valiant for the right, for the cause of God and humanity, and it held him steady and unswerving to a policy of administration which he thought, and which all now think, both God and man required him to adopt."

At the close of the services in the presidential mansion, the body was conveyed to the Capitol, followed by a larger and more imposing procession than had ever been seen in Washington. The grand avenue leading from the White House to the Capitol was one dense mass of human beings, and all the neighbouring streets of the city were thronged with tearful spectators. As the hearse, which was drawn by eight gray horses, heavily draped in black, approached the Capitol grounds, several bands joined in a mournful requiem, answered by minute guns from the fortifications. The casket was deposited in the rotunda, resting upon a grand catafalque, when Dr. Gurley conducted further ceremonies suited to the place and the occasion. Then the doors were thrown open, that the remains might be viewed by the tens of thousands who had failed to gain access to the Executive Mansion. From that time, all through the night, and far into the next day, a tide of people flowed in and out of the rotunda, to view the face of the President whom they had honoured and loved. Of the pageant of that day Dr. Holland says: In many of its aspects it was never paralleled upon