It seems to have been a part of God's purpose, from the beginning of this conflict, to exhibit to the gaze of the world all the foul enormities of the system. It is wonderful how slow we have been, to heed the teachings of Providence in this respect; how blind the eyes even of the people of the North have been, to this monstrous iniquity. At the beginning of the war, we looked upon its radical opponents as fanatics and madmen. The very principles of the institution ought to have fixed us in deadly hostility against it; but we refused to look at it in the light of principle, and were willing to temporize and compromise with the infernal system. God determined, therefore, to use measures of instruction that would be heeded. He permitted the upholders of the system to rend the Union asunder, and to deluge the land with blood. He gave our sons and brothers into their hands to be tortured and starved in their prisons. He suffered them to send their piratical ships out upon the ocean to burn our shipping, and transform the mariner's signals of distress into signs of warning. He permitted them to send incendiaries to burn our cities; and now, to impress the lesson still more deeply, he permits the assassin to take the life of the first officer of the Government. No stroke could have been more impressive. Nothing could have struck more deeply. If this crime does not awaken us to a sense of the atrocity of the rebellion, and of the system which originated it, nothing can. It was perhaps needed to fix the national heart more unchangeably in its purpose; to root out the evil, utterly and for ever; and to lead even us of the North to a deeper penitence before God for our past complicity with the great crime against humanity and Heaven. If there is now in the loyal North a man who can longer apologize for slavery, let him be declared a reprobate, lost to all the feelings of humanity, blind to all the teachings of God's providence. If there is a man who can think of this deed of blood, and find it in his heart to utter one word of sympathy for the rebellion, let him receive the name of traitor, and suffer a traitor's doom. This atrocious crime will also, I trust, lead us to see the need of greater sternness in dealing with traitors. It should awaken the Government and the people to the necessity of visiting upon the originators of the rebellion, to which this deed of assassination is but a fitting accompaniment, the severest penalty of the law, if they shall fall into our hands. An ill-timed demand for clemency on the part of the Government towards the rebels had begun to pervade the public mind. Let no blood be shed; let us deal with the rebels as with erring brethren,—has been the exhortation to the Government, of would-be philanthropists. In the generous exultation of victory, there was danger that the claims. of war and justice might be utterly forgotten, and that posterity might be left to the inference that treason against a righteous government law was not a crime deserving of punishment. We needed some further manifestation of the awful guilt of this rebellion. We needed some stroke of crime that should, by its atrocity, startle us from our gentle mood. We needed some development of the diabolical spirit of the rebels, that should force the conviction upon us of the necessity of the sternest exercise of retributive justice, - positive in our dealing with the responsible authors of the rebellion. "Now let justice be done," was the suppressed utterance of all loyal men yesterday, as, with tearful eyes, they spoke together of our beloved Lincoln lying in his blood. That utterance was inspired by a principle implanted within us by the Creator, and its mandate should be heeded as the voice of God. We read in the Bible of a sin against God, which can never have forgiveness, either in this world or in the world to come. If there be a crime on earth that stands in a like relation to human law, of that crime have the leaders of this rebellion been guilty; and they should find no place for mercy, though they seek it carefully and with tears. The blood of our murdered President is upon them. Even if they were not cognizant of the plan of assassination, they should be held accountable for the crime as the legitimate issue of the wicked cause for which they are contending. The guilt of a hundred thousand murders is upon them. They are guilty of all the blood that has been shed in the course of this war, and of all the evil which it has brought upon the land; and it would be a sin against humanity, and against high Heaven, to remit one jot or tittle of the penalty they deserve. The blood of our murdered President, and of tens of thousands of our sons and brothers who have fallen on the field of battle, cries to Heaven for justice upon the guilty. We cannot disregard the cry, without making ourselves guilty before God. I encourage no spirit of revenge, no feeling of hatred toward our enemies. I simply urge the claims of justice. I believe it is one of the lessons which this event should impress upon us, that they should have justice without mercy who have shown no mercy. We look to the future, my friends, with anxiety. Our trusted leader is gone, and we are not sure that his successor possesses the qualities required for the discharge of such responsible duties. Let us put our trust in God. He will not suffer the cause of righteousness and truth to fail. He will give the needed guidance to our rulers, if we humbly ask it for them. His hand will guide us through the perils that are now before us, and yet bless our bleeding land with prosperity and peace. In the midst of our sorrow for the murdered President, let us not forget to pray for him upon whom the duties of the Government now devolve. He takes his great responsibility, he says, trusting in God. May the mantle of the departed Lincoln fall upon him! May he have the wisdom, firmness, and moderation, which are needed to guide the Ship of State through its dangers into the haven of peace! And may the whole nation, taught by this awful event the frailty of human hopes, put its trust in the God of Israel, and look to him as the source of national strength and prosperity! PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S DEATH: A SERMON Delivered IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NATCHEZ, MISS., ON SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 1865; BY REV. JOS. B. STRATTON, D.D., PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. A PSALMS, xi. 3: "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" GLANCE at the structure of the Psalm will show that David in this passage is quoting the language of some party, supposed to be in conference with him,—a tempter, we may call him, who is seeking by his suggestions to shake his fortitude, and corrupt his fidelity, as a servant of God. His opening remark, "In the Lord put I my trust," is his answer to these suggestions. "Why try to overthrow my faith," he seems to say, "by revealing to me the perils and calamities by which I am menaced? Why try to drive me into unbelieving despondency by arraying before me the machinations or the triumphs of human and satanic malice? Why tell me that the wicked are bending their bows, and making ready their arrows upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart? Why remind me, that the foundations are destroyed; that lawlessness and iniquity abound; that social order is broken up; that justice is driven from her tribunals, and even the majesty of Govern |