Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Oh! surely, on this solemn occasion, my friends, I may ask you all, if the time has not come, when Ephraim should no longer vex Judah, nor Judah Ephraim? Behold to what we have come! Behold the horrid apparition which has suddenly started forth upon the canvas of our country's history! behold a bloodstained monster, reeking with the ferocious passions of the dark ages, striding across this Christian, American soil! behold the sad chapter which these last few days have added to those public annals whose opening pages our fathers' glorious deeds had made so bright, - and see to what we have come! And whither, by these tokens, are we likely to go, if we give ourselves up to blindness and infatuation? God has shown us what prodigies of wickedness, what enormities in crime, may be generated in the heated air of civil strife; and he has shown it to us,-I would persuade myself, -that he may constrain us to stop, and yield ourselves to his healing monitions. And is it not time? Oh! my countrymen my fellow-Christians - is it not time? Is it not time for the minister of God to rush in, with the censor of gospel love in his hand, and, standing between the living and the dead, plead for the staying of the plague? Is it not time for all contests among us to cease, but those of peaceful enterprise and honorable ambition? Is it not time for all strife to be suspended, but that holy form of it in which we shall provoke one another only "to love and good works"? Is it not time that our war-wasted and war-shattered land should at last have her sabbath's rest? Is it not time that those illustrious shades, the fathers and sages of our country, whose fame is the heritage of us all, — who, during these years of fraternal discord, have hovered about the halls of the Capitol, with their heads drooped, and their pale hands veiling the eyes which would not look out into the atmosphere, darkened by the smoke of battle-fields, where their children were shedding one another's blood, is it not time, that the tidings

a

of peace and reconciliation should come to throw radiance upon those clouded faces, and lift again those drooping heads, and kindle again the light of hope and joy in those veiled eyes? Is it not time, that we, their degenerate offspring, should come together, with softened and penitent hearts, to receive the benediction which their shadowy arms are stretching out to give us? Oh! it seems to me, the righteous man, the righteous woman, everywhere, will cry out, "Yes, yes! as God whom we serve, and in whom we trust, and to whom we have been taught to say, in every matter, Thy will, not ours, be done,'-as he shall offer us peace, we will accept it! His terms shall be our terms! His way shall be that which we will choose! and, in humble dependence upon his blessing to come with the peace he gives us, we will henceforth drop the instruments of war from our hands, and drive the spirit of war from our hearts!"

Oh! for a victory — a surrender — like this, all over the land! May the Spirit of God achieve it! and follow it with other victories and surrenders, until iniquity, in all its forms, and wherever it lurks in the corruptions of Government, Church, or people, shall disappear before the power of the religion of Jesus; and, on our broad territories, shall break the dawning splendor of that long day of righteousness, beneath the dome of whose benignant sky the regenerated earth shall enter into its millennial rest!

Courier, Natchez, Miss., May 6, 1865.

THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT:

A SERMON DELIVERED IN WILMINGTON, DELAware, april 16, 1865;

BY REV. ABIEL SILVER.

JOHN XI. 35: "Jesus wept."

ESUS wept; and well may man weep. Jesus, who had never

JESU

sinned, wept at the tomb of poor Lazarus. Yes, a human nature like ours, moved to compassion by the merciful Spirit of God, could weep. The sympathies of the assumed humanity, in their connection with the divine love of our heavenly Father, could feel for the distresses of mankind. That assumed finite nature was so filled with the Father's tender mercies as to weep with the sorrowing sister of Lazarus, and the weeping Jews who were present.

This act of the Lord is a high and holy example for us to follow in tender emotions for the afflicted. And what heart that is worthy a home in our beloved country' cannot join with the multitude in mingling his sorrows and tears with the general flood on the present mournful occasion?

[ocr errors]

This day a nation weeps. This day has been set apart by our Government, in order that all the people of the United States who love the country and its free institutions, all who are loyal to the Government, and rejoice at the downfall of the rebellion,all who appreciate the noble, self-sacrificing, and patriotic ser

vices of our late beloved President, may meet to express their united sorrow for his departure; their sympathy with the bereaved family, with the Government, and with one another; and to mingle their prayers in a united offering to our heavenly Father, for the continuance of his merciful providence over us as a nation, and for the final restoration of order and peace to our bleeding country, in accordance with the divine will and wisdom, and for the best good of the people.

About eighteen hundred and thirty-two years ago last Friday, the body of our Lord, which he assumed in this world, was crucified by the very people whom he had come to bless and save. It was put to death by wicked hands, which were cruelly raised against their best friend. And the anniversary of that appalling event has since been kept by the Christian Church as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer. On last Friday, April 14, 1865, the body of Abraham Lincoln, the kind and forgiving President of the United States, was put to death by the vile hands of a foul assassin, who took the life of the best friend which such traitors to our country had, or could reasonably expect to have, in this world. And long will that day be remembered, and its anniversary be noted, as the day when the good President died a martyr to the pure principles of justice, and the best rights of humanity.

Last Saturday, which is called Holy Saturday, because it is the anniversary of the day when the Lord was in the sepulchre, was also the day when Mr. Lincoln lay entombed in the apparently dead body before his resurrection. And a most gloomy day it was. Who that witnessed it in this country can forget the morning of April 15, 1865, as the startling intelligence passed from mind to mind. How the hearts of men sank within them, as the faltering voice and tearful eye declared the sad event! And how soon the trembling hands and sorrowing hearts spontaneously expressed their grief, by draping their residences and

the flag of their country in the deepest mourning! And, to add to the gloom, the sun himself seemed to withhold his shining. Clouds overshadowed the earth; and Nature herself wept, mingling her tears with those of the people.

Thus passed last Saturday. But, on Sunday morning, the natural scenery was changed. The sun rose clear and bright, removing some of the gloom from material things, and casting his hopeful beams upon the habiliments of mourning. This bright Sunday was the anniversary of the day when our Lord arose from the sepulchre, surprising and making glad the hearts of his disciples. And last Sunday was, no doubt, the day when Mr. Lincoln rose from the tomb of the body into the spiritual world. Thus he has passed through the valley of the shadow of death unhurt. He experienced no pain in the exchange of worlds. It is not probable that he was conscious of being hurt, or that he knew that his body was destroyed until after he had left it. Shocking, therefore, as the event was, it is a consolation to know that he had none of the pains and struggles of a lingering or convulsive death; and that he is now in the bright and cheerful world, in a substantial spiritual body, with all his kind affections, memory, and knowledge; that all who have loved him for his good, honest, patriotic, and benevolent qualities can love him still; that he is not lost to us: our hearts and minds can follow him home. Those of good hearts, who familiarly knew him and loved him, are not separated from him by means of his putting off the body.

All minds imbued with good and true principles are, to the extent of those principles, united to one another, particularly if they are acquainted, and love the good qualities of one another. And, when one of them puts off the natural body, it does not destroy that spiritual union, nor the influence which they may have upon each other. The nation, therefore, has not lost Mr. Lincoln,

« AnteriorContinuar »