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popular government in the free States, as against all factitious claim to sympathy and support made on behalf of an attempt to establish an oligarchical Republic founded on slave labor. His voice did as much as any other man's to keep the masses of the English people right on this great subject. He was, beside, the steady advocate of international peace. He had faith in Christianity as a religion of peace. Sixteen years ago, it was my privilege to meet him as a delegate to the Peace Congress then held in Paris. Then and there, I listened to his calm, cogent, and convincing speech on the main topic of the Congress. I do not know in what form he would have written his religious creed. But his expressed maxim was, "You have no hold on any man who has no religious faith." There was no narrowness about his religion. It was broad in its sympathies, and practical in its aims. He said he liked the Unitarians, "because they did not make their faith and works distinct." And, speaking as I do from a Unitarian pulpit, I may be pardoned for alluding to the fact, that Richard Cobden first tried his power as a public speaker in the Cross-street Unitarian Chapel Room in Manchester. And when he wanted help in any good cause, as he was heard to say many years afterwards, he knew he could always rely on the Unitarian young men of that city. When Richard Cobden, the son of a Sussex farmer, died, one of England's genuine noblemen passed away. When he died, the cause of human freedom and progress lost one of its most enlightened friends and devoted advocates.

In the midst of life we are in death. On the seventh day of this present month of April, the grave closed over the mortal remains of this conspicuous representative Englishman. Just one week afterwards, on the fourteenth day of this same month, an assassin's hand brought death to a conspicuous representative American. Abraham Lincoln and Richard Cobden, names fa

miliar in two continents, no, longer represent living men. Both have passed away from the scene. Yet, from a human point of view, how needful to their two nations were these two men! Both were lovers of freedom. Both were friends of peace. Each in his own nation was a pledge of peace toward the other nation. The removal of these two men about the same time is a notable and startling fact in the order of Divine Providence, — a fact, solemn, inscrutable, admonitory. How shall we interpret this double dispensation of death? And what use shall we make thereof? Brethren, the times are critical. War exists on this continent; and the spirit which breeds war is unhappily too rife here and elsewhere. What then? Are we not bound to look soberly and devoutly at passing events? And, as we stand at this hour by the freshly closed grave of Richard Cobden, and behold the murdered body of Abraham Lincoln passing along, amid a nation's wail, to its tomb, shall we not pray, and put our prayer into effort, that the two great and kindred nations, of which these two men were such conspicuous representatives, shall remain in amity and at peace each with the other? Every true friend of either nation must desire this, and can desire nothing but this. And all such persons should have a clear understanding of their duty at this juncture. The governments of the two countries are friendly and peacefully disposed. The most recent intercourse between our Queen's representative at Washington, and the new President of the United States, indicates a spirit of mutual friendliness, which goes beyond the coldness of mere formality. But, in contrast with this friendly temper of the two governments, we cannot but notice the unfriendly temper of certain classes of persons on both sides of the frontier line. By whatever name they are called on this or the other side, how different soever may be their origin on one side or the other, or apparently opposite their present party connections, their temper,

in this regard, is the same; and by their fruits they are known. Their purpose, jointly and severally, whether acting in concert or in seeming conflict, is to foment international strife, and fan the flame of ill-will. Their organs of expression abound with abuse of the United States on the one side, and of Great Britain on the other. Various motives prompt on the one side, and the other; but the thoughtful and clear-seeing eye will generalize the whole under one order of enemies to the true interests of both countries.

The day of peace was just dawning on this continent, when the assassin's deed threw a cloud of darkness over the rising dawn. But God rules. The rising day-spring of peace, I trust, will not be permanently clouded. I look with hope for the gradual restoration of order on this continent. But we must not be impatient, but bide the time of the Supreme Disposer. Meantime, as citizens of a Christian land, and still enjoying peace, let us follow after the things which make for peace, and wisely cherish the temper thereof. The changed situation of the parties to the present war will possibly lead before long to a changed attitude on the part of the maritime powers of Europe. Diplomatic questions may possibly arise out of the past; but none ought to lead to farther war. So far as Great Britain and the United States are concerned, I will venture to say, that no question can arise which ought not be settled amicably by commissioners mutually chosen. If this cannot be done, then I must blush for the Christianity and civilization of the English-speaking races of men. The news of President Lincoln's assassination will cause a shock of horror in Europe, as it has done in America. That murder is a blow which tells not merely on one man or one government, but on every man and every government. What man's life is safe, what ruler's life is secure, if the assassin can find his way behind him in the dark? As we stand in the present

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shadow of this great calamity, may our hearts be moved to deeper horror of that evil temper which urges to crime. And, as death presents itself to our notice from time to time, times in quiet, and sometimes in startling form,- may we be moved to consider afresh the sanctity and significance of the life which God has given us to live!

Christian Inquirer, May 27.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN:

A SERMON PREACHED TO HIS SOCIETY IN BROOKLYN, N.Y.

BY JOHN W. CHADWICK.

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ECCL. iv. I: "Behold the tears of such as were oppressed."

FORTNIGHT since I went away, and left you with a joy upon your faces that was all too deep for words. To-day, I come again, and find you smitten with a grief too sad for human hearts to hold. I trust that God would have permitted me, in case I had been with you when this terrible calamity came thundering down into your common life, to speak, not altogether foolishly, according to your sorrow and your need. I trust, beside, that your own hearts have prophesied how hard it was for me not to be with you. It may be that I could have helped you just a little. But you would have given to me a great deal more than I could have bestowed. And if, to-day, my words but faintly echo that which your sad hearts keep on complaining, will you not try to feel that they would have been better spoken, if, first, I could have seen the meaning of this sorrow written upon your faces, or felt it quiver through the trembling grasp of your right hands?

"Behold the tears of such as were oppressed." Shall I tell you why I took this sentence for my text? It was because I felt, that, when the news of Abraham Lincoln's death should find its way into the streets of Charleston and Savannah, into the tents

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