Abraham Lincoln | Page 8

commenced. Be sure that any man who will excuse an assassin, will himself do foul murder when he can shoot from behind a hedge, or strike a victim in the back. It is matter of self-defence to cast such from our midst. Let us have no violence, no lawlessness, but such persons must be persuaded to depart from us. "They are gentlemen." Booth was courtly in speech and mien. Have they been State officers? So was Walsh, whose house was a disunion arsenal. The time has come when we cannot permit men in sympathy with armed rebellion, which employs the assassin, to dwell in our midst.
Abraham Lincoln is no more. His work is done. We may not comprehend the mystery which permitted his removal at such an hour, in such a way. God hideth himself wondrously, and sometimes seems to stand afar from His truth and His cause when most needed.
Our leader is gone. His work is finished, and it may be that his Providential mission was fully accomplished. His memory is imperishably fragrant. WASHINGTON--LINCOLN! Who shall say which name shall shine brighter in the firmament of the historic future!
He is dead! In the Presidential Mansion are being said words of solemn admonition and godly counsel. In a few hours his remains will be on their way to sleep in their Illinois grave!
Dead! "How is the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod!"
Pray devoutly for the smitten widow and fatherless children of our Chief Magistrate. They are sorely stricken and God alone can heal them. To them it is not the loss of the Chief Magistrate that makes this hour so sad, but that they have no more a husband or a father!
And now that there has been sorrow in all the land, and the death- angel in all its homes, from the humblest to the highest, is not our expiation well-nigh wrought, and will not our Father have compassion upon us?
Let us devoutly pray the King of nations to guide our nation through its remaining struggle! It may be He means to show us that He alone is the Savior!
Let us implore Divine guidance upon Mr. Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States. He was faithful amid the faithless. He was true to the Union when few in his section had for it aught but curses. Pray for him. He comes to power at a critical time and needs wisdom from above. Confide in him. He will surely rise above the one error which temporarily drew him down. He is only hated by traitors, and when they hate, it is safe for loyal men to trust.
By and by we may understand all this. Now it passes comprehension, but we have seen so many manifestations of God's supervising agency when we least looked for it, that we may safely trust Him. He means to save us. Nay, blessed be His name, He has saved us!
His grand purposes will go forward. The wrath of man shall praise Him, and the remainder of wrath will He restrain. Remember, and take heart as you remember, the ringing line of Whittier.
"God's errands never fail."
He who rides upon the whirlwind and directs the storm, is neither dead nor sleeping, and He is a God who never compromises with wrong, and never abdicates His throne.

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