The Washington times., 1901-09-16
THE LESSON OF SACRIFICE.
DIR. j. NJ. Ludlow's Eloquent Tribute
to the Presidents Memory.

AT the Church of the Covenant yester-
day morning the Rev. DIR. James NJ. Eud-
low, pastor of the Mum Avenue Pres
byterian Church, OF East Orange, n. j.,
delivered seNoon from Psalm xcvii1:
THE Lord reigneth." He said:
There is one throne that is never emp
ty, one administration that never
changes. Let US this Sabbath morning.
while our hearts are rent and our minds
perplexed, bow before that serene SOW
ereignty. whose wisdom, like the deep
azure of the sky, is undimmed by earth's
shadows, and whose righteousness and
benehcence are as exalted as the course
of the stars.
The text has been the stay of great
mems hearts in all the consternations of
history. 1t has given to the defeated in
the days battle the patience at last to
turn the whole tide of war. 1t has ever
made endurance exhaustless and duty
persistent to its final triumph.
The text has had some eloquent inter
observation-disclosures years ago our ma
tion stood over the PROSTATE form of
Abraham Lincoln; a whole people strick-
en- with a mighty sadness-aye, with Il
mighty madness; tossed with contending
passions of grief and fright and ven
a prophet, calm-faced, deep-eyed. with
faiths forecast His voice sounded across
the continent, God reigns and the Gov
ernment at Washington still lives
''The people felt the spell and took
heart That man had, of ali men, the
right TO be the prophet of God and the
spokesman of the American people, for
sixteen years later James Garfield was
himself to fall by the hand of an assas-
sin. Then, at his bier, the nation again
heard the great text His lips did not
move, but their silence articulated the
saying in the popular memory where ii
ever fingers.
we had a national prophecies in those
days. The mother of Garfield, bowed
broken hearted over he. stricken son, all
womanhood in the cry, Now | have moth
ing to live for yet quickly added-more
than womanhood or manhood, that di-
vine spirit moving her lips-'But God
knows best.
And now we have a new martyr pro-
phet. The mantle of Lincoln and Gar
field. bloodstained but radiant, has fallen
on William Mckinley. In the las; mo-
ment; when deaths dart, so mysteriousy
and cruelty started, has sienced the
brave heart, he gave this, his last mes
sage to the country, 1t is Gods way.
His will be done, not ours AS when
Joshua crossed the Jordan he saw one,
as "a man in honor come to lead the
forces Of Israel. our President crossing
that smaller stream we call Jordan, the
entrance line into vast futurity, seemed
to see his great commander face to face,
and murmured the words Nearer, My
God, to Thee, cen though it be cross
that raise:h me-
THANK God for the subiimity of our
national faith, as expressed by our great
typical heroes and martyrs. Let Us try
to emulate their calmncss.
Yet it is hard to be calm. Our
thoughts move from the quiet death
chamber In the Milburn mansion to the
Jail hard by where within walls of stone
eleam the eyes of the deinonized spirit or
anarchism. In oar Christian mildness we
often wonder why David wrote the i'm
precatory psalms Some things cannot
be appreciated by quiet thought. We
must be moved by the appropriate feel
ing: just as it takes wore than lisht.
the assayer's fire. 10 value metals one
beautiful morning in $50. that serenest'