New Britain herald., 1915-04-19

 cntS.
 Good Friday Events.
 'It was the sort of a speech" com mented the New York Times, after Lincoln's death, "as Christian states man would gladly have his last-ear- nest, humane, truly religious, filled with forgiveness and good will"
 On April Petersburg was evacu- ated. On April Richmond surren- dered. On April the president visited Richmond. On April 9 at Ap- pomattox Lee surrendered to Grant. You who were unborn then cannot imagine the glad exultation with which men went about their tasks or their worship on that Good Fri day in April, 1865. For as the climax of the series of eliminating events, on that 14th of April Robert Anderson raised over the ruins of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, the identical flag which had been lowered and saluted by him on April IA, 1861, in surrender to the Con- 1ederates.
 In Washington, wrote John Hay, the day was one not so much of eXul- tation as of deep peace and thankful ness. It was the fifth day after the surrender of Lee; the first efferves- cence of the intoxicating success had passed away. The president had, with that ever present sense of respohsibil- ity which distinguished him, given his thoughts instantly to the momentous question of the restoration of the union, and of harmony between the lately warning sections. He had Tn defiance of precedent and even of his own habit, delivered to the people on the evening of the 11th from the window of the White House his we'll considered views on the measures de- nlanded by the times. His whole heart was now enlisted in the work of binding up the nations wounds. and doing all which might achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace"
 Shooting of Lincoln.
 Saturday morning my New York Times was late in arriving, not until almost half past nine did I find it on the door sill. Midway up the stairs the headline of the first column on the first page caught my eye. An Awful Event, the President Shot Last Night at Ford's Theater. No Possible hope"
 I uttered loud cry. then it seemed as if my heart stopped beating. I clutched the hand-rail. I sat down on the stairs, where my wire soon found me sobbing.
 "Oh, what is the matter" she said. l could not speak. I could only hand her the paper. She read moment and then was sobbing at my side. There were millions of us that morn ing-a whole nation of us-in tears. It was as when there twas d great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead"
 l went into the street, only to learn that the great soul that had borne for four dreadful years, the burden of his peoples agony. and who had equally suffered with the south as well as by them-was at rest. At twenty-two minutes past seven he dled, leaving look of unspeakable peace on his worn features.
 Work in the study was impossible that day The preparations for an Easter sermon were laid aside. In the evening a text came: God Is Our Refu,-e and Strength. A very present help in trouble" Next morning it rained but the storm, for once. did not thin the congregation. 1 went to the pulpit with my text and little else and to a weeping people seated within walls hung with the sombre draperies that symboliZed our woe. I gave with broken utterance the in- spi, q assurance of the divine help.
 Tho Shock to the People.
 I could not yet utter as my own and my peoples faith the human answer to the assurance of the text: "Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed" For we were not yet standing in that place of con- fidence. We were shocked, be- nl mbed, afraid. The fall from the height of the Good Fridays gladness to the depth of that Easter's gloom had paralyzed us.
 Monday noon I went to the Fulton street prayer meeting, then and for many years source or spiritual uplift for the whole country. If you could have heard the prayers, cries from the depths with now and then a gleam of faith. And the ad- dI esses with now and then a flash of vengeful anger, only to be rebuked by some following speaker ,as wholly contrary to the very divine charity of the beloved leader We had lost.
 On Wednesday. the 18th, reverent hands pore the body rom the White House to the funeral car which con- veyed it to the rotunda of the capitol, where it lay in state until Friday, when it began the long journey. In every church throughout the northern states there were church services that Gay. On Monday, the 24th the pro- Cession reached New York. With my friend, Dr. Strong, the father of your beloved former pastor l stood amid the vast throng that filled the southern area of tho City Hall park. The rain fell heavily. As the casl1et MaS borne LID the stems a thousand