Year: 1865




"Blesssd is the man whom thou ehastenest. Lord


teachest him cut Of thy law That thou mayest give
him rest IRON the days of adversely, until the pit bC
diggsd for the wicked.-Pseins "a: xii and xiii
! We were gathered here, Friends, few days
since, to rejoice, to thank God for the great sue
cess which be had given to our arms. We had
gained possession of the person of the great
military leader of the rebellion, aud dissolved
his army. Little thought we that ere that day
should close the hand of the treacberOus assassin
would strike down our chief magistrate. Yet
| so it is. Boast not thyself of Tomorrow, for
thou knowest not what day may bring forth. =
Now we present contrast with the scenes OF
the other day. We come together TO mourn.
We who are here are only very small sec
ton of the great funeral assemblage. All over
the land is there mourning aud sorrow. l trust
there is not here man who does not feel him.
self personally a nourner. Every citizen has
lost personal friend and the grief is not unlike
the grief when we bury a father, brother, a
son husband A grand, solemn spectacle
presents itself to the eye of heaven to-day. A
nation is in mourning, such mourning too as
this nation has never felt before. A sad thought
is il, that the assassins and all who sympathize
with them, would carry us back TO the days of
barbarism. When the Roman Empire was tot
Ting to it's fall, it was often true that an En-
peror who became obnoxious to the hatred of a
party was put out of the way by assassination.
Those were the days of violence and bloodshed,
Jo,, ,,f M Guoh t,.,o,
such scenes would these miscreants bring back
upon us even in this noon of the nineteenth
century. What then must be the savage char
acter OF the men who can rejoice in such events
as the taking of life by the hand of cowardly
murder!


Our sympathies are naturally stirred by the
thought of an honest man cut off in an unsus-
pectiDg moment by the pistol shot of de-
praved william. He deserved better If a man
can suffer anything cruel, this is cruel IN the
extreme. The heart Of every man who has
heart, must be sorely panied by this. If man
had ever so many faults, we should forget them
all, and drop tear of sympathy when his foes
take such measures against him.





fiicted family of the murdered man What
must il he to the wife to have her husband bru-
tally killed by her side and to children to be
made fatherless SO suddenly, so wickedly The
heart bleeds for their suffering. Nor this farni-
ly alone claims our sympathy. We sorrow, too,
for the cruelties inflicted upon the Secretary of
State and his attendants. The assassin there
failed of completing his purpose. No thanks to
L. II, Al
dent was assailed because he had served US so
powerfully, SO faithfully.


But we have also our own personal relations
to this national bereavement. II speaks tO US.
The crime is blow at the heart of every lover
of his country, and true, constitutional liberty.
Suppose we were at the mercy of the men who
can resort to such means to carry their ends =
Suppose our public affairs were at their disposal
Behold the measures to which rebels resort to
get control of our affairs. Or, if you say that
the murderer of the President was never among
the rebels to give them military aid, behold
how much more detestible is a working SYM
pathizer than armed rebel. The plot was
formed against the liberties of us all. It was a
blow at us all Its work must be a grief tous
all.


But, let us turn to the text. The attentive
reader Of the Psalm must observe that at this
point the tone of the composition becomes more
cheerful and hopeful. The writer turns from
the mournful thoughts which had been dwell
ing IN his mind to more encouraging themes
There are three points which the analysis Of the
passage presents TO our thought aud which l
briefly notice.


lst. The Christening, and teaching out of the |
law OF God. Christening is about the same here |
as warning Teaching is out of the law OF God |
as its source. Gods law then, is the source, or /
treasure house out of which comes divine warn
ing and instruction. Blessed is the man whom \
God chastens and teaches out of his law
I'd. There is rest from the days of adversely /.
Gods Christening and teaching are given in or
der to this rest If you learn 10 view this Ian
guage from Hebrew point of vision, you will 1
not suppose that the days of adversely must
pass over before there can be rest from them
No! God can give his people rest from evil ev-
en while bearing its weight. The sun of deIiy-
erance often pierces the clouds Of misfortune
ong before they are lifted wholly up, and borne
away. But the rest will surely be given to
hose who receive the divine Christening and
oonhiNn J