Year: 1865

taken possession of Hisown soul when H(


prayed in the garden Father if it be pos
Isible. let this cup pass from me. Let me


be the worlds Savior, but let it be with


out the agony and the greater ignominy


of the cross But 1T could not BE-


How Justice is bettered by the suffering


of the innocent for the guilty is mystery


which we cannot solve. But that it is an
established law of being and progress, ou1


own experience is full of analogies in con-
frmation In the family, In the Church


and IN the State, whatever is really good
and noble has reference to others than
ourselves. What different is every moth
er darkening the windows of her own be-
ing in order that she may throw light up
on the pathway of her darling child, and
every missionary of Christ living, laboring,
dying under the shadows of pagan tenn
pies? He is immitating his master in


conformity with this law; the birth agonies


of one generation give life and manhood


to the generation that comes after.
t The analogy may be further extended,
| to the course and constitution of nature
| The richest harvests of Europe are gath


cred from the great battle-felds, the fair
| est flowers spring up where decay Is the


most complete, the silk worm fulfills her
destiny by spinning web of beauty from


her own bowels, the polyp whose birth
and life is but day adds his mite to the
coral reef that is aggregated into a conti-
nent in after ages.


That which IS true of him who is so far


above US, and of unthinking nature so far
| below us, shall we deny to man who stands


midway between the tWo2 Then was
Zeuxis, who declared that he painted for
eternity friensied mant; the builders OF
the pyramids had saved much labor by
constructing their monuments out of
sand.


If the doctrine of Hobbs be true that
all benevolence has its root and ground
work in selfishness, then is the term phi
| lanthrophist as applied to Howard mis-
name, the Declaration of Independence is
a mere specimen of rhetoric, and Christ
died of disappointed ambition.


This law of sacrifice is sometimes hard
in its demands, not merely because it de-
mands the voluntary surrender of self for
| the good of others, that is often easily
done and attended with the purest joy
| The mother watches the hours of night
away but they come and go like the foot
tread Of angels-she is beside the couch
of her darling child. The soldier of Ma
msuth and saved his General, died cheer
| fully and gloriously. Socrates was never
happier than when he heard the sentence
| of the judges that he was to die for his
philosophy, and many martyrs have been
| heard to sing and shout while their bodies
were wrapt In fame.


| But much of suffering is not self i'm
posed, there is no alternative it comes by
the behests of stern necessity. The mills
of fate grind slowly on, our wills, our eff
| forts, are as pOWerless as a feather upon
the waves But yet there may be allevia-
tions, if only we are waited toward the
desired shore. Let the seas be roughened
| if they make us skillful sailors and do not
send us to the bottom. Let the statuary
chisel away at the marble if he can only
make it speak, and the lapidary grind on,
/ if at last he can show US well cut dla-


mond 1T matters little what links OF


life are cut first, if we are ready for the
flight" said the striken wife as she pom


this great sorrow / was too forgetful OF


my Saviour; l shall make better mother


to my boys. Z"


| But there is deeper sorrow than all
| this, when we seem to suffer for no pur-
pose, when we are waited from and not to
| the shore, when the pillows of life rise
mountain high only to come down upon
US with heavier surge. Men sometimes
| die for want of tools to work with, they
famish in sight of full garners; women are
driven into crime by the thousand because
|
| To all such providence seems only anoth-
er name for cruelty. Behold a peo-


people guilty of no crime, downtrod-
| den, their manhood crushed, the lights OF
| their being gone out, so that there is to
them nothing brighter than the day, moth
ling darker than the night, no conception


of eternity. Such things have occurred


This New World, this fair young Ameri-
ca, Gods last, best gift t0 man, has been


the theater of such torture
! While the territories were being en-
larged to make room for slavery, and more


victims were brought by the middle pass


age, while human statutes were added to
/ iron shackles, the phiIanthropist who died


a decade ago, might have gone out of the
world with the song of doubt upon his


lips


| 'fhe day is quenched and the sun is fed,
| God has forgotten the world


| The moon is gone and the stars are dead,
| God has forgotten the world


Few even in the North, but thought the
great Boston abolitionist guilty of sacri-
| Iege, when he said John Brown made the
gibbet upon which he was hanged all glo-
| rious ike cross.


ing on, and a daughter Of that same old


hero is teaching colored school in the
very house where the death warrant OF
her father was signed.


| The day is returning with a fresher boon,
! God Is remembering the world;


Night will come, but with a brighter moon,
God is remembering the world.


! We do not now fear the charge of bias
phemy when we institute a comparison
between the Savior's passion and the sac
rifce of the nation sons for the nation s
ransom. The parallels are not perfect,
the analogy is not complete. This is hu-


man, that was divine; this is merit, that
was duty But both are vicarious-life
for life voluntarily given. Neither could


accomplish their purpose without the
sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood
there could be no remission. Mysterious
indeed, that infinite wisdom with infinite


resources at his command, could devise
J no other plan than the unbosoming of his
own son for the worlds redemption
Strange and terrible necessity, that the
blood of a million of freemen should be
the price of the nation ransom. But SO
it is; and when the nations crime is once
expiated, when every yoke shall be bro
ken, and rebel States become loyal again
and peace shall spread her white winged
banners over every part of the national
{ domain, what widowed wife or mother
} bereft, will regret the sacrifice and say il
E has cost me too muoh-let us have slav-
] cry back and treason back-only restore
t my son. There have been men mean anC
t cowardly enough to shrink from the con.
. test. We have had President who sign.
f ed the fugitive slave lao for the sake o.


peace, and President who gave up the
. I