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"GOD's" WAYS UNSEARCHABLE,

^ DISCOURSE.

ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT LING OLE,

PREACHED BEFORE THE

©Mufl Wtnl^imm ^m%u%'d^\\m.

IN KOZABT HA'LL, PITTSBURGH, PA.

SUNDAY, APRIL 93d, 1865

Rev. HERRICK JOHNSON, Pattof.

 ¦ <»¦ ¦ 

W. fl-.^*lui>t»s * 0*., Matns, StaUsMra nnd Btiuik Bvitk Wafcatrji, »T Wood atreet, PittsBtursrk.

'GOD'S WAYS UNSEARCHABLE"

© the depths of the richet, both of ihe wisdom and Jcncwledge of .God .'
Sow unsearchable are his judgments and his tcays past finding ovif
Fqr who hath known the mind of the Lordf or, who hath been his
tvunssUor? or, who hath first given to him and it shdU be recom
pensed unto him again.? For of him and through him and to him
are aU things; to whom be glory forever. Amen. — Rom. XI: 33-36. 'i
It was with these words, my people, that I had thought to lead you
in a jubilant song of triumph -Abd of praise. I had already selected them
»s the basis of a discourse commemorative of our' recent victories.', But!,
while I paused for official hand to write proclamation of thanksgiting,.
summoning the' people to their altars with offerings of grateful joy, that
band grew cold and stiff in death. The spirit that moved it, now praises-
God,' I trust, in such golden speeeh as ig coined in the mint of heaven.
But a bereaved and stricken nation has no heart for gladness.- The-
kimultuous acclaim over martial triumphs, is. hushed in the billows of a
great grief. Shotted salutes for victories give place to minute guns of
woe. Our carol is changed to a plaint. Our paeans of joy to wails of
sorrow. Chords are struck in the peoples hearts that vibrate only to-
mournful music. The nation is in sackcloth. And to dky we weep onr
tears over the bier that contains all that was mortal of our beloyed and
honored Chief Magistrate, Abkaham Lincoln.
Yet the words, whofe consideration I had deemed apprbpriato to »•
iay of thanksgiving,, strike me as alike consonant with the changed oir-
•umstances in whioh we now come to our altars. The great truth they
embody is as fitted to stay our hearts in the shock of disappointment, a&
to inspire our hearts in the gladness of achieved success. Indeed, this-
last act of the bloody drama, whose changing scenes we have witnessed for
four years with such terrible interest, gives completer illustration than any
act that has gone befoi-e it, of the truth that God's judgments are unsearch
able and his ways past finding out. And no other event in the whole-
history of the war has given such startling emphasis to the question, Who-
hath known the mind of the Lord? or, who hath been his counsellor?'
While better than by our victories will it be for us to be brought by this^
(reat woe to a clearer recognition of God, and even out of our stony
srief to say, "Of him and through him and to him are all things : to whom
fce glory forever. Amen."
That God reigns, that in the government of human affairs he has i
plan, and that the accoinplishment of that plan is by jtidgmenta tut'
Bcarchable and ways past finding ont — waysjiot ours and of which, we liav«

tad BO thought'or conception, until their revelation has struck men dumb
with astonishment and bewildering wonder — are truths emphasized and
•orroborated with remarkable frequency and remarkable power ever since
•file outbreak of our civil war. •«
The, war itself, in its scope and significance, in its length and vastness
Aud unlooked for results, in its waste and desblation and havoc, in its high
and grand redemption, is a thing of which we never dreamed. So
•pposed to human expectation has it been — so unlike the prophecy both of
friend and foe — so contrary to the purpose both of loyal and disloyal hearts.
Our newly sworn President was right, when he said, in full recognition of
the dealings of an inscrutable Pro-yidence, " I shall not attempt to antici
pate the future. Had any man gifted with pre-science, four years ago
Tittered and written down in advance the events of this period, the story
vonld have appeared more marvelous than anything in the Arabian
Vights." More marvelous indeed. Fiction sinks into the utterest and
tamest common-place before these wonderS of fact. '
We of the North thought to lay the strong iron hand of the Government
•lown upon this petty revolt and crush it in ninety days. God's way was
to soak our soil with gorei and redden our rivers with blood, and thicken
the very air with groans for four long years, before we should subdue it.
They of the South thought to call the roll of their slaves at Bunker Hill.
Clod's way was that the roll of those slaves should be called under the
folds of a free flag, as soldiers of the Army of the Union. And thus it
has been all through these trying years. Wc have thought our ways ac
cordant with the ^ill of God,, and they have proven to be athwart it. We
have deemed ourselves wise in forecasting, the future, and events as they
lave transpired, have written us fools for prophecy. We have sought to
be counsellors of the Lord, and he.ha^ been his own, bringing to pass his
'.unsearchable judgments amidst sucli amazing surprises, and by foiling
, ichemes so ripe for execution, and when it seemed as if the very hour had
• struck for their success, that the instinctive feeling of even irreligious men
hag been, It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
A bare enumeration of events that go to substantiate this idea, is-
impossible in the brief hour allotted to this discourse. The simplest ref
erence to, a few of the most signal and prominent must suffice.
The first mortifying failure of our arms at Bull Kun may be instance)!
as proof of our ignorance; of, the mind of tho Lord.
And right upon the heel of that national humiliation, the people's cry
was for a Leader. . We were ready to mak^ an idol of him who ehould
xedeem us from that great shame, by marshaling our armed hosts and
leading them out to victory. The man came whom we thought equal to
the crisis, and we were almost run mad with hero-worship. The country
rang with his idolatrous praise. But God broke our idol to our faces.
And he has not allowed us to enthrone another since. The honors of vic
tory have been so divided and shared by those in civil and military
position, tl}sit the nation is in no danger of being swept away by a passion
ate idolatry, or of bpwipg down to a hero as to a god confessed. Even
the lamented dead, notwithstanding his prominence and personal worthi-
-aeee, and conspicuous agency and commanding influence, was always made
by an inscrutable Providence to appear in the eyes of the people simply aa

the Lord' s instrumfint^-i I. deeiji it a thing of God, that r..o mfin in» the
cabinet 'or in the field, has been tli^ru.st to suchunrivaled eminenop dii^ been
permitted tb boar off. so many and 'guch peerless honors, as' to leave us &,
nation ,^f. idola ters, with ow trust in an arm, of flesh. To day, more trtily
t)ian ever, we,"j),oV 4i"^ '.believe, as in^ the hiish of silence, in,, awe of this
new projf of r the mysterious ways of God, ^'^e listen to a. v'oice fro^n the
openiDg. heavens'; saying, " Be still, and know that I am G.-vd. .1 will be
exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted' in the earth." , - .'
Still fui'iher is it seen that tl\e judgments of the most High ard unsearch
able in this : that while id the beginning o.f the strafe we sent heralds and
proclamations .in advance .of bu.r armie.«, announcing to traitfrrs that the
institutioH which' had given, birth to treaspji, and nursed the foul offspring
"until it grew',strong. enough to, attempt tlWUfe,of the nation,.wa^ pot to be
interfered 'with , God's purpose was to makefthis war the instrument of eo
upheaving ' that institution, that of its foundations, -riot on& stone slioidl be
left upon another. _ Fools and 'blind at first,, .we found out tho ^sj^ay of the
Lord at last, and he, whose fopgue' shall iiever speak God's truth to ,the
nation again, made official recognition of* it, .in words that should be engra
ven on our hearts forever. Solemnly, reverently, as if moved , by an
impulse fromon high, he said in his Xite inaugural, " If God wills that
this mighty scourge ,of , war continue until-all the wealth'pil'jd by the. bopd-
man's.two hundred and fifty years ot unrequited, toil shall be sunk, arid.
until 'every ,dpop, of blood dr^wn, with the ,la^h' shall bo paid by, anpther
drawn 'with Ih^ Siword, as was'.'said three thousand. ye'ars.ago, SQ^stiU.it'must
"be said, tltat the judgments of the Lord, arp tniei.and.righteo,u^,.altogetner,''
•LiUle dreamed that Child of Providence,' and man of the' people, as he
stood. there .oh the platfofrji erected, over the steps of the East .entrjiripe' of
the tJapitol, his forehead, kissed by the sun-light that c%mp streaming down,
through the r.ifted clpudj^' from .heaven, and that i rested there on .((hat
bron'zed:,and care-worn bro.w, ;a};.if it^vjere a smile from Gpd— little dreani-
ed_he, interpreting me,, ways 'pf thfj Almighty in those memorable wprfl'^,
that his .own blsod was a . part of, t^,e price tp. be paid for ,thp'.t)ppdmaij's
years of suffering and unrequited toil, j^ut God so willed it. ' And for
this more than for ^H else,.. ani. awe-s^uoji, people, through their blin^^ing
tears,, Ibpk "up, and say, "How unsearchaj?le ,are, tljy judgments, and.^hy
way^.pastifinidlng out." , * . „' ',,
Ah, 'here indeed, God'si thought was,not pi}r,.t|iought. ^^ If, at this psa;-
ticular juncture iri'fiur affairs, .jye,had been asked,, wfip pf the honored and
trusted leaders could least ^p spared, \ye should all have answered ^VbRAIiAjM
LigcpiiN. Yet thi^ was. not the way.rof the j^ord. In Hi§' .sight, he opioid
best be spared. Linked as he, was ,with -eve^y, national interest, gpnspicii-
•iis ks he appeared; in. all ^h»t,,pcncerned the.welfare of the Republic, kept
as' he had been ihiough periis'seen and ijnseen, essential as he se«^ed.^|o
the completion; of the workj h'e^.9i4. so ujodestly,,and yet so gjana].y be^^p
'aiid proseoutea,' the. Chief 'of^ the N£^tian,.the trusted Jeader of a,, regenera
ted and, disenthralled people,' tne proved pilot who had brought, the Sl^ip of
i^tate through storms, whose '^p;w|jng .fierceness aiid., tempestuous wrath
lilanched crery cheek, the God-fearing ^nji God-honoring^ riian,.rwedde^ to
liberty by .% .devotion tiipit made him, prefer; death tp, its surrendei;, toucamg
thsk'thro'l^bing .pulses ofr,t^ieipep^le's hearts' to regulate his own,' so true (to

{ruta, BO free from malice, so calm amidst the troubled sea of passion thaf
roared and surged around him, so cautious and conscientious in reaching'
decision, yet so immovable when once resolved, so like a child in guileless-
ness, yet so stanch in moral frame, as if his nature were ribbed dn^»
muscled with eternal truth, leaning on the hearts of his countrymen with
•nly less confidence than he leaned on the right arm of God, one of "the
wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best" of all earth's rulers — who would have
prophesied that he would be moving through the coramonwealths of the
•ountry to-day, speaking only from his shroud ? Who of us thought on
the morning of Apiril 14th, as we grasped the cup of thanksgiving, that it
would so soon be dashed from us, and this wine of bitterness pressed to out-
lips ? It was God's thought, my hearers. If we had been his counsellors.
we should have known it all. 'But He is a God that hideth himself, and
his judgments are unsearchable. Canst thou hy searching flnd out God ?
Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? And His ways are as
inscrutable as his being is. This last, the most inscrutable of all. The
saddest that ever concerned our,nation. The bitterest, fearfullest stroke
•f all the war. Over it, brave, strong men have sobbed amost to-
heart-break. On account of at, little children have hushed their gleeful
laugh and cried in the street. Because of it, the poor freedmen have^
gathered the shreds of crape and muslin swept from the doors of the rich,
and sewed them together and stretched them across the doors and window*
of their own rude homes, to symbolize their humble but ^ncere sorrow.
An old gray-haired negress, held her little grand-child above tlje heads of
the crowd thronging to take a last look of the fallen form of the martyr-
President, saying, ih deep emotion, "she wanted that little child to see the
man that inade her free." Hardly had' there been such lamentation in the
land, had the first-born in every house been slain.
0, we seem to see him now, that high pure soul, who conld say he "never
¦willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom," as be stood before the nationi
¦when about to take his first ofBcial path, pleading with the South to pause,.
ere they plunged the country into an abyss of blood and hotfror. "In your
hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen," said he, "and not in mine, is the
momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You
ean have uo conflict without being yourselifes the aggressors. Tou have
no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have
the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend' it. I am loth to
elose. We are not enemies, bnt friends. We must nbt be enemies.
Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot
grave to every living heart and hearth-stone all .over this broad land, ¦will
et swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
16, by the better angels of our nature." It was thus he closed the most
affecting appeal ever made to a disaffected party against t)ie madness and
crime of treason. But, alas ! .the better angels of the hearts to whom he
made appeal had left them, and fell spirits of evil struck the chorda.
He stood there again, the loved and trusted President, to take his second
oath. The rude 'shock had corae. Tho country had gone down into
the dark abyss, but was emerging now on the other side. Still, however,
(he path oiiward wa< ragged and bloody and full of peril. Have' four

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years of war, with such hate aud passion, and scorn and calumny, and
cruel, bitter defamatioii as have been bom of them, tainted that high, pure'
sbul, or put a thought of malice in it ? Let the closing ' words of his last
inaugUral answer. " With malice toward none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him
¦ff-ho shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphans : to do all
which may achieve a just and * lasting peace among ourselves and with
all nations." There speaks the same gentle, loving, merciful heart, that.,
so affectionately and touchingly pleaded ere full armed treason plunged the:
nation into the horrors of this fratricidal strife. Vindictive wrath and.
hate have done their worst, but they have waked no. echo in his bosom .-
Abraham Lincoln has firmer Jwld oftriUh and God and the people's hearts. -
That is all.- -
A few weeks later, and the Ruler, who, of all the men that ever lived, .
made war with a Christian spirit, was seeking, under the inspiration of deci
sive victory, with paternal and generous magnanimity, his heart full of"
charities and pai-dons, to effect conciliation. The nation knew that that man
liest and gentlest of spirits was ©pposed to all avoidable severity, and ''the ¦
advocate of largest overtures of mercy to the criminal assailaqts. At the ¦
very threshold of the gate of peace he was about'to open, he was brutally
and cowardly assassinated. With forgiveness in his heart for them, and »>.
plea for their pardon on his lips, they shot him dead and murdered, mercy.
There is nothing in all the reeords of regicides or annals of crime that •-
transcends this, save the scene at .Golgotha, where, from the blopdy orpss •
on which his murderers had nailed him, and amidst their jeers and scoflfs, .
the lips of the dying Son o^ God moved with the- prayer,. " Father forgive;
them : they know not what they do."
It was most foul and atrocious deed. To name it is toexpose its malig-'-
nity and horror. And yet, — and yet, my hearers, though>his charities aind*
nobilities and virtues, all "plead like angels, trumpct-tongued,. against the
deep damnation of his taking off," it was best that he -should die. Best,
because God's way, not ours. Best, not for the assassin. "It must needs
be that offences come. B-ut wo to that man by whom the offence corheth."
The name of J. ^Vilkes Booth is indissolubly and forever linked with that
of him of whom Jesus said, "It had been good for that raan if he had not
been bom." Best.not for the South. The gloved hand of justice and powen
is naked now, and it is of iron. But best for the great cause of God. It
was God's way, not ours. Se was not taken by surprise. He is not disap
pointed. A thousand swift messengers of His could have sped from the
four winds of heaven, from earth and air and sea and sky, to foil the foul
plot, though it were laid with all the craft and subtlety of hell, if He had
so willed. If He controls armies and organizes victory for theni, may he
not control men ! If He ¦winged the arrow, shot from a bow at a venture,
which smote the king of Israel between tho joints of the harness, has he
nothing to do with tho fatal ball of the fire-arm in the hand of a ruffianly
assassin! If it was His proridenpe that called oar beloyed Chief Magistrate
to the kingdom for such a time as.this, was it not His-prpridence tha^ bade-
the faithfid servant " eome up higher," when his work was done? We
wonder, indeed, that Ihe thunderbolts of God were still, when that ara was.

raised to do the, cruel, deadly deed of causeless murder ; but that infinitely
wise and- holy, purposes will be ans-vyeVed by it, it'is not'pormitted t?s to
doubt,; For of him gnd through and to him are all things. ' ' ';'
7, Gathered about the. fallerf form o^ oiir latnq'iitcd President, -we fortify;
6iir''heyi''ts with this" sublimest truth,' and re-dedicato ourselves to the work
in, which lie diei a martyr. Beneath the laurel'-irid tho willow the bowed
heart of the nation pays its tribute. of unutterable sorrow,to the memoi'y
of its lOved'^pd lost leader. Like Moses, he had brought us through the
¦wilderness,'-^' Like Moses, in the midst ot all pur '-pej-ils and trials, "he
endured ig seeing him who is invisible." Like Mo.ses, he did n'ot escapO'
the murmurings of the people. Maj^God forgive us, if our oomplsiints
laid one added burden on his poor, patient, loving heart, lie was per-,
mitted at last to. climb Pisgah's height,' and, to ravish his sight' witii the
, golden vision of union and ,peao8. That deep', sad, sorro-vfiil eye of his
was lighted up with the da,wii of a.morniag he had prayed api longed, for
all our dark night, the darkest through whiph nation' eypr passed to day.
Upon the summit of the'moiint he stood and Lokcd, a,nd lu was not — for
God tpok him.' , " '' , , . ' ' '
¦,Xhere are 'ii 6 broken lives in -God's plan. ' Ai?k.iu.i.m Lincoln's ¦ Had
rounded into perfect completeness, and he was called home. S-^cred
be 'the commonwealth th,at entomb-s 'him.' The gentle .flowers of the
prairie make room for ' uis grave. Aud , not "another in all the earth
¦shall' -ever be bidewed with thd tears of i' people's prouder pr' fonder
affection.. Kear cenotaphs to his memoryi 0, mourning iaat redeemed
nation ! Lqt -(Treaths of fadeless laurel be woven for his burial place.
Yet, know that his deeds .shall Be his noblest monument ; and believe that
Ged ha^' given him' '"' truer crbwn than .any- 'wreath that man can weave
h'im-." '' ' ¦ ¦¦ , ' "
¦ Itu?' - -
And 'nt)W, what to the living? This, first and most manifestly: Oar
trtfit -is not tp he iii an arm of flesh, but in the living God. " Cease ye
from man whose'b;"eath is, in his nostrils.; for wherein i?''he to bd accounted
of?" When Massillon 'stood, in that crowded cathedral by thd coffin of a
King, and saw lying there the cold and 'shrouded form of him whose, wiU
ndliiopS had obeyed and feared, he lifted hi^ hand tp' heaven aud .said, —
" God only is great." On Friday, April 'I'i,, Abrauaji LrNCOi.x, in all
the investitures of power,. 'wa's-thepeer or ^uptrior of any King on earth.
Butin ,a jlight, shorn of, evei-y vestige Of authority,.he' passed,' u naked
humaii soul, tp,the bar of God. His ebmniajidlDg career, the incrpasing
nikrverof ,fhe -world, was ended by a pistol shot. The impersonated malice
and hate df,'tir"eifeon's fell spirit, changed the comniander-in chief of a half."
million af-med, men, And the civil ruler of thirty ^nilHonspf people, to a
lump of lifclefes clay. "God only is great!" And God is not dead.
Truth'&nd-God Upver die. With Him the nations ard as'a drop pf a bucket
— He taketh up tlie isles as a very little thing. • He 'bringeth the princes
tp'nbthing; 'He maketh.-'tKfe judges of the.earth as vanity. He fitteth
down one and settet'H ^p' iiijother. But there are no chsin^es. on. *Aa(«
throne."'"' 7fe lives ifad'frUles Vho has kept us thus far,, aiid whose right
ai-ni of powfer' ho 'tfiie 'fel'^ need of, more'" than the lamented dpad. 'We
have lost oui^President— but' the President's God i^oW'Gbd sttlV, "TrU'^t.
hiDb; y6 people," is ohe of the voices out of the mfm'Wiho dfoud.' ' ^'"^

This, secondly, is to be said coneerning the event that has draped the
land with symbols, of sorrow : Jtl^as given another signal vindication of
Sepublican instit-ikions — of government by the people. Liberty, takes on
new courage from this hour forth. She. has received a new baptism of
blood, and lives : and assurance deepens in men's hearts that she is placed
beyond the manacle and the sword of her foes, now and forever.
No doubt the assassins thought to make such record) that, dark night of
death and blood as should lead tb national idismemberment. They looked
for division in consequence of the anarchy they hoped to effect. Ah, th,e
murderous blow struck away all our past differences and welded us into
compactest unity. Over the dead body ofthe slaughtered Chief, a united
people took renewed oath of consecration to finish the work which he died
in doing. Four hours after his spirit took its flight, the official oath was
administered to his lawful successor, and the Government moved on with
out jostle or pause. Great financial revulsions, and the overthrow of
public credit would have been the almost inevitable effect of such an occur
rence in many nations of the Old "World. But even this most sensitive
fiber of our system suffered no derangement whatever from the shock.
Bievolntion would follow swift in the wake of such assassination in France.
Here, the wheels of government are npt stopped for a moment. Neither
the permanency of our institutions nor the regular administration of our
laws is in the slightest degree affected. It is impossible to estimate the
weight this fact wUl carry with it, among despotisms. Out of this last
and saddest trial the Bepublic has come, more wedded to its cause, more
true to its fundamental idea, more united in its purpose,, to root out every
fiber and vestige of rebellion, than ever. Who shall doubt that the fruit
•f its past shall pale before the glorious yielding of its future, when sttch
martyr-blood has moistened its soil.
Another voice out of the midst of the cloud is this : that the spirit 0/
this rebeUion is revealed before all the world as most malignant and atro
cious. Perhaps this last exhibition was needed, in the providence of God,
to keep the plotters of "treaso-n from playing the role of martyrs. It puts
an eternal stigma upou their cause, and sends it down to posterity loaded
-with infamy.
The plot of assassinatipn may not be traced to the leaders of the rebel
lion. I trust it will not be. Possibly they did not know of this foul con
spiracy. But it was born of their spirit. It had its inspiration in their
madness. It was the culmination of , their savage and God-defying rage»
And it is as indissolubly linked and welded to their cause, as if they themr-
selves were the proven and principal actors. Ah, if they did not do the deed,
they gave the doers some bloody instruptions. Proposals for Mr. Lincoln's
assassination were coolly and openly made in the South, and circulated
without word of remonstrance through leading journals, even before his
first inauguration. This was in the midst of wholesale perjury, through
repudiation of their official oaths. And crime has since' been linked te-
•rime. They have starved and murdered our prisoners. They have
sought to fire the largest metropolis of the nation, full of helpless women
and children. Thy hare waged their deadly strife by acts wholly Wtsidfe

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the 'pale of civilized warfare. Truly' thpy had been guilty of crimson hor
rors enough, to make this last not so utterly beyond their agency and
•onnivance. "',
And what was their treason itself? Was it anything less than that, of
whifh this crime is the personification ? Was npt that a blow at the Nai-
tion's heart? A.nd did it not mean death to the Nation, as truly as the
blow that struck d6wn its head and chief? Perhaps there was danger of
our forgetting this, and of failing to regard this great wrong of treason
with our righteous abhorrence. Perhaps we were growing too oblivion*
ofthe fact that association in cirme involves individual guilt. Such coun
tenance do masses give to great iniquities. So common is it to lessen ouir
estimation of the heinousness of damning deeds^,' where great communities
and organized though rebellious governments are the doers. But that
danger, I believe, is past. Hencefprth, forever, by this last accursed plot,
born of the spirit of slavery, itself the child of hfell, God in his provide,nce
has made this rebellion so odious and abominable in men's eyes, that loy
alty to this free government will be a thing they daretuot trifle with.
When this blow fell, planned in the interests of treason, it struck both
ways. It slew our President, indeed, but the backward stroke branded
the brows of the leaders of this, dark conspiracy with the brand of Cain.
Fugitives and vagabonds shall they be in the earth, though they escape-
the halter. The voice of the blood of the martyred President, and the
voice of the blood of thousands more, as truly. martyrs as he, will cry unto
them from the ground ; and though their hoarded , gold buy them the
privileges of a dwelling place on some spot of earth, they will go down
with sorrow to the grave, their punishment greater than they can bear.
There comes another voice out of the midst of the cloud — justice t'
There is such a thing. God is just. Justice is the hmitation of his
throne — yea, its foundation'.. His governmeflt rests upon it. His law
-rests upon it. There can be no government, human or divine, if justice
be ignored. Men's moral convictions are on its side. Within their bosoms
i& implanted, of God the love of it. '. They do riot always know justice.
And when they do know it they do not always conform to it. They are
taken in some swoop of passion, or are o'ver-attracted by the magnet of the
affections, or they get in soine bog of sickly sentimentality, and are biased
¦and blinded. But justice is, natUrallyj to the conscience, as light is to the
«ye, or truth to the intellect, or sentiment to the heart. Thus constituted,
we must be true to it, or false to our own nature and so false to God. ' It
is as much our duty to do justly, as to love mercy and to walk humbly.
This quality has relation to law. If law is mere advice, justice is »
force. If law is command, sustained by penalty for its violation^ then
justice is vindicated as a reality. In human government this is so. , In
God's government.^ If in either, penalty is laid aside, without meeting the
claims of law and vindicating justice, sooner or later, there will be anarchy
and chaos. Calvary's' cross and Calvary's victim, that divinest pro6f of '
love and forgiveness God ever gave the world, was possible; only aa itiesi
orable justice there poised her scales. The innocent , Sufferer would never
have prayed "Father foi-givathem," if his sufferings and death were not.
even then making \tj\ist for God to forgive. t" ^

11
Guilt, therefore, must be expiated. Crirae must be atoned for. Offend
ers against law, mnst suffer the penalties 'of law. To the extent that we
fail o^exaeting this up to the utmost requirements of the public safety and
the general good, to that extent we harm justice and open upon ourselves
the flood-gates of lawlessness. " The soul that sinneth, it shall die," is not
an arbitrary edict of naked power, but the enunciation of a principle pro-
eeeding from the very nature and being of God.
¦Perhaps we were in danger of ignoring this fundamental quality. I
think we were. In our joy at the prospect of pe.ice, and on account of the
difficulties that surrounded the whole question of the settlement of the pro
tracted strife, we were being led to feel and act as if secession was not a
great crime. Under the inspiration of victory, we were tempted by undue
leniency to hide the infaray and the ruin of the rebel leaders, and to palli
ate the criminality of their course. It may be that, we were on the point
of taking back 'a nest of vipers into our bosom to nurse them there until
they gathered envenomed power sufficient to strike at our heart again.
We all know the breast of our smitten chief did never shut its 'gates of
mercy on them. That humanest heart of his was full of charities, And
tiiough I believe he would sooner have died than purposely betrayed jus
tice, perhaps his was too kindly a nature for the stern work of righteous
retribution, that God has especially commissioned governments to execute
upon evil doers. So God took him away from war's turaults and from
retribution's ungrateful office, — home.
But his taking off, by wicked instrument, was a startling and terrible
revelation of rebel malignity. And the sharp report of that deadly pistol
shot has flashed the word justice through the Nation's heart. 0, does it
not seem that God would thus write on our national records, in the blood
of a martyred President, that treason is the highest and the blackest of
orimes, and that its punishment must be adequate and inevitable.
Surely this is one of the interpretations to. be put upon the event we
mourn to-day. But let it y^ justice, not vengeance. "Vengeance is mine,
I will repay," saith the Lord. Peusonally, we have no right tb cherish
other than the spirit of forgiveness, and from our heart of hearts to pray
for them. And in our governmental capacity, as a power ordained of God,
we are to bear the sword with the solemn investitures that befit such high
ordainment. Blind passion, illegal violence, reckless dealing out of retri-»
bution, will only defeat the ends of justice, and lift the conspirators in the
eyes of mankind, from the ignominious doom of traitors, into the welcome
«ie vation of heroic martyrs.
Np. Let, the grave of Abbahau LI^coLN be unpolluted by the blood
of Americans slaughtered for revenge. But, if the culprits shall at last bt
brought under the police arra of national power, with all the solemnities
of high judicial process, let them be proceeded against; and adjudged
guilty of treason, as they will be, solemnly, holily, before the nation, und
the world, and God, let us express our righteous abhorrence of their crime
by meting out its' righteous penalty. Thus shall we show that national
honor and unity and life are held so precious, that no man or men shaS
oauselessly put them in peril and go free from punishment. Thus shaA
we show that loyalty to this gorernment of freemen is a sacred and parar
mount obligation, to be thrown off only less easily. than loyalty to God.
Of whom and through whom and to whom are all things ; t« whom b«
glory forever. Amen.

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of
STUART W.JACKSON
Yale 1898