With child-like trust in God, he was divinely led. Sustained by the prayers of a great people, he was made, under God, the benefactor of his race. Millions of freedmen rise up to call him blessed. As the ages roll on, his name will brighten. His was a mind of superior power. His a character of beautiful symmetry. The circumstances under which he was reared, as well as the natural disposition of his heart, made him preeminently one of the people. He thought as the people thought, felt as the people felt, and was, in the noblest sense, our brother.

The elevation of such an one from the humbler walks of life to the highest position in the gift of the people, shows the genius of our American institutions. Without material wealth, or family renown; without liberal advantages for learning; without literary at tainments to distinguish him; enured to toil and hardship, he rose above his fellows by virtue of superior natural endowments of mind and heart.

It is the glory of American institutions that they open the way to greatness and renown to all however humble. "All men are created equal" shall be our motto forever. In what other land and nation could the elevation of one in such humble circumstances to such a position, have occurred? Trees of such luxuriant growth and maturity are indigenous to no soil but ours.

His was a noble and generous nature. He was true to the interests of his country, yet forgiving towards

her foes. He was strict in the administration of justice, with no spirit of revenge to gratify. He shrank from war, with all the tenderness of a maiden, and yet, when all other hearts faltered and grew faint, his was undaunted. When others were desponding, he was hopeful.

He adopted no policy of his own, but with his finger on the popular pulse he watched the sentiment of the nation, knowing that the evil would be as great to be in advance of his times as to be behind. He kept pace with the times, and was governed by the sentiment of the people; taking as his motto, "Vox populi, vox dei."

There were times when we thought him too slow and too lenient. But greater haste and severity might have ruined the nation. History will undoubtedly record, and indeed has already begun to do so, that his was the course of wisdom. His acts, as the Chief Magistrate of the nation, must live forever. Some of them the crowning acts of his administration, are engrossed on the imperishable records of eternity. That act, whereby four millions of human beings were freed from bondage, is without a parallel in the history of sovereigns. The proclamation of freedom was like the angel in mid heaven, crying, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."

Intensely interesting has it been to watch the onward march of sentiment with reference to the sin

and curse of human slavery. The strife was long and hard, but at length culminated, when God came in might to the rescue. It seemed that although atonement had already been made for individual sins, there could be no wiping out of our great national transgression without a further shedding of blood.

The immortal utterance of President Lincoln upon this subject in his late inaugural, brought the grateful applause of the good, and the scoffs of the vile and unappreciative. He said, "Woe unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of these offences-which in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both north and south this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offence came-shall we discern there is any departure from those Divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

It took a long time for the people to come up to that position where they could without hesitancy say, "Let slavery perish, but save the nation." When the people said that, Abraham Lincoln said, "Open the prison doors, and let the captives go free!" And the millions went forth, and the tramp of freedom's hosts will resound throughout the coming ages.

One such act in the life of any man is enough for human greatness.

The world had scarcely yet come to regard Abraham Lincoln as among the truly great men of the earth, when the murderer's hand hurled him to the grave. Now, as seen in contrast with the renowned of the world, he outshines them all, and yet it can with truth be said of him, he was only great as he was good.

We wonder at the strange providence of God, that allowed such an event to occur at this time, and under these circumstances, and well we may, for His providences are profoundly mysterious. We know nothing of God's processes in providence, nature or grace.

The dew-drop that hangs in the bell of a flower, no less than the majestic mountain that rears its head above the clouds, or the mighty planet that whirls in space is a world of wonder.

Man is equally lost in the contemplation of the earth-worm, or himself.

So in grace.

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell

whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit." "Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness." We need not then expect to understand the purposes of Jehovah when friends sicken and die, when the most prominent and useful are cut off in the bloom and vigor of their manhood, and the pauper, the inebriate, the felon is spared to be a burden, a curse to society.

"God moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm."

There is one point connected with this subject upon which we would be especially guarded, and which we would impress upon all your hearts, and that is, God did not ordain this assassination. He did not, strictly speaking, permit, but suffered it. To say that he ordained it, is to say that the murderer committed no sin against God and no crime against humanity. To say that God permitted it, is to say that he sanctioned it. He suffered it. He does not see fit to prevent all that he may hate. things, He doubtless sees it more to his glory to suffer them to be so, than to interfere and by almighty power, prevent them, and consequently he says of them, "Suffer it to be so now." So when the hellish work of conspiracy against the President's life was going on, he said, "Suffer it to be so now." And when the cowardly assassin, bent on the accomplish

With reference to many