Such is the account of some of the traits of Cicero's character in which Lincoln resembled him. The parallelism might be further continued, and other particulars adduced which were common to the two men. As Tiro preserved the sayings of Cicero, and as Boswell never failed to secure every chance thought that fell from the lips of Johnson, so too, there will be men who will collect the stories that have been accredited to Lincoln; and the pleasantry which was employed by him to relieve the tedium of the hour and to serve as an escape valve to his feelings, may hereafter be preserved in volumes as elaborate as those perfected by the freedman of the orator, and the follower of the lexicographer.

Troy Daily Whig, May 22d.

Agreeably to the spirit of the proclamation of the President of the United States, appointing the first day of June, as a day of mourning in view of the bereavement sustained by the nation, the Rev. Dr. Horatio Potter, the bishop of New York, issued on the twenty-fourth of May, a letter and an order of services for that occasion. They are here inserted, as they served to give direction to the religious worship of a portion of the people.

Letter, and ORDER OF SERVICES.

To the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of New York: DEAR BRETHREN: Thursday, the first day of June,

having been designated and set apart by the President of the United States, as a day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, the following order of services is set forth to be used in this Diocese on that day.

Commending you, dear Brethren to the blessing of God, I remain your faithful friend and

Brother in Christ,

HORATIO POTTER,

New York, May 24, 1865.

Bishop of New York.

ORDER OF SERVICES SET FORTH BY THE BISHOP, TO BE USED IN THE DIOCESE OF NEW YORK ON THURSDAY, JUNE 1ST, 1865:

The Morning Service shall be the same with the usual Office, except where it is hereby otherwise appointed.

Instead of the Anthem, Venite, Exultemus Domino: Psalm cxxx, De profundis clamavi, shall be said or sung. Proper Psalms.-Psalm xc, and Psalm xci.

Proper Lessons.-The first Lesson, Isaiah, i.; The second Lesson, Hebrews, xii to v. 15.

After the second Lesson the Hymn, Benedictus.
The Litany shall be said entire.

¶ In the end of the Litany, immediately before the General Thanksgiving, shall be said the Prayer For a Person under Affliction, the phrase "sorrows of thy servants," being altered so as to read "sorrows of the people of this land."

The Litany being ended, there shall be sung from

the Selection of Psalms in metre, Selection 30, verses 1, 2, and 3; or Selection 40; or some other Selection, at the discretion of the Minister.

In the Communion Service, the Collect, the Epistle, and the Gospel, shall be those for the Week (The Sunday after Ascension Day), with the addition of the Collect for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, after the Collect for the day.

¶ After the Gospel, shall be sung the 12th, or 202d Hymn; or some other Hymn at the discretion of the Minister.

¶ Immediately before the Blessing, the two final prayers In the Order for the Burial of the Dead, one or both, may be said.

PROCLAMATION BY THE MAYOR.

The President of the United States having, by Proclamation, set apart Thursday, the first day of June, to be observed as a day of humiliation and prayer, in view of the great national calamity suffered by reason of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, I do hereby respectfully recommend to the citizens of Troy that they pay due respect and make proper observance of the day, by suspending labor, closing their places of business, and by assembling at the stated places of worship.

Done in the city of Troy, this thirty-first day of May, 1865. URI GILBERT, Mayor.

JUNE 1ST, 1865.

"THE SWORD OF THE LORD," A DISCOURSE Delivered IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH.

BY REV. THOMAS W. COIT, D.D.

O, thou sword of the Lord, How long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.— JEREMIAH, xlvii, 6.

This is not the first time, my brethren, that I have selected this text for a National Fast-Day. The very same text was long since chosen for a sermon to be addressed to you on a national occasion; but circumstances, not necessary to mention, prevented its completion. In making it a theme for the present occasion, I resume some thoughts which have long been suspended.

The imagery of the Hebrews is, you know, very strong; is, to us, seemingly excessive and extravagant. But we must take it as we find it; it would not be oriental, if it were not apparently romantic. The text depicts God as a warrior, with a sword in his hand, equipped for bloodshed and extermination. But to a Hebrew, this would be no more than our saying, that war as well as peace was under the control of the Almighty; and that he could govern the destinies of both, with a sovereignty none can dispute. As controlling the destinies of the former, God is pronounced by Moses, in just so many words, "a man of war;"* while, in the visions of St. John, * Exodus, xv, 3.

even the Prince of Peace is represented with a sharp two-edged sword proceeding out of a mouth, which would fain utter nothing but benedictions.*

But if God is thus an arbiter, and a supreme arbiter, for that which more than any thing else puts the destinies of a nation in peril-war, and of all wars a civil war-then in relation to war, one of the best things we can do is to appeal to Him, in that character, and pour our supplications at his feet, for forbearance and compassion, for mercy, sustenance and direction. It is such a supplication as this, which the Prophet Jeremiah gives us an instance of, when-as I doubt not he raised a tearful eye to Heaven, and exclaimed:

O, thou sword of the Lord,

How long will it be, ere thou be quiet?
Put up thyself into thy scabbard,
Rest, and be still.

Such a resource, however, as that, is not one which our human preferences would put forth, as a commanding, as a transcending one, when war smokes and thunders around us, and threatens to overwhelm us with its fires and earthquakes. No; the mind of man would look rather to the hand of man for extrication in such formidable exigencies- to the sagacity of statesmen, to the bravery of soldiers, to thronging ⚫ armies and encircling fleets, and all war's enginery of *Revelations, i, 16.