xpectancy,--a winter of suppressed sobs, of inward bleedings,--a
cold, choked, compressed anguish of endurance, for how long and how
much God only could tell us.

The first paper of the Chimney-Corner, as was most meet and fitting,
was given to those homes made sacred and venerable by the cross of
martyrdom,--by the chrism of a great sorrow. That Chimney-Corner made
bright by home firelight seemed a fitting place for a solemn act of
reverent sympathy for the homes by whose darkness our homes had been
preserved bright, by whose emptiness our homes had been kept full, by
whose losses our homes had been enriched; and so we ventured with
trembling to utter these words of sympathy and cheer to those whom God
had chosen to this great sacrifice of sorrow.

The winter months passed with silent footsteps, spring returned, and
the sun, with ever waxing power, unsealed the snowy sepulchre of buds
and leaves,--birds reappeared, brooks were unchained, flowers filled
every desolate dell with blossoms and perfume. And with returning
spring, in like manner, the chill frost of our fears and of our
dangers melted before the breath of the Lord. The great war, which
lay like a mountain of ice upon our hearts, suddenly dissolved and was
gone. The fears of the past were as a dream when one awaketh, and now
we scarce realize our deliverance. A thousand hopes are springing up
everywhere, like spring flowers in the forest. All is hopefulness, all
is bewildering joy.

But this our joy has been ordained to be changed into a wail of
sorrow. The kind hard hand, that held the helm so steadily in the
desperate tossings of the storm, has been stricken down just as we
entered port,--the fatherly heart that bore all our sorrows can take
no earthly part in our joys. His were the cares, the watchings, the
toils, the agonies, of a nation in mortal struggle; and God, looking
down, was so well pleased with his humble faithfulness, his patient
continuance in well-doing, that earthly rewards and honors seemed all
too poor for him, so he reached down and took him to immortal glories.
"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord!"

Henceforth the place of Abraham Lincoln is first among that noble army
of martyrs who have given their blood to the cause of human freedom.
The eyes are yet too dim with tears that would seek calmly to trace
out his place in history. He has been a marvel and a phenomenon among
statesmen, a new kind o