allen men, condemned alike by Thy law, and justly cut
off through sin from communion with Thee. But through Thy infinite
mercy, a new way of access has been opened through Thy Son, and
consecrated by His blood. We come, in that all-worthy Name, and plead
the promise of pardon and acceptance through Him. By the imposing
solemnities of this scene we are carried back to the hour when the
nation heard, and shuddered at the hearing, that Abraham Lincoln was
dead--was murdered. We would bow ourselves submissively to Him by whom
that awful hour was appointed. We bow to the stroke that fell on the
country in the very hour of its triumph, and hushed all its shouts of
victory to one voiceless sorrow. "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." The shadow of that death has
not yet passed from the heart of the nation, as this national
testimonial bears witness to-day. The gloom thrown from these
surrounding emblems of death is fringed, we know, with the glory of a
great triumph, and the light of a great and good man's memory. Still, O
Lord, may this hour bring to us the proper warning! "Be ye also ready;
for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." Any one of
us may be called as suddenly as he whom we mourn.

We worship Thee as the God of our fathers. Thou didst trace for them a
path over the trackless sea, and bring them to these shores, bearing
with them the seed of a great dominion. We thank Thee that the
life-power of the young nation they planted, received from Thee such
energy, guidance, and protection, that it spread rapidly over the
breadth of the continent, carrying with it Christian liberty, churches,
schools, and all the blessings of a Christian civilization. We thank
Thee that the progress of the true American life has been irresistible,
because sustained by Thy eternal counsels and Thy almighty power, and
because the might of God was in this national life. We have seen it
sweeping all opposition away, grinding great systems and parties to
powder, and breaking in pieces the devices of men; and Thou hast raised
up for it heroic defenders in every hour of peril. We thank Thee, O
Strong Defender! And when treason was hatching its plot and massing its
armies, then, O God of Israel, who didst bring David from the
sheepfold, Thou gavest one reared in the humble cabin to become the
hope and stay of this great people in their most perilous hour, to
shield them in disaster and l