Addresses delivered in the meeting-house of the First Baptist church of Philadelphia
Boardman, George Dana, 1828-1903
.0' ,\'°- 'oK .,,0 ?."■ ■^. t:%* a '^^ i<.v''' ■'■ u' ^°-^^. \<^ l^/\ ^ y^^ ^y^^ ^'^. ■t' ' ' ' ■ I- <».•* .0 ^i" A. ^ '7,,* 0 AAvt^^t^ DELIVERED IN THE MEETING-HOUSE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH Or PHILADELPHIA, APRIL 14th, 16th, and 19th, 1B65. Reverend George Dana Boardman, Philadelphia, April 21st, 18G5. The Key. George Dana Boardman. Keverend and Dear Sir : Many of the undersigned were present at the First Baptist Church on Friday, the 14tli instant, during tlie impressive services there held in commemoration of the re-establishment of the National Flag at Fort Sumter. Some of us were also present the following Sabbath, and on Wednesday, the 19th instant, when our joy had so suddenly been changed into mourning and our rejoicing into deep grief. The occasion of the delivery of your noble, patriotic, and eloquent Address being the fourth anniversary of the day when the gallant Major Anderson and his brave compatriots were compelled to evacuate the Fort, and being also the day and hour when, by direction of the President of the United States, the same officer was ordered to raise the same flag over Sumter's ruined battle- ments,— once more in our possession, — rendered your remarks peculiarly fitting and appropriate. Your words of cheer and hope, of joy and gratulation, stirred every heart, and they deserve to be handed down to posterity, so that future generations may know how Christians in this city felt at such a crisis in the history of our country. We believe that at a time when, even amid the sound of cannon and the smoke of our battle-fields, we can behold the dawning of Peace, such senti- ments as fell from your lips should be disseminated far and wide. The reference to our beloved President was as touching and truthful as it was eloquent, and the tribute to his eminent worth, to his nobleness of heart and integrity of purpose, is all the dearer to us now since the dastard hand of a traitor has deprived us, in our time of greatest need, of his wise counsels and safe guidance. The addresses delivered by you last Sabbath and on the day of his funeral, when the whole country was weeping and mourning as for the death of a dearly loved parent, well deserve to be pondered over by us in our homes, — by the quiet of our firesides. Our noble President no longer lives on earth, but he will live forever in the hearts of the people ; and in all future history, Abraham Lincoln will be known and revered as the Martyr President of the American Kepublic. We therefore request a copy of your several Addresses for publication ; and, while sorrowing at the great loss we have sustained as a Nation, we can heartily unite with you in rendering thanks to Almighty God for the gift of so pure a patriot and for the victories which have been achieved by the armies of the Union. We remain, with sentiments of high regard, Your brethren and fellow-citizens, Thomas Wattson, Washington Butcher, Wm. S. Hansell, Benjamin Bullock, James Pollock, John C. Davis, Horatio Gates Jones, Charles H. Aunkr, Arch. A. McIntyre, Stephen A. Caldwell Joseph W. Bullock, Edwin Hall, Joseph F. Page, Alexander T. Lane, H. C. Howell, Isaac H. O'Harra, S. F. Hansell, Henry Clay Butcher. No. 1712 Vine Street, April 25, 1865. To Thomas Wattson, Esq., William S. Hansell, Esq., Hon. James Pollock, Horatio Gates Jones, Esq., and others. Gentlemen : Your courteous note of the 21st instant, requesting for pub- lication tlie addresses delivered in the meeting-house of the First Baptist Church on the 14th, IGth, and 19th days of April, has been received. Aware that the interest which attaches to these addresses springs altogether from the grandeur of the events which occasioned them, I accede to your gene- rous request, feeling assured that their imperfections will be hidden in the in- tensity of the gloom which oppresses us all. I am, gentlemen, with profound respect. Your brother and townsman, George Dana Boardman. ADDRESS. Ox the night of December twenty-sixth, eighteen hun- dred and sixty, a sudden stir began in the historic fort of Moultrie. Men hurried to and fro, in silent haste, gather- *ing together the rations, accoutrements, ammunition, and other movable property of the fort; gun after gun was silently spiked, and every gun-carriage burned. Last of all, the flag-staff was cut down ; for the gallant Anderson had resolved that the staff which had once borne the Star- spangled Banner should never bear the accursed weight of a traitor's ensign. And then the entire garrison, number- ing scarcely sixty men, crept into the boats, and, with muf- fled oars, under the lustrous gaze of the full moon, sped straight under the bows of the South Carolina guard-ship Nina, across the sleeping waters to the securer ramparts of Sumter. The Charleston Courier of the next day makes the following announcement : " Major Robert Anderson, U. S. A., has achieved the unenviable distinction of opening civil war between American citizens, by an act of gross breach of faith. He has, under counsels of a panic, de- serted his post at Fort Moultrie, and, under false pretexts, has transferred his garrison and military stores and supplies 6 to Fort Sumter." Breach of faith ? In what school of in- famy had South Carolina chivalry been trained, that she could brand the defence of the United States flag by a United States officer, as a " gross breach of faith ?" The day after the evacuation, a little before morn, Major An- derson summoned his little force around the flag-staff of Fort Sumter, for the purpose of raising the banner which he had brought from Moultrie. The chaplain offered a most fervent prayer that the God of our fathers would enable that little garrison to maintain the honor of that flag un- dimmed through the fiery ordeals which awaited, and the entire garrison responded with a deep Amen. At twelve o'clock precisely, Major Anderson, dropping on his knees, and holding the lines in his hands, reverently drew the na- tional ensign to the top of the staff, and then the entire garrison burst forth into exultant hurras, again, again and again repeated. That thrilling scene lives in song as well as in history. After a recital of the evacuation, the scarred veteran con- tinues : I never can forget, my boys, how the next day, at noon, The drums beat and the bands played a stirring, martial tune, And silentlj' we gathered round the flag-staff strong and high, Forever pointing upward to God's temple in the sky. Our noble Major Anderson was good as he was brave, And he knew without God's blessing no banner long could wave ; So he knelt with head uncovered, while the chaplain made a prayer, And as the last amen was said, the flag; rose hie;h in air. Then our loud huzzas rung out, far and widel}^ o'er the sea I We shouted for the Stars and Stripes, the standard of the free! Every eye was tixed upon it; every heart beat warm and fast. As with eager lips we promised to defend it to the last ! 'Twas a sight to be remembered, boys, the chaplain with his book, Our leader humbly kneeling, with his calm, undaunted look; And the officers and men, crushing tears they would not shed, And the blue sea all around us, and the blue sky overhead I Three and a half months now crept away; months of gloom and terrible apprehension. I need not go into par- ticulars; it is enough to remind you that meantime Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and North Carolina followed the example of South Carolina, and de- luded themselves with the idea that, because they had passed ordinances of secession, they had voted themselves out of the Union. The halls of Congress echoed with the infamous valedictories of senators and representatives, never, I trust in God, to enter those halls again, save as prisoners, to be impeached of high treason before the nation's judg- ment bench. One bright scene alone relieved the darkness of this horrible panorama; it was when the Old Public Functionary, nervously swinging between the God of his fathers and the Baal of slaveholding treason, on the fourth of March yielded the chair of Washington to God's anointed champion of American freemen, Abraham Lincoln, of Illi- nois, crowned by the Grace of God and the National Will 8 the Moses of the New World. But I must press on with the narrative. During these three months and a half, Fort Sumter was closely besieged. The South Carolina insurgents had strengthened the armament of Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, and erected many new batteries, so as to place Sumter under the fire of nearly three-fourths of a circle, mounting one hundred and forty guns in all, many of them of very heavy calibre, while the besieging host numbered seven thousand. They had also cut off* all supplies, so that the garrison was almost reduced to the point of starvation. On the eighth of April they learned that Government was about to relieve the garrison by sending supplies and rein- forcements. You will be interested, doubtless, if I recall to you some of the correspondence which then took place. It is historic. "Montgomery, Ala., April 10, 1861. "To General P. G. T. Beauregard, "Charleston, S. C. "If yoii have no doubt of the authorized character of the agent who communicated to you the intention of the Washington Govern- ment to supply Fort Sumter by force, you will at once demand its evacuation; and, if this is refused, proceed in such a manner as you may determine, to reduce it. "L. P. Walker, ' ' Secretary of War. ' ' "Charleston, S. C, April 10, 1801. " To Hon. L. P. Walker, " Secretary of War. " The demand will be made to-morrow at twelve o'clock. " P. G. T. BeaureCxArd." "Headquarters Provisional Army C. S. A., "Charleston, S. C, April 11, 1861, 2 p. m. " To Major Eobert Anderson, " Commanding at Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, S. C. "Sir: The Cxovernmeiit of the Confederate States have hitherto forborne from any hostile demonstration against Fort Sumter, in the hope that the Government of the United States, with a view to the amicable adjustment of all questions between the two Governments, and to avert the calamities of war, would voluntarily evacuate it. .. . . . But the Confederate States can no longer delay assuming actual j)Ossession of a fortification commanding the entrance to one of our harbors, and necessary to its defence and security. "I am, therefore, ordered by the Government of the Confederate States to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter. All proper facili- ties will be afforded for the removal of yourself and command, to- gether with arms and all private property, to any j)ost in the United States which you may select My aids, Colonel Chesnut and Captain Lee, will, for a reasonable time, await your answer. " I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, "P. G. T. Beauregard, " Brigadier-General, Commanding." "Headquarters, Fort Sumter, S. C, "April 11, 18G1. '' To Brigadier-General P. G. T. Beauregard. " General : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication demanding the evacuation of this fort, and to say, in reply thereto, that it is a demand with which I regret that my sense of honor and of ray obligations to my Government prevent my com- pliance. Thanking you for the fair, manly, and courteous terms pro- posed, I am, General, " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, " Egbert Anderson, " Major U. S. Army, Commanding." "Headquarters Provisional Army C. S. A., "Charleston, April 11, 1861, 11 p. m. " To Major Egbert Anderson, " Commanding at Fort Sumter, Charleston, S. C. " Major : In consequence of the verbal observations made by you to my aids, Messrs. Chesnut and Lee, in relation to the condition of 10 your supplies, and that you would, in a few days, be starved out if our guns did not batter you to pieces, or words to that effect ; and desiring no useless effusion of blood, I have the honor to say that, if you will state the time at which you will evacuate Fort Sumter, and agree that, in the meantime, you will not use your guns against us unless ours shall be employed against Fort Sumter, we will abstain from opening fire upon you. Colonel Chesnut and Captain Lee are authorized by me to enter into such an agreement with you. I am. Major, " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, "P. G. T. Beauregard." "Headquarters, Fort Sumter, S. C, "2.30 a. m., April 12, 1861. " To Brigadier-General P. G. T. Beauregard. " General : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your second communication of the 11th inst., by Colonel Chesnut, and to state, in reply, that, cordially uniting with you in the desire to avoid the useless effusion of blood, I will, if provided with the proper and necessary means of transportation, evacuate Fort Sumter by noon on the 15th inst., should I not receive, prior to that time, controlling- instructions fi-om my Government, or additional supplies; and that I will not, in the mean time, open my fire upon your forces, unless compelled to do so by some hostile act against this fort, or against the flag of my Government by the forces under your command, or by some jiortion of them, or by the perpetration of some act show- ing a hostile intention on your part against this fort, or the flag it bears. I have the honor to be. General, " Your obedient servant, " Egbert Anderson, "Major tJ. S. Array, Commanding." You see from this corresptondence just how matters stood. Major Anderson frankly states to the insurgents that, in consequence of the extreme scarcity of provisions in the fort, he would be compelled in all events to evacuate by noon of April 15th, unless supplies for the garrison should meantime arrive. Now observe the mad, atrocious haste 11 with which civil war was inaugurated. Unwilling to wait till the 15th inst., only three days, and so avert, as the rebel authorities would have us believe, " the useless effu- sion of blood," and fearing, it may be, that supplies ivouJd in the interim arrive, fifty minutes after Major Anderson's manly note was penned, the following paper, signed by Colonel Chesnut and Captain Lee, was put in his hands : "Fort Sumter, S. C, April 12, 1861, 3.20 a. m. " Sir : By autliority of Brigadier-General Beauregard, command- ing the provisional forces of the Confederate States, we have the honor to notif}' you that he will open the fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time." In an hour the bombardment commenced. 0, my coun- trymen ! what a scene then opened ! I do not wonder that they did not wait till the sun rose, dreading to have that burning eye of God witness the inauguration of the dread- ful fratricidal massacre. Fiercely thundered for thirty-four hours the balls of one hundred and forty guns against the walls of the doomed fortress, and fiercely replied from ram- part and casemate the guns of the little patriot band. It was a most gallant defence. Human powers could do no more. But it was all in vain. And from the steamship Baltic, off Sandy Hook, April 18, 1861, the heroic Ander- son sent the following stirring despatch to Mr. Cameron, then Secretary of War : "Sir: Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters were entirely bui-ned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge wall seriously injui'ed, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its doors closed from the efl:ects of the heat, four barrels and. 12 three cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions but pork remaining, I accepted terms of evacuation offered by Gene- ral Beauregard, being the same offered by bim on the 11th inst., prior to the commencement of hostilities, and marched out of the fort Sunday afternoon the 14th inst., with colors flying and drums beating, bringing away company and private property, and saluting my flag witb fifty guns. " Egbert Anderson, " Major First Artillery." Since then four years, I could almost say four centuries, have rolled away. 0 God ! what years of national humili- ation and agony have they been ! Verily, Thou hast given us the bread of affliction to eat and the cup of tears to drink. Thou hast led us by way of the wilderness and the desert, through rivers of blood, and hast laid us down in the hospital, the dungeon, and the unslabbed grave. But all glory be to Thee ! God of our fathers ! Thou hast n'^ver deserted us. If, for a small moment Thou didst seem to hide Thy face from us, it was only that with greater mer- cies Thou mightest gather us together again. Thou hast gone forth wdth our hosts in the day of battle. Thy pillar of cloud has led us by day, and Thy pillar of fire by night. And when, at times, the national heart has grown faint, and we have felt that all was lost. Thou hast renewed be- fore our eyes the vision of the Hebrew Seer, and permitted us to behold on every side, swarming over every hilltop and through every valley, Thy chariots and steeds of fire bounding to our deliverance. And now Thou hast brought us to see the day for which heroes have fought and sighed and prayed and died. Thou hast girded on Thy sword, 0 Most Mighty ! and led us forth conquering and to conquer, till now we see this Confederacy, born of the pit, cloven in 13 twain, and these in twain again ; its black chattel corner- stone disallowed and rejected of its own builders; its forts wrested from them; its capital abandoned; its legions, now routed and flying like chaff before the Northern hurricane, now overtaken and flanked and confronted, and caught between the upper and nether millstones, and forced to yield up their arms ; their general-in-chief a disarmed prisoner ; the arch-conspirator and ringleader himself a panting fugi- tive, his brow marked of God and the nation with the red brand of Cain. " Sing, then, unto the Lord a new song, For He hath done marvellous things; His right hand and His holy arm Hath gotten Him the victory ! Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods ? Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders ? Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power ! Thy right hand, O Jehovah, has dashed in pieces the enemy! Thou hast sent out Thine arrows, and scattered them ! Thou hast shot out Thy lightnings, and discomfited them ! So let all Thine enemies perish, O Jehovah !" To-day we have met to celebrate this great victory. "But why," you ask me, "do you select this particular day, rather than that, for instance, which commemorates the fall of Richmond, or the surrender of Lee?" For this simple reason : The National Flag is the symbol of the National Autliority. It so thoroughly represents and even incarnates to the popular heart the Government of which it is the sym- bol, that wherever the flag is, there thie Government itself 14 is, robed in full sovereignty. It was on the 14tli of April, 1861, that the National Authority was first symbolically overthrown by the compulsory lowering of the national flag at Fort Sumter. It is on the 14th of April, 1865, that the National Authority is symbolically restored by the rais- ing of the national flag on the spot where it was first struck down, in sight, too, of the birth-place of the grand con- spiracy and of the dishonored grave of its chief sponsor. There is profound poetry in this order of the chief magis- trate of the republic. There is a touch of nature in it which makes him and the whole nation kin. He knew the power of emblems and symbolic acts over the human soul. He felt, as you and I cannot help feeling, that there is a classic decorousness, an inherent propriety, an aesthetic grace, a religious beauty, in thus symbolically announcing to the world the reinstatement of the national majesty on the very spot where the national majesty was first de- throned. Nor, so far as I myself am concerned, can I deem it a misfortune that this symbolic restoration of the national authority takes place on the day so tenderly en- shrined in the mournful homage of many of my Christian brethren. For if ever that holy law which all mankind had insulted and trampled on, was magnified again and made honorable, — if ever the majesty of Jehovah's jus- tice and authority was vindicated amidst triumphs the most transcendent, it was when the Son of the Highest, mercifully gathering into His own Divine person the penal- ties of the race, and bowing His head beneath the thunder- bolts of Jehovah's wrath, yielded up the ghost on the Judean cross. Meet it is that the day which celebrates the 15 vindication of Jehovah's ordinance of earthly government, is the same which celebrates the triumph of His celestial sovereignty. What now are some of the lessons which the scene trans- piring to-day at Fort Sumter teaches the ages ? The first is this : The American Republic is not a league, but a nation ; not a confederacy, but a people ; not a con- geries of States, but a Union ; being in fact the United States, which is but another name for the American State. This question has long been a matter for grave meditation among political thinkers. But now it has been decided in the crimson court of war. That decision is this : The American Union is a vital, organic nationality, pervaded by a common life, which binds together in indissoluble union each and every member, thus making the whole absolutely one. The Union is no mere series of States, joined to each other by no organic bond, simply touching each other like the grains of silex in a sand-box. Neither is the Union some vast polyp, as many seem to imagine, capable of division and subdivision, and still thriving on, each fragment becoming the centre of a new life. But the American Union is a vital, throbbing, indivisible organism ; so that secession is something more than subtraction, or even amputation : it is vivisection, suicide, murder, a death as real as that proposed in King Solomon's order for bisect- ing the child brought before him for adjudication. 16 Another lesson which the scene now transpiring at Fort Sumter teaches, is one which is addressed to foreign na- tions. Democracy has been on trial, and we see the result. When we take into consideration the awful magnitude of the rebellion, gaining more and more of stupendousness as time revealed more and more of its colossal proportions; when we recall the long continuance of this painful, deso- lating war, the hopes long deferred, and the terrible defeats which ever and anon have befallen our arms; when we take into consideration the oppressive burdens of taxation, and the enormous rise of prices ; when we remember the forebodings of oft^repeated and merciless conscriptions; when we reflect that every widow who has lost a husband, and every parent a child, and every family a member, has been tempted to call in question the justice of the adminis- tration and the righteousness of the war ; when we remem- ber how sensitive the Americans, sons of revolutionary fathers, are to the slightest encroachments on their per- sonal rights as citizens, and then recall the sonorous and everlasting oratory about constitutional rule, and arbitrary arrests, and military despotism, and star-chamber courts, and the ambitious schemes of the chief magistrate ; when we remember how every city and hamlet of the North has been infected with discontented men, secretly sympathizing with the insurrection, and doing their utmost to discourage the people and paralyze the Government ; when we remem- ber that thousands and tens of thousands of men have been secretly banded together as Knights of the Golden Circle, or as Sons of Liberty, for the atrocious purpose of making organized resistance to the powers that be ; when we re- 17 member how Avide and profound at times, especiall}^ in the earlier part of the war, has been the disaffection with the administration in the loyal ranks themselves ; Avhen we remember how the people, sickening with these woful scenes of carnage and desolation, have sighed for the tran- quillity and ease and beatitudes of peace ; in fine, when we take into consideration the countless and tremendous obstacles which have stood in the pathway of our rulers in their effort to restore everywhere the national supremacy; and, then, when we remember that, in spite of all these tremendous obstacles, the large majority of the people have ever been saying, even in the darkest hours : '' Let this war go on ! This rebellion shall go down ! We have put our hands to the work, and, God helping us, we will not falter till we have beaten, crushed, trampled it down, and ground it beneath our heels, till not a microscopic splinter be left to pollute the soil over which has once floated the Star- spangled Banner ; " — when we remember all these things, and then recall the scene now transpiring at Fort Sumter, I seem to hear a voice of awful majesty, which shall surge like a billow of thunder against the reef of the coming ages, exclaiming : " Democracy, under God, is not a failure ! " Never in human historj^ has the question concerning a republican form of government been jput with such distinct- ness and grandeur of consequence. Unquestionably, if ever the halter was a fit instrument for ridding the earth of monsters, it is in the case of these mur- derous, fiendish traitors, who inaugurated and guided this colossal and gory treason. But let us be careful how we permit these miscreants to become martyrs. The veriest caitifi" that ever cowered beneath the majesty of the law may gather around him the semblance of heroism, if you 19 grant him the statelmess of a national gallows. On the other hand, I cannot say to these wretched ringleaders : " I forgive you, though you have drenched a continent in blood, desolated our hearth-stones, massacred our brothers, husbands, fathers, sons, on the gory battle-field, murder- ously imprisoned in skeleton pens, and starved and tor- tured into idiotcy and a nameless grave thousands of Ame- rica's noblest heroes." I cannot say to such men as Davis, and Benjamin, and Toombs, and Breckinridge, and Cobb, — men Avho traitorously plotted treason while clad in the. robes of the American Senate and Hall of Deputies, and murder- ously lighted the torch that should lay in ashes our repub- lican nationality: "Come back into our national embrace, and we will treat you as though you had always been an Ellsworth, a Lyon, a Baker, a Winthrop, a Birney !" But this is what I would say, could I catch the ear of Presi- dent Lincoln : " Seize some island of the sea ! Buy some province of Europe, Asia, or Africa ! Prepare some Botany- Bay ! Banish these felons thither ! Establish a rigorous passport system, and make it as impossible for them to enter this purified Republic as it was for Themistocles to return to Athens, or as it is for a Bourbon to re-enter the empire of Napoleon ! Let us do with them as the Lord God did with the first murderer, and send them forth to be fugitives and vagabonds in the earth, setting a mark on their brows, lest any finding them should slay them. And then with Cain shall they exclaim : ' My punishment is greater than I can bear !' " But while I would thus sternly dispose of the leaders and arch-conspirators, I Avould speak words of forgiveness and 2'0 good cheer to the multitudes they have duped. I would learn a lesson from the cross, the lifting up of whose sacri- ficial Victim so many in Christendom this day mournfully celebrate. While, like the crucified One, I would show no mercy to the apostate angels who tempted to sin, yet, like the crucified One, I would enfold in my forgiving embrace the multitudes tempted by them to rush on the thick bosses of Jehovah's buckler of Civil Government, knowing not what they did. To them I would say: "Come back, come back into this disenthralled, regenerated, transfigured Re- public, beneath the glorious mantle of that edict of Univer- sal Emancipation, issued by the Chief Magistrate in Jan- uary, 1863, and ratified by the j)eople, November 8, 1864." Fellow citizens! be patient, and after a few more blows from our peace-maker. Grant, they will do it; and then, with a depth of meaning which the defender of the Constitution did not conceive when he uttered the glowing words be- neath the dome of the Capitol, thirty-five years ago, shall an emancipated and exultant Republic announce to the ages as its everlasting motto : Liberty and Union, now and forever^ one and inseparable ! Yes, glorious Flag ! borne in triumph by heroic legions from the Chesapeake to the Mis- sissippi; from Richmond to Mobile; thou art at last puri- fied of thy stains, and to-day thou proudly floatest over "•Hhe land of ihe free," as thou alwa^^s hast over "the home of the brave." In conclusion, I congratulate you, my countrymen, on the bright portents which are gilding the horizon. Watch- man ! what of the night ? Watchman ! what of the night ? 21 The watchman saith : The 7nornmg cometli ! Peace is near at hand. I already feel my cheek fanned with the beating of her halcyon wings. All glory be to Thee, Thou Prince of Peace! Thou hast not died in vain. With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunder-storm; Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. Then shall dawn that blessed era, foretold by seers of every time, and sighed for by holy men of every clime, when all men's good shall Be each man's rule, and universal Peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Through all the circle of the Golden Year. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end ! APPENDIX. At ihe request of numerous friends, the Order of Services observed on the \-ith inst. is subjoined. ORDER OF SERVICES. I. THE LOED'S PEAYEE. II. TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. III. EEADING FEOM THE HOLY SCEIPTUEES : The Triumphal Song or Deborah in Commemoration of the Hebrew Victory over the Canaanitish Confederacy, 1300 B. C. THE ODE. Thus sang Deborah and Barak, Son of Abinoam, In the daj^ of victory thus they sang : The Prelude. For the avenging of Israel, For the free self-oifering of the people, Praise ye Jehovah ! Hear, O ye Kings ! Give ear, ye Princes ! I to Jehovah, even I will lift the song, I will sound the harp to Jehovah, God of Israel. The Exodus. O Jehovah ! when Thou wentest forth from Seir, When Thou marchest through the fields of Edom, Quaked the earth, and poured the heavens, Yea, the clouds poured down with water ; Before Jehovah's face the mountains melted, Sinai itself before Jehovah's face, The God of Israel. 24 The Dismay. In the days of Sharagar, Son of Anath, In Jael's days, untrodden were the highways ,- Through the winding by-path stole the traveller ; Upon the plains lay the deserted hamlets, Till I, Deborah, arose, Till I arose, a mother in I&raeL They chose gods that were new ; Then war was in all their gates ; Shield was there none or spear Among forty thousand sons of Israel. The StfMBioKS. My soul is yours, ye chiefs of Israel T And ye, the self-devoted of the people. Praise Jehovah ! Ye that ride on white-dappled she asses^ Ye that sit to judge on rich carpets,. Ye that plod in the way. Come meditate the song ! From amidst the shouting of the dividers of the spoils , Between the water-troughs and by the springing wells,. There let them rehearse the righteous acts of Jehovah, The righteous acts of His headship in Israel, And let the thronged gates repeat the song I Awake, awake, Deborah ! Awake, awake, utter a song ! Arise, Barak, and lead captive thy captives,. Thou son of Ahinoam ! The Gathering to the Eendezvous. With Barak went dov/n a valiant force against the mighty ; "With me, Deborah, went down Jehovah's people against the strong ; First : Ephraim, from the Mount of Amalek ; And after Ephraim the hosts of Benjamin; From Machir came down lawgivers ; From Zebulun those that bear the niarshal's staff;. And Issachar's brave princes came with Deborah, Issachar, the strength of Barak ; They burst into the valley in his footsteps. 25 Thk Kecreants. By Reuben's fountains there was deep debating; "Why sattest thou between the sheepfolds ? Was it to hear the piping to the flocks ? By Eeuben's fountains deep were the searchings of the heart And Gilead beyond the Jordan lingered ; And Dan, why dwelled he among his ships? Asher reposed on the shore of the sea, And in his harbors dwelt. But Zebulun was a death-defying people, And Naphtali on the high places of the field. The Battle. Came the kings and fought. Fought the kings of Canaan By Taanach, on Megiddo's waters ; Gain of silver took they not. Prom the heavens they fought ; The stars from their courses Fought against Sisera ; The torrent Kishon swept them down. The ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. Trample down, O my soul, their might ! Then stamped the clattering hoofs of prancing horses At the flight, at the flight of the mighty. The Curse. Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of Jehovah ; Curse ye with a curse the inhabitants thereof; Because they came not to the help of Jehovah, To the help of Jehovah, with the heroes ! The Avenger. Blessed above women be Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite, O'er all the women blessed, that dwell in tents f Water he asked, milk she gave. The curded milk in her costliest bowl. Her hand she stretched out to the tent-pin. And her right hand to the hammer of the workmen. Then Sisera she smote, she clove his head, She bruised, she pierced his temples ; Between her feet he bowed : he fell : he lay : Between her feet he bowed : he fell : Where he bowed, there he fell dead. 26 The Mother of Sisera. Through the window stretched forth and lamented The mother of Sisera through the lattice ; " Why is his car so long in coming ? Wherefore tarry the wheels of his chariots?" The wise ones of her princesses answer, Yea, she repeats their answer to herself: " Surely they are finding, are dividing the prey; One damsel, two damsels for each hero ; To Sisera prey of divers colors, A many-colored robe, and richly broidered, Many-colored, and broidered round the neck !" The Triumph. So perish all Thine enemies, O Jehovah ! But they that love Thee, Are as the sun, when he goes forth in his might. IV. SINGING-, National Hymn.— " My country, 'tis of thee." V. PKAYEK— By Eev. Thomas H. Stockton, D.T>. VI. SINGING, The Star-Spangled Banner. VII. ADDKESS— By the Pastor. VIII. SINGING, Battle-Hymn of the Kepublic. — " Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." DOXOLOGY. Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. IX. BENEDICTION— By Eev. J. Newton Brown, D.D. *' ^mi thou ^cndutuni h4\mt a ^milc and ^m[.' DEATH, THE LAW OF LIFE. A DISCOURSE, DELIVERED ON THE SUNDAY MORNING AFTER THE MURDER or PRESIDENT LINCOLN, IN THE MEETING-HOUSE OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA, April 16, 1865. Reverend George Dana Boardman, PASTOR. PHILADELPHIA: S H E R M A N & C O., PRINT K R S. 1865. DISCOURSE, What a day, or rather uiglit, is tliis, mj countrymeii I How intoleral)le tlie burden that crushes us ! "What ! Abraham Lincoln dead? The idol of his countrymen, the true, the pure, the good, the loving, the heroic, the great-souled father of his people dead, murdered, gone away from us forevermore ? O God ! We cannot bear it ! How can I stand here with this great grief so fresh in my heart, and discourse to you about it ? It seems almost like sacrilege to attempt it to-day. On another and more appropriate occasion, when my thoughts are calmer and more orderly, I will otfer my tribute to him who lies on the nation's bier. This morning I ask you to pass from the darkened chamber of a personal grief into a broader and serener temple, where the quivering chords of our hearts may lose somewhat of this painful tenseness, and where considerations of a more general and impersonal nature may raise the soul to loftier and calmer heights. May the Father of consolation help us while we ponder those words of the Redeemer, which are recorded in the twenty-fourth verse of tlie twelfth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John : " Verihj, rcrili/, I say unto you: except a corn of vJtca.i 32 fall iiito the ground and die,, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.''' I. Thoughtless or dull must that man's spirit be which does not feel a quickening influence in these spring days of vegetative activit}^ He need not visit some great farm, or forest, in order to be assured of the wonderful transformations going on in nature around him. If he have but a single tree growing by his win- dow, or a single rose-bush, or a square foot of grass-plat in his yard, he may discover, if he will, evidences of an activity as intense and wonderful in its way as when a nation is engaged in the shock of arms. Look at3road to-day on the vegetable kingdom around you. " Except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." It is because the seeds you plant in spring are dying that your fields in autumn will be white to the harvest. My heart is awed within me when I think Of the great miracle that still goes on, In silence, round me, — the perpetual work Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed Forever. ***** Lo ! all grow old and die; but see again, How on the faltering footsteps of decay Youth presses, — ever gay and beautiful youth In all its beautiful forms. These lofty trees "Wave not less proudly than their ancestors Moulder beneath them. * * * Life mocks the idle hate Of his arch enemy Death, — yea, seats himself Upon the tyrant's throne, — the sepulchre, And of the triumphs of his ghastly foe Makes his own nourishment. II. The like principle holds in the animal kingdom. The life of the body depends on the destruction of its own material. No part of an organism or living me- chanism can act without wearing away. Every action of the organism, w^hether in motion that is voluntarj'- or involuntary, whether in emotion or volition, involves attrition, the wasting away, the absolute loss and death of animal material. The processes of life are at the same time the processes of death. The condition, the law of physical life, is physical death. 3 34 This, then, is the grand law of life that prevails in the physical world, whether vegetable or' animal. Death must precede life. Death is the source, or, rather, the means of life. The death of the seed is the law of the harvest. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Now, this multiplication of the seed through its own death our Lord uses as a most significant parable and lesson. As in the physical world, so in the spiritual : Death must 'precede Life. Growth comes through decay; glory through disgrace ; joy through woe ; peace through war ; victory through defeat ; life through death. III. Observe how this principle holds true of the Son of God Himself. He could not, as the Son of 3Ian, be- come perfect except through suffering. In fact, this is the primary and very particular application of the para- ble of the kernel of wheat dying, as our Lord Himself set it forth. While discoursing in the temple on the Wednesday before He died, message was brought to Him that certain Greek proselytes were waiting in the outer court to see Him. They were Gentiles, who had given in adhesion to some of the tenets of Judaism. They had heard of His fame, and of the triumphal entry which He had just made into the City of the Great King. And now they themselves being in Jeru- salem to attend the Passover, they wished to see the illustrious Stranger for themselves, and learn by per- sonal acquaintance whether He were the Saviour their 35 own hearts so sighed for. Deeply moved by this touch- ing request of these Gentile proselytes, our Lord accedes to their wish. In their hearing He reveals, by means of this exquisite similitude we are considering this morn- ing, that Messiah's glory was to come through Messiah's shame; Messiah's triumph through Messiah's defeat; Messiah's throne through Messiah's grave. The kernel of wheat abideth alone, unless it decay and die. It is only by decaying and dying that it adds to itself, and brings forth fruit. Just here, men and brethren, does this death of the kernel stand forth as a most wonderful shadow of Christ's work. For the Son of Man died that He might rise again a spiritual harvest of regene- rate humanity. So long as Jesus remained on earth without dying, the Divine life was confined to Himself: He abided alone. It was only when He cast otf, in dying, the earthly integument, that liberty of growth became possible. And when, at length, the harvest time shall come, Jesus will be found, like the kernel of corn, which, having died, has passed through its stages, first the blade, then the ear, then the full com in the ear, to be no longer " afo??.e," but to have " brought forth much fruit J' The people, whose sins He had borne on the accursed tree, will be gathered into the heavenly gar- ner, as the mighty harvest of the travail of His soul. The heavenly seed was sown in the ground, and died, that it might evolve itself into a mighty increment, and display itself in the glorious blossom and fruitage of redeemed humanity. Verily, as He Himself said to the 36 Gentiles tliat sought His presence, the hour of His death was the hour of His life ; the hour of His defeat in crucifixion the hour of His triumph in redemption. IV. Observe, again, how this principle holds true of man in all the deeper aspects of his nature. If the Captain of our salvation could not be made perfect except through suffering, how can He lead forth His many sons unto glory, unless they, too, tread in the same path of sorrow and agony ? Oh, no ! It is a law just as universal and inexorable in the kingdom of moral growth as in that of vegetable, that the spirit, like the seed, shall die before it can live. Let no human being think he can gather in his heavenly harvest till he has passed through trial, disaster, and death. And, in fact, the very next words which our Lord utters, after deliver- ing this parable of the dying kernel, and as if in expla- nation of it, are these: "He that loveth his life shall lose it ; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." In other words, man's spirit must undergo a certain sort of decay and dissolution, must pass through what the world calls ignominy and defeat, before it can be quickened into the new life, and enter on the fruitions of a bright eternity. Glance now at some illustrations of this principle as applied to man's spi- ritual nature. 