tombs of blood and treasure were offered willingly and unsparingly. And at last his hope was crowned with success, and his firmness blessed with final victory; secession and State sovereignty were crushed-were annihilated; the Starspangled Banner redeemed and restored to its old glory. The strength of the republican form of government has been tested and triumphantly asserted, and the existence of our nation, as the nation of our Union, supremely and incontestably vindicated.

Oh, then, what a jubilee! The whole country ran frantic with joy and triumph. Such tidings the wires had never before carried on their electric wings! Every heart felt proud to be an American. Every eye looked with a grateful smile up to the victorious stars and stripes. Every countenance gazed with reverence up to the man who had borne the nation's care, and should now reap the nation's love. We knew, now, what we had in him; we understood now what providential gift he was to the nation. We asked his pardon for our doubts, and offered, for our shortcomings, not the nation's official honor, but the nation's heart. The golden rays of victory won and peace coming, should encircle his cherished brow, as the nation's laurel, the nation's gift.

But no, no! The nation's martyr already when alive, in the flush of victory, he was to fall as the nation's sacrifice and Freedom's martyr. Oh what a change then! The mighty eagle stopped his soaring flight and drooped with bowed head. The folds of our flag, ashamed of their short-timed smile, wrapped themselves quickly into mourning. One cry of agony and despair ran through the afflicted land; and around the sacred bier stood a nation in tears, and a world lamenting the loss of him who was so great and so good.

But let us turn away from this bloody sight. He himself would, if he could, command us to forget it; his genuine goodness would warn us against punishment, against vengeance. Let us rather apply our thoughts to the solemn duty now imposed upon us, how shall, how can, we honor his beloved and cherished memory? And here again, he himself in sublime

and inspired words, has taught us how to perform this duty of sacred and national gratitude.

When standing in the cemetery of Gettysburg, and consecrating that spot, now so sacred in our history, he said: "We have come to dedicate a portion of this field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives, that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow, this ground. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the full measure of devotion."

Yes, brethren, if we wish to honor his memory, let us dedicate ourselves to the great work he left to us, let us consecrate ourselves to administer well the legacy of sacred principles he has bequeathed to us.

And, therefore, do you love and honor Lincoln's name and fame; so love and honor above all liberty and Union. The whole country's motto must henceforth be, "Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever." He has left us one country, and not sovereignties. He has shown us we have a government, as powerful in war, as gentle in peace. He has given us an army and navy, second to none on this globe able to maintain the honor of the flag at home, and strong enough to command the respect of the nations abroad. And over this Imperial Union stands supreme the spirit of Liberty, granting equal rights to all races and all denominations, teaching and preaching that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, is the best, the wisest, the strongest, and the most moral of all governments. It has been tried, and has been found not wanting. We knew all these truths, theoretically long ago; but now they are proved practically. Let us keep then this precious jewel, bought with the lives of hundreds of thousands of our best citizens, and set and encircled by the costliest blood of our martyr-President and

let us guard it as the dearest heirloom we can bequeath to our-to the world's posterity.

Do you wish to honor his memory? Try to finish that part of his work he left undone and do it in the spirit of the noble words last addressed to the whole nation: "With malice to none, with charity to all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see right, let us strive on, to finish the work we are in." "With malice to none!" The South lies conquered and subjugated at our feet. She has sown the wind, and has reaped the whirlwind. But now she is no longer our foe; she is part and parcel of our family. We must assist her in healing her deep and sore wounds. With charity to all, we must help her to recover her former flourishing condition. We must feed and clothe her; we must take care of her widows and orphans; by the hand of free labor we must redeem her devastated territory. We must learn not only to forgive, but also to forget, so that the South, seeing her sin repaid by lóve and charity, may come back in sincere repentance, and resolved to wipe out, by future deeds of loyal patriotism, the shame and disgrace of past rebellion. The Union-then a Union, not of the law and the sword, but of sentiment and brotherly feeling—will inscribe, with tears of joy and gratitude, on Lincoln's monument the appropriate words: "The United Nation to the savior of the country.'

Do you wish to honor his memory? Then mind, you can not do anything for himself; but, as he said in his last inaugural address, "Care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans." They have fought our and his battles, and more than appropriate, true and touching was, during the military pageant of last week, the inscription on the Capitol. "The only national debt we never can pay, is the debt we owe to the victorious Union soldiers." The Nation, the State, and the individual citizens, have to take care of, and to nurse the invalid; to provide for the disabled, and to assist the returning hero, who again has to follow the blissful pursuits of peace. If they want money give it, and give it freely, and do not consider it a mite of charity. If they want work, consider it just duty to procure

it, and let them have the preference. If they want your advice and assistance, let them have both with a good will and grateful heart. They were our liberal creditors-let us pay them like honest debtors. By such acts, we will redeem the Nation's debt; by such acts we will show ourselves, as worthy of our republic. By such deeds we will honor the memory of Lincoln, and carry out his last will and noble aspirations.

And we shall and will do it, illustrious martyr! We promise it to thee, in this solemn hour of mourning! Sleep thou in peace; thy work shall and will be finished! Hand in hand we will work, as thou hast said, "to bind up the Nation's wounds, and do all that may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." Hand in hand, we will strive that no scar be left; that the Nation, revived through all her members, shall begin a new era of unequalled progress and prosperity; and that just and impartial history may record the fact. This new era dates from the life of our great and good Abraham Lincoln.

ST

LINCOLN'S DEATH

BY RABBI ISAAC LEESER

INCE we assembled last, yesterday afternoon, in this house for worship of the Almighty God, a frightful and unlooked-for crime has startled the whole land. This morning, when I left my residence, the papers announced that a murderous assault had been made, late in the evening, on the President of the United States, but that at last accounts he was still living, though without hope of recovery; but since the commencement of the morning-service, the president of this congregation has communicated to me that death has closed the scene, and that Mr. Lincoln has been numbered with the dead. The man who was only yesterday, perhaps, the most powerful on earth, who had nearly closed with marked success a war of vast dimensions, which had raged full four years, has been suddenly struck, in the moment of his triumph, by the fatal bullet of the murderer, in the midst of a crowded assembly, by the side of his wife, and has been thus unconsciously hurried into eternity. A week had scarcely elapsed since he entered, as conquerer, the capital of his enemy, where he sat in the chair erst occupied by the chief of the opponents of the government of the Union, and he had returned in safety to the chief city of the country, and the seat of its central power; when the mighty ruler of the republic, to whom the people had confided the government for another term, who had anticipated so much that he had not yet accomplished, was stricken down unawares, unprepared, and now lies low, with none to fear him, with none to do him reverence. For all that will be done hereafter will not affect him; he rests from his toils in the arms of cold death.

The history of the world gives us several instances of the murder of kings and other important persons, and the Bible

Delivered before Congregation Beth-el-Emeth, New York City, April 15, 1865.