A mournful Easter. A discourse delivered in the Church of the Epiphany, Washington, D. C., on Easter Day, April 19 [i. e. 16] 1865

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Book.

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3IOURNFUL EASTER

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_A. DISCOURSE

HEL1VERED IN THK

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CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY,

WASHINGTON, D. C,

On EASTER DAY, APRIL 19, 1865,

BY THE RECTOR, REV. CHARLES H. HALL, D. D.

Being the second day after the Assassination of the President of the

United States, and a similar attempt upon the Secretary of

State, on the nic.ht of Good Friday.

&^>-

WASHINGTOX :
GIDEON tt PEARSON, PRINTERS.

1865.

A. MOURNFUL EASTER.

-A. IDISCOTTIE^SIE

DELIVERED 1\ THK

CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY,

WASHINGTON, D. C,

On EASTER DAY, APRIL 1<>, 1865,

BY THE RECTOR, REV. CHARLES H. HALL, D. D.

Being the second day after the Assassination of the President of the

United States, and a similar attempt upon the Secretary of

State, on the night of Good Friday.

WASHINGTON:
GIDEON & PEARSON, PRINTERS.

1865.

IE-

CORRESPONDENCE

359 H Street,
Washington City, April 17, 1865.

Rev. Charles H. Hall, D. D.

Dear Sir: — At a meeting of the Congregation of Epiphany Church, this
evening, the undersigned were appointed a committee to express to you the
gratification with which they listened to the sermon which you delivered on
Easter morning, and to request a copy thereof for publication.

We, therefore, respectfully request that you furnish us a copy at your
earliest convenience.

Very truly,

CHARLES KNAP,

St. JOHN B. L. SKINNER,

THOS. R. WILSON.

Washington, Epiphany Rectory, April 19, 18G5.
To Messrs. Charles Knap, St. John B. L. Skinner, Thos. R. Wilson.

Gentlemen :— The wish of the Congregation of Epiphany Church in a matter
of this kind is, of course, law with us ; and I herewith send you the manu-
script of the Sermon of Easter Sunday morning. It is a simple word of feeling
from all our hearts, and may possibly be interesting and useful to others.
We who have known the private history of the distinguished subject of the
Discourse as a neighbor, as well as his official actions as the Chief Magistrate
of the nation, I doubt not all, without exception, will feel disposed with
me to complete the passage of the poet to which I have alluded :

" Besides this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great joffiu', that his virtues
Will plead like angel.', tr-umpet-tongucd, against
The deep damnation of'h'-s taking off."

As my own small tribute to his memory, who has given me reasons of my
own for lamenting him, I commit the Discourse to you and the Congregation
of the Epiphany, with assurances of my esteem.

CH. II. HALL, Rector.

These Prayers for the Country were used between the Morning Prayer and
the Order of the Holy Communion.

PRAYEE.

Almighty God, whose kingdom is everlasting and
power infinite ; Have rnercy upon the whole Church and
Country; and so rule the hearts of those who are in chief
power and authority in this Nation, that they, knowing
Whose ministers they are, may above all things seek
Thy honor and glory ; and that we, and all those who are
subject to their administration of the Constitution and
Laws by which they and we are governed, duly consider-
ing Whose authority they bear, may faithfully serve,
honor, and humbly obey the law of the land by them ad-
ministered and executed, in Thee and for Thee, according
to. Thy blessed Word and Ordinance; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, Who, with Thee and the Holy Ghost,
liveth and reigneth ever, world without end. Amen.

Most Gracious God, we humbly beseech Thee, as for
the people of these United States in general, so especially
for all those who in Council are now called on to assist in
restoring to peaceful and orderly course the affairs of this
whole Nation; that Thou wouldst be pleased to direct
and prosper all their consultations, and to guide and fur-
ther their proceedings, to the advancement of Thy glory,
the good of Thy Church, the safety, honor, and welfare
of Thy people; that all things may be so ordered and
settled by their endeavors, upon the best and surest
foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice,
religion and piety may be established among us for all

generations. These and all other necessaries, for them,
for ns, and Th}T whole Church, we humbly beg in the
Name and mediation of Jesus Christ, our most blessed
Lord and Saviour. Amen.

O merciful God and heavenly Father, who hast taught
us in Thy Word that Thou clost not willingly afflict or
grieve the children of men; we humbly beseech Thee of
Thy goodness to comfort and succor all those wTho are at
this time suffering in the miserable calamities brought
upon this Nation and Cit}- by violence and civil war.
Mercifully vouchsafe supplies of spiritual strength and
consolation to the wounded, sick, and dying, and raise
up friends for them in their need. Be a Father to the
fatherless and a Husband to the widow. Furnish shelter
to the homeless, sustenance to the impoverished, support
to the bereaved and destitute. Lighten the bonds of
those who are captives or in prison. Give all, in their
several visitations, a right understanding of themselves
and of Thy threats and promises, that they may neither
cast away their confidence in Thee, nor place it anywhere
but in Thee. Relieve the distressed, protect the innocent,
and awaken the guilty; and forasmuch as Thou alone
bringest light out of darkness, and good out of evil, make
the manifold forms of human suffering now darkening our
land effectual tor the' conversion of many souls to Thee,
thai among us fruits meet for repentance may be abund-
antly broughl forth, and that the glory of thy grace may
be made known among all nations, now and forever-
more; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

DISCOURSE.

" I am the Resurrection and the Life." — St. John xi. 25.

The words of the Burial service are the appropriate
words of tins troubled Easter morning. We had prepared
to leave behind us the gloomier thoughts of the tomb,
and decking it, as it were, with flowers and palm branches,
to gaze with serene eye steadfastly on the glorious morn-
ing of the Resurrection ; to forget for a while the instinctive
repugnance of the human heart at the short interval of
the grave ; to look beyond it to the abodes of our expected
reward, where tears shall be wiped from all eyes, and the
disquieting fears which beset us here in the world of
chances and changes would give way to eternal repose
and joy. But we are called in the providence of God to
look more at the sorrows than the joys that surround the
Christian's hope; to weep with those who weep rather
than dwell upon the topics of our exulting hope. On the
night of that first Good Friday, the narrow tomb of the
rich man of Arimathea, which he had hewn out in his
little rocky garden spot, wherein he hoped himself, after
a quiet departure from the troubles of earth, to sleep with
his fathers, held the hastily buried remains of his Master.
Violence and crime Lad done their work, and the One
who came to bless our race had been slain by wicked
hands; and a few trembling disciples, shocked by the
overthrow of all their hopes, outraged by the horrible
passions of their unbelieving countrymen, were hiding in
retired places, and telling with scared faces, That this

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was He Who, we had thought, would bring salvation unto
Israel. Words would fail to picture their grief and horror.
Perhaps nothing could communicate the sense of it to
our hearts more effectually than the feelings which now
weigh heavy upon all our hearts in common, as we mourn
together in our national bereavement. There can, of
course, be no proper comparison made between any mor-
tal man and the Son of God. We need not be suspected
of making it, after joining, as we have done, in the words
of the ancient Creed, that Jesus Christ was " God of
God — of the same substance with the Father." But He
became a man and was found in the form of a servant,
and stooped to the death of the Cross, with all its indig-
nities and cruelties, that we might always draw together
under the shadow of that Cross, and feel in Him our
mutual sympathy in all sudden calamities, and draw from
His religion the strength to do our common duties; the
hope to sustain us under our common griefs. We gather
now around an open grave, permitted to be opened on
this Easter Day by the awful and wicked tragedy of this
last Good Friday, to temper our pious gratulations as be-
lievers with the sorrow which has befallen us as citizens.
The grave and gate of death opens before us as a people,
and we mourn the sanguinary crimes which have made
our Good Friday so marked an event in the history of the
world. It becomes us to mingle the Easter-chant, with the
minor wail of the Miserere, and to pray God not to forsake
us, nor let the ungodly get the upper hand. We are an
afflicted nation, horrified by the darkest crimes which can
befall a people. Yet, even here, let us pass beyond the
thinsrs which are seen; and our common faith at once
opens to ns its own lessons of trust in I linivho is the Resur-

rection and the Life, who ever liveth to make intercession
for ns. The frightfulness of the times may make the
blood well nigh stop at the core of the heart; the success
of crime appalls the reason of the bravest. That one
horror, which had thus far been spared us, now to fall
so suddenly, so unresisted, causes the mind to pass back
in gloomy retrospect, to recall the like events in the past,
and the miserable accompaniments that attended them.
We are paralyzed. That our people — so free to debate
their perplexities, so fair and manly in the almost un-
licensed discussion of them, so patient in waiting for their
normal solution — should be thus defeated of their hopes
and robbed of their rejoicing in the very moment when
we were all taking breath after the trials of the past
struggle; when we were hoping that God's great boon of
love and reconciliation was about to glide down upon
bleeding hearts in all this land — it is the most tremendous
blow, the most fearful calamity that has ever befallen us.
We can only stand appalled. We can only gather in our
homes, where tears and sighs have attested our instinctive
sympathy with the afflicted, and bow before the Supreme
Ruler of all events, and cry to Him, " Spare thy people,
0 Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach." We
may wisely strive to gather such comfort as we may, by
our faith, from the assured hopes of the Christian
covenant.

Christ is the Resurrection and the Life — not merely
promises it, not only has sought out the causes of it, but
Himself is it. He died that He might go down into the
dark hopeless chambers of the grave, and there prepare a
way for us — there get the victory over death — and rising
again from the grave ascend on high, leading captivity

captive, and give us men the pledge of a like resurrection.
He gave us the profound assurance that He rules over us
in all the ages; that He guides for us the world and all its
changes; that there can nothing die which is His truth;
that even if individuals pass away the Truth, guided by
Him, lives and moves on, and will have its due success by
His care. This resurection of Christ gave us not alone
the pledge of individual resuscitation from the grave.
Great as that advantage is to each individual; as pure and
blessed a revelation as that personal hope is to each soul
which goes down to the grave ; the other lesson is as
grand and replete with comfort. The apostles, each pro-
claimed his single belief in his own resurrection, cheered
his disciples in all the Churches with the exulting argu-
ments which told that as in "Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive;" yielded each his spirit in
peace, like St. Stephen, as seeing the Lord Jesus standing
at the right hand of God.

But there is another lesson in it, which they and all
Christians have received deep into their consciousness —
the fact that in Christ, the great law of Truth and Love,
which underlies all our civilization, can never die. I do
not fancy an Apostle of Jesus, as he felt his life slipping
away in agony, as lie looked around on faces of enemies,
taunting him with every epithet of shameful abuse, and
glaring upon him with the scowlings of brutal rage, com-
forting himself with the individual consolation: "] shall
rise again: I shall turn to tin' dust, but that dust of mine
shall be watched by angels, and at the resurrection recalled
and changed into a glorious and spiritual body." No;
this may have formed their subject of rejoicing, as they
sang psalms and hviiius in hours of respite. This became

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their grand argument as they combatted unbelief or re*
buked sin. This was the theme of their discourse as they
bent over the parchment on which with the stylus they
wrote the words of quiet and serenest comfort to the
Christians, who were not yet "resisting unto blood," but
only bearing up under ordinary trials. But when the
hour of their own final trial came, they doubtless (as I
conceive of them) were wrought up to a grander theme :
that in Christ, the Truth could never die. Even pagans
had taught them the great fact, that it was easy to die for
one's country, When the faith iu their country was strong
in them. Even old jSTorsemen have set before us the
image of this great consolation ; and their scalds represent
their heroes when overcome in battles, chanting the songs
of their national glory; that while they as individuals fly
away to the halls of Valhalla, the life of the people ever
lives on. And those loving hearts, which had endured
and dared all things for others* — who, moved by Divine
pity had learned to forget self in charity to the miserable
of all countries — when their hour of martyrdom came at
last, laid down their lives in sublime trust, that while they
as individuals perished, the Church could never perish.
They felt themselves to be but particles running in the
veins and arteries of the Spiritual Body. That Body
would live on, though they passed out of sight. " The
gates of death" could never prevail against it. It had
risen in Christ and would live even by their sorrows;
Would gain new strength from their defeat, would yet
crown their names with testimonials of gratitude for the
blessings purchased by their >w faithfulness unto death."
It is that profound faith in the spiritual oversight of
Christ over us. in our Christian civilization, which has

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made the deaths of individuals tolerable — which gives us
a solemn strength in the midst of the most agitating
doubts and the gloomiest disasters. Martyrs in all ages
have taught us the meaning of that quaint merriment of
the noble old bishop at Oxford, as he said : " "We
shall light this day a candle which shall give light to all
England."

When in old Rome, Osesar fell before the daggers of
assassins, there was a gloom which hang like a pall over
the whole laud, unrelieved by one certain, assured hope
of the future ; but to-day, much as we have quaked in hor-
ror at the atrocious crimes which have defiled the land with
the blood of unresisting victims, we unconsciously rest as-
sured of our Future. There may yet be circles of trouble
and fear, but the stream will again run smooth, and the
Country, after its scourging has passed and its wild pas-
sions are quieted, will once more pass on to its high place
in the catalogue of the nations. We have this faith deeper
fixed than we think it, till some severe trial brings it
to the surface. We may call it up as the true lesson to
us of this great Christian festival. And if any one has
made the wretched mistake of doubting this deep faith
in this nation, or supposing that our life has hung en-
tirely on any single individual, he has only by a dastardly
cowardice given us the opportunity of showing the vi-
tal force of the institutions which we have received from
our forefathers. Let us in that sublime conviction loan
back on our trust in God and "dwell in the land and be
doing good." Let us join to remember that vengeance
belongeth to the Lord, and administer justice upon the
guilty, unruffled by the passions or the fears of the first
shock of alarm. Our country will enshrine the fallen in

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her inmost heart, will forget their errors, if they had them,
will pardon their faults, such as they were, and give them
a glorious record of her love and gratitude, such as they
might have missed by a gentler exit. I do not make
them out to be martyrs to Religion, but to their Country.
They have died in the midst of a community, that has
thrilled with horror at the utter wantonness of the deed ;
its mere stupid, brutal, theatrical revenge. No cause of
all those for which men are struggling can be supposed
by the most fanatical imagination to be advantaged by
this deed. If it has been plotted to defeat our national
life and to hurry us into anarchy, it will take but one calm
hour of reflection to show the madness of such a hope.
We are not the Christian people I wish and pray we may
be ; we are in many things too careless and profane ; we
have too often forgotten God, and neglected too many of
the duties that we owe Him ; but there is yet a deep con-
sciousness under all these visible faults of character, which
will suffice to carry us through these dangers. We can
call up our faith in the Truth, the Christian charity for
all men, the deep innate struggle in us as a nation for
the Rights of man, and believe that individuals may perish,
policies may rise and fall, great mistakes may be made
and repented of; but the normal life of the Nation will
increase in vigor, and prompt to new and better epochs.
Trusting to this, let us be calm. Let us be brave, and
consider our own sins and beg God to watch over us and
mercifully pardon us the past.

I conclude with a word or two concerning the distin-
guished individual, who has been struck down by a das-
tardly, cowardly crime. How fair was that Good Friday !
The sun came up with purest, whitest light ; the buoyant

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air was full of Spring, and the calm hours glided away —
the truest, best picture possible of peace. How many
hearts were exulting thatPeace and Spring seemed coming
in together; that magnanimity was becoming the theme
of common consideration ; that as the quiet after a thun-
der-storm, so the social scenery would Avitness the pause
and tears of reconciliation and renewed brotherhood. I
had received a letter from the distant Diocesan of Maine,
(a man loyal to the core,) occupied with delicate scruples
concerning our returning brethren of the Church. And
for such a day to pass into such night — 'the heart is para-
lyzed by it!

But for the immortal soul, which was called so sud-
denly to meet the award of death, has there been one
day in all the past four years of his administration that
Would have such an idea of Divine mercy mingled with
it for him, When we think of him as immortal, and as
having passed the change which meets us all ? He is be-
lieved by all men, by his political enemies as well as his
intimates, to have been a kind man — one easy to be en-
treated. In mercy he Was simple and sincere. He had
long since given orders that no one on a mission to him
of life and death should ever be refused an audience. I
have heard those who differed from him in political life
declare him to be beyond question a merciful man. At
one recital of grief I know, he broke down, and mingled
his tears with those of the suppliant. I can testify from
personal knowledge to his quaint but honest mercifulness
of disposition ; willing to spare suffering to a tale of woe,
and then struggling to conceal, Under a blunt exterior
the tenderness of his own almost womanly sympathy.
But on last Good Friday, of all the days of his adminis-

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tration, he was probably most bent on thoughts of mercy.
The benign influence of it had permeated the time. "We
all felt a new hope rising up in us. Something of the old
look had come on the faces of men and women, as we talked
together of the future. The images of a book of an Irish
Lord* came stealing into my own mind all the day — as he
caresses the figure-head of his little vessel, in which he
had been tossed in the storms and beset by the fogs and
icebergs of the Spitsbergen seas, as she rises proudly in
the clear water, and leaving her dangers behind, begins
to fling the snowy foam from her bows, on her passage
home ; and he sings how the waves

" cowered, and ranged themselves on either side,

Like vassal ranks who watch some passing queen
Through her white-columned halls in silence glide,
Nor mingling meet till she no more is seen."

So came to me the hope of our Country, which was steal-
ing into all hearts; of our progress out of night and perils
to a brighter and better day.

The Draft was suspended. What anxious multitudes of
mothers and wives thanked God for that message! The
materials of destruction were not to be increased. Swords
would give way for peaceful implements of agriculture !
And thus I imagined him, led by the Father of him and
us alike — mysteriously led — to thoughts of forgiveness
and conciliation and mercy to all — led possibly un-
consciously to imitating Him, Whose blessed words had
moulded the civilization by which he was held, as He said,
on that other Good Friday, "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do" — and thus made ready to
go, by ways and means beyond our finding out.

*Lord Dufferin. Yacht Voyages, LeUera/rom high Latitudes.

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Brethren, I would that he had been a church-member,
in all the proprieties of our appointed modes of thought.
But I wish also the same of very many of you, whom I
shall be too weak, when the time comes, to give up, with
Admah and Zeboim, if you do not conform as I would
have you. But there is a perverse education in our land,
which moulds us all to some unhappy errors of life and
thought; and the matter is a sore perplexity. But fail-
ing this appointed relation, which our disputes and sects
so misrepresent and confuse in the public mind as to leave
a divided painful responsibility, I ask you ; Could he have
gone up to meet his Judge with a more merciful spirit
than we suppose him to have had? He has always de-
clared himself a believer in the Christian religion.* He
has, beyond question, believed himself to be an appointed
apostle of the Rights of man, as he conceived them. And
then, with his heart full of the one grand principle of recon-
ciliation and peace, I can leave him to the mercy of Him
Who is the Resurrection and the Life, and to Whom we
too shall need to appeal for mercy, rather than justice. The
very central element of all Christian ethics rests on these
words : "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who

* The following words of farewell to his neighbors, on leaving them, Feb.
11, 1861, have now a fresh and mournful interest :

My Friends : No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at
this parting. To this people I owe all that 1 am. Here I have lived more
than a quarter of a century ; here my children were born, and here one of
them lies buried. 1 know not how soon 1 shall see you again. A duty de-
volves upon me, which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon
any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded
except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I
feel thai I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him,
and on the same Almighty Being 1 place my reliance forsupporl : and 1 hope
you, my friends, will all pray that 1 maj receive that Divine assistance,
without which 1 cannol succeed, but with which success is certain. Again
I bid you all an affectionate farewell.

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trespass against us.*' The one side of it lie was striving
to do fully and nobly. The other side is with his God,
who searches and judges the heart. We lament his loss,
with detestation at the crime ; " the deep damnation of his
taking off." May God give comfort to the afflicted
families, whose losses will make Good Friday memorable
in our national records. May He give repentance to the
wretched criminals who have stained their hands, wantonly
and stupidly in innocent blood, before they are called
upon to meet the just punishment of their attrocities.
May He give us grace to understand the seriousness and
solemnity of our duties to the government over us; and
as He only can, bring good out of this evil.