Excerpt from Damon's Lincoln Sermon: A Discourse Preached by Rev. Samuel Chenery Damon in Honolulu, Hawaii, 14 May, 1865

IN the administration of the affairs of this world God is ever doing and permitting things to be done the reasons for which cannot be seen by shortsighted mortals. Such is God's method of proceeding that we are continually compelled to take many things on trust. Faith in Him is the great lesson which He is ever teaching mankind. He has drawn an impenetrable veil before our eyes, shutting out the future from our view. Ye know not what shall be on the morrow, or what a day may bring forth. How impressively these scriptural declara tions and those of my text are illustrated by events which have recently transpired on the other side of the globe. All the loyal people of that great country, stretching from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf to the Lakes, were preparing for such a day of thanks giving and jubilee as never had been witnessed on the western continent. The national feeling, which, during the four years of civil war had been repressed, was rising, and about to burst forth in such scenes and shouts of re joicing as would have made the welkin ring. The dove of peace which had, during those four long years. Been con fined to the ark, rocked and tossed upon the troubled waters of civil strife, political contentions and cruel war. Had now been released, and with the olive branch in her mouth, was winging her flight over mountains and valleys broad savannahs and boundless prairies. The good news was flashed with lightning speed over the land and the world. The dark clouds were rolling away, and the sun of the nation's glory was beginning to shine, and the rain bow of peace was distinctly seen Spanning a continent, as in days of yore. When 10! From the receding black clouds of secession, treachery and slavery, there darted forth a fiendish arm, holding in its hand an assassin's dagger. The whole scene is instantly changed. For a moment the pulse and heart of the nation cease to beat, but the next instant there follows a sigh of anguish and wail of sorrow. Abraham Lincoln, our beloved president, is dead! I do not believe, since the creation of the world, so many hearts, in so short a space of time, ever mourned over the death of a single human being. There is no disputing or gain saying the fact, Abraham Lincoln had gradually been winning for himself a place in the hearts of the American people second only to that of Washington, the father of his country. But will not the people now call him the savior of the country, when the life of the nation was threatened?

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