Excerpt from Sermon Occasioned by the Assassination of President Lincoln: Delivered April 16, 1865; In First Presbyterian Church, of Paterson, N. J

If these words and sentiments are unbecoming the minis ter of the gospel of peace, I shall be the first to regret and recall them. I can only say that now they seem to me not only entirely consistent with the Office I represent, but ren dered Obligatory by the functions of that Office itself. It is not private vengeance I would slake: but it is public justice I would execute; that justice on which the stability Of em pires and the rights Of men, the order and welfare Of society must rest for support and without which is misrule, anar chy and social wretchedness.

But if aught is said intemperately, in hot passion, - the cause of provocation is great. Who can be perfectly self possessed in such agony Of grief as we suffer to-day. We mourn today the loss of one whom we regarded with more than the veneration that is due to the Office Of President Of the United States. We not only honoured him as President, we had learned to love him as the Father of his people.

I have hinted at the reluctance with which many of us voted in 1860 for the comparatively Obscure man, whose personal appearance and peculiarities were not likely on his first introduction to this anxious nation, to create a favorable impression. But it was far different when Abraham Lincoln was nominated for re-election in 1864. He came before us then as our Owa free choice, the man whom the people de lighted to honour, the man in whom we felt a confidence that no other man in the Union could inspire.

I have not the ability, nor the material, to portray the character or recount the life of Abraham Lincoln. This will be done. And when it is done, the world will assign to Abraham Lincoln no inferior place among the greatest and the best Of men.

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