Monthly Religious Magazine. Boston. May 1865
THE LESSON OF THE HOUR.
What times are these in which we live! What tragedies are we compelled to witness! The President of a free people assassinated in his own capitol! A conspiracy to murder the chief rulers of the nation, and thus paralyze or destroy the Government! Our flag, that so lately waved joyfully in the breeze, now draped in mourning; our bells, that rang out pæans of victory, tolling for sorrow; our nation in tears, that but yesterday was jubilant and triumphing! In what age, in what country, do we live, that such catastrophes arc realities? If the sun had been turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, the horror would scarcely have been more dreadful. Passion Week is henceforth to be doubly significant as commemorative of a nation's agony, and Good Friday will be shrouded in a deeper gloom from association with the slaughter of the most beloved of magistrates. It is a personal as well as a public loss. It is a stab at every loyal heart, as well as at the cause of order, civilization, and liberty. God speaks to us by such events; and it becomes us to listen to the teachings of his providence, as well as to his written word.
The first impression that is made upon us, after we have recovered from the shock which well-nigh overwhelmed us, is the feeling of mingled astonishment and shame at the baseness and enormity of the crime. We see of what wickedness man is capable. Human nature seems disgraced. The principal villain was not an ignorant, but a cultivated man. He had no personal provocation. The object of his dastardly
