Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The National Grief; Its Cause and Its Lesson: A Sermon on the Death of President Garfield, Preached in the M. E. Church, Dover, Del;, Sept; 25, 1881
The following in either direction may be with alacrity by some, but languidly by others, until the two parties gradually approach and are only separated by a faintly discernable line. Still there are only two great parties, the righteous and the wicked.
Now there are many occasions in human history and many events in which the two parties, with all their varying hues and all their shades of differences, are united in a common object, a common interest, a common struggle, a common sorrow. And so we find it now. The worst men in our nation, in common with the best, are struck dumb with horror at the appalling crime which robbed us of our late President, and are overwhelmed with the same grief, wearing the same tokens of sorrow, using the same epithets of regret or of indignation, expressing the same sympathy and condolence and moved by the same spontaneous impulses. What we find among ourselves, we see only with less intensity among all the civilized peoples of the globe. Notably so in Great Britain, but appreciably so in all other enlightened nations. How can we account for it? On this ground: "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." In a word, the nations of mankind, despite race, language, institutions and religion, are one humanity, influenced by like motives, moved by like impulses, swayed by like hopes, fears and aspirations. This is an argument for the unity of the race that ought to sweep into oblivion all the speculations that have been arrayed against it.
Estimating the human inhabitants of the globe at a billion and a quarter, one twenty-fifth of the whole number reside within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United State. The population is composed of various nationalities and races, is characterized by different religious ideas, some of which are irreconcilably hostile to each other, is taught in different schools of politics, and educated under systems widely differing from one another, so that it presents a heterogeneous aspect scarcely paralleled in any other part of the globe. Nevertheless, there is apparent, and in practical operation throughout all the States and Territories of this wonderful republic, a mighty principle of homogeneity. What does it mean? It means just what we now realize more fully than ever before - that the nations of the earth, of whatever form of government, whether republic, limited monarchy, or absolute despotism, have been constrained to look upon ours with undisguised wonder and profound respect. A stricken President touches all the nations, and the tender chords of sympathy vibrate to the ends of the earth. An Orphean hand touches the harpstring, and the dirge is heard beyond the seas and across the continents, while the nations bow with uncovered heads as we consign the mortal dust of a great ruler to the silence of the shadowy tomb. It means more - for during the eighty days of languishing and wasting, of bitter pain and domestic anguish, of patient suffering and national solicitude, society lay as calm and quiet as an infant sleeping upon its mother's breast. There was no tumult, no insurrection, no boisterous rabble clamoring for redress of imaginary grievances, no disturbances but such as are common in the most tranquil times. The Ship of State rode gallantly on a peaceful sea; no war save the border Indian troubles; no delay in the transportation of mails; no friction in any of the Departments of Government; no closing of the courts or delay of justice through all the weary weeks of the Nation's one tender and pathetic concern.
