PSALM.

REV. WILLIAM H. BOOLE then read the ninetyfourth Psalm :

1. O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.

2. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.

3. Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?

4. How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

5. They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage:

6. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless,

7. Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

8. Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be wise?

9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

10. He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?

11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are

vanity.

12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law;

13. That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

14. For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance :

15. But judgment shall return unto righteousness; and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

16. Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

17. Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.

18. When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held

me up.

19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

20. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?

21. They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.

22. But the Lord is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge.

23. And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.

4

PRAYER.

REV. E. P. ROGERS, D. D., offered the following Prayer:

Almighty and everlasting God, Thou art our God, and we will praise Thee. Thou wert our fathers' God, and we will magnify Thy holy name. Thou art the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity. Thou doest all things according to Thy will, among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. None can stay Thy hand or say, "What doest Thou?" Thy way is in the sea and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known. Clouds and darkness are around and beneath, but righteousness and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne. Thou hast, in Thy inscrutable providence, called us together in sadness and sorrow, and stricken a mourning people. We bow beneath the stroke of Thy hand, and we lift up our hearts to Thee out of the depths of the calamity. Thou hast removed by a sudden, violent and unexpected blow our honored President. Thou hast broken our strong staff and our beautiful rod, and from one end of this land to the other, the sound of wailing and of woe is borne on every breeze. The nation follows the body of its lamented chief with mourning hearts and streaming eyes to its last earthly resting-place. We humble ourselves, O God, beneath the stroke of Thy hand, and we find comfort and hope in the thought that it is not an enemy that has dealt us the blow, but a just God, in His infinite wisdom, and who doeth all things well; and so we would say in the midst of our sorrows

over the bier of our lamented and murdered President, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." But O, our God, while we mourn, we thank Thee for the circumstances of mercy which are mingled with this stroke. We bless Thee in the midst of our sorrow, that Thou didst give us Thy servant to be the leader and commander of Thy people in times of peril. And we bless Thee that Thou hast girded him with wisdom and might in counsel and in the field. We bless Thee that Thou didst guide him in all his difficult and delicate way, and didst permit him to live so long and do so much for the benefit and welfare of this land. And we bless Thee that since it was Thy will to take him away, Thou didst remove him in the midst of his years and honors, with no shadow upon his fame, but to be cherished in the memory of a grateful people to the latest generations. We bless Thee that Thou didst permit our lamented chief to see this atrocious and causeless rebellion crushed. We bless Thee that Thou didst permit him to see the loved banners of our country waving again in triumph over all its states and territories. We bless Thee that Thou didst permit him to bring freedom to the captive, and liberty to the bondman, and to go to his honored grave to be kept ever green by the tears of a grateful people, having done his work and done it well, to the glory of God, and for the best welfare of his native land. And while we sorrow, we sorrow not as others who have no hope. We bless God for his memory, enshrined in our deepest hearts. Oh! let it be sacred to the remotest times in the great hearts of the American people. Let it be an inspiration to all that is pure, all that is honest, all that is faithful, all that is patriotic; to all that is patient, gentle, loving and kind; to all that is firm, to all that is Christian; and let peace, with freedom, with justice, with righteousness and with Christianity, raise an everlasting monument above the spot where sleeps his honored dust. Our Father, we commend to Thee the country for which

he loved and wept, and toiled and prayed and died. We bless Thee that Thou hast given to that wearied brain rest-rest to that anxious heart-rest to that troubled spirit-a blessed rest. But we bless Thee that though the President died, the republic lives, God lives, our just God; and we bless Thee that when our Moses led the people through the wilderness to the borders of Canaan, and saw as from Mount Pisgah the glorious land of Promise, and laid him down to die, Thou hadst another Joshua to take his work upon him, and to clear this beautiful land of the last remnant of the rebellious tribes. O God, assist our new President in his work; let him administer justice and maintain truth; and with purity, with honesty, with piety and patriotism like his honored predecessor, let him accomplish the great and delicate work that yet remains to be done, and be a benefit to the land. Remember the widow and the fatherless, O Thou who art the widow's God and Father of the fatherless. Have them in Thy holy keeping, and wipe their tears away; and let them be cherished by the sympathies and prayers of a grateful people. We ask Thy tender mercy in behalf of Thy servant, the Secretary of State. O Lord, heal his wounds, make his broken bones rejoice, raise him up from the bed of weakness whereon he lies, and let his counsel yet be given to his country and his life be spared to her service; and, O Lord, let Thy blessing be on the land in all its beauty and glory. Let our fathers' God be our God, and never in all its after history let the least vestige of treason or of slavery do anything to dishonor God or man, or rest as a dark curse upon us. But let the whole country be the home of freedom, of intelligence, of true and pure Christianity-a beacon light among the nations of the earth and a great benediction to the peoples. Hear this our prayer. Let Thy blessing be upon us all, forgive our sins, and graciously hear, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Holy Ghost shall be honor and glory, world without end.-Amen.