The life and death of Abraham Lincoln.: A sermon preached at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, Sunday morning, April 23, 1865,/ by the Rev. Phillips Brooks.

lay. We are told that he did not come to the Presidential chair pledged to the abolition of Slavery. When
will we learn that with all true men it is not what they
intend to do, but it is what the qualities of their natures
bind them to do that determines their career? The
President came to his power full of the blood, strong in
the strength of Freedom. He came there free and hating
slavery. l He came there, leaving on record words like
these spoken three years before and never contradicted.
He had said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently,
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to
be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall; but I
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all
one thing or all the other." When the question came he
knew which thing he meant that it should be. His
whole nature settled that question for him. With such
a man, intentions far ahead meant little. Such a man
must always live as he used to say he lived, (and was
blamed for saying it) "controlled by events not controlling
them." And with a reverent and clear mind to be controlled by events, means to be controlled by God. For
such a man there was no hesitation when God brought
him up face to face with Slavery and put the swordiinto
his hand and said, "Strike it down dead." He was a
willing servant then. If ever the face of a man writing
solemn words glowed with a solemn joy, it must have
been the face of Abraham Lincoln, as he bent over the
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