FUNERAL SERVICES IN ALL CHURCHES.
While funeral services were being held over the remains of President
McKinley on the Sunday after his death, every church edifice in the
whole nation was the scene of a similar service. Without regard to sect
or creed, without regard to location, far or near, high or low, in
cathedral and in chapel, the words of preacher and the heartfelt
sympathy of people rose in united worship to the God whom William
McKinley had worshiped.
Services in the Metropolitan Methodist Church at Washington, of which
President McKinley was a member and constant attendant when at
Washington, were of an unusually impressive character.
The congregation present tested the capacity of the building, many
persons being compelled to stand. Drapings of black covered the
President’s pew, and these sombre habiliments of woe covered the pulpit,
partly made of olive wood from Jerusalem. During the service the choir
sang “Lead, Kindly Light,” and “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” favorites of
the dead President, the vast congregation joining in both selections.
Rev. Dr. F. M. Bristol, the pastor, was in Europe; but Rev. W. H.
Chapman delivered the sermon, taking his text from Jeremiah, “Judah
mourneth.” In the course of his remarks Dr. Chapman said:
“No safer, purer man than William McKinley has ever presided over this
great republic and no man was ever more admired. Adorned was he with the
highest and noblest virtues, which gave dignity and force to his
character and moral beauty to his life. He was a Christian man and
exemplified in his daily life the sublime principles of Christianity.
From early manhood he had been identified with the Christian church,
with that branch which we represent. It was the church of his mother,
the church in which he had been trained from childhood, that he had
received lessons which added to those imparted to him by his maternal
parent laid the foundation for that solid, symmetrical character which
he attained and for which he was distinguished.
“Christianity nobly sustained him during his illness, enabling him to
endure calmly and submissively. In his quiet moments, with eyes closed
but not asleep, he said, ‘Nearer, my God, to Thee.’ To his beloved
companion who had trod with him for many years the path of life, bending
over him with tearful eyes and throbbing heart, near the parting hour,
he said ‘Not our will, but God’s will be done,’ meaning ‘be resigned but
trustful; leave all with the Lord and it shall be well with thee when I
am gone.’ How peaceful and resigned he went into the valley, covered
with splendid sunshine and found rest from his labors! He has left
behind him, to his kindred and to us the rich legacy of a splendid
character and an unsullied record. A life that says to others: ‘This is
the way. Walk in it, the way that leads to moral wealth, far above all
material wealth, and which leads at last to heaven and to God.’
“We shall miss him in this sanctuary and look no more upon him in yonder
pew devotional in worship and listening attentively to the precious word
as if indeed it were manna to his soul and a refreshing stream from the
fountain of life. But he worshiped today in the temple not made with
hands, with many of those with whom he was wont to worship in the church
below. May we all imitate his example, emulate his virtues and at the
last be counted worthy of a place with him in the kingdom of heaven.”
Rev. Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus, of the Central Church, at Chicago, used
these words:
“The awful feature of this calamity is undisguised in the fact that it
is a stroke against the enterprise of government, which is the noblest
enterprise undertaken by man. It was a dagger thrust at the heart of
civilization. It makes it all the more horrible and helps us to see the
ghastly features of anarchy more truly when we reflect that the wound
which it opened was through the now stilled heart of a man at once so
loving, so loved and so lovable as the President. To so dishearten the
whole of Christendom in its efforts toward public order, that wretch had
to pierce through one of the fairest and sweetest lives the world has
known. And it was this tender and noble man who believed so profoundly
in the safety of free government. When anarchists were loud in 1893 the
now silent orator eloquently said: ‘With patriotism in our hearts and
the flag of our country in our hands there is no danger of anarchy.’ It
is a frightful thing to believe that this confidence has been at all
shaken, and it is the instant demand of our religion and our education
that somehow they shall be made able to put patriotism into the hearts
of the alien peoples and to get them to take hold sympathetically of our
flag and love it, so that anarchy may be impossible. William McKinley’s
kindly heart and generous spirit, his enormous public services,
resulting in countless benefits to the poor man, his unswerving devotion
to the principle that no minority is without rights, his purity and
power are permanent forces and realities which have been exalted upon an
altar of martyrdom. The assassin supposed he could slay them from the
high and heavenly place in which the citizens of the republic behold
them. They will organize into a knightly personality and William
McKinley will be the slayer of anarchy in America. From this time
forward, whatever makes for anarchy must hide its treacherous face away
from the light of him whom we loved. Slanderous lies as to the motives
and character of those whom the nation has trusted with the reins of
government, the vulgarity of newly acquired wealth which seems often to
flaunt itself in the face of human need, the wild ravings of men who
have no idea of loyalty to government and law, the thoughtless debate of
theologians who have forgotten the simple dictates of Christian religion
and the Godless enemies of public justice, all writhe away like serpents
smitten with intolerable light as we think of the awful price we have
paid and ever must pay if we fail to do our duty in upholding the flag
and making it a symbol as sacred and as just as the cross of Christ.
William McKinley has entered into the Holy of Holies bearing our sins.
Let us awake to newness of life.”
At St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York Archbishop Corrigan was too much
moved to deliver the sermon, but throughout the sermon by Father Lavelle
he knelt in prayer. Father Lavelle devoted his entire sermon to the life
of President McKinley, and his words received the closest attention. He
first read the open letter of the Archbishop to the clergy in his
diocese asking for prayers for the late President, praising the latter’s
virtues and condemning anarchy.
“These words of our Archbishop,” he added, “express as complete as words
can the sentiment of the American people in general and the Catholics as
well on this day of national sorrow. I say as well as words can, because
on occasions of this kind the very best words seem hollow and
meaningless compared with the depth and vast significance that stirs the
heart of the nation, William McKinley was one whose name, even if
misfortune had not overtaken him, would have gone down to posterity as
one of the greatest Presidents of the United States. This is conceded by
all, those who opposed him politically as well. He was really the idol
of the nation. We all voted for him either directly or indirectly. If we
voted for his opponent we did so for the principle, not for the man, as
no one had a better character than William McKinley.
“He was a statesman who has left an indelible impression upon the
history of this country and of the world, and before he was President
the name of William McKinley was better known outside of the United
States and throughout the world than any other American. He was a man of
large faith in God and of deep religious sense. He was devoid of
bigotry. During two summers spent away from Washington he spent his
vacation at Lake Champlain, in the immediate vicinity of the Catholic
Summer School, and the courtesy and kindliness he showed was such as to
bring him nearer to the hearts of all people there and make him seem as
if he was one of them.
“‘Justice will be done.’ That was the principal guiding star of his
life; the aim and object that spurred him on to his duty. Well does he
deserve a nation’s tears and gratitude. Does it not seem strange that a
life so noble, a life without stain, at which the voice of calumny was
never once lifted, should find an enemy capable of destroying the vital
spark?”
Father Lavelle then referred to anarchism and to the writings of Pope
Leo XIII on the subject. At this time Archbishop Corrigan showed his
deep emotion and kept his handkerchief pressed to his eyes for some
time. In speaking of anarchists the Rev. Mr. Lavelle said:
“These misguided creatures sometimes pretend to find a root of their
false doctrines in the Scriptures themselves. Anarchy is as impassible
as that five is equal to two. We trace the beginning of this inequality
in God Himself. In our family, where the father and mother must be the
head, this man, the anarchist, gets over the difficulty by destroying
the family. If we wish to prevent a renewal of the calamity which we
mourn to-day it is only through stronger faith in God. That is the
bulwark of society and of this nation. You have noticed in the morning
papers that the new President has issued a proclamation, asking the
people to assemble in their places of worship on next Thursday and pray
for our illustrious dead. In accordance with that proclamation our
reverend Archbishop has set aside that day for services in this diocese.
A special mass will be held in the Cathedral at 10 o’clock, and I beg
all of you who can to come and pray with your hearts for this noble,
true man, whom we have lost.
“May we come to that service with the thought that the holy sacrifice
may go up to God, asking for new strength for our people and for the
unblemished hero who has gone—asking for the new President strength,
health and God’s spirit, so that they may aid him in the proper
discharge of his duties, and that never again in our history may we find
that the head of our nation has been laid low by anarchy, jealousy or
any other passion.”
Time and again through the service, when the speaker’s words touched
upon the beauties of President McKinley’s life, the Archbishop was seen
to bow his head in tears, while great sobs choked his frame.
One of the notable incidents of the day was Rev. F. D. Powers’ sermon at
the Vermont Avenue Christian church in Washington. He it was who
conducted the funeral services over the body of President Garfield, in
the rotunda of the capitol, twenty years ago. He chose as his text the
words of Christ to Peter in the garden of Gethsemane: “The cup which my
Father gave me, shall I not drink it?” He said in part:
“Our beloved Christian President, in the terrible moment when the blow
was struck, said: ‘Do him no harm; he does not know what he is doing.’
How true and wise and just and Christlike! And when he resigned himself
to the faithful surgeons with that faith and majestic courage and
magnificent simplicity that marked his character of life throughout, he
said: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom
come; Thy will be done,’ and passed into unconsciousness with those last
words on his lips. Hear him, as all the glory of this world fades above
his vision and the gates of the unseen are swinging wide, when he
breathed the hymn, ‘Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee.’ Hear him
as the last farewell is taken: ‘It is God’s way. His will be done.’ How
he speaks to the nation! How he speaks to the ages! God holds the cup,
and the draught is wholesome and needful. God help us to be ready, as he
was! Death is a friend of ours, and we must be ever ready to entertain
him. God make us strong in Him who said: ‘I am the resurrection and the
life.’”
Historic Trinity church, in New York, was crowded with worshippers. Rev.
Morgan Dix, the pastor, is a son of that stern old Governor John A. Dix,
who in an earlier day sounded the note of a vigorous policy: “If any man
hauls down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.”
Dr. Dix, before a congregation that filled every available seat and
overflowed in the aisles, delivered a sermon that was a eulogy of the
virtues and statesmanship of the late President, William McKinley. After
denouncing the crime Dr. Dix severely arraigned anarchy as a danger
which would destroy modern civilization, and recommended that action be
taken to suppress it. In the liturgical part of the service which
preceded the sermon the President’s favorite hymn, “Lead, Kindly Light,”
was sung. Dr. Dix spoke in part as follows:
“Men and brethren, eye to eye, hand to hand, heart to heart, we face
each other now crying, ‘Woe is me!’ Woe for the common grief, woe worth
the day and the tidings which it brings of destruction, desolation,
death and violence lording it over us all! We are one in our distress at
the last calamity and national affliction, in horror at an unspeakable
crime. And so suddenly has the blow been dealt that there has been no
time to search for the words which one might wish to speak. Two things
surely are filling our thoughts today. We are looking at the man; we are
looking at the crime. As for the man, his warmest friends, his greatest
admirers, could have asked for him no more brilliant apotheosis.
Estimates have varied of him, his ability, his work. But millions have
been praying as men seldom pray that his life might be precious in the
sight of God; and far beyond our borders, and widely through foreign
lands, others innumerable, our brethren in a common humanity, have been
on their knees pleading for his life. This tells the story of his
character, his acts, his greatness; the general consent of the wide
world, from which there can be no appeal.
“Our President was a great man in the highest sense in which that
adjective can be applied. I am not speaking as a publicist, nor
analyzing a political career; there is room for difference of judgment
there; but there are other matters upon which we are all agreed. What is
it to find in the highest place among us a man devout and faithful in
his Christian profession, modest, calm, capable; a pattern of the
domestic virtues, an example of right living? Has not the public, the
great American nation, taken in the beauty first of that good, honest,
loyal life? Is it not for this that the man has been beloved and mourned
throughout our families and our homes?
“What makes the Christian gentleman to begin with but simplicity and
sincerity of life, courteous manners, dislike of pride and ostentation,
abhorrence of display and vulgar show? So have we thought first of this
man, and then we have followed his life through its varied phases. We
have seen the quiet student, the soldier, the legislator, the executive
officer; and, looking on, our admiration has grown more and more. We
have seen him chosen by a vast popular movement to be the chief
magistrate of the nation; we have scanned his conduct and acts during
four years, among the most critical in the nation’s history, and as the
result of such scrutiny in the broadest light that could be thrown upon
his path, and under the severest criticism to which a public man can be
subjected, we have seen him re-elected to his great office by a larger
vote than ever amid the acclamation of the people and to the confusion
of his adversaries.
“All this we have seen. And then we have said: ‘In this system of ours
we do not ask for a man who shall make and control, but for a man who
shall wisely guide, oversee, direct; a man who catches the spirit of the
age, who knows the signs of the times, who interprets movements, and in
his sound judgment shapes their course.’ Looking at the last four years,
more full of vital issues to the nation than any since the days of
Abraham Lincoln, we have seen wonderful things. A nation passing on from
small to great, from narrow places to broad, the horizon enlarging all
the while, the nation attaining its majority, the world looking on with
amazement, great questions put and answered well, great principles
settled, great deeds done for freedom and clarifying of evil, and
instruction in sound views of government; one great, grand, forward,
upward movement, dazzling the eyes and charming the senses and kindling
hope. And at the head of all this a man—not as if he were the author of
these things, but certainly the wise, prudent, earnest leader; such a
leader as Providence, we believe, must have raised for that particular
work and inclined us to put in that position. That was the man.
“And up to Friday, September 6, that was the scene presented by our
happy and highly favored land—a land blessed and contented, at peace and
secure; never before so prosperous, never yet so honored abroad, never
yet so hopeful, so confident; marching on its splendid path to greater
things. And always at the head that good citizen, that earnest patriot,
that wise head, that warm, affectionate heart, that friendly, fearless
instance of the best that our American civilization has yet brought
forth to help and cheer; trusted by a great people; strong, able,
healthful, with his friends about him and the light of coming years in
front. That was the fate of the people, and that was their will, and
according to all ideas the will of the people is the law of the land,
and he who gainsays is the enemy of the sovereign people. So stood
matters a week ago last Friday.
“And now what shall we say?
“The crime; what was it? That high treason against the sovereign people
of these United States? Let us compare crime with crime, and we shall
see in this the worst of all we have ever known, the worst, the most
outrageous ever committed in this land.”
After reviewing the assassination of Garfield and Lincoln, Dr. Dix
continued:
“But there was worse to come. And it has come. Something else; something
new among us; not new elsewhere, alas! but new in this land supposed to
be a land of freemen, the refuge for the oppressed, the home of the
higher and better civilization. Right in the path on which the great
nation is advancing stands the most horrid spectre by which social order
has yet been confronted. A shadow has fallen on the road, blacker than
any shadow of death. Be the individual who he may that happens to
represent this new foe, he is of very little consequence compared with
the motive which inspired his act. This spectre to-day announced as its
aim and end the total destruction of modern civilization, the overthrow
of all law, of all governments, of restraint of any kind on the private
individual will. And the fatal blow of Friday, September 6, was dealt at
the Chief Magistrate of the United States by a believer in that system
and in exact accordance with its well-known principles.
“And that lends the real horror to the act and gives its double horror
to the crime. It is not a crime like other crimes; it is not one with
which we are familiar. And our hearts sink at the thought that we are
now at length face to face with this infernal propaganda, and have felt
in the merciless butchery of our great and good President the first
taste of more to come, unless God grants the wisdom and teaches the way
to defend our lives.
“Next to the anguish of the hour which has made strong men weep like
children and melted hearts at the cruel desolation of a pure and loving
home comes the dread engendered of a doubt as to the will and power of
the nation to save its own life; whether there is force enough among us
to rise and lay strong hold on this monster now distinctly revealed and
upon us, in the murderous attack on the noblest and best in the land.
Already we are beginning to hear it said that the people are rallying
from the blow; that the first alarm is over; that all are recovering
courage; that finance will soon flow again in its usual channels; that
we shall go forward once more in the pursuit of arts and the ordinary
vocations of the time. Yes, all this is well, but will the nation fail
to act as a great nation should, to deal as it ought to do with the most
deadly foe that it has or ever can have? For if this foe prevails, the
nation, the state, the law, the government will disappear forever and
ever. Are we to forget what has thrown us into this present mourning and
these tears? Are we to lapse into a fatal apathy, and let the preaching
of murder and inciting to murder and the applauding of murder go on as
before? Are the laws still to protect the very persons who hate and
detest them and are banded together for the overthrow of society? It
seems to me that the most solemn issue of the hour is as to what we have
to do who remain—whether we are equal to the occasion. Are we now to
fall back before this enemy, the last and most dangerous we have ever
encountered or ever shall, and let things drift from bad to worse, in
new instances of a passion which spares not one life that stands in its
way?
“There is a great deal to be said of the national sins which have led to
such national judgments as we have felt and are feeling now; of the
falling away from religious standards, of the loss of faith, of growing
luxury and sin, of the decline in morals and piety which invite the
judgments of heaven; of the indifference to law, the loss of respect for
authority, the habit of railing at and writing on public men and telling
lies about them, such as that gross one heard not long ago that our
President was a traitor and would fain overthrow our republican and
democratic government—for these things there will be time to speak
later, but to-day I cannot speak of more than these two—the man and the
crime.
“And so leave we the beloved and honored President to his rest and his
future glory; for certainly his name will shine magnificently among
those of the greatest of the lives immortal—with those of Washington and
Lincoln; great for the way in which he guided the country through a
mighty crisis in its fortunes; great in his closing words; great in his
constant thought for others; great in his submission to the will of
God—greatest perhaps in that death-bed scene, so perfectly accordant
with the precepts of the Gospel and the example of his Savior.” (Here
Dr. Dix became so affected that he sobbed audibly.)
The Rev. Dr. Dix made the announcement that on Thursday, the day of the
funeral, a Litany service would be held at noon, and that another
service would be held in the afternoon of the same day, when the offices
of the dead would be read.
The foregoing expressions are given as expressing the general tone of
the sermons delivered in all of the churches, from the stately
cathedrals of the great cities, to the humble little frame or log
buildings in remote communities.