The Common Bond

If ever there could be a doubt as to the essential unity of the followers of Christ deep down beneath their variances, it was dispelled on Sunday when Catholic and Protestant mingled their tears in memory of one whose innermost claim upon their affection was not that he was President of these United States, not that he was that President who had brought an almost “hermit nation” into world eminence, but that he was a Christian, that he died most Christly with words of confidence in God upon his lips, and forgiveness of his assassin in his heart—“Let no one touch him.” This inner conviction of brotherhood it was which forced tears from the eyes of Archbishop Corrigan on his throne in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and interrupted with sobs the sermon of Dr. Dix in Trinity Church; while whole congregations were moved with a common sorrow. So it was a united Church which prayed for grace to bear as a Christian nation should this heart-breaking calamity, that offered touching petitions in behalf of the wife whom the martyr President loved so tenderly and loyally, and who pledged to God their fealty to him who in a time of peculiar testing has been called to rule this people, loyalty to whom and confidence in whom becomes now almost a part of our religion.