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James Abram Garfield (1831-1881 assassinated), was the 20th President of the United States of America, and after only serving four months he was shot, becoming the fourth President to die in office.

James Garfield had been a remarkable teacher at Hiram College in Ohio and, at the age of twenty-six, he was chosen as the College's president.  It was there that he studied law and preached an occasional sermon at the Disciples of Christ church, of which he was a member.  Garfield was strongly anti-slavery, and at the out-break of the Civil War was made a Lieutenant Colonel in the Union Army.  After a defeating a superior Confederate force, he was promoted to Brigadier General, then to Major General.

In concluding a letter to a friend, showing his submission to the death of his little son, Garfield wrote:
 
"In the hope of the Gospel, which is so precious in this hour of affliction, I am affectionately your brother in Christ." ¹

James Garfield wrote:

"The world's history is a Divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word.  It strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian philosopher and historian - the humble listener - there has been a Divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come." ²

While a student at Williams College, James Garfield, along with other students, climbed one of the high peaks seven miles distant, on "Mountain Day."  The surrounding scenery was enough to awaken religious awe.  Just then young Garfield broke the silence:

"Boys, it is a habit of mine to read a chapter in the Bible every evening with my absent mother.  Shall I read aloud?"

The little company assented; and, drawing from his pocket a well-worn Testament, he read in soft, rich tones the chapter which his mother in Ohio was reading at the same time, and then called on a classmate on the mountain top to pray." ³

¹ S. P. Linn, Golden Gleams of Thought, p. 154.  Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 164.

² John C. Ridpath, Life of Garfield.  Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 164.

³ Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 164.