What an extraordinary eulogy President Obama delivered at the services for the Reverend Clementa Pinckney. It will be a long time before Americans see a presidential appearance so affecting. It was a fitting expression of the national embrace of the grieving families of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where Reverend Pinckney and eight others were gunned down as they gathered for prayer last week. And it was a remarkable moment for this president, who has arisen from the drubbing the Democrats received at the polls less than a year ago to rivet the nation at a testing time.

We would not want to suggest that we are suddenly in agreement with the president on the policy approaches that divide our country. But the 19th century editors of the newspaper whose flag we picked up in 2002 were at the journalistic van in the struggle for abolition and at the military front in the war for the Union. Your current editor, after graduating college in 1968, went to work for the Anniston, Alabama, Star because its editor, H. Brandt Ayers, was one of the heroic southern newspaper proprietors who risked their fortunes and sacred honor to throw in with the civil rights movement.

That background we offer only to explain why we were so affected by the President’s remarks. We watched them Saturday evening on Whitehouse.gov, and they are not to be missed. The president spoke for 37 minutes before an audience there to mourn a clergyman they loved. He was flanked by purple-robed elders. The president spoke on the theme of grace of God. He opened with it and embroidered his remarks with it and returned to it at the end. And then at about 35 minutes and 10 seconds into his remarks, Mr. Obama suddenly stopped. He then repeated the words “amazing grace” several times.

Then the President of America stopped, shook his head, and stared at the podium as if he was thinking whether he should do what he was about to do — or simply to gather his emotions. Then he fell silent again. Nobody spoke. He just stood there. Then he slightly tucked his head down and began singing — tentatively, then with growing power, the hymn “Amazing Grace.” The Elders sitting behind him figured out what he was doing within seconds and were on their feet. Then the whole congregation erupted, singing the hymn as the president led — uplifting a church, a city, and a nation in a moment that will be watched for generations to come.