Show LINCOLNS DEEP HUMILITY Pride of Place or Power Never a Fault of the Great President They tell us that Lincolns favor Ito poem was that familiar hymn so simple so generally neglected by tho mass of mankind Oh Why Should ho Spirit of Mortal Bo Proud Do you know there is something most touchingly pathetic in that 1 Think of tho position Lincoln occupied tho most exalted In tho world Surely Its It-s that No man Is born to tho presidency I presi-dency of tho United States Ho Is here by no accident of birth or otherwise other-wise He Is there by the dellberato choice of tho 1000000 sovereign peo plo who have the choosing of n head for a nation of 8000000 of tho most ntelllgont progressive and prosperous prosper-ous people on earth None but great men ought to bo exalted to such a place Nono but great men have been exalted to It In 12 years It Is the place of highest distinction among men Think of tho humble origin from which Lincoln roso to fill such a place How unexpectedly the honor must have como to him How great ho temptation to bo proud must have been Then think of the time In which Lincoln filled this placo of so great distinction History was being made every second of the timehistory so momentous In Its bearings on tho future fu-ture of the human race as to overshadow over-shadow all other events In what wo usually call profane history Tho asks to be performed tho perplexities to bo met were stupendous Tho fate of armies aye the fate of nations indeed In-deed tho fate of tho race hung In tho balance and depended on whether this nan should perform the tasks meet tho perplexities salvo the complex problems of tho hour aright or blunder blun-der and fall In his administration of his high office He must have been keenly conscious all tho time of his name the name ho wrote so often the name so familiar to his eye and ear ho name which had been his when a child when a boy as well as when President Abraham Lincoln was to appear In the pages of tho worlds history as long as men should read history That namo was to stand out like a beacon light on the top of a mountain before all ages This was to be so whether ho succeeded or fail wwwwww ed In tho performance of his task Come what might his was to bo one of those Immortal names that were not born to die Think of this and was It not pathetic pa-thetic that the great patient grim figure should sit there with the great events of civil war surging around him with hosts of men marching past his windows going to do or die for their country Great generals dust covered and begrimed with the mud of tho war bloodstained with tho lash of battle cast down by defeat or Hushed with victory bent before him The statesmen of the nation the greatest sons of all tho soil stood to hear his commands and every wish ho expressed was a command to the greatest of them statesman or warrior war-rior whichever It might be I And there that grim gaunt figure sat and In all his weary lonely hours of all that prolonged struggle the uppermost thought In his mind outside out-side ot those of his office was embodied embod-ied in tho simple lines of that old hymn Oh Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Bo Proud 1 Tho great strain I which rested on the tired brain of tho great President tho awful flood of sadness that surged through his heart with every thought of tho great war and all its possibilities and uncertainties uncertain-ties found relief nnd solace In those Hues They held him heart nnd soul bound to a higher power than earth could furnish to a reliance on a higher wisdom than statesmen havo to a stronger arm than wielded any earthly earth-ly sword Tho battle was not his and Its results did rot rest at last with him To do his best to oer clso all tho wisdom ho had to be loyal to his duty and leaver results with One whom he had learned to call tho God of Battles tho Lord of Hosts was all ho could do and playing play-ing such a part as that not able to foresee tho Issue often In doubt whether he was doing tho right thing at the right time tn tho right way 0 why should tho spirit ot mortal bo proud 1 Why should it be to be sure And if Lincoln sat all through so many lonely hours of dismay doubt and anxiety of great deeds of events that stirred tho nations of achievements whoso echoes ran around tho world and must rcpcho to tho last syllable of recorded time why should tho spirit of little men be proud Tho human hu-man race has done great things But tho raco did them not tho Individual Our share in any of tho great achievements achieve-ments of tho world is small The part of tho greatest man is small In them The part of any generation Is I small We are not so great after all that anyone any-one of us should feel undue conceit In anything accomplished by the race still less of our part in It Man In his higher stages of development tho highly organized human being civilized civil-ized man lived at least 6000 years on tho earth before ho discovered tho fact that a load will move moro easily eas-ily If tho vehicle which carries It Is placed on a steel rail and set abovo tho mud than If sunken In tho soil The Baltic aa sho plows her great bulk through tine seas Is certainly a wonderful thing But It required a great many generations to got to it The uso of tho electric current Is amazing but It Is tho result of thousands thou-sands of years of human thought and effort Tennyson is right Wo men aro but a little race |