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Show LINCOLN'S DEEP HUMILITY Pride of Place or Power Never a Fault of the Great President BtMsj i They tell us that Llncoln'3 favot-lto favot-lto poem was that familiar hymn, bo simple, so generally neglected by the mass of mankind, "Oh, Why Should tho Spirit of Mortal lie Proud?" Do you know thero Is something most touchlngly pathetic In that? Think of tho position Lincoln occupied tho .most exalted In tho world. Surely it It (hat. No man Is born to tho presidency presi-dency ot tho United Stntesr Ho Is thoro hj; no accident of birth or otherwise. other-wise. Ho is thero by tho dellbernto choice of tho 1,000,000 sovereign peo-plo peo-plo who havo tho choosing of n head for a nation of 8,000,000 of tho most Intelligent, progressive and prosperous prosper-ous people on earth. None but great men ought to bo exaljed to such n place' Nono but grcnt men hnvo been exalted to It In 12 yenrs. 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 tho honor must havo como to him. How great tho temptation to be proud must have been.' Then think of tho time In which Lincoln filled this plaeo of so great uistlnctlon. History was being mndo every second of tho time history so momentous In Its bearings on tho fu-turo fu-turo of the human raco as to overshadow over-shadow all other events, In what wo usually call "profano history." Tho tasks to bo performed, tho porplexltlcs to be met were stupendous. Tho fato of armies, aye, tho fato of nations, indeed in-deed tho fato of tho raco hung In tho balance and depended on whether this man should porform tho tasks, meet tho perploxltles, solve tho complex problems of tho hour aright, or blunder blun-der nnd fall In his administration of his high office. Ho must have been keenly conscious all tho tlmo of his hame, tho nnmo ho wroto so often, tho pamo so famlllnr to his eye and car, iho name which had been his when n child, when n boy ns well as when President, "Abraham Lincoln," wns lo appear In no pages of tho world's history ns long as men should rend history. That nnmo was to stnnd out Uko a beacon light on tho top of a mountain before all ages. This was to be so whether he succeeded or fail ed In tho performance of his tnsk. i Como whnt might, his was to bo "ono of thoso Immortal names that wero ' not born to die." ( Think of this; and wns It not pa- I thetlc that tho great, patient, grim ' figure nhould sit there with the great events of civil war surging mound him, with hosts of men marching past his windows, going "to do or die" for their country. Gront generals, dust-covered dust-covered nnd begrimed with tho mud I or tho war, bloodstained with the lash 1 of battle, cast down by doient, or I flushed with victory, bent beforo him. Tho .statesmen of tho nation, tho greatest sons of nil the soli, stood to , hear his commands, and every wish 1 ho oxprcssed wns n command to the greatest of them; statesman or war- 1 rlor, whlchovor it might be. 1 And there that grim, gaunt figure sat, nnd ln nil his weary, lonely hours of all that prolongod struggle, tiro .uppermost thought In his mind, out-Bldo out-Bldo of thoso of his office, wns embodied embod-ied ln tho simple lines of thnt old hymn, "Oh, Why Should tho Spirit of Mortnl Bo Proud?" Tho grcnt strain which rested on tho tired brain of tho great President, tho awful flood of sadness that surged through his heart with every thought of tho great war and nil its possibilities and uncertainties, uncertain-ties, found relief and solaco In thoso lines, Thoy held him heart nnd soul bound to n higher power than earth could furnish, to u reliance on a higher wisdom than statesmen have, to a stronger nrm than wielded anv earthly earth-ly sword. Tho battle was not his, and Its results did not rest at last with him. To do his best, to oor-clso oor-clso all tho wisdom ho had, to be loyal to his duty and leave results with Ono whom ho had learned to call tho i "Cod of Hattlcs," the "Lord of Hosts," was all ho could do, and, play-lug play-lug such a part ns that, not able to foref.eo tho Issuo, often In doubt whethor ho was doing tho right thing a,1 tho right time, In tho right way, "O, why should tho spirit of mortal bo pioud?" Why should it be, to bo sure? And If Lincoln sat all through bo many lonely hours of dismay, doubt and anxiety, of grcnt deeds, of events that stirred tho nations, of nchlevoments whose echoes ran around tho world nnd must re-?cho to tho Inst syllnblq of recorded tlmo, why should tho spirit or llttlo men be proud? The human hu-man rncO has done great things. Uuf tho raco did them, not tho Individual. Our share In any of tho great achievements achieve-ments of tho world Is small. Tho part of tho greatest man Is smnll In them. Tho part of any generation Is small. We aro not so great after all, that any ono of us should feel unduo conceit In anything accomplished by tho raco, still less of our pnrt In. It. Man In his higher stares ot development, tho highly organized human being, civilized civil-ized man, lived at least C.000 years on tho earth beforo ha llscovercd tho fact that a load will l.bvo more easily eas-ily It the vehlclo which carries It Is placed on a steel rail and set abovo tho mud than It sunken In tho soil. Tho Daltlc as sho plows her great bulk through tho seas Is certainty a wonderful thing. But It required n grcnt many generations to get to It. Tho 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 llttlo race." LINCOLN IN EARLY YOUTH. !; Reproduced Fiom Oil Painting. ! |