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Show LINCOLN IS THEJU1H Statesman Extolled In Pulpits. Strong Characteristics of Martyred President an Inspiration. Birthday of Lincoln Observed by the Preaching: of Timely Sermons in Local Pulpits. In view of the noar approach of the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, the pastors of several churches of the city yesterday delivered special sermons ser-mons devoted to lessons drawn from the life of the great American. Speaking of Lincoln and his service to humanity, the. Rev. Mr. Slmpkln of Phlllfps Congregational church last night paid a tribute to his character and greatness. "The story of that life," said Mr. Simpkin, "Is so tremendous In its force, so gigantic In Its mould, so far-reaching in its influence, so beautiful beauti-ful in ideal, that the mind cannot easily grasp Its full meaning. The very mention of his name recalls a thousand things of Import and interest. It calls up the sweep of one of the finest dramas of. history, Uie pioneering and conquest of the middle and far West, whose golden page Is blotched with the red marks of sacrifice. It calls Into clearer view a tragedy terrible and costly, cost-ly, where the best life of a great, free people, divided against Itself, reddened the years Avlth the stain of hate and murder; whose tumult Is echoed persistently, per-sistently, despite the mercy of the fiylng years. And In drama and tragedy alike there lowers one figure over all the typical frontier American, the Idol and friend of the people, this Abraham Lincoln. Element of Immortality. "He possessed the element that makes one immortal, in rich measure having that fire whoso spark of brilliance In the many is the upleaplng, unfading Pharos In the few. marking him as one of God's beacon lights In the age. "Little wonder have we, who reverence rever-ence from afar the generous outline of his character, the magnitude of his mind, the tenderness of his great soul, that those who came into direct contact con-tact with his life should have been such hero-worshipers, so joyous in the earth's possession of him, so smitten in his loss. The age will find reflected In his garnered gar-nered sayings brilliance and force, and the heart will be ever thrilled by such chaste eloquence as echoed over Gettysburg, Gettys-burg, consecrated forever by Its sleeping sleep-ing ranks, or that voiced in his earnest contention for the constitutional Ideal. His Life's Influence. "The Nation honors itself in turning Its thought to the great and sanctifying sanctify-ing Ideal which stands in his life. How multifariously he impresses the life! Youth finds the spur of ambition in the recollection of the lad who broke by the genius of industry the Invidious bars of circumstance, and came to the primate's seat. He who faces the wrong Is nerved to struggle nnd conquest. He who sees In that life the emergence of God's hand finds it a new base for certitude In singing: " 'God's in His heaven, all's right with the world.' "In his beautiful devotion to duty, his fathomless passion for his country, his unfailing contention for his Ideal, his lender humanity, his simple conscientiousness conscien-tiousness in these, more than In his genius, He the secret of his hold on the men of his time, and are an element m his character which holds command-Ingly command-Ingly the thought and love of an age which studies with ever keener interest this man, who was In the nineteenth century 'sent out from God. " |