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Show i FISHER'S SERlOfi ON ABEJ.IWCOLN "It Is said that Abraham -Lincoln H 'belonged to no church, but I say he H did," said Frederick Vining Fisher, H in his sermon last night on "Was Lin- 1 coin a Christian?" "Abraham Lincoln H bolonged to that church whose cathe- H dral walls are larger than St Peter's H or the Cathedral of Cologne, whoso H dome is God's blue sky. whose altars H arc big enough for all races and H creeds of good men, that church to j which Luther and Savonarola, Wesley H and Loyola. Mcody and Philljpa H Brooks, Archbishop Ryan and thou- j sands all over tho world belong, 'the H invisible church of the living God.'" H The great audience which filled the H church testified to the never-dying H interest of the people In Lincoln. Tho H music by the St. "Cecelia chorus was H fine, while the solos of Miss Holberg, H who sang Lincoln's favorite h?mn, H and Miss Nelson, who sang "The Star- H i Spangled Banner" thrilled the congrc- H In answer to the question of the , ' hour, Mr. Fisher, after vividly portraying portray-ing the life of Lincoln, said: "Faith In God and a ligbtoousness of tho universe, a life of prayer, deep unselfishness, the unswerving devotion devo-tion to the right and ''malice toward none and charity toward all,' tlieso I take mako a man a Christian more thnn any creed, ceremony or church, and in the fullest sense these met In the life of Amorica's greatest man. "No man rises to true greatness without faith iu God. It nerved Washington, Wash-ington, inspired McKinlcv and was the marked thing In Lincoln. John G. NIcolav says: 'His irnturo was deeply religious. He had faith in tho eternal justice of and boundless mercy of Providence. He mado the Golden rule of Christ his practical creed.' "Ho was a man of deep prayer. To few men In our day has prayer been so real and meant more than to Abraham Ab-raham Lincoln. The four years In tho White House were lived in prayer. Tho -flreat Simpson tells how often a summons came to him to the inner chambor of Lincoln, where they bowed bow-ed for hours boforo God, nsking His aid In the dire needs of tho nation. Whllo one of the most Interesting storios of Boechcr's life Is how, once burdonod and worn with care, tho great lean, lank president. In his gray shawl came by night to Brooklyn and spont tho long night vigil with tho groat man of God In humblo prayer: "Of his unselfishness one need not speak. All men know It- Power spoils most men. Bigotry, selfishness, conceit, these arc the perils of office In church and state, but Abraham Lincoln was never spoiled. He novor lost tho simplicity, greatheartedness, plain unselfishness of the prairies I Men hated him, ridiculed him, cartooned cartoon-ed him, but he conquered them all by his love and tonight all the world crowns him the greatest man of his age. Not because he was a legal genius he was not; not because of military skill, not for scholarship, for ho knew fow books, nay, nay, he was a frontier boy, a country lawyer, an awkward son of the West, but he was a man, full rounded, Drave and ideal, it is for that wo put him first of Americans. He had a conscience That made him go to New Orloans a boy, and stirred by the scenes of tho slave block, come home a man. That made him, with'all his heart strong instead of soft, a lover of men, but a hater of wrong. That mado him a fearless temporance man, and if ho were here today, would put him at the head as a leader against the enslaving saloon. AVonlrl to find vi-rt had iiioro Unrnlns In the Utah legislature. I "Above all, Abraham Lincoln not only said at Gettysburg, 'with malice toward none and charity toward all,' but he lived It every day In a time when bitterness tore men's hearts and charity seemed dead. He had no race prejudice, no party, creed or sectional bigotry. Like unto the master man ho was in this. "Abraham Lincoln could never havo kept up tho bitterness of the war, he novor could have lived in "Utah, and for ono moment shared the criminal distrust and injustice of her religious feuds. He never could have written tho abominable article in this month's Cosmopolitan, a current magazine, picturing pic-turing Utah as beneath a viper's slime and slandering as unjustly the religious religi-ous leader of nigh a million of our fellow fel-low citizens. It was thus men slandered slander-ed him. but amid it al he set a standard stand-ard for this American people of charity char-ity that we shall have to live another century to reach. "We should build him a monument here in this great west. What shall it be? I will toll you, a Christianity as big, as strong, as Christlike as that of Abraham Lincoln, the highest ideal in our day of the Christian life." rr |