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Show SERVICES AT METHODIST CHURCH "ABRAHAM LINCOLN TYPE OF IDEAL CITIZENSHIP." '' . - ;-. . t . ; Reverend G. W. McCreery Draws Striking Lesson From Life of Martyred President. To a well filled hoiiRO last evening. Rev. McCreery Spoke of "Abraham Lincoln Type of Ideal Citizenship." The church choir rendered some tin.? selections and a spirit of patriotism pervaded the gathering. Kev. McCreery Mc-Creery said: Every age has Its own peculiar type o( citizenship. That citizenship is generally made typical in some one of mere national spirit than others or his day. These men do not always reach Ihe highest places of honor, but history his-tory In time, interprets the place of I Ihoir influence. Few even of theno typical characters even represent more than their age. Jesus Christ, however, represents humanity of all time. Every age finds a kinship in Him. Abraham Lincoln is not only the-- type of the Americanism or 1S60-63, but he Is in. a peculiar way the type of the highest Americanism. Not the Americanism of his day only, but the ideal Americanism of every day. .The highest type of citizenship of our time, and It be true as decade pass by, this type finds Its Ideal. in the character who stood at the herra of the ship of state as she rode the war.es between the shores of danger lrom secession on the one hand and ignoblo compromise on the other hand. - One element of greatness in all men and it is the chief element Is the environment in which he develops. The evolution of forces that work upon up-on -him and upon which he works, makes for the greatness. The Revolutionary Revo-lutionary war explains George Washington Wash-ington but Washington, by the force of his strong character working upon the environment grasped the situation situa-tion and preventod disaster. Men meet disaster because they can not grasp the opportunity. A great mil: always has a great opportunity. If it does not seem so It is because he nas failed to find and use It.. We wish to trace-some of the. American traits that developed Lincoln, making tfco opportunity into which the man entered. en-tered. The man and the opportunity idade the history. History that for all 'time will stand out gloriously. Not so much that it was war time, but rather that it was the time of clashing clash-ing between felfls,hne6s and unsel,-lhness. unsel,-lhness. Men suffered for. the most and- this In itself is the Ideal of citl-fcOhhhlp. citl-fcOhhhlp. In the midst of the struggle I F ere stood one head and should ib above '"his fellows, physically, mentally men-tally and Christly. He Is the product of.tho agitation of a great moral issue, is-sue, but he is also a cause. In the mingling of the two we ISnd the explanation ex-planation of both. Evolution and the cause back of it are. found In the personality per-sonality of Abraham Lincoln. We discuss Abraham Lincoln Type of, Ideal Citizenship. I. The .American Square Deal. (II. The American Honor. -'' III. The American Religious Lite. ' These we will discuss that they nu.y explain him, and that he may manifest them. I. The American Square Deal: Thli nation has been peculiarly devoted to the policy that every man should rave a fair chance. It has been oui' demand that no matter what one's Mrth, he should not be prevented thereby in his efforts at selt:better-n-ent. In other words, every man f-hould have a square deal. He should have a chance to develop himself, equal to that of any other. Abraham Lincoln manifests the working on", of this policy. He was born in pov-city, pov-city, but that was in his favor. Hla father is generally pictured as a restless, rest-less, roving pioneer. Perhaps he was, hut he was a man of some will power, Hnrl we may find his roving tendencies conveyed to his son In whom it appeared ap-peared In that worthy ambition that ivadc him restless unless he bettered 1 imself. That ambition that took him from the scanty farm life to the community com-munity store, there to study law, to be a political aspirant, to drive himself him-self even to do better. A restlessness- controlled for better things mastered. Hls mother, carerul and giving, led the boy In his early lite to aspire. As the man said of his mother that he owed all to his angel mother, so we se her sweet influence. The bard, rough frontier life with Its scant supplies to great necessities developed the strength that mastered it. Happy the man who has learned how to overcome! over-come! Lincoln was equal to the task ar.d the task made hlni greater. Ese j pnd luxury could not produce a Lr.i- ' coin. He had to be cradeled In hard-h-plp The great task or a great na tlonal crisis required an oak of the forest, driven by storms innumerable. . Jjincoln had faced the storms, the hant-BhipB hant-BhipB and' was the stronger for It. Having been produced by this spirit of the square 'deal, he In turn exemplified ex-emplified It and idealized It. He exemplified ex-emplified it in that he tried In all his life to sen that he gave a square deal. ' His legal life was one in which ho t ought to stand on the side . of right rnd that only. He could see the vltai point of the issue, and the tricks of the trade were avoided. In his cabinet cabi-net were the men who had opposed and even Insulted him. But he Tecog-. r.ized their worth and Insisted that they should have the' place to which they -were entitled. He' meant to give the Sonth a square deal on the Slav-) Slav-) ery' question, and did not make it au Issue until he found It necessary as a war measure. Having thus been the product ot this American policy and having stood for It,' he Is the ideal about which our I understanding of it centers. "Justice to all, special privilege to none," Is j our modern putting of It by our pres-i pres-i ent great. President Roosevelt, but it llnds Its best interpretation In Abra-. ham Lincoln. 11. The American Honor: There va8 much of dishonor in our national j Hie there still Is. There will be until un-til the xnillenlum. Our part is to dl-j dl-j ininlsh It a little so that our nation I shall be better after we arc gone. j ; There is moreover much of honor, ' very much. There. has always been ' and there always will be. Lincoln is : a product of the frontier honor ot his time. While there was much ot dishonor In which he was reared, yet i there was a peculiar type of real worth i rugged honor and transparent ' Roodness. It -was not simply conventional. conven-tional. It was real. In a peculiar j "vay this was exemplified in Lincoln. He was honest, Inconveniently so. He bated show and meanness. He loved the truth. He stood against the wrong and in his legal practice was strictly upright. He was fair In all his dealings deal-ings and '.was, therefore, greatly loved. He had no bitter enemies. He is a type of conscience as Is Jean Valjcou j U another realm. He was consclenti- ous and, therefore, worked hard to develop himself, to do his work In the world. When suddenly called to tho l iesldency. he was ready. A master of ideals, a master of men, a master of nations, because a map ter of honor and ' worth. Because he knew sham and hated It and yet was tender and humble In the simplicity of his lire. He is an ideal of American honor. I "And so he came From prairie cabin up to Capitol, One fair Ideal led our chiettain on. For evermore he burned to do ni3 deed With the fine stroke and gesture or a king. Ho built the rail-pile as he-built the State, Pouring his splendid strength through. every blow, The conscience of him testing every ; stroke, ' To make-his deed the measure ot a man." ... This honor made him hate slavery as an Institution, but he hated also j the evil of Intemperance. He had a temperance pledge which he signed and urged others to sign. At a limn when nearly all Indulged in drink, J Lincoln was not ashamed to own thi.r. j he was a teetotaler. In at least on-j ; address he linked it with slavery. "And when the victory shall be con:-J pk-te when there shall be neither i; j slave nor a drunkard on the earth how proud the title of that Land which may truly claim to be the birthplace birth-place of and the cradle of both those i evolutions that shall have ended in that victory! How nobly dlstinguishel ' that people ' who shall have planted and nurtured to maturity both the political po-litical and moral freedom of their I i pedes!" . ! HI. The American Religious Lite. : As to the religious development ot . Lincoln there seems to be clearly de-fired de-fired evidence that in thi6 he was a ' product and an ideal, too. His youth sees him using his lately acquired knowledge of writing to ask a preacher, a friend of his mother, to , come across from Kentucky and hold a religious service at the grave of his mother, though she had died nlns 1 months before. It seems then that he accepted the prevalent religious teachings of his time. Evidence of his later life goes to show that may havo been affected by some of the current infidelity, which was prevalent in Springfield in his day. We who sei- , ('om hear any one make a claim of agnosticism can hardly realize that men once boasted of it. It may bo j , that there was a time when Lincoln was led away Into its darkness, livt no one with his honesty and candor in investigation , could , long continue therein. Wo find hlra gradually bretklng one fetter after another. As new responsibilities were pressed upon up-on him. he felt the need of guidance. He saw the mistakes of some Christian Chris-tian churches in not realizing that slavery was contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ, but he soon saw that it was taking time for the leaven io leaven the lump and whll presidenr, t'.anked God for the churches. h n he came to assume the burdens ot the presidency, It was with a consciousness con-sciousness that he would need guidance. guid-ance. He asked his people of Springfield Spring-field to pray for him and all along the inaugural journey, he continued to c-x- i j.re-ss confidence in Divine guidance. Ainldst the crushing problems of his great office hlB little boy. Willie, died. time of hl6 release from his ofneo. He talks with his wife, expressing a great desire to see the Holy Land. Why should he have desired to se? the Holy Land more than all otner lands, but that It had holy significance to him. Then came the fatal bullet, and the greatest sacrifice of all was laid on the altar of slavery. A million soldiers' lives and hvu thousand million dollars, but greater than all Lincoln! Such was the necessity. ne-cessity. Why? Simply because 'tie toleration of human wrong can not !)? except the price be paid. We still pay tho price, and will until we make the slave free, Indeed. Lincoln was the product of the religious re-ligious life of his time. He exemplified. exempli-fied. May we follow in the simplicity of his faith, and the fidelity or his citizenship. ; 1 1 drove him to "severer melancholy than was his wont. But in the sa t- I ness he found a peace with God.: He turned to the Scriptures with greit tcneflt. He spent hours in. prayor. especially at crucial times.-He asked for definite things and they were given. giv-en. In his communion, he toumt guidance In the way for his life, and bis administration. In the greatesi American speech ever made, his Gettysburg Get-tysburg address, we find that he re- , fers to "tho new birth." This he had I professed as his personal experience, j He enjoyed the Intimacy and counsels coun-sels of several great preachers. He welcomed thom. In a time when there was much Jealousy Jeal-ousy among the churches, perhaps lie may be . pardoned for not having united wjth any church, but a 'friend: who knew of his religious life In his last months has expressed the conviction con-viction that Lincoln wag considering the question of uniting with some thurch. It was the next natural step j tor him We near his last hours He re- ! laxes as the war closes with victory ! on his side. He looks ahead to tho |