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Show nalion it was a movement, a lire, a rrowth, a part of a sacred unfolding holding the promiBO of highest good, not merely for a few. but for every beast and lowest man and woman and child. From Jils early manhood up to the end of his life, America wag to Lincoln supremely a spiritual affair, and not chiefly an affair of geographical geographi-cal boundaries and constitution and law. Lincoln was himself an Incarnation Incarna-tion of the soul of America. Lincoln s very life makes Jt possible for every one to look at his career and know what America means. That "was exactly ex-actly what be unconsciously wlshod to be and was. That was what the whole manner and spirit of his life made him, inevitably. The very nation na-tion as a spiritual life and growth came into this man's soul and possessed possess-ed him. All his study of law and poll-Ik's poll-Ik's and history was, from the beginning, begin-ning, deeply sympathetic. He brougiu to that study not only all the powers of his mind, , but also the longing ot his heart, all the aspiration of his toul. There never has been a moro Ideal student thau he, and there isn't an educational institution in the -'orld which can ensure to its students the results which Lincoln achieved by the light of a flaming pine knot or out under the arching dome of the fcky. He did not simply know, he felt. That Is the secret of the marvelous results which he achieved. He did not so much think his way througn the books he read, througn tno his-ioiy his-ioiy of the nation, as ho felt his way Through', thorn all. His whole education educa-tion was a moral and spiritual experience, ex-perience, as. It must be for any man or woman before It can be called an education. It was the growth of his own soul. That was the reason why that fragmentary speech at Gettysburg, Gettys-burg, written with no extended preparation, pre-paration, and occupying only three minutes in its delivery, has proved immortal, while the brilliant and scholarly oration of Edward Everett, address- TO KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS 'THE CALL OF BROTHERHOOD," SUBJECT PRESENTED. , Fraternal Orders, Churches and Religion Re-ligion All Grew Out of Same Human Hu-man Needs and Aspirations. In his address to tho Knights ot Iythlas at K, of P. hall yesterday'. Rev. William Thurston Brown said in part: This whole nation has been thinking think-ing lately of a man of our own race almost of our own time who in hla character and career was a noble and convincing Illustration of exactly the principle wo are considering today. Abraham Lincoln was not a miracle. He did not descend from the skies. He was in no sense the creature ot artificial culture or a great heredity. If there ever was a man who belonged be-longed by all the circumstances and experiences of his life to the com' rnonest type of men. that man was Lincoln. His parentage was the president of Harvard university, delivered de-livered the same day at the same place and occupying two hours, is unread un-read and unknown. Not all the culture cul-ture of New England nor all the education edu-cation of our oldest university had done for Edward Everett what the experience ex-perience of the frontier had done tot-Abraham tot-Abraham Lincoln. In the one case, it was merely a product of books, ot reading, of mere intellectual achievement, achieve-ment, that spoke. In tho other case, It was the soul that spoke. Edward Everett, the president of Harvard college, col-lege, had never been in communion with the soul of democracy, had never heard the call of brotherhood. But it was exactly this which had been the very core of the life and education educa-tion of Lincoln. All his lire had he bf en in closest communion with the years. they may prove to us a blessing bless-ing and a good, "The crest and crowning of all good, Life's final star, is Brotherhood; For it will bring again to Earth Her long-lost Poesy and Mirth; WiU send new light cm every face, A kingly power upon the race. And till it come, we men are slaves, And travel downward to the dust ot graves. . Come, clear tho way, then, clear the way. Blind creeds and kings have had their . day. Break the dead branches from the path; Our hope is in the aftermath Our hope is In heroic men, Star-led to build the world again. To this Event the ages ran: Make way for Brotherhood make way for Man ., - - .,?.-, humblest. He had no family tree. No one knows anything with certainty tbout his ancestors. They are lost in obscurity. His father and mother had neither culture nor education. He was born in poverty, In the wilderness. wilder-ness. He spent less than one full year in a public school, and that of the most inferior kind. His life wa3 lived up to 52 on the frontier. He i r.cver succeeded in a business venture. ven-ture. Ho was never out of debt from early manhood, until after he had taken his seat as President of the United Sfates. His biographers tell us that he did not study widely in the liw. Measured by dollars and cents, . I he was never a successful "man. 'And yc-t, we have never had In our public lfe In this country a man who was I in all ways his equal. Among all the I trained and experienced statesmen I I who surrounded him in Washington j irom 1861 to 1864, there wasn't a man who measured-up to him in all round wisdom' or In moral and spiritual qualities. No public man of that time, so far as wc know, possessed in such measure as he did the Indispen6lbl qualities needed in the president ot a divided, warring ' nation. Where ild these qualities come from? They didn't come out of the skies. They were not Inherited from Thomas Lincoln Lin-coln and Nancy Hanks. No, they were the sole product of the moral and spiritual training of the man. If you will read the story of Lincoln's lite and compare it' with the story of tho Jives of his contemporaries, the men with whom he associated as a lawyer and politician, you will find that the greatest difference between him ana them was a moral difference. Scores of hlB contemporaries were just as familiar with Shakespeare and tho Bible and all the other books that Iincoln had read or studied as he was, bobides knowing a great many books which he did not know. What made Lincoln the unquestioned superior ot every other lawyer or statesman ot Illinois and later of tho nation itsei: was the simple fact that he, more ihan any other of those men, was acquainted ac-quainted with this fundamental law of human life and human society the law of growth, moral growth, the law of brotherhood. America wa6 something" very different to Lincoln I rom what it was to most of his contemporaries. con-temporaries. To them, or most ot them, It was something fixed ana changeless. Not only did all the statesmen of the South look upon negro slavery as a permanent thing, but most of those of the North did. too. But Lincoln saw clearly that it could not be permanent. Indeed, better bet-ter than any other man of that time who held public office, Lincoln saw that many other things which were regarded in the same way were not and could not bo permanent. America, to .Lincoln, was more than merely a scul of democracy, through all his years had he been answering the call of brotherhood. That Is tne whole r lory of Lincoln, as a man, as a statesman, states-man, a6 the noblest product of America. Ameri-ca. It was this that made him Irom an early moment in his life so evidently evi-dently a man of sorrows. That was vihat gave hla face its expression ol sadness. Only a man who thinks and feels can be sad. The thoughtless cannot can-not know the meaning of sadness. But no man can be sensible of the deeper meaning and nobler possibility of lite and not be sad. As we have seen in the case of Jesus,-exactly so in the case of Lincoln, Lin-coln, the call of brotherhood meant for him a change of occupation. None of the occupations which seemed to fit other men ever fitted him. No trade or profession In which it was so easy for ordinary men to lose themselves was ever big enough for him. None of these could be or ever was the chief concern to him. He never attempted at-tempted to fill an office or perform an occupation whose limits he did not exceed. He never could be anything as most other men were. He could not be a lawyer as other men were. It has been universally declared ot him that he always Baw the equity ot cases. Technicalities and precedents prece-dents did not appeal to him. No man over used the presidency as he did. And the explanation of the whole matter lies solely in this fundamental fundamen-tal fact of his life, that he cared supremely for the soul of things, that he always felt the spiritual truth of the world, that beneath all forms and under all events he heard the one divine call of brotherhood. It Is a most significant thing that none of us can know about . Lincoln and not feel reverent. There is that in his character, his spirit, his life, which compels universal reverence and love. Why? Because In him your moral birthright and mine and every one's came to its blossom and fruitage. fruit-age. Because wt instinctively know that to live things, to hear and obey the call of all-inclusive brotherhood, is the great achievement of a life. But our time today is wasted In thinking of Lincoln and we but advertise adver-tise our hypocrisy when we even profess to revere him, unless we are prepared to see that the same sacred law of life is perpetually present, Is the law to which alone we may worthily' adjust ourselves, the law j which alone can make life for you and me a good thing; the law that Declares brotherhood to be the supreme su-preme and sacred need of the world and tho accomplishment of brotherhood brother-hood is the one purpose which can justify our existence or the existence of any sort of human institution whatsoever what-soever that brotherhood is tho goal toward which the world is moving and that all which helps brotherhood Is good, all that hinders it is evil. Tho order of the Knights of Pythias came into existence In obedience , to this innate hunger for brotherhood. So has every other fraternal order. So have our churches. So have all sorts of human .associations. But none ot these nor all of them together., have; accomplished brotherhood, have lul-. filled or can fulfil this divine purpose ol human life.: These orders and churches are at beBt merely symbols of tho great reality, and they can bo used by you and mo worthily or wisely, wise-ly, only as we Bee and know them to te symbols.' We men and women are and ought to bo forever on the march. We cannot afford to stop anywhere, to pitch our font on any spot. It is our life to go steadily forward, to be more and greater and better tomorrow tomor-row than wo are today, to be clearer of mind, more sympathetic of heart, more sensitive ot soul with every Hitting Hit-ting year. These orderB and churches and societies of ourn are nothing but sign-boards along the road. They cannot can-not be fulfilments, they can bo inspirations. inspira-tions. If they stimulate In us a deeper deep-er hunger for brotherhood, if they afford to us a standard by which we are able to see the imperfection and wrong of unbrotherly things In" the world about us and some faint reflection reflec-tion of the nobler life that calte to all of us from out the bidden future |