Lincoln, The Immortal

EVom the days of Caesar to thooe of Blsmarck and Gladstone, the worlil has had lts soldier and its stnU'smru. wlw rose to eminence and power step liy step through a w-ries of geométrica! progreasion, as it were, each promotioo (ollowing in resillar order, tlie wholc obedlent to wcll established and well understood law.s of cause ando effect. These were noit whai we cali "men of dcstiny." They were uien of the time. They wene men wboee cai r liad a bvginning, a middlc and an end, roundin.ü' oíf a lite wlth a history, full, it may be, of intepestiug and exciting evente, but comprehensible and comlirelifiisive, simple, Clear, complete. Tli in.-pired men are fewer. Whenee thfir emanation, where and lioiv they got tbeir power, and by what rule they lived, moved and had tlieir bein.u-, iré can not ace. Tlicpc íís no explicattou to their Uves. They rose íronii sliadow and tlicy went in mist. see them. icol them, bnt ve know tlii'in no t . They arrived, G-od's word upon iheir Itps, they did thrir office, God'-s mantle upon them, and they passed away, Ood's holy light bei tween the worltj and tliem, learing behinil a memory hall mortal and halt' myth. From first to last they were diBtinctly the creations of some upecial providente, baffling the wit of man to fatlrom, defeating the atiooB of the world, the flesh and the dvvil uut il their work was done, and paaeüng l'i-oiu the scène as mysterious)y as they had come upon it; Luther, Üó wit; Shakespeare, Burns, even Bonaparte, the archangel of war, havoc and ruin; not to go back into the dark ages for examplos of the liiand af (uil .-tret-ched out to raútee up, to profeet, to cast down. Tried by this ntandaird, and observi'il in in historie spirit, where shall we find an illustration moi-e iinpressivo than in Abraham Lincoln, whose Irte, career and death miglit be chantcl by a Greek chon-us ais at once the prelude and the epilogue of the moet imperial theme of modern times '.' Boni ae íowly as the Son of God in a borel; of what real parentage we kno'W not; reared in penury, squalor, wlth no gieani of light, no fair surnoiuncling; a youag manhood veied by weird dreams and visicms, borderSng at times on madncss; without a grace, natural or acqdired; singularly aivkward, ungainly. oven among the uneouth about hini: grotesque in hi-i aspecto and ways; ir was reserved foT thiis strange benig, ln.to in life, without name or t'ame, or prepara tien, to be snatchied trom obecurlty, raiöed to supl-eme oomnm'nd at a eu.preme moment, and intrusted with the oí a naitlon. made to stand asi de; the most experienred and accoanplished public men of the day, men like Seward and ('liase and Sumner, statcsmen íamous ' iand trained, Avere sent to the rear, vhilo tliis uofcoown and fantastic figure was broiiglit by unseen hands to tli e front and giren the reins of power. It is entirely immaterial ■niicther we believe in what lie said or did, -whether wt are for him or against him; that, during four years, carrying wlth them such a pressure of responsibility as the workl had never witneaeed before, he filled the ïneasure of the rast space allotted him in the aetiüiLs of mankind and in the eyt's oï thie world, is to say that he was ins]ind of God, for nowherc 6tee roulil he have aequired the enormous equipment indispensable to the situatton. Where did Shakespeare get his genius ? Where did llozart get hls music ? Whose hand smote the lyre lof the Scottish plowman and stayed the lute of the Grerman priest ? God alone, and, as eurely as these were raised by G-od, inspired of God was Abraham Lincoln; and, a thousand years henc, no etory, no traedy, no epic pou wlll be filled with preater winder than that which tells of his life and Cieiftth. If Ijineoln was not wApired of God, then were not Iyiither, or Shakespeare, or liurns. If Lincoln was not inspired of God, then there is no suoh thing on earth as special providenc, or the interposition of divine power in the affairs of men.- Honry Wattef.son's IxiTiií-vi'.le CourierJourual. Benjamin Harrison: "I rejoice in oothing more than in tuis movement recently ko prorninently developed of placinj? the starry banner above every schoolhouse. I hare been charged wlth being too sentimental in my appreciatton of the flag. I wiU not enter upon any defenco. (lod pity the American oitizen wh o does not love it, who does n'ot see in it the story of our graat froe institutions, and the hope of the home as well as of the nation."