The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1901-09-25

| When We consider the personal and more
/ private side Of the late Presidents life
We see character which compels universal
admiration, His life was Spotloss. He was
plain and simple in his personal habits
He had no pride of place, no arrogance
of otiiciahSm; he mingled freely with the
people and loved to meet and greet the
people. 1t was characteristic OF the man
that IN the campaign which resulted in his
first election 10 the Presidency he stayed
quietly at his plain cottage home at Canton,
and from his own door step addressed and
shook hands with 100000 people We may not
forget his chivalrous devotion to the invalid
wife, In all the stress and strain of an over
tasked life he never forgot the woman to
: whom m his youth he had plghted his troth
His first thought was of her She Was his con-
slant and most tender care Everything in
his career waited for her He loved one
only, and he cleaved TO her" | do not know
whether he viii live longest in history as a
man able to grasp great questions of state and
to safely conduct pulic affairs or as n man of
heart and feeling as shown in his chiyalrous
conduct towards his invalid wife
MIR. Mckinley was an earnest consistent
christian We ever SEQ him on the Sabbath
day on his way 10 church. He believed in God.
and his faith was no mere assent to Christian
ity ms a system of religion, and n safeguard of
the social order: il was rather the personal
confidence of his own soul in Christ AS his
| savior And il was his simple trusting con-
tidenee in God which made him the just and
upright ruler, the genial, kindly, chivalrous
man Great in his life and services, no where
does the real greatness OF the man appear va
vivid and distinct as in the circumstances ot
his death. This good, this blamelcss man, was
stricken down in the hour and the post of
duty. In the awful moment when he fell a
victim TO murderous malice, and when he
| could not but feel that he was uudene, he was
calm and collected, bidding his companions
not To be excited, begging them to break the
news Of his condition gently to his wife, and
requesting the officers struggling with his
assaiant not TO treat him roughly When he
lay on the operating table, aud was passing
into INCONSISTENCIES from which he might
never awake in this world, his last words
were those which he doubtless learned nj his
mothers knee, Our Father, etc, thy will
be done" And when the end came, and
the death mists gathered thick before him,
when the lights of earth were going out one
hy one, office fading, fame failing, friends
bowed by the bod in speechloss grief, this
great ruler Of the greatest empire on earth,
this soldier and statesman, this good man,
this Christ-redeomed soul chanted Nearer
my God to thee, nearer to thee" and as he
passed down into the valley, the dark valley
of the shadow he paused for n moment to
utter the sublimest yaledictory to earth that
have ever heard, Good bye all; good bye: II
IS GOd'S tnJp. His will ho dome"
am sure that every man in this great land
of ours to-day, no matter what his faith in
religion or politics,-saye possibly the in
famous few who planned his end=God pity
them--wil thank God for the providence
which made VIM Mckinley, President of the
United States, and sincerely and tearfully
regret that ho WAS not permitted To see the
fitting end of his splendid career But
III Is God'S trip. Its Gods way, aud His
will be done
And nov what shall this great milton
learn from this tragic episode We
shall surely learn TO he humble-who has not
felt personally Inundated by the dastardly
deed which slew blamclesa man aud plunged
nation into mourning? Perhaps we are not
so great aud wise and strong as We think
How otherwise shnll We explain the mind and
hand Of the deludcd creature who glorcs
to-day in the awful tragedy How shall we
explain the yellow journals who instieate such
crimes against government Are We not M u
people drifting away from the Sabbath, the
Church, the Bible, and from God? But this ia
not n time to rebuke and seourge This is the
time for prayer. Forget not to pray for the
anguished widow. for the bereaved nation,
for the new President; and this too is the time
for you and me to enter with renewed con
iidence into the opinion that there il no real
greatness save in goodness. Good men and
women, and such alone, make II nation great
and strong II this conviction IN confirmed
then William Mckinley has not lived in vain
nay, nor died in vain