Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1904-02-13
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor Of Jefferson Park Presby.
terian Church. Chicago

yersary sermon sheds new and inter-
esting light upon the character of the
statesman-president The text is James
v, s, "Be ye also patient"
"What was the most powerful ad-
dress you ever heardT / once asked
my father in one of our conversations
when journeying around the world.
"Well," he replied, Il have listened to
nearly all the great American orators
of my time. i have been personally
acquainted with most Of them and have
spoken from the same platform with
many Of them. But without any doubt
the greatest address l ever heard-if 1t
is to be judged by its electric and
overwhelming instantaneous effect
was that delivered by Henry W. Grady
Of Georgia in 1886 at the annual ban
quet of the New England society.
had just finished speech on The Com
ing American when Mr.. Grady arose.
After q few Introductory remarks he
said: My friends, DR.. Talmage has
told you that the typical American has
ROl 10 COlut. l@Cl bSii yOo eAANe AN
has already come. Great types, like
valuable plants, are slow to flower and
fruit. But from the union of these
colonists, Puritans and Cavaliers, from
the strengthening Of their purposes
and the crossing Of their blood, slow
perfecting, through a century, came
the man who stands as the first typical
American, the first who comprehended
within himself all the strength and
gentleness, all the majesty and grace,
of this republic-Abraham Lincoln.
These words were quoted almost YER
batlm from memory.
The tremendous impression produced
by Henry Grady's speech was not due
to the fact that he was saying some
thing that no other man had said be-
fore, but to the fact that, for the first
time since the civil war, the great lead
ers of the north realized that Lincoln
was appreciated and honored as much
south of Mason and Dixon's line as he
was among the Michigan pines and
upon the Illinois prairie.
Second to Only Ono.
Since that time l have read almost
every biography written about the per-
sonality of that man who stands sec
ond TO only one If he does not stand
side by side with George Washington,
in the affections of the American peo-
pie. l find that Henry Watterson Of
Kentucky has as deep reverence for
Lincoln as had Charles w. Dana or
Nicolay or Joseph Medill or William
Herndon or David Davis or SWEET or
| Speed, who knew him by personal con-
| tact. Therefore l am sure that on this
Sunday preceding the celebration OF
Lincoln's birthday 1 shall have with
me the cordial appreciation of the south
as well as of tfie north as draw from
his character lessons Of inspiration and
pay tribute to his memory. At heart
he was a true friend of the south, and
/ believe that his untimely death re-
tarded the consummatiOn of reconstruc-
ton at least a quarter Of century.
Most Lincoln eulogists start, as Hen
ry Watterson beautifully expressed
it, by looking into a crystal globe
that, slowly turning, tells the story OF
his life, and they see therein little
heartbroken boy weeping by the out
stretched form of a dead mother" But
this do not intend to do. You are al
ready familiar with the facts of that
eventful life. In speaking of him today
I would try to get the keynote OF his
character and show the predominant
quality which made him so great and
SO useful to the nation. That quality l
conceive to be his patience, and shall
recall to your minds the times and the
circumstances in which, by the exercise
of that quality, he proved the grandeur
Of his nature. At the base Of the gi-
gantic statue of Faith, overlooking the
pilgrims graves at Plymouth and the
harbor where the May6ower cast an
chor, are figures symbolizing Freedom,
Education, Law and Morality. But
here today, standing by the grave Of
this great man, we see the figure OF
sanctified Patience. We find this fig
ure not cut from stone or cast in iron,
but made out Of dust which was once
living, breathing, throbbing, moving
flesh and blood. AS the paramount de-
sire of Lincoln's last four years on
earth and those tumultuous years which
led up to them was to save the Union,
I shall try in this brief eulogy to show
how, by glorious patience, that great
purpose of his life was accomplished.
A Positive Man.
In the first place, we must start with
the well accepted and universally ac-
knowledged fact that Abraham Lincoln
was a man of positive characteristics.
William Herndon just after Lincoln's
nomination wrote to Senator Wilson
| of Massachusetts, that when Lincoln