The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-13
LINCOLN WILLED
 TO BE GREAT
Rev. MT. Crafts Makes Elo-
 quent. Grafton Before { Elias Howe Post.
Other Men Are as Free as Lincoln Was to Choose Power of Intellect and Moral Grandeur - Judge Beers Three Times Saw Nation 'sEHerO.

The Lincoln Anniversary Exercises at Bridgeport Public Library, last
 night, were marked by an oration by
 Rev. Ernest J. Crafts, rector of Christ
 Episcopal church. The celebration
 was conducted by Elias Howe, jr. Post, No. 3, G. A. R., allied with the
 organizations of Sons of Veterans and Spanish War Veterans.
 Judge A. B. Beers, introducing MT. ner to three occasions when he had seen Mr. Lincoln. The first time was in Bridgeport, in 1860, when Lincoln sion was when Judge Beers was en- camped with the soldiers in Washing ton, in 1861, and Lincoln visited the camp. Again, in 1884, did Judge Beers see the great president as he inspect ed the Army of the Potomac, then ly- ing before Petersburg, Va.
 MT. Crafts remarks were rather an attempt to discover by analysis the sources of the$ greatness of Lincoln, than a eulogy of his greatness. AS a whole, MT. Crafts minimlzed the ele- ments of heredity, environment and opportunity and exalted the element of free will in ascertaining how the life of Lincoln was shaped to it's noble ends.
 Said MT. Crafts: "But the greatness of Lincoln does not lie only in his per sonal ambition, his industry and thor oughness. In my Judgment every fac ulty and power of the human mind gains or loses in force, according to the quality of the soul, which must en- ter into the thought and the action. Thoughts are living forces and they
 l., le, T11a IF of a man to think and his ability to think clearly and properly must be af- fected by the motive and purpose which he has in thinking. It is not only the bullet that wounds, or the powder which is behind the bullet, nor the gun which holds them, but the man behind the gun.
 ''It is the soul of man which, in the last analysis, is the secret of power. A truth may be uttered by stan- mering tongue, it may be scrudely ex- pressed, but when men see, in spite of feebleness of utterance, that the soul is on fire with high purpose and love that it is alive to the importance of the truth it is struggling to utter, they will be improved and moved. And this in my Judgment is basic to the power of MT. Lincoln.
 "Not only did he possess greatness of intellect and knowledge as the result of his own free choice and effort, but he possessed greatness of soul, no less a result of his free choice, and for which also we may justly honor him.
 T think when you take these two elements of mind and soul, not as spe- cial endowments, when you look at him not as a child of fate, a pawn upon life's chess board, but a man as free as we are, who by deliberate choice, chooses the power of intellect and moral greatness, and battles for this possession as all men must, you have the reason for that dynamic force which he exercises over the affairs of the nation. You have solved the se- cret of his strength
 Mrs. Robert D. Martin sang several solos, including "The Star Spangled Banner and the Song of the Flag" from the 'AThe KnickerbockerS"