The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-06-11

kHhM Jt.t:lsy DCCOlne TeuONI"
E&ss&s SSsassS IL ed in war, states
manship, liter
ature, science, or art.
Roll of the Departed.
And it is significant that these great
men are all dead men. The world
has a universal habit of finding out
that it has been entertaining angels
unawares. Blessings brighten as they
take their flight. The Washington
monument erected among the sky
scrapers of New York would not at
tract so much attention as it does
standing out solitary and alone on the
banks of the Potomac. We are too
near the men of the present to proper
ly estimate their proportions. Some
of them are much bigger than they
appear, and some of them will shrink
nightly when we get the proper per-
spective. 1t is quite likely that the
neighbors of Abraham thought him
deluded, addle-brained visionary when
he gave up his pleasant home In Ur
of the Chaldees, and started out on
wild goose errand to a land that he
expected to receive for an inherit
ance, and we know that even Moses,
the greatest statesman of the ages
was criticised by his brother and Sis
ter, and that the common rabble of
the street took up stones to pelt him.
We have frowns, and criticism, and
abuse and mud for our living leaders,
but fragrant flowers for their collins,
and soaring monuments for their
graves.
Have to Die to Be Appreciated.
People have to die to be appreciat-
ed. Joan of Arc was burned at the
stake as a vile hereto, but she has
recently been beatified by the Pope.
The flames did not harm her great
spirit, and the beatification will not
add any lustre to her glory. The Incl
dent only serves to point this moral
and adorn this tale. There were
thousands of men who abused Abra.
ham Lincoln. They never could speak
of him without a sneer. He was a
"railsplitter," a black republican. an
uncouth interloper. He was abused
by the newspapers, caricatured on the
platform, denounced by the polti-
clans. The waves of assault rolled up
to his feet from the south. and dashed
over his head from the north, and
they never ceased to roll over him
till his gentle heart broke in death.
But 40 years after his assassination
Columbia carves mis- name in her TEN
MI Of for ci1 -iH with
ington, and the whole country, yea,
the whole civilized world uncovers
and bends the knee at the grave of
Abraham Lincoln.
A Matchless Pantheon.
The Hebrew people have their hall
Of fame. 1t is found in the eleventh
chapter of the book of Hebrews, writ
ten very likely by Apollos, lover Of
his race. He goes into that matchless
Pantheon, and beginning with Abel,
the first martyr, he writes upon the
pages of an imperishable book the
names of the heroes of faith for 1000
years. The nations visit that sacred
edifice and read the deathless names,
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Barak, Samson,
Jepthae, David, Samuel, the Prophets,
"a cloud of witnesses, an honor roll
whom the proudest nations of earth
might covet.
The Living Dead.
And yet these heroes are not dead
They never began to have the influ.
/ ence in the world that they have al
this very moment. Their contempora
ries never were affected by them as
/ the whole world is to-day. When
Abraham set out from Mesopotamia
he took none of his neighbors with
him. When Enoch walked with God
he went alone, in life and in transla
tion. When Noah sailed over the
! Judgment flood he could induce no one
else to embark with him, save his owr
family. They had little success, al
men count success with those who
were coeval with them. But to-day
wherever the Bible is read Enoch Is
walking with God, Abraham is inherit
Ing the promises,-the father Of {
multitude like the sands of the sea-
"LN "ANSOS 40 UACdhin6 tho UOhuo "
the oppressor and shouting in the eal
Of every taskmaster, Let my people
go" No great man ever really dies
When Jesus was in the flesh he wa!
limited to the narrow confines o
Palestine. It was only at his depart
ure that he could really say. Go y
Tito all the world. and 10, ! am witt
you always. The Christ Is the mos
omnipresent personality In the worl,
to-day. But the same thing Is true Il
a lesser degree IN respect 10 ever.
great soul Of man Thus the pres
en-. is peopled with the shadowy form
Of the past 1t is impossible to or
tomb the immortals.