The Somerset reporter., 1909-02-11
Lincoln Memorial Sabbath.

on Sabbath Evening Feb. 7th, com
memorative of the birth and life
work of Abraham Lincoln the great
patriotic American. Patriotic hymns
were sung by the chorus choir and
Abraham Lincoln's favorite poem
"Why should the spirit of mortal be
proud" was read. The Skowhegan
branch of the G. A. r. and Woman's
Relief Corps were present, and a
splendid audience gathered to partici-
pate in the evenings exercises.
DR.. Leitch the pastor said in part:
Some men are born great, some grow
great and some have greatness thrust
upon them. Here in our illustrious
Lincoln we have man who was born
in poverty, reared In the NAV of
strenuous hardship, and who rose 10
a commanding position by the sheer
force of those persevering char
acteristics that ever represent ste Ring
honesty, integrity and uprightness as
man dealing with man and his Maker.
Abraham Lincoln inherited inherent
capacities of greatness, mental, moral
and physical. He thus brought to
life's tasks those indomitable stirling
qualities that win on merit, and when
great opportunities came he met the
issue standing four squared as stand
the principles of justice, righteous
ness, morality and truth.
Great men, great ideals and great
movements are not the products of
blind force, nor the offspring of an
hours social and political travail.
Social forces, political factors, re-
ligious ideals have their roots firmly
embedded in the soil of past centuries
and epochs; thus great men and
great events correlate as cause and
effect, and these again socialize and
crystalize as Luther and a Reforma-
ton; Wesley and a Revival; Wash
ington and Independence; Lincoln
and Emancipation. The real issue
which faced Abraham Lincoln and the
Anne, lean people in the COS was
simply one aspect of the eternal
struggle that exists between two
principles and ideals throughout the
world. These principles and ideals
have been in conflict from the begin
ming of human history and who snail
not say from eternity to eternity,
they at least began when man began
and will end when man ends. These
principles and ideals face us all, they
faced our fore fathers, they face us
and they will face our children's
children. They are the eternal
principles of right and wrong, princi-
Piles which are sometimes individual,
and social, national and international.
We may view them socially and
politically as inherent, inalienable,
eternal and unalterable rights, found
in the moral constitution of things
and abide as the throne Eternal, and
called Justice, righteousness, morality
and truth Arrayed against these un-
alterable principles and ideals we
have other and fictitious rights,
known as legal, corporate, assumed
and appropriate, which arise out of
our confused and misguided ideas of
eternal principles. Assumed and
fictitious rights are ever changing
and conflicting principles. A make
shift or expedient today, calling
yoke, blighting curse tomorrow as
our Colonial Sires found out in 1774.
The first set of principles are known
as the common rights of common
humanity to the common and in
alienable blessings of the general
providences of God, in world full of
privileges and opportunities. The
second set OF principles are known as
fictitious, assumed rights, sometimes
known as, Divine Right of Kings, a
right oftentimes obtained by coercion
and retained by force or a Walpole
ministry. The first says: 81 believe
in the Fatherhood of God and the
Brotherhood of Man" 1t is written
thus i'll our Constitution: call men
have a right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness The second
says: 81 am master, you are my
servant" you earn the bread, / will
eat it; you work and toll, will live
Ill ease and idleness; you drink skim
milk, / want the cream. The first is
justice, the second is injustice.
The greatest thing i'll America is
not our great cities, our wealth, our
show of military power, it is not these
but it is our God consciousness, our
moral sense of the moral fitness of
things; our moral sense of an over
ruling Providence. The greatest
thing about Abraham Lincoln was
not his natural endoWments, his
oratorical gifts, his craftsmanship
his geniality, but his God conscious
ness, his sense of the moral fitness of
things, his love of Justice. This fired
his soul, enlarged his vision, filled his
life and shaped his career and at last
immortalized his name. AS boy,
this sense of moral obligation and
justice made him say when standing
In the slave market: "If ever / hit
this thing l will hit it hard" This
moral sense of justice earned for him
title far above that of resident,
"Honest Abe" Entering political
life, this consciousness, this
sense of moral obligation, lifted him
above the sophistries of the political
partisan the clamor of the rabble and
the patronage of the office seeker.
This sense of justice gave him con-
victions and principles and these
made him a prophet-statesma and
classed him with the great mon of
the ages.
Behold pervasion of this sense of
justice tearing off the mask of in
Justice, which masqueraded under
the sophistries of Constitutional
rights, while allies Webster with the
"Dred Scott" decision, and Douglas
with the Missouri Compromise, and
the Supreme Court with human
beings as chattles. Behold Lincoln
standing forth: "unless slavery was
wrong nothing is wrong" Think of
this "each man Is entitled to the
fruits of his labor" What are these
statements but the voice of justice
A.