Evening journal., 1909-02-12
Friday, February IL, 1909
LINCOLN AND CHARITY.
By H. P. Taber.

DNE hundred years ago today, in a cabin
- down in Kentucky, boy was born. You
all know the story; IL is simple enough, and
from the early years of those who now arc v-
ing the life history of the boy is well known.
TIE boy Abraham Lincoln-so named in
those bleak February days when Kentucky was
less sunny than it is now, and when the history
of a great nation was not yet written.
From Cape Town to Spitzbergen, and from
Perth TO Philadelphia, and from Ponkapog TO
Pesth and the utermost parts of Hungary,
those who believe in Right and Justice and
Truth and Freedom know the story of the little
boy who hundred years ago today first saw
the light in a hut i'll Hardin County, Kentucky
and who afterward came to his death at the
hands of assassin.
1t is the birth of noble spirit that is cele-
brated today. We are celebrating not the Eman-
cipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, nor
are we celebrating me great deeds of the man
who saw his duty, and, in the face of grim dis
aster, stood at his post and faced his foes-and
not alone his foes, but the foes of those who
stood with him upon a pedestal builded
, foundation Of what they conceived to be Right
we are celebrating, rather the birth of a spirit
which exclaimed:
with CHARITY FOR ALL"
Too often is this forgotten. Too often, in
deed, is the other part of the phrase made para.
mount: with malice toward none" Where
there is Charity for all tsere can be no malice,
and in the life of Abraham Lincoln malice found
no lodging All he thought and all he be-
lieved, and all he fought for with the ndomita-
bic spirit OF the hardy pioneers before him, he
kept uppermost that one single idea of Charity
Faith and Hope were his, but the greatest of all
was the Charity which in his heart found an
abiding place, and from which she stretched her
hands over all the earth,-iust as did the sound
of that shot of the embattled farmers from Con-
cord Bridge
The place Of Lincoln in history may we'll be
rft ,..s,, Zee, i.acf1
Even now forty years after his death, there are
too many men of Lincoln's time living TO Judge
quite properly perspective values History may
be made unmade in a day. Nations totter
on the tick of the telegraph instrument Kings
fall at the hands OF powers of fanaticsm. Men
fail and the words of men have little weight
against the deeds of men themselves, but back
and beyond and behind it all stands the eternal
spirit Of Justice and Truth which is embodied in
one single phrase of Abraham Lincoln
1t is not necessary here to enter into any de-
tailed statement of facts relating to what Mr.
Lincoln accomplished. Floods of literature are
at the beck and call of one who wishes TO read
Read it as you will. contend as you like as &c
the wisdom of certain performances Argue The
point pro and con until the end Of the day, bu
after all there must come back to you the picture
of the man who hundred years ago today wa
but a drop OF humanity in his mothers arms
and who afterward was that tall, gaunt coun
tryman" who stood at Gettysburg and tried e
make all the nations OF the earth believe wha
Charity meant
1t would be quite easy to write historic de
tail II would be easy enough to quote authorit
for this and that in relation TO the deeds and tn
wonderful character of Lincoln, vet that is no
the point today. The point here is to remembe
that this is the centenary OF the birth of a ma
who knew what Charity was, man who knel
the divinity of forgiveness, and who proved hi
case to us-with his life and with his death.
II, as reported. some members of City counc