The Colorado statesman., 1922-02-11

lege students the nlBneSl possloiii-
fles of language. His coined phrases are worn
smooth and dateless in current speech But more
than that his habit of thought has guided the
thinking of errand boy and President His faith
ouickens the faith of us ALL Shelley wrote OF
Keats: L..
He is made with nature; there Is heard
His voice all her music, from the moan
or thunder to the song of nights sweet bird;
He a presence to be felt and known
In darkness and In light, from herb and stone
Spreading itself where'er that Power may move
Which has withdrawn his being to its own
Which wields the world with never-wearied love-
sustains 1t from beneath and kindles 1t above.
In such wise the whose birth celebrate
has entered into the life of his people and
is in process of penetrating the wider circles of the
whole worlds life. This, on its earthward side,
Is the Immortality of Abraham Lincoln.
The man had thousand Boswells but no great
one. Some 1900 books pamphlets have
been issued dealing with the various phases of
the subject. . But If the choice must be made
between the books other men have written about
him and Lincons own words, the letters and ad-
dresses hold first place. He can be trusted as the
best witness in his own case. His word
good as his bond, and his life was good his
word. Speech the water from living well,
under which the stream of character never failed.
Probably the majority of men desire to be count
ed on the side of truth. But few will make any
great effort to find what is true. And, Sir Thomas
Browne declares, not every man is fit champion
OF truth. For when the man who is right in prin-
cpe fails in the trial by combat, the suffers
In his defeat.
Abraham Lincoln was not a speculative philos-
opler an originator of systems of thought. But
he was one of the greatest exponents and defend
ers of truth In its applications and illustrations
I'm human experience that the world has ever seen.
His life and words-which are rinseparable-per-
fectly teach the balance between thought and act
principle and practice, general truth and particu-
Tar fact
The same is true of the letters, which are full
Of keen and kindly applications to the life of each
one of us and of the whole people. Even with
Gettysburg and the second inaugural in mind we
have found nearly complete and satisfying
expression of the man in his letters than In his
addresses In them he confounds the enemies of
people, and comforts the broken-hearted with
tenderness that had blossomed upon the graves of
Nancy Hanks and Ann Rutledge and upon those of
bis children
For In this man reason and emotion were
3oned like form and color in Il flower He re-
Soced In the exercise of his mind but he had none
Of that intellectual arrogance that denies all 1t
cannot comprehend prove. The charge of athe-
Ism Is the most futile of all that have been brought
against him. AS nquirlng boy he read Tom
Paine and wrote an essay along radical lines, but
the pressure of human need constrained him to
furn to Divinity
Prayer was the very breath of his later life.
Gen. Daniel Sickes hardly the to invent
D pious tale He has repeated to many witnesses
the story Of Lincoln's prayer before Gettysburg