A FIRM FOUNDATION
—Lincoln's Birthday
—Fortitude
The Secret of Lincoln's Steadfastness in the Midst of Tremendous Trials.
THE LESSON—That the Bible teaching of childhood fortifies manhood.
If it is not your custom to observe Lincoln's birthday, you will find this illustration valuable for Mother's day and other occasions.
The Talk.
"Probably no public man in America has ever been so severely assailed, so mercilessly scourged through the public press, as was Abraham Lincoln. Yet, through it all, while thousands were dying on the field of battle, while pestilence and want stalked through the states, and while the finger of hatred and scorn was pointed at him as the man who had brought devastation and death upon the nation, he stood steadfast, with a firm, unimpassioned face, never swerving an inch from the path of right and duty. Warring factions all about him, who tried in many ways to sidetrack him, failed in every attempt. To them he said, 'Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us do our duty as we understand it.'
"In his memorable second inaugural address, he said, 'With malice toward none, with charity to all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work.'