For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.”
That was Lincoln’s religion, to love his fellow-men and his country. In the turmoil of wrongs infesting the confusions that were bewildering all minds at the close of the Civil War, all now know that both North and South lost the noblest and most valued friend, the ablest and wisest restorer, anywhere to be found in all the vast regions of pain.
[CHAPTER VI]
I. HELPFULNESS AND KINDNESS OF A WORTH-WHILE CHARACTER
It would take a whole book to tell the stories of kindness and sympathy told by those who were neighbors and friends of Lincoln. All who knew him agree in saying how much he loved children and how considerate he was for the comfort of others.
While living in the Rutledge tavern he often took upon himself all kinds of discomforts to accommodate travellers. The Great Book says, “He who loses his life for my sake shall find it.” Lincoln seemed most of the time to forget that he had any life of his own in trying to do good to others. Many times he served ungrateful people, and many persons mistreated him who mistook his kindness for servility, but that didn’t change Lincoln. He kept right on doing good to others, until at last he lost his life, in the full meaning of that phrase, but we may be sure that somewhere else he has found it.
If a traveller became stuck in the mud, literally or figuratively, Lincoln always seemed to be the first to see his need. If widows and orphans were suffering, he was the first to know it and relieve their wants.