Membership, Church—See [Badges].
Membership of Churches, Distribution of—See [Church Statistics].
Memorial Day—See [Dead, Influence of]; [Decorating Soldiers’ Graves]; [Honor’s Roll-call].
MEMORIAL OF LINCOLN
In the museum connected with the monument to Abraham Lincoln, at Springfield, Illinois, among other relics suggestive of the spirit and mission of the great emancipator, is treasured a piece of the rich gown worn by Laura Keene, the actress, in Ford’s Theater, Washington, on the tragic night when Lincoln fell. After the fatal shot of the assassin, Miss Keene sprang to the box and caught in her lap the head of the slain President, while the blood from the oozing wound saturated a portion of her garment. After the event, that blood-stained breadth was cut from the gown, sent to Springfield and preserved as the speaking symbol of the great sacrificial life which Lincoln lived even unto death, on behalf of the redemption of the black slaves of the South.—H. C. Mabie, “Methods in Evangelism.”
(2003)
Memorial to Humble Helpers—See [Negro “Mammy” Remembered].
Memorials of Genius—See [Economy, Divine].
MEMORIALS OF PATRIOTISM
When the Paris Commune savagely threw down the Vendome column all the civilized world felt a shock of disgust. Why? Certainly not because all the world equally admired Napoleon, whose triumphs the column recorded. Certainly not alone for the reason that it was a noble work of art. It was because all intelligent and unprejudiced people instinctively recognized that the column had been reared as an emblem of patriotism. That column stood for something higher than the fame of an individual conqueror, and for something broader than any theory of government or reaction of parties. It stood for the glory and dignity of France. It typified the love of the native land—patriotism. Take, as another instance, the great Washington shaft at the capital. Long delayed, frequently jeered at before its completion, it now lifts its finished strength toward heaven in everlasting tribute to the great leader of the Revolution and the founder of our nation.—New York Star.