healths in the most healthy
beverage which God has given to man. It is the only beverage I have
ever used or allowed in my family, and I cannot conscientiously depart
from it on the present occasion. It is pure Adam's ale from the
spring."

Mr. John Hay, one of his biographers, says: "Mr. Lincoln was a man of
exceedingly temperate habits. He made no use of either whisky or
tobacco during all the years that I knew him."

Abraham Lincoln was a model in every respect but one. It was a mistake
on the part of this great and good man that he never identified
himself openly with the Church. I know what can be said in favor of
his position. It is not, however, satisfactory. If all men were to act
in this matter as Lincoln did, there would be no Church. This is
obvious. Hence the mistake which he made. Otherwise, as to his
personal habits; as to his confidence in God; as to his faith in man;
as to his conception and use of the Bible; as to his habits of prayer;
as to his judicial fairness; as to his sympathy with men--in all these
respects, as in many others, Abraham Lincoln is a character to be
studied and imitated.

[26] _From 'The Homiletic Review,' Funk & Wagnalls, Publishers._

TO THE SPIRIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN[27]

(Reunion at Gettysburg Twenty-Five Years After the Battle)

BY RICHARD WATSON GILDER

1888

Shade of our greatest, O look down to day!
Here the long, dread midsummer battle roared,
And brother in brother plunged the accursed sword;--
Here foe meets foe once more in proud array
Yet not as once to harry and to slay
But to strike hands, and with sublime accord
Weep tears heroic for the souls that soared
Quick from earth's carnage to the starry way.
Each fought for what he deemed the people's good,
And proved his bravery with his offered life,
And sealed his honor with his outpoured blood;
But the Eternal did direct the strife,
And on this sacred field one patriot host
Now calls thee father,--dear, majestic ghost!

[27] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._

LINCOLN AS A TYPICAL AMERICAN

BY PHILLIPS BROOKS

While I speak to you to-day, the body of the President who ruled this
people, is lying, honored and loved, in our city. It is impossible,
with that sacred presence in our midst, for me to stand and speak of
ordinary topics which occupy the pulpit. I must speak of him to-day;
and I therefore undertake to