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THE BIRTH DA Y OT AVRAHAM LINCOLN
OVED, but too late! Those words
should be emblazoned, in conse
crated fire, above the tomb of Ab
raham Lincoln.
The life of this rugged character
was singularly drear and prosaic,
and no man, save The Messiah,
has so hungered for human love.
On February 12, 1809, in La Rue
I
county, Kentucky, Lincoln planted his baby
feet on the threshold of a destiny as terrible
as it was untimely. His baby eyes stared out
upon a career as unpromising as the grinding
poverty that was everywhere manifest in his
lowly cabin home, swathed in the sombre grey
ness of a February morning.
His parents were poor to the last degree —
mere backwoods “squatters” of the lowest or
der. The childhood of Lincoln was spent in
utter obscurity, and his constant struggle with
poverty, hardship and trial was unrelieved by
any touches of poetic generosity or kindliness
for which the old “Blue Grass State” is famous.
In his youth he received, in the aggregate,
about one year’s schooling. This constituted
the educational basis upon which the future
Chief Magistrate of the United States was to
erect the delicate and enduring foundation of
a reconstructed Republic.
Ferrying On The Ohio.
By the time young Lincoln had reached his
sixteenth year, his father, always shiftless and
migratory, had moved into the State of In
diana, settling in the wilderness near the pres
ent town of Gentryville. Here, the farmer-lad
quitted his plow and began to operate a ferry
across the Ohio River. For this service he re
ceived the then magnificent sum of six dollars
a month. Another move, this time to the
North Fork of the Sangamon River, ten miles
west of Decatur, Illinois, caused a change of
occupation.
MILLARD JENKINS WINS ATHENS
The Footprints of Young.
“Paul Plants, Apollos waters, but God gives
the increase.”
We are not forgetting that Millard A. Jen
kins with his winsome personality, his glow
ing sermons, and his inspiring leadership is
walking in the footprints of that many-sided,
consecrated genius, Dr. Wm. H. Young who,
for more than a dozen notable years, unfolded
the Scriptures, making luminous many of the
“deep things of God” and translating the truth
of the gospel, by his own beautiful life. On
this safe foundation Millard A. Jenkins came
to build. The time was ripe for just his type
of Apollos-like “watering,” and God has giv
en the wonderful increase.
Ruby A Jewel.
Side by side with Millard Jenkins for these
two remarkable years, has walked Altha Irby
Ruby, singer, composer and assistant to the
pastor, whose organization, consecration and
application have been indispensable in the
church’s march of progress.
Blessed is the pastor with such a “Man-Fri
day” as Ruby has been to Jenkins.
“The Reign of the Optimist.”
One of Millard Jenkins’ charming platform
lectures is “The Reign of the Optimist,” and
its radiant, optimistic spirit accounts largely
for his “reign” as an optimistic leader. Another
is, “The Price of a Crown,” and the speaker,
with the coin of consecrated, everlasting work
is paying the price of his crown of rejoicing.
“Befo’ de Wah” is another of his platform
“pets,” and its delivery at the big Brantley
Memorial Church, Baltimore recently was
A 'Re-United Nation Pays Common Homage to the Lonely Martyr of the Nelv World.
The Golden Age for February 16, 1911.
Sy MARGARET BEVERLY UPSHAW.
From Flatboat To Congress.
Abraham Lincoln had by this time reached
his majority. Emerging from his ancestral
cabin, which he had helped to erect, he began
for himself the battle of life.
For a time, he served as a flatboatman on
the Mississippi River, and later as a clerk in
New Salem.
At the outbreak of the Black Hawk War he
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? xXMF i
I
I ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ' f
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was elected captain of a Company. Three
years after its close, and after being bankrupt
ed in business by a dissolute partner, Lincoln
began the study of law. Then it was that his
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t "Praise Ye the Lord. I
t H S. Jenison. ;
I My Father, and my God and King! 1
= To Thee glad praises do I sing— |
? To Thee, whose presence filling all,
| Is with each creature, great and small.
= Thee would I praise in word and deed, |
? For Thou supplies! every need.
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| On Thee, with confidence, I call, |
? Well knowing that Thou boldest all ?
• Secure within Thy mighty power f
| Os that which helps from hour to hour. I
? O, may I ever faithful be ?
| To One who gives all good to me.
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counted the lecture event of the season. All
of these platform “hits” afford the burdened,
busy pastor an occasional intellectual picnic,
but the chiefest joy of Millard Jenkins comes
in laying himself out in his glorious pastoral
work and in his occasional evangelistic cam
paigns in which he has been wonderfully bless
ed. His last evangelistic victory was at Wal
ler’s great “People’s Church” in Knoxville, in
which over one hundred “clear cut” conver
sions occurred.
The passion of this pastor-evangelist’s heart
is born of his joyous faith in the truth that —
“They that be wise shall shine as the bright
ness of the firmament; and they that turn
many to righteousness, as the stars forever and
ever.”
marvelous genius burst into full flower, rooted
in a congenial soil. His capacity for work, was
enormous, and his phenomenal insight into dif
ficult political and civ.il problems won him ear
ly recognition as a statesman and leader.
Elected to Congress at the age of forty, Lin
coln rose from that position to the high
grounds of a United States Senator-ship, and
then to the Presidency within two years. But
no ruler of modern times has ever come to of
fice under such a burden of care, responsibility
and discord.
To the South he appeared as a political “red
rag”—the prejudicated victor over a disrupted
and disgruntled Democracy. To the North, he
appeared as an apostate to Republicanism, be
cause he so long delayed the declaration of war
between the States.
Forty-Six Years in Retrospect.
Today, as a united people, we look back over
the barren waste of bloodshed, bitterness and
bickerings through which we have plodded
since that awful night when Lincoln fell, pierc
ed by an assassin's bullet, and realize, as never
before, that we have only accomplished the
destiny that his great mind foresaw and toward
which he was seeking to coax a nation of un
ruly children.
In his tragic death he wielded the cavezon
of firmness, fairness and love that stopped the
mad career of a young and untrained South,
and curbed the haughty cavortings of a spir
ited and unsympathetic North, yoking them in
that bond of fellowship, tolerance and unity
for which he ever sighed.
Abraham Lincoln was indeed, a hero of for
tune. A paragon in patriotism and a paradox
in personality. Remarkable alike in genius and
common-sense, and gifted with a rare blending
of justice and gentleness. He fell at an hour,
when to all human seeming, the American peo
ple could least spare him, and he died “literally
loving a nation into peace.”
“B’RER FOX” LIKES IT.
Marianna, Ark., Feb. Bth, 1911.
Mr. Wm. D. Upshaw, Atlanta, Ga.
My Dear Sir:
. .At Baltimore in last May I took your paper.
I am glad I did. Flow could I do without it!
It is the most cheerful and inspiring paper
that comes to my desk. I love its bright mes
sages, its enthusiasm, its piety for the home, its
power for the life, its purity in the way of do
ing all things and for its heroic and independent
way of saying and doing things in general.
We shall continue to be its readers, yes we
will keep it up.
Yours in Him,
ARTHUR FOX,
Pastor Baptist Church.
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: The Date February 23 *
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