We ourselves can die with comfort and even with joy if we know that death is but a passport to blessedness, that this intellect, freed from all material chains, shall rise and shine.
If you live for your children, they may be smitten down and leave you desolate, or, what is far worse, they may desert you and leave you worse than childless in a cold and unfeeling world.
If, then, knowledge be power, how much more power to we gain through the agency of faith, and what elevation must it give to human character.
Mr. Lincoln's elevation shows that in America every station in life may be honorable; that there is no barrier against the humblest; but that merit, wherever it exists, has the opportunity to be known.
If I know that I shall be as an angel, and more; if I shall behold all God has made; if he shall own me for his son and exalt me to honor in his presence, I shall not fear to die, nor shall I dread the grave where Christ once lay.
If you live for any joy on earth, you may be forsaken; but, oh, live for Jesus, and he will never forsake you!
Another principle is, the deepest affections of our hearts gather around some human form in which are incarnated the living thoughts and ideas of the passing age.
Man wants to be reconciled to God; wants to know that the past is forgiven.
Sanctification is not regeneration.
If an honest man is the noblest work of God, then Mr. Lincoln's title to high nobility is clear and unquestioned.
Passing into practical life, illustrations of this fact are found everywhere; the distant, or the unseen, steadies and strengthens us against the rapid whirl of things around us.
