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 do what I have intended to do at some future time, to invite you to study with me the character of Abraham Lincoln, the impulse of his life and the causes of his death. I know how hard it is to do it rightly, how impossible it is to do it worthily. But I shall speak with confidence, because I speak to those who love him, and whose ready love will fill out the deficiencies in a picture which my words will weakly try to draw. We take it for granted, first of all, that there is an essential connection between Mr. Lincoln's character and his violent and bloody death. It is no accident, no arbitrary decree of Providence. He lived as he did, and he died as he did, because he was what he was. The more we see of events the less we come to believe in any fate, or destiny, except the destiny of character. It will be our duty, then, to see what there was in the character of our great President that created the history of his life, and at last produced the catastrophe of his cruel death. After the first trembling horror, the first outburst of indignant sorrow, has grown calm, these are the questions which we are bound to ask and answer.