[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Monday, February 17, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and greetings to you on this Monday or, if you live in Australia or New Zealand, Tuesday morning.  I hope that your day is going well, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

Here in the U.S. we are either celebrating or commemorating Presidents Day, a day which we officially set aside to recognize the achievements of our chief executives.  After today's article I'll be giving you some little-known facts about some of our presidents, though by no means all of them.  The title of today's article by an unnamed author is "Be Somebody, Abe," and is rendered as follows:

When Abraham Lincoln was seven years old, the family moved to Indiana from their Kentucky home.  They were a very poor mother, and his mother had very frail health.

As the weeks and months passed, his mother was getting more frail all the time.  One day, realizing the enemy of death was not far away, she said to her son, "Let's have a talk." She knew the difficulties, and she knew the possibilities.  She prayed with her boy; and after dedicating him to the Lord, she said, "Abraham, be somebody." It was not many months until Abraham and his sister were motherless.  They buried their mother beside the small house they had built out under one of the large trees.  It was in the year 1818.

Neither Abraham nor his father were satisfied with the burial they gave his mother.  They both thought of good Parson Elkins, whom they had left in Kentucky.  Abraham wrote to this parson, asking if he could come and give his mother a real burial.  Abraham asked, "Won't you come and preach her funeral sermon?"

She had been buried for several months, and he was asking a great favor of this poor preacher who would have to come so far on horseback.  But the Parson was willing to come to pay a tribute of respect to the woman who had thoroughly honored him and his sacred office.

The parson wrote to Abraham and told him that, on a certain Sunday, he would be there and he should call the neighbors together for that day.  At the appointed time, the whole neighborhood within a radius of twenty miles got together.  They came in every fashion.  It was estimated there were around 300 neighbors who came.  When Parson Elkins came out of the Lincoln cabin, accompanied by the family, he proceeded to the tree under which the precious body of a wife and mother was buried.  The congregation, seated upon stumps of logs around the grave, received the preacher with the mourning family.  The silence was broken only by the songs of birds and the murmur of insects.

Taking his stand at the foot of the grave, Parson Elkins lifted his voice in prayer and sacred song, and then he preached a sermon.  The occasion, the eager faces surrounding him, and all the sweet influence of the morning, inspired Parson Elkins with an unusual fluency and fervor.  Many a tear fell upon the bronzed cheeks of his audience.  Father and son were overcome with the revival of their great grief.  He spoke with a warm, deserved praise of a precious Christian woman who had gone.  He held her up as an example of true womanhood.

Those who knew the tender and reverent spirit of Abraham Lincoln later in life will not doubt that he returned to his cabin home deeply impressed by all that he had heard.  It was the rounding up for him of the influences of a Christian mother's life which he never forgot.  She had told him, "Son, be somebody." Later he said, in speaking of his accomplishments, it was "because of my mother and her influence."

And there you have the article for today which I hope was a blessing to you.

And now about the little-known presidential facts.  Did you know for instance, that President James Abram Garfield was an ordained minister of the Gospel in the Disciples of Christ Church before he became President?

Did you know that George Washington received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, founded in 1782 and the only institution of that name in this country to carry his name with his approval?

Did you know that the first U.S. chief executive to have his voice recorded was Grover Cleveland in 1888?

And there you have the Daily Thought article and the facts for today.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing another such article and message will be presented, may the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul