Editorial February 12, 1910 Issue

THE STATURE OF A MAN

John B. Willis

In the kindly and unselfish "Mr. Greatheart," who labored and fought so faithfully for Christiana and her little company of pilgrims, Bunyan has embodied that spirit of brave affection and self-giving which we all feel to be the truest earthly expression of the divine nature. Men instinctively recognize that, above every other presentment of human greatness, there must be ranked that largeness of heart which every one may possess, and which in its activities reveals the impulse and efficiency of divine Love. The one thing that is unfailingly winsome and successful is that grace of goodness which qualifies its possessor for membership in the Greatheart Guild, an order which Christ Jesus established and of which he is universally regarded the supreme head. He who is earnestly seeking to have Truth and goodness rule in him, that he may contribute thereby to their government in all the earth,—this man is of the Greatheart mold, and he is sure to find his place in public estimate as a representative of the Christ-ideal.

Today the American people are honoring the memory of one in whom the tides of this great-heartedness were phenomenally strong. However unique and remarkable Mr. Lincoln may have been as a statesman and political leader, his distinctive greatness, that which when perceived endears him to his political antagonists no less than to his friends, is found in his largeness, simplicity, and gentleness of nature, that compassion by which he won and will ever retain his undisputed place in the veneration and love of humanity. He proved that the sovereignty of loving-kindness cannot be successfully resisted by political bias, social prestige, or race prejudice. It renders its subject great for all time and in the eyes of all men, and this for the reason that it speaks at once for the nature and present manifestation of God. It is the radiation of Truth and Love through the channels of human affection, and its appeal is both world-wide and irresistible. This explains the fact that side by side among venerated Americans stand today the two men who in their antecedents, their social status, their education, and their political convictions represented the greatest possible divergence,—Lincoln and Lee. For these there is now no North, no South, so great have they both come to be known, in their kindliness, their true nobility of character.

In the introduction to the chapter on Christian Science Practice in Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy has given a recognition to the value of this great-heart instinct which Christian Scientists do well to remember. Her words bring a new and inspiring significance to St. Paul's declaration that "love never faileth." True love is Truth's almoner. It knows no caste, and in its all-compassionate insistence to do good as well as be good it smiles at asserted limitations. This explains the universality of its conquest, the continuance of its reward. It leads men to see that "heaven is the perpetual ministry of one soul to another;" and in the years they learn to love him who has given himself thereto, quite regardless of his pedigree, his social position, or his politics.

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