A GOOD REMINDER ON PRESIDENT'S DAY

In his book Love Is Eternal, Irving R. Stone records a poignant conversation between Abraham Lincoln's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, and a man named Parker. Parker was the secret-service agent who was supposed to guard President Lincoln the night he was shot.

Parker entered, a heavy-faced man with half-closed lids. He trembled.

"Why were you not at the door to keep the assassin out?" she asked fiercely.

Parker hung his head. "I have bitterly repented it. But I just did not believe that anyone would try to kill so good a man in such a public place. The belief made me careless. I was attracted by the play and did not see the assassin enter the box."

"You should have seen him. You had no business to be careless." She fell back on the pillow, covered her face with her hands. And then said, "Go now, Mr. Parker. It's not you I can't forgive. It's the assassin. I can never forgive him!"

Then young Tad Lincoln, the son of the President, spoke: "If Pa had lived, he would have forgiven the man who shot him. Pa always forgave everybody."

Maybe Tad Lincoln put his finger on the very reason America has taken Abe Lincoln to its heart. He was like the One who said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." In fact, Lincoln learned it from Him.

-- James W. Moore in When You're a Christian, the Whole World Is from Missouri


#2481