j Lfc , 
 
 Jackson, S. Trevena 
 Linco!n f s use of the Bible 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 

 LINCOLN'S USE 
 OFTHEBIBLE 
 
 
 S • TREVENA -JACKS ON 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/lincolnsuseofbibOOiljack 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 OF THE BIBLE 
 
 BY 
 
 S. TREVENA JACKSON 
 
 THE ABINGDON PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK CINCINNATI 
 
Copyright, 1909, by 
 EATON & MAINS. 
 
 Printed December, 1909 
 
 Reprinted February, 1910; October, 1914 
 
 July, 1920; February, 1927 
 

 •flfflben quiet fit me bouse 1T sit, 
 Gbe book be m£ companion etfU; 
 
 Afi jo^ tbe savings to repeat, 
 Galk o'er tbe record of tb£ will, 
 
 SnD searcb tbe oracles Divine, 
 
 Cill evere beartfelt worD be mine* 
 
 — Charles Wesley. 
 
 TIbe 3Bible is a book of faitb, 
 
 B book of Doctrine, 
 
 SnD a book of religion, 
 
 ©f especial revelation from <BoD. 
 
 — Daniel Webster. 
 
 SnD wears seekers of tbe best, 
 Ude come back laDen from our quest, 
 Co ffnD tbat all tbe sages saiD— 
 fls in tbe 3Book our motbers reaD* 
 
 — Whittier. 
 
LINCOLN'S USE OF THE BIBLE 
 
 44 The Bible is the king's best copy, the mag- 
 istrate's best rule, the housewife's best guide, 
 the servant's best directory, and the best com- 
 panion of yotrth/' 
 
 a log cabin at Nolin's Greek, 
 Hardin County, Kentucky, 
 the boy breathed the first 
 breath of life* Hope's an- 
 chor hung on a slender string, 
 if we are to measure by the child's home 
 surroundings* But his birthplace pos- 
 sessed a soul; for a home with a good 
 book in it has a souL This book was 
 the Bible* It mastered his manners, 
 molded his mind, made mighty his 
 manhood, and gave to America the 
 matchless man* 
 
 In the Bible he found the truth for 
 the ills of men, the secret for the solu- 
 tion of life's perplexing problems, the 
 
 5 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 boon for the best beaten path, the suc- 
 cor for the suffering, the calmest com- 
 forts for the dying, and the faithful 
 friend when foes are near and other 
 friends so far away* 
 
 We shall speak of what others have 
 said concerning Lincoln's use of the 
 Bible; what he himself said of it? the 
 use he made of it; and the influence of 
 the Scriptures on his life and literature* 
 
 In Herndon's Life of Lincoln the 
 partner and President is portrayed as 
 a foe rather than a friend of the Bible* 
 This is seen to be erroneous by 
 simply reading his speeches* for they 
 are like the dewdrops on the blades 
 of green in early fall* sparkling every- 
 where* It is hard to read a great 
 speech of Lincoln's without seeing the 
 influence of the Bible on his life* 
 works, and style* 
 
 Sarah K* Bolton writes: " Mrs* Lin- 
 6 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 coin possessed but one book in the 
 world, the Bible; and from this she 
 taught her children daily* Abraham 
 had been to school for two or three 
 months, to such a school as the rude 
 country afforded, and had learned to 
 read* Of quick mind and retentive 
 memory, he soon came to know the 
 Bible well-nigh by heart, and to look 
 upon his gentle teacher as the em- 
 bodiment of all the good precepts in 
 the book*" 
 
 Lincoln's mother died after a linger- 
 ing illness when he was ten years old* 
 It is said that during her sickness he 
 cared for her as tenderly as a girl, and 
 that he often sat at her side and read 
 the Bible to her for hours* Much of 
 his later life and style was influenced 
 by his early reading of the Bible* 
 
 L* E* Chittenden says: " Except 
 the instructions of his mother, the 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 Bible more powerfully controlled the 
 intellectual development of the son than 
 all other causes combined* He mem- 
 orized many of its chapters and had 
 them perfectly at his command. Early 
 in his professional life he learned that 
 the most useful of all books to the 
 public speaker was the Bible* After 
 J 857 he seldom made a speech which 
 did not contain quotations from the 
 Bible," 
 
 Alexander Williamson, who was en- 
 gaged as tutor in the Lincoln family in 
 Washington, said: " Mr, Lincoln very 
 frequently studied the Bible with the 
 aid of Cruden's Concordance, which 
 lay on his table," The Presbyterian 
 pastor in Springfield, Rev, James 
 Smith, states that Lincoln became a 
 believer in the Bible and Jesus Christ 
 as the Son of God, It is true that Mr, 
 Smith placed before Lincoln the argu- 
 
 8 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ments for and against the divine au- 
 thority of the Scriptures* He looked 
 at it from a lawyer's viewpoint, and, 
 at the conclusion, declared the argu- 
 ment in favor of divine authority and 
 inspiration of the Bible unanswerable* 
 
 Mr* Arnold* in his Life of Lincoln* 
 speaking of the Second Inaugural 
 Address* said: " Since the days of 
 Christ's Sermon on the Mount* where 
 is the speech of emperor* king, or ruler 
 which can compare with this? May 
 we not without irreverence say that 
 passages of this address are worthy of 
 that holy book which he read daily, 
 and from which, during his long days 
 of trial, he had drawn inspiration and 
 guidance? This paper in its solemn 
 recognition of the justice of the Al- 
 mighty God reminds us of the words 
 of the old Hebrew prophets*" 
 
 Bishop Simpson, in his funeral ad- 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 dress, said; u Abraham Lincoln was 
 a good man, a man of noble heart in 
 every way* He read the Bible fre- 
 quently; he loved it for its great truths; 
 and he tried to be guided by its pre- 
 cepts* He believed in Christ as the 
 Saviour of sinners, and I think he was 
 sincere in trying to bring his life in 
 harmony with the precepts of revealed 
 religion* I doubt if any President has 
 shown such trust in God, or in public 
 document so frequently referred to 
 divine aid*" 
 
 In the year 1901 President Roose- 
 velt delivered an address before the 
 American Bible Society on H Reading 
 the Bible/' in which he said: " Lin- 
 coln, sad, patient, kindly Lincoln, 
 who, after bearing upon his shoulders 
 for four years a greater burden than 
 that borne by any other man of the 
 nineteenth century, laid down his life 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 for the people whom t living, he had 
 served so well, built up his entire read- 
 ing upon his study of the Bible* He 
 had mastered it absolutely, mastered 
 it as later he mastered only one or two 
 other books, notably Shakespeare, mas- 
 tered it so that he became almost a 
 man of one book who knew that book, 
 and who instinctively put into prac- 
 tice what he had been taught therein; 
 and he left his life as part of the 
 crowning work of the century just 
 closed/' 
 
 Lincoln often spoke and wrote of 
 the value of the Bible* To Joshua F* 
 Speed, one of his most intimate 
 friends, and at one time his roommate, 
 he wrote: " I am profitably engaged 
 in reading the Bible* Take all of this 
 book upon reason that you can, and 
 the balance on faith, and you will live 
 
 and die a better man*" Mrs* Speed 
 u 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 gave Lincoln a Bible, and, after a visit 
 to that home in 1841, he wrote to the 
 daughter, Mary Speed, and at the 
 close said: " Tell your mother I have 
 not got her present (an Oxford Bible) 
 with me, but I intend to read it regu- 
 larly when I return home* I doubt not 
 that it is really, as she says, the best 
 cure for the blues, could one but take 
 it according to truth/' 
 
 On July 4, 1842, in writing to his 
 friend Speed of the service he had been 
 in bringing Joshua and Fanny, his 
 sweetheart, together, he said; " I be- 
 lieve God made me one of the instru- 
 ments of bringing you and Fanny to- 
 gether, which union I have no doubt 
 he had foreordained* Whatever he 
 designs he will do for me yet* 4 Stand 
 still and see the salvation of the Lord ' 
 is my text just now/' 
 
 It is stated on good authority that 
 
 12 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 after his election in I860 he said to 
 Judge Joseph Gillespie: " I have read 
 on my knees the story of Gethsemane, 
 where the Son of God prayed in vain 
 that the cup of bitterness might pass 
 from him* I am in the garden of 
 Gethsemane now, and my cup is run- 
 ning over/' 
 
 Lincoln's reply to a committee of 
 colored people of Baltimore who pre- 
 sented him with a Bible t September 7* 
 1864, gives his opinion of the Biblet 
 44 In regard to this great book I have 
 but to say: It is the best gift God has 
 given to man* All the good Saviour 
 gave to this world was communicated 
 through this book* But for it we 
 could not know right from wrong* All 
 things most desirable for man's wel- 
 fare here and hereafter are to be found 
 portrayed in it* To you I return my 
 most sincere thanks for the very ele- 
 
 13 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 gant copy of the great Book of God 
 which you present/' 
 
 At Springfield he addressed the 
 Bible Society and said: " It seems to 
 me that nothing short of infinite wis- 
 dom could by any possibility have de- 
 vised and given to man this excellent 
 and perfect moral code* It is suited 
 to men in all the conditions of life, and 
 inculcates all the duties they owe to 
 their Creator, to themselves, and to 
 their fellow men/' 
 
 In J* G* Holland's Life of Lincoln 
 he gives us the conversation with Mr* 
 Bateman: " Mr* Bateman, I have 
 carefully read the Bible/' Then he 
 drew from his pocket a New Testa- 
 ment: " These men will know that I 
 am for freedom in the territories, free- 
 dom everywhere as far as the Constitu- 
 tion and laws will permit, and my oppo- 
 nents are for slavery* They know 
 
 14 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 this, yet, with this book in their hands, 
 in the light of which human bondage 
 cannot live a moment, they are going 
 to vote against me* I know there is a 
 God, and that he hates injustice and 
 slavery* I see the storm coming, and 
 I know that his hand is in it* If he 
 has a place for me — and I think he has 
 — I believe I am ready* I am nothing, 
 but truth is everything* I know I am 
 right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ 
 is God." 
 
 In his Lyceum speech he speaks of 
 the advantage of an education and 
 being able to read the history of his 
 own and other countries, by which we 
 may appreciate the value of our free 
 institutions, to say nothing of the ad- 
 vantages and satisfaction to be de- 
 rived from all being able to read for 
 themselves the Scriptures and other 
 works both of a religious and moral 
 
 15 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 nature* In this same speech he uses 
 this language: H If destruction be our 
 lot we must ourselves be its author and 
 finisher/' Then, speaking of the Rev- 
 olution, he desired the history of it to 
 "be read and recounted as long as the 
 Bible shall be read/' 
 
 The night before the President left 
 Springfield for the White House a 
 friend from Chicago sent him the Amer- 
 ican flag with these words: ** Have 
 not I commanded thee? Be strong 
 and of a good courage; be not afraid, 
 neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord 
 thy God is with thee whithersoever 
 thou goest. There shall not any man 
 be able to stand before thee all the 
 days of thy life: as I was with Moses, 
 so I will be with thee/' 
 
 It has been said by those who pride 
 themselves on having no faith in the 
 inspiration of the Scriptures that Lin- 
 
 16 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 coin held their views* But he ad- 
 dressed conventions and Sunday 
 schools, and the Bible was as often 
 quoted by him as Blackstone* The 
 addresses and letters of Lincoln are 
 saturated with expressions from the 
 Holy Scriptures* In his reply to Doug- 
 las he gave his speech great force by 
 the words of Christ: " A house di- 
 vided against itself cannot stand/' 
 In writing to Mr* W* Durley he uses 
 scriptural terms: " By the fruit the 
 tree is to be known* An evil tree 
 cannot bring forth good fruit*" 
 
 Ann Rutledge gave him a new view 
 of the Bible and Shakespeare* Abra- 
 ham Lincoln's is the language of the 
 Bible* He never used the Bible in an 
 irreverent way* In the Lincoln Mu- 
 seum* Washington* there is a copy of 
 the Holy Scriptures* It is well worn* 
 and shows the signs of good use* In- 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 side the cover are these words in his 
 own handwriting: " A* Lincoln, his 
 own book/' 
 
 He wrote a letter to Rev* J* ML Peck 
 in 1848 asking him, " Is the precept, 
 4 Whatsoever ye would that men 
 should do to you, do ye even so to 
 them/ obsolete, of no force, of no ap- 
 plication ?" In his description of Ni- 
 agara he said: " It calls up the in- 
 definite past when Christ suffered on 
 the cross, when Moses led Israel 
 through the Red Sea — nay, even when 
 Adam first came from the hand of his 
 Maker; then, as now, Niagara was roar- 
 ing here/' 
 
 In writing to John D* Johnston con- 
 cerning his father's illness, he said: 
 " I sincerely hope Father will recover 
 his health, but, at all events, tell him 
 to remember and call upon and con- 
 fide in our great and good and merciful 
 
 18 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Maker* He notes the fall of the spar- 
 row and numbers the hairs of our 
 heads, and he will not forget the dying 
 man who puts his trust in him/' 
 
 Mr* William S* Speer wrote to Mr* 
 Lincoln asking him to write a letter to 
 give his definite views on the slavery 
 question* Lincoln replied: " I have 
 already done this many* many times* 
 and it is in print and open to all who 
 will read* Those who will not read 
 or heed what I have already publicly 
 said would not read or heed a repetition 
 of it* 'If they hear not Moses and 
 the prophets* neither will they be per- 
 suaded though one rose from the 
 dead*' » 
 
 In a letter to Reverdy Johnson he 
 wrote: u I am a patient man* always 
 willing to forgive on the Christian 
 terms of repentance* and also to give 
 ample time for repentance*" Lincoln 
 
 J9 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 wrote to General J* A* McQernand: 
 44 My belief is that the permanent esti- 
 mate of what a general does in the 
 field is fixed by the 'cloud of witnesses * 
 who have been with him in the field/' 
 
 Lincoln was ever bringing his knowl- 
 edge of the Scriptures to the minds of 
 men* When an aged citizen, John 
 Phillips, had done him honor* he wrote 
 him j u The example of such devotion 
 to civic duties in one whose days have 
 been already extended an average life- 
 time beyond the psalmist's limit cannot 
 but be valuable and fruitful/' 
 
 We find in his speeches and letters 
 the Bible at his tongue's end. In his 
 reply to Douglas at Alton he said? 
 44 He has warred upon them as Satan 
 wars upon the Bible* The Bible says 
 somewhere we are desperately selfish/' 
 And* writing to J* F* Speed, he writes 
 of those who are so interested in slav- 
 
 20 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ery, and says: H If, like Haman, they 
 should hang upon the gallows of their 
 own building, I should not be among 
 the mourners for their fate*" Then 
 again he says: H Let us judge not, 
 that we be not judged/' Then the 
 words of the Christ: " Woe unto the 
 world because of offenses! for it must 
 needs be that offenses come; but woe 
 to that man by whom the offense 
 cometh!" 
 
 In his temperance speech in 1842 he 
 sees the spirit of temperance like the 
 conqueror in the Revelation going 
 forth " conquering and to conquer/' 
 He sees the drunkard reclaimed, and, 
 like the man in the gospel, "clothed 
 and in his right mind"; then, describ- 
 ing the reclaimed, "out of their abun- 
 dant hearts their tongues give utter- 
 ance/' Then he speaks of the un- 
 pardonable sin for the drunkard as 
 21 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 unknown: " As in Christianity it is 
 taught, 4 while the lamp holds out to 
 burn the vilest sinner may return/" 
 Then he refers to the Scriptures and 
 says: H He ever seems to have gone 
 forth like the Egyptian angel of death, 
 commissioned to slay, if not the first, 
 the fairest born of every family/' 
 Then he takes us over to the prophet: 
 44 Come from the four winds, O breath, 
 and breathe upon these slain, that 
 they may live/' 
 
 He was very fond of a poem called 
 44 Adam and Eve's Wedding Song": 
 
 44 When Adam was created 
 He dwelt in Eden's shade, 
 As Moses has recorded, 
 
 And soon a bride was made/' 
 
 Some thought that Lincoln was its 
 author, but he said: " I am not the 
 author* I would give all I am worth, 
 and go in debt, to be able to write so 
 
 22 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 fine a piece*" In speaking of the 
 tariff he said: "In the early days of 
 our race the Almighty said to the first 
 of our race, 4 In the sweat of thy face 
 shalt thou eat bread/ " 
 
 In 1848, when President Polk sent 
 a message to Congress stating that 
 Mexico "had shed American blood 
 upon American soil," Lincoln made a 
 long speech against war with Mexico, 
 and recalled the death of Abel thus: 
 "That he [President Polk] is deeply 
 conscious of being in the wrong; that 
 he feels the blood of this war, like the 
 blood of Abel, is crying to heaven 
 against him*" 
 
 In Lincoln's eulogy on Henry Clay 
 he brings the Book of God before 
 the people: "Pharaoh's country was 
 cursed with plagues and his hosts were 
 lost in the Red Sea for striving to re- 
 tain a captive people who had already 
 
 23 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 served them more than four hundred 
 years, May this disaster never befall 
 tis!" 
 
 His knowledge of the Bible is clearly 
 seen in his debate with Judge Douglas, 
 for when the latter described man in 
 the garden with evil or good to choose 
 from Lincoln's reply was: "God did 
 not place good and evil before man, 
 telling him to take his choice. On the 
 contrary, he did tell him there was one 
 tree of the fruit of which he should not 
 eat upon pain of certain death/' Later 
 Judge Douglas said that Lincoln 
 had a proneness for quoting the 
 Scriptures, and Lincoln replied in his 
 Springfield address, July 17, J858: 
 44 If I should do so now it occurs 
 that he places himself somewhat upon 
 the ground of the parable of the lost 
 sheep which went astray upon the 
 mountains, and when the owner of the 
 
 24 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 hundred sheep found the one that was 
 lost and threw it upon his shoulders, 
 and came home rejoicing, it was said 
 that there was more rejoicing over the 
 one sheep that was lost and had been 
 found than over the ninety and nine 
 in the fold* The application is made 
 by the Saviour in this parable thus: 
 4 Verily I say unto you, there is more re- 
 joicing in heaven over one sinner that 
 repenteth than over ninety and nine 
 just persons that need no repentance/ 
 Repentance before forgiveness is a pro- 
 vision of the Christian system/' In 
 his fragments of a speech he claims 
 44 the revelation in the Bible, and his 
 revelation the Bible/' 
 
 Lincoln has before his mind the 
 ideas of the early church when he says: 
 44 4 Give to him that is needy ' is a 
 Christian rule of charity/' In J 859 
 he gave a lecture on " Discoveries, 
 
 25 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 Inventions, and Improvements/' in 
 which he gives a description of our 
 first parents: " It was the destined 
 work of Adam's race to develop by 
 discoveries, inventions, and improve- 
 ments, and the first invention of which 
 we have any account is the fig-leaf 
 apron* Speech was used by out first 
 parents, and even by Adam before 
 the creation of Eve/' 
 
 At Cincinnati he speaks of " the 
 loaves and fishes," and concludes his 
 speech almost with Bible words: "The 
 good old maxims of the Bible are appli- 
 cable, and truly applicable, to human 
 affairs; and in this as in other things 
 we may say here that he who is not 
 for us is against us; and he who gath- 
 ereth not with us scattereth/' He 
 concludes his speech in Kansas in the 
 same year with the same words* 
 
 When the people were anxious to 
 
 26 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 hear and see him on his way to the 
 White House he was desirous of keep- 
 ing silence, and often quoted: u Solo- 
 mon says there is a time to keep si- 
 lence*" At Philadelphia, in Independ- 
 ence Hall, he spoke: " All my politi- 
 cal welfare has been in favor of the 
 teachings that come from these sacred 
 walls* May my right hand forget its 
 cunning, and my tongue cleave to the 
 roof of my mouth, if ever I prove false 
 to these teachings*" 
 
 When Lincoln proclaimed a national 
 fast day he declared that all must be 
 done in full conviction " that the fear 
 of the Lord is the beginning of wis- 
 dom*" 
 
 An old man had come to Lincoln for 
 his son, who was to be shot, and said: 
 
 Mr* Lincoln, my wife sent me to you* 
 We had three boys* They all joined 
 your army* One of 'em has been 
 
 44 
 
 27 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 killed, one's a-fighting now, and one 
 of 'em, the youngest, has been tried for 
 deserting, and he's going to be shot 
 day after to-morrow* He never de- 
 serted* He's wild and may have drank 
 too much and wandered off, but he 
 never deserted* 'Tain't in the blood* 
 He's his mother's favorite, and if he's 
 shot I know she'll die*" General But- 
 ler was telegraphed to to suspend the 
 execution* The old man was afraid 
 to go home with this message, thinking 
 the President might give a different 
 order to-morrow* Lincoln said to the 
 old mam " Tell his mother that I 
 said, *Xf your son lives until they get 
 further orders from me, when he does 
 die people will say that old Methuselah 
 was a baby compared to him/ " 
 
 It is said that the best result which 
 the convention achieved at Cleveland 
 in 1864, when it nominated Fremont 
 
 28 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 for the presidency and John Cochrane 
 for the vice-presidency, was that it 
 called forth a bit of wit from the Pres- 
 ident* Some one remarked to him 
 that, instead of the expected thou- 
 sands, only about four hundred per- 
 sons were present* He turned to the 
 Bible which, say Nicolay and Hay, 
 commonly lay on his desk, and read 
 J Sam* 22* 2x "And every one that 
 was in distress, and every one that 
 was in debt, and every one that was 
 in bitterness of soul, gathered them- 
 selves unto him ; and he became a 
 captain over them: and there were 
 with him about four hundred men," 
 
 A primary and intermediate school 
 was so located as to be separated by a 
 fence from the rear of the White House 
 grounds. The President often watched 
 the children play. One morning the 
 teacher gave them a lesson in neatness, 
 
 29 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 and asked each boy to come to school 
 next day with his shoes blacked* They 
 all obeyed. One of them, John S., a 
 poor one-armed lad, had used stove 
 polish, the only kind his home afforded* 
 The boys were merciless in their ridi- 
 cule* The boy was only nine years 
 old, the son of a dead soldier, his 
 mother a washerwoman, with three 
 other children to provide for* The 
 President heard the boys jeering 
 Johnny, and learned the facts about 
 the boy* 
 
 The next day John S* came to 
 school with a new suit and with new 
 shoes, and told that the President had 
 called at his home and took him to the 
 store and bought two suits of clothes 
 for him and clothes for his sisters, and 
 sent coal and groceries to the house* 
 In addition to this the lad brought to 
 
 the teacher a scrap of paper contain- 
 so 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ing a verse of Scripture, which Mr* 
 Lincoln had requested to have written 
 upon the blackboard : 
 
 " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
 one of the least of these my brethren, 
 ye have done it unto me*" 
 
 Some weeks after the President vis- 
 ited the school, and the teacher 
 directed his attention to the verse, 
 which was still there, Mr, Lincoln 
 read it ; then, taking a crayon, said : 
 44 Boys, I have another quotation from 
 the Bible, and I hope you will learn it 
 and come to know its truth as I have 
 known and felt it," Then below the 
 other verse he wrote : 
 
 44 It is more blessed to give than to 
 receive. A, LINCOLN," 
 
 The influence of the Bible on the 
 life and literature of Lincoln was re- 
 markable* It gave to this nation and 
 the world a life of service, and in that 
 
 31 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 service he placed the most delicate 
 spirit of sincerity, sobriety, sympathy t 
 and love* In literature he has given 
 to us abiding beauty in its simplicity 
 and strength of expression* Of his 
 Gettysburg speech the London Quar- 
 terly Review said, substantially, that 
 the oration surpassed every produc- 
 tion of its class known in literature; 
 that only the oration of Pericles over 
 the victories of the Peloponnesian War 
 could be compared to it, and that was 
 put into his mouth by the historian 
 Thucydides* Mr* Sumner said it was 
 the most finished piece of oratory he 
 had ever seen* Every word was ap- 
 propriate* None could be omitted and 
 none added and none changed* 
 
 Professor Albert S* Cook* teacher of 
 English Language and Literature in 
 Yale, in his book, The Bible and Eng- 
 lish Prose Style, seeking to show the 
 
 32 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 influence of the Bible on the style of 
 great writers, says: " Bert the matter 
 is beyond dispute when we come to a 
 piece of classic prose like Lincoln's 
 Second Inaugural, which certainly owes 
 nothing to the Romans of the Deca- 
 dence/' Then this sample of the Bible 
 style is given: " 4 Neither party ex- 
 pected the magnitude or the duration 
 which it has already attained* Neither 
 anticipated that the cause of the con- 
 flict might cease with, or even before 
 the conflict itself should cease* Each 
 looked for an easier triumph, and a re- 
 sult less fundamental and astounding* 
 Both read the same Bible and prayed 
 to the same God, and each invoked his 
 aid against the other* It may seem 
 strange that any men should dare to 
 ask a just God's assistance in wringing 
 their bread from the sweat of other 
 men's faces; but let us judge not, that 
 
 S3 
 
LINCOLN'S USE 
 
 we be not judged* The prayers of 
 both could not be answered* That of 
 neither has been fully* The Almighty 
 has his own purposes! * 
 
 44 At this point we may pause* for we 
 need no further demonstration of the 
 indebtedness of English prose style to 
 the Bible* nor would it be easy to dis- 
 cover a better illustration of biblical 
 qualities in modern guise exemplified 
 in a passage of more interest to all the 
 world* South recognized it as a mark 
 of illiteracy to be fond of high-flown 
 metaphors and allegories* attended and 
 set off with scraps of Greek and Latin* 
 If this be true* the American people so 
 far escape the imputation as they have 
 set their seal of approval on such writ- 
 ings as Lincoln's; and that they have 
 had judgment and taste to do so is dxse f 
 more than to any other cause* to their 
 familiarity with the Bible*" 
 
 34 
 
OF THE BIBLE 
 
 The spirit life of the Bible was built 
 into Lincoln's boyhood, expanded in 
 his young manhood, ripened in his 
 middle age, sustained him when sor- 
 rows seared his soul, and gave to him a 
 grip upon God, man, freedom, and im- 
 mortality* The influence of the Bible 
 upon him gave him reverence for God 
 and his will; for Christianity and its 
 Christ; for the Holy Spirit and its help; 
 for prayer and its power; for praise and 
 its purpose; for the immortal impulse 
 and its inspiration* 
 
 Truly might Henry Watterson ask: 
 44 Where did Shakespeare get his gen- 
 ius? Where did Mozart get his music? 
 Whose hand smote the lyre of the Scot- 
 tish plowman, and stayed the life of 
 the German priest? God, God, and 
 God alone, and surely as these were 
 raised up by God, so was Abraham 
 Lincoln/' 
 
 35 
 

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 973.7L63B4J13L1927 C001 
 
 LINCOLN'S USE OF THE BIBLE. NY 
 
 3 0112 031798389