973.7L63 
 BljC^a 
 
 Caliender, James P, 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, ttie inspired 
 of God 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 The Inspired of Qod 
 
 By 
 JAMES P. CALLENDER 
 
 Delivered February 12, 1928 
 
 Christian Endeavor Society 
 
 of 
 
 Broadway Presbyterian Church 
 
 New York City 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/abrahamlincolninOOcall 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 The Inspired of God 
 
 By James P. Callender 
 
 IT IS well for us in this age, when there seems to be such 
 a growing tendency on the part of some of our writers and 
 instructors to belittle our great men, and who seek to find and 
 magnify their seeming inperfections and have it appear that 
 the reason for their high position is more or less an accident, 
 for us to carefully study some of the things about them that 
 make them the great and powerful influences that they really 
 are. 
 
 President Coolidge has said : 
 
 "It is only when men begin to worship that they begin 
 to grow. A wholesome regard for the memory of the 
 great men of long ago is the best assurance to a people of 
 a continuation of great men to come, who shall still be able 
 to instruct, to lead and to inspire, a people who worship 
 at the shrine of greatness, will themselves be truly great." 
 
 Let us then, for the destiny of our beloved country, depends 
 on this growing generation, who in a few brief years will hold 
 the reins of power and on whose shoulders will rest the respon- 
 sibility and in whose hands will be placed the destiny of 
 America, consider with due reverence Abraham Lincoln as 
 inspired by God. This is a most fitting place to consider this 
 angle of his character; a former minister of this Church, the 
 
Rev. Howard Crosby, whose likeness in a memorial window 
 adorns this edifice, said: 
 
 "I look upon Abraham Lincoln as a special instrument 
 of God to meet a fearful crisis in our country's history." 
 
 Lincoln, himself, believed, in God's inspiration, for he said 
 to Dr. Robert Browne: 
 
 "I am a full believer that God knows what he wants 
 a man to do. I talk to God. * * * I catch the fire of it, the 
 spirit of inspiration I see reflected in the open faces and 
 throbbing hearts before me. This impulse comes and 
 goes and again returns and seems to take possession of 
 me. The influence, whatever it is, has taken effect. It is 
 contagious. The people fall into the stream and follow 
 me in the inspirations, or what is beyond my understanding. 
 This seems evidence to me, a weak man, that God himself 
 is leading the way. 
 
 At Newark he said: 
 
 "I am sure, however, that I have not the ability to do 
 anything unaided by God." 
 
 At his farewell at Springfield: 
 
 "I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may 
 return, with a task before me greater than that which 
 rested up on Washington. Without the assistance of that 
 Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. 
 With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him, who 
 can go with me and remain with you and be everywhere 
 for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well, 
 to His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers 
 you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell." 
 
What are the evidences we have of Divine inspiration. What 
 of Moses? What of Paul? Moses, attracted no particular 
 attention as a young man, luxuriating about the court of 
 Pharoah. He was no different from the rest until he stood 
 before the burning bush. Here he faced God. Paul, the 
 utterer of threats against Christ's deciples, embittered in his 
 heart, he trudged the road to Damascus, when Lo, a great light 
 appeared and the voice of God, saying: 
 
 "Paul, why persecutist thou me?" 
 
 This vision made Paul a new man and he became the greatest 
 preacher of all time. 
 
 After the Divine spark, these men reached the heights where 
 they illuminate all the ages. 
 
 Two strange occurrences mark the early life of Lincoln. 
 As a lad, on his first trip down the Mississippi at New Orleans, 
 he first saw a slave market, where his nature, so tender that 
 he later cast himself on Ann Rudlidge's grave, sobbing out 
 that he could not bear the thought of the rain falling on it, was 
 so shocked at the buying and selling of men and women, that 
 he raised his hand and said : 
 
 "If ever I get a chance to hit that thing, I will hit it 
 hard." 
 
 Rather a high-sounding declaration from a ragged and un- 
 known lad. Yet, God permitted that these very words should 
 be fulfilled by him. 
 
 Later, and as early as 1837, he attended a meeting, where 
 Dr. Peter Akers, in discussing those questions which ultimately 
 resulted in the Civil War and predicted its coming, said : "Who 
 can tell but that the man who shall lead us through this strife 
 may be standing in this presence?" And Lincoln, the boy of 
 
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23, said to his friends: "Gentlemen you may be surprised and 
 think it strange, but when the preacher was describing the 
 Civil War I distinctly saw myself, as in second sight, bearing 
 an important part in that strife." Next day his law partner, 
 Herndon, found him thoughtful, careworn and haggard and 
 asked him what was the matter, to which Lincoln recited what 
 had occurred the day before, and said: 
 
 "I am utterly unable to shake myself free from the 
 conviction that I shall be involved in that terrible war." 
 
 Those words he heard seemed to be meant for him and no 
 one else. Was God then preparing him for his task? 
 
 Lincoln became President at a time when the Civil War had 
 in reality started. In February before his inauguration, the 
 senators and congressmen from the South had resigned their 
 seats. The first Confederate Congress had been formed, 
 secession was an actuality. 
 
 This was the most perilous and critical period in our national 
 history and no one but a master could cope with it. 
 
 To him the question of secession was abhorrent.. To him 
 it was the paramount question. In his first inaugural, he said : 
 
 "You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the 
 Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 
 preserve, protect and defend it." 
 
 The freeing of slaves did not come until 1863, at which time 
 he said to his Cabinet : "I made a covenant with God that if the 
 Battle of Antietam resulted in victory I would then launch the 
 Emancipation Proclamation," and in 1862 he wrote to Greeley: 
 
 "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave 
 I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the 
 
 8 
 
slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing 
 some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." 
 
 His attitude toward the south was with malice toward none, 
 with charity to all. He was ever ready to restore the Union 
 on terms of equality. 
 
 The God-like virtue of forgiveness was with him an out- 
 standing quality. 
 
 When Lee's sons were captured, at a time when the threat 
 was made at Richmond to hang certain Union officers held 
 captive and Stanton was clamoring in that event for the 
 execution of Lee's sons, without awaiting the event, Lincoln 
 said: 
 
 "I cannot help it if a crime be committed in Richmond," 
 but he took down his Bible and read to Stanton: "Vengeance 
 is mine, saith the Lord." Turning his back he sent this 
 telegram : 
 
 "Release the sons of Robert E. Lee and restore them 
 to their father." 
 
 His constant exercise of the pardoning power drove Stanton 
 to fury. This did not concern Lincoln. After a hard day 
 he was relieved by restoring some poor boy to his family. 
 
 Rested he was, closer to God he became, after signing the 
 paper which restored to life he who but for that must have died. 
 What if his generals swore. What did they know of the God- 
 given rest to a troubled soul, which following such an act? 
 
 If ever man smitten on one cheek turned the other; if ever 
 man forgave, it was Lincoln. 
 
 To whom Seward wrote in effect that the Government had 
 no policy and suggested that he, Seward, assume the helm of 
 state, and to whom Lincoln, without malice on the same day, 
 
 9 
 
wrote his great reply, which forever showed Seward who the 
 master was. 
 
 It was Lincoln, who had been selected with Stanton to try 
 an important case and who Stanton had scornfully pushed aside 
 and forced out from his part in the litigation, who was rewarded 
 by a cabinet post and who wrote Buchanan contemptuous let- 
 ters regarding Lincoln and his ability, but who in the next 
 few years became the supporter and worshipper of Lincoln, on 
 whose death Stanton said he now belongs to the ages, and who 
 described him as the greatest ruler mankind had ever had. 
 
 It was the Lincoln to whom Chase was forever tendering his 
 resignation and who openly and actively plotted to suceed Lin- 
 coln as his party nominee in 1864, who Lincoln rewarded with 
 the Chief Justiceship of the United States. 
 
 It was the Lincoln, who when General Hooker said that 
 what the country needed was a military and civil dictator, had 
 the magnanimity in placing Hooker in command of the Army 
 of the Potomac to write General Hooker : "Only those generals 
 who gain success can set up dictatorship. What I now ask of 
 you is a military success and I will risk the dictatorship. 
 
 "He whom God loveth, he chasteneth." 
 
 In those dark days of the Civil War he stood alone with 
 God. At times it seemed as though God had even turned away 
 his face. His generals were losing battles. His generals were 
 failing to obey and disregarding his dispatches and orders, 
 failing to follow up even their victories as he directed they 
 should. Members of his cabinet at the commencement were his 
 open critics. 
 
 Defied by the Governor of New York, a large part of the 
 north opposing from time to time his policies. Greeley, the 
 rabid abolitionist ready for peace and disunion ; McClelland 
 contesting for the presidency ; Valandingham conspired against 
 him, his own household being suspected of furnishing infor- 
 
 10 
 
mation to the enemy ; spending one of his nights partly at a ball 
 given to keep up the spirits of the north, and partly at the 
 bedside of his dying child, surely he trod his winepress alone; 
 his gentle kindly face was deeply furrowed with the lines of 
 care, yes he was "a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief," 
 what wonder is it that Frank Carpenter, his portrait painter, 
 said of him. 
 
 "His was the saddest face I have ever known. There 
 were times I could not look at him without shedding tears." 
 
 For him God indeed had a purpose. 
 
 Lincoln one day took down his Bible and read to Father 
 Chiniquy : 
 
 "And I besought the Lord at that time, saying ... I 
 pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is 
 beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But 
 the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes and would 
 not hear me; and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice 
 thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up 
 into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward 
 and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold 
 it with thine eyes ; for thou shalt not go over this Jordan." 
 
 After the President had read these words, with great solemn- 
 ity, he added: 
 
 "My dear Father Chiniquy, let me tell you that I have 
 read these strange and beautiful phrases several times these 
 last five or six weeks. The more I read them the more 
 it seems to me that God has written them for me as well 
 as for Moses. Has he not taken me from my poor log 
 cabin by the hand, as he did Moses in the reeds of the 
 Nile, put me at the head of the greatest and most blessed of 
 modern nations, just as he put that prophet at the head 
 of the most blessed nation of ancient times? Has not 
 
 11 
 
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God granted me the privilege, which was not granted to 
 any living man, when I broke the fetters of 4,000,000 of 
 men and made them free? Has not our God given me the 
 most glorious victories over our enemies? Are not the 
 armies of the Confederacy so reduced to a handful of 
 men when compared to what they were two years ago, that 
 the day is fast approaching when they will have to 
 surrender ? 
 
 "Now I see the end of this terrible conflict with the 
 same joy as Moses, when, at the end of his forty years in 
 the wilderness ; and I pray my God to grant me to see the 
 days of peace and untold prosperity, which will follow 
 this cryel war, as Moses asked God to let him see the 
 other side of Jordan and enter the promised land. But, 
 do you know, I hear in my soul the voice of God giving 
 me the rebuke which was given Moses ? Yes ; every time 
 that my soul goes to God to ask the favor of seeing the 
 other side of Jordan, and the fruits of that peace, for 
 which I am Jonging with such an unspeakable desire, do 
 you know that there is a still but solemn voice which tells 
 me that I will be among the dead when the Nation, which 
 God granted me to lead through those awful trials, will 
 cross the Jordan, and dwell in that land of promise, where 
 peace, industry, happiness and liberty will make everyone 
 happy, and why so? Because He has already given me 
 favors which He never gave, I dare say, to any man in 
 these latter days. 
 
 "Why did God Almighty refuse to Moses the favor of 
 crossing the Jordan and entering the promised land? It 
 was on account of his own nation's sins. That law of 
 divine retribution and justice, by which one must suffer 
 for another, is surely a terrible mystery. But it is a fact 
 which no man who has any intelligence and knowledge 
 
 12 
 
can deny. Moses, who knew the law, though he probably 
 did not understand it better than we do, calmly says to his 
 people, 'God was wroth with me for your sakes.' But 
 though we do not understand that mysterious and terrible 
 law, we find it written in letters of tears and blood wherever 
 we go. We do not read a single page of history without 
 finding undeniable traces of its existence . . . 
 
 "When I look on Moses, alone, silently dying on Mount 
 Pisgah, I see that law in one of the most sublime human 
 manifestations, and I am filled with admiration and awe 
 
 . . . My God alone knows what I have already suffered 
 for my dear country's sake. But my fear is that the 
 justice of God is not yet paid. When I look upon the 
 rivers of tears and blood drawn by the lashes of the 
 merciless masters from the veins of the very heart of those 
 millions of defenseless slaves these 200 years ; when I 
 remember the agonies, the cries, the unspeakable tortures 
 of those unfortunate people to which I have, to some 
 extent, connived with so many others, a part of my life. 
 I fear that we are still far from the complete expiation. 
 For the judgments of God are true and righteous. 
 
 "It seems to me that the Lord wants today, as he wanted 
 in the day of Moses, another victim — a victim He has 
 Himself chosen, anointed, and prepared for the sacrifice 
 by raising it above the rest of His people. I cannot conceal 
 from you that my impression is that I am that victim. * * *" 
 
 Preceding great events, Lincoln dreamt a dream, it was 
 always the same, he seemed to be on the water in some singular 
 indescribable vessel moving with great rapidity towards an 
 indefinite shore. He had this dream preceding Sumpter, Bull 
 Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Stone River, Vicksburg. 
 
 "I had that dream last night," he told Grant and Gideon Wells 
 
 13 
 
on April 14th, 1865. Within a few hours he had crossed that 
 indefinite shore, he had become immortal. 
 
 How can we account for these evidences. How can we 
 account for his mastery of prose. 
 
 His second inaugural is a master's piece of inspired writing. 
 He felt that the war was God's punishment to man for con- 
 tinuing slavery, not to the South alone but to the North. To 
 him the whole Government had been a party to it in condoning 
 its existence. The punishment, like the rain, must fall equally 
 on the just and unjust. He shows his great feeling of mercy 
 and purpose to end the thing in justice and unity, when he then 
 said: 
 
 "The Almighty has his own purpose. 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." If we shall suppose that American slavery is 
 one of those offenses, which in the Providence of God 
 must needs come, but which having continued through his 
 appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives 
 to both the North and South this terrible war as the woe 
 due to those by whom the offense comes, shall we disarm 
 therein any departure from those divine attributes which 
 he believes in a living God, always ascribable to him. 
 Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray that this mighty 
 scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills 
 that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 
 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every 
 drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another 
 drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so 
 still it must be said 'The judgments of the Lord are true 
 and righteous altogether.' 
 
 "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with 
 firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let 
 
 14 
 
us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the 
 nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the 
 battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which 
 may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
 ourselves and with all nations." 
 
 His Gettysburg address is the most perfect example of prose 
 in the English language and hangs, as such, on the walls of 
 Oxford University, the College of Gladstone, who was born 
 in the same year as was Lincoln. This short address was 
 delivered after Everett's two hour effort ; the accomplished and 
 world famous scholar Everett, the polished orator of the day, 
 beside whom Lincoln thought what he himself might say would 
 be of no moment ; we all know what Lincoln said then, but 
 who of us has ever read a word of Everett's speech? 
 
 How then did this man, born in poverty, raised in want, 
 helping at the age of nine to fashion the coffin for his dead 
 mother, accustomed to hardship and trial, with no schooling, 
 as we know it, surpass in heart and mind, in intellectual attain- 
 ment, in ability to handle men, in the attributes of God-like 
 forgiveness, mercy, and in foresight, all men of his time, all 
 those who had the wealth, the power, the education and the 
 opportunity which he so sadly lacked, except he was the chosen 
 of God? His period in our history is past. 
 
 "Great captains with their guns and drums 
 Disturb our judgment for the hour, 
 But at last silence comes; 
 These all are gone and standing like a tower 
 Our children shall behold his fame, 
 The kindly, earnest, brave foreseeing man, 
 Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, 
 New birth of our new soil, the first American." 
 
 Our country has since been reconsolidated by two wars on 
 
 15 
 
whose battlefields have flowed the blood of our sons from every 
 corner of this republic. 
 
 Fifty years after, the Gettysburg Battle was re-enacted. The 
 old men in Blue and Gray. The rebel yell once more burst 
 from the thin old gray ranks as Pickett's men charged the ridge 
 with flags and swords and guns. Behind the wall with bayonet 
 fixed were those old men in Blue, who arose to meet the friend, 
 no clash of steel was heard, but with arms entwined, with tears 
 wetting those brave old cheeks, they exchanged their coats and 
 hats and recited it all over again in loving friendship. 
 
 Where but in our beloved country could such a scene take 
 place, but Lincoln knew it all. In his first inaugural he said 
 like what now seems a benediction : 
 
 "I am loath to close. We are not enemies but friends. 
 We must not be enemies. Though passion may have 
 strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The 
 mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield 
 and patriot's grave to every living heart and hearthstone 
 all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the 
 Union when again touched as surely they will be by the 
 better angles of our nation." 
 
 To no state, to no section belong Lincoln or Lee or Grant 
 or Stonewall Jackson or Washington or Pershing, our heroes 
 glorious and immortal, and every battlefield and every pioneer 
 skirmish from the founding of this country throughout its 
 history, belong to us all; they are yours; they are mine in 
 ownership and possession; they are our common heritage, we 
 are the trustees and the guardians of this heritage. Let us 
 study the glorious lives of our great men, catch the fire of their 
 inspirations and rededicate ourselves to patriotism for our 
 beloved country, that this republic may forever stand for the 
 freedom, the liberty and the instrumentality of great moral 
 purpose for all mankind. 
 
 16 
 

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