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 LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER
 
 Kmnunns 
 
 Mtlltam Kallmann 
 
 Sfpriittfii from ttj? 
 
 Nortljmpatpm ^nbltHlilng l^ausp Print 
 
 SAilmanket 
 
 19ia
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 President Washington 5 
 
 President Jackson 21 
 
 President Lincoln 28 
 
 President Garfield 44 
 
 President Harrison 49 
 
 President McKinley 54 
 
 Robert E. Lee -- 58 
 
 Stonewall Jackson 61 
 
 Henry Clay 66 
 
 Samuel Morse 68 
 
 Cyrus Field 72 
 
 Elisha Kent Kane 75 
 
 William Cullen Bryant 77 
 
 Washington Irving 79 
 
 Daniel Webster 81
 
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 )|>re$ident UDashington. 
 
 George Washington was born February 
 22, 1732, and baptized April 16; likely by 
 the Rev. Lawrence De Butts, pastor of 
 Washington parish. Paulding tells us his 
 Christian mother read daily to her house- 
 hold the "Contemplations" of Sir Matthew 
 Hale, the illustrious and Christian judge of 
 the corrupt court of Charles 11, which con- 
 tain a long and minute series of Medita- 
 tions on the Lord's Prayer. No doubt this 
 family worship went far to form the char- 
 acter of the young George. 
 
 As far back as 1624 it is recorded that 
 the young were catechised from Lent to far 
 into the summer. Being the son of a ves- 
 tryman, George no doubt was taught the 
 Christian religion by the pastor of Truro 
 parish, the Rev. Charles Green. 
 
 When Washington was a lad of thirteen, 
 he wrote in a blank book a list of maxims 
 for the guidance of young people. Here 
 are some of them: "Speak not injurious 
 words, neither in jest nor in earnest. Be 
 not hasty to believe flying reports to the 
 disparagement of any. Be not apt to relate 
 news if you know not the truth thereof. Be 
 careful to keep your promise. Speak not 
 evil of the absent. When you speak of 
 God, or His attributes, let it be seriously in 
 reverence. Honor and obey your natural 
 parents, although they be poor. Let your 
 recreations be manful, not sinful. Labor to
 
 keep alive in your breast that little spark of 
 celestial fire, called conscience." 
 
 In the same year he wrote a poem in 
 honor of Christmas Day. 
 
 At fifteen he was sponsor for a child in 
 Holy Baptism. 
 
 In that year his brother obtained for 
 George a midshipman's warrant in the Brit- 
 ish navy. His kit was already on board 
 when a messenger brought his mother's 
 final word that he was not to go. Though 
 he had set his heart on going to sea, George 
 obeyed his mother and went back to school 
 and mathematics, which he did not like. 
 His mother gave him a good pen-knife, say- 
 ing: "Always obey j^our superiors." "God 
 will not let your filial affection go unre- 
 warded." 
 
 He learned surveying, and in 1748, when 
 sixteen, surveyed the vast estate of unex- 
 plored lands at the base of the Alleghenies 
 belonging to Lord Fairfax, whose frequent 
 companion he was. So well did he do this 
 work among the hostile Indians, that Lord 
 Fairfax procured him the ofiice of public 
 surveyor, which he held for three years. 
 
 George Washington was sullied with none 
 of the vices then so common with the sons 
 of planters; his morals were irreproachable; 
 his habits, temperate; his sentiments, lofty; 
 his health, perfect; his manners, easy and 
 dignified; he loved society, but was no bril- 
 liant talker; he was a fine athlete; he loved 
 fox-hunting; he was the best horseman in 
 America; the British officers said they had 
 never seen so heroic a figure as Washington 
 on horseback.
 
 In 1754, when Washington was twenty- 
 two years old, in an election contest in the 
 market-place of Alexandria, Colonel Wm. 
 Payne, little as he was, with a stick knocked 
 down Colonel Washington, big as he was. 
 Washington was in the wrong, with his 
 fiery temper he had used insulting language. 
 He was Christian enough to apologize the 
 next day to his doughty little assailant; 
 later he introduced him to his wife, men- 
 tioning the fact of their encounter, and al- 
 ways remaining a warm friend. 
 
 During the Indian and French War Fair- 
 fax wrote to Washington at the Great 
 Meadows, "I will not doubt your having 
 public prayers in camp, especially when the 
 Indian families are your guests, that they, 
 seeing your plain manner of worship, may 
 have their curiosity excited to be informed 
 why we do not use the ceremonies of the 
 French, which being well explained to their 
 understanding, will more and more dispose 
 them to receive our baptism, and unite in 
 strict bonds of cordial friendship." This 
 letter speaks volumes for the Christian 
 character of young George Washington — it 
 takes for granted that he prays publicly and 
 is a missionary! "During the French War, 
 when the government of Virginia neglected 
 to provide chaplains for the army, he re- 
 monstrated against such impropriety, and 
 urged his request till they were appointed." 
 To Governor Dinwiddle he wrote, "Com- 
 mon decency, sir, in a camp, calls for the 
 services of a divine, which ought not to be 
 dispensed with, although the world should 
 be so uncharitable as to think us void of re-
 
 ligion and incapable of good instruction." 
 Colonel B. Temple says, "Frequently, on 
 the Sabbath, he has known Colonel Wash- 
 ington to perform divine service with his 
 regiment, reading the Scriptures and pray- 
 ing with them." The chaplain being 
 wounded, Washington himself read the 
 burial service by the light of a torch at the 
 burial of General Braddock. At this pe- 
 riod Washington writes, "I have, both by 
 threats and persuasive means, endeavored 
 to discountenance gaming, drinking, swear- 
 ing, and irregularities of every other kind." 
 As a planter Washington shipped goods 
 to the West India Islands, but the custom 
 house officers never cared to inspect any 
 packages marked "George Washington, Mt. 
 Vernon." They knew that every article was 
 just what it was declared to be by the ship- 
 per. 
 
 In the midst of his many pressing duties, 
 Washington often visited his mother at 
 Fredericksburg and provided for her wants. 
 In his letters he always addressed her as 
 "Honored Madam," and signed himself, 
 "Your most dutiful son." He attended his 
 half-brother Lawrence to the end, in 1752, 
 when Lawrence's own brother Augustine 
 would but seldom visit the consumptive. 
 At the death of the daughter of his half- 
 brother Lawrence, he fell heir to the Mount 
 Vernon estate. In 1759 he married his "dear 
 Patsey," the widow Martha Custis, who 
 owned vast tracts of land in Kent County 
 and £45,000, and he was perhaps the wealth- 
 iest man in all the colonies. 
 
 He was for twenty-two years vestryman
 
 in the two parishes of Truro and Fairfax, 
 and was quite active in church affairs. When 
 the merits of two sites for the Pohick 
 church were warmly discussed, Washington 
 himself went to the trouble of measuring 
 the distance from each proposed site to the 
 house of each parishioner to find out which 
 was the nearer place for all, and then laid 
 the matter before the vestry; needless to 
 say that on the basis of these statistics the 
 spot favored by Washington was chosen. 
 He drew the plans for the new church in 
 Truro and subscribed to the building. Sparks 
 quotes President Madison to the effect that 
 "there was a tradition, that when he (Wash- 
 ington) belonged to the vestry of a church 
 in his neighborhood, and several little difH- 
 culties grew out of some division of the 
 society, he sometimes spoke with great 
 force, animation, and eloquence on the top- 
 ics that came before them." In the elec- 
 tions of 1765 Washington stood third in 
 popularity in the Truro church, and fifth 
 in that of Fairfax. 
 
 The Rev. Lee Massey, rector at Pohick 
 (Truro) church before the Revolution, said, 
 "I never knew so constant an attendant in 
 church as Washington. And his behavior 
 in the house of God was ever so deeply 
 reverential that it produced the happiest 
 effect on my congregation, and greatly as- 
 sisted me in my pulpit labors. No company 
 ever withheld him from church. I have 
 often been at Mount Vernon on Sabbath 
 morning, when his breakfast table was filled 
 with guests; but to him they furnished no 
 pretext for neglecting his God and losing
 
 the satisfaction of setting a good example. 
 For instead of staying at home, out of false 
 complaisance to them, he used constantly 
 to invite them to accompany him." And 
 this, although he had seven miles to Pohick 
 church and ten miles to Fairfax. Once 
 when Mrs. Washington was not well and 
 confined to the house, he would have at- 
 tended church nevertheless, had not some- 
 thing else kept him home, as we may see 
 from his diary of January 6, 1760. On Sun- 
 day evenings he read to his wife a sermon 
 or a portion of the Bible. He visited his 
 negroes ill of the smallpox. In 1773 he 
 bought a pew in Christ Church in Alexan- 
 dria, paying £36.10, the largest price paid 
 by any parishioner. To this church he was 
 quite liberal, subscribing several times to- 
 wards repairs, etc. 
 
 Washington asked a blessing at his own 
 table, in a standing posture; if a clergyman 
 was present, he was asked to pray. Once 
 he forgot to ask a visitng clergyman to say 
 grace, and when reminded of it afterwards 
 he said, "Well, at any rate he will know 
 that we are not graceless in this house." 
 
 Parson Green, first rector of Truro par- 
 ish, had his corner at the fireside of Mount 
 Vernon, and the Rev. Lee Massey, of Po- 
 hick church, was a friend of the family, as 
 was the Rev. Charles Kemp, and the Rev. 
 Bryan, Lord Fairfax; and to Parson Weems 
 Mrs. Washington always gave a double 
 spoonful of egg sauce when it fell to her to 
 carve the chickens. 
 
 When the port of Boston was closed by 
 act of Parliament, the Virginia House of 
 
 10
 
 Congress set apart June 1 as a day of fast- 
 ing and prayer, and the entry in Washing- 
 ton's journal reads, "June 1 went to church, 
 and fasted all day." When he went to Phil- 
 adelphia as a member of the first Congress, 
 he went to church every Sunday, as we may 
 see from his journal. At this time a stran- 
 ger asked how he might know Washington. 
 Secretary Thompson replied, "You can eas- 
 ily distinguish him when Congress goes to 
 prayer: Washington is the gentleman who 
 kneels down." When Bishop White made 
 the first prayer in Congress, Washington 
 was the only one observed to kneel. 
 
 One of his orders as General was, "The 
 General requires and expects of all officers 
 and soldiers, not engaged in actual duty, a 
 punctual attendance on divine service, to 
 implore the blessings of heaven upon the 
 means used for our safety and defense." 
 On July 9, 1775, he says, "The General 
 hopes and trusts, that every officer and man 
 will endeavor to live and act as becomes a 
 Christian soldier." On February 26, 1776: 
 "All officers, non-commissioned officers, and 
 soldiers, are positively forbid playing at 
 cards and other games of chance. At this 
 time of public distress, men may find enough 
 to do in the service of their God and their 
 country, without abandoning themselves to 
 vice and immorality." On August 3, 1776: 
 "That the troops may have an opportunity 
 of attending public worship . . . the Gen- 
 eral in future excuses them from fatigue 
 duty on Sunday." On May 29, 1777: "Let 
 vice and Immorality of every kind be dis- 
 couraged as much as possible in your bri- 
 ll
 
 gade; and, as a chaplain is allowed to each 
 regiment, see that the men regularly attend 
 divine worship. Gaming of every kind is 
 expressly forbidden." On December 17, 
 1777: "The General directs . . . that the 
 chaplains perform divine service . . . and 
 earnestly exhorts all officers and soldiers 
 whose absence is not indispensably neces- 
 sary, to attend with reverence the solemni- 
 ties of the day." 
 
 In the General Orders for May 2, 1778: 
 "While we are Zealously performing the 
 duties of Citizens and Soldiers, we certainly 
 ought not to be inattentive to the higher 
 duties of Religion. To the distinguished 
 Character of Patriot, it Should be our high- 
 est Glory, to add the more distinguish'd 
 Character of Christian." 
 
 At Litchfield, Conn., some soldiers threw 
 stones at a church, and Washington re- 
 buked them: "I am a churchman, and wish 
 not to see the Church dishonored and deso- 
 lated in this manner." 
 
 In the French and in the Revolutionary 
 Wars Washington used his influence against 
 cursing and swearing. He speaks of "that 
 unmeaning and abominable custom of 
 swearing," by which his feelings were "con- 
 tinually wounded," and declared the habit as 
 both "wanton and shocking," and asked his 
 fellow officers for the sake of religion, de- 
 cency, and order, to "use their influence and 
 authority to check a vice which is as un- 
 profitable as it is wicked and shameful." 
 
 When Washington left home, his mother's 
 last words were: "My son, do not neglect 
 the duty of secret prayer." 
 12
 
 "The Daily Sacrifice" is the title of a 
 book of prayers for private daily use, in 
 Washington's own handwriting. The occa- 
 sional corrections indicate it was his own 
 composition for his own use. 
 
 Washington's nephew, Mr. Lewis, says he 
 had "accidentally witnessed his private de- 
 votions in his study both morning and 
 evening; that on these occasions he had 
 seen him in a kneeling posture, with a Bible 
 open before him, and that he believed such 
 to have been his daily practice." 
 
 In that terrible winter at Valley Forge, 
 Isaac Potts, out in the woods, heard a 
 voice and, peering through the trees, saw- 
 Washington on his knees praying aloud to 
 God for help and strength. The Quaker 
 went home and told his wife Washington 
 would be successful in war, for God would 
 hear such prayers as those. The Rev. J. 
 Eastburn saw him in prayer near the battle 
 of Princeton. At still another time he was 
 overheard at his private prayer, ending with 
 the words, "Grant the petition of Thy serv- 
 ant for the sake of Him whom Thou hast 
 called Thy Beloved Son." General Cobb 
 says, "Throughout the war it was under- 
 stood in his military family, that he gave a 
 part of each day to private prayer and de- 
 votion." General Sullivan makes the same 
 remark. 
 
 Mrs. Washington's grand-daughter, who 
 lived for twenty years in the Washington 
 family, wrote, "I have heard my mother say 
 General Washington always received the 
 Sacrament with my grandmother before the 
 Revolution." 
 
 13
 
 When the army lay near Morristown, N. 
 J., Washington said to Pastor Jones: "I 
 am very anxious to partake of the Lord's 
 Supper." 
 
 Major Popham wrote, "The President 
 had more than once, I believe I may say 
 often, attended the Sacramental Table, at 
 which I had the privilege and happiness to 
 kneel with him." 
 
 In a letter to the Governors of the States 
 in 1783 he says, "I make it my earnest 
 prayer that God would have you, and the 
 State over which you preside, in His holy 
 protection; that He would incline the hearts 
 of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of sub- 
 ordination and obedience to government; to 
 entertain a brotherly affection for one an- 
 other, for their fellow-citizens of the United 
 States at large, and, particularly for their 
 brethren who have sowed in the field; and, 
 finally, that He would most graciously be 
 pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to 
 love mercy, and to demean ourselves with 
 that charity, humility, and pacific temper of 
 mind which were the characteristics of the 
 Divine Author of our blessed religion, with- 
 out an humble imitation of Whose example 
 in these things we can never hope to be a 
 happy nation." 
 
 In his Farewell Address he says, "Where 
 is the security for property, for reputation, 
 for life, if the sense of religious obligations 
 desert the oaths, which are the instruments 
 of investigation in Courts of Justice. What- 
 ever may be conceded to the influence of 
 refined education on minds of peculiar struc- 
 ture, reason and experience both forbid us 
 
 14
 
 to expect that national morality can prevail 
 in exclusion of religious principle," When 
 he bade farewell to the army, he offered 
 "his recommendations to their grateful 
 country, and his prayers to the God of 
 Armies." When he bade farewell to Con- 
 gress, he commended "the interests of our 
 dearest country to the protection of Al- 
 mighty God, and those who have the super- 
 intendence of them to His holy keeping." 
 
 When in New York City, President Wash- 
 ington worshiped regularly at St. Paul's 
 Church. In Philadelphia, at Christ Church, 
 the President was "a constant attendant in 
 the morning." Here, when he had received 
 a just reproof from the pulpit, he did not 
 get angry, but honored the preacher for his 
 integrity and candor and would never again 
 give cause for the repetition of the reproof. 
 When, in 1793, the yellow fever broke out 
 in Philadelphia, he moved to Germantown 
 and for six weeks^ boarded with the Rev. 
 Dr. F. L. Herman, and attended the English 
 services with his family; he even attended 
 the German services, to set a good example. 
 
 While President, Washington usually re- 
 tired to his study at nine o'clock every night 
 for communion with his Bible and his God; 
 no exception was made when he had com- 
 pany, receptions, and state dinners. On 
 Sundays he would have no visitors; Trum- 
 bull, the Speaker of the House, an earnest 
 Christian, was the only exception. At Phila- 
 delphia a youthful member of the Presi- 
 dent's household, whose room was near the 
 study, on one occasion looked in and saw 
 Washington upon his knees at a small table 
 
 15
 
 with a candle and an open Bible thereon. 
 Traveling through Connecticut in the fall of 
 1789, Washington on Sunday "attended the 
 morning and evening services and heard 
 very lame discourses from a Mr. Pond." 
 
 Certain important despatches were deliv- 
 ered to Washington while at service in 
 church. "He opened them immediately, and 
 deliberately and attentively read them 
 through; then laying them on the seat by 
 his side, he resumed his Prayer Book, and 
 apparently gave his mind to the solemnities 
 of the place and the hour." 
 
 At Yorktown he said to his soldiers, "My 
 brave fellows, let no sensation of satisfac- 
 tion for the triumphs you have gained in- 
 duce you to insult your fallen enemy; let no 
 shouting, no clamorous huzzaing increase 
 their mortification. It is sufficient satisfac- 
 tion for us that we witness their humiliation. 
 Posterity will huzza for us!" 
 
 With all his self-respect and natural dig- 
 nity, Washington was modest and unassum- 
 ing. When elected commander-in-chief, he 
 frankly doubted his ability; yet without re- 
 luctance he accepted the trust, pledging to 
 exert all his powers, under Providence, to 
 lead the country through its trials. He was 
 fearless of praise or blame, though not in- 
 sensible to either. He was reserved in man- 
 ner, yet capable of the warmest aflfection. 
 He had a very fiery temper, but he usually 
 kept it well under control. 
 
 He once said, "I can truly say, I had 
 rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or 
 two about me, than to be attended at the 
 seat of government by the officers of state 
 
 16
 
 and the representatives of every power of 
 Europe." He said that more permanent and 
 genuine happiness is to be found in con- 
 nubial life than in the giddy rounds of pleas- 
 ure or the scenes of successful ambition. 
 
 When the army thought of making him 
 king, he spurned the proffered crown as a 
 personal insult and wrote: "If you have 
 any regard for your country, ... or respect 
 for me, banish these thoughts from your 
 mind, and never communicate, as from your- 
 self or anyone else, a sentiment of the like 
 nature." 
 
 Washington's charities were not very con- 
 spicuous, but very judicious. Careful in the 
 smallest expenses, he never turned a deaf 
 ear to the many poor of the county. For 
 their use he kept a granary full of corn, and 
 a boat with a net in one of his best fisher- 
 ies. The baker in the neighborhood of one 
 of the "Virginia Springs" was ordered to 
 supply a daily dole of bread to a number 
 of very poor mountaineers, but not to tell 
 the giver's name. Quite by chance it was 
 found out to be Washington, as Governor 
 Johnson of Maryland tells us. 
 
 During the yellow fever in Philadelphia 
 Washington sent to Bishop White a con- 
 tribution to be used "without ostentation 
 or mention of my name." 
 
 When President at Philadelphia, "he in- 
 cidentally heard some one speak of a very 
 destitute family in the city. He asked for 
 the number and street in which they lived. 
 Soon after he visited this family in their 
 lowly abode, spoke words of gentle sympa- 
 thy to them, and, when leaving, pressed ten 
 
 17
 
 dollars into the trembling hand of the grate- 
 ful widow." While very careful not to help 
 the lazy, he was always ready to help the 
 deserving. Even during the troublous times 
 of the war he did not forget to do good. 
 He wrote Lund Washington, the manager 
 of his estate, to give about £40 to £50 a 
 year to the worthy poor and seed corn to 
 such as were in need of it. He founded the 
 School for Boys in Alexandria, and for 
 many years gave $250.00 annually for the 
 schooling of the poor, and left $4,000 to the 
 institution, and $10,000 to Liberty Hall 
 Academy in Rockbridge County, and $20,000 
 to a National University at Washington. 
 All his slaves were to be freed at the death 
 of his wife, who had the whole property 
 for life, about $530,000. 
 
 He gave himself, his life, his fortune, his 
 all, to his country and refused all pay for 
 his invaluable services. 
 
 He said, "I hope that there is public 
 virtue enough left among us to deny our- 
 selves everything but the bare necessaries 
 of life, to accomplish our end." 
 
 "I am resolved that no misrepresentations, 
 falsehoods, or calumny shall swerve me 
 from what I conceive to be the strict line 
 of duty." 
 
 In a letter to Lafayette Washington 
 wrote, "I am not ashamed to call myself a 
 Christian, and I try earnestly to be one." 
 
 Jared Sparks says that in the twelve vol- 
 umes of Washington's writings, "whenever 
 he approaches it (the Christian revelation), 
 and indeed when he alludes in any manner 
 to religion, it is done with seriousness and 
 
 18
 
 reverence." Ford says, "In all public ways 
 Washington threw his influence in favor ol 
 religion." President Madison says, "He was 
 constant in his observance of worship." 
 Chief Justice John Marshall says, "He was 
 a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and 
 a truly devout man." 
 
 When the doctors in New York told him 
 that he was sick unto death, he said, "I am 
 not afraid to die, and can hear the worst. 
 Whether to-night or twenty years hence 
 makes no difference. I know that I am in 
 the hands of a good Providence." 
 
 His last sickness was less than twenty- 
 four hours. To his doctor he said, "I die 
 hard, but I am not afraid to go. I believed 
 from my first attack that I should not sur- 
 vive it." He also said, "I should have been 
 glad, had it pleased God, to die a little 
 easier, but I doubt not it is for my good." 
 The Bible was on^ his dying bed; his be- 
 loved wife was kneeling by his side; he 
 said, "I am just going. *Tis well. Father 
 of mercies, take me to Thyself!" 
 
 His epitaph is, "I am the Resurrection 
 and the Life." 
 
 At his death Congress resolved, 1. to 
 erect a grand marble monument, and, 2. to 
 hold a funeral service in the German Luth- 
 eran church. 
 
 19
 
 Authorities: — Senator Lodge's George 
 Washington; President Woodrow Wilson's 
 Washington; Ford's The True George 
 Washington; Lossing's Washington; Ever- 
 ett's Washington; Weems's Washington; 
 Saunder's Washington Centennial Souvenir; 
 Sparks's Washington's Writings, vol. 12; 
 Collections of the Historical Society of 
 Pennsylvania, vol. 1; Vernon's George 
 Washington, Soldier and Christian; Har- 
 baugh's Religious Character of Washing- 
 ton; M'Guire's Religious Opinions and 
 Character of Washington; Potter's Wash- 
 ington in His Library and Life; The Cen- 
 tury, April, 1889; The Treasury, February, 
 1901; Washington as Churchman and Com- 
 municant, Address to the Drawing Room 
 Club at the Waldorf-Astoria by Dr. Eli- 
 phalet Nott Potter, formerly president of 
 Hobart College. 
 
 20
 
 president llacUson. 
 
 General Jackson was a very wicked man, 
 awfully profane, and a fighter of duels. 
 
 While President of the United States he 
 told the pastor of the church he attended: 
 "No man can feel the importance of religion 
 more deeply than I do. I have again and 
 again resolved to attend to the subject, but 
 the cares of my busy life have induced me 
 to postpone it. I promised my wife that, 
 so soon as the election was over, so that I 
 should not be accused of becoming a Chris- 
 tian in order that I might get votes, I would 
 attend to the salvation of my soul. But 
 now my cabinet is in such a state of con- 
 tention that I have no time to think of any- 
 thing else. I am, Ijowever, determined, in 
 the first moments of leisure I can find, to 
 endeavor to prepare to meet my God." 
 
 "Andy" Jackson would attend to his soul 
 when he had "moments of leisure," too busy 
 just now, had no time at present. Other 
 fools have said the same foolish things — 
 have you? 
 
 In 1838 President Jackson wrote a friend 
 who had written him on the subject of re- 
 ligion: "I would long since have made this 
 solemn public dedication to Almighty God, 
 but, knowing the wretchedness of this 
 world, and how prone many are to evil — 
 that the scoffer of religion would have 
 cried out: Hypocrisy! he has joined the 
 
 21
 
 Church for political effect — I thought it 
 best to postpone this public act until my re- 
 tirement to the shades of private life, when 
 no false imputation could be made that 
 might be injurious to religion." 
 
 "Old Hickory" had courage enough to 
 face Indian savages and British bullets, he 
 was reckless enough to sin openly before 
 God and man, but he was too much of a 
 coward to confess his wrong and confess 
 his Savior. And "Old Hickory" was 
 enough of a hypocrite to place the blame 
 on the scoffers, who might call him a hypo- 
 crite. Out of a most tender regard for "re- 
 ligion" he would not confess his religion. 
 How people old enough to vote can fool 
 themselves! Do you? 
 
 On quitting the White House after two 
 terms, General Jackson retired to the Herm- 
 itage in the forests of Tennessee and en- 
 joyed "the shades of private life." Did he 
 keep the promises made to his wife, to his 
 friend, to the Washington pastor? He broke 
 his repeated promises. "The first moments 
 of leisure" grew into years of leisure, and 
 yet no leisure to attend to his soul's salva- 
 tion. Do you know of someone in the same 
 state? 
 
 In 1539 Jackson's daughter-in-law was 
 sick and troubled in mind, and Pastor Edgar 
 of Nashville was called, to whom she said 
 she was "a great sinner." 
 
 "You a sinner?" broke in General Jack- 
 son. "Why you are all goodness and 
 purity! Join Dr. Edgar's church by all 
 means." 
 
 22
 
 This proves that Jackson might know 
 very much about politics, but not the very 
 first thing about the Christian religion. The 
 Christian does not trust in his "purity and 
 goodness," but in the blood of Jesus Christ, 
 which cleanseth us from all sin. What's 
 your idea? 
 
 Mrs. Jackson was a member of the little 
 congregation which had been gathered in 
 the neighborhood, and the church stood on 
 the Hermitage grounds. A protracted 
 meeting was held in 1839 and Dr. Edgar of 
 Nashville preached a series of sermons and 
 General Jackson was a regular and serious 
 listener. The last of the series was "On the 
 Interposition of Providence in the Affairs of 
 men." It sketched the career of a man who 
 had passed the dangers of the tomahawk of 
 the savage and the dagger of the assassin, of 
 military and political campaigns and who 
 had been saved as by God's miracle. "How 
 is it," cried the preacher, "that a man en- 
 dowed with reason and gifted with intelli- 
 gence can pass through such scenes as 
 these unharmed and not see the hand of 
 God in his deliverance?" 
 
 On the way home the General's carriage 
 was overtaken by the preacher on horse- 
 back. Jackson got out and asked the 
 preacher to dismount for a private talk. 
 Out of sight and hearing of the others, 
 Jackson said: "Dr. Edgar, I want you to 
 go home with me tonight." 
 
 Dr. Edgar had promised to visit a sick 
 lady and declined. Jackson repeated his re- 
 quest and pleaded it a third time: "Doctor, 
 
 23
 
 I want you to go home with me tonight." 
 But the pastor could not break his engage- 
 ment. 
 
 All that night Jackson walked the floor, 
 talked with his daughter, and prayed. 
 
 About sunrise Pastor Edgar came and 
 General Jackson said he wished to join the 
 Church. After the usual questions had been 
 answered to the satisfaction of the pastor, 
 he said very seriously: "General, there is 
 one more question which it is my duty to 
 ask you. Can you forgive all your en- 
 emies?" 
 
 After a silent struggle: "My political 
 enemies I can freely forgive; but as for 
 those who abused me when I was serving 
 my country in the field, and those who at- 
 tacked me for serving my country — Doctor, 
 that is a different case." 
 
 Same old story; heard it many time since. 
 Have you told the same story? 
 
 The faithful pastor insisted it was the 
 same case, a Christian forgives all enemies, 
 even as Christ forgives all of us. After a 
 severe struggle Old Hickory was subdued 
 and he surrendered to the Savior. 
 
 After the usual services that Sunday 
 morning, General Andrew Jackson, twice 
 President of the United States, now about 
 seventy years of age, rose in his pew, lean- 
 ing heavily on his walking stick with both 
 hands, tears rolling down his cheeks, con- 
 fessed his faith in his Savior and vowed to 
 follow Him. The tense silence was broken 
 by the sobs and pious exclamations of the 
 people crowding the church and the colored 
 
 24
 
 servants crowding to the doors and win- 
 dows. A familiar hymn was sung with 
 ecstatic fervor which expressed and relieved 
 the feelings of all. 
 
 Then the war-worn veteran, with bronzed 
 face and frosted hair, knelt humbly and was 
 baptized in the name of God the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost. After this he re- 
 ceived the Lord's Supper with the congre- 
 gation. 
 
 "Old Hickory," yes, but his whole life 
 and character was changed. He held family 
 praj'ers every evening with his family, and 
 servants, and guests, no matter who or what 
 or how many they were. He spent much 
 time reading the Bible, and Scott's Com- 
 mentary he read twice, and he learned to 
 love the hymns in what he called his "Hime- 
 book." 
 
 Mr. William Tyack, a friend of the fam- 
 ily, spent a few dcfys with the General as 
 his last battle was drawing to a close, and 
 made notes. "At nine o'clock, as is the 
 custom, all the General's family, except the 
 few who take their turn to watch by his 
 side, took their leave of him; each of the 
 family approached him, received his bless- 
 ing, bade him farewell; kissed him, as it 
 would seem, an eternal good-night; for he 
 would say: My work is done for life! After 
 his family retires it is touching to witness 
 this heroic man, who has faced every danger 
 with unyielding front, offer up his prayer 
 ior* those whom Providence has comitted 
 to his care; that Heaven would protect and 
 prosper them when he is no more — praying 
 
 25
 
 still more fervently to God for the preserva- 
 tion of his country, of the Union, and the 
 people of the United States from all for- 
 eign influence and invasion — tendering his 
 forgiveness to his enemies, and his grati- 
 tude to God for his support and success 
 through a long life, and for the hope of 
 eternal salvation through the merits of our 
 blessed Redeemer." 
 
 On the last Sunday but two of his life, 
 Jackson took the Lord's Supper in the pres- 
 ence of his family, spoke much of the com- 
 fort of religion, and said he was ready for 
 the last summons. 
 
 Just before his death he said to a visitor: 
 "I am in the hands of a merciful God. I 
 have full confidence in His goodness and 
 mercy. My lamp of life is nearly out and 
 the last glimmer has come. I am ready to 
 depart when called. The Bible is true. 
 Upon that sacred volume I rest my hope for 
 eternal salvation, through the merits and 
 blood of our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 26
 
 Suing fytH anms an a mnahtn aI|ntJpl hg 
 tI|F Uglyt from burning lugB. 
 
 Jfrnm Aitkrn'H "Sog'a Hife of CtnToln".
 
 president TUmcoln. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln sold his farms for $17,- 
 000 and moved from Virginia to Kentucky 
 about 1782, where he was killed by the Indi- 
 ans a few years later. His son Thomas was 
 but six years old, and grew up in the wilder- 
 ness literally without education, and learned 
 to he a carpenter from Joseph Hanks. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln and his cousin Nancy 
 Hanks, then twenty-three, were married by 
 the Rev. Mr. Jesse Head on June 12, 1806, 
 at the home of her uncle, Richard Berry, 
 near Beechland in Washington County, 
 Kentucky. The boisterous wedding was fol- 
 lowed by an "infare" given by the bride's 
 guardian, John H. Parrott. 
 
 On Feb. 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was 
 born in a one-room log cabin, without win- 
 dows and doors, at Nolin's Creek, Hardin 
 County, Kentucky. 
 
 When little Abe was eight, his parents 
 moved into the wilds of Indiana. His moth- 
 er had a good knowledge of her Bible and 
 hymnal and taught them to her boy. There 
 was family w^orship and table prayers. Abe 
 said his evening prayer at his mother's knee. 
 The godly mother said: 'T would rather 
 Abe would be able to read the Bible than 
 to own a farm, if he can't have but one." 
 
 Little Abe's first letter was written to 
 Parson David Elkins, hundred miles away, 
 to come and "preach a memorial service 
 for my mother." It was done after some 
 months. 
 
 28
 
 In 1846 he said he was nine years old 
 when his mother died; that his instruction 
 by her in letters and morals, and especially 
 the Bible stories, and the interest and love 
 he acquired in reading the Bibl^ through 
 this teaching of his mother, had been the 
 strongest and most influential experience in 
 his life. The Bible she had read, and had 
 taught him to read, was the greatest com- 
 fort he and his sister had after their mother 
 was gone. 
 
 On Dec. 2, 1819, Thomas Lincoln mar- 
 ried the Widow Sally Bush Johnston, who 
 thought he had reformed his old Kentucky 
 ways and was now an industrious and pros- 
 perous farmer. She made the best of a bad 
 bargain and had her new husband put down 
 a floor in the rude cabin, and hang w^indows 
 and doors. She made the ill-used Abraham 
 feel "like a human being"; her goodness 
 touched his childish heart and taught him 
 that blows and taunts and degradation were 
 not to be his only portion in the world. Of 
 her he says: "All I am or hope to be I owe 
 to my sainted mother." 
 
 Lincoln's days in school did not amount 
 to more than ten months in all. "Of course, 
 when I came of age, I did not know much. 
 Still, somehow, I could read, write, and 
 cipher to the rule of three, but that was 
 all." 
 
 And yet he had a good education, a very 
 good one, better than many a college grad- 
 uate can boast. 
 
 John Hanks says: "When Abe and I re- 
 turned to the house from work, he would 
 go to the cupboard, snatch a piece o' corn- 
 
 29
 
 president Lincoln. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln sold his farms for $17,- 
 000 and moved from Virginia to Kentucky 
 about 1782, where he was killed by the Indi- 
 ans a few years later. His son Thomas was 
 but six years old, and grew up in the wilder- 
 ness literally without education, and learned 
 to be a carpenter from Joseph Hanks. 
 
 Thomas Lincoln and his cousin Nancy 
 Hanks, then twenty-three, were married by 
 the Rev. Mr. Jesse Head on June 12, 1806, 
 at the home of her uncle, Richard Berry, 
 near Beechland in Washington County, 
 Kentucky. The boisterous wedding was fol- 
 lowed by an "infare" given by the bride's 
 guardian, John H. Parrott. 
 
 On Feb. 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was 
 born in a one-room log cabin, without win- 
 dows and doors, at Nolin's Creek, Hardin 
 County, Kentucky. 
 
 When little Abe was eight, his parents 
 moved into the wilds of Indiana. His moth- 
 er had a good knowledge of her Bible and 
 hymnal and taught them to her boy. There 
 was family worship and table prayers. Abe 
 said his evening prayer at his mother's knee. 
 The godly mother said: "I would rather 
 Abe would be able to read the Bible than 
 to own a farm, if he can't have but one." 
 
 Little Abe's first letter was written to 
 Parson David Elkins, hundred miles away, 
 to come and "preach a memorial service 
 for my mother." It was done after some 
 months. 
 
 28
 
 In 1846 he said he was nine years old 
 when his mother died; that his instruction 
 by her in letters and morals, and especially 
 the Bible stories, and the interest and love 
 he acquired in reading the Bibl^ through 
 this teaching of his mother, had been the 
 strongest and most influential experience in 
 his life. The Bible she had read, and had 
 taught him to read, was the greatest com- 
 fort he and his sister had after their mother 
 was gone. 
 
 On Dec. 2, 1819, Thomas Lincoln mar- 
 ried the Widow Sally Bush Johnston, who 
 thought he had reformed his old Kentucky 
 ways and was now an industrious and pros- 
 perous farmer. She made the best of a bad 
 bargain and had her new husband put down 
 a floor in the rude cabin, and hang windows 
 and doors. She made the ill-used Abraham 
 feel "like a human being"; her goodness 
 touched his childish heart and taught him 
 that blows and taunts and degradation were 
 not to be his only portion in the world. Of 
 her he says: "All I am or hope to be I owe 
 to my sainted mother." 
 
 Lincoln's days in school did not amount 
 to more than ten months in all. "Of course, 
 when I came of age, I did not know much. 
 Still, somehow, I could read, write, and 
 cipher to the rule of three, but that was 
 all." 
 
 And yet he had a good education, a very 
 good one, better than many a college grad- 
 uate can boast. 
 
 John Hanks says: "When Abe and I re- 
 turned to the house from work, he would 
 go to the cupboard, snatch a piece o' corn- 
 
 29
 
 bread, take down a book, sit down, cock his 
 legs up high as his head, and read." 
 
 Under his stepmother's direction he read 
 the Bible till he knew all of it quite well 
 and could recite many chapters of it. Next 
 to the Bible he knew his hymnal; his favor- 
 ites were: "Onward Christian Soldiers," 
 "How tedious and tasteless the hours," 
 "There is a fountain filled with blood," and 
 "Alas and did my Savior bleed". 
 
 He knew the great English masterpiece, 
 Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," also Defoe's 
 "Robinson Crusoe," and Aesop's "Fables," 
 which he loved as much as did Luther, and 
 Franklin's "Autobiography," and Shakes- 
 peare's Works, and "The Revised Statutes 
 of Indiana" with the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence and the Constitution of the United 
 States and the Ordinances of 1787. Here is 
 the cream of the best. Would that every 
 boy had Abe's love of reading and course 
 of reading; it is good for head and heart, 
 for culture in a cabin, for a gentleman in 
 jeans. 
 
 Seeing some drunken men, young Abe 
 wrote an essay on temperance, and never 
 again tasted liquor. His partner insisted on 
 having whiskey in the store to draw cus- 
 tomers, when Lincoln objected in vain, he 
 stepped out of business. When notified of 
 his nomination to the presidency, Lincoln 
 said to the committee: 
 
 "Gentlemen, we must pledge our mutual 
 healths in the most healthful beverage 
 which God has given to man. It is the only 
 beverage which I have ever used, or allowed 
 in my family. And I cannot conscientiously 
 
 30
 
 depart from it on the present occasion. It 
 is pure Adam's ale from the spring." 
 
 When clerking for Denton Offutt, Lincoln 
 walked three miles one evening after the 
 store was closed to return a sixpence which 
 had been overpaid. On another occasion 
 he gave four ounces for half a pound of tea 
 and delivered the difiference before he slept. 
 For this and other acts of the same sort he 
 became known as "Honest Old Abe." 
 
 As a lawyer he would not take a case un- 
 less it was a good one. If his client were 
 wrong, he tried to settle the dispute the best 
 way he could, without going into court; if 
 the evidence had been misrepresented to 
 him, he would throw up the case in the 
 midst of the trial and return the fee. 
 
 When Lincoln came to New Salem in Il- 
 linois in 1830, he fell in with a lot of rough 
 infidels and scoffers. In 1834 he read Vol- 
 ney's "Ruins" and Paine's "Age of Reason." 
 When he moved to Springfield in 1837 he 
 read Hume and Gibbon and was in the com- 
 pany of scoffers. 
 
 During these infidel years Lincoln wrote 
 silly and very vulgar verses. He outraged 
 the farmers by his buffoonery, making 
 coarse and vulgar speeches in the form of 
 sermons to the snickering field hands. 
 Things have been published about him at 
 this period that his friends would like to 
 have forgotten or even unknown. 
 
 A change was coming over him. 
 
 In May, 1839, the Rev. James F. Jacquess, 
 a Methodist, preached on "Ye must be born 
 again," and he says: "I noticed that Mr. 
 Lincoln appeared to be deeply interested 
 
 31
 
 in the sermon. A few days after that Sun- 
 day Mr. Lincoln called on me and informed 
 me that he had been greatly impressed with 
 my remarks on Sunday and that he had 
 come to talk with me further on the mat- 
 ter. I invited him in, and my wife and I 
 talked and prayed with him for hours. Now, 
 I have seen many persons converted; I have 
 seen hundreds brought to Christ, and if 
 ever a person was converted Abraham Lin- 
 coln was converted that night in my house. 
 . . . He never joined my church, but I will 
 always believe that since that night Abra- 
 ham Lincoln lived and died a Christian 
 gentleman."— Literary Digest, Nov. 27, 1909, 
 from N. Y. Christian Advocate, from Min- 
 utes of the Proceedings of the Eleventh An- 
 nual Reunion of Survivors of the Seventy- 
 third Regiment, Illinois Infantry Volun- 
 teers, held in 1897. 
 
 In 1845 Lincoln turned over to his shift- 
 less father a fee of $35.00, though his whole 
 income from a term of court did not exceed 
 $50.00 at that time. 
 
 In 1846 Lincoln ran for Congress against 
 Peter Cartwright, the famous Methodist 
 pioneer preacher, and was accused of being 
 an infidel. Lincoln in private denied the 
 charge absolutely, but he would not do so 
 publicly, would not drag Jesus Christ upon 
 the stump, it being a political matter, not 
 a religious question. Later Cartwright tes- 
 tified to Lincoln's "Christian Character." 
 
 Late in 1849 Pastor James Smith had a 
 funeral sermon in Lincoln's family and Lin- 
 coln read Smith's book on the inspiration 
 of the Bible. He himself said he examined 
 
 32
 
 the arguments as a lawyer investigates tes- 
 timony in a case in which he is deeply in- 
 terested and declared the argument unan- 
 swerable. "I am convinced of the truth of 
 the Christian religion." He rented a pew 
 at $50.00 a year and sat in it with his fam- 
 ily regularly for nearly seven years, till he 
 went to Washington, and sent his children 
 to the Sunday School. He delivered the 
 yearly address of the Springfield Bible So- 
 ciety in 1850. After drawing a contrast be- 
 tween the Ten Commandments and the 
 most eminent lawgiver of antiquity, he said: 
 "It seems to me that nothing short of in- 
 finite wisdom could by any possibility have 
 devised 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 their fellow men." 
 
 When Lincoln heard of his father's seri- 
 ous sickness, he wrjote to his stepbrother, 
 John D. Johnston, on Jan. 12, 1851: "Say to 
 father that if it be his lot to go now, he 
 will soon have a joyous meeting with many 
 loved ones gone before, and where the rest 
 of us, through the help of God, hope ere 
 long to join them." 
 
 Lincoln wrote a paper to show that the 
 great injury of Adam's sin was made just 
 and right by the Atonement of Christ. 
 
 Lincoln could not understand how church 
 members could vote against him, but said to 
 Mr. Newman Bateman, Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction of Illinois: "I know I 
 am right, because I know that liberty is 
 right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is 
 God." 
 
 33
 
 After his election in 1860 Lincoln wrote 
 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." 
 
 In his public addresses, in his private 
 conversation and in his letters, Lincoln 
 clearly emphasized his faith in God. In the 
 great historic journey which Lincoln took 
 from Springfield, 111., to Washington, to be- 
 come President, he made many speeches, 
 and in all of them he told the people of 
 his dependence on God for his work and 
 trust in God for success. 
 
 In Washington President Lincoln attend- 
 ed the Sunday services and even the weekly 
 prayer meetings of Dr. Gurley's church. 
 
 He wrote Reverdy Johnson, on July 26, 
 1862: "I am a patient man, always willing 
 to forgive on the Christian terms of repent- 
 ance, and also to give ample time for re- 
 pentance." 
 
 On Sept. 13, 1862, to a deputation from all 
 religious denominations of Chicago, he said: 
 "Whatever appears to be God's will, I will 
 do it." 
 
 In May, 1864, Lincoln said, "God bless all 
 the churches, and blessed be God, who, in 
 this our great trial, giveth us the churches." 
 
 In the same year he said to the Rev. J. T. 
 Duryea of New York, "I have always taken 
 counsel of Him (God) and refer to Him 
 my plans, and have never adopted a course 
 of proceeding without being assured, as far 
 as I could be, of His approbation." 
 
 "A. Lincoln, his own book"— that is writ- 
 ten on the inside of the cover of an old 
 
 34
 
 copy of a well-tliumbed Bible shown in the 
 Lincoln Museum at Washington. 
 
 Throughout life Lincoln was a close stu- 
 dent of the Bible, and it was the one book 
 above all others which formed his mind and 
 heart. In all his early speeches as a lawyer 
 at the bar and as a politician before the 
 people he quoted from the Bible more than 
 from any other book, and he kept this up to 
 the end of his life. 
 
 Alexander Williamson, a tutor in Lin- 
 coln's family in Washington, said, "Mr, Lin- 
 coln very frequently studied the Bible, with 
 the aid of Cruden's Concordance, which lay 
 on his table." 
 
 Mr. Chittenden quotes Lincoln as fol- 
 lows: "I decided long ago that it was less 
 difficult to believe that the Bible was what 
 it claimed to be, than to disbelieve it." 
 
 After the Emancipation Proclamation, 
 the colored people of Baltimore presented 
 the President with a handsome copy of the 
 Bible, and he responded as follows: "It is 
 the best gift God has given to man. All the 
 good from the Savior of the world is com- 
 municated through this book. All things 
 most desirable for man's welfare here and 
 hereafter are to be found portrayed in it." 
 
 To a committee of Lutherans in May, 
 1862, Lincoln said: "I welcome here the 
 representatives of the Evangelical Luther- 
 ans of the United States. I accept, with 
 gratitude, their assurance of the sympathy 
 and support of that enlightened, influential, 
 and loyal class of my fellow citizens in an 
 important crisis, which involves, in my judg- 
 ment, not only the civil and religious liber- 
 
 35
 
 ties of our own dear land, but in a large 
 degree the civil and religious liberties of 
 mankind in many countries, and through 
 many ages. . . . You all may recollect that 
 in taking up the sword thus forced into our 
 hands, this government appealed to the 
 prayers of the pious and the good, and de- 
 clared that it placed its whole dependence 
 upon the favor of God. 
 
 I now humbly and reverently, in your 
 presence, reiterate the acknowledgement of 
 that dependence." . . . 
 
 After the battle of Gettysburg Lincoln on 
 Sunday, July 5, 1863, called on the wounded 
 Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, when Gen. James 
 F. Rusling also came in. 
 
 During the conversation Sickles asked if 
 he and the Cabinet had not been anxious 
 about the battle. Lincoln replied that the 
 Cabinet had, but he had not, and added that 
 during the Gettysburg campaign he had 
 gone to God in secret prayer. He said he 
 told the Lord this was His country, and 
 the war was His war, but that we could not 
 stand another Fredericksburg or Chancel- 
 lorsville; and that he then and there made 
 a solemn vow with his Maker, that if He 
 would stand by us at Gettysburg, he would 
 stand by Him; and then he added: "And 
 He did, and I will." He said that after he 
 had prayed he could not explain how it was, 
 but a sweet comfort had crept into his soul 
 that God Almighty had taken the whole 
 business there into His hands, and we were 
 bound to win at Gettysburg. He added that 
 he did not want it repeated then; some might 
 laugh; but it was a solemn fact that he had 
 
 36
 
 prayed mightily over both Gettysburg and 
 Vicksburg, and verily he believed our Heav- 
 enly Father was somehow going to take 
 care of the American Republic. 
 
 At the time of this conversation President 
 Lincoln did not know that Vicksburg had 
 already been captured. 
 
 Chittenden, quoting Lincoln: "That the 
 Almighty does make use of human agen- 
 cies, and directly intervenes in human af- 
 fairs, is one of the plainest statements of the 
 Bible. I have had so many evidences of 
 His direction, so many instances when I 
 have been controlled by some other power 
 than my own will, that I cannot doubt that 
 this power comes from above." 
 
 Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomeroy, the nurse, 
 writes: 
 
 "I know nothing of his previous character 
 before the war, but my fourteen weeks in 
 his family gave me a good insight of his 
 daily life, not only all hours of the day but 
 when his meals were ready, and the trou- 
 bled heart would give vent in tones not to 
 be misunderstood. It was his custom when 
 waiting for his lunch to take his mother's 
 old wornout Bible and lie on the couch and 
 read, and one day he asked me what book 
 I liked to read best; and I said, "I am fond 
 of the Psalms." "Yes," said he to me, 
 "they are the best, for I find in them some- 
 thing for every day in the week!" 
 
 When Lincoln's boy "Tad" (Thomas) was 
 very sick, he said to the nurse, Mrs. Pome- 
 roy: "I hope you will pray for him, and if 
 it is Gtfd's will that he may be spared, and 
 also for me, for I need the prayers of 
 
 37
 
 many." The fourth day, and the sad duty 
 done, that of laying his dear son out of 
 sight, my heart prompted me to say, "Look 
 up for strength," and he kindly answered, 
 "I shall go to God with my sorrows." 
 
 The first four weeks that I was looking 
 after little Tad I was feeling exceedingly 
 anxious about my boys, and the president 
 proposed taking me, every few days, to the 
 hospital, that I might report to him how 
 they felt when near death and what they 
 thought of the future, and then I obtained 
 permission to hold a prayer meeting in my 
 ward, as the officers had strictly forbidden 
 any one to read or pray to the soldiers on 
 a penalty of being "dismissed from the serv- 
 ice"; and, said the president, "If there were 
 more praying and less swearing it would be 
 better for our country, and we all need to be 
 prayed for, officers as well as privates, and 
 if I was near death I think I should like to 
 hear prayer." 
 
 Mrs. Pomeroy also records that Lincoln 
 prayed over Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Port 
 Huron. 
 
 Said I to this great, good man: "Mr. 
 Lincoln, prayer will do what nothing else 
 will; can you not pray?" "Yes, I will," and 
 while the tears were dropping from his hag- 
 gard and worn out face he said: "Pray for 
 me," and he went to his room and could 
 the nation have heard his earnest petition 
 as the nurse did they would have fallen on 
 their knees in reverential sympathy. At 12 
 o'clock at night while the soldiers were 
 guarding the house the sentinel, riding 
 quickly, halted in front of the house with 
 
 38
 
 a telegram, and that was carried up to the 
 president. In a few moments after the 
 door was opened and the president, in his 
 night clothes, standing under the chande- 
 lier, with one of the sweetest expressions I 
 ever saw him wear, said: "Good news! 
 Good news! Port Hudson is ours! The vic- 
 tory is ours and God is good!" 
 
 Said I to him: "Nothing like prayer in 
 times of trouble." 
 
 "Yes, O yes, praise; for prayer and praise 
 go together." 
 
 Lincoln said to the Rev. Charles Chini- 
 quy, "There is nothing as great under 
 heaven as to be an ambassador of Christ." 
 "I see no other safeguard against these 
 murderers, but to be always ready to die, 
 as Christ advises it." 
 
 "When I consider that law of justice and 
 expiation in the death of the Just, the di- 
 vine Son of Mary, on the Mount of Cal- 
 vary, I remain mute in my adoration." 
 
 Mr. Noah Brooks, President Lincoln's 
 private secretary, writes that Lincoln loved 
 Thomas Hood and Oliver Wendell Holmes 
 for their pathos, and Longfellow's "Psalm 
 of Life" and "The Birds of Killengworth". 
 He was an admirer of such philosophical 
 works as Bishop Butler's "Analogy of Re- 
 ligion," and could quote the exact chapter 
 and verses of passages of the Bible, and 
 freely expressed "his hope of a blessed im- 
 mortality through Jesus Christ." 
 
 To an Illinois clergyman Lincoln said in 
 1864, "W^hen I left Springfield, I asked the 
 people to pray for me; I was not a Chris- 
 tion. When I buried my son, the severest 
 
 39
 
 Authorities Consulted: 
 Aitken's Boy's Life of Lincoln; Arnold's 
 Lincoln; Atkinson's Boyhood of Lincoln; 
 Baldwin's Lincoln; Bank's Religious Life of 
 Famous Americans; Barrett's Lincoln; 
 Binns' Lincoln; Brooks' Lincoln and Youth 
 of Lincoln; Brook's, Eldridge, True Story 
 of Lincoln; Browne's Everyday Life of Lin- 
 coln; Bullard's Tad and His Father; Bul- 
 lock'sHeadlights; Carpenter's Inner Life of 
 Lincoln; Chittenden's Recollections of Lin- 
 coln; Coffin's Lincoln; Collis' Religion of 
 Lincoln; Creelman's Why We Love Lin- 
 coln; Curtis' True A Lincoln; Dittenhoe- 
 fer's How We Elected Lincoln; French's 
 Lincoln the Liberator; Gilbert's More Than 
 Conquerors; Gilder's Lincoln the Leader; 
 Gordy's Lincoln; Gross* Lincoln's Own 
 Stories; Hamilton's Lincoln; Hapgood's 
 Lincoln; Hay's Lincoln's Faith; Herndon's 
 Lincoln; Hill's Lincoln the Lawyer; Hillis' 
 All the Year Round; Hitchcock's Nancy 
 Hanks; Holland's Lincoln; Jackson's Lin- 
 coln's Use of the Bible; Jennings' Lincoln; 
 Johnson's Lincoln the Christian; Kellogg's 
 Lincoln; Kittredge's Sermon on Lincoln; 
 Lange's Lincoln d. Wiederhersteller, etc.; 
 Lincoln's Autobiography to Jesse W. Fell; 
 "Literary Digest," Nov. 27. 1909; Mabie's 
 Heroes; McClure's Lincoln; Miller's Por- 
 trait Life of Lincoln; Moores' Lincoln; 
 Nicolay's Lincoln; Nicolay and Hay's Lin- 
 coln; Norton's Lincoln Lover of Mankind; 
 Oldroyd's Words of Lincoln; "Outlook," 
 Editorial, Feb. 13, 1909; Peters' Lincoln's 
 Religion; Pillsbury's Lincoln and Slavery; 
 
 42
 
 Pomeroy, Mrs. Rebecca R., in "Watchman 
 and Reflector" of Boston; Pratt's Lincoln 
 in Story; Putnam's Lincoln; Rankin's Per- 
 sonal Recoil, of Lincoln; Rice's Reminis- 
 censes of Lincoln; Richards' Lincoln the 
 Lawyer — Statesman; Schauffler's Lincoln's 
 Birthday has Tyler's Religious Character of 
 Lincoln from the Homiletic Review; Stim- 
 son's Child's Book of American Biography; 
 Strunsky's Lincoln; Tarbell's Lincoln and 
 Early Life of Lincoln; Thompson's Lin- 
 coln; Watterson in "Cosmopolitan," March, 
 1909; Weik's Lincoln in "Outlook," Feb. 13, 
 1909; Wettstein's Was Lincoln an Infidel?; 
 Wheeler's Lincoln; Whipple's Lincoln and 
 Heart of Lincoln; Whitney's Lincoln the 
 Citizen and Lincoln the President; Whit- 
 ney's Life on the Circuit with Lincoln; Wil- 
 liams' Praise of Lincoln. 
 
 43
 
 president Garfield. 
 
 "The Evening Star" was gliding along the 
 Ohio and Pennsylvania canal one rainy 
 night in 1847, while a sleepy boy tended the 
 bowline, which suddenly by some accident 
 hurled him overboard into a watery grave, 
 as he thought. The canal boat glided on, 
 no human help was nigh, only God could 
 save that boy by a miracle. As he went 
 down he said the prayer his mother had 
 taught him and clutched at the rope. Seiz- 
 ing it, hand over hand he drew himself up 
 on deck. 
 
 "If God thinks it worth while saving my 
 life, I'll not throw it away on a canal boat. 
 I'll go home, get an education, and become 
 a man." 
 
 He came to his mother's log cabin In the 
 Cuyahoga wnlderness late at night, but by 
 the fire-light he could see his mother on her 
 knees before an open Bible on a chair in a 
 corner and he heard her: "O turn unto me, 
 and have mercy upon me; give Thy 
 strength unto Thy servant, and save the son 
 of Thine handmaid." Ps. 86:16. He opened 
 the door and rushed into his mother's arms. 
 
 His name? Mrs. Garfield called him "My 
 boy Jimmie." 
 
 He attended the Geauga Seminary and 
 lived on thirty-one cents a week, then on 
 fifty cents, later he boarded for $1.06 per 
 week, ond worked for his board. 
 
 44
 
 During the winter he taught school. He 
 went to Hiram to prepare for college and 
 swept the floor and rang the bell. In 1850 
 he was baptized and joined the Church and 
 often preached. He studied the Greek New 
 Testament, especially Paul's letter to the 
 Romans, and most especially the great 
 eighth chapter, and consulted the works of 
 the German theologians De Wette and 
 Tholuck. 
 
 In three years he had done the work of 
 six years and entered the Junior class of 
 Williams College in Massachusetts. 
 
 He remarked the best college was a log 
 with Mark Hopkins at one end, and him- 
 self at the other. 
 
 He was very German in looks, but he did 
 not smoke nor drink. He took German as 
 an elective and read Goethe and Schiller 
 and spoke quite fluently. He wrote an 
 essay on Karl Theodor Koerner. His re- 
 ligious character was well known, and his 
 abilities made him editor of the Willia7ns 
 Quarterly, for which he wrote prose and 
 poetry. "The Providence of History" is the 
 title of one of his articles, showing God is 
 the ruler of all things. 
 
 In August, 1856, he was graduated with 
 the highest class honor. 
 
 Later he became President of his college 
 at Hiram, Ohio, and preached a brief ser- 
 mon every Sunday morning to his students, 
 in order to strengthen their Christian faith 
 and character. His last sermon was on the 
 gloom and chill cast over life by unbelief 
 in the central Christian doctrines. At 
 
 45
 
 chapel he often gave out his favorite 
 hymn — 
 
 "Ho! reapers of life's harvest." 
 
 He married Lucretia Rudolph, a sweet 
 girl of German descent, a former pupil. 
 
 Even in later years, after removing from 
 Hiram, he would on flying visits preach in 
 the College Chapel. 
 
 His neighbors insisted on sending him to 
 the Legislature at Columbus. 
 
 When Governor Dennison offered Gar- 
 field the lieutenant colonelcy of the Forty- 
 second Ohio Regiment, he did not grasp at 
 the glitter. He had a wife and a child. He 
 opened his mother's Bible and prayed over 
 it. Then he wrote a friend: "I regard my 
 life as given to the country. I am only 
 anxious to make as much of it as possible 
 before the mortgage on it is foreclosed." 
 
 Many stories are told of the way Garfield 
 carried his Christian faith into the army 
 camp, among his fellow officers, and in the 
 command of his troops. After a battle he 
 would go among the wounded and dying 
 and talk with them about the Christ who 
 alone was able to comfort and save them. 
 
 Garfield rose rapidly in the army and 
 distinguished himself especially at the bat- 
 tle of Chickamauga. 
 
 When his neighbors wished him to rep- 
 resent them in Congress, and President Lin- 
 coln and Secretary Stanton also urged him, 
 he consented, though at a great financial 
 sacrifice. 
 
 46
 
 In Washington he voted according to his 
 conscience, though for a time it made him 
 very unpopular among the home folks. He 
 would rather be right than popular. He 
 was right and popular. In January, 1880, he 
 was elected to the United States Senate to 
 succeed the "Old Roman," Allen G. Thur- 
 man. 
 
 Before he could take his scat as Senator 
 he was nominated to the Presidency over 
 General Grant and General Sherman, and 
 elected. 
 
 The morning after Lincoln's assassination 
 a great crowd gathered in front of the Ex- 
 change Building in New York. They were 
 stirred to riot, vengeance was in the air. 
 One man lay dead, another was dying. The 
 mob began to cry for the destruction of the 
 World office; if it had once got started, 
 murder and ruin would have spread every- 
 where. A man stepped to the front, waved 
 a telegram above the excited heads, caught 
 their eyes and ears by shouting: "Another 
 telegram from Washington!" Sudden 
 silence. 
 
 "Fellow citizens! Clouds and darkness 
 are round about Him. His pavilion is dark 
 waters and thick clouds of the skies. 
 
 Justice and judgment are the establish- 
 ment of His throne. Mercy and truth shall 
 go before His face. Fellow citizens! God 
 reigns, and the Government at Washington 
 still lives!" 
 
 The surging sea was still. Men asked 
 the name of the man who had worked the 
 wonder with the words from God's Bible, 
 
 47
 
 and those who knew whispered: "It is Gen- 
 eral James A. Garfield, of Ohio." 
 
 On July 9, 1881, on his way to the Com- 
 mencement at Williams College, President 
 Garfield was shot in the Pennsylvania sta- 
 tion at Washington by Charles Jules 
 Guiteau. 
 
 "God's will be done, Doctor; I'm ready 
 to go if my time has come." He died on 
 September 19. 
 
 In the funeral sermon his Pastor spoke 
 expressly of President Garfield's faith in the 
 Son of God. 
 
 One of his favorite hymns was sung — 
 "Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep." 
 
 Authorities. 
 
 Balch, Bundy, Brooks, Banks, Thayer, 
 
 Hinsdale. 
 
 48
 
 president Ijari^ison. 
 
 Benjamin Harrison was a signer of the 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
 His son, William Henry Harrison, was 
 the victor of Tippecanoe on Nov. 7, 1811, 
 and the ninth President of the United States 
 in 1840. 
 
 His grandson, Benjamin, was a successful 
 general in the Civil War and the twenty- 
 third President of the United States, de- 
 feating President Grover Cleveland. 
 
 General Benjamin Harrison was a good 
 member of the Church, and an officer, in 
 fact he "belonged" to the Church. 
 
 General Harrison overheard a young man 
 express doubts about the Bible and a few 
 evenings later knocj^ed at his door. The 
 young man was astonished at seeing the 
 most distinguished lawyer in Indiana. The 
 General kindly said he had accidentally 
 overheard the doubting remarks and was 
 interested for he had himself formerly been 
 in the same trouble. But he had thought 
 the matter through till he rested his faith 
 on the Bible as the Word of God and had 
 proved Jesus Christ as a personal Savior. 
 And so they talked, and argued, and rea- 
 soned, and finally all difficulties were 
 cleared away and the young man with deep 
 feeling confessed his faith in Jesus Christ. 
 When General Harrison rose to leave and 
 looked at his watch it was several hours 
 past midnight. 
 
 49
 
 At the same time Harrison's political 
 friends were looking for him to counsel 
 with him about electing him to the United 
 States Senate. 
 
 There certainly was a warm heart at the 
 right spot in this human "refrigerator." 
 
 Dr. W. C. Gray, editor of The Interior, 
 talked to Harrison about his being an "ice- 
 berg" while he was a United States Senator 
 and likely President of the United States. 
 "I discovered that he was not troubling 
 himself with ambitious aspirations, that at 
 bottom he was a man of humble spirit and 
 yet of a self-respect which forbade him to 
 be a courtier even to the American people; 
 and though his heart was large and gener- 
 ous, he would carry it in his bosom and not 
 upon his sleeve. Boy or man, there was no 
 haughtiness in him, only a natural reserve 
 and self-poise. He won his great success 
 without the compromise of a hair's breadth 
 of his convictions of right and duty." 
 
 President Harrison was the first one to 
 bring into the White House the German 
 Christmas tree, with all that it means. That 
 shows he had no ice water in his heart, but 
 good warm blood. It shows that he was 
 not even a Puritan. 
 
 I saw nothing of the "kid-glove Harrison" 
 while he was in the White House. At a 
 public reception he greeted me with a very 
 winsome smile and the most muscular hand- 
 shake I ever experienced. 
 
 Mr. Harrison often took part in the dis- 
 cussions in the General Assembly of his 
 church and was on the committee to revise 
 
 60
 
 the Confession of Faith. The committee 
 paid this tribute: "His appointment as a 
 member of this committee was made at a 
 time when he was declining high public 
 and official honors and when he was deeply 
 engaged in the solution of questions that 
 affected the welfare and peace of nations; 
 but he did not hesitate, though at much 
 personal sacrifice, to respond to the duty 
 the church of his choice and love had laid 
 upon him." 
 
 Harrison was greatly interested in the 
 missionary work of the church, both at 
 home and abroad. The Ecumenical Mis- 
 sionary Conference met in Carnegie Hall, 
 New York City, on April 21, 1900, and it 
 remains my great pleasure to have seen ex- 
 President Harrison preside and to have 
 heard him speak for the cause of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 To the 2,500 aWe, intelligent, devoted 
 missionaries from all over the world he said 
 in the remarkable opening speech in the 
 afternoon: "There will be, I hope, much 
 prayer for an outpouring of God's Spirit. 
 . . . Christ in the heart and His gospel of 
 love and ministry in all the activities of life 
 are the only cure" — for the ills in the 
 world 
 
 The natural man lives to be ministered 
 unto — he lays his imposts upon others. He 
 buys slaves that they may fan him to sleep, 
 bring him the jeweled cup, dance before 
 him, and die in the arena for his sport. Into 
 such a world there came a king, 'not to be 
 ministered unto, but to minister.' The 
 rough winds fanned his sleep; he drank of 
 
 51
 
 the mountain brook and made not the water 
 wine for Himself; He would not use His 
 power to stay His own hunger, but had 
 compassion on the multitude. Them that 
 He had bought with a great price He called 
 no more servants, but friends. He entered 
 ihe bloody arena alone, and, dying, broke 
 all chains and brought life and immortality 
 to light. 
 
 Here is the perfect altruism; here the 
 true appraisal of men. Ornaments of gold 
 and gems, silken robes, houses, lands, stocks 
 and bonds — these are tare when men are 
 weighed. Where else is there a scale so 
 true? Where a brotherhood so wide and 
 pel feet? Labor is made noble — the King 
 credits the smallest service: His values are 
 lelat.'ve; He takes account of the per cent, 
 when tribute is brought into His treasury. 
 No coin of love is base or small to Him. 
 The widow's mite He sets in His crown. 
 Life I'j sweetened; the poor man becomes 
 of account. Where else is found a philos- 
 ophy of life so sweet and adaptable — a 
 philosophy of death so comforting? 
 
 After President McKinley had welcomed 
 the delegates in behalf of the United States, 
 and Governor Roosevelt in behalf of New 
 York, Mr. Harrison in his response made 
 the following significant statement: "It is, 
 indeed, in and out of this sacred Word of 
 God that a system of morality has come 
 that makes life sweet and gives to it possi- 
 bilities that would otherwise be out of 
 thought. It is reported that the aged Ger- 
 man Chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, recent- 
 ly said as he looked about over the world, 
 
 52
 
 its struggles, and strifes, and distress, and 
 grief, that it seemed to him as if that geo- 
 logical era had returned when the saurians, 
 gigantic monsters, walked the earth in their 
 devouring forms. He was addressing, I 
 think, a meeting of scholars, and he turned 
 to scholarship as giving him hope for a 
 world that seemed to be greedy for the de- 
 struction of its own members. Ah! my 
 friends, not scholarship, not invention, not 
 any of these noble and creditable develop- 
 ments of our era — not to these, but to the 
 Word of God and the Church of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ must we turn for the hope 
 that men may be delivered from this con- 
 suming greed and selfishness. . . . 
 
 Do we count the growth of the church 
 by our membership roll? Has the Gospel 
 done nothing more? Ah, think for a mo- 
 ment, my friends. If you can blot out of 
 your statute books, out of your institutions, 
 out of your code of morals, out of your 
 social and family institutions all that is de- 
 rived from the sacred Book, what would 
 there be left to bind society together?" 
 
 At the closing meeting on May 1, Mr. 
 Harrison said: "We part with you in sor- 
 row, and yet bitter as they are, the Chris- 
 tian partings always are cheered by the 
 promise of the great gathering where all 
 who love the Lord shall see each other 
 
 again God bless you all, abide with 
 
 you in your places, strengthen your hearts, 
 fill them with the converts that He knows 
 so well how to convert, and give you suc- 
 cess in your devoted efforts to make known 
 His name to those who are in darkness." 
 
 53
 
 While attending the academy at Poland, 
 Ohio, William McKinley went to a series of 
 services held by the Rev. A. D. Morton and 
 one evening quietly arose and said: "Re- 
 ligion seems to me to be the best thing in 
 all the world; here I take my stand for 
 life." He joined the church and was an 
 active member till his death. 
 
 His first statement after becoming a 
 member of the Church was: "I have found 
 the pearl of great price." Matth. 13:46. 
 
 An old friend, who had been with Mc- 
 Kinley on all his campaigns, tells us: "I 
 have never known him to go to bed until he 
 read from his Bible and had knelt in 
 prayer." 
 
 Speaking of preaching, McKinley once 
 said: "I like to hear the minister preach 
 the plain, simple Gospel — Christ and Him 
 crucified." 
 
 A very bitter political opponent of Presi- 
 dent McKinley visited the church the Presi- 
 dent attended and said: "I watched the 
 President. I watched his face while he 
 sang; I gave close attention to his coun- 
 tenance and attitude during all the opening 
 service, and his interest in the earnest words 
 which were spoken before the sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper was administered. And 
 after a while, when I saw William McKinley 
 get up from his place and go and kneel 
 
 54
 
 down at the altar, humbly, with the rest, 
 and reverently take the communion, and 
 then, when he arose, quietly wipe away the 
 traces of emotion from his eyes, his whole 
 countenance and attitude showing the deep- 
 est religious emotion, I confess to you that 
 I felt a great change coming over myself, 
 and I said to myself, *A country which has 
 a man like that at the head of its affairs is 
 not so badly off, after all.' " 
 
 On May 26, 1899, McKinley wrote: "My 
 belief embraces the divinity of Christ 
 and a recognition of Christianity as the 
 mightiest factor of the world's civilization." 
 "We need God as individuals and we need 
 him as a people." 
 
 President McKinley ran up from Wash- 
 ington to New York in order to welcome 
 The World's Missionary Congress in Car- 
 negie Hall in the evening of April 21, 1900. 
 He said: "I am glad of the opportunity to 
 offer without stint my tribute of praise and 
 respect to the missionary effort which has 
 wrought such wonderful triumphs for civil- 
 ization. The story of the Christian mis- 
 sions is one of thrilling interest and marvel- 
 ous results. The services and the sacrifices 
 of the missionaries for their fellow-men 
 constitute one of the most glorious pages 
 of the world's history. The missionary who 
 devotes his life to the service of the Master 
 and of men, carrying the torch of truth and 
 enlightenment, deserves the gratitude, the 
 support, and the homage of mankind. The 
 noble, self-effacing, willing ministers of 
 peace and good-will, should be classed with 
 the world's heroes. . . . 
 
 55
 
 May this great meeting rekindle the spirit 
 of missionary ardor and enthusiasm 'to go 
 teach all nations/ and may the field never 
 lack a succession of heralds who shall carry 
 on the task — the continuous proclamation of 
 His gospel to the end of time!" 
 
 "Don't let them hurt him," pleaded the 
 President when shot at Buffalo. 
 
 When McKinley felt his life slipping away 
 in the afternoon he asked for the surgeons, 
 and they gathered about him. The Presi- 
 dent opened his eyes and said: "It is use- 
 less, gentlemen; I think we ought to have 
 prayer." As the surgeons bowed their 
 heads, the dying man crossed his hands on 
 his breast and prayed in a steady voice: 
 "Our Father, which are in heaven, hallowed 
 be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy 
 will be done—" the sobbing of a nurse dis- 
 turbed the still air. "Thy will be done on 
 earth, as it is in heaven." — A long sigh — 
 "Give us this day our daily bread; and for- 
 give us our debts as we forgive our debtors; 
 and lead us not into temptation, but deliver 
 us from evil." — Another silence. — "For 
 Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and 
 the glory, forever. Amen." 
 
 "Amen," whispered the surgeons. A lit- 
 tle later the President was conscious again 
 and asked for his wife. As she reached the 
 side of her husband and lover — who had 
 read to her every day at twilight for years 
 from the Bible — she sank into a chair, and, 
 leaning over the white counterpane, took 
 his hands in hers and kissed them. The 
 President's eyes were closed, but as he felt 
 
 56
 
 the touch of his wife's lips, he smiled. 
 "Good-by! Good-by, all."— "It is God's way. 
 His will, not ours, be done." Again he 
 spoke: "Nearer, my God, to Thee"— "E'en 
 though it be a cross" — a moment of deep 
 silence — "That has been my inextinguish- 
 able prayer." Then very faintly: "It is 
 God's way." 
 
 So passed the soul of President William 
 McKinley. 
 
 67
 
 Robert n. Itee. 
 
 General Lee was accustomed to pray in 
 his family and to have his times for private 
 prayer, and not even pressing business was 
 allowed to interrupt him. He was a diligent 
 student of the Bible; even during his most 
 active campaigns he found time every day 
 to read some portion of God's Word. And 
 he was active in spreading the Gospel 
 among others. 
 
 The genial general of the Southern Con- 
 federacy had a prayer-book that he used 
 ever since the Mexican War. When a 
 friend in Richmond gave him a new one, 
 he said he would give his old one to some 
 soldier. The friend offered to give him a 
 dozen new ones for the old. Lee gladly 
 made the exchange, wrote on the flyleaf of 
 each, "Presented by R. E. Lee," and gave 
 them to a colporter to distribute. 
 
 Riding down his line of battle with a 
 number of his ofificers, Lee saw some sol- 
 diers engaged in prayer. Though the battle 
 of Mine Run in March, 1863, was already 
 beginning, Lee at once dismounted, uncov- 
 ered his head, and devoutly joined in the 
 simple worship. 
 
 Crossing the James to defend Petersburg 
 in 1864, Lee turned aside from the road, and 
 kneeling in the dust devoutly joined a min- 
 ister in earnest prayer that God would grant 
 him wisdom and grace for his campaign. 
 
 58
 
 He wrote the Rev. T. V. Moore: "I 
 thank you especially that I have a place in 
 your prayers. No human power can avail 
 us without the blessing of God." 
 
 After the war Lee became president of 
 Washington College, at Lexington, Va., and 
 was always in his seat in the chapel unless 
 sick, and a regular attendant in his own 
 church. He said: "My chief concern is to 
 try to be a humble, earnest Christian my- 
 self." And he showed the deepest concern 
 for the spiritual welfare of the young men 
 under his care. He said to a pastor: "I 
 dread the thought of any student going 
 away from the college without becoming a 
 sincere Christian." And to another: "I 
 shall be disappointed, sir — I shall fail in the 
 leading object that brought me here — unless 
 these young men become real Christians; 
 and I wish you and others of your sacred 
 profession to do all you can tt) accomplish 
 this." 
 
 At the beginning of school Lee would 
 write an autograph letter to the pastors of 
 Lexington asking them to induce the stu- 
 dents to attend their several churches and 
 Bible classes and to consider them under 
 their pastoral care. And he would often 
 ask a pastor about the spiritual state of in- 
 dividual students. 
 
 In 1869 he said: "Our great want is a 
 revival which will bring these young men 
 to Christ." 
 
 When a large number of students of the 
 Virginia Military Institute joined the 
 Church, Lee said to his Pastor: "That is 
 
 59
 
 the best news I have heard since I have 
 been in Lexington. Would that we could 
 have such a revival in all our colleges!" 
 Shortly before his fatal illness Lee said to 
 Professor Kirkpatrick: "If I could only 
 know that all the young men in the college 
 were good Christians I should have nothing 
 more to desire." 
 
 Soon after coming to Lexington Lee ac- 
 cepted the presidency of the "Rockbridge 
 Bible Society" and worked for it till his 
 death. 
 
 A writer of Lee's life closes his summary 
 of his religious character as follows: "If 
 I have ever come in contact with a sincere, 
 devout Christian — one who, seeing himself 
 to be a sinner, trusted alone in the merits of 
 Christ, who humbly tried to walk the path 
 of duty, 'looking unto Jesus' as the author 
 and finisher of his faith, and whose piety 
 constantly exhibited itself in his daily life — 
 that man was General Robert E. Lee." 
 
 60
 
 ;Stoneiuan ]|ack$on. 
 
 Thomas Jonathan Jackson was born Jan- 
 uary 21, 1824, at Clarksburg, West Virginia. 
 Losing both parents when he was very 
 young, he grew up "wild and ungodly." The 
 gawky youth got his training at West Point, 
 the United States Military Academy. 
 
 While serving with the artillery in Mex- 
 ico, his colonel, Francis Taylor, spoke to 
 him on personal religion, and Jackson re- 
 solved to study the Bible and seek all the 
 light he could. 
 
 While a professor at the Virginia Military 
 Institute at Lexington, Jackson joined the 
 Presbyterian church, making a public pro- 
 fession of his faith in Christ on November 
 22, 1851. He became a deacon, the best his 
 pastor, Dr. White,-ever had, and "reported 
 for orders" to his pastor as his superior 
 officer. 
 
 When a question of right or wrong was 
 raised, he would say pleasantly: "Well, I 
 know it is not wrong not to do it, so I am 
 going to be on the safe side." And so he 
 gave up dancing, theater-going, and every- 
 thing that lead him away from holy things. 
 Yet his religion was not gloomy, but sun- 
 shiny, the happiest man Pastor White ever 
 knew. One of his favorite texts was: "We 
 know that all things work together for good 
 to them that love God." 
 
 He wrote his aunt, Mrs. Neale: "The 
 subject of becoming a herald of the Cross 
 
 61
 
 has often seriously engaged my attention, 
 and I regard it as the most noble of all pro- 
 fessions. It was the profession of our 
 divine Redeemer, and I should not be sur- 
 prised were I to die upon a foreign field, 
 clad in ministerial armor, fighting under the 
 banner of Jesus. What could be more 
 glorious? It was not to be. But he did 
 what he could. "My heavenly Father has 
 condescended to use me as an instrument 
 in getting up a large Sabbath school for 
 the negroes here. He has greatly blessed it, 
 and, I trust, all who are connected with it" 
 
 He was a frequent guest at the Lord's 
 Supper and gave ten per cent, of his income 
 to the Lord's work and held regular family 
 worship. He would not neglect the small- 
 est duty: "One instance would be a pre- 
 cedent for another, and thus my rules would 
 be broken down." 
 
 Of liquor he said: "I like it; I always 
 did; and that is the reason I never use it.** 
 
 Asked his understanding of the Bible 
 command "to pray without ceasing," he an- 
 swered: "I can give you my idea of it by 
 illustration, if you will allow it and not 
 think that I am setting myself up as a model 
 for others. I have so fixed the habit in my 
 own mind that I never raise a glass of water 
 to my lips without lifting my heart to God 
 in thanks and prayer for the water of life. 
 Then, when we take our meals, there is the 
 grace. Whenever I drop a letter in the 
 post-office, I send a petition along with it 
 for God's blessing upon its mission and the 
 person to whom it is sent. When I break 
 the seal of a letter just received, I stop to 
 
 62
 
 ask God to prepare me for its contents and 
 make it a messenger of good. When I go to 
 my class room and await the arrangement 
 of the cadets in their places, that is the 
 time to intercede with God for them. And 
 so in every act of the day I had made the 
 practice habitual." 
 
 When the Pastor urged his flock to bet- 
 ter attendance at the prayer meeting the 
 officers to lead in prayer, Major Jackson 
 called to say he had not been used to public 
 speaking and feared an effort might prove 
 anything but edifying to the people, "But 
 you are my pastor, and the spiritual guide 
 of the church; and if you think it my duty, 
 then I shall waive my reluctance and make 
 the effort to lead in prayer, however pain- 
 ful it may be." 
 
 The effort was made, and it was almost as 
 gainful to the people as to Jackson himself. 
 
 The pastor did ndt again call on Jackson 
 to lead in prayer. After some weeks Jack- 
 son again called on the pastor to know the 
 reason. The pastor said he wished to spare 
 Jackson's feelings. 
 
 "Yes, but my comfort or discomfort is not 
 the question; if it is my duty to lead in 
 prayer, then I must persevere in it until I 
 learn to do it aright; and I wish you to 
 discard all consideration for my feelings." 
 
 He was called on again, and he did better, 
 and in time he could pray in public as freely 
 as in his family. 
 
 Jackson hoped and prayed for peace, but 
 the great Civil W^ar broke out. The morn- 
 ing he was to leave he called for his pastor 
 
 63
 
 to come to the barracks and offer a prayer 
 with the regiment. Then he went home, 
 opened his Bible, and read — "We know that 
 if our earthly house of this tabernacle were 
 dissolved, we have a building of God, a 
 house not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens." Then he knelt down beside his 
 wife and committed himself and her to the 
 care of his heavenly Father. 
 
 To a colporter of religious books he said: 
 "You are more than welcome to my camp, 
 and I shall be delighted to do what I can to 
 promote your work. I am more anxious 
 than I can tell you that my men shall be 
 good soldiers of the Cross." 
 
 Jackson prayed for the soul of John 
 Brown and hoped he would be saved. 
 
 Jackson feared God, and he feared noth- 
 ing else. When the Confederates were fall- 
 ing back at Bull Run, or Manassas, General 
 Bee rallied his men by calling out: "Look 
 at Jackson! There he stands like a stone 
 wall!" That made Jackson famous in the 
 South, and in the North, and in History. 
 
 In his later years he read nothing but the 
 Bible and the Campaigns of Napoleon, and 
 Lord Roberts thought that a very good se- 
 lection for a soldier, 
 
 Cooke writes Jackson never failed in go- 
 ing into battle on bended knee to raise his 
 heart to God for help. 
 
 A few days before the battle of Chancel- 
 lorsville he led a prayer-meeting for his sol- 
 diers. One writes: "I shall never forget 
 that meeting, The reading of the Scriptures, 
 the sweet songs of praise, the simple, earn- 
 
 64
 
 est, practical talk, the tender, appropriate, 
 fervent prayer of the great soldier will 
 linger in my memory through life, and will 
 be recalled, I doubt not, when I meet him 
 on the brighter shore." 
 
 During the night of the battle of Chan- 
 cellorsville his own soldiers mistook Jack- 
 son for an enemy and wounded him. When 
 his wife told him he must die, he said: 
 "Very good, very good; it is allright." 
 
 The great English soldier, Lord Roberts, 
 told our Irvin S. Cobb and John T. Mc- 
 Cutcheon he thought that Stonewall Jack- 
 son was America's greatest general, and 
 that as a campaigner he had no superior. 
 
 Authorities. 
 
 Arnold, Banks, Cooke, Henderson, Hovey, 
 Mrs. Jackson. 
 
 66
 
 Ijenry Clay. 
 
 Henry Clay in his young days played' 
 cards in society, but even then never al- 
 lowed a deck in his own house. He also 
 fought a duel with Humphrey Marshall, of 
 Kentucky, and one with John Randolph, of 
 Roanoke. 
 
 In later life he repented of the sins of 
 his youth, accepted Christ as his Savior, 
 was baptized, made a public profession of 
 his faith, and joined the Church. 
 
 "I would rather be right than be Presi- 
 dent" — that was the key to his character. 
 
 By his words and by his life he showed 
 his belief in the Bible, his reverence for 
 Christian institutions, and for the Divine 
 Will. He was a habitual attendant on the 
 public services of religion. 
 
 After the Presidential election of 1844 
 Clay's political sun set, and the future 
 looked dark, but one Sunday evening he 
 said to two friends at his fireside, pointing 
 to the Bible on the table: "Gentlemen, I 
 do not know anything but that Book that 
 can reconcile us to such events." 
 
 In 1845 Clay was made a member of the 
 American Home Missionary Society and he 
 said: "I request you to communicate to 
 them my grateful acknowledgments for this 
 distinguished proof of their highly appre- 
 ciated esteem and regard and to assure them 
 that I share with them a profound sense of 
 
 66
 
 the surpassing importance of the Christian 
 religion, and believing, as I sincerely do, 
 in its truth, I hope and trust that their laud- 
 able endeavors to promote and advance its 
 cause may be crowned with signal success." 
 
 John C. Breckinridge told the House of 
 Representatives on the death of Clay: "His 
 pathway to the grave was brightened by 
 the immortal hope which springs from 
 Christian faith. ... He said: 'I have abid- 
 ing trust in the merits and mediation of our 
 Savior.' " 
 
 Rev. Dr. Butler, Chaplain of the Senate, 
 delivered the funeral sermon before the 
 President of the United States, the chief 
 officers of the Government, the Diplomatic 
 Corps, and the Congress, and said, in part: 
 "He averred to me his full faith in the great 
 leading doctrines of the Gospel — the fall 
 and sinfulness of man, the divinity of 
 Christ, the reality, and necessity of the 
 atonement, the need of being born again by 
 the Spirit, and salvation through faith in 
 the crucified Redeemer. His own personal 
 hopes of salvation he ever and distinctly 
 based on the promises and the grace of 
 Christ. Strikingly perceptible on his 
 natural impetuous and impatient character 
 was the influence of grace in producing sub- 
 mission and 'patient waiting for Christ' and 
 for death. ... I administered to him the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper. ... He 
 joined in the blessed sacrament with great 
 
 feeling and solemnity He grew in 
 
 grace and in the knowledge of our Lord 
 and Savior Jesus Christ." 
 
 67
 
 ;5amurt ;9Fmlev Bre^se jftopse. 
 
 1791-1872. 
 
 Professor Morse publicly professed his 
 faith in Christ when a boy in his father's 
 church and remained a Christian in creed 
 and deed till death. The Bible was the rule 
 of his life, and he was always known for a 
 Christian whether he was in London, Paris, 
 Dresden, Washington, or Poughkeepsie, 
 N. Y., his home. 
 
 He helped to support himself at school 
 by painting miniatures on ivory for five 
 dollars and profiles for one dollar. 
 
 Later he turned to science, to the tele- 
 graph. Congress refused aid, Europe re- 
 fused aid, four years of dire poverty almost 
 drove him to despair. In 1843 Congress 
 voted $30,000 to develop his invention. 
 
 "What hath God wrought!" Numbers 
 23:23, was the first message ever sent over 
 the telegraph from the Supreme Court 
 rooms in Washington to Baltimore on May 
 24, 1844. This message shows the Christian 
 character of Professor Morse, the great 
 American inventor. 
 
 "It baptized the American telegraph with 
 the name of its Author." Yes, God was the 
 real author. And the grateful servant of 
 God gladly gave the first earnings of the 
 telegraph as a sort of first-fruits to the 
 Church. Few men, we are told, have given 
 more in proportion to further the cause of 
 
 68
 
 Christ. As money flowed in, so he gave 
 out; gave liberally to colleges, theological 
 seminaries, mission treasuries, and other re- 
 ligious causes. 
 
 Being a truly great man of science, he 
 was a humble believer in God and a devout 
 searcher for Him and finder of Him. Point- 
 ing one day to an insect's wing, he said: 
 "There, that is enough of itself to satisfy 
 any reasonable mind of God's being, wis- 
 dom, and power. It is in these things which 
 we call small that I am finding every day 
 fresh proofs of God's direct and positive 
 agency. I see in all these things God's 
 finger, and I am so glad through them to 
 get hold of God's hand; and then, if God 
 makes all these small things around us here 
 so exquisitely beautiful, what grandeur 
 must attach to the things beyond, unseen 
 and eternal!" 
 
 All the world showered honors upon him, 
 as never before upon an American, but the 
 great scientist smiled significantly and said 
 seriously: "It is all of God. He has used 
 me as His hand in all this. I am not in- 
 different to the rewards of earth and the 
 praise of my fellow-men, but I am more 
 pleased with the fact that my Father in 
 heaven has allowed me to do something 
 for Him and His world." 
 
 Again, with brimming eyes and jubilant 
 voice: "I have just heard of a family made 
 happy by a telegraphic dispatch from one 
 of its absent members, announcing his safe- 
 ty, when the whole household was in grief 
 over his supposed death; only think of the 
 
 69
 
 many homes that may be thus gladdened, 
 relieved from solitude and pain!" 
 
 In 1868 he wrote from Dresden to his 
 grandson: "The nearer I approach to the 
 end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the 
 evidence of the divine origin of the Bible; 
 the grandeur and sublimity of God's rem- 
 edy for fallen man are more appreciated, 
 and the future is illumined with hope and 
 joy." 
 
 On March 4, 1868, he wrote his brother 
 from Paris: "It cannot be long before all 
 this will be gone. I feel daily the necessity 
 of sitting looser to the world and taking 
 stronger hold on heaven. The Savior daily 
 seems more precious; His love. His atone- 
 ment, His divine power are themes which 
 occupy my mind in the wakeful hours of 
 the night and change the time of 'watching 
 for the morning' from irksomeness to joy- 
 ful communion with Him." 
 
 His last public act was the unveiling of 
 the statue of Benjamin Franklin in Printing 
 House Square in New York City. 
 
 From his window at Poughkeepsie he 
 overlooked the beautiful Hudson River, and 
 said: "I have been looking over the river 
 of my life. I thank God that it had such 
 a beginning, that upon it has fallen such a 
 sunshine; and I know Whom I have be- 
 lieved and rejoice that so soon this river 
 will flow out into the broad sea of an ever- 
 lasting love." 
 
 "I love to be studying the guide-book of 
 the country to which I am going; I wish 
 to know more and more about it."
 
 At the close of a communion service he 
 said joyfully to his Pastor: "O, this is 
 something better than standing before 
 princes." 
 
 A few days before Morse died, the Pas- 
 tor spoke to him of God's great goodness — 
 "Yes, so good, so good; and the best part 
 of all is yet to come," 
 
 He died April 2, 1872. 
 
 71
 
 Cvrus UDest ilFirtd. 
 
 1819-1892. 
 
 Cyrus Field was born at Stockbridge, 
 Mass., whence come our Stockbridge In- 
 dians in Wisconsin. His father was min- 
 ister. His brother Stephen became a judge 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 His brother David became a prominent 
 lawyer. His brother Henry became a 
 famous editor of a religious paper. 
 
 At fifteen he became an errand boy in the 
 store of A. T. Stewart, now Wanamaker's, 
 in New York City. 
 
 He wrote his mother: "Tell father that 
 I have read through The Pilgrim's Prog- 
 ress which he gave me when at home, and 
 that I like it very much; and also that 
 Goodrich and myself take turns in reading 
 a chapter in the Bible every night before 
 we go to bed." 
 
 Later he set up in business and failed. 
 He tried again and prospered and paid his 
 creditors in full with seven per cent, in- 
 terest for the ten years that had passed. 
 
 When he was thirty-three years old he 
 retired from business with a fortune of a 
 quarter of a million. 
 
 In 1842 Morse had laid a little submarine 
 cable in New York Harbor — why not lay 
 one to Europe? 
 
 In 1854 Field organized a little company, 
 of which Peter Cooper was the president,
 
 but Field the whole works; Thackeray and 
 Lady Byron were stockholders. 
 
 In 1857 he tried to lay the cable and failed. 
 In 1858 he again tried, and again failed, 
 tried again and failed again, tried again and 
 failed again; two hundred miles was the 
 greatest length laid. 
 
 He tried again and succeeded. On August 
 16, 1858, Queen Victoria sent the first cable 
 message to President Buchanan. 
 
 "By the blessing of Divine Providence it 
 has succeeded," was in his first message to 
 the Associated Press. 
 
 Bells were rung, guns fired; children, let 
 out of school, shouted, "The cable is laid! 
 The cable is laid!" In the celebration the 
 New York City Hall was set afire. 
 
 Soon the cable broke; the firm failed, 
 Field was almost bankrupt. Bankrupt in 
 money, not bankrupt in faith. He prayed 
 and asked his Pastor to pray for him. 
 
 The Great Eastern, the largest steamship 
 afloat, built by Brunei, was chartered, and 
 in 1865 Field tried again. Again the cable 
 broke. In 1866 he tried again — "Thank 
 God, the cable has been successfully laid 
 and is in perfect working order," he tele- 
 graphed his wife. 
 
 The laying of the first Atlantic cable is 
 the unrivaled romance of modern commer- 
 cial undertakings. Field's "virtue is writ in 
 water," in a new sense. 
 
 John Bright, the great English statesman, 
 called Field "the Columbus of the Nine- 
 teenth Century." Evarts, the great Amer- 
 ican statesman, said: "Columbus found one
 
 world and left it two. Cyrus W. Field 
 found two continents and left them one." 
 Henry Ward Beecher made a splendid ora- 
 tion at the celebration in Fishkill and Whit- 
 tier wrote his noble "Cable Hymn." 
 
 At a banquet Field said: "I have prayed 
 God that I might not taste of death till this 
 work was accomplished. That prayer is 
 answered now, beyond all acknowledgments 
 to m.en, is the feeling of gratitude to Al- 
 mighty God." 
 
 Field was also one of the builders of the 
 elevated road of New York City and of the 
 Wabash railroad. 
 
 When Field and his wife celebrated their 
 golden wedding on December 2, 1890, words 
 of greeting and good will came from all 
 over the world, from Gladstone, Canon 
 Farrar, the Duke of Argyll, and others, and 
 Henry Morton, President of the Stevens 
 Institute, read a beautiful poem. 
 
 Business troubles clouded Field's last 
 days, and J. Pierpont Morgan gave financial 
 aid. 
 
 Where stood the Dutch fort against the 
 Indians, the British Fort George, the head- 
 quarters of General Putnam of the first 
 American garrison of New York, the leaden 
 equestrian statue of King George III. pulled 
 down during the Revolution, there Field 
 erected the Washington Building, No. 1 
 Broadway. 
 
 74
 
 EUsha Kent Kane. 
 
 The famous Arctic explorer was born and 
 baptized in Philadelphia, where his parents 
 were honored members of the Church, He 
 was educated at the University of Virginia. 
 He was a wild, ungovernable dare devil. 
 
 When eighteen he was stricken with a 
 severe and long heart disease. "This was 
 the period of a new birth to him." From 
 now on he was "governed by sound and 
 thorough moral principle, and sanctified by 
 the influences of the religion of the Bible, 
 which reveals and offers to us Jesus the 
 Christ of God as in all things a Savior," 
 
 When Lady Franklin appealed to Presi- 
 dent Taylor in 1850 to send out an expedi- 
 tion to search for Sir John, Elisha Kent 
 Kane, thirty years old, was sent. 
 
 Before setting out on his second Arctic 
 expedition, Kane laid down three rules — 1. 
 Strict obedience. 2. Total abstinence from 
 intoxicants. 3. Daily devout worship of 
 God in all circumstances. 
 
 He asked for public prayer in one of the 
 New York churches for the well-being of 
 the crew and the prosperity of the enter- 
 prise. On his return from his last voyage 
 he asked his Pastor in Philadelphia to make 
 public thanksgiving for the deliverance of 
 his party from all their perils. 
 
 In the Journal of his second Arctic 
 voyage we find this: "It is twelve months 
 today since I returned from the weary foot- 
 tramp which determined me to try the win- 
 ter search. Things have changed since then.
 
 and the prospect ahead is less cheery. But 
 I close my pilgrim experience of the year 
 with devout gratitude for the blessings it 
 has registered and an earnest faith in the 
 support it pledges for the times to come." 
 
 The Christian heroism of Dr. Kane served 
 him for his own great trials and made itself 
 felt in every man in his party and kept them 
 from despair. One of them said: "It kept 
 us human when we were nearly desperate. 
 While we stood with uncovered heads in an 
 atmosphere far below zero, his prayers 
 brought up the spirit of society and civiliza- 
 tion in us; and although we perhaps had 
 very little religion in us, we always had 
 some about us." 
 
 At the last his mother and his brothers 
 were with him. He asked them to read the 
 Beatitudes, the Twenty-third Psalm, and 
 John Fourteen, and while they were read- 
 ing, his spirit was leaving. He died in 
 Havana, Cuba, on February 16, 1857, thirty- 
 seven years old. 
 
 His Pastor said: "It is his sympathy with 
 the lost and suffering and the duteous con- 
 viction that it may lie in his power to lib- 
 erate them from their icy dungeon which 
 thrill his heart and nerve him to his hard 
 task. In his avowed aim the interests of 
 geography were to be subordinate to the 
 claims of humanity. And neither the en- 
 treaties of affection nor the imperiling of a 
 fame which to a less modest spirit would 
 have seemed too precious to hazard could 
 swerve him from the generous purpose." 
 
 "Are not the Arctic explorations a Chris- 
 tian Iliad, and is not our Achilles nobler 
 than Thetis' son?" 
 
 76
 
 UDiniam Cullen Bryant. 
 
 "I naturally acquired habits of devotion. 
 My mother and grandmother had taught 
 me, as soon as I could speak, the Lord's 
 Prayer and other petitions suited to child- 
 hood, and I may be said to have been 
 nurtured on Watts' devout poems composed 
 for children. The prayer of the Publican 
 in the New Testament was often in my 
 mouth, and I heard every variety of prayer 
 at the Sunday evening services conducted 
 by laymen in private houses." 
 
 When only ten, he put the first chapter 
 of Job into rhyme. "Thanatopsis" was writ- 
 ten when he was seventeen; it is one of the 
 great poems of the age. 
 
 For almost fifty years he was the chief 
 editor of the New York Evening Post, and 
 made it a very high class paper. 
 
 In 1858 William Cullen Bryant was living 
 with his family at Naples, where his wife 
 was seriously ill for a long time. On April 
 24 he was baptized and received the Holy 
 Communion; he was then sixty-four years 
 of age. 
 
 In the evening he would read the Book 
 of Prayers or some other religious matters. 
 On Sunday mornings he would read prayers 
 and a chapter from the Bible. When kept 
 from Church on Sunday evenings he would 
 read a sermon aloud. 
 
 At Roslyn, his country home on Long 
 Island, he was a trustee of the church. In 
 New York City he attended the successive 
 
 77
 
 pastorates of Drs. Dewey, Osgood, and Bel- 
 lows. Mr. John Bigelow, who wrote his 
 life in the "American Men of Letters" de- 
 clares: "No one ever recognized more com- 
 pletely or more devoutly the divinity of 
 Christ." 
 
 One of the last things this great Amer- 
 ican poet wrote w^as a preface to Alden's 
 "Thoughts on the Religious Life," in which 
 he says: 
 
 "This character, of which Christ was the 
 perfect model, is in itself so attractive, so 
 'altogether lovely,' that I cannot describe 
 in language the admiration with which I 
 regard it; nor can I express the gratitude 
 I feel for the dispensation which bestowed 
 that example on mankind, for the truths 
 which he taught and the sufferings he en- 
 dured for our sakes. I tremble to think 
 what the world would be without him. Take 
 away the blessing of the advent of his life 
 and the blessings purchased by his death, 
 in what an abyss of guilt would man have 
 been left? It would seem to have been 
 blotting the sun from the heavens — to leave 
 our system of worlds in chaos, frost, and 
 darkness. 
 
 In my view of the life, the teachings, the 
 labors, and the sufferings of the blessed 
 Jesus there can be no admiration too pro- 
 found, no love of which the human heart 
 is capable too warm, no gratitude too earn- 
 est and deep, of which he is justly the ob- 
 ject. It is with sorrow that my love for 
 him is so cold and my gratitude so in- 
 adequate." 
 
 He died June 12, 1878. 
 
 78
 
 UDashinston Ht^uing. 
 
 The parents of this famous American au- 
 thor were Scotch Covenanters. His father 
 was a deacon and tried to bring up his chil- 
 dren in sound religious principles. One of 
 the two weekly half-holidays was given over 
 to the catechism; on Sundays there were 
 three church services, and between these 
 the reading of Pilgrim's Progress. 
 
 Later young Irving attended Trinity 
 Church in Broadway, and one Sunday he 
 entered as the solemn call to confession was 
 read, and the thought struck him that he, 
 too, had sins to confess, and so he fell on 
 his knees and joined in the humble con- 
 fession of sins; and from that day on, until 
 the end of his life, the church service was 
 a growing source pf comfort to him. 
 
 After his return from Spain as United 
 States Minister, he was elected warden of 
 the church and as such he gathered the 
 offerings. He said, his eyes twinkling with 
 humor: "I have passed that plate so often 
 up and down the aisle that I begin to feel 
 like a highwayman. I feel as if I could stop 
 a man on the road and say, 'Your money or 
 your life!'" 
 
 Referring to the Gloria in Excelsis, 
 "Glory be to God on high," he said with 
 emotion: "That is religion, that is true re- 
 ligion for you. I never hear the hymn with- 
 out having my mind lifted up and my heart 
 made better for it." 
 
 79
 
 Bishop Wainwright printed a sermon on 
 "My son, give me thine heart," the text sug- 
 gested by Washington Irving, and he said: 
 "Religion is of the heart, not of the head. 
 We may, with the understanding, approach 
 the vestibule of the Temple; but it is only 
 with the heart that we can enter its holy 
 precincts and draw near its sacred altar." 
 
 Irving brought a cutting of the vine from 
 the ruins of Melrose Abbey in Scotland and 
 planted it at his beautiful and historic 
 Sunnyside, and from this he planted a cut- 
 ting at Christ Church in Tarrytown. In the 
 church, above his pew, you will find a tablet 
 with this inscription: — 
 
 Washington Irving, 
 Born in the City of New York, April 3, 1783. 
 
 For many years a Communicant and 
 Warden of the Church, and Respectfully 
 one of its Delegates to the Convention of 
 the Diocese. 
 
 Loved, honored, revered, he fell asleep in 
 
 Jesus March 28, 1859. 
 
 80
 
 BanUl UDebster. 
 
 1782-1852. 
 
 Daniel Webster read the Bible as far back 
 as he could remember. Rufus Choate be- 
 fore the Boston Bar referred to the "train- 
 ing of the giant infancy on Catechism, and 
 Bible, and Watts' version of the Psalms." 
 
 In his boyhood Webster joined the 
 Church in Salisbury, N. H. When he moved 
 to Portsmouth he took his church letter. 
 At Boston he was one of the founders of 
 St. Paul's Church in Tremont St., and a 
 member of the building committee. He had 
 pew No. 25 and was a regular attendant. 
 
 While staying at John Taylor's, in New 
 Hampshire, he attended the little village 
 church morning and evening. A visiting 
 Senator said: "Mr. V/ebster, I am sur- 
 prised that you go twice on Sunday to hear 
 a plain country preacher when you pay lit- 
 tle attention to far abler sermons in Wash- 
 ington." 
 
 "In Washington they preach to Daniel 
 Webster, the statesman; but this man has 
 been telling Daniel Webster, the sinner, of 
 Jesus of Nazareth, and it has been helping 
 him." 
 
 Good preacher! Sensible Webster! 
 
 At the completion of Bunker Hill Monu- 
 ment on June 17, 1843, the great orator said 
 that the Reformation of Luther introduced 
 
 81
 
 the principles of religious and civil liberty 
 into the wilderness of North America. 
 
 He said: 
 
 "The circle of family love must one day 
 be broken up by death; but if its members 
 are led to become Christians, it will be 
 joined again, and united to the great family 
 of the redeemed and blessed in another 
 world."— Works, vol. 16, p. 682. 
 
 "The Gospel is true history. Christ was 
 what He professed to be." 
 
 "I want to leave somewhere a declaration 
 of my belief in Christianity. ... I wish to 
 express my belief in His divine mission." 
 
 He talked of writing a book on Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Again he said: "I have met with men in 
 my time, accounted learned scholars — who 
 knew Homer by heart, recited Pindar, were 
 at home with Aeschylus, and petted Horace 
 — who could not understand Isaiah, Moses, 
 or the Royal Poet ... so far superior in 
 original force, sublimity, and truth to na- 
 ture." — Works, National Edition, vol. 13, 
 pp. 571, 584, 592. 
 
 Webster was as familiar with the Bible 
 as with the Constitution of the United 
 States. It was his regular habit on Sunday 
 morning to gather his household in his li- 
 brary, and after reading from the Bible to 
 speak to them on the duties of life. 
 
 At a dinner in New York City some one 
 told a smutty story. Webster scowled, rose, 
 stalked out and went to his hotel. 
 
 Webster visited a dying friend and the 
 widow writes: "When able to command his 
 
 82
 
 voice, Mr. Webster said, 'Let us pray.' And 
 kneeling there, beside the dying and the 
 dead, he prayed as none but a Christian 
 can pray." 
 
 The year before he died he said: "I pro- 
 fess to be a Christian. . . . You cannot tell, 
 John Colby, how much delight it gave me 
 to hear of your conversion. What a wicked 
 man you used to be!" They kneeled, and 
 Webster offered a most touching prayer. 
 "Nothing can convince me that anything 
 short of the grace of Almighty God could 
 make such a change as I, with my own eyes 
 "^ have witnessed in the life of John Colby." 
 "If that is not a miracle, what is?" 
 
 On his deathbed the great orator quoted 
 the poet: 
 
 "The pomp of heraldry, the pride of 
 power, 
 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth 
 e er gave, 
 Alike await the inevitable hour; 
 
 The paths of glory lead but to the 
 grave." 
 
 After some silence he prayed: 
 
 "Show pity, Lord. O Lord, forgive; 
 Let a repentant sinner live. 
 Are not Thy mercies large and free? 
 May not a sinner turn to Thee?" 
 
 During his last illness he said: "The 
 great mystery is Jesus Christ — the Gospel. 
 What would be the condition of any of us 
 if we had not the hope of immortality? 
 What ground is there to rest upon but the 
 Gospel? . . . Thank God, the Gospel of 
 
 83
 
 Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to 
 light." 
 
 After writing his will, which is charged 
 with religious feeling, he said: "I thank 
 God for strength to perform a sensible act," 
 and then prayed, among other things, 
 "Heavenly Father, forgive my sins, and re- 
 ceive me to Thyself through Christ Jesus." 
 He ended: "And now unto God the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be praise for 
 evermore. Peace on earth, and good will 
 toward men. That is the happiness, the 
 essence — good will toward men!" 
 His last words were: "I still live!" 
 The epitaph he prepared is engraved on 
 his monument at Marshfield; it reads: — 
 
 Daniel Webster, 
 Born January 18, 1782, 
 Died October 24, 1852. 
 
 Lord, I believe. Help Thou mine unbe- 
 lief. Philosophical argument, especially 
 that drawn from the vastness of the uni- 
 verse with the apparent insignificance of 
 this globe, has sometimes shaken my reason 
 for the faith which is in me; but my heart 
 has always assured me and reassured me 
 that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a 
 Divine Reality. The Sermon on the Mount 
 cannot be a mere human production. This 
 belief enters into the very depth of my con- 
 science. The whole history of man proves 
 it. 
 
 84
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Hutlj^r, His Life and His Labor for 
 the Plain People. 143 illustrations, 300 
 pages. Cloth, $1.25. 
 
 "In parts sensational. Quite different 
 from any other. Original. Unique in pur- 
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 Most popular book of a very popular au- 
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 book of the jubilee year." 
 
 Luther the Liberator contains the most 
 complete collection of valuable quotations 
 concerning Luther with which we are ac- 
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 these quotations are classified under a very 
 complete list of topics." — American Luth- 
 eran Survey, Dec. 26, 1917. 
 
 S5
 
 3^fi«H— His Words and His Works, 20 Art 
 Plates in Colors, after Dudley, 195 Halftones, 
 and 2 maps of Palestine. IX and 481 pages. 
 Size 7^x10. Beautifully bound. Gilt top. 
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 THEO. QUARTALSCHRIFT— A master- 
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 DER LUTHERANER— Earnest Bible read- 
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 Pithy, popular English. Sentences short, say 
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 86
 
 (ZIl|p 2^pn OIommaitbmrtttH. 
 
 Third Edition. 335 Pages. $1.00. 
 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH REVIEW— 
 
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 300 Pages. Cloth, $1.10. 
 
 THEOL. QUARTALSCHRIFT— Typically 
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 language is noble and powerful. 
 
 87
 
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 88
 
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