Evans, Henry Oliver 
 
 Lincol n as he I • ved Rel i qi on 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
LIHCOLH 
 
 +$As he lived Religion 
 
 APRIL, I928 
 
ADDRESS BY 
 HENRY OLIVER EVANS, ESQ. 
 
 Mr. Evans is one of the outstanding 
 students of Lincoln. Some time ago he 
 delivered an address on Lincoln the 
 Lawyer, before the Hungry Club of 
 Pittsburgh, Pa. This brought a request 
 for an address on Lincoln and Religion. 
 
 Count Tolstoi considered Lincoln as 
 the one Real Giant in Modern History. 
 He said: "Lincoln was a saint in Hu- 
 manity; he was not a great general like 
 Washington or Napoleon, nor a skillful 
 statesman like Gladstone or Frederick 
 the Great, but his supremacy expressed 
 itself in his peculiar moral power and 
 in the greatness of his character." 
 
 It seems to the writer this address on 
 Lincoln is peculiarly fitting for distri' 
 bution by the Caddie Welfare Commit' 
 tee, as character building is our chief 
 aim. 
 
 Edward E. McCoy 
 
 Chairman 
 
 Caddie Welfare Committee 
 
 U. P. G. A. 
 
Lincoln— As he lived Religion 
 
 FEW characters live in his- 
 tory uncircumscribed by 
 time or place. They may 
 have died 10 centuries ago 
 and yet we feel them as modern as our' 
 selves. One hundred nineteen years ago 
 such a man was born in a log cabin 
 on the Kentucky frontier. Emerson said, 
 "Abraham Lincoln exemplified the true 
 history of the American people to his 
 time; the pulse of 20 millions throbbing 
 through his heart, the thoughts of their 
 minds made articulate by his tongue." 
 
 Walt Whitman said that the Greeks 
 would have made a god out of Lincoln; 
 Emerson, that if he had lived before the 
 day of Gutenberg, Lincoln would have 
 become mythological like Aesop; Inger- 
 soil, that he was the gentlest memory in 
 the world. 
 
 [3] 
 
The life of no character in history, 
 save Christ, has been so minutely studied 
 and every facet of his many-sided career 
 is supremely interesting, but none more 
 so than his relation to the churches, re 
 ligion and spiritual life. 
 
 It would be well, perhaps, to refresh 
 our recollections as to the main events 
 of Lincoln's life, especially such as af- 
 ford a background for this question. 
 
 He was born February 12, 1809, that 
 fruitful year in which were born Glad' 
 stone and Darwin. Kentucky was on 
 the frontier then, with primitive, fron- 
 tier conditions in every aspect of life, 
 in church as well as school, both of 
 which were intermittent, supplied by 
 itinerants, sometimes far apart in time. 
 
 When Lincoln was seven, the family 
 migrated to Indiana, to even simpler 
 conditions, where two years later, Lin' 
 coin's mother, Nancy Hanks, died. It 
 was many months before the family was 
 
able to obtain a minister to conduct serv 
 ices over her grave. 
 
 Here Lincoln went to school a little — 
 his entire school life, under five teachers, 
 spread over twelve years, was less than 
 one year — but most of his study was self - 
 conducted at the encouragement of his 
 second mother, Sarah Bush, whom his 
 father had married three years after com' 
 ing to Indiana. Here he heard an occa- 
 sional itinerant preacher and attended a 
 number of emotional revival services. 
 
 He worked hard. His father, he said, 
 had "raised him to physical work but not 
 to like it." He split 300 fence rails for 
 each yard of linsey-woolsey with which 
 to make a pair of trousers. He pulled 
 fodder for three days to pay for a bor- 
 rowed book which had been spoiled by 
 rain. He went, as a hired man, to New 
 Orleans on a flat-boat, walking home. He 
 ferried passengers over the Ohio River 
 in a skiff he built and thus came to man- 
 hood. 
 
 [*] 
 
When he was 21, the family moved 
 again to Illinois, where, after they were 
 settled, Lincoln left to make his own way 
 in the world. He made another trip on 
 a flat-boat to New Orleans, in which he 
 is said to have been so affected by the 
 cruelties of slavery that he vowed "to 
 smash it." He acted as a clerk in a store, 
 then became Captain in the Black 
 Hawk War, where, as he said, "he 
 fought, bled (from mosquito bites) and 
 came away," and ran unsuccessfully for 
 the Legislature. 
 
 On his return from the wars, he en- 
 gaged in an ill-fated attempt to corner 
 all the store business in New Salem by 
 becoming a partner with Berry in three 
 stores. The firm failed, "winked out," as 
 he said, leaving him with what he called 
 "his National Debt 11 of $1500.00, which 
 took him 15 years to pay off, principal 
 and interest. He acted as postmaster, 
 deputy surveyor and began to study law, 
 
and was elected for the first of four 
 terms to the Legislature. 
 
 If one were to divide, roughly, Lin- 
 coln's spiritual life into periods, this 
 may be said to be the end of the first 
 period of preparation. Here Lincoln had 
 his first love affair with Ann Rutledge 
 and on her death plunged into that 
 slough of despond which undoubtedly 
 affected all his life subsequently. He was 
 admitted to the practice of law at 28, 
 and began that slow but sure climb which 
 — in 24 years — placed him in a position 
 of leadership in a strong and notable bar, 
 the end of his second period, growth. 
 
 At 32, he married Mary Todd. He had 
 devoted about as much time to politics 
 as to law until his return from Congress 
 in 1848, but for the next six years he 
 devoted himself assiduously to the jealous 
 mistress, the law, until he was roused by 
 the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
 and plunged into his contest with 
 
 [7] 
 
Stephen A. Douglas which led to the fa' 
 mous debates in 1858, then the famous 
 Cooper Union speech and the Presidency. 
 The most reticent and uncommunica- 
 tive of men as to his inner life, pur' 
 poses and thoughts, we are not surprised 
 to find that there is comparatively little 
 authentic direct evidence, and that the 
 opinions of the witnesses are colored by 
 their individual predilections and preju- 
 dices. 
 "Seven Grecian cities strove for Homer 
 
 dead 
 Through which the living Homer begged 
 
 for bread." 
 — and we find many churches claiming 
 Lincoln as a member, but the one cer- 
 tain fact in evidence is that he was never 
 formally affiliated with any religious or' 
 ganization, although he was a fairly con' 
 stant attendant, after his marriage, of the 
 Springfield congregation and was a regu- 
 lar attendant of the morning services, as 
 well as of the mid-week prayer meetings 
 
 [«] 
 
of the New York Avenue Presbyterian 
 church at Washington. 
 
 Lincoln's spiritual life was, as were all 
 the other sides of his life, a process of 
 development. His father was a Predestine 
 arian Baptist and infrequent as may have 
 been his opportunities for receiving doc 
 trinal teaching during his years in Ken' 
 tucky and Indiana before his majority, 
 the, to us, harsh doctrines of that stern 
 discipline made an impress upon Lincoln 
 which was never entirely erased. Sunday 
 schools were unknown and later on were 
 vigorously opposed when first intro- 
 duced. Lincoln, even as a youth, knew 
 that the world was round which few of 
 the pioneer preachers he heard would 
 have acknowledged. 
 
 His mother was highly intellectual, of 
 strong memory and acute judgment and 
 his step-mother was a constant Bible 
 reader and Lincoln later cherished and 
 constantly read her Bible. It is certain 
 that Lincoln read the Bible over and over 
 
again — whole chapters of Isaiah, Psalms, 
 the historical books and New Testament 
 were in his memory, and he would cor- 
 rect misquotation, giving chapter and 
 verse. 
 
 When he came to Illinois he fell in 
 with a company of young people affected 
 by the loose-thinking which often char- 
 acterizes youth. There he read Volney's 
 Ruins and Tom Paine's Age of Reason 
 and is said by some to have become an 
 1 'infidel.' ' Those who expressed this opin- 
 ion considered themselves "infidels 1 ' and 
 yet, the principal witness thus states his 
 own religion. "The highest thoughts and 
 acts of the human soul and its religious 
 sphere are to think, love, obey and wor- 
 ship God, by thinking freely, by loving, 
 teaching, doing good and elevating man- 
 kind. My first duty is to God, then to 
 mankind, and then to the individual man 
 or woman." 
 
 Lincoln was a Calvinist but he rebelled 
 at the doctrine then widely preached that 
 
 [10] 
 
some men were capriciously predestined 
 — without, and in spite of, any act of 
 theirs — to endless punishment. He be' 
 lieved in future punishment — but not 
 endless punishment. Later on, he said, 
 "When any church will inscribe over its 
 altar as its sole qualification for member' 
 ship the Savior's condensed statement of 
 the substance of both the law and the 
 Gospel — Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart and with all thy 
 mind and thy neighbor as thyself — that 
 church I will join with all my heart and 
 soul." 
 
 Lincoln quoted, "As in Adam all die, 
 even so in Christ shall all be made alive," 
 as meaning not individual election and 
 particular salvation and damnation but 
 universal salvation, after punishment, re' 
 pentance and growth. 
 
 When we consider this question we 
 must remember the thoughts and habits 
 of the people among whom Lincoln lived 
 from 1840 to 1860, in many respects not 
 
unlike those in Dayton, Tennessee, to* 
 day. Theological teaching was over-em- 
 phasized; public controversy and debate 
 over dogma was universal, and these 
 contests were fierce and personal. One 
 who did not conform to the community 
 opinion was outside the pale. This was 
 not the "mauve decade"; black was black 
 and white was white — and there were no 
 grays or intervening shades. 
 
 We have come to see, today, that we 
 are saved by faith and works and not 
 by knowledge of theological dogmas and 
 statements. No men who held such views 
 as I have outlined would be considered 
 "infidels" by us. 
 
 Perhaps one reason for Lincoln's re- 
 ticence in expression of his religious 
 views was his experience in the mixture 
 of politics and religion. He was twice op- 
 posed as a candidate by a famous Metho- 
 dist itinerant minister or evangelist, Peter 
 Cartwright. The fight against Lincoln 
 was based on two accusations, that he 
 
was an aristocrat and a deist. We may 
 well conclude that he was as innocent of 
 one charge as the other, although he re- 
 fused to discuss the latter, saying, "I am 
 not going to discuss the religion and 
 character of Jesus Christ on the political 
 stump." 
 
 When he came to Springfield he read 
 and digested Robert Chambers' Vestiges 
 of Creation, the first book to connect the 
 natural sciences with the history of crea- 
 tion, showing an evolutionary theory 
 consistent with faith in God and the 
 Bible. There he met and became a 
 friend and admirer of Reverend James 
 Smith, a stalwart, learned Presbyterian 
 minister and by study of his book, The 
 Christian s Defense, became firmly con- 
 vinced that the proof of the divine au- 
 thority and inspiration of the Scriptures 
 was unanswerable. He said to his friend, 
 Speed, "Take all of the Bible upon rea- 
 son you can and the balance on faith and 
 you will live and die a happier man." He 
 
 [13] 
 
said to a group of colored men who pre' 
 sented him a Bible, "In regard to the 
 Great Book, I have only to say, it is the 
 best gift which God has ever given man. 
 AH the good from the Savior of the 
 world is communicated to us through this 
 book." 
 
 In Springfield he experienced the loss 
 of his first son and this sorrow, added to 
 the sense of responsibility and call by 
 God to save the Union, culminated, after 
 the death of his second son in Washing- 
 ton, in what he called a "crystallisation" 
 which we may regard as the last period 
 of his spiritual growth. 
 
 Lincoln copied, in Washington, a par' 
 agraph from Baxter's Saint's Rest: 
 
 "We have faith given us, principal- 
 ly that we might believe and live in it 
 in daily applications of Christ. You 
 may believe immediately (by God's 
 help) but getting assurance of it may 
 be the work of a great part of your 
 life." 
 
 [14] 
 
a graphic statement of the slow progress, 
 unseen to others and perhaps to himself, 
 in his growth to full fruition. As Paul 
 expresses it, "The first man is of the 
 earth, earthy and the second man is from 
 heaven. First is that which is natural and 
 afterwards that which is spiritual." 
 
 What are the outlines of his spiritual 
 
 beliefs which emerge from this growth 
 
 as shown by Lincoln's words and acts? 
 
 After Vicksburg and Gettysburg, he 
 
 said, 
 
 "I do most sincerely thank Al- 
 mighty God for this occasion. I es* 
 specially desire that on this day He, 
 whose will, not ours, should ever be 
 done, be everywhere remembered 
 and reverenced with profoundest 
 gratitude." 
 
 After his issue of the Emancipation 
 Proclamation, he said, 
 
 "I can only trust in God that I 
 have made no mistake. It is my ear' 
 
 [15] 
 
nest desire to know the will of Prov 
 idence in this matter.' ' 
 In his last public speech, after peace 
 was declared and three days before his 
 death, he said, 
 
 "In the midst of rejoicings, how 
 ever, He from whom all blessings 
 flow, must not be forgotten. If God 
 now wills the removal of a great 
 wrong and wills also that we of the 
 North, as well as you of the South, 
 shall pay fairly for our complicity in 
 that wrong, impartial history will 
 find therein new causes to attest and 
 revere the justice and goodness of 
 God." 
 
 He wrote for his own use a Medita- 
 tion on the Divine Will which he be' 
 gins as follows: 
 
 "The will of God prevails." 
 
 On the night of his second election, he 
 
 said, "I give thanks to Almighty God for 
 
 this evidence of the people's resolution." 
 
 Lincoln used Bible illustrations in a prac' 
 
 [161 
 
tical way. When it was urged that ap' 
 plicants for office should swear they had 
 not participated in the Civil war he said, 
 "On principle, I dislike an oath which 
 requires a man to swear he has not done 
 wrong. It rejects the Christian principle 
 of forgiveness of sins on terms of repent' 
 ance. I think it is enough if the man does 
 no wrong thereafter." When considering 
 a desertion case, he said, "Did you say 
 this boy was once badly wounded? Then 
 since the Scriptures say that in the shed' 
 ding of blood is remission of sins, I guess 
 we will have to let him off." 
 
 Even his political speeches and private 
 letters abound in scriptural references 
 such as to the washing of the robes in 
 blood — "If they heed not Moses and the 
 prophets, neither will they be persuaded 
 though one rose from the dead", — "They 
 seek a sign and no sign shall be given 
 them," — "The gates of Hell shall not 
 prevail against thee" — "There is a time to 
 
keep silence" — "Stand still and see the 
 salvation of the Lord." 
 
 The foundation stone of his celebrated 
 debate with Douglas which made him the 
 President was that never-to-be-forgotten 
 quotation, "A house divided against it- 
 self cannot stand." The sound diction of 
 the King James version and the cadence 
 of the Bible phrases sound the undertone 
 in his great Second Inaugural : 
 
 "Fondly do we hope, fervently do 
 we pray, that this mighty scourge of 
 war may speedily pass away. Yet if 
 God wills that it continue until all 
 the wealth piled up by the bond- 
 man's 200 years of unrequited toil 
 shall be sunk and until every drop 
 of blood drawn with the lash shall 
 be paid with another drawn with 
 the sword, as was said 3,000 years 
 ago, so still it must be said, fc The 
 judgments of the Lord are true and 
 righteous altogether 1 ." 
 Lincoln had an intimate knowledge of 
 
 U81 
 
the Bible stories and habitually used 
 them but never in a mawkish way. Lin' 
 coin was greatly bothered by Radicals 
 who desired him to free the slaves. While 
 he, himself, abhorred slavery, as a great 
 lawyer he had a strong sense of the 
 rights of property and preferred emanci' 
 pation only after compensation, until, as 
 a war measure only, he became convinced 
 that emancipation without compensation 
 was necessary and unavoidable. 
 
 Three members of Congress, Sumner, 
 Wilson and Thad Stevens of our own 
 state were especially importunate and 
 persistent. Several months before he had 
 decided that the hour was come and 
 therefore issued the Emancipation Proc 
 lamation, Lincoln was discussing this 
 constant and acute pressure with a friend 
 and walked to a window looking out over 
 Pennsylvania avenue, where he stood 
 looking out in an attitude of sadness and 
 depression. Suddenly, he turned with a 
 smile and twinkling eyes and said: 
 
 [19] 
 
"When I was a boy at school reading 
 books and grammars were unknown and 
 all our reading was done from the Scrip- 
 tures. We stood up in a great circle and 
 each read, in succession, a verse from 
 some chapter. One day we had the story 
 of the faithful Israelites who were 
 thrown into the fiery furnace and thence 
 delivered by the Lord without so much 
 as the smell of fire upon their garments. 
 It fell to one little boy to read the verse 
 in which occurred, for the first time in 
 the chapter, the names of Shadrach, Me- 
 sach and Abednego. Little Bud stumbled 
 on Shadrach, floundered on Mesach and 
 went all to pieces on Abednego, bursting 
 into tears, then into sniffles but finally 
 became quiet. His blunder had been for" 
 gotten until, when his turn to read was 
 approaching again, he set up a wail and, 
 pointing to the verse he must read, he 
 said, "Look there, teacher, there comes 
 them three suckers agin!" 
 
 With his whole face lighted up with 
 
 [20] 
 
a smile, Lincoln led his friend to the 
 window and pointed with his long, bony 
 finger to three figures approaching the 
 White House. They were Sumner, Wil' 
 son and Stevens! 
 
 When malcontent Republicans nomi' 
 nated Fremont, for Lincoln's second term 
 at their poorly attended Cleveland con- 
 vention, he picked up the Bible which 
 habitually lay on his desk and turned the 
 leaves to the account of David's army 
 when, as an outlaw, he fled from Saul's 
 fury, as found in I Samuel 22 : 2 and 
 read, "And everyone that was discon- 
 tented gathered themselves unto him; 
 and he became a captain over them and 
 there were with him about 400 men." 
 
 When he was remonstrated with for 
 giving office to one who had opposed 
 him, he said, "I think I have Scriptural 
 authority for appointing him. You re' 
 member when the Lord was on Mount 
 Sinai getting out a commission for 
 Aaron, that same Aaron was at the foot 
 
 [21] 
 
of the mountain, making a false god for 
 the people to worship. Yet Aaron got his 
 
 commission ! 
 
 r 
 
 In his debate with Douglas he used Paul 
 before Agrippa as an illustration and 
 when compaint was made as to Stanton 
 he said, "Go home, my friend, and read 
 attentively the 10th verse of the 30th 
 chapter of Proverbs, 'Accuse not a serv 
 ant unto his master, lest he curse thee 
 and thou be found guiltyY , 
 
 At the cabinet meeting held on the 
 last morning of his life he spoke in a 
 most friendly manner of the Southerners, 
 said he wouldn't agree to hanging even 
 the worst of them, and ended, "Too 
 many lives have already been sacrificed. 
 Anger must be put aside." He said, "I 
 have not willingly planted a thorn in any 
 man's bosom. We must not sully victory 
 with harshness." 
 
 On the way from Richmond after the 
 declaration of peace, when it was sug- 
 gested that Jeff Davis deserved to be 
 
 [22] 
 
hanged, Lincoln said, "Judge not, that 
 ye be not judged," and taking a little 
 worn Macbeth from his pocket he read 
 twice over, 
 "Duncan is in his grave. 
 
 After life's fitful fever he sleeps 
 well; 
 
 Treason has done its worst; not steel 
 nor poison, 
 
 Malice domestic, foreign levy, noth- 
 ing 
 
 Can touch him further." 
 
 The last official action of his life was 
 endorsing "Let it be done" on the peti' 
 tion of a Confederate to take the oath of 
 allegiance. The last Act of Congress he 
 signed was one requiring the motto, "In 
 God we Trust" upon our coins. By Presi' 
 dential Order he decreed Sabbath Ob- 
 servance and said, "The sacred rights of 
 Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming 
 deference to the best sentiments of a 
 Christian people, and a due regard for 
 the Divine will demand that Sunday la* 
 
 123] 
 
bor in the Army and Navy be reduced 
 to the measure of strict necessity." 
 
 Lincoln had faith in and practiced 
 prayer, not only as a means of obtaining 
 results from God but also, as establishing 
 a covenant relation with God. When he 
 first presented the Emancipation Proch' 
 mation to the Cabinet on July 22, 1862, 
 they practically voted it down. When, 
 on September 22nd, he again presented 
 it, he said it was for discussion of its 
 terms only, since he had promised his 
 Maker that if Lee was driven out of 
 Maryland and Pennsylvania, he would 
 free the slaves. He prayed for victory at 
 Gettysburg and when news of Lee's sur' 
 render reached the Cabinet meeting it 
 was at the suggestion of Lincoln that all 
 dropped to their knees and offered their 
 thanks to God. He said, "I have been 
 driven many times to my knees by the 
 overwhelming conviction that I had no' 
 where else to go. However I might be 
 misapprehended by men, I am glad to 
 
 [24] 
 
know that no thought or intent of mine 
 escapes the observation of that Judge by 
 whose decree I expect to stand or fall in 
 this world or the next." "The only ruler 
 I have is my conscience, following God 
 in it." He implored His assistance in his 
 letter of acceptance of the nomination to 
 the Presidency. 
 
 Lincoln's religion was always practical. 
 In this, as in other things, he brushed 
 aside formalism. To a minister who said, 
 "Let us have faith, Mr. President, that 
 the Lord is on our side," he said, "I am 
 not at all concerned about that, for I 
 know that the Lord is always on the side 
 of the right; but it is my constant anxiety 
 and prayer that I and this nation may 
 be on the Lord's side." He abhorred in* 
 tolerance and risked political defeat by 
 denouncing the equivalent of our Ku 
 Klux Klan. He said, "God bless the 
 Methodist Church — bless all the churches 
 — and blessed be God who in this, our 
 great trial, giveth us the churches." 
 
 [25] 
 
Lincoln believed in conscious commun* 
 ion with an almighty, mysterious, benefi' 
 cent Power concerning itself not less 
 with human affairs than with the march 
 of the seasons and the sweep of the con' 
 stellations. It has been said that God 
 was not, to him, a personal God. I do not 
 believe this. This is a popular, a fashion' 
 able belief, especially today. A study of 
 Lincoln's words and acts will, I am con' 
 vinced, lead one to the inevitable conclu' 
 sion that God was to him, a person, his 
 Heavenly Father. God to him was an 
 ever'present, ever'regnant influence. Be' 
 lief in God was a challenge to singleness 
 of purpose. He would lift up to the All' 
 Pure clean hands and a pure heart. He 
 believed he was called by God to a great 
 task. He quoted often, 
 "There's a divinity that shapes our 
 ends, 
 Rough-hew them how we wilL ,, 
 Lincoln believed in Immortality, he be 
 lieved in the Brotherhood of Man; he be' 
 
 [26] 
 
lieved in the Fatherhood of God. This 
 was nowhere more beautifully or more 
 touchingly illustrated than in that sim- 
 ple but matchless farewell address to his 
 neighbors when he left Springfield for 
 Washington — never to return — 
 
 "I now leave, not knowing when 
 or whether I ever may return, with 
 a task before me greater than that 
 which rested upon Washington. 
 Without the assistance of that Dp 
 vine Being who ever attended him 
 I cannot succeed. With that assist' 
 ance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him, 
 who can go with me and remain 
 with you, and be everywhere for 
 good, let us confidently hope that 
 all will yet be well. To His care 
 commending you, as I hope in your 
 prayers you will commend me, I bid 
 you an affectionate farewell." 
 A very interesting and significant ex' 
 pression of this dependence, as it seems 
 to me, is shown by a study of the famous 
 
Gettysburg address. There is a wide- 
 spread impression that this was hastily 
 composed on the train from Washington 
 to Gettysburg. There are two objections, 
 at least, to this mistaken idea; first, the 
 fact that it was Lincoln's habit to prepare 
 carefully, even unimportant speeches, 
 such as responses to groups of serenaders. 
 Although Edward Everett was expected 
 to make the main address, which, in fact, 
 covered three hours, it is hardly conceiv- 
 able that Lincoln did not consider this an 
 important address. 
 
 The second objection is that the ad- 
 dress was carefully prepared in Wash- 
 ington, was shown there to members of 
 the Cabinet and by one competent judge, 
 who read both speeches there, it was said, 
 before Lincoln left Washington, that 
 Lincoln had said more in 40 lines than 
 Everett in three hours. 
 
 The significant thing is that, although 
 composed, except for trifling verbal 
 changes, in Washington, reviewed on the 
 
 [28] 
 
train and again the night before in Get' 
 tysburg, yet, in the heat of delivery, 
 when his soul was fired by the sights and 
 thoughts surrounding this turning point 
 in the Rebellion, Lincoln added, extern' 
 poraneously and from the depths of his 
 inner nature, the words "under God" in 
 the final phrase "that we highly resolve 
 that these dead shall not have died in 
 vain — that this nation, under God, shall 
 have a new birth of freedom — and that 
 government of the people, by the people, 
 for the people, shall not perish from the 
 earth." 
 
 Nicolay knew Lincoln intimately, in 
 years of terrible stress, and said, 
 
 "He had faith in the eternal jus- 
 tice and boundless mercy of Provi- 
 dence and made the Golden Rule of 
 Christ his practical creed." 
 John Hay called him "the greatest 
 character since Christ. 1 ' Of him we may 
 well use the language of James 3:17: 
 "First pure, then peacable, gentle 
 
 [29] 
 
and easy to be entreated, full of 
 mercy, and, good fruits, without 
 partiality, and without hypocrisy." 
 Lincoln has been called a Christian 
 without a creed." In the sense that he 
 neither subscribed to nor definitely for- 
 mulated his creed, this is true but Doctor 
 Barton, author of many authoritative 
 and interesting books on Lincoln, has, 
 from Lincoln's own words, stated his 
 creed as follows : 
 
 "I believe in God, the Almighty 
 Ruler of Nations, our great and 
 good and merciful Maker, our 
 Father in Heaven who notes the 
 fall of a sparrow, and numbers the 
 hairs of our heads. 
 
 I believe in His eternal truth and 
 justice. 
 
 I recognise the sublime truth an- 
 nounced in the Holy Scriptures and 
 proven by all history that those na- 
 tions only are blest whose God is 
 the Lord. 
 
 [301 
 
I believe that it is the duty of 
 nations as well as of men to own 
 their dependence upon the overrule 
 ing power of God, and to invoke 
 the influence of His Holy Spirit; to 
 confess their sins and transgressions 
 in humble sorrow, yet with assured 
 hope that genuine repentance will 
 lead to mercy and pardon. 
 
 I believe that it is meet and right 
 to recognize and confess the pres- 
 ence of the Almighty Father equally 
 in our triumphs and in those sor- 
 rows which we may justly fear are 
 a punishment inflicted upon us for 
 our presumptuous sins to the need- 
 ful end of our reformation. 
 
 I believe that the Bible is the best 
 gift which God has ever given to 
 men. All the good from the Saviour 
 of the world is communicated to us 
 through this book. 
 
 I believe the will of God pre- 
 vails. Without Him all human reli- 
 
anceisvain. Without the assistance of 
 that Divine Being, I cannot succeed. 
 With that assistance I cannot fail. 
 
 Being a humble instrument in the 
 hands of our Heavenly Father, I dc 
 sire that all my works and acts may 
 be according to his will; and that it 
 may be so, I give thanks to the Al' 
 mighty, and seek His aid. 
 
 I have a solemn oath registered in 
 heaven to finish the work I am in, in 
 full view of my responsibility to my 
 God, with malice toward none; with 
 charity for all; with firmness in the 
 right as God gives me to see the 
 right. Commending those who love 
 me to His care, as I hope in their 
 prayers they will commend me, I 
 look through the help of God to a 
 joyous meeting with many loved 
 ones gone before. " 
 Richard Watson Gilder has given us 
 
 a beautiful expression of our universal 
 
 feeling towards Lincoln : 
 
 [321 
 
ON THE LIFE-MASK OF 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 "This bronze doth keep the very form 
 and mold 
 Of our great martyr's face. Yes, this 
 
 is he; 
 That brow all wisdom, all benignity; 
 That human, humorous mouth; those 
 cheeks that hold 
 Like some harsh landscape all the sum* 
 mer's gold; 
 That spirit fit for sorrow, as the sea 
 For storms to beat on; the lone agony 
 Those silent, patient lips too well fore- 
 told. 
 Yes, this is he who ruled a world of men 
 As might some prophet of the older 
 
 day — 
 Brooding above the tempest and the 
 
 fray 
 With deep-eyed thought and more 
 than mortal ken. 
 A power was his beyond the touch of 
 art 
 Or armed strength — his pure and 
 mighty heart." 
 
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 $ 
 
 ■ 
 
 ml 
 
 PRINTED IN U. S. A. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILUNOIS-URBANA 
 
 973.7L63B*EV1L C001 
 
 LINCOLN AS HE LIVED RELIGION. PITTSBURGH 
 
 3 0112 031798181