CD 
 
 > M 
 
 2 ° 
 
 H ° 
 
 H Nl 
 
 C m 
 
 33 
 
 Z > 
 
 2 < 
 
 H 5 
 
 r 
 r 
 
 > 
 
 CL, 
 Ch 
 
 a 
 x 
 z 
 
 CD 
 H 
 D 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 &K8t*W 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnchrOOjohn 
 
Reproduced from photograph furnished the author b^ Mr. William 0. Stoddard, 
 one of Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries, especially for this book. It is his opinion that 
 it is the most natural photograph ever taken of Mr. Lincoln. It was taken in 1862. 
 
Reproduced from photograph furnished the author by Mr. William O. Stoddard, 
 one of Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries, especially for this book. Mrs. Lincoln pre- 
 sented the photograph to Mr. Stoddard. She regarded it the best that she ever had 
 taken. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 THE CHRISTIAN 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM J. JOHNSTONE 
 
 REVISED EDITION 
 
 <^W^ 
 
 THE ABINGDON PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO 
 
Copyright, 1913, by 
 WILLIAM J. JOHNSON 
 
 Copyright, 1928, by 
 WILLIAM J. JOHNSTONE 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 First Edition Printed August, 1913 
 Second Printing, October, 1913 
 Third Printing, February, 1914 
 Fourth Printing, March, 1916 
 Fifth Printing, May, 1920 
 Sixth Printing, November, 1928 
 

 TO 
 
 MY WIFE 
 
 JEANETTE C. JOHNSTONE 
 
 ADVISER, HELPER, CRITIC 
 
 THIS BOOK IS 
 
 AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Illustrations 6 
 
 Why, The Author 7 
 
 Introduction, James F. Rusling 11 
 
 Foreword, Wm. Henry Roberts 13 
 
 A Testimony, William 0. Stoddard 16 
 
 Early Training 21 
 
 Essay on Christianity 31 
 
 Religious Awakening 43 
 
 Reliance upon God 70 
 
 His Great Sorrow 80 
 
 Preliminary Proclamation 94 
 
 A Praying President 112 
 
 Second Proclamation for Thanksgiving 123 
 
 Pisgah and Calvary 136 
 
 Lincoln and the Bible 148 
 
 Lincoln and Church Membership 167 
 
 Testimony op Friends 183 
 
 A Transfigured Life 190 
 
 Sources of Information 195 
 
 Doctrinal Beliefs and Religious Habits 208 
 
 Baptists— Appendix to Sixth Edition 218 
 
 Index 228 
 
}' 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 ;. frontispieces 
 Mrs. Lincoln. 
 
 facing page 
 First Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illi- 
 nois 41 
 
 Rev. James Smith, D.D 50 
 
 A Praying President — Facsimile 112 
 
 Lincoln's Mother's Bible 157 
 
 New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Wash- 
 ington, D. C 167 
 
 Rev. Phineas D. Gurley, D.D 171 
 
 President Lincoln's Last Photograph.... 182 
 
The crowning glory of Abraham Lincoln 
 was the grandeur of his Christian character. 
 — Rev. William Bishop, D.D. 
 
WHY 
 
 "Lincoln, the Lawyer"; "Lincoln, the 
 Citizen"; "Lincoln, the Story-Teller"; "Lin- 
 coln, the Statesman"; "Lincoln, the Friend 
 of Man," and other phases of this remark- 
 able character, have received special treat- 
 ment at the hands of various students 
 and writers. While some attention has 
 been given to the religious side, it has 
 been comparatively meager, and has not 
 received the prominence that it deserves. 
 
 Sixteen years ago, as Lincoln's Birthday 
 drew near, I was astonished to hear and 
 read so much that he was an infidel, atheist, 
 deist, Universalist, Unitarian, Spiritualist, 
 etc. Although I was a great admirer of 
 him and had studied his life, having been 
 born and brought up not very far from 
 his Indiana home, up to that time my 
 attention had not been directed to his 
 religious beliefs. It seemed to be taken 
 for granted that he was a Christian, but 
 I was not able to meet the statements 
 of those who declared that he was not 
 
 7 
 
8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Here was one of the world's greatest 
 characters: could such a character be the 
 product of unbelief? Here was a definite 
 effect: what cause could produce it? What 
 was the source and strength of the mar- 
 velous personality and character of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln? 
 
 These questions led to a careful study 
 of his life, writings, and speeches, to find 
 what Lincoln had said that would reveal, 
 if possible, his own mind and heart. The 
 result of the first brief study was given 
 in an address on Lincoln's Birthday. It 
 was in a community saturated with unbe- 
 lief in matters of religion. The people 
 seemed amazed, yet pleased, that there was 
 so much evidence of his Christian belief. 
 
 During all these years I have been on 
 the alert for anything I could find in 
 public addresses, papers, magazines, and 
 books bearing upon the subject. Almost 
 every year the address has been given 
 in part on Lincoln's Birthday. Always the 
 people have urged that it be put in book 
 form, and so made permanently accessible 
 to the public. 
 
 In the beginning, not expecting to pub- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 9 
 
 lish it, many notes were made without 
 preserving the source. Consequently, there 
 may be quotations found in the book 
 without being so indicated. For this I 
 humbly beg the pardon of the authors, 
 whoever they may be, assuring them that 
 my only purpose has been to let their 
 more apt expression of the thought con- 
 tinue on its mission of good. "The words 
 of Lincoln and the incidents in his life 
 are the property of the world — belong to 
 no person, nor covered by any copyright." 
 
 In the hope that others may be interested 
 in studying the religious side of Mr. Lin- 
 coln's life, references to the sources of 
 information are given in the back of the 
 book. Everything is believed to be au- 
 thentic. The greater part is Lincoln's 
 own recorded words. While it must be 
 admitted that in the "reminiscences and 
 recollections" of his friends the memory is 
 not always accurate, yet everything is in 
 harmony with other things which are 
 accepted by all as authentic. 
 
 The chronological order has been fol- 
 lowed, so as to show his religious develop- 
 ment. To aid the reader, the year associated 
 
10 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 with the matter presented is given at the 
 top of the page. There are some things, 
 however, the date of which cannot be 
 determined, and therefore no year is given. 
 Many of the longer quotations from Lincoln 
 appear in smaller type, without quotation 
 marks. 
 
 Here ends a labor of love. The aim 
 has been to lfet Mr. Lincoln speak for 
 himself, that the people, hearing his mes- 
 sage, may learn to know the real Lincoln. 
 
 Since the beginning of the Christian era, 
 among them that are born of women there 
 hath not risen a greater than Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Merriam Park, 
 
 Saint Paul, Minnesota 
 
 April 25, 1913. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 11 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 In writing a book on Abraham Lincoln, 
 the Christian, the Rev, William J. Johnstone 
 has set himself a notable task, and done 
 something well w r orth while. And he has 
 not slighted the subject, but has studied 
 it in its entirety, and produced a book 
 that will delight all friends of Mr. Lincoln, 
 and ought to have a wide circulation. 
 He shows Mr. Lincoln to have been not 
 an atheist, nor an infidel, nor an agnostic 
 even, but a profoundly religious man — a 
 God-fearing, a God-praying, and a God- 
 trusting man — believing implicitly in a 
 Supreme Power in this universe "that 
 makes for righteousness," and relying con- 
 fidently on His overruling providence and 
 divine guidance. If not our "first Amer- 
 ican," clearly Mr. Lincoln was one of our 
 first — a great and typical American, not 
 inferior even to George Washington on 
 many lines. Or, as Lowell well said, "he 
 was one of Plutarch's men" — one of the 
 kind of heroes and great men oH Plutarch 
 
12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 loved to gossip about, and his name will 
 remain "a flag among men," around which 
 men will rally and fight for God and 
 humanity, until the last syllable of re- 
 corded time. 
 
 His good sword is rust, 
 
 His bones are dust, 
 
 His soul is with the saints, I trust. 
 
 I count it among the greatest of my 
 honors to have walked by his side, and 
 shaken hands with him, and conversed 
 with him face to face; and may God bless 
 his memory forever! 
 
 James F. Rusling. 
 Trenton, New Jersey, 
 February 17, 1910. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 18 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 It was my privilege as a young man 
 to have known Abraham Lincoln. Enter- 
 ing the service of the United States govern- 
 ment in the fall of 1863, the first Sabbath 
 of my sojourn in Washington City I went 
 to the New York Avenue Presbyterian 
 Church. When the time for the long 
 prayer came, according to immemorial usage 
 in many Presbyterian congregations, a 
 number of the men stood up for prayer, 
 and among those upright figures I noticed 
 in particular that of the President of the 
 United States. As a member of the New 
 York Avenue Church I was seated not 
 far from Mr. Lincoln at Sunday services 
 for a year and a half, and his attitude was 
 always that of an earnest and devout wor- 
 shiper. He was also an attendant at the 
 weekly meeting, though for a considerable 
 period taking part in the services privately. 
 It having become known that he was an 
 attendant at the prayer meeting, many 
 persons would gather in or near the church 
 
14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 at the close of the service in order to have 
 access to him for various purposes. De- 
 siring to put an end to these unwelcome 
 interruptions, the Rev. Dr. Phineas D. 
 Gurley, the pastor of Mr. Lincoln, arranged 
 to have the President sit in the pastor's 
 room, the door of which opened upon the 
 lecture room, and there Mr. Lincoln would 
 take a silent part in the service. He in- 
 formed his pastor on several occasions that 
 he had received great comfort from the 
 meetings, and for the reason that they had 
 been characterized more by prayer than 
 by the making of addresses. 
 
 Dr. Gurley bore repeated testimony to 
 myself and to other members of the church 
 of the deeply religious character of Mr. 
 Lincoln, and it is w T ith pleasure that I 
 add this brief testimony from my own 
 experience and observation to the far more 
 extended tributes to Mr. Lincoln as a 
 Christian given in this work, reverently 
 prepared by my colaborer in the kingdom of 
 God, the Rev. William J. Johnstone, D.D. 
 
 It will be fifty years next fall since I 
 came into direct touch with the man, who 
 in the providence of God was the liberator 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 15 
 
 of a race, and I shall always hold in sweet 
 and blessed memory my first sight of him, 
 as a devout worshiper standing for prayer 
 in the sanctuary of the Most High. 
 
 Wm. Henry Roberts, 
 
 Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Pres- 
 byterian Church in the U. S. A., Philadelphia, 
 Pennsylvania, November 26, 1912. 
 
16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 A TESTIMONY BY MR. LINCOLN'S 
 PRIVATE SECRETARY 
 
 No man can lead two lives or spiritually 
 serve two masters, although, by special 
 effort or otherwise, he may seem to do so. 
 Abraham Lincoln lived but one life. It was 
 even singularly open, unconcealed, easily to 
 be read and understood. The character- 
 istics of that life, all its wonderful story, 
 from birth to death, have been recorded, 
 searched, printed, to the last degree of even 
 scientific analysis. Its every freckle or 
 wrinkle has been noted, whether for good 
 or evil. Therefore it is now too late for 
 any new or materially modified presenta- 
 tion of the man whom we all know so well. 
 
 My own study of him began in Illinois, 
 in the year 1858, before he had attained 
 his national fame or had been thought of 
 as a probable President of the United 
 States. That study at last led me to write 
 and to print in my own journal, in his 
 district, the first editorial nomination of 
 him as the candidate of the Republican 
 
THE CHRISTIAN IT 
 
 party. Not long after his election I was 
 ordered by him to Washington, to wait 
 there for his further instructions and for 
 his arrival. I did so, receiving an appoint- 
 ment on his official staff. After a three 
 months' interval of army service, by his 
 express permission, I was ordered to the 
 White House and placed in sole charge of 
 his correspondence, with such other duties 
 as came to me, from time to time. Here I 
 remained until the Autumn of 1864, when 
 I was promoted to what was then believed 
 to be a higher appointment. A conscious 
 as well as unconscious study of Mr. Lincoln 
 went on during all those years, seeing him 
 and talking with him under every variety 
 of circumstance. 
 
 There was in him an intense, absorbing, 
 all-pervading love of truth, of righteous- 
 ness, of justice, of his fellow men, with a 
 continuously reverent acknowledgment of 
 God and of a strong sense of divine help 
 and leading, which cannot by any rational 
 examiner be separated from a very highly 
 developed Christian attainment. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's years in the White House 
 were years of almost ceaseless heart pain, 
 
18 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 whereof he at times said that he was slowly 
 dying. To him came thus the fulfillment 
 of the divine annunciation, "Through much 
 tribulation do ye enter the kingdom." 
 
 I shall not in this place present any 
 small and impertinent anecdote of personal 
 contact or conversation, not any mere 
 glittering bubble upon a stream which had 
 swollen into a great flood. The flowing 
 of that spiritual tide must be watched as 
 to its continuous power and direction, as 
 it widened and deepened until it passed out 
 and beyond all earthly observation. 
 
 It might be well for those who are at 
 all disposed to criticize or distract, to in- 
 quire, thoughtfully, how far the recorded 
 Christian testimony of the great President 
 does, or does not, fulfill the word that is 
 final: "On these two commandments, the 
 love of God and the love of the neighbor, 
 depend all the Law and the Prophets." 
 I have seen him, more than once, with a 
 great light on his face, a shining from 
 within that awed and startled me. Right 
 there is an unspeakable solemnity of thought 
 and faith. I will transfer its consideration 
 to those who are able to understand, from 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 19 
 
 their own inner life, a spiritual lamp for 
 that illumination. For all time to come, 
 and especially for all generations of Amer- 
 icans, the life of Abraham Lincoln presents 
 a deep and priceless teaching concerning 
 the reality of that inner birth, growth, 
 development, whose richest treasures are, 
 nevertheless, hidden from all eyes but 
 those of God himself. 
 
 William O. Stoddard. 
 
 Madison, New Jersey, 
 March 7, 1913. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN THE 
 CHRISTIAN 
 
 Early Training 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's parents were Christians, 
 first affiliated with the Baptist Church in 
 Kentucky, and afterward with the Baptist 
 Church in Indiana. 1 Their home was a 
 home of prayer, the Bible was read morn- 
 ing and evening, and his father always re- 
 turned thanks at the table. On one occasion 
 the only thing they had for dinner was 
 roasted potatoes. After the father had re- 
 turned thanks for "these blessings/' young 
 Abe looked up and said, "Dad, I call these 
 mighty poor blessings/' 2 
 
 His mother seems to have been a woman 
 of superior character for her time and sur- 
 roundings. She had attended a school in 
 Virginia, and was intellectually above those 
 around her. She was especially devoted in 
 her Christian life, striving to live up to the 
 teachings of the Bible, which was her daily 
 companion, and sought to follow the scrip- 
 tural injunction, "Train up a child in the 
 
 21 
 
22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1809-18 
 
 way he should go : and when he is old, he will 
 not depart from it." On Sunday she would 
 read to her children those Bible stories so 
 interesting to all children, and pray with 
 them. 3 She impressed her own ideals and 
 convictions of righteousness indelibly on her 
 son, and her earnest prayers made a lifelong 
 impression upon his young mind; for he him- 
 self said, after he became President, speak- 
 ing of his mother: "I remember her prayers, 
 and they have always followed me. They 
 have clung to me all my life." 4 
 
 The opportunities for attending public 
 worship were very meager. A log meeting- 
 house had been erected about three miles 
 from the Lincoln home in Kentucky, where 
 traveling preachers occasionally held serv- 
 ice. Little Abe attended these "meetings" 
 with his parents. When only five years 
 old he was so impressed with the preach- 
 ing, or, perhaps, the manner of the preach- 
 ing, that on returning home he would get 
 upon a stool or block of wood and preach 
 to the other children or the rest of the 
 family, shouting and pounding the Bible 
 with his little fist just like the preacher. 5 
 
1818] THE CHRISTIAN 23 
 
 Mother's Death 
 
 When Abe was nine years old his mother 
 died, her death occurring on October 5 , 1818. 
 A friend present at the time says: "The 
 mother knew she was going to die, and called 
 her children [Abe and Sarah] to her bedside. 
 She was very weak, and the children leaned 
 over while she gave her last message. Plac- 
 ing her feeble hand on little Abe's head, she 
 told him to be kind and good to his father 
 and sister; to both she said, 'Be good to one 
 another/ expressing a hope that they might 
 live as they had been taught by her, to love 
 their kindred and worship God." 6 
 
 Little did this mother, "dying amid the 
 miserable surroundings of a home in the 
 wilderness," dream that her name, Nancy 
 Hanks Lincoln, was to become immortal 
 through the ragged, barefoot, hapless lad 
 who gazed with wondering eyes upon this 
 strange transition. Earth's noblest crown 
 has been wreathed about her memory, and 
 never more beautifully told than in these 
 words: "Though of lowly birth, the victim 
 of poverty and hard usage, she takes a 
 place in history as the mother of a son 
 who liberated a race of men. At her side 
 
24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1819 
 
 stands another mother, whose Son per- 
 formed a similar service for all mankind 
 eighteen hundred years before.' 57 
 
 There was no one to hold religious 
 services when Mrs. Lincoln died, and this 
 added greatly to the little boy's grief. It 
 weighed so heavily upon his young heart 
 that, eight or nine months afterward, hav- 
 ing learned to write, his first letter was to 
 a Baptist itinerant preacher whom he had 
 heard in Kentucky, the Rev. David Elkin, 
 asking him to preach a funeral sermon at 
 his mother's grave. The preacher agreed 
 to come, an appointment was made, and 
 the settlers from many miles around gath- 
 ered in the woods on the hill to hear the 
 funeral sermon at Nancy Lincoln's grave. 8 
 
 The effect of this mother's prayers, teach- 
 ings, and dying benediction may best be told 
 by her own son, after he became known and 
 loved the wide world over: "All that I am, 
 all that I hope to be, I owe to my angel 
 mother — blessings on her memory." 9 Lin- 
 coln never forgot this Christian mother's life 
 and teachings. She inspired him with pure 
 and noble motives. Her example was one of 
 sweetness and patience. He never forgot her 
 
1819] THE CHRISTIAN 25 
 
 motherly devotion and tenderness and care. 
 "His character was planted in this Christian 
 mother's life. Its roots were fed by this 
 Christian mother's love; and those that have 
 wondered at the truthfulness and earnest- 
 ness of his mature character have only to 
 remember that the tree was true to the 
 soil from which it sprang." 10 "A great 
 man," says John G. Holland, "never drew 
 his infant life from a purer or more womanly 
 bosom than her own." 
 
 Boyhood 
 
 About a year after his mother's death 
 young Abe was blessed with a stepmother, 
 whom his father had brought from Ken- 
 tucky. She was even a stronger character 
 than the first Mrs. Lincoln, and continued 
 the good training and wise teaching so well 
 begun by her predecessor. She was very 
 fond of Abe, and he learned to love her as 
 his own mother. She bears testimony to his 
 goodness in these words, spoken after his 
 death: "Abe was a good boy, and I can say 
 what scarcely one woman — a mother — in a 
 thousand can say: Abe never gave me a 
 cross word or look, and never refused in 
 
&6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 fact or appearance to do anything I re- 
 quested of him. I never gave him a cross 
 word in all my life. His mind and mine — 
 what little I had — seemed to run together. 
 He was a dutiful son to me always. I think 
 he loved me truly. I had a son, John, who 
 was raised with Abe. Both were good boys, 
 but I must say, both now being dead, that 
 Abe was the best boy I ever saw, or expect 
 to see." 11 His cousin, Dennis Hanks, also 
 bears similar testimony (June 13, 1865): 
 "Abe was a good boy — an affectionate one 
 — a boy who loved his parents and was 
 obedient to their every wish." 12 
 
 The books to which young Lincoln had 
 access were few, but they were the best. 
 The first was the Bible. He kept it within 
 easy reach, and read it over and over again. 
 He could repeat much of it from memory. 
 His mind was saturated with its precepts 
 and his heart was filled with its truths. 
 The second book which he read, purchased 
 for him at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, by 
 John Hodgin, was iEsop's Fables, which he 
 committed to memory. The third was 
 Robinson Crusoe, which a Mrs. Dawson, 
 an itinerant teacher, read to him. The 
 
[1898 THE CHRISTIAN 87 
 
 fourth was Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 
 which his father borrowed for him. 13 The 
 Holy Bible, iEsop's Fables, and John Bun- 
 yan! Could three better books be chosen 
 for a boy to-day from the libraries of the 
 world? "These three books did much to 
 perfect that which his mother's teachings 
 had begun, and to form a character which, 
 for quaint simplicity, earnestness, truthful- 
 ness, and purity, has never been surpassed 
 among the historic personages of the 
 world." 14 
 
 Youth 
 
 But little is preserved of Lincoln's youth 
 to show his religious bent. With the free- 
 and-easy life of those pioneer days, it is 
 doubtful if anyone with Lincoln's buoyant 
 nature would manifest any special religious 
 interest. A few things indicate the better 
 thought of his youthful mind and the 
 deeper emotion of his youthful heart. 
 
 In his fourteenth year, while at school, 
 he wrote on the flyleaf of his schoolbook: 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 his hand and pen — 
 he will be good but 
 god knows When. 
 
£8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1828430 
 
 At another time he wrote in a school- 
 mate's (Joseph C. Richardson) copybook: 
 
 Good boys who to their books apply 
 Will all be great men by and by. 15 
 
 These show two things: First, that the 
 youthful boy had faith in his mother's 
 God; and, second, that he believed his 
 mother's teachings — that goodness is the 
 first thing to be sought for. As our Master 
 has taught: "Seek ye first the kingdom 
 of God, and his righteousness; and all these 
 things shall be added unto you." 
 
 The sacred songs that he most loved 
 indicate something of his religious nature. 
 They were, "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?" 
 "How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours," 
 "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood," 
 and "Alas, and Did My Saviour Bleed?" 16 
 A soul that can appreciate these hymns 
 must recognize, first, that without the 
 shedding of blood there is no remission of 
 sin; second, that Jesus Christ died upon 
 the cross for the salvation of the world; 
 third, that life without the Saviour is an 
 empty bubble; and, fourth, that loyal devo- 
 tion to the Christ and His cause is man's 
 
1831] THE CHRISTIAN S9 
 
 highest calling, and the test of true char- 
 acter. 
 
 Superstition 
 
 The claim that there was more or less 
 of superstition in his nature, and that he 
 was greatly affected by his dreams, is not 
 to be disputed. Many devout Christians 
 to-day are equally superstitious, and, also, 
 are greatly affected by their dreams. Lin- 
 coln grew in an atmosphere saturated with 
 all kinds of superstitious beliefs. It is not 
 strange that some of it should cling to 
 him all his life, just as it was with Garfield, 
 Blaine, and others. 
 
 In 1831, then a young man of twenty- 
 two, Lincoln made his second trip to New 
 Orleans. It was then that he visited a 
 Voodoo fortune teller, 17 that is so important 
 in the eyes of certain people. This, doubt- 
 less, was out of mere curiosity, for it was 
 his second visit to a city. This no more 
 indicates a belief in "spiritualism" than 
 does the fact that a few days before he 
 started on this trip he attended an ex- 
 hibition given by a traveling juggler, and 
 allowed the magician to cook eggs in his 
 low-crowned, broad-rimmed hat. 18 
 
30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1831 
 
 First Sight of Slavery 
 Of deeper significance than his visit to 
 a fortune teller was his first sight of the 
 public sale of slaves during his stay in 
 New Orleans. He saw "Negroes in chains, 
 whipped and scourged." Rambling about 
 the city one morning with his companions, 
 they came upon a slave auction. Men, 
 women, and children were treated as brutes, 
 and sold to the highest bidder. The whole 
 scene was revolting to Lincoln, and his 
 soul was stirred to profoundest depths. 
 With a deep feeling of "unconquerable 
 hate" for an institution that made such 
 inhumanity possible, turning away from 
 the awful sight, he said to his companions, 
 "Boys, by the Eternal God, if ever I get 
 a chance to hit that thing [slavery], I'll 
 hit it hard." 19 Does this not indicate that 
 deep in his nature, beneath the rough and 
 wild exterior life of the young pioneer, 
 there was an abiding belief and trust in 
 the power and guidance of God? 
 
1831 J THE CHRISTIAN 31 
 
 Essay on Christianity 
 
 In July, 1831, Mr. Lincoln, being twenty- 
 two years of age, went to New Salem, Il- 
 linois, a rude hamlet started two years 
 before, to begin life for himself. He had 
 always lived in log houses in the woods. 
 He had never been inside of a college, and had 
 attended school hardly more than twelve 
 months in all. He never lived where there 
 was a church until he went to the Legis- 
 lature at Vandalia, in December, 1834. 
 
 It has been claimed that at New Salem, 
 being "surrounded by a class of people ex- 
 ceedingly liberal in matters of religion/' by 
 reading skeptical literature and discussing it 
 in the tavern and the village store, he him- 
 self became quite skeptical. Some of his 
 biographers state that he wrote an essay 
 against Christianity, Jesus Christ, and the 
 Bible, which was read and discussed in the 
 village store until his friend and employer 
 (Mr. Samuel Hill) snatched the manuscript 
 from him, tore it in two, and thrust it into 
 the stove. While this statement has never 
 
m ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1833 
 
 been supported by any credible evidence, it 
 has been too largely accepted, not because 
 it was reasonable, but because there did not 
 seem to be any direct evidence to the con- 
 trary. It is most gratifying to all the lovers 
 of Lincoln and of historic truth to find that 
 the exact opposite is true. 
 
 One of Mr. Lincoln's early acquaintances 
 after he went to New Salem was Mr. Mentor 
 Graham, a school-teacher of local renown 
 who flourished in and around New Salem 
 from 1829 to 1860. Mr. Lincoln boarded 
 with Mr. Graham for two years, and studied 
 English grammar and surveying under him. 
 Certainly no one had a better opportunity 
 to know Mr. Lincoln's mind. In a letter 
 written March 17, 1874, from Petersburg, 
 Illinois, where he was then living, to Mr. B. 
 F. Irwin, Pleasant Plains, Illinois, and which 
 was published in an article on "Lincoln's 
 Religious Belief," in the Illinois State Jour- 
 nal of May 16, 1874, Mr. Graham says: 
 
 "In reply to your inquiries, Abraham 
 Lincoln was living at my house in New 
 Salem, going to school, studying English 
 grammar and surveying, in the year 1833. 
 One morning he said to me, 'Graham, 
 
1833] THE CHRISTIAN 33 
 
 what do you think about the anger of the 
 Lord?' I replied, 'I believe the Lord 
 never was angry or mad and never would 
 be; that His loving-kindness endureth for- 
 ever; that He never changes/ Said Lin- 
 coln, "I have a little manuscript written, 
 which I will show you/ and stated he 
 thought of having it published. The size 
 of the manuscript was about one half 
 quire of foolscap, written in a very plain 
 hand, on the subject of Christianity, and a 
 defense of universal salvation. The com- 
 mencement of it was something respecting 
 the God of the universe ever being excited, 
 mad, or angry. I had the manuscript in 
 my possession some week or ten days. I 
 have read many books on the subject of 
 theology, and I don't think, in point of 
 perspicuity and plainness of reasoning, I 
 ever read one to surpass it. I remember 
 well his argument. He took the passage, 
 'As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall 
 all be made alive/ and followed with the 
 proposition that whatever the breach or 
 injury of Adam's transgression to the 
 human race was, which no doubt was very 
 great, was made just and right by the atone- 
 
34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1833 
 
 ment of Christ. As to Major Hill burning 
 the manuscript, I don't believe he did, nor 
 do I think he would have done such a 
 thing. About the burning of a paper by 
 Hill, I have some recollection of his snatch- 
 ing a letter from Lincoln and putting it into 
 the fire. It was a letter written by Hill to 
 McNeil. His real name was McNamar. 20 
 Some of the school children had picked up 
 the letter and handed it to Lincoln. Neil 
 and Lincoln were talking about it, when 
 Hill snatched the letter from Lincoln and 
 put it into the fire. The letter was respect- 
 ing a young lady, Miss Ann Rutledge, for 
 whom all three of these gentlemen seemed 
 to have respect/' 21 
 
 This is not hearsay, but an authentic and 
 original statement by one whose personal 
 knowledge, character, learning, and stand- 
 ing make him a competent and trustworthy 
 witness. It ought forever to end the base 
 slander that Mr. Lincoln "hurled his wit and 
 keen logic against the sacred teachings of his 
 mother's Bible." What he really did was to 
 make a protest against the "rude theology" 
 of uneducated preachers and the misrepre- 
 sentations of biblical doctrines by skeptics. 
 
1836-7] THE CHRISTIAN 35 
 
 Indications of Religious Belief 
 At this time, beneath the rough ex- 
 terior, there was a religious nature and the 
 rudiments of Christian faith, as shown 
 in expressions found in authentic letters 
 and speeches. In 1836 he shows his faith 
 in a ruling Providence in the following 
 words, spoken in a discussion of the ques- 
 tion of "woman's rights" and "temperance": 
 "All such questions must first find lodg- 
 ment with the most enlightened souls who 
 stamp them with their approval. In God's 
 own time they will be organized into law 
 and thus woven into the fabric of our 
 institutions." 22 
 
 December 13, 1836, in a letter to Miss 
 Mary Owens, written while he was in the 
 Legislature, he says, "They will smile as 
 complacently at the angry snarl of the 
 contending Van Buren candidates and their 
 respective friends as the Christian does at 
 Satan's rage/'* 
 
 In a speech before the Illinois Legislature 
 in January, 1837, speaking of the scenes 
 of the Revolution, he says, "In history, 
 we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, 
 so long as the Bible shall be read." In his 
 
36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1837 
 
 closing words he refers to the greatness of 
 the church, saying, "Upon these let the 
 proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock 
 of its basis, and as truly as has been said 
 of the only greater institution, 'the gates 
 of hell shall not prevail against it/ "* 
 
 Life More Serious 
 After his removal to Springfield, in 1837, 
 to engage in the practice of law, he entered 
 a new world, encompassed by new associa- 
 tions. He came into contact with people 
 of culture — with "men of thought and men 
 of action/' many of them of exalted char- 
 acter, both in church and state. Books 
 were more accessible, and his range of 
 reading increased. Life became more real 
 and serious, and his mind began to seek a 
 true conception of the great principles of 
 life. His regular attendance at church 
 enabled him to hear able and educated 
 ministers who were instructive, suggestive, 
 and eloquent. 
 
 heard the rev. peter akers, d.d. 
 
 In 1837, then twenty-eight years old, 
 he went with some friends to a camp meet- 
 
1837] THE CHRISTIAN 37 
 
 ing six miles west of Springfield, at the 
 "Salem Church/ 5 The Rev. Peter Akers, 
 D.D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 a vigorous and fearless man, preached the 
 sermon. He spoke of certain prophecies, 
 and predicted "the downfall of castes, the 
 end of tyrannies, and the crushing out of 
 slavery." On the way home they were 
 earnestly discussing the sermon. Lincoln 
 said: "It was the most instructive sermon, 
 and he is the most impressive preacher, I 
 have ever heard. It is wonderful that God 
 has given such power to men. I firmly 
 believe his interpretation of prophecy, so 
 far as I understand it, and especially about 
 the breaking down of civil and religious 
 tyrannies; and, odd as it may seem, I was 
 deeply impressed that I should be somehow 
 strangely mixed up with them." 23 
 
 We do not claim that at this time Lincoln 
 was a man of orthodox belief, but we do 
 claim that he was a believer in God, and 
 nominally religious. 
 
 The Soul's Almighty Architect 
 In a speech at a political discussion in 
 the hall of the House of Representatives at 
 
38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1839-41 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, December, 1839, we 
 find this fervid declaration: 
 
 If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and 
 expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy 
 of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate 
 the cause of my country, deserted by all the world 
 beside, and I standing up boldly and alone and 
 hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, 
 without contemplating consequences, before High 
 Heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eter- 
 nal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the 
 land of my life, my liberty, and my love.* 
 
 An Oxford Bible 
 Returning from a visit to the home of 
 the Speeds in Kentucky, Mr. Lincoln writes 
 to Miss Mary Speed, September 27, 1841. 
 Speaking of the cheerfulness of slaves 
 chained together on the steamboat, he says, 
 "How true it is that 'God tempers the 
 wind to the shorn lamb/ or in other words, 
 that he renders the worst of human con- 
 ditions tolerable, while he permits the best 
 to be nothing better than tolerable." Again, 
 he says: "Tell your mother that I have not 
 got her 'present 5 [an Oxford Bible] 24 with 
 me, but I intend to read it regularly when 
 I return home. I doubt not that it is 
 
1841-2] THE CHRISTIAN 89 
 
 really, as she says, the best cure for the 
 blues, could one but take it according to 
 the truth/ 5 * 
 
 Letters to Speed 
 
 It was in 1841 and 1842 that interesting 
 letters passed between Lincoln and his 
 friend, Joshua F. Speed, when both were 
 filled with forebodings and heart-wrestlings 
 over love matters. "Lincoln frequently 
 expressed to Speed his belief that the 
 Almighty had sent their suffering for a 
 special purpose." 
 
 In a letter to Speed, January 1, 1842, 
 in regard to Speed's apprehension that he 
 did not love his "intended" as he should, 
 Lincoln says, "I adopt this as the last 
 method I can adopt to aid you, in case 
 (which God forbid!) you shall need my 
 aid." And, "Let me, who have some 
 reason to speak with judgment on such a 
 subject, beseech you to ascribe it to the 
 causes I have mentioned, and not to some 
 false and ruinous suggestion of the Devil."* 
 
 In a letter to Speed, February 3, 1842, 
 in reference to Speed's anxiety over the 
 sickness of his sweetheart, as well as his 
 
40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1842 
 
 doubts, Lincoln says: "I almost feel a pre- 
 sentiment that the Almighty has sent your 
 present affliction expressly for that ob- 
 ject. . . . Should she, as you fear, be destined 
 to an early grave, it is indeed a great 
 consolation to know that she is so well 
 prepared to meet it. Her religion, which 
 you once disliked so much, I will venture 
 you now prize most highly."* 
 
 In a letter to Speed, March 27, 1842, he 
 uses these two sentences: "Enough, dear 
 Lord" and "God be praised for that," 
 showing that his mind was ever turned 
 Godward. 
 
 In a letter to Speed, July 4, 1842, after 
 Speed was happily married, he says: "I 
 always was superstitious; I believe God 
 made me one of the instruments of bring- 
 ing Fanny and you together, which union 
 I have no doubt he had foreordained. 
 Whatever he designs he will do for me 
 yet. 'Stand still and see the salvation of 
 the Lord 5 is my text just now."* 
 
 These utterances do not indicate any 
 real religious conviction, but they do indi- 
 cate that he believed in a ruling Provi- 
 dence. 
 
o 
 
 
 
 z 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 jj 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 n 
 
 E 
 
 o 
 
 
 o: 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 ►— i 
 
 
 
 tf 
 
 00 
 
 a 
 
 PL, 
 
 GO 
 
 £ 
 
 DQ 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 
 1—1 
 
 TJ 
 
 w 
 
 a 
 
 C 
 
 Q 
 
 T3 
 
 o 
 
 
 0) 
 
 a 
 
 OQ 
 
 K 
 
 2 
 
 £ 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 
 B 
 
 43 
 
 o 
 
 -9 
 
 «j 
 
 -a 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 ,o 
 
 K 
 
 
 OQ 
 
 h 
 
 > 
 
 
 1c 
 
 CQ 
 
 
 
 X 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 tf 
 
 
 
 Pm 
 
 
 
1842] THE CHRISTIAN 41 
 
 Letter to George E. Pickett 
 February 22, 1842, in a letter to George 
 E. Pickett, who afterward became the 
 General Pickett who led the famous charge 
 at Gettysburg, Mr. Lincoln says: "I have 
 just told the folks here in Springfield on 
 this 110th anniversary of the birth of him 
 whose name, mightiest in the cause of 
 civil liberty, still mightiest in the cause of 
 moral reformation, we mention in solemn 
 awe, in naked, deathless splendor, that the 
 one victory we can ever call complete will 
 be that one which proclaims that there is 
 not one slave or one drunkard on the face 
 of God's green earth. Recruit for this 
 victory/ 5 * 
 Pew in First Presbyterian Church 
 After Lincoln's marriage, November 4, 
 1842, he and his wife took a pew in the 
 First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, 
 Illinois, retaining it until their removal to 
 Washington, 25 except the few years they 
 attended the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Denies Charge of Infidelity 
 Mr. Thomas Mostiller, of Menard 
 County, Illinois, in a letter to Mr. B. F. 
 
42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1847-8 
 
 Irwin, Pleasant Plains, Illinois, April 28, 
 1874, says: "In regard to your inquiry, 
 just received, of what I heard Lincoln say 
 about a charge of infidelity made against 
 him when a candidate for Congress in 1846 
 or '47, it was this: I was present and heard 
 Josiah Grady ask Lincoln a question or 
 two regarding a charge made against Lin- 
 coln of being an infidel, and Lincoln un- 
 qualifiedly denied the charge of infidelity, 
 and said, in addition, his parents were 
 Baptists, and brought him up in the belief 
 of the Christian religion, and he believed in 
 the Christian religion as much as anyone, 
 but was sorry to say he had nor made no 
 pretensions of religion himself/' 26 
 
1849] THE CHRISTIAN 48 
 
 Religious Awakening 
 
 During the few years prior to 1850, 
 Mr. Lincoln wrestled with doubt and un- 
 certainty. With a sincere mind he vainly 
 sought the true foundations of character 
 upon which he might build his super- 
 structure. In his searchings after truth 
 he now came under the powerful in- 
 fluence of a distinguished preacher, a pro- 
 found thinker, and a master of the whole 
 philosophy of the Christian evidences. This 
 man was the Rev. James Smith, D.D., 
 who became pastor of the First Presby- 
 terian Church of Springfield, Illinois, the 
 early part of 1849, and continued in Spring- 
 field until the spring of 1861, soon after 
 the inauguration of President Lincoln. The 
 Rev. William Bishop, D.D., in an address 
 at Salina, Kansas, February 12, 1897, gave 
 the following account of Dr. Smith and his 
 testimony concerning Mr. Lincoln's reli- 
 gious thoughts and convictions: 
 
 "Dr. Smith was a large, stalwart Scotch- 
 man with a big brain, a typical Calvinistic 
 
44 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1849 
 
 theologian, Websterian in appearance and 
 in strength of logical argument, and, when 
 inspired by the theme or occasion, in 
 eloquence overwhelming. Before coming 
 North he had spent most of his ministry 
 in the South, where he was known far and 
 wide as the great preacher at camp meet- 
 ings, where his voice could be heard by 
 acres of people hanging upon his lips of 
 force and fire. His reputation was still 
 farther extended and enhanced as a con- 
 troversialist, a thinker, and a learned 
 'defender of the faith,' by a great debate 
 which he had at Columbus, Mississippi, in 
 the winter of 1839-40, with a celebrated 
 infidel named C. G. Olmstead, who through 
 a committee of infidel gentlemen challenged 
 him to a public discussion. The discom- 
 fiture of this champion of infidelity was 
 inevitable. By the universal testimony, it 
 was a Lilliputian combatant in the hands 
 of a Brobdingnagian antagonist. The sub- 
 stance of this debate, by popular demand, 
 was published, reconstructed and enlarged, 
 in 1843, in a book of two volumes of over 
 six hundred pages, with the title The 
 Christian's Defence. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 45 
 
 "Why I have mentioned Dr. Smith and 
 his book so particularly will immediately 
 appear. And I might say, parenthetically, 
 the Doctor presented me with a copy of 
 his book. Perhaps he thought I was 
 skeptical! It has been in my library forty 
 years, and I am thinking of donating it 
 to the Kansas State Historical Society, as 
 a historic memento of the man and the 
 book, that under divine guidance, con- 
 verted Lincoln to the Christian faith. But 
 to resume the narration: I first met Dr. 
 Smith in the summer of 1850 in Jackson- 
 ville, at the commencement exercises of 
 Illinois College, from which I had graduated 
 and had just been appointed a member of 
 the faculty of instruction. The acquaint- 
 ance then formed ripened into mutual and 
 congenial friendship. And during the two 
 years of my connection with the college 
 I was frequently a visitor and guest at his 
 house in Springfield, and when, by reason 
 of removal to another institution in an- 
 other State, the visits were fewer and 
 farther between, 'a free epistolary corre- 
 spondence' continued to strengthen and 
 brighten the links of fellowship. With his 
 
46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 other accomplishments, Dr. Smith was an 
 interesting and instructive conversationalist 
 — in fact, quite a raconteur, somewhat like 
 his friend Lincoln, always ready with a story 
 to illustrate his opinions, and which gave 
 piquancy to his conversation. Whenever he 
 had occasion to speak of Lincoln he always 
 evinced the strongest attachment and the 
 warmest friendship for him, which was 
 known to be fully reciprocated. Democrat 
 as he was, and tinged with Southern hues — 
 though never a secessionist — there seemed 
 to be a mystic cord uniting the minister and 
 the lawyer. This was subsequently beauti- 
 fully shown on the part of Mr. Lincoln, who 
 never forgot to do a generous thing. When 
 he was elected President Dr. Smith and 
 wife were getting old, their children all 
 married and gone, except their youngest 
 son, a young man of twenty-three or four 
 years of age. One of Lincoln's first offi- 
 cial acts, after his inauguration, was the 
 appointment of his elder son, Dr. Hugh 
 Smith, to the consulate at Dundee, Scot- 
 land. The Doctor, with his wife and son, 
 returned to the land of his birth. The 
 son soon returned to America, and Dr. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 47 
 
 Smith himself was appointed consul, which 
 position he retained until his death in 1871. 
 
 "In the spring of 1857 Dr. Smith, an- 
 ticipating a necessary absence from his 
 church of two or three months during the 
 summer, invited me to supply his pulpit 
 until his return. Being young and inex- 
 perienced in the ministry, with considerable 
 hesitation I accepted his urgent invitation. 
 So I spent my college vacation performing 
 as best I could this service. Mr. Lincoln 
 was a regular attendant at church and 
 evidently an attentive hearer and devout 
 worshiper. 
 
 "As a college student I had seen and 
 heard him and looked up to him as a being 
 towering above common men; and, I con- 
 fess, I was not a little intimidated by his 
 presence as he sat at the end of a seat well 
 forward toward the pulpit, with his deep 
 eyes fixed upon me, and his long legs 
 stretched out in the middle aisle to keep 
 them from (using one of his own colloquial- 
 isms) being scrouged in the narrow space 
 between the pews. My 'stage fright/ how- 
 ever, was soon very much relieved by his 
 kindliness and words of encouragement. 
 
48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 "On a certain Sunday, the third, as I 
 recollect it, in my term of service, I deliv- 
 ered a discourse on the text, 'Without 
 God in the World/ The straight transla- 
 tion from the Greek is, 'Atheists in the 
 World/ In discussing atheism, theoretical 
 and practical, I endeavored to elucidate 
 and enforce the fallacy of the one and the 
 wickedness of the other. At the close of 
 the service Mr. Lincoln came up and, 
 putting his right hand in mine and his 
 left on my shoulder, with other impressive 
 remarks, said, 'I can say "Amen" to all 
 that you have said this morning.' From 
 that time on my interest in him grew apace* 
 
 "He was then known extensively all over 
 the West as a great and good man, and 
 only a year afterward he bounded into 
 national fame by his victory in the great 
 debate with Douglas, who, up to that time, 
 was regarded as a debater invincible. 
 
 "During my brief sojourn in Springfield 
 I had many opportunities of meeting Lin- 
 coln, hearing him and talking with him 
 at home, in church, in society, and in the 
 courts of justice. 
 
 "Dr. Smith returned in due time to resume 
 
1849] THE CHRISTIAN 49 
 
 his pastoral functions. In reporting to him, 
 in general, my labors in the church as his 
 substitute during his absence, and in par- 
 ticular my conceptions of Lincoln's religious 
 character, he intimated that he knew some- 
 thing of Lincoln's private personal religious 
 experiences, feelings, and beliefs which re- 
 sulted in his conversion to the Christian 
 faith. After some urging to be more 
 explicit, he made the following statement, 
 which is herewith submitted, couched sub- 
 stantially in his own language. The Doctor 
 said: 
 
 " 'I came to Springfield to take the 
 pastoral charge of this church [First Presby- 
 terian] about eight years ago [1849]. During 
 the first of these years, I might say, I had 
 only a speaking or general acquaintance 
 with Mr. Lincoln [now forty years old]. 
 Two or three years previous to my coming 
 here Mrs. Lincoln, who had been a member 
 of our church, for some reason changed 
 her church relations and was a regular 
 attendant at the services of the Episcopal 
 Church. Mr. Lincoln, at that time, having 
 no denominational preferences, went with 
 her. And so the family continued to fre- 
 
50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1849 
 
 quent the sanctuary for a year or more 
 after I began my ministry here. The occa- 
 sion which opened up the way to my 
 intimate relations to Mr, Lincoln was this, 
 viz.: In the latter part of 1849 death came 
 into his family. His second son died at 
 about three or four years of age. The 
 rector, an excellent clergyman, being tem- 
 porarily absent, could not be present to 
 conduct the burial service, and I was called 
 to officiate at the funeral. This led me to an 
 intimate acquaintance with the family, and 
 grew into an enduring and confidential 
 friendship between Mr. Lincoln and myself. 
 One result was that the wife and mother 
 returned to her ancestral church, and the 
 husband and father very willingly came 
 with her, and ever since has been a constant 
 attendant upon my ministry. I found him 
 very much depressed and downcast at the 
 death of his son, and without the consola- 
 tion of the gospel. Up to this time I had 
 heard but little concerning his religious 
 views, and that was to the effect that he 
 was a deist and inclined to skepticism as 
 to the divine origin of the Scriptures, 
 though, unlike most skeptics, he had evi- 
 
Rev. JAMES SMITH, D.D. 
 Photograph furnished by his granddaughter, Miss Jeanette E. Smith 
 
1849] THE CHRISTIAN 51 
 
 dently been a constant reader of the Bible. 
 I found him an honest and anxious inquirer. 
 He gradually revealed the state of his 
 mind and heart, and at last unbosomed his 
 doubts and struggles and unrest of soul. 
 In frequent conversations I found that he 
 was perplexed and unsettled on the funda- 
 mentals of religion, by speculative diffi- 
 culties, connected with Providence and 
 revelation, which lie beyond and above the 
 legitimate province of religion. With some 
 suggestions bearing on the right attitude 
 required for impartial investigation, I placed 
 in his hands my book (The Christian's 
 Defence) on the evidence of Christianity, 
 which gives the arguments for and against 
 the divine authority and inspiration of the 
 Holy Scriptures. Mr. Lincoln took the 
 book, and for a number of weeks, as a 
 lawyer, examined and weighed the evidence, 
 pro and con, and judged of the credibility 
 of the contents of revelation. And while 
 he was investigating I was praying that 
 the Spirit of Truth might lead him into 
 the kingdom of truth. And such was the 
 result, for at the conclusion of his examina- 
 tion he came forth his doubts scattered to 
 
52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1850-1 
 
 the winds and his reason convinced by the 
 arguments in support of the inspired and 
 infallible authority of the Old and New 
 Testaments — a believer in God, in his 
 providential government, in his Son, the 
 way, the truth, and the life, and from 
 that time (nearly seven years) to this day 
 his life has proved the genuineness of his 
 conversion to the Christian faith. For this 
 I humbly ascribe to our heavenly Father 
 the honor and the glory. 5 " 27 
 
 The preceding declaration by Dr. Smith 
 was made in September, 1857. 
 
 LETTER FROM DR. SMITH 
 
 In corroboration of this, the Rev. Dr. 
 Smith wrote from Cainno, Scotland, Jan- 
 uary 24, 1867, to W. H. Herndon, Mr. 
 Lincoln's law partner, as follows: "It was 
 my honor to place before Mr. Lincoln 
 arguments designed to prove the divine 
 authority and inspiration of the Scriptures, 
 accompanied by the arguments of infidel 
 objectors in their own language. To the 
 arguments on both sides Mr. Lincoln gave 
 a most patient, impartial, and searching 
 investigation. To use his own language, he 
 
1850-1] THE CHRISTIAN 53 
 
 examined the arguments as a lawyer who 
 is anxious to reach the truth investigates 
 testimony. The result was the announce- 
 ment by himself that the argument in 
 favor of the divine authority and inspira- 
 tion of the Scriptures was unanswerable/' 28 
 
 LETTER FROM MR. NINIAN W. EDWARDS 
 
 Mr. Ninian W. Edwards, of Springfield, 
 Illinois, a brother-in-law of Mr. Lincoln, 
 wrote to the Rev. James A. Reed on 
 December 24, 1872, as follows: "A short 
 time after the Rev. Dr. Smith became 
 pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in 
 this city Mr. Lincoln said to me, 4 I have 
 been reading a work by Dr. Smith on the 
 evidences of Christianity, and have heard 
 him preach and converse on the subject, 
 and I am convinced of the truth of the 
 Christian religion/ " 29 
 
 LETTER FROM MR. THOMAS LEWIS 
 
 Mr. Thomas Lewis was a lawyer, an inti- 
 mate friend of Mr. Lincoln from 1837 to 
 1861, and occupied the same law office in 
 Springfield, Illinois. He was an elder in 
 the First Presbyterian Church when Dr, 
 
54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1850-1 
 
 Smith was the pastor. November 10, 1898, 
 then living in Kansas City, Missouri, he 
 wrote a letter on "Lincoln's Views of the 
 Bible," which was read before the Old 
 Men's Association of the Y. M. C. A., of 
 which he was president. In this letter he 
 says: 
 
 "During the fifties Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln 
 visited her uncle in Kentucky. On their 
 return I called on him. At that time he 
 remarked that 'while at my wife's uncle's 
 I got hold of a book entitled Smith on 
 Infidelity, written by your Dr. Smith' 
 (meaning the Rev. James Smith, D.D., 
 pastor of the First Presbyterian Church). 
 'I read it about half through, and it has 
 given me different views of the Bible from 
 those I have ever entertained, and I want 
 to get that book and finish reading it. 
 Can you help me to get it?' I replied by 
 saying: 'Yes, I heard the Doctor say a few 
 days since he had sold his last book, and I 
 have no doubt that some who have read it 
 would be willing to part with it for the $5 
 they had paid for it.' Said he, 'As long 
 as the Doctor has been here, I have not 
 made his acquaintance. I wish you would 
 
1850-1] THE CHRISTIAN 55 
 
 see him, have him get a book, bring him 
 around, and give me an introduction/ I 
 saw the Doctor. He procured the book. 
 Next day I went with him to Mr. Lincoln's 
 office and gave the introduction. After an 
 hour of pleasant conversation we left. I 
 went out first, the Doctor following. As 
 the Doctor passed out, the door partly 
 closed; he reopened it, and said, "Mr. Lin- 
 coln, if agreeable, I should like to see you 
 in our church some day.' 'Dr. Smith/ said 
 Lincoln, 'I will be there next Sunday.' Mr. 
 and Mrs. Lincoln were in the church, and 
 the following Sunday they were there also. 
 "I was an elder, trustee, treasurer, col- 
 lector, superintendent of the Sunday school, 
 and pew-renter. The following Tuesday, 
 after the second Sunday, Mr. Lincoln 
 called on me and inquired if there were 
 any pews to rent in the church. I replied, 
 'Yes, and a very desirable one, vacated by 
 Governor Madison, who has just left the 
 city.' 'What is the rent?' said he. Tifty 
 dollars, payable quarterly.' He handed me 
 $12.50. Said he, Tut it down to me.' 
 From that date he paid each three months 
 on said pew until he left for Washington; 
 
56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1852 
 
 and from the first Sunday he was there I 
 have not known of his not occupying that 
 pew every Sunday he was in the city until 
 he left. The seat was immediately in front 
 of mine. The third Sunday his children 
 came in the Sunday school. 
 
 "Shortly thereafter there was a revival 
 in the church, and Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, 
 when he was in the city, attended meeting. 
 In his absence she was there. They at- 
 tended not only the regular meetings, but 
 the inquiry meetings also, and it was the 
 belief that both would unite with the 
 church. When the candidates were ex- 
 amined Mr. Lincoln was in Detroit, prose- 
 cuting a patent right case, a branch of the 
 profession in which he had acquired an 
 enviable reputation. Mrs. Lincoln stated 
 that she was confirmed in the Episcopal 
 Church when twelve years of age, but 
 did not wish to join the church by letter, 
 but upon profession of faith, as she was 
 never converted until Dr. Smith's preach- 
 ing. She was admitted [1852]. Mr. Lincoln 
 never applied. Some months later the ses- 
 sion of the church invited Mr. Lincoln to 
 deliver a lecture on the Bible. When it 
 
1850] THE CHRISTIAN 57 
 
 became known that Mr. Lincoln was to 
 lecture in the Presbyterian church it assured 
 a full house. It was said by divines and 
 others to be the ablest defense of the Bible 
 ever uttered in that pulpit. 
 
 "From the introduction of Mr. Lincoln 
 to Dr. Smith their intimacy was of a most 
 cordial character. At their last meeting 
 previous to Mr. Lincoln's leaving for Wash- 
 ington, as they parted, Mr. Lincoln said, 
 'Doctor, I wish to be remembered in the 
 prayers of yourself and our church 
 members. 5 " 30 
 
 This statement by his pastor and con- 
 fidential friend, corroborated by Mr. Lin- 
 coln's brother-in-law and an elder of the 
 church, is an original and authentic source 
 of information, and should forever settle 
 all controversy and cavil touching the re- 
 ligious belief and character of Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 Address to Bible Society 
 About 1850 he accepted an invitation 
 to deliver an address from the pulpit of 
 the First Presbyterian Church before the 
 Springfield Bible Society. "The object of 
 the address was to inculcate the importance 
 
58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1851 
 
 of having the Bible placed in possession of 
 every family in the State. He closed by 
 saying: 'It seems to me that nothing short 
 of infinite wisdom could by any possibility 
 have devised and given to man this excel- 
 lent and perfect moral code. It is suited to 
 men in all conditions of life, and includes 
 all the duties they owe to their Creator, 
 to themselves, and to their fellow man/ " 31 
 
 Message to His Dying Father 
 January 12, 1851, Lincoln wrote to his 
 stepbrother, John D. Johnston, concerning 
 his father, who was very sick, saying: 
 
 I sincerely hope father may recover his health, 
 but, at all events, tell him to remember to call 
 upon and confide in our great and good and merci- 
 ful Maker, who will not turn away from him in 
 any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow, 
 and numbers the hairs of our heads, and He will 
 not forget the dying man who puts his trust in 
 Him. Say to him that if we could meet now it 
 is doubtful whether it would not be more painful 
 than pleasant, but 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.* 
 
 Would you call the author of that letter 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 59 
 
 to a dying father an infidel, a skeptic, an 
 unbeliever? Who could couch in more 
 beautiful and reverent language the com- 
 forting doctrines of the Bible to a dying man? 
 
 Befriends a Negro Woman 
 One afternoon an old Negro woman came 
 into Mr. Lincoln's office and told how her 
 son had gone to New Orleans as a deck 
 hand on a steamboat and had been seized 
 by the police, tried and fined, in accordance 
 with the law then in force concerning free 
 Negroes from other States. He was to be 
 sold to pay his fine and expenses. The 
 governor was appealed to, but regretted 
 that under the law he could do nothing. 
 Greatly agitated, Mr. Lincoln rose to his 
 feet and exclaimed, "By the Almighty! 
 I'll have that Negro back soon, or I'll 
 have twenty years' excitement in Illinois, 
 until the governor does have a legal and 
 constitutional right to do something in the 
 premises." 32 
 
 Eulogy of Henry Clay 
 Mr. Lincoln delivered a masterly eulogy 
 on Henry Clay in the State House at 
 Springfield, Illinois, July 16, 1852, closing 
 
60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1S54-5 
 
 as follows: "Such a man the times have 
 demanded, and such, in the providence of 
 God, was given us. But he is gone. Let 
 us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, 
 the continued care of Divine Providence, 
 trusting that in future national emergencies 
 He will not fail to provide us the instru- 
 ments of safety and security."* 
 
 Good and Evil 
 In a speech at Peoria, Illinois, October 
 16, 1854, in reply to Senator Douglas, he 
 says: "God did not place good and evil 
 before man, telling him to make a choice. 
 On the contrary, He did tell him there was 
 one tree of the fruit of which he should 
 not eat, upon pain of certain death."* 
 
 Problem too Mighty 
 In a letter to George Robertson, August 
 15, 1855, speaking of the solution of the 
 slavery question, he says, "The problem is 
 too mighty for me — may God, in His 
 mercy, superintend the solution."* 
 
 The Battle of Freedom 
 Mr. Lincoln delivered his first great 
 speech on the right or the wrong of slavery 
 
1856] THE CHRISTIAN 61 
 
 at Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856, 
 before the first Republican State Conven- 
 tion of Illinois, The following extracts give 
 some idea of its lofty Christian tone: 
 
 "The battle of freedom is to be fought 
 out on principle. Slavery is a violation of 
 the eternal right. We have temporized 
 with it from the necessities of our con- 
 dition; but as sure as God reigns and school 
 children read, that black foul lie can 
 
 NEVER BE CONSECRATED INTO God's HAL- 
 LOWED TRUTH !" 
 
 "Can we as Christian men, and strong 
 and free ourselves, wield the sledge or hold 
 the iron which is to manacle anew an al- 
 ready oppressed race? 'Woe unto them/ 
 it is written, 'that decree unrighteous de- 
 crees and that write grievousness which 
 they have prescribed.' " 
 
 "Those who deny freedom to others de- 
 serve it not themselves, and, under the 
 rule of a just God, cannot long retain it." 
 
 Like one inspired, his face aglow, the 
 personification of moral power, he exclaims 
 in closing — 
 
 "And while, in all probability, no resort 
 to force will be needed, our moderation and 
 
62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1858 
 
 forbearance will stand us in good stead 
 when, if ever, we must make an appeal 
 to battle and to the god of hosts !" 33 
 
 The Perfect Standard 
 In his celebrated reply to Douglas, de- 
 livered at Chicago, July 10, 1858, Mr. 
 Lincoln speaks thus: "It is said in one of 
 the admonitions of our Lord, 'Be ye (there- 
 fore) perfect, even as your Father which 
 is in heaven is perfect/ The Saviour, I 
 suppose, did not expect that any human 
 creature could be as perfect as the Father 
 in heaven; but He said, 'As your Father 
 in heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect.' 
 He set up the standard, and He who did 
 most toward reaching that standard, at- 
 tained the highest degree of moral perfec- 
 tion."* Lincoln here says "our Lord," and 
 accepts as his standard the perfect char- 
 acter of the Father, and Jesus Christ as 
 our example of "the highest degree of moral 
 perfection." 
 
 Transgression and Atonement 
 Mr. Isaac Cogdal, an intimate friend of 
 Mr. Lincoln from the time he came to Illi- 
 nois until he went to Washington, in a letter 
 
1859-60] THE CHRISTIAN 63 
 
 to Mr. B. F. Irwin, April 10, 1874, tells of a 
 conversation he had with Mr. Lincoln in 
 the latter's office in Springfield about 1859, 
 concerning Mr. Lincoln's religious faith. 
 Mr. Herndon was present. He says: "Mr. 
 Lincoln expressed himself in about these 
 words: He did not nor could not believe in 
 the endless punishment of anyone of the 
 human race. He understood punishment 
 for sin to be a Bible doctrine; that the 
 punishment was parental in its object, aim, 
 and design, and intended for the good of 
 the offender; hence it must cease when 
 justice was satisfied. He added that all 
 that was lost by the transgression of Adam 
 was made good by the atonement; all that 
 was lost by the fall was made good by the 
 sacrifice. And he added this remark, that 
 punishment being a provision of the gospel 
 system, he was not sure but the world 
 would be better if a little more punishment 
 was preached by our ministers, and not so 
 much pardon for sin/' 34 
 
 Drinks Adam's Ale 
 
 May 19, 1860, a committee waited upon 
 Lincoln at his home in Springfield to notify 
 
fit ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1860 
 
 him of his nomination. After his reply he 
 ordered "something to drink." Mr. Lincoln 
 gravely said: "Gentlemen, we must pledge 
 our mutual healths in the most healthy 
 beverage which God has given to man. It 
 is the only beverage I have ever used or 
 allowed in my family, and I cannot con- 
 scientiously depart from it on the present 
 occasion — it is pure Adam's ale from the 
 spring." 35 
 
 Implores Divine Help 
 
 May 21, 1860, after his nomination, in a 
 letter to J. R. Giddings, he says, "May 
 the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, 
 justice, and humanity shall in no wise 
 suffer at my hands. 55 * 
 
 May 23, 1860, in a letter to George 
 Ashmun and the Republican National Con- 
 vention, he says, "Imploring the assistance 
 of Divine Providence, ... I am most happy 
 to cooperate for the practical success of 
 the principles declared by the convention. 55 * 
 
 The Bateman Interview 
 At the time of Lincoln 5 s nomination and 
 election in 1860, Hon. Newton Bateman 
 
1860] THE CHRISTIAN 65 
 
 was superintendent of public instruction for 
 the State of Illinois. Lincoln often went 
 into his office for a quiet talk. Mr. Bate- 
 man tells of one of these "talks" near the 
 close of October, only a few days before the 
 election. Lincoln was very anxious to 
 know how the ministers of Springfield were 
 going to vote. A careful canvass of the 
 city had been made, and each citizen had 
 declared for whom he intended to vote. 
 The list was before Lincoln, and, with Mr. 
 Bateman, he examined it carefully. All 
 but three of the ministers, and a large 
 majority of the church members, were 
 against Lincoln. Drawing forth a pocket 
 New Testament, Lincoln said, "I am not 
 a Christian — God knows I would be one — 
 but I have carefully read the Bible, and I 
 do not so understand this book. 55 With 
 trembling voice and his cheeks wet with 
 tears, he continued: "I know there is a 
 God, and that He hates injustice and 
 slavery. I see the storm coming, and I 
 know that His hand is in it. If He has a 
 place and work for me — and I think He 
 has — I believe I am ready. I am nothing, 
 but truth is everything. I know I am 
 
66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1860 
 
 right, because I know that liberty is right, 
 for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I 
 have told them that 'a house divided against 
 itself cannot stand/ and Christ and reason 
 say the same; and they will find it so. 
 Douglas don't care whether slavery is 
 voted up or down, but God cares, and 
 humanity cares, and I care; and with 
 God's help I shall not fail. I may not see 
 the end; but it will come, and I shall be 
 vindicated; and these men will find that 
 they have not read their Bibles aright." 
 After a pause, he resumed: "Doesn't it 
 appear strange that men can ignore the 
 moral aspect of this contest? A revelation 
 could not make it plainer to me that 
 slavery or the government must be de- 
 stroyed. The future would be something 
 awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on 
 which I stand [alluding to the Testament 
 which is still held in .his hand], especially 
 with the knowledge of how these ministers 
 are going to vote. It seems as if God had 
 borne with this thing [slavery] until the 
 very teachers of religion have come to 
 defend it from the Bible, and to claim for 
 it a divine character and sanction; and 
 
1860] THE CHRISTIAN 67 
 
 now the cup of iniquity is full, and the 
 vials of wrath will be poured out. 5 ' 
 
 Mr. Bateman adds: "Everything he said 
 was of a peculiarly deep, tender, and re- 
 ligious tone, and all was tinged with a 
 touching melancholy. . . . After further 
 reference to a belief in the Divine Provi- 
 dence, and the fact of God in history, 
 the conversation turned upon prayer. He 
 freely stated his belief in the duty, priv- 
 ilege, and efficacy of prayer, and intimated 
 in no unmistakable terms that he had 
 sought in that way the divine guidance 
 and favor." As they were about to sep- 
 arate Mr. Bateman remarked: "I have 
 not supposed that you were accustomed 
 to think so much upon this class of sub- 
 jects. Certainly your friends generally are 
 ignorant of the sentiments you have ex- 
 pressed to me." Lincoln quickly replied, 
 "I know they are; but I think more on 
 these subjects than upon all others, and I 
 have done so for years; and I am willing 
 that you should know it." 36 
 
 With this remarkable scene, coupled with 
 the testimony of his pastor, every honest 
 mind must be convinced that Mr. Lincoln 
 
68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 had found his way to the Christian 
 standpoint — that he stood on the eternal 
 truth. 
 
 In the Gakden of Gethsemane 
 
 Judge Joseph Gillespie, an old friend 
 living at Edwardsville, Illinois, tells of a 
 conversation he had with Mr. Lincoln in 
 the latter's home in Springfield, Illinois, at 
 the beginning of January, 1861, in which 
 Mr. Lincoln said: "I see the duty devolving 
 upon me. I have read, upon my knees, the 
 story of Gethsemane, where the Son of 
 God prayed in vain that the cup of bitter- 
 ness might pass from Him. I am in the 
 garden of Gethsemane now, and my cup 
 of bitterness is full and overflowing." 
 
 "I then told him," says Judge Gillespie, 
 "that as Christ's prayer was not answered 
 and His crucifixion had redeemed the great 
 part of the world from paganism to Chris- 
 tianity, so the sacrifice demanded of him 
 might be a great beneficence." Mr. Gil- 
 lespie adds, "Little did I then think 
 how prophetic were my words to be, or 
 what a great sacrifice he was called to 
 make." 37 
 
1861] THE CHRISTIAN 69 
 
 May Fall Like Peter 
 
 Mr. John G. Nicolay, his private secre- 
 tary, says that after his election, before he 
 left Springfield for Washington, Mr. Lin- 
 coln said to a friend, the Rev. Albert Hale, 
 pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church 
 of Springfield: "Mr. Hale, I have read my 
 Bible some, though not half as much as I 
 ought, and I have always regarded Peter as 
 sincere when he said he would never deny 
 his Master. Yet he did deny Him. Now 
 I think that I shall keep my word and 
 maintain the stand I have taken; but, then, 
 I must remember that I am liable to infirm- 
 ity, and may fall/' 38 
 
70 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 Reliance upon God 
 farewell address 
 In his good-by speech at Springfield, 
 Illinois, February 11, 1861, the day on 
 which he started for Washington, standing 
 on the rear platform of the car, Mr. Lin- 
 coln said: 
 
 To-day I leave you. I go to assume a task 
 more difficult than that which devolved upon General 
 Washington. Unless the great God who assisted 
 him shall be with and aid me, I must fail; but if 
 the same Omniscient Mind and Almighty Arm 
 that directed and protected him shall guide and 
 support me, I shall not fail — I shall succeed. Let 
 us all pray that the God of our fathers may not 
 forsake us now. To Him I commend you all. 
 Permit me to ask that with equal sincerity and 
 faith you will invoke His wisdom and guidance 
 for me. 39 
 
 JOURNEY TO WASHINGTON 
 
 In his address to the Legislature at Co- 
 lumbus, Ohio, February 13, he said: "I 
 can turn and look for that support without 
 which it will be impossible for me to per- 
 form that great task, I turn, then, and 
 
1861] THE CHRISTIAN 71 
 
 look to the American people and to that 
 God who has never forsaken them."* 
 
 At Steubenville, Ohio, February 14, he 
 said, "Unless sustained by the American 
 people and God, I cannot hope to be 
 successful." 40 
 
 At Buffalo, New York, February 16, he 
 said: "I am sure I bring a heart true to the 
 work. For the ability to perform it, I 
 must trust in that Supreme Being who has 
 never forsaken this favored land, through 
 the instrumentality of this great and in- 
 telligent people. Without that assistance 
 I shall surely fail; with it, I cannot fail."* 
 
 To the Legislature at Albany, New York, 
 February 18, he said, "I still have con- 
 fidence that the Almighty, the Maker of 
 the Universe, will, through the instrumen- 
 tality of this great and intelligent people, 
 bring us through this as He has through 
 all the other difficulties of our country."* 
 
 At the City Hall in New York on Feb- 
 ruary 20 he said, "We look for a restora- 
 tion of fraternal relations between the 
 States — only to be accomplished by peace- 
 ful and conciliatory means, aided by the 
 wisdom of Almighty God/ 941 
 
72 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 At Newark, New Jersey, February 21, 
 he said, "I am sure, however, that I have 
 not the ability to do anything unaided of 
 God, and that without His support, and 
 that of this free, happy, prosperous, and 
 intelligent people, no man can succeed in 
 doing that [the importance of which we all 
 comprehend." 42 
 
 To the Senate at Trenton, New Jersey, 
 February 21, referring to the Revolu- 
 tionary War, he said, "I shall be most 
 happy, indeed, if I shall be an humble 
 instrument in the hands of the Almighty, 
 and of this, his most chosen people, as the 
 chosen instrument — also in the hands of 
 the Almighty — for perpetuating the object 
 of that great struggle." 43 
 
 "bather be assassinated 55 
 He made a remarkable speech at Inde- 
 pendence Hall, Philadelphia, on Washing- 
 ton^ Birthday. In speaking of the duty 
 of maintaining the rights and liberty of 
 man bequeathed to us by the fathers, 
 under God, he exclaims: "If this country 
 cannot be saved without giving up that 
 principle, I was about to say I would 
 
1861] THE CHRISTIAN 73 
 
 rather be assassinated on the spot than to 
 surrender it. . . . I have said nothing but 
 what I am willing to live by, and, if it be 
 the pleasure of Almighty God, die by."* 
 
 First Night in Washington 
 The first night after his arrival in Wash- 
 ington, February 23, 1861, the Peace Con- 
 ference called upon him at the Willard 
 Hotel. In answer to a question from Wil- 
 liam E. Dodge, in reference to his duty, 
 Lincoln said: "With the support of the 
 people and the assistance of the Almighty, 
 I shall undertake to perform it." 44 A 
 little later, on the same occasion, Lincoln 
 said: "Freedom is the natural condition 
 of the human race, in which the Almighty 
 intended men to live. Those who fight 
 the purpose of the Almighty will not suc- 
 ceed. They always have been, they always 
 will be, beaten/' 44 These utterances show 
 that Lincoln trusted in God and not in 
 himself. 
 
 Prays before the Inauguration 
 "Mrs. Lincoln said that Mr. Lincoln 
 wrote the conclusion of his inaugural ad- 
 
74 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1.861 
 
 dress the morning it was delivered. The 
 family being present, he read it to them. 
 He then said he wished to be left alone 
 for a short time. The family retired to an 
 adjoining room, but not so far distant but 
 that the voice of prayer could be dis- 
 tinctly heard. There, closeted with God 
 alone, surrounded by the enemies who 
 were ready to take his life, he commended 
 his country's cause and all dear to him to 
 God's providential care, and with a mind 
 calmed with communion with his Father 
 in heaven, and courage equal to the danger, 
 he came forth from that retirement ready 
 for duty. 5 ' 45 
 
 First Inaugural Address 
 
 In his first inaugural address, March 4, 
 1861, we find these two sentences, express- 
 ing profound faith in God: "If the Almighty 
 Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth 
 and justice, be on your side of the North, 
 or on yours of the South, that truth 
 and that justice will surely prevail by the 
 judgment of this great tribunal of the 
 American people." And, again, he says, 
 "Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and 
 
1861] THE CHRISTIAN 75 
 
 a firm reliance on Him who has never yet 
 forsaken this favored land, are still com- 
 petent to adjust, in the best way, all our 
 present difficulty."* 
 
 His Only Ruler 
 Shortly after he became President Mrs. 
 Lincoln reported to him that it was 
 rumored that Seward was the power be- 
 hind the throne. Lincoln very emphati- 
 cally replied: "I may not rule myself, but 
 certainly Seward shall not. The only ruler 
 is my conscience — following God in it — 
 and these men will have to learn that 
 yet." 46 
 
 First Letter of Condolence 
 On May 25, 1861, he wrote a letter to the 
 parents of Colonel Ellsworth, of whom he 
 was very fond, regarding his death. He 
 closed by saying, "May God give you that 
 consolation which is beyond all earthly 
 power."* 
 
 First Message to Congress 
 His first message to the Thirty-seventh 
 Congress, July 4, 1861, closes with these 
 words: "And having thus chosen our 
 
76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 course, without guile and with pure pur- 
 pose, let us renew our trust in God, and go 
 forward without fear and with manly 
 hearts."* 
 
 Reply to Tycoon of Japan 
 August 1, 1861, in reply to the Tycoon 
 of Japan, he closes with these words: "I 
 pray God to have your Majesty always in 
 his safe and holy keeping. 55 * 
 
 First National Fast-Day 
 That "Mr. Lincoln was profoundly and 
 intensely religious" is shown in his procla- 
 mations of days of fasting, prayer, and 
 thanksgiving. The first proclamation of a 
 national fast-day was issued August 12, 
 1861, as follows: 
 
 Whereas a joint committee of both houses of 
 Congress has waited on the President of the United 
 States and requested him to "recommend a day 
 of public prayer, humiliation, and fasting, to be 
 observed by the people of the United States with 
 religious solemnities and the offering of fervent 
 supplications to Almighty God for the safety and 
 welfare of these States, His blessings on their arms, 
 and a speedy restoration of peace": 
 
 And whereas it is fit and becoming in all people, 
 
1861] THE CHRISTIAN TT 
 
 at all times, to acknowledge and revere the su- 
 preme government of God; to bow in humble 
 submission to His chastisements; to confess and 
 deplore their sins and transgressions, in the full 
 conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning 
 of wisdom; and to pray with all fervency and con- 
 trition for the pardon of their past offences, and 
 for a blessing upon their present and prospective 
 action: 
 
 And whereas when our own beloved country, 
 once, by the blessing of God, united, prosperous 
 and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil 
 war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand 
 of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful 
 remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a 
 nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves 
 before Him and to pray for His mercy — to pray 
 that we may be spared further punishment though 
 most justly deserved; that our arms may be blessed 
 and made effectual for the reestablishment of 
 law, order, and peace throughout the wide extent 
 of our country; and that the inestimable boon 
 of civil and religious liberty, earned under His 
 guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings 
 of our fathers, may be restored in all its original 
 excellence: 
 
 Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States, do appoint the last Thursday in 
 September next as a day of humiliation, prayer, 
 and fasting for all the people of the nation. And 
 I do earnestly recommend to all the people, and 
 
78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861-2 
 
 especially to all ministers and teachers of religion, 
 of all denominations, and to all heads of families, 
 to observe and keep that day, according to their 
 several creeds and modes of worship, in all humility 
 and with all religious solemnity, to the end that 
 the united prayer of the nation may ascend to the 
 Throne of Grace, and bring down plentiful bless- 
 ings upon our country.* 
 
 First Annual Message to Congress 
 
 Mr. Lincoln opens his first regular mes- 
 sage to Congress, December 3, 1861, by 
 expressing gratitude to God, and closes by 
 expressing reliance on Him, as follows: 
 
 "In the midst of unprecedented political 
 troubles we have cause of great gratitude 
 to God for unusual good health and most 
 abundant harvests. . . . The struggle of 
 to-day is not altogether for to-day — it is 
 for a vast future also. With a reliance on 
 Providence all the more firm and earnest, 
 let us proceed in the great task which 
 events have devolved upon us."* 
 
 Refers Convict to Mercy of God 
 
 February 4, 1862, in granting a respite 
 to Nathaniel Gordon, convicted for being 
 engaged in the slave trade, he closes with 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 79 
 
 these words: "In granting this respite it 
 becomes my painful duty to admonish the 
 prisoner that, relinquishing all expecta- 
 tion of pardon by human authority, he 
 refer himself alone to the mercy of the 
 common God and Father of all men."* 
 
80 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 His Great Sorrow 
 
 Thursday, February 20, 1862, Mr. Lin- 
 coln experienced what, perhaps, was the 
 greatest sorrow of his life, in the death of 
 his little boy, Willie. He regarded it as an 
 act of Providence, but could not under- 
 stand it. 
 
 "hard to have him die" 
 One who helped to prepare the body for 
 burial relates the following: "When Willie 
 died, as he lay on the bed, Mr. Lincoln 
 came to the bed, lifted the cover from the 
 face of his child, gazed at it long and 
 earnestly, murmuring: 'My poor boy, he 
 was too good for this earth. God has 
 called him home. I know that he is much 
 better off in heaven, but then we loved 
 him so. It is hard, hard to have him 
 die!"" 7 
 
 A CHRISTIAN NURSE 
 
 A Christian lady from Massachusetts, 
 who had come to nurse the children in 
 their sickness, speaks of Lincoln's great 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 81 
 
 affliction and sadness. On the morning of 
 the funeral she assured him that many 
 Christians were praying for him. With 
 eyes suffused with tears, he replied: "I am 
 glad to hear that. I want them to pray 
 for me, I need their prayers." The lady 
 expressed her sympathy with him as they 
 were going out to the burial. Thanking 
 her gently, he said, "I will try to go to 
 God with my sorrows." She asked him a 
 few days after if he could not trust God. 
 With deep religious feeling, he replied: "I 
 think I can, and I will try. I wish I had 
 that childlike faith you speak of, and I 
 trust He will give it to me." Then the 
 memory of his mother filled his mind with 
 tenderest recollections, and he said: "I 
 had a good Christian mother, and her 
 prayers have followed me thus far through 
 life." 48 
 
 THE REV. FRANCIS VINTON, D.D. 
 
 From this time Lincoln's life was filled 
 with the deepest sadness and melancholy. 
 Every Thursday was set apart for the 
 indulgence of his grief, at which time he 
 would see no one. Mrs. Lincoln became 
 
82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 alarmed for his health. Dr. Francis Vinton, 
 rector of Trinity Church, New York, was 
 spending a few days in Washington. Being 
 an acquaintance of Mrs. Lincoln, he was 
 invited to the White House. He was 
 apprised of the President's condition. A 
 favorable opportunity presenting itself, Dr. 
 Vinton spoke to Lincoln about it, and told 
 him it was sinful to grieve so much over 
 the departed, and unworthy a believer in 
 the Christian religion. The scene which 
 followed is described as follows: 
 
 "Your son,' 5 said Dr. Vinton, "is alive, 
 in paradise. Do you remember that pas- 
 sage in the Gospels, 'God is not a God of 
 the dead, but of the living: for all live 
 unto him'?" As Mr. Lincoln caught the 
 words, "Your son is alive," he started 
 from his seat, as one aroused from a 
 stupor, and exclaimed, "Alive! Alive! 
 Surely you mock me." "No, sir; believe 
 me," replied Dr. Vinton; "it is a most 
 comforting doctrine of the church, founded 
 upon the words of Christ himself." Mr. 
 Lincoln threw his arm around Dr. Vinton's 
 neck, laid his head upon his breast, and 
 sobbed aloud, "Alive? Alive?" Dr. Vinton, 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 83 
 
 greatly moved, said: "My dear sir, believe 
 this, for it is God's most precious truth. 
 Seek not your son among the dead; he is 
 not there; he lives to-day in paradise! 
 Think of the full import of the words I 
 have quoted. The Sadducees, when they 
 questioned Jesus, had no other conception 
 than that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were 
 dead and buried. Mark the reply: 'Now 
 that the dead are raised, even Moses 
 showed at the bush when he called the 
 Lord the God of Abraham, the God of 
 Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is 
 not the God of the dead, but of the living, 
 for all live unto Him! 9 Did not the great 
 patriarch mourn his sons as dead? ' Joseph 
 is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take 
 Benjamin, also!' But Joseph and Simeon 
 were both living, though he believed it 
 not. Indeed, Joseph being taken from 
 him was the eventual means of the preser- 
 vation of the whole family. And so God 
 has called your son into His upper kingdom 
 — a kingdom and an existence as real, more 
 real, than your own. It may be that he 
 too, like Joseph, has gone, in God's good 
 providence, to be the salvation of his 
 
84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 father's household. It is a part of the 
 Lord's plan for the ultimate happiness of 
 you and yours. Doubt it not. 55 
 
 Dr. Vinton told Lincoln that he had a 
 sermon upon the subject. Mr. Lincoln 
 asked him to send it to him as early as 
 possible, and thanked him repeatedly for 
 his cheering and hopeful words. When 
 Lincoln received the sermon he read it 
 over and over, and had a copy made for 
 his own private use. A member of the 
 family said that Mr. Lincoln's views in 
 relation to spiritual things seemed changed 
 from that hour. 49 
 
 Responsibility to God 
 March 6, 1862, President Lincoln sent to 
 the Senate and House of Representatives 
 a message recommending compensated 
 emancipation of slavery, closing with these 
 words: "In full view of my responsibility 
 to my God and my country, I earnestly 
 beg the attention of Congress and the 
 people to the subject."* 
 
 Must Work Out Destiny 
 In April, 1862, the Rev. N. W. Miner 
 and wife, of Springfield, Illinois, visited the 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 85 
 
 Lincolns at the White House. Mr. Lincoln 
 was sad and dejected over the death of lit- 
 tle Willie, and the destruction of life at the 
 battle of Shiloh. He was discouraged. Mr. 
 Miner said: "Well, Mr. Lincoln, you have 
 this encouragement: Christian people all 
 over the country are praying for you as 
 they never prayed for mortal man before." 
 "I believe that," he replied, "and this has 
 been an encouraging thought for me. If I 
 were not sustained by the prayers of God's 
 people, I could not endure the constant 
 pressure. I should give up hoping for 
 success." Mr. Miner asked, "Do you 
 think, judging from your standpoint, that 
 we shall be able to put down the rebellion?" 
 He answered: "You know I am not of a 
 very hopeful temperament. I can take 
 hold of a thing and hold on a good while. 
 By trusting God for help, and believing 
 that our cause is just and right, I firmly 
 believe we shall conquer in the end." After 
 further conversation he said: "I would 
 gladly, if I could, take my neck from under 
 the yoke, and go home with you to Spring- 
 field, and live as I used, in peace with my 
 friends, than to endure this harassing kind 
 
86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 of life. But/ 5 with great solemnity he 
 added, "it has pleased Almighty God to 
 place me in my present position, and, look- 
 ing to Him for wisdom and divine guidance, 
 I must work out my destiny as best I 
 can." 50 
 
 First Proclamation for Thanksgiving 
 April 10, 1862, Mr. Lincoln issued his 
 first proclamation recommending thanks- 
 giving for victories as follows: 
 
 It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe 
 signal victories to the land and naval forces engaged 
 in suppressing an internal rebellion, and at the 
 same time to avert from our country the danger 
 of foreign intervention and invasion: 
 
 It is therefore recommended to the people of 
 the United States that, at their next weekly assem- 
 blages in their accustomed places of public worship 
 which shall occur after notice of this proclamation 
 shall have been received, they especially acknowl- 
 edge and render thanks to our Heavenly Father 
 for these inestimable blessings; that they then and 
 there implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all 
 who have been brought into affliction by the cas- 
 ualties and calamities of sedition and civil war; 
 and that they reverently invoke the divine guidance 
 for our national counsels, to the end that they 
 may speedily result in the restoration of peace, 
 harmony, and unity throughout our borders, and 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 87 
 
 hasten the establishment of fraternal relations 
 among all the countries of earth.* 
 
 Reply to Evangelical Lutherans 
 
 May 6(?), 1862, in reply to a committee 
 from the Evangelical Lutheran General 
 Synod, Mr. Lincoln spoke, in part, as 
 follows: 
 
 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 good, 
 and declared that it placed its whole dependence 
 upon the favor of God. I now humbly and rev- 
 erently, in your presence, reiterate the acknowl- 
 edgment of that dependence, not doubting that, 
 if it shall please the Divine Being who determines 
 the destinies of nations, this shall remain a united 
 people, and that they will, humbly seeking the 
 Divine guidance, make their prolonged national 
 existence a source of new benefits to themselves 
 and their successors, and to all classes and con- 
 ditions of mankind.* 
 
 Speech to Indiana Regiment 
 May 15, 1862, in a speech to the 12th 
 Indiana Regiment, Mr. Lincoln closed by 
 saying, "The thanks of the nation will 
 follow you, and may God's blessing rest 
 upon you now and forever. 55 * 
 
88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 His Great Faith 
 Ex-Senator James F. Wilson, of Iowa, 
 relates an account of a visit which he with 
 several other gentlemen made upon Presi- 
 dent Lincoln in June, 1862. Slavery and 
 the war situation were freely discussed. 
 Mr. Lincoln sat quietly in his chair, listen- 
 ing to what different ones had to say. 
 After awhile "He arose and stood at his 
 extreme height. Pausing a moment, his 
 right arm outstretched toward the gentle- 
 man who had just ceased speaking, his face 
 aglow like the face of a prophet, Mr. Lin- 
 coln gave deliberate and emphatic utter- 
 ance to the religious faith which sustained 
 him in his great trial to which he and the 
 country were subjected. He said: 
 
 "My faith is greater than yours. I not only 
 believe that Providence is not unmindful of the 
 struggle in which this nation is engaged, that if 
 we do not do right, God will let us go our own way 
 to ruin; and that if we do right, He will lead us 
 safely out of this wilderness, crown our arms with 
 victory, and restore our dissevered union, as you 
 have expressed your belief; but I also believe He 
 will compel us to do right, in order that He may 
 do these things, not so much because we desire 
 them as that they accord with His plans of deal- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 89 
 
 ing with this nation, in the midst of which He 
 means to establish justice. I think that He means 
 that we shall do more than we have yet done in 
 the furtherance of His plans and He will open the 
 way for our doing it. I have felt His hand upon 
 me in great trials and submitted to His guidance, 
 and I trust that as He shall farther open the way, 
 I will be ready to walk therein, relying on His 
 help and trusting in His goodness and wisdom." 51 
 
 On the Lord's Side 
 
 One day during the war a minister said 
 in Lincoln's presence that he hoped "the 
 Lord" was "on our side," to which Mr. 
 Lincoln replied, "I am not at all con- 
 cerned 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 should be on the 
 Lord's side." 52 
 
 With emphatic and deep emotion Mr. 
 Lincoln said to a company of clergymen 
 who called to pay their respects to him in 
 the darkest days of the war, "Gentlemen, 
 my hope of success in this struggle rests 
 on that immutable foundation, the justice 
 and the goodness of God; and, when events 
 are very threatening and prospects very 
 
90 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 dark, I still hope that, in some way which 
 man cannot see, all will be well in the end, 
 because our cause is just and God will be 
 on our side/' 53 
 
 "From the day of his election the Presi- 
 dent was animated by a profound convic- 
 tion: 'If we do right, God will be with us; 
 and if God is with us, we cannot fail/ " 54 
 
 A Patient Man 
 In a letter to Reverdy Johnson, July 26, 
 1862, he says, "I am a patient man — 
 always willing to forgive on the Christian 
 terms of repentance, and also to give 
 ample time for repentance."* 
 
 Letter to Count A. de Gasparin 
 
 Mr. Lincoln never hesitated to acknow- 
 ledge his dependence upon God, whether 
 to people of his own or a foreign land. 
 On August 4, 1862, in reply to a letter 
 from Count de Gasparin, one of the 
 warmest friends of the United States in 
 Europe, who had written to the President 
 concerning the state of the country, Mr. 
 Lincoln said, "I can only say that I have 
 acted upon my best convictions, without 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 91 
 
 selfishness or malice, and that by the help 
 of God I shall continue to do so."* 
 
 Wrestling in Prayer 
 battle of bull run 
 About September 1, 1862, after the 
 second defeat of Bull Run, Mr. Lincoln, 
 greatly distressed on account of the num- 
 ber of killed and wounded, said to a lady 
 friend: "I have done the best I could. I 
 have asked God to guide me, and now I 
 must leave the result with Him." 55 
 
 VISIT TO HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 "Following the disaster of Bull Run, 
 when the strength and resources of the 
 nation seemed to have been wasted, the 
 hopes of the North were at their lowest 
 ebb, and Mr. Lincoln was well-nigh over- 
 whelmed with the awful responsibility of 
 guiding the nation in its life struggle. 
 Henry Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn, was, 
 perhaps, more prominently associated with 
 the cause of the North at that time than 
 any other minister of the gospel. He had 
 preached and lectured and fought its bat- 
 tles in pulpit and press all over the country, 
 
92 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 had ransomed slaves from his pulpit, and 
 his convictions and feelings were every- 
 where known. 
 
 "Late one evening a stranger called at 
 his home and asked to see him. Mr. 
 Beecher was working alone in his study, 
 as was his custom, and this stranger re- 
 fused to send up his name, and came 
 muffled in a military cloak which com- 
 pletely hid his face. Mrs. Beeeher's sus- 
 picions were aroused, and she was very 
 unwilling that he should have the inter- 
 view which he requested, especially as Mr. 
 Beeeher's life had been frequently threat- 
 ened by sympathizers with the South. 
 The latter, however, insisted that his 
 visitor be shown up. Accordingly, the 
 stranger entered, the doors were shut, and 
 for hours the wife below could hear their 
 voices and their footsteps as they paced 
 back and forth. Finally, toward midnight, 
 the mysterious visitor went out, still 
 muffled in his cloak, so that it was im- 
 possible to gain any idea of his features. 
 
 "The years went by, the war was fin- 
 ished, the President had suffered martyr- 
 dom at his post, and it was not until 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 93 
 
 shortly before Mr. Beecher's death, over 
 twenty years later, that he made known 
 that the mysterious stranger who had 
 called on that stormy night was Abraham 
 Lincoln, The stress and strain of those 
 days and nights of struggle, with all the 
 responsibilities and sorrows of a nation 
 fighting for its life resting upon him, had 
 broken his strength, and for a time under- 
 mined his courage. He had traveled alone 
 in disguise and at night from Washington 
 to Brooklyn, to gain the sympathy and 
 help of one whom he knew as a man of 
 God, engaged in the same great battle in 
 which he was the leader. Alone for hours 
 that night, like Jacob of old, the two had 
 wrestled together in prayer with the God 
 of battles and the Watcher over the right 
 until they had received the help which He 
 had promised to those that seek His aid/' 
 
 The story of this most remarkable inci- 
 dent was first given to the public by Mr. 
 Samuel Scoville, Jr., of Philadelphia, a 
 grandson of Henry Ward Beecher, who 
 heard it from Mrs. Beecher herself. 58 
 
94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1868 
 
 Preliminary Proclamation 
 will do god's will. 
 
 On the 13th of September, 1862, a dele- 
 gation of Chicago ministers, representing 
 all religious denominations, called upon 
 President Lincoln to urge him to issue a 
 Proclamation of Emancipation. 
 
 In his reply Mr. Lincoln began by say- 
 ing: "The subject presented in the memo- 
 rial is one upon which I have thought much 
 for weeks past, and I may even say for 
 months. I am approached with the most 
 opposite opinions and advice, and that by 
 religious men who are equally certain that 
 they represent the divine will. I am sure 
 that either the one or the other class is 
 mistaken in their belief, and perhaps in 
 some respects both. I hope it will not be 
 irreverent for me to say that if it is prob- 
 able that God would reveal His will to 
 others on a point so connected with my 
 duty, it might be supposed He would 
 reveal it directly to me; for, unless I am 
 more deceived in myself than I often am, 
 
1868] THE CHRISTIAN 95 
 
 it is my earnest desire to know the will of 
 Providence in this matter. And if I can 
 learn what it is, I will do it." After a 
 lengthy discussion of the subject, he said 
 in closing, "I can assure you that the sub- 
 ject is on my mind, by day and night, 
 more than any other. Whatever shall 
 appear to be God's will I will do."* 
 
 HIS MIND MADE UP 
 
 The lady who was staying at the White 
 House as a nurse says: "Riding down from 
 the Soldiers 5 Home, or the President's 
 summer residence, he told me of the 
 struggle he had in his mind, and had 
 succeeded, in regard to emancipating so 
 many of that despised race, the blacks, 
 and, said he, 'I have made up my mind 
 with God's help to set them free, for the 
 time has come, and there will never be a 
 better time than now, and I will do the 
 best I can, trusting in God.' " 57 
 
 COVENANT WITH GOD 
 
 Mr. Frank B. Carpenter, the artist, 
 says that Secretary Chase told him that 
 immediately after the battle of Antietam, 
 
96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 September 17, and just before the issue 
 of the preliminary proclamation, Mr, Lin- 
 coln called a meeting of his Cabinet, on 
 September 22, 1862, to consider the issuing 
 of his Emancipation Proclamation. He 
 began by saying: "The time for the annun- 
 ciation of the emancipation policy can be 
 no longer delayed. Public sentiment will 
 sustain it, many of my warmest friends 
 and supporters demand it, and I have 
 "promised my God that I will do it." This 
 last was said in a low and reverent tone. 
 Secretary Chase asked if he correctly un- 
 derstood the last sentence. Mr. Lincoln 
 replied: "J made a solemn vow before God, 
 that if General Lee were driven back from 
 Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by 
 the declaration of freedom to the slaves" 58 
 
 NO MISTAKE 
 
 September 24, 1862, two days after the 
 preliminary proclamation, a large body of 
 men assembled before the White House 
 to serenade the President. Alluding to 
 the proclamation, Mr. Lincoln said: "What 
 I did, I did after a very full deliberation, 
 and under a heavy and solemn sense of 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 97 
 
 responsibility. I can only trust in God 
 I have made no mistake."* 
 
 Reply to Quakers 
 
 September 28(?), 1862, in reply to an 
 address from the Society of Friends de- 
 livered to him at the White House by a 
 deputation headed by Mrs. Eliza P. 
 Gurney, Mr. Lincoln said: 
 
 I am glad of this interview, and glad to know 
 that I have your sympathy and prayers. We are 
 indeed going through a great trial — a fiery trial. 
 In the very responsible position in which I happen 
 to be placed, being a humble instrument in the 
 hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am, and as we 
 all are, to work out His great purposes, I have 
 desired that all my works and acts may be accord- 
 ing to His will, and that it might be so, I have 
 sought His aid; but if, after endeavoring to do 
 my best in the light which He affords me, I find 
 my efforts fail, I must believe that for some pur- 
 pose unknown to me, He wills it otherwise. If 
 I had had my way, this war would never have 
 been commenced. If I had been allowed my way, 
 this war would have been ended before this; but 
 we find it still continues, and we must believe 
 that He permits it for some wise purpose of His 
 own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though 
 with our limited understandings we may not be 
 
98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 able to comprehend it, yet we cannot but believe 
 that He who made the world still governs it.* 
 
 A Meditation on the Divine Will 
 September 30(?), 1862, "when every- 
 thing looked dark and the future of this 
 nation was uncertain; when men were 
 wrangling about methods of conducting the 
 war, and jealousy was rife in the army, 
 Mr. Lincoln wrote the following medita- 
 tion. It was not for men, but it was the 
 expression of a great soul trying to bring 
 himself into perfect harmony with the 
 divine": 
 
 The will of God prevails. In great contests 
 each party claims to act in accordance with the 
 will of God. Both may be, and one must be, 
 wrong. God cannot be for and against the same 
 thing at the same time. In the present civil war 
 it is quite possible that God's purpose is something 
 different from the purpose of either party; and 
 yet the human instrumentalities, working just as 
 they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His 
 purpose. I am almost ready to say this is prob- 
 ably true; that God wills this contest, and wills 
 that it shall not end yet. By His mere great power 
 on the minds of the now contestants, he could have 
 either saved or destroyed the Union without a 
 human contest. Yet the contest began. And, 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 99 
 
 having begun, He could give the final victory to 
 either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.* 
 
 Lincoln and the Sabbath 
 On November 15, 1862, President Lin- 
 coln shows his deepening religious convic- 
 tion, and his comprehensive faith in the 
 fact that God rules in the affairs of nations 
 as well as of individuals, by his famous 
 "Sunday Rest Order": 
 
 The President, Commander-in-chief of the Army 
 and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance 
 of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the 
 military and naval service. The importance for 
 man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the 
 sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a 
 becoming deference to the best sentiments of a 
 Christian people, and a d'ie regard for the Divine 
 Will, demand that Sunday labor in the army and 
 navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. 
 
 The discipline and character of the national 
 forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend 
 be imperiled by the profanation of the day or name 
 of the Most High. "At this time of public dis- 
 tress" — adopting the words of Washington in 1776 — 
 "men may find enough to do in the service of 
 God and their Country without abandoning them- 
 selves to vice and immorality. " The first general 
 order issued by the Father of his Country, after the 
 Declaration of Independence, indicates the spirit in 
 
100 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 which our institutions were founded and should ever 
 be defended: "The General hopes and trusts that 
 every officer and man will endeavor to live and 
 act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the 
 dearest rights and liberties of his country."* 
 
 Second Annual Message to Congress 
 In his annual message to Congress, De- 
 cember 1, 1862, he begins by saying: 
 
 While it has not pleased the Almighty to bless 
 us with a return of peace, we can but press on, 
 guided by the best light He gives us, trusting that 
 in His own good time and wise way all will be well. 
 
 After discussing the proposed proclama- 
 tion of emancipation, he said in closing: 
 
 We know how to save the Union. The world 
 knows we do know how to save it. We — even we 
 here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. 
 In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom 
 to the free — honorable alike in what we give and 
 what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly 
 lose the last, best hope of earth. Other means 
 may succeed; this could not fail. The way is 
 plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if 
 followed, the world will forever applaud and God 
 must forever bless.* 
 
 Control of a Higher Power 
 In the last days of 1862, when Mr. Lin- 
 coln was seriously contemplating issuing 
 
1862] THE CHRISTIAN 101 
 
 the Emancipation Proclamation, the Rev. 
 Byron Sunderland, D.D., pastor of the 
 First Presbyterian Church of Washington, 
 D. C, which Mr, Lincoln sometimes at- 
 tended, went with some friends of the 
 President to call upon him. In a letter 
 to Rev. J. A. Reed, November 15, 1872, 
 Dr. Sunderland says that the President 
 spoke for a half hour and poured forth a 
 volume of the deepest Christian philosophy 
 he ever heard. He began by saying: 
 
 The ways of God are mysterious and profound 
 beyond all comprehension — 'Who by searching can 
 find Him out?' Now, judging after the manner 
 of men, taking counsel of our sympathies and 
 feelings, if it had been left to us to determine it, 
 we would have had no war. And, going further 
 back to the occasion of it, we would have had no 
 slavery. And, tracing it still further back, we 
 would have had no, evil. There is the mystery 
 of the universe which no man can solve, and it 
 is at that point that the human understanding 
 backs down. And there is nothing left but for 
 the heart of man to take up faith and believe and 
 trust where it cannot reason. Now, I believe we 
 are all agents and instruments of Divine Providence. 
 On both sides we are working out the will of God. 
 Yet how strange the spectacle! Here is one half 
 of the nation prostrated in prayer that God will 
 
102 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1862 
 
 help them to destroy the Union and build up a 
 government upon the corner stone of human bond- 
 age. And here is the other half equally earnest 
 in their prayers and efforts to defeat a purpose 
 which they regard as so repugnant to their ideas 
 of human nature and the rights of society, as well 
 as liberty and independence. They want slavery; 
 we want freedom. They want a servile class; we 
 want to make equality practical as far as possible. 
 And they are Christians and we are Christians. 
 They and we are praying and fighting for results 
 exactly the opposite. What must God think of 
 such a posture of affairs? There is but one solu- 
 tion — self-deception. Somewhere there is a fearful 
 heresy in our religion, and I cannot think it lies 
 in the love of liberty and in the aspirations of the 
 human soul. 
 
 What I am to do in the present emergency time 
 will determine. I hold myself in my present posi- 
 tion and with the authority vested in me as an 
 instrument of Providence. I have my own views 
 and purposes, I have my convictions of duty, and 
 my notions of what is right to be done. But I 
 am conscious every moment that all I am and all 
 I have is subject to the control of a Higher Power, 
 and that Power can use me or not use me in any 
 manner, and at any time, as in His wisdom and 
 might may be pleasing to Him. 
 
 Nevertheless, I am no fatalist. I believe in the 
 supremacy of the human conscience, and that men 
 are responsible beings; that God has a right to 
 
1862-3] THE CHRISTIAN 103 
 
 hold them, and will hold them, to a strict personal 
 account for the deeds done in the body. But, 
 sirs, I do not mean to give you a lecture upon the 
 doctrines of the Christian religion. These are 
 simply with me the convictions and realities of 
 great and vital truths, the power and demonstra- 
 tion of which I see now in the light of this our 
 national struggle as I have never seen before. 
 God only knows the issue of this business. He 
 has destroyed nations from the map of history 
 for their sins. Nevertheless, my hopes prevail 
 generally above my fears for our Republic. The 
 times are dark, the spirits of ruin are abroad in 
 all their power, and the mercy of God alone can 
 save us. 59 
 
 "Let this Cup Pass" 
 Mr. Henry C. Whitney, in his Life on 
 the Circuit with Lincoln, says that Mr. 
 Lincoln told Governor Edward Stanley, 
 military governor of North Carolina, that 
 "He earnestly and ofttimes prayed to God 
 in these identical words: 'Father, if it be 
 possible, let this cup pass from me 5 ; but 
 in vain. Therefore he issued the Emanci- 
 pation Proclamation/" 00 
 
 Emancipation Proclamation 
 The Emancipation Proclamation, which 
 was given to the world January 1, 18G3, 
 
104 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 closed with this prayer: "And upon this 
 act, sincerely believed to be an act of 
 justice, warranted by the Constitution, 
 upon military necessity, I invoke the con- 
 siderate judgment of mankind, and the 
 gracious favor of the Almighty God."* 
 
 WORTHY OF JESUS CHRIST 
 
 Dr. David Gregg says: "That was an 
 act worthy of Jesus Christ. It was the act 
 of Jesus Christ; for it was the Spirit of 
 Jesus Christ that filled the man with 
 power, and that found an outlet in Amer- 
 ican history through the personality and 
 pen of Abraham Lincoln." 
 
 GRACIOUS FAVOR OF GOD 
 
 January 5, 1863, in reply to a letter, Mr. 
 Lincoln wrote the following: 
 
 It is most cheering and encouraging for me that 
 in the efforts which I have made and am making 
 for the restoration of a righteous peace for our 
 country, I am upheld and sustained by the good 
 wishes and prayers of God's people. No one is 
 more deeply than myself aware that without His 
 favor our highest wisdom is but as foolishness and 
 that our most strenuous efforts would avail nothing 
 in the shadow of His displeasure. 
 
1863] * THE CHRISTIAN 105 
 
 I am conscious of no desire for my country's 
 welfare that is not in consonance with His will, 
 and no plan upon which we may not ask His bless- 
 ing. It seems to me that if there be one subject 
 upon which all good men may unitedly agree, it 
 is imploring the gracious favor of the God of Na- 
 tions upon the struggles our people are making 
 for the preservation of their precious birthright of 
 civil and religious liberty.* 
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD 
 
 In 1900, the only living one of seven 
 gentlemen who called to congratulate Mr. 
 Lincoln on the success of our arms after 
 he had signed the Emancipation Procla- 
 mation, stated that Mr. Lincoln replied as 
 follows: "It is a great satisfaction to me to 
 feel that I have the support of the people 
 in the great struggle to save the Nation's 
 life. I never believed in slavery, but I 
 felt I was elected President of both the 
 North and the South. When Sumter was 
 fired upon, and I called for seventy-five 
 thousand men, my determined purpose was 
 to save the country and slavery, and I 
 called for over half a million men with the 
 same determination. But/ 5 said he slowly 
 and with great emphasis, "on many a de- 
 
106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 feated field there was a voice louder than 
 the thundering of cannon. It was the 
 voice of God, crying, 'Let my people go/ 
 We were all very slow in realizing it was 
 God's voice, but after many humiliating 
 defeats the nation came to believe it as a 
 great and solemn command. Great multi- 
 tudes begged and prayed that I might 
 answer God's voice by signing the Emanci- 
 pation Proclamation, and I did it, believ- 
 ing we never should be successful in the 
 great struggle unless we obeyed the Lord's 
 command. Since that the 'God of Battles' 
 has been on our side." 61 
 
 Letter to the Rev. Alexander Reed 
 
 February 22, 1863, in a letter to the 
 Rev. Alexander Reed, superintendent of 
 the United States Christian Commission, 
 who invited Mr. Lincoln to preside at a 
 meeting in the House of Representatives 
 on that day, he said: "Whatever shall be 
 sincerely, and in God's name, devised for 
 the good of the soldier and seaman in 
 their hard spheres of duty, can scarcely 
 fail to be blest. . . . The birthday of Wash- 
 ington and the Christian Sabbath coin- 
 
1S6S] THE CHRISTIAN 107 
 
 ciding this year and suggesting together 
 the highest interests of this life and of 
 that to come, is most propitious for the 
 meeting proposed."* 
 
 Second National Fast-Day 
 March 30, 1863, President Lincoln issued 
 a proclamation appointing another national 
 fast-day. It reads like the deliverance of 
 one of the ancient prophets, as follows: 
 
 Whereas, the Senate of the United States, de- 
 voutly recognizing the supreme authority and just 
 government of Almighty God in all the affairs of 
 men and of nations, has by a resolution requested 
 the President to designate and set apart a day 
 for national prayer and humiliation: 
 
 And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well 
 as of men to own their dependence upon the over- 
 ruling power of God; to confess their sins and trans- 
 gressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope 
 that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and 
 pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, an- 
 nounced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all 
 history, that those nations only are blessed whose 
 God is the Lord: 
 
 And insomuch as we know that by His divine 
 law nations, like individuals, are subject to pun- 
 ishments and chastisements in this world, and 
 may we not justly fear that the awful calamity 
 of civil war which now desolates the land may 
 
108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our pre- 
 sumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national 
 reformation as a whole people? We have been 
 the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. 
 We have been preserved these many years in 
 peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, 
 wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; 
 but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten 
 the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, 
 and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; 
 and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness 
 of our hearts, that all these blessings were pro- 
 duced by some superior wisdom and virtue of 
 our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we 
 have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity 
 of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to 
 pray to the God who made us: 
 
 It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before 
 the offended Power, afnd confess our national sins, 
 and to pray for clemency and forgiveness: 
 
 Now, therefore, in compliance with the request 
 and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, 
 I do by this my proclamation designate and set 
 apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as 
 a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. 
 And I do hereby request all the people to abstain 
 on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, 
 and to unite at their several places of public wor- 
 ship and their respective homes in keeping the 
 day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble 
 discharge of the religious duties proper to that 
 
1868] THE CHRISTIAN 109 
 
 solemn occasion. All this being done in sincerity 
 and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope 
 authorized by divine teachings, that the united 
 cry of the nation will be heard on high, and an- 
 swered with blessings no less than the pardon of 
 our national sins, and the restoration of our now 
 divided and suffering country to its former happy 
 condition of unity and peace.* 
 
 Reply to Presbyterians 
 
 May 30(?), 1863, a committee of sixty- 
 five members of the General Assembly of 
 the Presbyterian Church in the United 
 States of America, that met in Philadel- 
 phia, visited the President, presenting him 
 with resolutions of indorsement and en- 
 couragement. In his reply, Mr. Lincoln 
 said: 
 
 Relying, as I do, upon Almighty Power, and 
 encouraged, as I am, by the resolutions which you 
 have just read, with the support which I receive 
 from Christian men, I shall not hesitate to use all 
 the means at my control to secure the termination 
 of this rebellion, and will hope for success.* 
 
 "God Will Bring Us Through Safe" 
 
 Mr, Oliver S. Munsell, April 15, 1893, 
 writes of an interview with Mr. Lincoln at 
 the White House in 1863, about three 
 
110 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 weeks before the battle of Gettysburg. 
 Mr. Munsell was then president of the 
 Illinois Wesleyan University, at Blooming- 
 ton. Mr. Munsell asked, "Will our coun- 
 try come through safe and live?" Mr. 
 Lincoln replied: 
 
 1 I do not doubt — I never have doubted — that our 
 country would finally come through safe and un- 
 divided. But do not misunderstand me; I do not 
 know how it can be. I do not rely on the patriot- 
 ism of our people, though no people have rallied 
 round their king as ours have rallied round me. 
 I do not trust in the bravery and devotion of the 
 boys in blue; God bless them though! God never 
 gave a prince or conqueror such an army as He has 
 given to me. Nor yet do I rely on the loyalty and 
 skill of our generals; though I believe we have 
 the best generals in the world at the head of our 
 armies. But the God of our fathers, who raised 
 up this country to be the refuge and asylum of 
 the oppressed and downtrodden of all nations, 
 will not let it perish now. I may not live to see it, 
 and [he added after a moment's pause] I do not 
 expect to live to see it, but God will bring us through 
 safe. 
 
 "When he finished there was silence that 
 could be felt. I do not often weep at 
 human words, but then my eyes were wet 
 with tears and I felt humbled in the pres- 
 
1863] THE CHRISTIAN 111 
 
 ence of Mr. Lincoln's sublime faith in 'the 
 God of Battles/ " 62 
 
 Announcement of Gettysburg Victory 
 
 July 4, 1863, announcing news from 
 Gettysburg, with characteristic reverence 
 he closed by expressing his desire "That on 
 this day He whose will, not ours, should 
 ever be done be everywhere remembered 
 and reverenced with profoundest grati- 
 tude. 55 * 
 
118 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 A Praying President 
 
 THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 
 
 General James F. Rusling, of Trenton, 
 New Jersey, relates a significant conversa- 
 tion which he heard on Sunday, July 5, 
 1863, in the room in Washington where 
 General Sickles lay wounded, just after the 
 great victory at Gettysburg. In reply to a 
 question from General Sickles whether or 
 not the President was anxious about the 
 battle at Gettysburg, Lincoln gravely said, 
 "No, I was not; some of my Cabinet and 
 many others in Washington were, but I had 
 no fears/ 5 General Sickles inquired how 
 this was, and seemed curious about it. Mr. 
 Lincoln hesitated, but finally replied: "Well, 
 I will tell you how it was. In the pinch of 
 your campaign up there, when everybody 
 seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could 
 tell what was going to happen, oppressed 
 by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my 
 room one day, and I locked the door, and 
 got down on my knees before Almighty 
 God, and prayed to Him mightily for vie- 
 
A PRATING PRESIDENT 
 JAMES F. RUSLING, of Trenton, H. 
 
 relates a elgnl- tLi" 
 
 v^^Lf leant conversation which he heard on Sunday, July 5, 1863, in theJ *. 
 
 1 ) . "room in Washington where Gen. Sickles lay wounded, Just after the "*» ^ 
 
 "t$ -'^T great victory at Gettysburg. In reply to a question from Gen. \ ^> 
 
 j- c ^ : V si ^Sickles whether or not the President was anxious about the battle „^ >Z 
 
 ryn •* it at Gettysburg, Lincoln gravely said, *Ro, I was not; some -of my J^J 
 
 oabinet and many others in Washington were, but I had no fears." < j i § f ? 
 
 Sickles inquired how this was, and seemed curious about it. *^* 
 
 Mr. Lincoln hesitated, but finally replied: "Well, I will tell your^ 
 how it was. In the pinch of your campaign up there, when every- 
 
 r 
 
 
 body seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could tell what was going T >£** 
 to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my <P*£ 
 room one day, and locked the door, and got down on my knees be- ** c>U 
 fore Almighty God, and prayed t6 Him mightily for victory at s V* 
 Gettysburg, I told Him that this was His war, and our oause His » ** 
 cause, but we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellors^- 
 ▼llle. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God, "^ 
 that if He would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand */ 
 by Him. And He did stand by you boys, and I will stand by Him. t I 
 And after that (I don't know how it was, and I can't explain it), f 
 soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had J 
 /* **> taken the whole business into His own hands and that things would^. \ 
 \, f ft go all right at Gettysburg. ' And that is why I had no fears afcout^v 
 fjL*you, B Asked concerning Vicksburg, the news of whioh victory had 3 
 not yet reached him, he said, "I have been praying for Vicksburg / 
 ^ also, and believe our Heavenly Father is going to give us viotory *jf 
 J ,xj)there, too." Of course, he did not know that Vicksburg had al« *p 
 {% ready " surrendered the day before. Gen. Busling says that Mr. fj 
 ^37 Lincoln spoke "solemnly and pathetically, as If from, the depth « 
 « of his heart," and that his manner was deeply touching. *$ 
 
 FACSIMILE OF INDORSEMENT OF STORY OF MR. LINCOLN PRATING OVER 
 BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 
 
 The author submitted his MS. to General Rusling and General Sickles, both of whom 
 wrote an indorsement on the margin of the MS., as follows: 
 
 "I certify that this statement of a conversation between President Lincoln and General 
 Sickles, in my presence, at Washington, D. C., July 5, 1863, relating to Gettysburg, is 
 correct and true. James F. Rusling, Trenton, N. J., Feb. 17, 1910. 
 
 "I hereby certify that the foregoing statement by General Rusling is true in substance. 
 I know from my intimate acquaintance with .President Lincoln that he was a religious man 
 
 D. E. Sickles, Major General U. S. Army, Ret'd, 
 113 
 
 tod-f earing and God-loving ruler. 
 New York, Feb. 11, 1911." 
 
114 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 tory at Gettysburg. I told Him that this 
 was His war, and our cause His cause, but 
 we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg 
 or Chancellorsville. And I then and there 
 made a solemn vow to Almighty God, that 
 if He would stand by our boys at Gettys- 
 burg, I would stand by Him. And He did 
 stand by you boys, and I will stand by 
 Him. And after that (I don't know how 
 it was, and I can't explain it), soon a sweet 
 comfort crept into my soul that God 
 Almighty had taken the whole business 
 into his own hands and that things would 
 go all right at Gettysburg. And that is 
 why I had no fears about you/' Asked 
 concerning Vicksburg, the news of which 
 victory had not yet reached him, he said, 
 "I have been praying for Vicksburg also, 
 and believe our Heavenly Father is going 
 to give us victory there, too." General 
 Rusling says that Mr. Lincoln spoke "sol- 
 emnly and pathetically, as if from the 
 depth of his heart," and that his manner 
 was deeply touching. 63 
 
 PRAYING FOR VICTORY 
 
 A lady friend who was staying at the 
 
1863] THE CHRISTIAN 115 
 
 White House says that on July 9, 1863, 
 while sitting at the dinner table he could 
 not eat, for he seemed so full of trouble as 
 he said, "The battle of Port Hudson is now 
 going on, and many lives will be sacrificed 
 on both sides, but I have done the best I 
 could, trusting in God, for if they gain this 
 important point, we are lost; and, on the 
 other hand, if we could only gain it we 
 shall have gained much; and I think we 
 shall, for we have a great deal to thank 
 God for, for we have Vicksburg and Gettys- 
 burg already." The lady said, "Mr. Lin- 
 coln, prayer will do what nothing else will; 
 can you not pray?" "Yes, I will," he re- 
 plied, and while the tears were dropping 
 from his haggard and worn face he said, 
 "Pray for me," and picked up a Bible and 
 went to his room. "Could all the people of 
 the nation have overheard the earnest 
 petition that went up from that inner 
 chamber as it reached the ears of the 
 nurse, they would have fallen upon their 
 knees with tearful and reverential sym- 
 pathy." That night he received a dispatch 
 announcing a Union victory. He went di- 
 rectly to his friend's room, his face beaming 
 
116 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 with joy, saying: "Good news! Good news! 
 Port Hudson is ours! The victory is ours, 
 and God is good." When the lady replied, 
 "Nothing like prayer in times of trouble," 
 Mr. Lincoln said, "Yes, yes — praise — 
 prayer and praise go together." The lady 
 who related the incident says, "I do be- 
 lieve he was a true Christian, though he 
 had very little confidence in himself." 84 
 
 Ah, that was the secret of his great- 
 ness — no confidence in himself, but un- 
 bounded confidence in God. Who, know- 
 ing these incidents, daresay that Lincoln 
 was a fatalist, and had no faith in 
 prayer? 
 
 DRIVEN UPON HIS KNEES 
 
 In all the great emergencies of his closing 
 years Mr. Lincoln's reliance upon divine 
 guidance and assistance was often ex- 
 tremely touching. "I have been driven 
 many times upon my knees," he once re- 
 marked to a friend, Mr. Henry C. Whitney, 
 "by the overwhelming conviction that I 
 had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, 
 and that of all about me, seemed insuffi- 
 cient for that day." 65 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 117 
 
 KNELT IN PRAYER 
 
 A minister of the gospel relates the fol- 
 lowing: "After visiting schools, and hold- 
 ing meetings with the freed people, and 
 attending to other religious service south 
 of Washington and in that city, I felt that 
 I must attend to manifest duty, and offer 
 a visit in gospel love to our noble President; 
 it was immediately granted, and a quarter 
 past six that evening was fixed as the time. 
 Under deep feeling I went. The President 
 gave us a cordial welcome, and after 
 pleasant, instructive conversation, during 
 which he said, in reference to the freed- 
 men, 'If I have been one of the instruments 
 in liberating this long-suffering, down- 
 trodden people, I thank God for it' — a 
 precious covering spread over us. The 
 good man rested his head upon his hand, 
 and under a precious, gathering influence I 
 knelt in solemn prayer. He knelt close 
 beside me, and I felt that his heart went 
 with every word as utterance was given. 
 I afterward addressed him, and when we 
 arose to go, he shook my hand heartily, 
 and thanked me for the visit/' 66 
 
118 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 A PASTORAL CALL 
 
 A minister from a little village in Central 
 New York went with his congressman to 
 the White House to call on Mr. Lincoln. 
 After the introduction the congressman 
 withdrew, leaving Mr. Lincoln and the 
 minister alone. The minister said: "I 
 have only come to say that the loyal peo- 
 ple are sustaining you and will continue to 
 do so. We are giving you all that we have 
 — the lives of our sons as well as our con- 
 fidence and our prayers. You must know 
 that no pious father or mother ever kneels 
 in prayer these days without asking God to 
 give you strength and wisdom/' 
 
 The tears filled Lincoln's eyes as he 
 thanked his visitor and said: "But for those 
 prayers I should have faltered and perhaps 
 failed long ago. Tell every father and 
 mother you know to keep on praying and 
 I will keep on fighting, for I am sure that 
 God is on our side." 
 
 As the clergyman started to leave the 
 room, Lincoln held him by the hand and 
 said, "I suppose I may consider this a sort 
 of pastoral call/ 5 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 119 
 
 "Yes," replied the clergyman. 
 
 "Out in our country/' continued Lincoln, 
 "when a parson made a pastoral call it was 
 always the custom for the folks to ask him 
 to lead in prayer, and I should like to ask 
 you to pray with me to-day; pray that I 
 may have strength and wisdom." The two 
 men knelt side by side before a settee and 
 the minister offered the most fervent appeal 
 to the Almighty Power that ever fell from 
 his lips. As they rose, Lincoln grasped his 
 visitor's hand and remarked in a satisfied 
 sort of way, 
 
 "I feel better." 67 
 
 ASKS BISHOP SIMPSON TO PRAY 
 
 "One day, in the darkest time of the 
 war," said Bishop Matthew Simpson 
 to Chaplain (afterward Bishop) C. C. 
 McCabe, "I called to see Mr. Lincoln. 
 We talked long and earnestly about the 
 situation. When I rose to go Mr. Lin- 
 coln stepped to the door and turned 
 the key and said: 'Bishop, I feel the need 
 of prayer as never before. Please pray 
 with me. 5 And so we knelt down in 
 that room together and all through the 
 
120 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 prayer the President responded most 
 fervently/' 68 
 
 REQUESTS MANY TO PRAY FOR HIM 
 
 Mr. John G. Nicolay, his private secre- 
 tary, says: "Mr. Lincoln was a praying 
 man; I know that to be a fact. And I have 
 heard him request people to pray for him. 
 . . . Many a time I have heard Mr. Lincoln 
 ask ministers and Christian women to pray 
 for him." 69 
 
 PRAYS WITH SERVANTS 
 
 A Negro clergyman writes of a visit to 
 the colored servants at the White House, 
 in which he says: "In the year 1865, while 
 a chaplain at Freedmen's Village, on Ar- 
 lington Heights, after the assassination, but 
 three weeks before Mrs. Lincoln left the 
 White House, I dined with the servants 
 employed at the house, some of whom had 
 been engaged in personal attendance upon 
 Mr. Lincoln. My object was really to 
 know more about him whose memory is 
 still dear to me, I asked the servants how 
 Mr. Lincoln treated them. I was told 
 that frequently, late at night, Mr. Lincoln 
 came down stairs to teach them to read, 
 
1868] THE CHRISTIAN 1S1 
 
 and often took such occasions to draw 
 their thoughts toward the Saviour of all 
 mankind. He also often prayed with 
 them/' 70 
 
 DAILY PRAYER 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln said that after he went to 
 the White House he kept up the habit of 
 daily prayer." 71 
 
 "As a child, in a dark and stormy night, 
 on a rugged way catches hold of the hand 
 of its father for guidance and support, 
 Lincoln clung by faith to the hand of" 
 his Heavenly Father, "and moved calmly 
 through the gloom." 
 
 Ambassador of Christ 
 He always welcomed the visits of minis- 
 ters, and regarded their calling as the 
 highest. Once he remarked to Father 
 Chiniquy, "There is nothing as great under 
 heaven as to be an ambassador of Christ." 72 
 
 The Providence of God 
 It is well known that Mr. Lincoln seldom 
 made even a short speech after he was 
 elected President without referring to the 
 omnipotence and providence of God. On 
 the evening of July 7, 1863, a large number 
 
192 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 of citizens called at the White House to 
 serenade the President. Mr. Lincoln made 
 a speech of only fifteen sentences, in two 
 of which his faith in God is expressly 
 stated: "Fellow citizens: I am very glad 
 indeed to see you to-night, and yet I 
 will not say I thank you for this call; 
 but I do most sincerely thank Almighty 
 God for the occasion on which you have 
 called." Then, referring to John Adams 
 and Thomas Jefferson, he said, "Precisely 
 fifty years after they put their hands to 
 the paper, it pleased Almighty God to take 
 both from this stage of action."* 
 
1863] THE CHRISTIAN 1<23 
 
 Second Proclamation for Thanksgiving 
 
 Having twice called upon the nation for 
 fasting and prayer, when victories came 
 Mr, Lincoln did not forget to ask the 
 nation to set apart a day for thanksgiving 
 and praise. On July 15, 1863, he issued 
 the following proclamation: 
 
 It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the 
 supplication and prayers of an afflicted people, 
 and to vouchsafe to the army and navy of the 
 United States victories on land and on sea so signal 
 and so effective as to furnish reasonable grounds 
 for augmented confidence that the union of these 
 States will be maintained, their Constitution pre- 
 served, and their peace and prosperity permanently 
 restored. But these victories have been accorded 
 not without sacrifice of life, limb, health, and 
 liberty, incurred by brave, loyal, and patriotic 
 citizens. Domestic affliction in every part of the 
 country follows in the train of these fearful be- 
 reavements. It is meet and right to recognize and 
 confess the presence of the Almighty Father and 
 the power of his hand equally in these triumphs 
 and in these sorrows. 
 
 Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart 
 Thursday, the 6th day of August next, to be ob- 
 
im ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1868 
 
 served as a day of national thanksgiving, praise, 
 and prayer, and I invite the people of the United 
 States to assemble on that occasion in their custom- 
 ary places of worship, and, in the forms approved 
 by their own consciences, render the homage due 
 to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things 
 He has done in the nation's behalf, and invoke the 
 influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger 
 which has produced and so long sustained a needless 
 and cruel rebellion, to change the hearts of the 
 insurgents, to guide the counsels of the govern- 
 ment with wisdom adequate to so great a national 
 emergency, and to visit with tender care and con- 
 solation throughout the length and breadth of our 
 land all those who, through the vicissitudes of 
 marches, voyages, battles, and sieges, have been 
 brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate, and 
 finally to lead the whole nation through the paths 
 of repentance and submission to the Divine Will 
 back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fra- 
 ternal peace.* 
 
 First Annual Thanksgiving Day 
 
 Although special thanksgiving days have 
 been observed at different times since the 
 days of Plymcfuth Rock, our modern annual 
 Thanksgiving Day really originated with 
 President Lincoln. His proclamation for 
 the first regular Thanksgiving Day was 
 issued October 3, 1863, as follows. After 
 
1868] THE CHRISTIAN 185 
 
 reciting the blessing that God had bestowed 
 upon the nation, he continues: 
 
 No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any 
 mortal hand worked out these great things. They 
 are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, 
 while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath 
 nevertheless remembered mercy. 
 
 It has seemed to me fit and proper that they 
 should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully ac- 
 knowledged as with one heart and one voice by 
 the American people. I do, therefore, invite my 
 fellow citizens in every part of the United States, 
 and also those who are at sea and those who are 
 sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and ob- 
 serve the last Thursday of November next as a 
 day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent 
 Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I 
 recommend to them that, while offering up the 
 ascriptions justly due Him for such singular deliv- 
 erances and blessings, they do also, with humble 
 penitence for our national perverseness and dis- 
 obedience, commend to His tender care all those 
 who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or 
 sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which 
 we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore 
 the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal 
 the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as 
 soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, 
 to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tran- 
 quillity, and union.* 
 
126 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1863 
 
 Dedicated to a Great Task 
 
 On November 19, 1863, at the dedica- 
 tion of the battlefield of Gettysburg, Presi- 
 dent Lincoln closed his speech, "the most 
 sublime piece of literature in the English 
 language/' with this memorable sentence: 
 
 It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the 
 great task remaining before us — that from these 
 honored dead we take increased devotion to that 
 cause for which they gave the last full measure 
 of devotion; that we here 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, 
 and for the people shall not perish from the earth.* 
 
 Of this speech it has been truly said 
 that "the thought and the language are as 
 majestic as those of the ancient prophets/' 
 
 Instrument of Providence 
 Mr, Lincoln regarded himself as only an 
 instrument in the hands of Providence, 
 and took unto himself no credit for freeing 
 the slaves. In 1863, Colonel McKaye, of 
 New York, and Robert Dale Owen re- 
 turned from North Carolina, where they 
 had been sent to investigate the condition 
 of the freedmen. They were telling Mr. 
 
1868] THE CHRISTIAN 137 
 
 Lincoln how the colored people regarded 
 him. One old man said in meeting: "Massa 
 Linkum, he eberywhar. He know ebery- 
 ting. He walk de earf like de Lord." Lin- 
 coln was greatly touched, and said, im- 
 pressively, "It is a momentous thing to be 
 the instrument, under Providence, of the 
 liberation of a race. 5 ' 73 
 
 Constant Recognition of God 
 
 On December 7, 1863, in making an- 
 nouncement of Union success in East 
 Tennessee, he closed as follows: "I recom- 
 mend that all loyal people do, on receipt 
 of this information, assemble at their 
 places of worship and render special homage 
 and gratitude to Almighty God for His 
 great advancement of the national cause."* 
 
 Third Annual Message to Congress 
 
 He begins his Annual Message to Con- 
 gress, December 8, 1863, by saying: 
 "Another year of health, and of sufficiently 
 abundant harvests, has passed. For these, 
 and especially for the improved condition 
 of our national affairs, our renewed and 
 profoundest gratitude to God is due."* 
 
198 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1868 
 
 Telegram to General Grant 
 
 A telegram to General Grant, December 
 8, 1863, closes with, "God bless you all! 55 * 
 
 A Pardoning President 
 
 The generals in the army were greatly 
 annoyed because Mr. Lincoln pardoned so 
 many of the soldiers who were sentenced to 
 be shot. Speaking of this matter on one 
 occasion, Mr. Lincoln said: "They say that 
 I destroy all discipline and am cruel to the 
 army when I will not let them shoot a 
 soldier now and then. But I cannot see 
 it. If God wanted me to see it, he would 
 let me know, and until he does, I shall go 
 on pardoning and being cruel to the 
 end. 5574 
 
 The Rev. Newman Hall, of London, 
 tells of a conversation with an officer of 
 the army, who said that soon after he took 
 command there were twenty-four deserters 
 sentenced by court-martial to be shot. 
 President Lincoln refused to sign the war- 
 rants for their execution. The officer went 
 to Washington and urged the President to 
 sign them, saying: "Unless these men are 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 129 
 
 made an example of, the army itself is in 
 clanger. Mercy to the few is cruelty to 
 the many." Mr. Lincoln replied: "General, 
 there are already too many weeping widows 
 in the United States. For God's sake don't 
 ask me to add to the number, for I won't 
 
 do it." 75 
 
 "A Cup of Cold Water" 
 
 The last week in January, 1864, the 
 Sanitary Commission held a four days' 
 session in Washington, at the conclusion 
 of which between forty and fifty of the 
 ladies went in a body to call upon the 
 President. As related by one of the ladies 
 present, he took each by the hand in the 
 usual perfunctory manner, until it became 
 the turn of a little old Quaker lady from 
 Philadelphia. While he still held her hand, 
 she said to him: "Yes, Friend Abraham, 
 thee needs not think thee stands alone. 
 We are all praying for thee. All our hearts, 
 the hearts of all the people are behind thee, 
 and thee cannot fail! The Lord has ap- 
 pointed thee, the Lord will sustain thee, 
 and the people love thee. Yea, as no other 
 man was ever loved before does this people 
 love thee. We are only a few weak women, 
 
130 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 but we represent many. Take comfort, 
 Friend Abraham, God is with thee. The 
 people are behind thee/' 
 
 "I know it/' replied Mr. Lincoln, the 
 great, soft voice rolling solemnly and 
 sweetly forth from the trembling lips; "I 
 know it. If I did not have that knowledge 
 — it is not hope, it is knowledge, the 
 knowledge that God is sustaining and will 
 sustain me until my appointed work is 
 done — I could not live. If I did not be- 
 lieve that the hearts of loyal people were 
 with me, I could not endure it. My heart 
 would have broken long ago. It is that 
 blessed knowledge and that blessed belief 
 that holds me to my work. This has been 
 a bad day, and I was almost overwhelmed 
 when you came in. You have given a 
 cup of cold water to a very thirsty and 
 grateful man. Ladies, you have done me a 
 great kindness to-day. I knew it before. 
 I knew that good men and women were 
 praying for me, but I was so tired I had 
 almost forgotten. God bless you all!" 7G 
 
 Address to General Grant 
 In an address to General Grant, March 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 131 
 
 9, 1864, presenting him with the commis- 
 sion of lieutenant-general, he said, "As the 
 country herein trusts you, so, under God, 
 it will sustain you/'* 
 
 God Bless the Women 
 
 On March 18, 1864, at the close of a fair 
 in the Patent Office at Washington for the 
 benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers 
 of the army, President Lincoln closed his 
 short speech as follows: "But I must say, 
 that if all that has been said by orators 
 and poets since the creation of the world 
 in praise of women were applied to the 
 women of America, it would not do them 
 justice for their conduct during this war. 
 I will close by saying, God bless the women 
 of America !"* 
 
 Controlled by Events 
 In a letter to A. G. Hodges, Frankfort, 
 Kentucky, April 4, 1864, Mr. Lincoln says: 
 
 I claim not to have controlled events, but con- 
 fess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, 
 at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's 
 condition is not what either party, or any man, 
 desired or expected. God alone can claim it. 
 Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now 
 
132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 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 cause to 
 attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.* 
 
 Letter to Mrs. Horace Mann 
 
 The next day, April 5, 1864, in answer to 
 a petition from the children and young 
 people of Concord, Massachusetts, for the 
 freeing of all slave children, Mr. Lincoln 
 wrote to Mrs. Horace Mann, who for- 
 warded the petition, as follows: "While I 
 have not the power to grant all they ask, 
 I trust they will remember that God has, 
 and that, as it seems, He wills to do it."* 
 
 Letter to General Grant 
 A letter to General Grant, April 30, 1864, 
 closes with these words: "And now, with a 
 brave army and a just cause, may God 
 sustain you."* 
 
 Recommends Thanksgiving and Prayer 
 
 On May 9, 1864, Mr. Lincoln issued a 
 recommendation for thanksgiving and 
 prayer, as follows: "Enough is known of 
 army operations within the last five days 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 133 
 
 to claim an especial gratitude to God, 
 while what remains undone demands our 
 most sincere prayers to, and reliance upon, 
 Him without whom all human effort is 
 vain. I recommend that all patriots, at 
 their homes, in their places of public wor- 
 ship, and wherever they may be, unite in 
 common thanksgiving and prayer to Al- 
 mighty God. 5 '* 
 
 Grateful to Almighty God 
 
 In a speech on May 9, 1864, after the 
 Battle of the Wilderness, in response to a 
 serenade at the White House, Mr. Lincoln 
 said, "While we are grateful to all the 
 brave men and officers for the events of 
 the past few days, we should, above all, be 
 very grateful to Almighty God, who gives 
 us victory."* 
 
 God Bless the Methodist Church 
 
 May 18, 1864, in a letter of reply to a 
 deputation of ministers who presented to 
 him resolutions adopted by the Methodist 
 General Conference, he said, "God bless 
 the Methodist Church — bless all the 
 
134 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 churches — and blessed be God, who, in 
 this our great trial giveth us the churches."* 
 
 Reply to Baptists 
 In a letter to a committee consisting of 
 the Rev. Dr. Ide, Honorable J. R. Doolittle, 
 and Honorable A. Hubbell, May 30, 1864, 
 Mr. Lincoln says: 
 
 In response to the preamble and resolutions of 
 the American Baptist Home Mission Society, which 
 you did me the honor to present, I can only thank 
 you for thus adding to the effective and almost 
 unanimous support which the Christian com- 
 munities are so zealously giving to the country, 
 and to liberty. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive 
 how it could be otherwise with anyone professing 
 Christianity, or even having ordinary perceptions 
 of right and wrong. To read in the Bible, as the 
 word of God Himself, that "In the sweat of thy 
 face shalt thou eat bread," and to preach there- 
 from that, "In the sweat of oilier men's faces shalt 
 thou eat bread," to my mind can scarcely be recon- 
 ciled with honest sincerity. When brought to my 
 final reckoning may I have to answer for robbing 
 no man of his goods; yet more tolerable even this, 
 than for robbing one of himself and all that was 
 his. When, a year or two ago, those professedly 
 holy men of the South met in the semblance of 
 prayer and devotion, and, in the name of Him 
 who said, "As ye would all men should do unto 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 135 
 
 you, do ye even so unto them," appealed to the 
 Christian world to aid them in doing to a whole 
 race of men as they would have no man do unto 
 themselves, to my thinking they contemned and 
 insulted God and His church far more than did 
 Satan when he tempted the Saviour with the 
 kingdoms of earth. The devil's attempt was no 
 more false, and far less hypocritical. But let me 
 forbear, remembering it is also written, "Judge 
 not, lest ye be judged/'* 
 
 Assistance of the Almighty 
 
 To the synod of the old-school Presby- 
 terians of Baltimore, who waited on him 
 in a body, he said: 
 
 I saw upon taking my position here, I was go- 
 ing to have an administration, if administration at 
 all, of extraordinary difficulty. It was without 
 exception a time of the greatest difficulty this 
 country ever saw. I was early brought to a lively 
 reflection that nothing in my power whatever, or 
 others, to rely upon would succeed without direct 
 assistance of the Almighty. I have often wished 
 that I was a more devout man than I am. Never- 
 theless, amid the greatest difficulties of my adminis- 
 tration, when I could not see any other resort, 
 I would place my whole reliance in God, knowing 
 all would go well and that he would decide for 
 the right. 77 
 
136 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 Pisgah and Calvary 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was often warned against 
 the danger of assassination. While he 
 never showed any fear, there is no doubt 
 that, from the day of his election to the 
 day of his death, he not only believed that 
 it might be, but actually expected it. 
 
 The Rev. Father Charles Chiniquy, 
 who had known Mr. Lincoln in Illinois, 
 visited him at the White House in August, 
 1861; June, 1862; and June, 1864, for the 
 express purpose of telling him what he had 
 learned of plans to assassinate him. The 
 last visit was on June 9, 1864, when he 
 spent considerable time with him. After 
 Father Chiniquy had explained all, Mr. 
 Lincoln replied in part as follows: 
 
 You are not the first to warn me against the 
 dangers of assassination. My ambassadors in 
 Italy, France, and England, as well as Professor 
 Morse, have, many times, warned me against the 
 plots of murderers whom they have detected in 
 those different countries. But I see no other 
 safeguard against these murderers, but to be always 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 187 
 
 ready to die, as Christ advises it. As we must all 
 die sooner or later, it makes very little difference 
 to me whether I die from a dagger plunged through 
 the heart or from an inflammation of the lungs. 
 Let me tell you that I have, lately, read a message 
 in the Old Testament which has made a profound, 
 and, I hope, a salutary impression on me. Here 
 is that passage. 
 
 The President took his Bible, opened it 
 at the third chapter of Deuteronomy, and 
 read from the 22d to the 27th verse: 
 
 "22 Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your 
 God he shall fight for you. 
 
 "23 And I besought the Lord at that time, 
 saying, 
 
 "24 O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy 
 servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for 
 what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can 
 do according to thy works, and according to thy 
 might? 
 
 "25 I pray thee, let me go over, and see the 
 good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly 
 mountain, and Lebanon. 
 
 "26 But the Lord was wroth with me for your 
 sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said 
 unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto 
 me of this matter. 
 
 "27 Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and 
 lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and 
 
138 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine 
 eyes; for thou shalt not go over this Jordan." 
 
 After the President had read these words 
 with great solemnity, he added: 
 
 My dear Father Chiniquy, let me tell you that 
 I have read these strange and beautiful words 
 several times, these last five or six weeks. The 
 more I read them, the more, it seems to me, that 
 God has written them for me as well as for 
 Moses. 
 
 Has He not taken me from my poor log cabin, 
 by the hand, as He did of Moses in the reeds of 
 the Nile, to put me at the head of the greatest and 
 most blessed of modern nations just as He put 
 that prophet at the head of the most blessed nation 
 of ancient times? Has not God granted me a 
 privilege, which was not granted to any living man, 
 when I broke the fetters of 4,000,000 of men, and 
 made them free? Has not our God given me the 
 most glorious victories over my enemies? Are not 
 the armies of the Confederacy so reduced to a 
 handful of men, when compared to what they were 
 two years ago, that the day is fast approaching 
 when they will have to surrender? 
 
 Now, I see the end of this terrible conflict, with 
 the same joy of Moses, when at the end of his 
 trying forty years in the wilderness; and I pray 
 my God to grant me to see the days of peace and 
 untold prosperity, which will follow this cruel war, 
 as Moses asked God to see the other side of Jordan, 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 139 
 
 and enter the Promised Land. But, do you know, 
 that I hear in my soul, as the voice of God, giving 
 me the rebuke which was given to Moses? 
 
 Yes! every time that my soul goes to God to 
 ask the favor of seeing the other side of Jordan, 
 and eating the fruits of that peace, after which 
 I am longing with such an unspeakable desire, do 
 you know that there is a still but solemn voice 
 which tells me that I will see those things only 
 from a long distance, and that I will be among the 
 dead when the nation, which God granted me to 
 lead through those awful trials, will cross the Jordan, 
 and dwell in that Land of Promise, where peace, 
 industry, happiness, and liberty will make every 
 one happy; and why so? Because He has already 
 given me favors which He never gave, I dare say, 
 to any man in these latter days. 
 
 Why did God Almighty refuse to Moses the 
 favor of crossing the Jordan, and entering the 
 Promised Land? It was on account of the nation's 
 sins! That law of Divine retribution and justice, 
 by which one must suffer for another, is surely a 
 terrible mystery. But it is a fact which no man 
 who has any intelligence and knowledge can deny. 
 Moses, who knew that law, though he probably 
 did not understand it better than we do, calmly 
 says to his people: "God was wroth with me for 
 your sakes." 
 
 But, though we do not understand that mysteri- 
 ous and terrible law, we find it written in letters 
 of tears and blood wherever we go. We do not 
 
140 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 read a single page of history without finding un- 
 deniable traces of its existence. 
 
 Where is the mother who has not shed real tears 
 and suffered real tortures, for her children's sake? 
 
 Who is the good king, the worthy emperor, the 
 gifted chieftain, who has not suffered unspeakable 
 mental agonies, or even death, for his people's 
 sake? 
 
 Is not our Christian religion the highest expres- 
 sion of the wisdom, mercy, and love of God! But 
 what is Christianity if not the very incarnation of 
 that eternal law of Divine justice in our humanity? 
 
 When I look on Moses, alone, silently dying on 
 the Mount Pisgah, I see that law, in one of its 
 most sublime human manifestations, and I am 
 filled with admiration and awe. 
 
 But when I consider that law of justice, and 
 expiation in the death of the Just, the divine Son 
 of Mary, on the Mount of Calvary, I remain mute 
 in my adoration. The spectacle of the Crucified 
 One which is before my eyes is more than sublime, 
 it is divine! Moses died for his People's sake, 
 but Christ died for the whole world's sake! Both 
 died to fulfill the same eternal law of the Divine 
 justice, though in a different measure. 
 
 Now, would it not be the greatest of honors and 
 privileges bestowed upon me, if God in His infinite 
 love, mercy, and wisdom would put me between 
 His faithful servant, Moses, and His eternal Son, 
 Jesus, that I might die as they did, for my nation's 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 141 
 
 My God alone knows what I have already 
 suffered for my dear country's sake. But my fear 
 is that the justice of God is not yet paid. When 
 I look upon the rivers of tears and blood drawn by 
 the lashes of the merciless masters from the veins 
 of the very heart of those millions of defenseless 
 slaves, these two hundred years; when I remember 
 the agonies, the cries, the unspeakable tortures of 
 those unfortunate people to which I have, to some 
 extent, connived with so many others a part of 
 my life, I fear that we are still far from the com- 
 plete expiation. For the judgments of God are 
 true and righteous. 
 
 It seems to me that the Lord wants to-day, as 
 He wanted in the days of Moses, another victim — 
 a victim which He has himself chosen, anointed 
 and prepared for the sacrifice, by raising it above 
 the rest of His people. I cannot conceal from you 
 that my impression is that I am the victim. So 
 many plots have already been made against my 
 life, that it is a real miracle that they have all 
 failed. But can we expect that God will make a 
 perpetual miracle to save my life? I believe not. 
 
 But just as the Lord heard no murmur from the 
 lips of Moses, when He told him that he had to 
 die before crossing the Jordan, for the sins of his 
 people, so I hope and pray that He will hear no 
 murmur from me when I fall for my nation's 
 sake. 
 
 The only two favors I ask of the Lord are, first, 
 that I may die for the sacred cause in which I am 
 
14$ ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1861 
 
 engaged, and when I am the standard bearer of 
 the rights and privileges of my country. 
 
 The second favor I ask from God is that my dear 
 son, Robert, when I am gone, will be one of those 
 who lift up that flag of Liberty which will cover 
 my tomb, and carry it with honor and fidelity to 
 the end of his life, as his father did, surrounded 
 by the millions who will be called with him to 
 fight and die for the defense and honor of our 
 country. 
 
 "Never had I heard such sublime words/' 
 says Father Chiniquy. "Never had I seen 
 a human face so solemn and so prophet- 
 like as the face of the President when 
 uttering these things. Every sentence had 
 come to me as a hymn from heaven, rever- 
 berated by the echoes of the mountains of 
 Pisgah and Calvary. I was beside myself. 
 Bathed in tears, I tried to say something, 
 but I could not utter a word. I knew the 
 hour to leave had come. I asked from 
 the President permission to fall on my 
 knees and pray with him that his life 
 might be spared; and he knelt with me. 
 But I prayed more with my tears and sobs 
 than with my words. Then I pressed his 
 hand on my lips and bathed it with tears, 
 and with a heart filled with an unspeakable 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 148 
 
 desolation I bade him adieu. It was for 
 the last time! For the hour was fast ap- 
 proaching when he was to fall by the hand 
 of an assassin, for his nation's sake/' 78 
 
 Accepted the War 
 Replying to a toast at a supper given in 
 his honor in Philadelphia, June 16, 1864, 
 Mr, Lincoln said: "We accepted this war 
 for an object, a worthy object, and the 
 war will end when that object is attained. 
 Under God, I hope that it will never end 
 until that time."* 
 
 Fessenden's Duty 
 In the summer of 1864 Secretary Chase 
 resigned from the Cabinet, and Mr. Lin- 
 coln nominated William P. Fessenden to 
 succeed him. Mr. Fessenden was not dis- 
 posed to accept. On July 1, in a personal 
 interview, Mr. Lincoln said to Fessenden: 
 "I believe that the suppression of the re- 
 bellion has been decreed by a higher power 
 than any represented by us, and that the 
 Almighty is using his own means to that 
 end. You are one of them. It is as much 
 your duty to accept as it is mine to 
 appoint/' 79 
 
144 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 National Prayer Meeting 
 
 In compliance with a resolution adopted 
 concurrently by the Senate and House of 
 Representatives, requesting the President 
 to appoint a day of prayer, Mr. Lincoln 
 issued the following proclamation, July 7, 
 1864. After quoting the words of the 
 resolution, he continues: 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
 of the United States, cordially concurring with the 
 Congress of the United States in the penitential 
 and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid 
 resolutions, and heartily approving of the devo- 
 tional design and purpose thereof, do hereby ap- 
 point the first Thursday of August next to be 
 observed by the people of the United States as a 
 day of national humiliation and prayer. 
 
 I do hereby further invite and request the heads 
 of the executive departments of this government, 
 together with all legislators, all judges and magis- 
 trates, and all other persons exercising authority 
 in the land, whether civil, military, or naval, and 
 all soldiers, seamen, and marines in the national 
 service, and all the other loyal and law-abiding 
 people of the United States, to assemble in their 
 preferred places of public worship on that day, and 
 there and then to render to the Almighty and mer- 
 ciful Ruler of the Universe such homages and such 
 confessions, and to offer to Him such supplications, 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 145 
 
 as the Congress of the United States have, in their 
 aforesaid resolution, so solemnly, so earnestly, and 
 so reverently recommended.* 
 
 Fourth Special Thanksgiving 
 
 The national prayer meeting was fol- 
 lowed a month later, September 3, 1864, by 
 a proclamation of thanksgiving, as follows: 
 
 The signal success that Divine Providence has 
 recently vouchsafed to the operations of the United 
 States fleet and army in the harbor of Mobile, 
 and the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and 
 Fort Morgan, and the glorious achievements of 
 the army under Major-General Sherman, in the 
 State of Georgia, resulting in the capture of the 
 city of Atlanta, call for devout acknowledgement to 
 the Supreme Being in whose hands are the destinies 
 of nations. It is therefore requested that on next 
 Sunday, in all places of worship in the United States, 
 thanksgiving be offered to Him for His mercy in 
 preserving our national existence against the in- 
 surgent rebels who have been waging a cruel war 
 against the Government of the United States for 
 its overthrow; and also that prayer be made for 
 Divine protection to our soldiers and their leaders 
 in the field, who have so often and so gallantly 
 periled their lives in battling with the enemy; and 
 for blessings and comforts from the Father of 
 Mercies to the sick, wounded, and prisoners, and 
 to the orphans and widows of those who have 
 
146 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 fallen in the service of their country, and that He 
 will continue to uphold the Government of the 
 United States against all the efforts of public 
 enemies and secret foes.* 
 
 Letter to a Quakeress 
 
 The Quakers, opposed to both war and 
 slavery, were much perplexed by the war, 
 and Mr. Lincoln fully sympathized with 
 them. He wrote the following letter to 
 Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney, an American lady 
 resident in London and wife of a wealthy 
 Quaker banker, Joseph John Gurney, Sep- 
 tember 4, 1864: 
 
 My esteemed Friend: I have not forgotten — 
 probably never shall forget — the very impressive 
 occasion when yourself and friends visited me on 
 a Sabbath forenoon two years ago. Nor has your 
 kind letter, written nearly a year later, ever been 
 forgotten. In all it has been your purpose to 
 strengthen my reliance on God. I am much in- 
 debted to the good Christian people of the country 
 for their constant prayers and consolations; and to 
 no one of them more than to yourself. The pur- 
 poses of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, 
 though we erring mortals may fail to accurately 
 perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy 
 termination of this terrible war long before this; 
 but God knows best and ruled otherwise. We 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 147 
 
 shall yet acknowledge His wisdom, and our own 
 error therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly 
 in the best light He gives us, trusting that so work- 
 ing still conduces to the great ends He ordains. 
 Surely He intends some great good to follow this 
 mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make, 
 and no mortal could stay. Your people, the 
 Friends, have had, and are having, a very great 
 trial. On principle and faith opposed to both war 
 and oppression, they can only practically oppose 
 oppression by war. In this hard dilemma some 
 have chosen one horn, and some the other. For 
 those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, 
 I have done, and shall do, the best I could and 
 can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the 
 law. That you believe this, I doubt not, and be- 
 lieving it, I shall receive for my country and my- 
 self your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven.* 80 
 
148 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 Lincoln and the Bible 
 profitably engaged 
 Lincoln's old friend, Joshua Speed, tells 
 of a significant incident that occurred in 
 the summer of 1864. Mr. Lincoln and his 
 family were staying at the Soldiers' Home 
 for a little while, and Mr. Speed was in- 
 vited to spend the night with them. As 
 he entered the room, Lincoln was sitting 
 near a window intently reading his Bible. 
 Mr. Speed remarked, "I am glad to see you 
 so profitably engaged." "Yes," said Lin- 
 coln, "I am profitably engaged." "Well," 
 said Speed, "if you have recovered from 
 your skepticism, I am sorry to say that I 
 have not." Lincoln, looking Speed ear- 
 nestly in the face, and placing his hand on 
 his shoulder, said: "You are wrong, 
 Speed. Take all of this book upon 
 reason that you can, and the balance 
 on faith, and you will live and die a 
 happier man." 81 At this time Mr. Speed 
 was not a member of any church. Later 
 he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 149 
 
 uses cruden's concordance 
 
 Professor Alexander Williamson, 
 who was for a time a tutor in the Presi- 
 dent's family in Washington, says, "Mr. 
 Lincoln very frequently studied the Bible 
 with the aid of Cruden's Concordance, 
 which lay on his table." 82 
 
 His private secretary, John G. Nicolay, 
 says: "He praised the simplicity of the 
 Gospels. He often declared that the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount contained the essence 
 of all law and justice, and that the Lord's 
 Prayer was the sublimest composition in 
 human language." 83 
 
 "He could repeat from memory whole 
 chapters of Isaiah, the New Testament, 
 and the Psalms." 84 
 
 "He could repeat hymns by the hun- 
 dreds, and quoted Dr. Watts* and John 
 Wesley's verses as frequently as he did 
 Shakespeare." 85 
 
 THE ALMIGHTY DIRECTS IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 
 
 Mr. L. E. Chittenden, who was register 
 of the treasury under President Lincoln, 
 gives in his Recollections a most remark- 
 able testimony. Says he: "Lincoln's calm 
 
150 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 serenity at times when others were so 
 anxious, his confidence that his own judg- 
 ment was directed by the Almighty, so 
 impressed me that I ventured to ask him 
 directly how far he believed the Almighty 
 actually directed our national affairs. 
 After a considerable pause, Lincoln spoke 
 as follows: 
 
 " 'That the Almighty does make use of 
 human agencies, and directly intervenes in 
 human affairs, is one of the plainest state- 
 ments in the Bible. I have had so many 
 evidences of His direction, so many in- 
 stances when I have been controlled by 
 some other power than my own will, that 
 I cannot doubt that this power comes 
 from above. I frequently see my way 
 clear to a decision when I am conscious 
 that I have no sufficient facts upon which 
 to found it. But I cannot recall one in- 
 stance in which I have followed my own 
 judgment, founded upon such a decision, 
 where the results were unsatisfactory; 
 whereas, in almost every instance where I 
 have yielded to the views of others, I have 
 had occasion to regret it. I am satisfied 
 that, when the Almighty wants me to do, 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 151 
 
 or not to do, a particular thing, he finds a 
 way of letting me know it. I am confident 
 that it is his design to restore the Union. 
 He will do it in his own good time. We 
 should obey and not oppose his will/ ' 
 
 "You speak with such confidence/ 5 said 
 Mr. Chittenden, "that I would like to 
 know how your knowledge that God acts 
 directly upon human affairs compares in 
 certainty with your knowledge of a fact 
 apparent to the senses — for example, the 
 fact that we are at this moment here in 
 this room/' 
 
 "One is as certain as the other/' an- 
 swered Lincoln, "although the conclusions 
 are reached by different processes. I know 
 by my senses that the movements of the 
 world are those of an infinitely powerful 
 machine, which runs for ages without 
 variation. A man who can put two ideas 
 together knows that such a machine re- 
 quires an infinitely powerful maker and 
 governor; man's nature is such that he 
 cannot take in the machine and keep out 
 the maker. This maker is God — infinite in 
 wisdom as well as power. Would we be 
 any more certain if we saw Him?" 
 
152 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 "I am not controverting your position," 
 said Chittenden. "Your confidence inter- 
 ests me beyond expression. I wish I knew 
 how to acquire it. Even now, must it not 
 all depend on our faith in the Bible?" 
 
 "No," said Lincoln. "There is the ele- 
 ment of personal experience. If it did, the 
 character of the Bible is easily established, 
 at least to my satisfaction. We have to 
 believe many things that we do not com- 
 prehend. The Bible is the only one that 
 claims to be God's Book — to comprise his 
 law — his history. It contains an immense 
 amount of evidence of its own authen- 
 ticity. It describes a Governor omnipo- 
 tent enough to operate this great machine, 
 and declares that He made it. It states 
 other facts which we do not fully compre- 
 hend, but which we cannot account for. 
 What shall we do with them? 
 
 "Now, let us treat the Bible fairly," con- 
 tinued Lincoln. "If we had a witness on 
 the stand whose general story we knew was 
 true, we would believe him when he as- 
 serted facts of which we had no other evi- 
 dence. We ought to treat the Bible with 
 equal fairness. I decided a long time ago 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 153 
 
 that it was less difficult to believe that the 
 Bible was what it claimed to be than to 
 disbelieve it. It is a good book for us to 
 obey — it contains the Ten Commandments, 
 the Golden Rule, and many other rules 
 which ought to be followed. No man was 
 ever the worse for living according to the 
 directions of the Bible." 
 
 "If your views are correct/' said Chitten- 
 den, "the Almighty is on our side, and we 
 ought to win without so many losses. . . ." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln promptly interrupted him 
 and said: "We have no right to criticize or 
 complain. He is on our side, and so is the 
 Bible, and so are the churches and Chris- 
 tian societies and organizations — all of 
 them, so far as I know, almost without an 
 exception. It makes me stronger and more 
 confident to know that all the Christians 
 in the loyal States are praying for our 
 success, and that all their influences are 
 working to the same end. Thousands of 
 them are fighting for us, and no one will 
 say that an officer or a private is less brave 
 because he is a praying soldier. At first, 
 when we had such long spells of bad luck, 
 I used to lose heart sometimes. Now, I 
 
154 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 seem to know that Providence has pro- 
 tected and will protect us against any fatal 
 defeat. All we have to do is to trust the 
 Almighty, and keep on obeying His orders 
 and executing His will/' 86 
 
 After such testimony, if we allow that 
 Lincoln was honest and sincere, who can 
 doubt his faith or proclaim that he was 
 an atheist or infidel? Three things are 
 herein most clearly established: his belief 
 in the Bible as the inspired Word of God, 
 his belief in the fundamental principles 
 and doctrines of the Christian faith, and 
 his faithful endeavor to live according 
 thereto. 
 
 COMFORT FROM JOB 
 
 A woman at the White House relates an 
 interesting incident of Mr. Lincoln reading 
 the Bible when everything seemed dark: 
 
 "One day he came into the room where I 
 was fitting a dress for Mrs. Lincoln. His 
 step was slow and heavy, and his face sad. 
 Like a tired child he threw himself upon 
 the sofa, and shaded his eyes with his 
 hands. He was a complete picture of 
 dejection. Mrs. Lincoln, observing his 
 troubled look, asked: 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 155 
 
 " c Where have you been?' 
 
 " 'To the War Department/ was the 
 brief, almost sullen answer. 
 
 " 'Any news? 5 
 
 " 'Yes, plenty of news, but no good 
 news. It is dark, dark everywhere/ 
 
 "He reached forth one of his long arms 
 and took a small Bible from a stand near 
 the head of the sofa, opened the pages of 
 the Holy Book, and soon was absorbed in 
 reading them. A quarter of an hour 
 passed, and on glancing at the sofa the 
 face of the President seemed more cheerful. 
 The dejected look was gone, and the coun- 
 tenance was lighted up with new resolution 
 and hope. The change was so marked that 
 I could not but wonder at it, and wonder 
 led to the desire to know what book of 
 the Bible afforded so much comfort to 
 the reader. Making the search for a 
 missing article an excuse, I walked gently 
 around the sofa, and, looking into the open 
 book, I discovered that Mr. Lincoln was 
 reading that divine comforter, Job. He 
 read with Christian eagerness, and the 
 courage and the hope that he derived from 
 the inspired pages made him a new man/' 87 
 
156 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 READING THE TESTAMENT 
 
 "A Mr. Jay states that, being on the 
 steamer which conveyed the governmental 
 party from Fortress Monroe to Norfolk, 
 after the destruction of the Merrimac, 
 while all on board were excited by the 
 novelty of the excursion and by the inci- 
 dents that it recalled, he missed the Presi- 
 dent from the company, and, on looking 
 about, found him in a quiet nook, reading a 
 well-worn Testament. Such an incidental 
 revelation of his religious habits is worth 
 more than pages of formal testimony." 88 
 
 READS BIBLE EVERY MORNING 
 
 Captain Mix, the commander at one 
 time of Lincoln's bodyguard, was fre- 
 quently invited to breakfast with the 
 family at the "Home" residence. "Many 
 times," said he, "have I listened to our 
 most eloquent preachers, but never with 
 the same feeling of awe and reverence as 
 when our Christian President, his arm 
 around his son, with his deep earnest tone, 
 each morning, read a chapter from the 
 Bible." 89 
 
 After 1857 Mr. Lincoln seldom made a 
 

 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * ■ '&$?&*£*+*<< 
 
 
 
 ^H^ /| ^"v t/>V. 
 
 
 
 *- •-..•■; . r ^ 
 
 >-, 
 
 
 . " jrtiJkJ^' 
 
 
 
 Iffi 
 
 
 
 , &^ A^ 
 
 
 
 ^ - : 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 LINCOLN'S MO 
 
 Inside cover and title-page of the Lincoln family Bible, from which his mot 
 when about ten years old, shortly after his mother's death. It undoubtedly w 
 Mr. Lincoln used it while in the White House. It is now in the Oldroyd Linec 
 N. W., Washington, D. C. Reproduced from a photo by the courtesy of the own 
 
HOT Y &TTU F 
 
 t X T A I N I N 
 
 THE OtD AND NEW 
 
 r r. b i i% m h *« i S» 
 
 W ITIi. • 
 
 ARGUMENTS 
 
 PjilJJXr.D 70 THE DIFFERENT BOOKS* 
 AKD MOIUI; AND TH&0&OGICAL ' 
 
 B S E R V ATI-ONS 
 
 ILLUSTRATING EACH CHAPTER ; 
 
 Twi'Ri.vi.r.is-n Mr OSTKRVALD, Professor of Divinity, 
 
 V 
 
 ii" 
 
 \ in ; . rn -},- rr i i)# /» jw> .« , « ft % t • 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 * in ^Aia\ r.m 
 
 SR'S BIBLE 
 
 read to him. It bears the date of 1799. Mr. Lincoln wrote his name in it 
 arried by the Lincolns from Kentucky to Indiana, and thence to Illinois. 
 Memorial Collection, in the house in which Lincoln died, 516 Tenth Street. 
 Taptain O. H. Oldroyd. 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 157 
 
 speech which did not contain one or more 
 quotations from the Bible. 
 
 READS HIS MOTHER S BIBLE 
 
 A lady staying at the White House says: 
 "It was his custom when waiting for lunch 
 to take his mother's old worn-out Bible 
 and lie on the lounge 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 something for every day 
 in the week.' " 90 
 
 his mother's wish 
 
 " 'I would rather Abe would be able 
 to read the Bible than to own a farm, if 
 he can't have but one,' said his godly 
 mother. That Bible was Abraham Lin- 
 coln's guide." 91 
 
 god's best gift 
 
 September 7, 1864, a deputation of col- 
 ored people from Baltimore presented him 
 with a Bible. Lincoln replied: 
 
 In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, 
 it is the best gift God has given to man. All the 
 good Saviour gave to the world was communicated 
 through this book. But for it we could not know 
 
158 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 right from wrong. All things most desirable for 
 man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found 
 portrayed in it. To you I return my most sincere 
 thanks for the very elegant copy of the great Book 
 of God which you present.* 
 
 Second Annual Thanksgiving Day 
 
 October 20, 1864, Mr. Lincoln issued a 
 proclamation for a second annual Thanks- 
 giving on the last Thursday in November. 
 It was in the same reverential and devout 
 tone as the first one. Since then our Presi- 
 dents have followed his example by issuing 
 an annual proclamation, setting apart the 
 last Thursday of November as a National 
 Thanksgiving Day. It is as follows: 
 
 It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our 
 national life another year, defending us with His 
 guardian care against unfriendly designs from 
 abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many 
 and signal victories over the enemy, who is of 
 our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly 
 Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes 
 as our soldiers in their camps, and our sailors on 
 the rivers and seas, with unusual health. He has 
 largely augmented our free population by emancipa- 
 tion and by immigration, while he has opened to 
 us new sources of wealth, and has crowned the 
 labor of our working-men in every department of 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 159 
 
 industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He 
 has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds 
 and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution 
 sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which 
 we have been brought by our adherence as a na- 
 tion to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to 
 afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and 
 happy deliverance from all our dangers and 
 afflictions. 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
 of the United States, do hereby appoint and set 
 apart the last Thursday of November next as a 
 day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow- 
 citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of 
 thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the 
 beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And 
 I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens 
 aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently 
 humble themselves in the dust, and from thence 
 offer up penitent and fervent prayers and sup- 
 plications to the great Disposer of events for a 
 return of the inestimable blessings of peace, 
 union, and harmony throughout the land which it 
 has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling-place 
 for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all 
 generations.* 
 
 Grateful to God for Reelection 
 
 November 9, 1864, in response to a 
 serenade at the White House by a club of 
 
160 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1864 
 
 Pennsylvanians, on the occasion of his re- 
 election, Mr. Lincoln said: 
 
 I am thankful to God for this approval of the 
 people; but, while deeply grateful for this mark 
 of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, 
 my gratitude is free from any taint of personal 
 triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any 
 opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph 
 over anyone, but I give thanks to the Almighty 
 for this evidence of the people's resolution to 
 stand by free government and the rights of 
 humanity.* 
 
 November 10, 1864, in response to 
 another serenade at the White House by 
 the various Lincoln and Johnson clubs of 
 the District, Mr. Lincoln said: 
 
 So long as I have been here I have not willingly 
 planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I 
 am deeply sensible to the high compliment of a 
 reelection, and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty 
 God for having directed my countrymen to a right 
 conclusion, as I think, for their good, it adds nothing 
 to my satisfaction that any other man may be 
 disappointed or pained by the result.* 
 
 Lincoln the Comforter 
 On November 21, 1864, Mr. Lincoln 
 wrote the following letter to Mrs. Lydia 
 Bixby, of Boston: 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 161 
 
 Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files 
 of the War Department a statement of the Ad- 
 jutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the 
 mother of five sons who have died gloriously on 
 the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless 
 must be any words of mine which should attempt 
 to beguile you from the grief of a loss so over- 
 whelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to 
 you the consolation that may be found in the thanks 
 of the Republic they died to save. I pray that 
 our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish 
 of your bereavement, and leave you only the 
 cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the 
 solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so 
 costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.* 92 
 
 What but a pious, devoted, consecrated 
 heart, bearing such stupendous burdens, 
 could write such a pathetic and perfect 
 letter of condolence? This letter should be 
 placed with that immortal twenty-line ad- 
 dress at Gettysburg, "the high-water mark 
 of sententious eloquence. 55 With these, 
 also, place that wonderful second inaugural 
 address, "the most sublime state paper of 
 the nineteenth century/ 5 These three are 
 sufficient to have crowned any man with 
 imperishable fame, but with Lincoln they 
 were but the fruits of inward piety, purity, 
 and sincerity. 
 
162 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 "Most Presumptuous Blockhead" 
 
 Mr. Noah Brooks tells of a conversa- 
 tion with the President just after his second 
 election. In reply to the remark that he 
 might remember that in all these cares he 
 was daily remembered by those who 
 prayed, not to be heard of men, as no man 
 ever before was remembered, he caught at 
 the homely phrase and said, "Yes, I like that 
 phrase, 'not to be heard of men,' and guess 
 it is generally true, as you say; at least, I 
 have been told so, and I have been a good 
 deal helped by just that thought. 55 Then 
 he solemnly and slowly added, "I should 
 be the most presumptuous blockhead upon 
 this footstool if I had for one day thought 
 that I could discharge the duties which 
 have come upon me since I came into this 
 place without the aid and enlightenment of 
 One who is stronger and wiser than all 
 others." 98 
 
 Go Away a Better Man 
 
 At another time he said cheerfully, "I 
 am very sure that if I do not go away from 
 here a wiser man, I shall go away a better 
 man, for having learned here what a very 
 
1864] THE CHRISTIAN 163 
 
 poor sort of man I am." Afterward, re- 
 ferring to what he called a change of heart, 
 he said he did not remember any precise 
 time when he passed through any special 
 change of purpose, or of heart; but he 
 would say, that his own election to office, 
 and the crisis immediately following, in- 
 fluentially determined him in what he 
 called a 'process of crystallization' then 
 going on in his mind. 5 ' 94 
 
 Fourth Annual Message to 
 Congress 
 
 It is worthy of special attention that in 
 every annual message to Congress Mr. 
 Lincoln begins by an acknowledgment of 
 gratitude to God and reliance upon Him. 
 In his message, December 6, 1864, he 
 begins, "Again the blessings of health and 
 abundant harvests claim our profoundest 
 gratitude to Almighty God. 55 * 
 
 Only His Duty 
 
 Only a few months before Mr. Lincoln 
 
 died he was waited upon at the White 
 
 House by about two hundred members of 
 
 the Christian Commission and officers of 
 
164 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 the army, who had been holding their 
 annual meeting, to thank him for what he 
 had done for the soldiers and sailors. Mr. 
 George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, chair- 
 man, made a short complimentary speech. 
 Mr. Lincoln replied: "My friends, I owe no 
 thanks for what you have done. You owe 
 no thanks for what I have done. You have 
 done your duty. I have done mine. Let 
 us keep on doing our duty, and by the help 
 of God we may yet save our country, I 
 should be glad to take each of you by the 
 hand." He passed around shaking hands 
 with all present. Bishop Janes said, "Let 
 us pray." One who was present says: 
 "We all fell on our knees, and such a 
 prayer as followed seldom has been heard 
 on earth. Mr. Lincoln responded heartily 
 all the way through. It was next door to 
 heaven in the White House that day." 95 
 
 God's Plans His Plans 
 On another occasion, replying to certain 
 ministers of the Christian Commission, Mr. 
 Lincoln said: 
 
 If it were not for my firm belief in an over- 
 ruling Providence, it would be difficult for me, 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 165 
 
 in the midst of such complications of affairs, to 
 keep my reason on its seat. But I am confident 
 that the Almighty has His plans, and will work 
 them out; and, whether we see it or not, they 
 will be the best for us. I have always taken coun- 
 sel of Him, and referred to Him my plans, and 
 have never adopted a course of proceeding without 
 being assured, as far as I could be, of His appro- 
 bation. To be sure, He has not conformed to my 
 desires, or else we should have been out of our 
 trouble long ago. On the other hand, His will 
 does not seem to agree with the wish of our enemy 
 over there [pointing across the Potomac]. He 
 stands the Judge between us, and we ought to be 
 willing to accept His decisions. We have reason 
 to anticipate that it will be favorable to us, for 
 our cause is right. 98 
 
 In Answer to Prayer 
 
 Dr. John D. Hill, a well-known physi- 
 cian of Buffalo, was a member of the Sani- 
 tary Commission. At a meeting of that 
 organization in the White House one night 
 he congratulated Mr. Lincoln on having 
 originated such a gigantic plan for the care 
 of the sick and wounded soldiers. Mr. 
 Lincoln said: 
 
 You must carry your thanks to a Higher Being. 
 One stormy night I tossed on my bed, unable to 
 
166 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 sleep as I thought of the terrible sufferings of our 
 soldiers and sailors. I spent an hour in agonizing 
 prayer to God for some method of relief, and He 
 put the Sanitary Commission in my mind, with 
 all its details, as distinctly as though the instruc- 
 tions had been written out by pen and handed to 
 me. Hereafter, always thank your Heavenly Father, 
 and not me, for this organization, which has eased 
 so much pain and saved so many lives. 97 
 

 ' 
 
 m&*z 
 
 NEW YORK AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C 
 
 In Lincoln's Time 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 167 
 
 Lincoln and Church Membership 
 
 Lincoln was always a regular attendant 
 at church after his removal to Springfield, 
 Illinois. His old neighbors all testify to 
 that. While he lived at Springfield, Il- 
 linois, he attended the First Presbyterian 
 Church. When he became President he 
 and Mrs. Lincoln attended regularly the 
 New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. 
 He was never a member of any church. 
 In a conversation with Dr. Phineas D. 
 Gurley, his pastor in Washington, he said 
 that he could not accept, perhaps, all the 
 doctrines of his Confession of Faith, "but," 
 said he, "if all that I am asked to respond 
 to is what our Lord said were the two 
 great commandments, to love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart and mind and soul 
 and strength, and my neighbor as myself, 
 why, I aim to do that." 98 
 
 LAW AND GOSPEL 
 
 Honorable Henry C. Deming, a mem- 
 ber of Congress from Connecticut, relates 
 
168 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 that when asked why, with his marked 
 religious character, he did not unite with 
 some church, Lincoln said: 
 
 I have never united myself to any church, 
 because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, 
 without mental reservation, to the long, compli- 
 cated statements of Christian doctrine which 
 characterize their articles of belief and confessions 
 of faith. When any church will inscribe over its 
 altars, as its sole qualification for membership, the 
 Saviour's condensed statement of the substance of 
 both law and gospel, "Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
 and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thy 
 self," that church will I join with all my heart 
 and all my soul." 
 
 INTENDED TO MAKE A PUBLIC PROFESSION 
 
 In his later life, however, it seems that 
 Mr. Lincoln realized his mistake and in- 
 tended to make a public profession. A 
 Rev, Mr. Willits, according to F. B. Car- 
 penter, the artist, tells of a lady connected 
 with the work of the Christian Commission, 
 who had occasion to have several inter- 
 views with the President. One day Mr. 
 
 Lincoln said to her: "Mrs. B , I have 
 
 formed a very high opinion of your Chris- 
 tian character, and now, as we are alone, 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 169 
 
 I have a mind to ask you to give me, in 
 brief, your idea of what constitutes a true 
 religious experience." The lady stated that, 
 in her judgment, it consisted of a convic- 
 tion of one's own sinfulness and weakness, 
 and personal need of the Saviour for 
 strength and support; a feeling of the need 
 of divine help, and a seeking of the aid of 
 the Holy Spirit for strength and guidance; 
 that these were a satisfactory evidence of 
 having been born again." Mr. Lincoln was 
 silent and thoughtful. After a few mo- 
 ments he said, very earnestly: "If what 
 you have told me is really a correct view of 
 this great subject, I think I can say with 
 sincerity that I hope I am a Christian. I 
 had lived until my boy Willie died without 
 realizing fully these things. That blow 
 overwhelmed me. It showed me my weak- 
 ness as I had never felt it before, and if I 
 can take what you have stated as a test. 
 I think I can safely say that I know some- 
 thing of that change of which you speak; 
 and I will further add, that it has been 
 my intention for some time, at a suitable 
 opportunity, to make a public religious 
 profession." 100 
 
170 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Mr. Henry C. Whitney, an intimate and 
 close friend of Mr. Lincoln, says, "This 
 statement was made to an eminent Chris- 
 tian lady, and may be relied upon as 
 authentic, and it shows conclusively that 
 Abraham Lincoln was a Christian." 101 
 
 OPINION OF A BOSOM FRIEND 
 
 Mr. Noah Brooks, newspaper corre- 
 spondent, bosom friend of Mr. Lincoln 
 from 1862 until his death, and author of 
 his biography, writes December 31, 1872, 
 as follows: "I have had many conversa- 
 tions with Mr. Lincoln, which were more 
 or less of a religious character, and while I 
 never tried to draw anything like a state- 
 ment of his views from him, yet he freely 
 expressed himself to me as having a hope 
 of blessed immortality through Jesus 
 Christ. . . . Once or twice, speaking to me 
 of the change which had come upon him, 
 he said, while he could not fix any definite 
 time, yet it was after he came here, and I 
 am very positive that in his own mind 
 he identified it about the time of Willie's 
 death. In many conversations with him I 
 absorbed the firm conviction that Mr. 
 
Rev. PHINEAS D. GURLEY, D.D. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 171 
 
 Lincoln was at heart a Christian man, 
 believed in the Saviour, and was seriously 
 considering the step which would per- 
 sonally connect him with the visible 
 church on earth." 103 
 
 OPINION OF HIS PASTOR 
 
 The Rev. Phineas D. Gurley, D.D., 
 Mr. Lincoln's pastor while President, writes : 
 "I have had frequent and intimate conversa- 
 tions with him [Lincoln] on the subject of 
 the Bible and the Christian religion, when 
 he could have had no motive to deceive 
 me, and I considered him sound, not only 
 on the truth of the Christian religion, but 
 on all its fundamental doctrines and teach- 
 ings. And, more than that, in the latter 
 days of his chastened and weary life, after 
 the death of his son Willie, and his visit to 
 the battlefield of Gettysburg, he said, with 
 tears in his eyes, that he had lost confi- 
 dence in everything but God, and that 
 he now believed his heart was changed 
 and that he loved the Saviour, and, if 
 he was not deceived in himself, it was 
 his intention soon to make a profession of 
 religion." 103 
 
172 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 Mr. Lincoln once said to a friend: "I 
 have read the beatitudes of Jesus. I 
 have sometimes thought I might claim 
 the benefit of the one that pronounces 
 a blessing upon those who hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness; if that fails 
 me, possibly I may come in among the 
 peacemakers/' 104 
 
 LOVES JESUS 
 
 Shortly before his death an Illinois clergy- 
 man asked Lincoln, "Do you love Jesus?" 
 Mr. Lincoln solemnly replied: "When I 
 left Springfield I asked the people to pray 
 for me. I was not a Christian. When I 
 buried my son, the severest trial of my life, 
 I was not a Christian. But when I went to 
 Gettysburg and saw the graves of thou- 
 sands of our soldiers, I then and there 
 consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I do 
 love Jesus." 105 
 
 "Reticent as he was, and shy of dis- 
 coursing much of his own mental exercises, 
 these few utterances now have a value 
 with those who knew him which his dying 
 words scarcely have possessed." 
 
1865] THE CHRISTIAN 178 
 
 Immortal Words 
 In that remarkable and ever-memorable 
 second inaugural address, delivered at 
 Washington, March 4, 1865, just six weeks 
 before his death, he gave utterance to these 
 sublime and immortal words: 
 
 Both read the same Bible, and pray to the 
 same God; and each invokes His aid against the 
 other. It may seem strange that any men should 
 dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing 
 their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; 
 but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The 
 prayers of both could not be answered — that of 
 neither has been answered fully. 
 
 The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto 
 the world because of offenses! for it must needs 
 be that offenses come; but woe to that man by 
 whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose 
 that American slavery is one of those offenses 
 which, in the providence of God, must needs come, 
 but which, having continued through His appointed 
 time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives 
 to both North and South this terrible war, as the 
 woe to those by whom the offense came, shall we 
 discern therein any departure from those divine 
 attributes which the believers in a living God al- 
 ways ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope — fer- 
 vently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of 
 war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills 
 that it continue until all the wealth piled by the 
 
174 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unre- 
 quited 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 three 
 thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The 
 judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
 altogether." 
 
 With malice toward none; with charity for all; 
 with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see 
 the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are 
 in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for 
 him who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
 widow, and his orphan — to do all which may 
 achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace 
 among ourselves, and with all nations.* 
 
 "These words show the President still 
 untouched by resentment, still brotherly in 
 his feelings toward the enemies of the 
 government, and still profoundly conscious 
 of the overruling power of Providence in 
 national affairs/' Well has it been said 
 that it was a paper whose Christian senti- 
 ment and whose reverent and pious spirit 
 has no parallel among the state papers of 
 the American Presidents. "His mind and 
 soul has reached the full development in a 
 religious . life so unusually intense and 
 absorbing that it could not otherwise than 
 utter itself in the grand sentences of his 
 
1865] THE CHRISTIAN 175 
 
 last address to the people. The knowledge 
 had come, and the faith had come, and the 
 charity had come, and with all had come 
 the love of God." 
 
 Letter to Thurlow Weed 
 In reply to a letter complimenting him 
 on the inaugural address, Mr. Lincoln 
 writes to Thurlow Weed on March 15, 1865, 
 as follows: 
 
 Men are not flattered by being shown that there 
 has been a difference of purpose between the Al- 
 mighty and them. To deny it, however, in this 
 case, is to deny that there is a God governing the 
 world. It is a truth which I thought needed to 
 be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is 
 in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others 
 might afford for me to tell it.* 
 
 Quakeress Praying with Him 
 
 Mr. F. B. Carpenter relates what was 
 said by a gentleman at a dinner party in 
 Washington during Mr. Lincoln's second 
 administration, in part as follows: "I was 
 up at the White House, having called to 
 see the President on business. I was 
 shown into the office of his private secre- 
 tary, and told that Mr. Lincoln was busy 
 
176 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 just then, but would be disengaged in a 
 short time. While waiting I heard a very 
 earnest prayer, being uttered in a loud 
 female voice in the adjoining room, I in- 
 quired what it meant, and was told that 
 an old Quaker lady, a friend of the Presi- 
 dent, had called that afternoon, and taken 
 tea with the President at the White House, 
 and that she was then praying with Mr, 
 Lincoln. After the lapse of a few minutes 
 the prayer ceased, and the President, ac- 
 companied by a Quakeress not less than 
 eighty years old, entered the room where I 
 was sitting." 106 
 
 A Strange Triumphal Entry 
 
 Admiral Porter tells of Mr. Lincoln's 
 visit to Richmond, Virginia, April 4, 1865, 
 making the trip by boat. There was a 
 small house on the landing, and behind it 
 were some twelve negroes digging with 
 spades. Their leader was an old man. 
 He raised himself to an upright position 
 as we landed and put his hands up to his 
 eyes. Then he dropped his spade and 
 sprang forward. "Bless de Lawd," he 
 said, "dere is de great Messiah! I knowed 
 
1865] THE CHRISTIAN 177 
 
 him as soon as I seed him. He's been in 
 my heart fo' long yeahs, an' he's cum at 
 las' to free his chillun from deir bondage — 
 Glory, Hallelujah!" And he fell on his 
 knees before the President and kissed his 
 feet. The others followed his example, the 
 news spread, and in a few minutes Mr. 
 Lincoln was surrounded by a crowd of 
 colored people, who had treasured up the 
 recollections of him caught from a photo- 
 graph, and had looked to him for four 
 years as the one who was to lead them 
 out of captivity. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln looked down at the poor 
 creatures at his feet; he was much embar- 
 rassed at his position. 
 
 "Don't kneel to me," he said; "that is 
 not right. You must kneel to God only, 
 and thank Him for the liberty you will 
 hereafter enjoy." 
 
 His face lit up with a divine look as he 
 said these words. In his enthusiasm he 
 seemed the personification of manly beauty, 
 and that sad face of his looked down in 
 kindness upon these ignorant blacks. He 
 really seemed of another world. . . . The 
 crowd of colored people was so great that 
 
178 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 the President could not proceed. At last 
 he said: 
 
 "My poor friends, you are free — free as 
 air. You can cast off the name of slave and 
 trample upon it; it will come to you no 
 more. Liberty is your birthright. God 
 gave it to you as He gave it to others, and 
 it is a sin that you have been deprived of it 
 for so many years. But you must try to 
 deserve this priceless boon. Let the world 
 see that you merit it, and are able to main- 
 tain it by your good works. Don't let your 
 joy carry you into excesses. Learn the 
 laws and obey them; obey God's command- 
 ments and thank Him for giving you lib- 
 erty, for to Him you owe all things. There, 
 now, let me pass on." 107 
 
 The President and Cabinet in Prayer 
 
 "On the day of the receipt of the news 
 of the capitulation of Lee, as we learn from 
 a friend intimate with the late President 
 Lincoln, the Cabinet meeting was held an 
 hour earlier than usual. Neither the Presi- 
 dent nor any member was able, for a time, 
 to give utterance to his feelings. At the 
 suggestion of Mr. Lincoln all dropped on 
 
1865] THE CHRISTIAN 179 
 
 their knees, and offered, in silence and in 
 tears, their humble and heartfelt acknowl- 
 edgments to the Almighty for the triumph 
 He had granted to the national cause." 108 
 
 The Resurrection of Human Freedom 
 
 Colonel James M. Scovel, who, during 
 the Civil War, was a State senator in New 
 Jersey, tells this incident about Lincoln: 
 "The last time I saw him he had just re- 
 turned from Richmond, He beamed and 
 radiated with happiness. A few days after 
 April 9, which was the day of the Appo- 
 mattox apple tree, he caught me by both 
 hands — a way he had when emotionally 
 exercised — and said (and I will recall these 
 words in my dying hour): "Young man, if 
 God gives me four years more to rule this 
 country, I believe it will become what it 
 ought to be, what its Divine Author in- 
 tended it to be — no longer one vast planta- 
 tion for breeding human beings for the 
 purposes of lust and bondage, but it will 
 become a new Valley of Jehoshaphat, 
 where all the nations of the earth will 
 assemble together under one flag, wor- 
 shiping a common God, and they will 
 
180 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 celebrate the resurrection of human 
 freedom." 10 * 
 
 "In God We Trust" 
 
 Honorable Schuyler Colfax, Speaker 
 of the National House of Representatives, 
 in a memorial address, April 24, 1865, 
 says: "Nor should I forget to mention 
 here that the last act of Congress ever 
 signed by him was one requiring that the 
 motto, in which he sincerely believed, 'In 
 God we trust/ should hereafter be in- 
 scribed upon all our national coin." 110 
 
 His Last Speech 
 
 Mr. Lincoln delivered his last speech 
 on April 11, 1865, in response to a serenade 
 at the White House. In that, as in all his 
 speeches, he shows a devout reverence and 
 a sublime trust in God. He said: 
 
 The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and 
 the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give 
 hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose joy- 
 ous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst 
 of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow 
 must not be forgotten. A call for a national 
 thanksgiving is being prepared and will be duly 
 promulgated.* 
 
1865] THE CHRISTIAN 181 
 
 The Last Intercessory Prayer 
 
 Three days before Mr. Lincoln's death a 
 Quaker lady was visiting him. He asked 
 her to pray with him, and she felt his hand 
 tremble upon hers like a leaf. Afterward 
 he said, "I feel helped and strengthened by 
 your prayers. 5 ' 111 
 
 Resigned 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was frequently warned of 
 the danger of assassination. From the day 
 of his election he seems to have expected it. 
 A little while before the end he said, "I do 
 not consider that I have ever accomplished 
 anything without God, and if it be His will 
 that I must die by the hand of an assassin, 
 I must be resigned." 112 
 
 His Last Day 
 
 Honorable Isaac N. Arnold says that 
 Mrs. Lincoln told him that on the day 
 before his death President Lincoln said to 
 her: 
 
 "Mary, we have had a hard time of it 
 since we came to Washington; but now 
 the war is over, and, with God's blessing, 
 we may hope for four years of peace and 
 
182 ABRAHAM LINCOLN [1865 
 
 happiness, and then we will go back to Illi- 
 nois and pass the rest of our lives in quiet." 113 
 
 His Last Words 
 The Rev. N. W. Miner, who was pastor of 
 the First Baptist Church of Springfield, Illi- 
 nois, and an old friend and neighbor of Mr. 
 Lincoln, writes as follows: "Mrs. Lincoln in- 
 formed me that the last day he lived was the 
 happiest of his life. The very last moments 
 of his conscious life were spent in conversa- 
 tion with her about his future plans, and 
 what he wanted to do when his term of office 
 expired. He said he wanted to visit the Holy 
 Land and see those places hallowed by the 
 footprints of the Saviour. He was saying 
 there was no city he so much desired to see 
 as Jerusalem; and with the words half spoken 
 on his tongue, the bullet of the assassin en- 
 tered the brain, and the soul of the great 
 and good President was carried by the 
 angels to the New Jerusalem above/' 114 
 
 A Strange Coincidence 
 General Lee surrendered on Palm Sun- 
 day. Lincoln was shot on Good Friday. 
 Funeral services were held in all the 
 churches of the land on Easter Sunday. 
 
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S LAST PHOTOGRAPH 
 
 "Anointed and prepared for the sacrifice." — Page 141 
 
 Taken April 9, 1865, the day of Lee's surrender. Mr. Lincoln 
 was sharpening a pencil for little Tad, when a photographer asked 
 permission to make a picture. 
 
 Reproduced from a photograph in the Lincoln Memorial Collec- 
 tion, Washington, D. C., by the courtesy of the owner, Captain 
 O. H. Oldroyd, 
 
 The original negative by Gardner is in the collection of Americana 
 of Frederick H. Meserve, New York City. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 183 
 
 Testimony of Friends 
 
 Is the evidence sufficient? Has the tes- 
 timony already produced left a single 
 doubt in anyone's mind as to Lincoln's 
 religious beliefs and character? While his 
 own testimony is the strongest and best 
 upon which to base a conclusion, yet it 
 cannot be out of place to hear the opinions 
 of personal friends and eminent men who 
 have made a careful study of Lincoln's 
 character. 
 
 MR. WILLIAM O. STODDARD 
 
 Mr. William O. Stoddard, his private 
 secretary, bears testimony as follows: "It 
 may be noted, without any surprise what- 
 ever, that many intelligent persons who had 
 associated with Lincoln in his earlier years 
 were never, to the end, able to see anything 
 but what may be called their first mental 
 photographs of him, badly taken, on defec- 
 tive negatives. These were at best but sur- 
 face pictures and contained only something 
 of the man as he was seen before, say, the 
 year 1858. One of his oldest, most inti- 
 
184 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 mate professional associates and latest 
 biographers [Herndon], for instance, was 
 hardly acquainted with him at all [in his 
 later life], for he did not see him after 1860. 
 [The last time was February 10, 1861.] 
 That he was of God's appointment must 
 be apparent to any man whose creed con- 
 tains a confession of a living God, mindful 
 of human affairs." 115 
 
 HONORABLE ISAAC N. ARNOLD 
 
 Honorable Isaac N. Arnold, an inti- 
 mate friend, for several years a member of 
 Congress from Illinois, in his Life of Lin- 
 coln, says: "No more reverent Christian 
 than he ever sat in the executive chair, not 
 excepting Washington. . . . From the time 
 he left Springfield to his death he not only 
 himself continually prayed for divine as- 
 sistance, but continually asked the prayers 
 of his friends for himself and his country. 
 . . . Doubtless, like others, he passed 
 through periods of doubt and perplexity, 
 but his faith in a Divine Providence began 
 at his mother's knee, and ran through all 
 the changes of his life. . . . When the 
 unbeliever shall convince the people that 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 185 
 
 this man, whose life was straightforward, 
 clear, and honest, was a sham and a 
 hypocrite, then, but not before, may he 
 make the world doubt his Christianity." 116 
 
 FATHER CHINIQUY 
 
 Father Chiniquy, who knew Mr. Lin- 
 coln in Illinois, and visited him several 
 times in the White House, says: "Lincoln 
 had spent a great part of his life at the 
 school of Christ, and had meditated his 
 sublime teachings to an extent unsuspected 
 by the world. I found in him the most 
 perfect type of Christianity I ever met." 117 
 
 BISHOP SIMPSON 
 
 Bishop Matthew Simpson, of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, who was one of 
 Mr. Lincoln's most intimate ministerial 
 friends, says, "He believed in Christ as the 
 Saviour of sinners, and I think he was 
 sincere in trying to bring his life in harmony 
 with the precepts of revealed religion." 118 
 
 MR. JOHN hay 
 
 Mr. John Hay, who was one of Presi- 
 dent Lincoln's private secretaries, and 
 Secretary of State under President Roose- 
 
186 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 velt, in an address at the 100th anniver- 
 sary of the New York Avenue Presbyterian 
 Church, Washington, D. C, November 16, 
 1903, standing beside President Roosevelt 
 in the Lincoln pew, said: "Whatever is 
 remembered or whatever lost, we ought 
 never to forget that Abraham Lincoln, one 
 of the mightiest masters of statecraft that 
 history has known, was also one of the most 
 devoted and faithful servants of Almighty 
 God who have ever sat in the high places of 
 the world. From that dim and chilly dawn 
 when, standing on a railway platform in 
 Springfield, half veiled by falling snowflakes 
 from the crowd of friends and neighbors who 
 had gathered to wish him Godspeed on his 
 momentous journey, he acknowledged his 
 dependence on God and asked for their 
 prayers, to that sorrowful yet triumphant 
 hour when he went to his account, he re- 
 peated over and over in every form of speech 
 his faith and trust in that Almighty Power 
 who rules the fate of men and nations/' 119 
 
 Approved of God 
 
 President McKinley, in a speech before 
 the Marquette Club in Chicago, February 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 187 
 
 12, 1896, said concerning Lincoln: "The 
 war had brought them [the people] and him 
 [Lincoln] to a nearer realization of our 
 absolute dependence upon a Higher Power, 
 and had quickened his conceptions of duty 
 more acutely than the public could realize. 
 The purposes of God, working through the 
 ages, were, perhaps, more clearly revealed 
 to him than to any other/' Again he said: 
 "He w r as the greatest man of his time, 
 especially approved of God for the work 
 He gave him to do. History abundantly 
 proves his superiority as a leader, and 
 establishes his constant reliance upon a 
 Higher Power for guidance and support. 5 ' 
 
 Inspired of God 
 
 Mr. Henry Watterson, in his oration 
 before the Lincoln Union of Chicago, Feb- 
 ruary 12, 1895, on Abraham Lincoln as a 
 Man Inspired of God, pays an eloquent 
 tribute to Lincoln's Christian faith and his 
 following divine guidance. Says he: 
 
 "Born as lowly as the Son of God, in a 
 hovel; reared in penury, squalor, with no 
 gleam of light or fair surroundings; with- 
 out graces, actual or acquired; without 
 
188 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 name or fame or official training; it was 
 reserved for this strange being, late in life, 
 to be snatched from obscurity, raised to 
 supreme command at a supreme moment, 
 and intrusted with the destiny of a nation. 
 
 "The great leaders of his party, the most 
 experienced and accomplished men of the 
 day, were made to stand aside; were sent 
 to the rear, while this fantastic figure was 
 led by unseen hands to the front and given 
 the reins of power. . . . That, during four 
 years, carrying with them such a weight 
 of responsibility as the world never wit- 
 nessed before, he filled the vast space 
 allotted him in the eyes and actions of 
 mankind, is to say that he was inspired of 
 God, for nowhere else could he have ac- 
 quired the wisdom and the virtue. 
 
 "Where did Shakespeare get his genius? 
 Where did Mozart get his music? Whose 
 hand smote the lyre of the Scottish plough- 
 man, and stayed the life of the German 
 priest? God, God, and God alone; and as 
 surely as these were raised up by God, in- 
 spired by God was Abraham Lincoln; and 
 a thousand years hence, no drama, no 
 tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 189 
 
 greater wonder, or be followed by mankind 
 with deeper feeling, than that which tells 
 the story of his life and death. If Lincoln 
 was not inspired of God, then there is no 
 such thing on earth as special providence 
 or the interposition of divine power in the 
 affairs of men." 
 
 His Crowning Glory 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Bishop, quoted before, 
 who had special opportunity to know Mr. 
 Lincoln's religious belief, exclaims: "Let the 
 nation know — let the peopled world that 
 beheld in him 'the Great Commoner/ the 
 incarnation of the ideal republic, know — 
 let the coming generations, looking back to 
 him as the representative of the divine idea 
 of free government, know that the crown- 
 ing glory of Abraham Lincoln was the 
 grandeur of his Christian character. His 
 faith in the living God was the supreme 
 element in his giant personality/' 
 
190 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 A Transfigured Life 
 
 Lincoln has spoken for himself with no 
 uncertain sound, and no man dare dispute 
 it. His friends have borne testimony. His 
 admirers have seen and recognized his sub- 
 lime faith and trust in God. Through all 
 of his life there was a spirit of deep rever- 
 ence. As the cares and responsibilities of 
 life and of public duty came upon him with 
 ever-increasing weight he grew more and 
 more into the image of the Master. Every 
 word and every act of his later life was 
 cumulative evidence that he was no longer 
 conformed to this world, but that he was 
 being transformed day by day into the 
 sweetness and purity and perfection of the 
 Father. His whole life was a gradual 
 crystallization of a soul into the marvelous 
 beauty, transparency, and glory of Divin- 
 ity Himself. 
 
 Religious Development 
 
 It is impossible to analyze the develop- 
 ment of his religious life, but there are 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 191 
 
 marked stages which may be designated as 
 follows: 
 
 From 1809 to 1818, a period of nine 
 years, represents his mother s training. 
 From 1818 to 1831, a period of thirteen 
 years, might be called drifting. The next 
 four years, from 1831 to 1835, was the 
 period of questioning. Then for thirteen 
 years, from 1835 to 1848, his religious life 
 seems to be characterized by indifferent- 
 ism. The ten years from 1848 to 1858 are 
 characterized by the honest doubter seek- 
 ing the true light.f From 1858 to 1862, a 
 period of four years, there are unmistakable 
 evidences of a great soul coming into full 
 fellowship with his Master. The next three 
 years, 1862 to 1865, he was, in the highest 
 meaning of the term, a true follower of 
 Jesus Christ. While the last months of 
 his life are distinctly marked by the deep- 
 ening of his spiritual life. 
 
 Well Done 
 
 Lincoln developed perfect trust in God. 
 He was always a believer in the existence 
 of God. He was always reverent toward 
 
im ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 the Bible. When a child, he said his eve- 
 ning prayer at his mother's knee: 
 
 Now I lay me down to sleep, 
 
 I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep. 
 
 If I should die before I wake, 
 
 I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take. 
 
 When a lad, he received a dying mother's 
 blessing; when a young man, he vowed to 
 the "Eternal God" that if the opportunity 
 came he would give slavery a crushing 
 blow; when he accepted the nomination for 
 President, he implored "the assistance of 
 Divine Providence"; when elected, he saw 
 in the result "the providence of God"; 
 when he left his home at Springfield to go 
 to Washington, he declared that "without 
 the assistance of the Almighty I must fail"; 
 when he delivered his inaugural address, he 
 expressed a "firm reliance upon Him who 
 has never yet forsaken this favored land"; 
 when the battle of Gettysburg was raging, 
 upon his knees he prayed "mightily" for 
 victory, and told the Lord "that this was 
 His war, and our cause His cause"; in his 
 second inaugural he declared his "firmness 
 in the right as God gives us to see the 
 right"; in his last public address, three days 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 193 
 
 before his death, his first words were those 
 of recognition of Him "from whom all 
 blessings flow"; the day before he was 
 shot he said to his wife, "With God's 
 blessing, we may hope"; in the last con- 
 scious moment of his life, he expressed a 
 desire to visit old Jerusalem and "see the 
 places hallowed by the footprints of the 
 Saviour." 
 
 He had intended, as he said, to make a 
 public profession of religion by uniting with 
 some church; but, alas! the public profes- 
 sion was deferred too long. The assassin's 
 bullet came all too soon. "After four 
 tempestuous years, in the hour of victory, 
 in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, 
 as it were, his career crystallized into that 
 pure white fame which belongs only to the 
 martyr for justice, law, and liberty," and 
 he who had "felt the great throb of the 
 plain people's hearts every hour that he 
 was in the White House," the best-loved 
 man that ever trod this continent, was 
 "translated by a bloody martyrdom to his 
 crown of glory, his soul soaring upward to 
 the God from whom it sprang, holding in 
 his right hand four millions of broken 
 
194 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 fetters/' clinking music more sweet and 
 thrilling than harps of gold struck with 
 celestial hands, receiving the approbation 
 of the heavenly Father whom he loved, 
 "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. 
 Thou hast been faithful over a few things; 
 I will make thee ruler over many things. 
 Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 'The greatest character since Christ" — John Hay. 
 'He Was a Christ in Miniature"— Tolstoy. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 195 
 
 SOURCES OF INFORMATION 
 
 * Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln : Speeches, 
 Letters, and State Papers. John G. Nicolay and 
 John Hay, 1905. This is the largest and most 
 complete work published, although there are many 
 authentic letters not found in it. 
 
 In the following references, the full name of the 
 book is given only once, as a rule. Afterward 
 the author's name is used. 
 
 The year in which the book was published is 
 given. 
 
 The numbers correspond to the index numbers 
 through the book. 
 
 1 Hon. Thomas B. McGregor, in The National Re- 
 
 publican, October 15, 1921. 
 
 2 Life of Lincoln, Wm. H. Herndon and Jesse W. 
 
 Weik, 1892, Vol. I, p. 21. 
 
 3 Abraham Lincoln, Charles Carleton Coffin, 1893, 
 
 p. 20. 
 
 4 Life of Abraham Lincoln, John G. Holland, 1866, 
 
 p. 436. 
 
 5 Coffin, p. 23. 
 
 6 Herndon and Weik, Vol. I, p. 24. 
 
 7 Herndon and Weik, Vol. I, p. 25. 
 
 8 The Pioneer Boy, William M. Thayer, 1866, 
 
 pp. 137, 139. 
 
 9 Holland, p. 23. 
 <° Holland, p. 30. 
 
196 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 11 Abraham Lincoln: A History, John G. Nicolay 
 
 and John Hay, 1890, Vol. I, p. 35. 
 
 12 Herndon and Weik, Vol. I, p. 19. 
 
 13 Thayer, pp. 124, 125. Also, Abraham Lincoln 
 
 and the Downfall of American Slavery, Noah 
 Brooks, 1903, p. 24. 
 
 14 Holland, p. 31. 
 
 15 Life of Lincoln, Ida M. Tarbell, 1902, Vol. I, p. 42. 
 
 16 Life of Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ketcham, 1901, 
 
 p. 22; Herndon and Weik, Vol. I, p. 47. 
 
 17 The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Isaac N. Arnold, 
 
 1885, p. 31. 
 
 18 Herndon and Weik, Vol. I, p. 64. 
 
 19 Several versions are given. Some authors leave 
 
 out the word "God," and others put the phrase, 
 "by the Eternal God," at the close of the 
 sentence. 
 
 20 McNamar was his real name, McNeil an assumed 
 
 name. Herndon and Weik, Vol. I, p. 123. 
 Samuel Hill, John McNeil [McNamar] and 
 Abraham Lincoln were all three infatuated 
 with Miss Rutledge, who was attending Mentor 
 Graham's school. Herndon and Weik, Vol. I, 
 pp. 122-127. 
 
 21 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, Wash- 
 
 ington, D. C, p. 64. Mr. B. F. Irwin, to whom 
 this letter was written, had been personally 
 acquainted with Mr. Lincoln for twenty years 
 and w r as often in his office. Mr. W. H. Herndon, 
 who, it seems, first published the story that 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 197 
 
 Mr. Lincoln wrote an essay on "Infidelity," 
 says, "I assert this on my own knowledge, 
 and on my own veracity." — Lamon's Life of 
 Lincoln, p. 489. Mr. Herndon was only a boy 
 fifteen years old at that time, living nearly 
 twenty miles from New Salem. The reader 
 may judge for himself. 
 
 22 Herndon and Weik, Vol. I, p. 158. 
 
 23 Tarbell, Vol. II, p. 31. 
 
 24 It was Joshua Speed's mother who presented 
 
 Lincoln with an Oxford Bible. He was a 
 brother of Miss Mary Speed. Speed was 
 Lincoln's roommate at Springfield for four 
 years, and the most intimate friend he ever had. 
 
 25 Tarbell, Vol. II, p. 31. 
 
 26 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, p. 64. 
 
 27 The Rev. William Bishop, D.D., Salina, Kansas, 
 
 Address on Lincoln's Birthday, February 12, 
 1897, which was published in a local paper. 
 
 28 The Later Life and Religious Sentiments of 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, Rev. James A. Reed, pastor 
 First Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois, 
 published in Scribner's Monthly, July, 1873, 
 p. 333. 
 
 29 Scribner's Monthly, July, 1873, the Rev. James 
 
 A. Reed. 
 
 30 Daily Illinois State Register, Springfield, Illinois, 
 
 December 10, 1898. Copy in possession of Miss 
 Jeanette E. Smith, granddaughter of the Rev. 
 Dr. Smith. 
 
198 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 31 Scribner's Monthly, July, 1873, p. 338. The Rev. 
 
 James Smith, D.D., then pastor of the church, 
 to W. H. Herndon, January 24, 1867. Letter 
 first published in Springfield Journal, March 12, 
 1867. 
 
 32 Abraham Lincoln and the Downfall of American 
 
 Slavery, Noah Brooks, 1894, p. 126. 
 
 33 Lincoln, the Citizen, Henry C. Whitney, 1908, 
 
 p. 327, the famous "Lost Speech." 
 
 34 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, p. 64. 
 
 35 Six Months at the White House, Frank B. Car- 
 
 penter, 1866, p. 125. 
 
 36 Holland, p. 237. 
 
 37 Lincoln, the Citizen, Henry C. Whitney, p. 202. 
 
 Life of Lincoln, Ida M. Tarbell, Vol. II, p. 200. 
 On the occasion referred to, Judge Gillespie was 
 spending the night with Mr. Lincoln at the 
 latter's home in Springfield, Illinois. This inci- 
 dent was related by Judge Gillespie's daughter, 
 Mrs. Josephine Gillespie Prickett, living at Ed- 
 wards ville, Illinois. 
 
 38 Characteristic Anecdotes of Lincoln, John G. 
 
 Nicolay, by his daughter, Helen Nicolay, Cen- 
 tury Magazine, September, 1912, p. 700. The 
 Rev. Hale was pastor of the Second Presby- 
 terian Church, Springfield, Illinois, for a quar- 
 ter of a century. He offered the prayer at the 
 burial service of Lincoln, May 4, 1865. 
 
 39 Weekly Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois, 
 
 February 13, 1861, written by the editor, Ed- 
 ward L. Baker, a relative of Lincoln's. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 199 
 
 There is another version of the address, which 
 was given to the papers at the time by a news- 
 paper correspondent, Henry J. Villard. 
 
 The speech was extemporized. Both versions are 
 practically the same in thought, but the ver- 
 sion used in this book seems more like Mr. 
 Lincoln's style of language. 
 
 40 Words of Lincoln, O. H. Oldroyd, 1895, p. 56. 
 
 41 Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, 
 
 Henry J. Raymond, 1865, p. 149. 
 
 42 Raymond, p. 151. 
 
 43 Raymond, p. 152. 
 
 44 Recollections of President Lincoln and His Cabinet, 
 
 L. E. Chittenden, 1891, p. 76. 
 
 45 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, Letter 
 
 of Rev. N. W. Miner, August 1, 1871, p. 52. 
 Mrs. Lincoln told it to Rev. Miner. Mr. 
 Miner was pastor of the First Baptist Church 
 in Springfield, Illinois. He first became ac- 
 quainted with Mr. Lincoln in 1855. He lived 
 on the same street, on the opposite corner, 
 and saw him almost daily when at home until 
 he went to Washington. 
 
 ^Herndon and Weik, Vol. II, p. 223. Mrs. Lin- 
 coln told W. H. Herndon in interview in Spring- 
 field, Illinois, September 4, 1866. 
 
 47 Behind the Scenes, Elizabeth Keckley, 1868, p. 103. 
 She was thirty years a slave and four years 
 in the White House, as modiste and friend to 
 Mrs. Lincoln, 
 
200 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 48 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, Letter 
 
 of Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomeroy, p. 54. Mrs. 
 Pomeroy was about fifty years old, living at 
 Chelsea, Massachusetts. She had just buried 
 her husband, the last of her family. She was 
 cultured and graceful, devoutly religious, a 
 member of the Baptist Church. There was a 
 call for nurses for the soldiers' hospitals in 
 Washington. Mrs. Pomeroy felt that it was an 
 opening of Providence, volunteered for service, 
 and was accepted. After she had been there a 
 few weeks, she was selected to nurse President 
 Lincoln's children. Willie died, but Thomas, 
 known as "Tad," recovered. At Mr. Lincoln's 
 request, Mrs. Pomeroy stayed at the White 
 House several months after the boy's recovery. 
 
 49 Carpenter, pp. 117-119. 
 
 50 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, Rev, 
 
 N. W. Miner, August 1, 1871, p. 52. 
 
 51 North American Review, December, 1896, p. 667, 
 
 James F. Wilson. 
 
 52 Carpenter, p. 282. 
 
 53 Sermons on the Death of Abraham Lincoln, with 
 
 Funeral Sermon at the White House by Rev. 
 Dr. Gurley, 1865, p. 23. 
 
 54 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Nicolay 
 
 and Hay, Vol. X, p. 149, foot-note. 
 
 55 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of .Congress, Mrs. 
 
 Rebecca R. Pomeroy, p. 54. Referred to on 
 p. 80, as "A Christian Nurse." 
 
THE CHRISTIAN gOl 
 
 58 The author called upon Mr. Scoville at his law 
 office in Philadelphia on October 29, 1912. He 
 confirmed the accuracy of the story as here 
 given, saying it is what his grandmother told 
 him. 
 
 In reply to a letter from the Rev. David G. 
 Downey, D.D., Book Editor of The Methodist 
 Book Concern, New York city, December 13, 
 1912, Mr. Scoville wrote: "Dr. Johnson showed 
 me his manuscript in regard to the Lincoln 
 episode. I told him that this story had been 
 related to me by my grandmother, Mrs. Henry 
 Ward Beecher, and I had no further knowledge 
 as to its truth than that. It has been stren- 
 uously denied and also defended. It has always 
 seemed to me to be a perfectly possible situa- 
 tion. It has never, however, been corroborated 
 by any of the members of the family. It 
 rests entirely upon the statement of Mrs. 
 Beecher in her old age." 
 
 57 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, Mrs. 
 
 Rebecca R. Pomeroy, p. 54. Referred to on 
 p. 80 as "A Christian Nurse." 
 
 58 Carpenter, p. 89; Holland, p. 394. This incident 
 
 is related both by Secretary Chase and Secretary 
 Welles in their published diaries. 
 
 59 Scribner's Monthly, July, 1873, p. 342, the Rev. 
 
 J. A. Reed. 
 
 60 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, Henry C. Whit- 
 
 ney, 1892, p. 595. 
 
202 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 m Abraham Lincoln, the Patriot and Christian, Dr. 
 O. F. Presbrey, January 15, 1900, the only one 
 of the seven living at that time. 
 
 82 The Religion of Abraham Lincoln, Charles H. T. 
 Collis, 1900, p. 23. Mr. Munsell had known 
 Mr. Lincoln since he [Munsell] was fifteen 
 years old. Mr. Lincoln often stopped at his 
 father's home. 
 
 63 Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days, Gen- 
 eral James F. Rusling, 1899, p. 15. 
 
 u Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, Mrs. 
 Rebecca R. Pomeroy, p. 54. Referred to on 
 p. 80 as "A Christian Nurse." 
 
 S5 Holland, p. 435. 
 
 66 Anecdotes and Reminiscences, Frank B. Carpenter 
 (in Life of Lincoln, H. J. Raymond), 1865, p. 732. 
 
 67 TheTrueAbrahamLincoln,WilliamE.Curtis,p.383. 
 
 68 Homiletic Review, 1909, Vol. LVII, p. 156. 
 
 69 Curtis, p. 385. 
 
 70 New York Daily Tribune, April 30, 1870, Letter 
 
 of Rev. John Tyler, Newark, New Jersey, 
 April 23, 1870. 
 
 71 Scribner's Monthly, July, 1873, p. 340, the Rev. 
 
 J. A. Reed. 
 
 72 Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, Father 
 
 Chiniquy, 1886, p. 693. 
 
 73 Carpenter, p. 209. 
 
 4 Chittenden, p. 445, 
 75 Holland, p. 432. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 203 
 
 76 The Independent, 1900, p. 435, Helen Everston 
 
 Smith, who was one of the company. 
 
 77 The Lincoln Memorial Album of Immortelles, 
 
 Osborn H. Oldroyd, 1883, p. 254. 
 
 78 Chiniquy, pp. 706-710. Everyone ought to read 
 
 Chapters LX and LXI, pp. 668-735, in Chin- 
 iquy's Fifty Years in the Church of Rome. 
 It is a most remarkable story. 
 
 79 Chittenden, p. 382. 
 
 80 Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney, the same lady mentioned 
 
 on p. 97, in "Reply to Quakers." Some authors 
 have confused the name Gurney with Gurley 
 (Mr. Lincoln's pastor). This probably accounts 
 for the confusion in dates by several authors. 
 The dates here given are authentic. 
 
 81 Lincoln, the Citizen, Henry C. Whitney, 1908, 
 
 p. 201. 
 
 82 Lincoln's Use of the Bible, S. Trevena Jackson, 
 
 1909, p. 8. 
 
 83 Curtis, p. 387. 
 
 84 Harper's Magazine, 1865, Vol. XXXI, p. 226, 
 
 Noah Brooks. 
 
 85 Curtis, p. 379. 
 
 86 Chittenden, pp. 448-450. 
 
 87 Keckley, p. 118. 
 
 88 Carpenter (in Raymond), p. 734. This incident is 
 
 taken out of its chronological order. It occurred 
 in 1862. 
 
 89 Carpenter, p. 261. 
 
S04 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 90 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, Mrs. 
 
 Rebecca R. Pomeroy, p. 54. Referred to on 
 p. 80 as "A Christian Nurse." 
 
 91 Life and Times of Abraham Lincoln, L. P. 
 
 Brockett, 1865, p. 743, Sermon by Rev, Joseph 
 P. Thompson, D.D., Broadway Tabernacle, 
 New York City, April 30, 1865. 
 
 92 There were two Bixby families in Massachusetts 
 
 represented in the war. Five Bixbys were 
 killed, and it was thought they were the sons 
 of Mrs. Lydia Bixby. Afterward three of her 
 sons returned (she had six in the war). — "A 
 Rare Lincoln Letter and Its Curious Story," 
 Boston Sunday Globe, April 12, 1908. 
 
 83 Harper's Magazine, 1865, Vol. XXXI, p. 226, 
 
 Noah Brooks. 
 04 Harper's Magazine, 1865, Vol. XXXI, p. 226, 
 
 Noah Brooks. 
 
 95 Holland, p. 439. 
 
 96 HoUand, p. 440. 
 
 87 The Globe, New York City, February IS, 1911, 
 Rev. Ferdinand C. Iglehart, D.D. In a letter 
 to the author, he says: "Dr. Hill was a member 
 of my Official Board at Delaware Avenue M. E. 
 Church, in Buffalo, while I was pastor, and one 
 of the leading practitioners of the city. The 
 incident is absolutely authentic, as the story 
 came directly from the lips of the reliable man 
 to whom Lincoln spoke the words of beauty and 
 Christian faith." 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 205 
 
 98 Scrapbook. 
 
 w Eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, Hon. Henry C. 
 
 Deming, before Legislature of Connecticut, 
 
 June 8, 1865, p. 42. 
 
 100 Carpenter, p. 187. 
 
 101 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, Henry C.Whit- 
 
 ney, p. 281. 
 
 102 Scribner's Monthly, July, 1873, Letter from 
 
 Noah Brooks to the Rev. J. A. Reed. 
 
 103 Scribner's Monthly, July, 1873, p. 339. 
 
 104 Notebook. 
 
 105 Lincoln Memorial Album, O. H. Oldroyd, 1883, 
 
 p. 366. 
 108 Carpenter, p. 191. 
 
 107 Incidents and Anecdotes of the War, Admiral 
 
 Porter, p. 295. 
 
 108 Carpenter (in Raymond), p. 735. Quoted in the 
 
 works of a score of historians and biographers* 
 and almost universally accepted as an historic 
 fact. However, it is only fair to history to 
 say that no Cabinet meeting was held on the 
 day the news was received of Lee's surrender. 
 Mr. Lincoln returned to Washington from 
 Richmond on Palm Sunday, April 9. The 
 news of Lee's surrender was received later on 
 the same day. There was no Cabinet meeting 
 that night. It seems that Secretary Welles was 
 the only Cabinet officer who saw Mr. Lincoln 
 that evening. The incident related probably 
 occurred at an informal gathering of the 
 Cabinet the following morning. 
 
206 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 100 Scrapbook 
 
 110 Life and Principles of Abraham Lincoln, Hon. 
 
 Schuyler Colfax, 1865, p. 25. 
 
 111 "Cartland's Southern Heroes," quoted by Henry 
 
 Bryan Binns in his Abraham Lincoln, p. 321. 
 
 112 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, Henry C. Whit- 
 
 ney, 1892, p. 278. 
 
 113 Life of Abraham Lincoln, Isaac N. Arnold, 1885, 
 
 p. 429. Mr. Arnold and Mr. Lincoln had been 
 personal friends for a quarter of a century, hav- 
 ing practiced law together in Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 114 Lincoln Scrapbook, Library of Congress, Rev. 
 
 N. W. Miner, p. 52. The Rev. Mr. Miner visited 
 Mr. Lincoln and family at the White House 
 and often visited Mrs. Lincoln after the 
 President's death. He was one of the 
 officiating clergymen at the burial of Mr. 
 Lincoln, reading the Scriptures at the grave, 
 May 4, 1865. 
 
 115 The author called upon Mr. William O. Stoddard 
 
 at his home in Madison,New Jersey, on February 
 25, 1913. He indorsed the quotation as given. 
 
 ** 6 Arnold, pp. 446-8. 
 
 117 Chiniquy, p. 711. 
 
 118 Our Martyr President: Voices from the Pulpit 
 
 of New York and Brooklyn — Funeral Oration 
 by Bishop Simpson, 1865, p. 404. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 207 
 
 119 Centennial Volume, New York Avenue Presby- 
 terian Church, Washington, D. C, 1903, p. 97. 
 
 f It is this period to which we must date some of 
 his deepest convictions. Indeed, his pastor, 
 Dr. Smith, seems to think that he was gen- 
 uinely converted. 
 
208 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 DOCTRINAL BELIEFS AND RELIGIOUS 
 HABITS 
 
 The following references will be found helpful to 
 those who may wish to make a more careful study 
 of Mr. Lincoln's doctrinal beliefs, as revealed in his 
 utterances, and of his religious habits, as shown by 
 authentic incidents. 
 
 Adam's Fall, 33, 63 
 Atonement, complete, 33, 63 
 Bible 
 
 First book he learned to read, 26 
 
 "So long as the Bible shall be read," 35 
 
 Constant reader of, 50 
 
 Convinced of divine authority, 51, 52 
 
 Address on, 58 
 
 The Bateman interview on, 64 
 
 Carries a pocket New Testament, 65 
 
 Reads story of Gethsemane on his knees, 68 
 
 Statement to the Rev. Hale, 69 
 
 The Bible the word of God, 134 
 
 Reads Deuteronomy 3. 22-27, 137 
 
 Reading Bible at Soldiers' Home, 148 
 
 Studies Bible with Cruden's Concordance, 149 
 
 Gospels, praises simplicity of, 149 
 
 Sermon on the mount, 149 
 
 Lord's Prayer, 149 
 
 Repeat whole chapters from memory, 149 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 209 
 
 Conversation with Chittenden, 149 
 
 God's Book, 152 
 
 Internal evidence of authenticity, 152 
 
 Reads Job, 155 
 
 Reading a well-worn Testament, 156 
 
 Reads Bible every morning, 156 
 
 Quotations from Bible, 157 
 
 Reads his mother's Bible, 157 
 
 Likes Psalms best, 157 
 
 His mother's wish, 157 
 
 Reply to colored people, 157 
 
 Book of God, 158 
 
 Beatitudes of Jesus, 172 
 
 Christ 
 
 Christ is God, 66 
 
 Ambassador of Christ, 121 
 
 Christ advises to be ready, 137 
 
 Crucified One, 140 
 
 Christ died for the world's sake, 140 
 
 Hope of immortality through Christ, 170 
 
 Christian 
 Highly developed Christian attainment, 17 
 Believes he was a true Christian, 116 
 "I hope I am a Christian," 169 
 Opinion of Henry C. Whitney, 170 
 No more reverent Christian, 184 
 Most perfect type of Christianity, 185 
 Believed in Christ, 185 
 Christian character his crowning glory, 180 
 "A Christ in miniature," 194 
 
210 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Church 
 Attends New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Washington, 13, 167 
 Devout worshiper, 13 
 Attends weekly prayer meeting, 13 
 Little Abe attended "meetings," 22 
 Never lived where there was a church until nearly 
 
 twenty-six years old, 31 
 Greatest institution, 36 
 Attends camp meeting, 36 
 Pew in First Presbyterian Church, Springfield, 
 
 41, 55 
 Attends Episcopal church, 49 
 Attends revival, 56 
 Sometimes attended First Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Washington, 101 
 Blesses God for the churches, 133 
 Regular attendant at church, 167 
 Intended to unite with church, 169, 171 
 
 Confession of Faith 
 
 Statement of Dr. Gurley, 167 
 
 Statement of Honorable Henry C. Deming, 167 
 
 Conversion 
 
 Dr. Smith's statement, 51 
 
 Seemed changed after Willie's death, 84 
 
 "Process of crystallization," 163 
 
 Religious experience, 169 
 
 Speaks of change, 170 
 
 Believed his heart was changed, 171 
 
 Hunger and thirst after righteousness, 172 
 
 Consecrated to Christ at Gettysburg, 172 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 211 
 
 Devil 
 
 False suggestion of, 39 
 Temptation of Jesus by, 135 
 
 Faith 
 
 The faith which sustained him, 88 
 
 The justice and goodness of God, 89 
 
 A profound conviction, 90 
 
 Believes in the purpose and will of God, 97 
 
 Believes in control of a Higher Power, 102 
 
 "God will bring us through safe," 110 
 
 Believes God will give victory, 112, 115 
 
 Faith becomes knowledge, 130 
 
 God controls events, 131 
 
 Places whole reliance in God, 135 
 
 The Almighty using His own means, 143 
 
 Faith in God's wisdom, 147 
 
 God will let him know what to do, 150 
 
 Providence will protect against fatal defeat, 154 
 
 Firm belief in an over-ruling Providence, 164 
 
 "In God we trust," 180 
 
 Fatalist, not a, 102 
 
 God. (See names of the Deity, p. 214, and Index) 
 
 Grace 
 
 "Throne of Grace," 78 
 
 "Redeeming and preserving grace/' 108 
 
 Heaven 
 
 "Before High Heaven," 38 
 Message to dying father, 58 
 Little Willie in heaven, 80 
 "Choicest bounties of Heaven," 108 
 
212 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 "His face shone'* 
 
 Inner, spiritual lamp, 19 
 
 "His face aglow," 61 
 
 Statement of Ex-Senator James F. Wilson, 88 
 Holy Land, wanted to visit, 172 
 Holy Spirit, invoke influence of, 124 
 
 Hymns 
 
 He most loved, 28 
 Repeat from memory, 149 
 
 Infidelity 
 
 Denies the charge, 41 
 
 Indorses sermon against atheism, 48 
 
 Jesus, "His eternal Son," 140 
 
 Mercy 
 
 "Pray for His mercy," 77 
 
 Refers convict to mercy of God, 78 
 
 "Mercy of God alone can save us," 103 
 
 "Genuine repentance will lead to mercy," 107 
 
 "Mercy in preserving our national existence," 145 
 
 Pardon 
 Of past offences, 77 
 
 "Genuine repentance will lead to," 107 
 Pray for forgiveness, 108 
 "Pardon of our national sins," 109 
 
 Praise 
 
 "Prayer and praise go together," 116 
 
 Frayer 
 
 Hears mother's prayers, 22 
 Remembers mother's prayers, 22, 81 
 Asked to be remembered in prayer, 57 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 213 
 
 Belief in prayer, 67 
 
 Asks neighbors to pray for him, 70 
 
 Prays before inauguration, 73 
 
 Asks people to pray for mercy, 77 
 
 Prayer brings blessings, 78 
 
 Sustained by prayers of God's people, 85 
 
 Asks people to pray for spiritual consolation and 
 
 divine guidance, 86 
 Visit to Henry Ward Beecher, 91 
 Covenant with God, 95 
 "I have sought His aid," 97 
 Often prayed, "Let this cup pass," 103 
 Prayer will be heard and answered, 109 
 Prays for Battle of Gettysburg, 112 
 Prays for Battle of Vicksburg, 114 
 Prays for Battle of Port Hudson, 115 
 Asks lady friend to pray for him, 115 
 Driven upon his knees, 116 
 Knelt in prayer, 117 
 Asks minister to pray, 118 
 Asks Bishop Simpson to pray, 119 
 Requests many to pray for him, 120 
 Daily prayer, 120 
 Prays with servants, 120 
 Asks prayer for soldiers, 145 
 Asks prayer for sick, wounded, orphans, widows, 
 
 145 
 Stronger and more confident because Christians 
 
 are praying, 153 
 Bishop Janes prays, 164 
 Referred plans to God, 166 
 
214 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Sanitary Commission in answer to prayer, 165 
 
 Quakeress praying with him, 175 
 
 President and Cabinet in prayer, 178 
 
 Asks Quaker lady to pray with him, 181 
 Prayer Meeting, attendant at, 13 
 Punishment 
 
 For sin, 63 
 
 "For our presumptuous sins," 107 
 Repentance 
 
 Confess and deplore sins, 77 
 
 "Christian terms of repentance," 90 
 
 Confess sins in humble sorrow, 107 
 
 Confess national sins and pray for forgiveness, 108 
 Sabbath, 106 
 
 Enjoys orderly observance, 99 
 
 Suggests highest interest of the life to come, 106 
 Satan 
 
 "Satan's rage," 35 
 
 Temptation of the Saviour, 135 
 
 Saviour 
 
 "The Saviour," 62 
 
 Talked to servants about, 120 
 
 Tempted by Satan, 135 
 
 "The good Saviour," 157 
 
 "He loved the Saviour," 171 
 
 Wanted to see His footprints, 172 
 Vicarious Sacrifice, 139 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 215 
 
 NAMES OF THE DEITY 
 
 In referring to the Deity, Mr. Lincoln used no 
 less than forty-nine designations. This is very sig- 
 nificant, revealing, as it does, the breadth of his 
 thinking and showing how full was his conception 
 of God and His attributes. 
 
 The page on which the name first occurs is given. 
 
 Almighty, 40 
 Almighty Architect, 38 
 Almighty Arm, 70 
 Almighty Father, 123 
 Almighty God, 71 
 Almighty Hand, 125 
 Almighty Power, 109 
 Almighty Ruler of Nations, 74 
 
 Christ, 66 
 Creator, 58 
 Crucified One, 140 
 
 Disposer, 159 
 Divine Author, 179 
 Divine Being, 87 
 Divine Majesty, 124 
 Divine Providence, 60 
 Divine Will, 99 
 
 Eternal God, 80 
 
216 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Father, 79 
 
 Father in Heaven, 147 
 
 Father of Mercies, 145 
 
 God, 33 
 
 God Almighty, 114 
 God of Battles, 106 
 God of Hosts, 62 
 God of Nations, 105 
 Governor, 152 
 
 Heavenly Father, 86 
 Higher Being, 165 
 Higher Power, 102 
 Holy Spirit, 124 
 
 Jesus, 172 
 Judge, 165 
 Just, 140 
 
 Lord, 32 
 
 Maker, 58 
 
 Maker of the Universe, 71 
 
 Master, 60 
 
 Most High, 99 
 
 Most High God, 125 
 
 Omniscient Mind, 70 
 
 Power, 108 
 Providence, 88 
 
 Ruler of the Universe, 144 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 217 
 
 Saviour, 62 
 Son, 140 
 Son of God, 68 
 Son of Mary, 140 
 Supreme Being, 71 
 
218 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Baptists 
 
 According to Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln's pri- 
 vate secretaries, "Thomas Lincoln joined the Bap- 
 tist Church at Little Pigeon in 1823; his oldest 
 child, Sarah, followed his example three years later. 
 They were known as active and consistent mem- 
 bers of their communion." 
 
 Much of the mystery of Lincoln's religion and 
 that of his parents has been cleared away by the 
 finding of the deerskin-bound records of Little 
 Pigeon Baptist Church, near Lincoln City, Indiana, 
 where the Lincoln family lived. Honorable Thomas 
 B. McGregor, at the time assistant attorney-general 
 of the State of Kentucky, in 1921 discovered the 
 little old deerskin record in the old church, near the 
 Lincoln home, "its well preserved condition testi- 
 fying to the excellency of the turkey-buzzard-pen 
 and brier-root-ink" of the early days of the Hoosier 
 boy, Lincoln. He has brought to light information 
 of the greatest value in the study of the religious life 
 of Abraham Lincoln, showing that Lincoln's father 
 was a "pillar" in the church, acted as "moderator" 
 of meetings, and was active in all church matters. 
 He says: 
 
 "The parents of Abraham Lincoln deserve a fairer 
 estimate than has been allotted them by most of the 
 biographers of Lincoln; and the story, as told by 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 219 
 
 the records that are still to be found in the archives 
 of Little Pigeon Baptist Church, near Lincoln City, 
 Spencer County, Indiana, of the devotion paid by 
 the parents of Lincoln to Him who guided the lad 
 of Pigeon Creek in the hour of the nation's travail, 
 goes far to give to them their true estimate. In 
 fact, they were well-to-do pioneers of their day; of 
 sturdy ancestral stock, owned a farm, domestic ani- 
 mals, tools, and a family Bible; neighborly, sacri- 
 ficing and active church-going members." 
 
 The "Meetinghouse" 
 
 "Pigeon Creek Church was founded on [Satur- 
 day], June 8, 1816, the year that Thomas Lincoln 
 and his family moved from Kentucky and settled on 
 Little Pigeon Creek, in what was then Warrick 
 County, Indiana Territory. It was then, as now, 
 the chief church in that vicinity. When the 'meet- 
 inghouse' was built, its site was selected about a 
 mile west of Thomas Lincoln's home, the church 
 building to-day occupying practically the same 
 place. 
 
 "When Lincoln's mother died, she was buried be- 
 tween their home and the church, the graveyard 
 not having at that time been started at the church, 
 but when Lincoln's sister, [Mrs.] Sarah Grigsby, 
 died in 1828, she was buried at the church burying 
 ground, where her grave is yet to be seen, marked 
 by a rough stone. 
 
 "This church, with its continuous existence since 
 1816, has only two books containing its records or 
 minutes; the first covering the period from 1816 
 
220 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 to 1840, It is in this book that we find Abraham 
 Lincoln's father, stepmother, and sister were active 
 members of the Hard-Shell-Baptist Church of 
 Pigeon Creek, and this old book, with its deerskin 
 cover, the hair still remaining, not only reveals in 
 its crude historic way the true religion of Lincoln's 
 parents, but gives us the best insight yet found to 
 his own religious views." 
 
 Pillar of the Church 
 
 "Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were mar- 
 ried by a Methodist minister by the name of Jesse 
 Head, but shortly afterward they were united with 
 one of the churches of the Baptized-Licking-Locust 
 Association of Regular Baptists in Kentucky, and 
 when Nancy Lincoln died in Indiana, Abraham, by 
 his own efforts, had their Kentucky pastor, Elder 
 David Elkins, come to their wilderness home and 
 preach his mother's funeral. 
 
 "After Thomas Lincoln had married Sally Bush 
 Johnston, he sent back to his Kentucky church and 
 obtained his letter of fellowship, and as the minutes 
 on [Sunday], June 1, 1823, show, he united with the 
 Pigeon Creek church by this letter and his wife by 
 experience. From that date until they moved to 
 Illinois, in 1830, their names appear frequently in 
 the minutes of the church proceedings, Thomas 
 being one of the pillars of the church, acting as 
 moderator, on committees to investigate the con- 
 duct of brethren and sisters, and messenger to 
 associations, bearing the letter of Pigeon Creek to 
 her sister churches." 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 221 
 
 Record Book 
 
 "The authenticity of this record is found on its 
 title page as follows: 
 
 'Book for the purpes of recording the business of 
 the church of Christ constituted by the Regular 
 Babtis at Pigeon Creek. 
 
 'Cept by William Stark/ 
 
 "The organization of this church follows on the 
 second page: 
 
 'Saturday, June 8, 1816, the Baptist Church of 
 Jesus Christ known by the name of pigeon church 
 Warrick County Indeanne Teritory, was Consti- 
 tuted by Brother John Weldon & Thos. Downs a 
 presbaty caled for that purpose whos names num- 
 bers & articles of faith and Government as follows. 
 First the Church chose B. Samuel Bristow Mod- 
 erator and Thomas Downs Clerk, For the meting.' 
 
 "Following this are the names of thirteen mem- 
 bers." 
 
 Articles of Faith 
 
 "Then immediately following are found the ar- 
 ticles of faith, which, in this church as in all Hard- 
 Shall Baptist churches, was the creed of faith and 
 practice. They read: 
 
 '1st. we believe in one god the Father the word 
 & the holly gost who haith created all things that 
 are created by the word of his power for his pleasure. 
 
 '2nd. we believe the old & new testaments are 
 the words of god thare are everry thing contained 
 thare in necessary For our Salvation & rule of faith 
 and practice. 
 
222 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 '3. we believe in the fall of man in his public 
 hear & That he is Incapable of recoverry unless 
 restorred by Christ. 
 
 '4. we believe in Election by grace given us in 
 Christ Jesus Before the world began & that God 
 Cawls regenerates and Sanctifies all who are made 
 meat for Glory by his special grace. 
 
 '5. we believe the righteous will persevere throw 
 grace to glory & none of them fineley fawl away. 
 
 '6. we believe in a general resurrection of the 
 Just and unjust and the Joys of the righteous and 
 the punishment of the wicked Eternal. 
 
 '7. we believe that Good works follow after Jus- 
 tification. 
 
 '8. we believe that babtism and the Lord's sup- 
 per are ordenances of Jesus Christ and that true 
 belevers are the onely proper subjects and the 
 onely proper mode of babtism is immersion. 
 
 '9. we believe the washing of feet is a command 
 to be complide with when opportunity serves. 
 
 '10. we believe it is our duty severally to seport 
 the lord's table and that we orght to administer the 
 lord's supper At lest twise a year. 
 
 '11. we believe that no minister ought to preach 
 the gospel That is not calld and sent of god and 
 they are to be proved by hiering them & we allow 
 none to preach Amongst us but such as are well 
 recommended And that we aurght to Contribute 
 to him who Faithfully Labers Amongs us in word 
 and Docttrine According to our severrel abilities of 
 our temporal Things'," 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 223 
 
 The Historical Minute 
 
 "The historical minute which records the affilia- 
 tion of Thomas Lincoln and his wife with this little 
 pioneer church of God, attesting the fact that the 
 boy Abraham was reared in a home, though rude 
 and humble it was, pregnant with the teaching and 
 the sweet influence of the lowly Nazarene, reads: 
 
 'June the T 1823 [Saturday] 
 
 'The church met and after prayer proceeded to 
 busyness. 
 
 '1st Inquired for fellowship. 
 
 '2nd Invited members of sister churches to seats 
 with us. 
 
 '3rd Opened a dore for the Reception of Members. 
 
 '4th Received Brother Thomas Linkhon by let- 
 ter and 
 
 '5th the case of Sister Elizabeth White coled for 
 & refired and the Brother and the brothe that was 
 to bare a letter to his aquited. 
 
 '6. The church appoints Messengers to Rep- 
 resent them at the next asiation: Young Lemare 
 Charles Harper & Wm. Stark and the Clirk to pre- 
 pare a letter to be inspected At our Next Meting — 
 
 '7th Received Brother John wire by Relation and 
 Sister Linkhon and Thomas Carter by Experance. 
 
 "As young Lincoln read every book he could get 
 his hands upon, borrowing from friends who lived 
 far away, there is but little doubt that he many 
 times thumbed this little deerskin-bound volume 
 containing the minutes of the Pigeon Creek Church, 
 either at the meetinghouse before the long services, 
 
224 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 or at the home of the clerk, William Stark, where it 
 was kept; and if Abraham was not present on this 
 Saturday when the parents joined the church, he 
 was certainly at the baptizing the next day when 
 his stepmother and Thomas Carter were immersed 
 in the waters of Pigeon, as this was always occasion 
 for a gathering of the whole neighborhood, and 
 especially the young folks." 
 
 A Church Contributor 
 
 "Thomas Lincoln was not in such poor circum- 
 stances but that he always donated to the needs 
 of his church. It was the custom in this church 
 for the brethren to give products of their farms to 
 repair the house and support the minister, as this 
 church since its organization has never had a paid 
 pastor. One interesting item is found by a minute 
 entered in the year 1828, when it was thought neces- 
 sary to build another chimney to the meetinghouse, 
 which in part reads: 
 
 'We the undersigned Do agree one with another 
 to pay the Several Somes next our names in produce 
 this fall to be Delivered Betwixt the first & 20 of 
 December, the produce as follows, Corn, wheat, whis- 
 key, soft Linnen wool or any other article a material 
 to do the work with, the produce will be Delivered 
 at Wm. Barkers in good mercantile produce/ 
 
 "With several others giving various things named, 
 under the above, appears the name of 
 
 'Thomas Lincoln 
 
 White Corn 
 
 Manufactured — pounds — 24' " 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 225 
 
 Acts as Moderator 
 "In his church, as in his life with his neighbors, 
 back in Kentucky as well as in Indiana, Thomas 
 Lincoln was a leader. He was a leader of men — 
 in a small way, to be sure, because the horizon of 
 the little pioneer world in which he lived was not 
 so very far away. The last service performed for 
 his church, before leaving Indiana for Illinois, was 
 entered in the minutes of the First Saturday's 
 meeting in March, 1830, as follows: 
 
 "We the under Signed Refereas being Conveaned 
 at the meeting house on the 20th February [Satur- 
 day] 1830 in order to Settle A difficulty between 
 Sister Grigsby & Sister Crafford first chose brother 
 T. Lincoln moderator & Bro. Wm. Bristow Clk. not 
 being one of the body qualified and agreed to de- 
 side on all points by a Majority third after a long 
 patient Investigation on the above case on motion 
 The referees agrees that the Charge is In legal there- 
 fore agrees the defendant is aquited. 
 Attest Wm. Bristow Clk. 
 
 T. Lincoln mod. 
 
 A. Guntraman 
 
 R. Oskins 
 
 I. Oskins 
 
 D. Turnham.* " 
 
 "Walked With God" 
 "Thus, we have revealed to us the religion of 
 Abraham Lincoln's parents, his sister Sarah, and of 
 himself. He was raised in the simple Hard-Shell 
 
226 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 faith, which in after years never left him. His own 
 wife, after his death, of his religion said: 
 
 'It is true that he never joined a church, but he 
 was a religious man always, as I think. He read 
 the Bible a great deal. His maxim and philosophy 
 were, "What is to be will be, and no cares of ours 
 can arrest the decree."' 
 
 "This maxim was the essence of the Hard-Shell 
 faith, and of the church of his father and mother 
 and sister. 
 
 "We have no record of Thomas Lincoln or his 
 wife ever uniting with any church after they moved 
 to Illinois in 1830. The Pigeon Creek record shows 
 of no letters being granted to them. They doubt- 
 less found no church of their faith in the Illinois 
 country, and they were not long settled at any 
 place." 
 
 "Thus the parents of Abraham Lincoln, in the 
 very midst of the great and new America, as they 
 understood and saw the light, "Walked with God," 
 and true to His merciful guiding hand, their boy 
 was thus shaped and the instrument fashioned to 
 preserve and save this Union, once and forever." 
 
 Little Pigeon Church 
 
 "Many years ago, a few yards in front of the old 
 log 'meetinghouse' of the days when the Lincolns 
 were members of the church, the new structure was 
 erected which stands to-day, known as "Little 
 Pigeon Church," one of the eight churches of the 
 Little Zion Association of Regular Baptists, hold- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 227 
 
 ing to its original articles of faith and standing a 
 monument to the faith of the Lincoln family in 
 Him who used their son as his servant in giving 
 this nation of ours its new birth of freedom." 
 
 Note. — All of this material on the church relationship and 
 activities of the Lincolns is from an article by Hon. Thomas 
 B. McGregor, Frankfort, Kentucky, first published in The 
 National Republican, Washington, D. C, October 15, 1921, 
 and reproduced in The Register of the Kentucky State His- 
 torical Society, Frankfort, Kentucky, May, 1922, p. 213. By 
 permission of the author. 
 
228 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Adam's Ale, drinks, 63 
 
 Akers, the Rev. Peter, D.D., heard, 36 
 
 Albany, New York, speech at, 71 
 
 Almighty Architect, the souPs, 37 
 
 Almighty, assistance of, 135 
 
 Almighty, directs in human affairs, 149 
 
 Ambassador of Christ, 121 
 
 Approved of God, 186 
 
 Arnold, Honorable Isaac N., quotes Mrs. Lincoln, 
 
 181; testimony of , 184 
 Ashmun, George, letter to, 64 
 Assassinated, rather be, 72 
 Assassination, expected it, 181 
 Atonement, transgression and, 62 
 
 Baptists, parents members, 21, 225; reply to, 134 
 
 Bateman interview, 64 
 
 Battle of Bull Run, 91; Freedom, 60; Gettysburg, 
 
 112; Port Huron, 115; Vicksburg, 114 
 Beecher, Henry Ward, visit to, 91 
 Better man, go away a, 162 
 Bible, Lincoln and the, 148; an Oxford, present, 38; 
 
 presented by colored people, 157; reads every 
 
 morning, 156; reads mother's, 157 
 Bible Society, address to, 57 
 Bishop, the Rev. William, D.D., address of, 43; 
 
 quoted, 189 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 229 
 
 Bixby, Mrs. Lydia, letter to, 160 
 
 Blockhead, most presumptuous, 162 
 
 Books read when a boy, 26 
 
 Boyhood, 16 
 
 Brooks, Noah, tells of conversation, 162; opinion 
 
 of, 170 
 Buffalo, New York, speech at, 71 
 Bull Run, battle of, 91 
 
 Cabinet, President and, in prayer, 178 
 
 Carpenter, Frank B., relates incidents, 95, 168, 175 
 
 Chicago ministers, delegation of, 94 
 
 Chiniquy, Father, Lincoln's remark to, 121; inter- 
 view with Lincoln, 121; testimony of, 136 
 
 Chittenden, L. E., testimony of, 149 
 
 Christ, ambassador of, 121 
 
 Christian Commission, members call on Lincoln, 
 163, 164 
 
 Christian Nurse, see "Nurse, a Christian" 
 
 Christianity, Essay on, 30 
 
 Church attendance, 167 
 
 Church membership, Lincoln and, 167 
 
 Clay, Henry, eulogy of, 59 
 
 Cogdal, Isaac, letter from, 62 
 
 "Cold water, cup of," 129 
 
 Colfax, Honorable Schuyler, speech of, 180 
 
 Colored people present Bible, 157 
 
 Columbus, O., speech at, 70 
 
 Comforter, Lincoln the, 160 
 
 Concordance, uses Cruden's, 149 
 
 Condolence, first letter of, 75 
 
230 , ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Congress, message to, first, 75; first annual, 78; 
 
 second annual, 100; third annual, 127; fourth 
 
 annual, 163 
 Controlled by events, 131 
 Count A. de Gasparin, letter to, 90 
 Covenant with God, 95 
 Convict, refers to mercy of God, 78 
 Crowning glory, his, 189 
 "Cup pass, Let this," 103 
 
 Dedicated to a great task, 126 
 
 Deming, Honorable Henry C, quoted, 167 
 
 Destiny, must work out, 84 
 
 Development, religious, 190 
 
 Divine help, implores, 64 
 
 Divine will, meditation on, 98 
 
 Dodge, William E., answer to, 73 
 
 Duty, only his, 163 
 
 Early training, 21 
 
 Edwards, Ninian W., letter from, 53 
 
 Elkin, Rev. David, preaches mother's funeral, 24 
 
 Ellsworth, Colonel, letter to parents of, 75 
 
 Emancipation Proclamation, 103 
 
 Essay on Christianity, 30 
 
 Evangelical Lutherans, reply to, 87 
 
 Faith, his great, 88 
 
 Farewell address, 70 
 
 Fast-Day, first national, 76; second, 107 
 
 Father, message to dying, 58 
 
 Fessenden, William P., his duty, 143 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 231 
 
 First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, pew in, 41 
 Freedom, the battle of, 60 
 Friends, testimony of, 183 
 
 Gethsemane, in the garden of, 68 
 
 Gettysburg, address at, 126; announcement of vic- 
 tory, ill; battle of, 112 
 
 Giddings, J. R., letter to, 64 
 
 Gillespie, Judge Joseph, conversation with Lincoln, 
 68 
 
 God, approval of, 186; best gift, 157; constant 
 recognition of, 127; covenant with, 95; gracious 
 favor of, 104; grateful to for victory, 133; for re- 
 election, 159; inspired of, 177; "in we trust/' 180; 
 on our side, 106; providence of, 121; referred plans 
 to, 164; responsibility to, 84; will do His will, 94; 
 "will bring us through safe," 109; voice of, 104 
 
 Gregg, Dr. David, quoted, 104 
 
 Gurley, Rev. Phineas, D.D., arranged pastor's room 
 for Lincoln, 14; Lincoln's confession of faith, 167; 
 opinion of, 171 
 
 Gurney, Mrs. Eliza P., reply to, 97; letter to, 146 
 
 Hale, Rev. Albert, Lincoln said to, 69 
 
 Hall, Rev. Newman, tells of Lincoln's pardons, 128 
 
 Hanks, Dennis, testimony of, 26 
 
 Hay, John, testimony of, 185; estimate of Lincoln, 
 
 194 
 Higher Power, control of a, 100 
 Hill, Dr. John Davidson, tells of conversation with 
 
 Lincoln, 165 
 Hill, Samuel, burned letter, 34 
 
232 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Hodges, A. G., letter to, 131 
 
 Holland, John G., quoted, 25 
 
 Human affairs, the Almighty directs in, 149 
 
 Human freedom, the resurrection of, 169 
 
 Hunger and thirst after righteousness, 172 
 
 Hymns, loved most, 28; could repeat, 149 
 
 Inaugural address, first, 74; second, 173 
 
 Inauguration, prays before, 73 
 
 Indiana Regiment, speech to, 87 
 
 Infidelity, denies, 41 
 
 "In God we trust," 180 
 
 Inspired of God, 187 
 
 Irwin, B. F., article on "Religious Belief," 32, 41, 62 
 
 Janes, Bishop, prays, 164 
 
 Japan, reply to Tycoon of, 76 
 
 Jay, Mr., saw President reading Testament, 156 
 
 Jerusalem, desired to see, 182 
 
 Jesus Christ, worthy of, 104 
 
 Jesus, loves, 172 
 
 Job, comfort from reading, 154 
 
 Johnson, Reverdy, letter to, 90 
 
 Johnston, John D., letter to, 58 
 
 Journey to Washington, 70 
 
 Knees, driven upon his, 116 
 
 Last day, 181; intercessory prayer, 181; speech, 180; 
 
 words, 182 
 Law and gospel, 167 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 233 
 
 Letter from Cogdal, Isaac, 62; Edwards, Ninian W., 
 53; Graham, Mentor, 32; Lewis, Thomas, 53; 
 Mostiller, Thomas, 41; Munsell, Oliver, 109; 
 Sunderland, the Rev. Byron, 95; Smith, the Rev. 
 James, 52; Tyler, the Rev. John, 120 
 
 Letter of condolence, first, 75 
 
 Letter to Ashmun, George, 64; Bixby, Mrs. Lydia, 
 160; Elkin, the Rev. David, 24; Ellsworth, parents 
 of Colonel, 75; Gasparin, Count A. de, 90; Gid- 
 dings, J. R., 64; Grant, General, 132; Gurney, 
 Mrs. Eliza P., 146; Hodges, A. G., 131; Johnson, 
 Reverdy, 90; Johnston, John D., 58; Mann, Mrs. 
 Horace, 132; Owens, Mary, 35; Pickett, George E., 
 41; Reed, Rev. Alexander, 106; Robertson, George, 
 60; Speed, Joshua, 39, 40; Speed, Mary, 38; Ty- 
 coon of Japan, 76; Weed, Thurlow, 175 
 
 "Let this cup pass," 103 
 
 Lord's side, on the, 89 
 
 Lost speech, 60 
 
 Loves Jesus, 172 
 
 Lutherans, reply to Evangelical, 87 
 
 Mann, Mrs. Horace, letter to, 132 
 
 McCabe, Chaplain C. C, quoted, 119 
 
 McKaye, Colonel, visits Lincoln, 126 
 
 McKinley, President, speech of, 186 
 
 McNamar, John, letter burned, 84 
 
 Meditation on the Divine will, 98 
 
 Message to Congress, see "Congress, message to" 
 
 Message to dying father, 58 
 
 Methodists, reply to, 133 
 
 Mind made up, 95 
 
234 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Miner, the Rev. N. W., visits White House, 84; 
 Lincoln's last words, 182 
 
 Minister from Central New York, visits Lincoln, 118 
 
 Mistake, no, 96 
 
 Mix, Captain, Lincoln reading Bible, 156 
 
 Mother, Christian, 21; reads Bible, 22; prays, 22; 
 influence on Abe, 22, 24; death of, 23; funeral of, 
 24; last message of, 23; President's testimony 
 concerning, 24, 81; testimony of John G. Holland 
 relative to, 25; Lincoln remembers her prayers, 
 22, 81; he reads her Bible, 157; her wish, 157 
 
 Mostiller, Thomas, letter from, 41 
 
 Munsell, Oliver S., letter from, 109 
 
 National prayer meeting, 144 
 
 Negro woman, befriends a, 59 
 
 New York, New York, speech at, 71 
 
 New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, attendant 
 
 at, 13, 167; centennial of, 186 
 Newark, New Jersey, speech at, 72 
 Nicolay, John G., relates incident, 69; Lincoln 
 
 praying man, 120; praised Gospels, etc., 149 
 Nomination, notified of, 63 
 Nurse, a Christian, tells of Lincoln's sorrow, 80; 
 
 his mind made up, 95; prayer for Battle of Port 
 
 Hudson, 114; reads mother's Bible, 157 
 
 Opinion of a bosom friend, 170; of his pastor, 171 
 Owen, Robert Dale, visits Lincoln, 126 
 Owens, Mary, letter to, 35 
 
 Pardoning President, a» 128 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 23o 
 
 Parents Christians, 21 
 
 Pastoral call, a, 118 
 
 Patient man, a, 90 
 
 Peace conference, members call, 73 
 
 Perfect standard, the, 62 
 
 Peter, may fall like, 69 
 
 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, speech at, 72 
 
 Pickett, George E., letter to, 41 
 
 Pisgah and Calvary, 136 
 
 Plans, God's plans his, 164 
 
 Port Hudson, prays for battle of, 115 
 
 Porter, Admiral, visits Richmond with Lincoln, 176 
 
 Power, control of a higher, 100 
 
 Pray, asks minister to, 118; Bishop Simpson, 119; 
 
 ministers and Christian women, 120; Quaker lady, 
 
 181 
 Prayer, before inauguration, 73; for Battle of Bull 
 
 Run, 91; with Henry Ward Beecher, 91; "Let this 
 
 cup pass," 103; for battles of Gettysburg and 
 
 Vicksburg, 112; for Battle of Port Hudson, 114; 
 
 daily, 120; in answer to, 165; with Quakeress, 175; 
 
 President and Cabinet in, 178; last intercessory, 
 
 181 
 Prayer meeting, attendant at, 13; national, 144 
 Prayer, recommends thanksgiving and, 132 
 Praying President, a, 112 
 Presbyterian Church, First, 41, 55; New York 
 
 Avenue, 13, 167, 186 
 Presbyterians, reply to, 109; old school, 135 
 Problem too mighty, 60 
 Proclamation, Emancipation, 103 
 
236 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Proclamation for annual thanksgiving, first, 124; 
 
 second, 158 
 Proclamation for special thanksgiving, first, 86; 
 
 second, 123; third, 132; fourth, 145 
 Proclamation, preliminary, 94 
 Providence, instrument of, 126; of God, 121 
 Public profession, intended to make, 168 
 
 Quaker lady, address to President, 129; letter to, 
 
 146; praying with him, 175, 181 
 Quakers, reply to, 97 
 
 "Rather be assassinated," 72 
 
 Reed, the Rev. Alexander, letter to, 106 
 
 Reelection, grateful for, 159 
 
 Reliance upon God, 70 
 
 Religious awakening, 43; belief, indications of, 35; 
 development, 190 
 
 Reply to notification committee, 64; Evangelical 
 Lutherans, 87; Chicago ministers, 94; Quakers, 
 97; Presbyterians, 109; Methodists, 133; Bap- 
 tists, 134; old school Presbyterians, 135; colored 
 people, 157 
 
 Resigned, 181 
 
 Responsibility to God, 84 
 
 Resurrection of human freedom, 179 
 
 Richmond, visit to, 176 
 
 Righteousness, hunger and thirst after, 172 
 
 Roberts, the Rev. William H., D.D., foreword, 13 
 
 Robertson, George, letter to, 60 
 
 Ruler, his only, 75 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 237 
 
 Rusling, General James F., introduction, 11; re- 
 lates conversation about prayer for Gettysburg, 
 112 
 
 Sabbath, Lincoln and the, 99 
 
 Sanitary Commission, calls on President, 129; in 
 
 answer to prayer, 165 
 Scovel, Colonel James F., relates incident, 179 
 Scoville, Samuel, Jr., tells of Lincoln's visit to 
 
 Beecher, 93 
 Servants, prays with them, 120 
 Sickles, General Daniel E., Lincoln visits, 112 
 Simpson, Bishop, asked to pray, 119; testimony of, 
 
 185 
 Slavery, first sight of, 30 
 Smith, the Rev. James, D.D., pastor at Springfield, 
 
 43; statement, 49; letter of, 52 
 Sorrow, his great, 80 
 Speed, Joshua F., letters to, 39, 40; tells of Lincoln 
 
 reading Bible, 148 
 Speed, Mary, letter to, 38 
 Spiritualism, 29 
 Standard, the perfect, 62 
 Stepmother, testimony of, 25 
 Steubenville, Ohio, speech at, 71 
 Stoddard, William O., testimony of, 183 
 Stuart, George H., prays, 164 
 
 Sunderland, the Rev. Byron, D.D., letter from, 101 
 Superstition, 29 
 
 Testament, carries a, 65 ; reading the, 156 
 Testimony of friends, 183 
 
238 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Thanksgiving Day, originated with Lincoln, 124; 
 
 first annual, 124; second annual, 158 
 Thanksgiving, first special, 86; second, 123; third, 
 
 132; fourth, 145 
 Tolstoy's estimate, 194 
 Transfigured life, a, 190 
 Transgression and atonement, 62 
 Trenton, New Jersey, speech at, 72 
 Triumphal entry, a strange, 176 
 Tyler, the Rev. John, letter from, 120 
 
 Voodoo fortune teller, 29 
 Vicksburg, praying for, 114 
 Victory, praying for, 114 
 
 Vinton, the Rev. Francis, D.D., visits White House, 
 81 
 
 War, accepted the, 143 
 
 Washington, journey to, 70; first night in, 73 
 
 Watterson, Henry, speech of, 187 
 
 Weed, Thurlow, letter to, 175 
 
 Well done, 191 
 
 Williamson, Professor Alexander, quoted, 149 
 
 Willie, death of, 80 
 
 Whitney, Henry C., quoted, 103, 116, 170 
 
 Willits, the Rev. Mr., tells of incident, 168 
 
 Wilson, ex-Senator James F., relates conversation, 
 
 88 
 Women, God bless the, 131 
 
 Youth, 27