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is unaffected by many of the characteristics which were most evident to his associates. His greatness grows as time passes by and his character is better appreciated.

CHAPTER XXV.

IN regard to his religious views he was always extremely reticent. He seldom referred to the subject in conversation, even with his friends, yet it is plain that during the last years of his life he was actuated by high religious principles. Now and then a chance utterance, together with the deep reverence which pervades his proclamations and other public addresses, afford nearly all the authentic testimony we have on the subject.

He cared little for doctrinal beliefs or sectarian differences, but rather grasped the broad principles of religion which are common to all devout people of whatever denomination.

Mr. Fell, an old acquaintance, says of him: "His religious views were eminently practical and are summed up, as I think, in these two propositions: the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. He fully believed in a superintending and overruling Providence that guides and controls the operations of the world, but maintained that law and order, and not their violation or suspension, are the appointed means by which this Providence is exercised. "1

Mrs. Lincoln once said to Mr. Herndon: "Mr. Lincoln had no faith and no hope in the usual accept

1 Herndon's "Life of Lincoln," p. 444.

ation of those words. He never joined a church; but still, as I believe, he was a religious man by nature. He first seemed to think about the subject when our boy Willie died, and then more than ever about the time he went to Gettysburg; but it was a kind of poetry in his nature and he was never a technical Christian."

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Mr. Herndon, who had exceptional opportunities to observe his inner life, says "The world has always insisted on making an orthodox Christian of him, and to analyze his sayings or sound his beliefs is but to break the idol. It only remains to say that whether orthodox or not, he believed in God and immortality; and even if he questioned the existence of future eternal punishment, he hoped to find a rest from trouble and a heaven beyond the grave. If at any time in his life he was skeptical of the Divine origin of the Bible, he ought not for that reason to be condemned; for he accepted the practical precepts of the great Book as binding alike on his head and conscience. The benevolence of his impulses, the seriousness of his convictions, and the nobility of his character are evidences unimpeachable that his soul was ever filled with the exalted purity and sublime faith of natural religion." "

2

He was particularly impressed with the efficacy of prayer and more than once bore testimony to his belief in it.

"I have been driven many times to my knees," he once remarked, "by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and

Herndon's "Life of Lincoln," p. 445.

2 The same p. 446.

that of all about me, seemed insufficient for that day."

In speaking of his mother he said to a friend: "I remember her prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."

Upon the death of his son Willie, a Christian lady assured him that many Christians were praying for him, he replied: "I am glad to hear that, I want them to pray for me. I need their prayers."

A clergyman once said in his presence that he hoped "the Lord was on our side."

"I am not at all concerned about that," replied Mr. Lincoln, "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."

It is but just to say that many of his early friends affirm that in his younger days he was not only irreligious but that he was a positive atheist. It is said that he delighted to deny the inspiration of the Bible, the divinity of Jesus Christ and the existence of God, and, furthermore, that he once wrote a bold, atheistical treatise which he intended to have printed but which a wise friend secured and destroyed. These allegations are so at variance with his character in after life that it is difficult to believe them. It is certain that, if they are true, he gained wisdom with advancing years and abandoned his atheistical belief.

It is pleasant to turn from these statements to his proclamations aud public addresses during the war. No President has ever evinced a more exalted piety or deeper reverence for the Supreme Being in his public utterances than did Lincoln, and no one who

knows the native sincerity and honesty of the man, can believe they were assumed.

In a letter to Rev. Alexander Reed, the General Superintendent of the Christian Commission, dated February 22, 1863, he said:

"Whatever shall be, sincerely and in God's name, devised for the good of the soldiers and seamen in their hard spheres of duty, can scarcely fail to be blessed; and whatever shall tend to turn our thoughts from the unreasoning and uncharitable passions, prejudices and jealousies incident to a great national trouble, such as ours, and to fix them on the vast and long enduring consequences, for weal or woe, which are to result from the struggle, and especially to strengthen our reliance upon the Supreme Being for the final triumph of the right, cannot but be well for us all."

During the summer of 1863 the feelings of the people were wrought up to the highest pitch. The air was full of the rumors of a Northern invasion. It was known that Lee was making extensive preparations for an expedition into Pennsylvania with the intention of carrying the war into the hitherto peaceful regions of the North. The siege of Vicksburg was dragging along with little apparent prospect of ultimate success. When the news came of the fall of the Southern stronghold and, almost at the same time, of the great victory at Gettysburg, the rejoicing of the people was unrestrained. It was during this period of jubilation that Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation,

"To set apart a time in the near future, to be observed as a day for national thanksgiving, praise and

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