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The Faith of

Abraham Lincoln

An Address before
The Presbyterian Social Union of Philadelphia
February 22, 1909

By
WILLIAM H. LAMBERT
Brevet Major U.S. V.
Author of ‘*Lincoln Literature,’’ ‘‘ The Gettysburg

Address: When Written, How Received,
Its True Form," etc., etc,

The Sunday School Times Company
Philadelphia

 

 
CoPYRIGHT, rort
BY
Tue SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES COMPANY

 
THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

“T cannot but know what you all know, that
without a name,—perhaps without a reason
why I should have a name,—there has fallen
upon me a task such as did not rest even upon
the Father of his Country,” were the words
modestly spoken on the 13th day of February,
1861, by him who within four years of that
utterance was to achieve such result and to at-
tain such renown that on the roll of great
Americans the one name which we think it not
robbery to be equal with that of Washington
is the name of Abraham Lincoln.

Coincident in the month of their birth, asso-
ciated by the greatness of their work, enshrined
pre-eminent above their fellows, it surely is
not unfitting on this day that commemorates
the birth of the first of these men to speak of
the second,—the echoes of whose centenary
observance are still audible—for it was his
glory, as it had been his oft-declared purpose,
to preserve and perpetuate the Government
that the first had founded.

Invited to speak of the Faith of Abraham

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

Lincoln, and seeking a text, I turned instinc-
tively to that general letter with which it is
probably easier to align his creed than it would
be with those other epistles wherein admittedly
are some things hard to be understood, al-
though indeed the thirteenth chapter of First
Corinthians might aptly serve; accordingly I
quote from James 2: 18, “I by my works will
show thee my faith.”

The religious beliefs of Lincoln positively
asserted by many orators and writers have been
strenuously, and in some instances vindic-
tively, denied by others, and most notably by
two of his early associates and friends, who,
as his biographers, have contributed more than
any others to our knowledge of his early life,
but who while professing highest admiration
for his character have done much to becloud
his name. Their theory of the historian’s obli-
gation led them to write with needless insist-
ence upon trivial details and with almost
brutal candor concerning themes that might
well have been passed over, or at least treated
with decent reserve.

Each seems to have delighted to shock the
sensibilities of the great President’s admirers
by magnifying incidents least creditable to him,

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

and especially in emphatically asserting his
scepticism and alleged lack of faith in Chris-
tianity. With curious inconsistency these
writers make much of Lincoln’s honesty and
truthfulness and educe many instances proving
his possession of these qualities in highest de-
gree, while at the same time asserting that his
frequent allusions in speech and letter to God
and Providence are purely formal and mean-
ingless, and at best used either in compliment
to the persons to whom addressed or in defer-
ence to popular sentiment; nay, they even go
so far as to intimate intentional deceit.
Himself a freethinker, Herndon claimed that
Lincoln shared his beliefs, or lack of them, and
was unable or unwilling to admit that the latter
had changed his views; and Herndon appar-
ently could not comprehend how Lincoln had
risen responsive to his new duties and how
immeasurably he had gone beyond his partner,
who seemed jealously to resent the widening
circles of Lincoln’s friends and fame. The
intimate relations between the two partners
continued for nearly twenty years, but practi-
cally ceased with the departure of the Presi-
dent-elect for Washington in February, 186r.
Herndon’s book for the period prior to the
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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

Presidency contains much of value but it has
no special authority for the war period. De-
spite his professed high appreciation of Lin-
coln’s ability, the book is marked by peculiari-
ties which suggest the question whether the
President’s failure to appoint his old partner
to any highly responsible position under the
Government embittered his feelings and gave
to his biography its seemingly malicious tinge.

Herndon’s errors in some other important
assertions, direct and by innuendo, were long
ago thoroughly exposed, and this fact weakens
the force of his positive allegations in other
matters wherein his accuracy is disputed.

Lamon’s association with the President con-
tinued to the end, but it is evident that his
characteristics were not such as to lead Mr.
Lincoln to make a confidant of him in matters
so intimate as religious faith, however much
he may have been entrusted with matters of-
ficial and political; and it is well to know that
Lamon’s Life, professedly the work of a
friend, upon whose researches, indeed, and
upon material collected by Herndon and him-
self it was mainly based, was really written by
a political opponent of Lincoln utterly lacking
in sympathy with him.

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

However weakened may have been the faith
that had been instilled into the boy Lincoln by
his mother, however obscured by the adverse
associations of his young manhood and the
unsympathetic surroundings of the larger part
of his career, it is evident that the germs of
truth that had been implanted by the mother
who died when her son was but nine years old
were never destroyed, and that her dying ad-
monition to her children, “to be good to one
another, to love their kindred and worship
God” was never wholly forgotten. The im-
press made upon the little boy had pathetic
manifestation when, sorrowing because his
mother in the absence of a minister had been
buried without religious service, he besought
an itinerant preacher whom the mother had
known to deliver a sermon over her grave
months after her death. The habit of Bible
reading begun in Lincoln’s childhood continued
through his life and that book constituted a
large part of the literature accessible to him in
his earlier years and it greatly influenced his
thought and expression. He continuously
showed great familiarity with the sacred his-
tory,—it furnished him with frequent refer-
ence and quotation, phrases from both Testa-

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

ments were freely and appositely used by him,
and his literary style is permeated with their
spirit and language. Of him it has been said,
“Lincoln not only among Americans, but
among all English-speaking people of the nine-
teenth century, is the man who most surely
attained the great style, and we all know how
naturally in his most solemn moments his style
became infused with the phrases and the vir-
tues of the English Bible,’’* and not alone his
style but his life showed how thoroughly he
was imbued with its spirit.

For the period anterior to the War, Lin-
coln’s letters and speeches, mainly legal and
political, were not of a character to call for
such decided evidences of his faith as were de-
manded in the awful stress of the great con-
flict, but they were frequently illumined by
Biblical reference, and are not wanting in indi-
cations of his belief that an overruling Provi-
dence would ensure the triumph of right. He
had indeed sustained severe personal bereave-
ment, but it was not until the great burden of
responsibility and danger was rolled upon him,
that he fully realized his need of a power
higher than his own, and from the day that he

*Gardner “The Bible as English Literature,” p. 386.
6
 

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

left Springfield until his latest public utterance
his speeches and his writings give abundant
evidence of his belief in God and of faith that
He doeth all things well.

Lincoln’s first great speech in the East was
made at the Cooper Institute in the city of
New York on February 27, 1860. It was not-
able for the display of his familiarity with the
writings of the Fathers of the Republic, and
because of the favorable impression made upon
its hearers it had much to do with ensuring his
nomination for the Presidency; the speech
closed with these memorable words, typical of
his character and revealing the source of his
confident courage, “Let us have faith that right
makes might, and in that faith let us dare to
do our duty as we understand it.”

Confronted by the grave responsibilities of
the Presidency—serious enough under ordi-
nary circumstances to force him who assumes
those responsibilities to seek help and guidance
from above, but infinitely greater then because
of the threatened destruction of the Union—
evidences of Mr. Lincoln’s appreciation of
danger and of his need are many and were
shown most touchingly in his farewell to his
Springfield neighbors.

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

“My Friends: No one not in my situation
can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this
parting. To this place, and the kindness of
these people, I owe everything. Here I have
lived a quarter of a century, and have passed
from a young to an old man. Here my chil-
dren have been born, and one is buried. I now
leave, not knowing when or whether ever I
may return, with a task before me greater than
that which rested upon Washington. Without
the assistance of that Divine Being who ever
attended him, I cannot succeed. With that as-
sistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who
can go with me, and remain with you, and be
everywhere for good, let us confidently hope
that all will yet be well. To his care commend-
ing you, as I hope in your prayers you will
commend me, I bid you an affectionate fare-
well.”

In other addresses en route to the Capital,
he reiterated that what was needed was,
“A reliance on the God who has never
forsaken this people,” and he expressed hope
of deliverance “if I shall be a humble instru-
ment in the hands of the Almighty.” Assert-
ing his courage and his conviction he declared
in Philadelphia, “I have said nothing but what

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

I am willing to live by, and if it be the pleasure
of Almighty God, to die by.”

In his Inaugural Address he said, “Intelli-
gence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reli-
ance on Him who has never yet forsaken this
favored land are still competent to adjust in
the best way all our present difficulty.”

Through the long war that followed his
accession to the Presidency, through defeats
and victories, Lincoln’s faith remained stead-
fast, confirmed by success but not destroyed
by disaster. Of his many and frequently re-
peated assertions of unfaltering confidence in
God I quote but few.

Proclaiming a national fast day in August,
1861, he declared, “It is fit and becoming in
all people, at all times, to acknowledge and re-
vere the supreme government of God; to bow
in humble submission to his chastisements; to
confess and deplore their sins and transgres-
sions, in the full conviction that the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and to
pray with all fervency and contrition for the
pardon of their past offences, and for a bless-
ing upon their present and prospective action:

“And whereas when our own _ beloved
country, once, by the blessing of God, united,

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
!
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 re-establish-
ment of law, order, and peace throughout the
wide extent of our country; and that the in-
estimable 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.”

Eight months later, recommending thanks-
giving for victories he wrote, “It has pleased
Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to
the land and naval forces engaged in suppress-
ing an internal rebellion, and at the same time
to avert from our country the dangers of for-
eign intervention and invasion: It is therefore
recommended to the people that * * *
they especially acknowledge and render thanks
to our Heavenly Father for these inestimable
blessings; that they then and there implore

10

 
 

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

spiritual consolation in behalf of all who
have been brought into affliction by the casual-
ties 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 hasten the establishment of fra-
ternal relations among all the countries of the
earth.”

Nearly a year later, concurring with the
wishes of the Senate, the President designated
a day of national humiliation, fasting and
prayer in the following language: “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
transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with as-
sured hope that genuine repentance will lead
to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the
sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scrip-
tures 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 sub-
jected to punishments and chastisements in this

11
 

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

world, may we not justly fear that the awful
calamity of civil war which now desolates the
land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us
for our presumptuous 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 grown in num-
bers, wealth, and power as no other nation has
ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We
have forgotten the gracious hand that pre-
served 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 produced by some
superior wisdom and virtue of our own. In-
toxicated with unbroken success, we have be-
come too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of
redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to
pray to the God that made us: It behooves us,
then, to humble ourselves before the offended
Power, to confess our national sins, and to
pray for clemency and forgiveness: * * *
All this being done in sincerity and truth, let
us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by
the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the
nation will be heard on high, and answered
with blessings no less than the pardon of our

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

national sins, and the restoration of our now
divided and suffering country to its former
happy condition of unity and peace.”

After the great victories at Gettysburg and
Vicksburg, the President wrote: “It has
pleased Almighty God to hearken to the sup-
plications and prayers of an afflicted people,
and 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 preserved, and their peace and
prosperity permanently restored. But these
victories have been accorded not without sacri-
fices 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 bereavements. 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 observed as a day for national thanks-
giving, praise, and prayer, and I invite the peo-

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

ple of the United States to assemble on that
occasion in their customary places of worship,
and, in the forms approved by their con-
sciences, 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 consolation 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 per-
fect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace.’

These declarations of faith in overruling
Providence were not confined to official procla-
mations, but are to be found in many of his
letters and in the reports of the interviews fre-
quently had with people individually or in com-
mittees and delegations.

Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney, a native of Philadel-

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

phia, the widow of Joseph J. Gurney, of Eng-
land, was a devout Friend, who was con-
strained to visit the President in the love of the
Gospel and to urge upon him dependence upon
God as the only refuge, and to pray for the
country and its ruler. To her the President
who had listened intently and tearfully said in
reply:

“T 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 according 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 purpose un-
known 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 be-
lieve that he permits it for some wise purpose

15
 

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

of his own, mysterious and unknown to us;
and though with our limited understandings
we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we
cannot but believe that he who made the world
still governs it.”

About a year later Mrs. Gurney, having
been informed that the President desired her to
write him, sent him an earnest letter testifying
her continued sympathy and prayers; and ap-
proval of his recent “proclamation of Thanks-
giving with its decided recognition of an All-
wise and Superintending Providence which in
so marked a feature * * * as well as the
immediate influence and guidance of the Holy
Spirit, which perhaps never in any previous
State paper has been so fully recognized.”

This communication was acknowledged by
Mr. Lincoln in the beautiful letter now pre-
served in the Historical Society of Pennsyl-
vania from a facsimile of which I read:

Executive Mansion, September 4, 1864.

My esteemed Friend: I have not forgotten
—probably never shall forget—the very im-
pressive occasion when yourself and friends
visited me on a Sabbath forenoon two years
ago. Nor has your kind letter, written nearly

a year ago, ever been forgotten. In all it has
16
 

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

been your purpose to strengthen my reliance
on God. I am much indebted to the good
Christian people of the country for their con-
stant prayers and consolations; and to no one
of them more than to yourself. The purposes
of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail,
though we erring mortals may fail to accu-
rately perceive them in advance. We hoped
for a happy termination of this terrible war
long before this; but God knows best, and has
ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge
his wisdom, and our own error therein. Mean-
while we must work earnestly in the best lights
he gives us, trusting that so working still con-
duces 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 con-
scientious 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
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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

this I doubt not; and, believing it, I shall still
receive for our country and myself your ear-
nest prayers to our Father in heaven.

Your sincere friend,
A. LINCOLN.

To this letter Mrs. Gurney replying thanked
him for it and expressed her appreciation of
his courteous attention and his kind considera-
tion for the religious scruples of the Society of
the Friends, and assured him that they believed
he was conscientiously endeavoring, according
to his own conviction of right, to fulfill the im-
portant trust committed to him. After the
President’s. death, Mrs. Gurney learned that
her first letter had been carefully treasured by
him and was in his breast pocket when he was
killed.

To two Friends in Iowa who had written
him a few days prior, he wrote on January 5,
1863: “I have read your letter with pleasure
and gratitude. It is most cheering and en-
couraging for me to know that in the efforts
which I have made and am making for the
restoration of a righteous peace to our country
I am upheld and sustained by the good wishes
and prayers of God’s people. No one is more

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

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. I
am conscious of no desire for my country’s
welfare that is not in consonance with His will,
and of no plan upon which we may not ask His
blessing. 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 Nations upon the struggles our people
are making for the preservation of their pre-
cious birthright of civil and religious liberty.”
In response to the representatives of the
Evangelical Lutherans the President said in
part:
“You all may recollect that in taking up the
sword thus forced into our hands, this govern-
ment appealed to the prayers of the pious and
the good, and declared that it placed its whole
dependence upon the favor of God. I now
humbly and reverently, in your presence, re-
iterate the acknowledgment of the 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,
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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

make their prolonged national existence a
source of new benefits to themselves and their
successors, and to all classes and conditions of
mankind.”

To members of the Presbyterian General
Assembly in reply to resolutions presented
by them, he said, in part, “It has been
my happiness to receive testimonies of a simi-
lar nature from, I believe, all denominations of
Christians * * * This is to me most grati-
fying because from the beginning I saw that
the issue of our great struggle depended on the
Divine interposition and favor. If we had that
all would be well * * * Asa pilot I have
used my best exertions to keep afloat our ship
of state and shall be glad to resign my trust
at the appointed time to another pilot more
skillful and successful than I may prove. In
every case and at all hazards, the government
must be perpetuated. Relying as I do upon the
Almighty Power, and encouraged as I am by
these resolutions which you have just read,
with the support which I receive from Chris-
tian 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.”
And to a delegation of Methodists, ““God bless

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

the Methodist Church, bless all the Churches
and blessed be God, who in this our great trial
giveth us the Churches.”

To a committee from several religious bodies
of Chicago, who on September 13, 1862, urged
emancipation, Mr. Lincoln responded: “The
subject presented in the memorial is one upon
which I have thought much. * * * Tam
approached with the most opposite opinions
and advice, and that by religious men who are
equally certain that they represent the divine
will. Iam sure that either the one or the other
class is mistaken in that belief, and perhaps in
some respects both. I hope it will not be ir-
reverent for me to say that if it is probable
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, 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.”

Nor was it only in official papers or in inter-
course with the people that Lincoln gave evi-
dence of his concern and his faith, but in com-
munion with himself and his God he sought to
learn the Divine Will; at least one of these

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

meditations has been preserved in his own
autograph.

“The will of God prevails. In great con-
tests 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 instrumentali-
ties, working just as they do, are of the best
adaption to effect his purpose. I am almost
ready to say that this is probably 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,
having begun, he could give the final victory to
either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”

In testimony of his opinion of the Bible, I
cite from his reply to a committee that pre-
sented him with a beautiful copy of that book:
“In regard to this great Book, I have but to say
that it is the best gift God has given to man.
All the good Saviour gave the world was com-
municated through this Book. But for it we

22
 

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

could not know right from wrong, all things
most desirable for man’s welfare here and
hereafter are to be found portrayed in it.”

Joshua F. Speed, perhaps the most intimate
of Lincoln’s friends in the first years of his
Springfield life, narrates the following inci-
dent: “In the summer before the President
was killed I was invited to spend the night at
the Soldiers’ Home. As I entered the room
near night he was sitting near a window in-
tently reading his Bible, * * * I said,
‘I am glad to see you so profitably engaged,’
‘Yes,’ said he, ‘I am profitably engaged.’
‘Well,’ said I, ‘if you have recovered from
your scepticism, I am sorry to say that I am
not.’ Looking me earnestly in the face he
said, ‘You are wrong, Speed, take all of this
Book upon reason that you can, and the bal-
ance on faith, and you will live and die a hap-
pier and a better man.’” It is gratifying to
know that before Mr. Speed’s death he had
accepted the truth of the Bible and entered into
the communion of the Methodist Church.

Of President Lincoln’s many friends and
associates of the war time none could speak
with greater authority than the Reverend Dr.
Phineas D. Gurley, pastor of the New York

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

Avenue Presbyterian Church of Washington,
the church attended by the President and his
family. Dr. Gurley was on most intimate terms
with Mr. Lincoln, was frequently with him, and
had his full confidence. In personal bereavement
and in the darkest hours of the national cause,
the faithful pastor in prayer and counsel sought
to help his dear friend. Dr. Gurley officiated
at Willie Lincoln’s funeral; he prayed by the
bedside of the dying President; and he
preached the funeral sermon in the Executive
Mansion. From this sermon I cite a few pas-
sages as the testimony of a qualified and an
honest witness, speaking whereof he knew.
“He remembered that God is in history, and
he felt that nowhere had his hand and his
mercy been so marvellously conspicuous as in
the history of this nation. He hoped and he
prayed that that same hand would continue to
guide us, and that same mercy continue to
abound with us in the time of our greatest
need. I speak what I know, and testify what
I have often heard him say, when I affirm that
that guidance and mercy were the props on
which he humbly and habitually leaned; that
they were the best hope he had for himself,
and for his country. * * *
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“His confidence in the overruling providence
of God strengthened him in all his hours of
anxiety and toil, and inspired him with calm
and cheering hope when others were inclining
to despondency and gloom. Never shall I for-
get the emphasis and the deep emotion with
which he said, in this very room, to a company
of clergymen and others, who called to pay
him their respects in the darkest day of our
civil conflict: ‘Gentlemen, my hope of suc-
cess in this great and terrible struggle rests on
that immutable foundation, the justice and
goodness of God; and, when events are very
threatening, and prospects very 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 is on our side.’”’

The biographies narrate hundreds of in-
stances illustrating Lincoln’s tenderness of
heart, his forgiving disposition and his wide-
reaching charity. Perhaps most notable are
the records of his generous exercise of the
pardoning power to save the lives of men con-
demned to death. Many pages of the records
of the war are filled with dispatches pardon-
ing or respiting soldiers who had been doomed
to capital punishment. Commanding officers

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

protested against these frequent pardons and
respites, claiming that they impaired discipline,
but disregarding their objections the President
wherever he could find excuse for mitigating or
remitting sentence would do so, and even in not
a few instances where sympathy for the family
of the condemned or his own repugnance to in-
flict suffering was the sole ground for mercy.
Nor was this mercy limited to the unfortunate
among his own followers, but was extended to
many of those in arms against the government.
The forgiveness so frequently expressed in
words was often embodied in action. “I ama
patient man, always willing to forgive on the
Christian terms of repentance and also to give
ample time for repentance,” and again, “On
principle I dislike an oath which requires a
man to swear he has not done wrong. It re-
jects the Christian principle of forgiveness on
terms of repentance. I think it is enough if
the man does no wrong hereafter.”

Asked by an old friend what was to be done
with the rebel leaders after the war, the Presi-
dent said he had recently been reading the his-
tory of Absalom’s rebellion and that he was
inclined to adopt the policy of David as ex-
pressed in his question and assurance: ‘Shall

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

there any man be put to death this day in
Israel? and the King said unto Shimei: Thou
shall not die.”

The examples of his gentleness and forgiv-
ing spirit are manifold. “I have not been much
shocked by the newspaper comments * * *
These comments constitute a fair specimen of
what has occurred to me through life. I have
endured a great deal of ridicule, without much
malice, and have received a great deal of kind-
ness not quite free from ridicule. I am used
to it.”

Replying to a serenade after his re-election
he said, “Now that the election is over, may
not all having a common interest reunite in a
common effort to save our common country.
For my own part, I have striven and shall
strive to avoid placing any obstacle in the way.
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 re-election, and duly grateful, as I trust,
to Almighty God for having directed my
countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think,
for their own good, it adds nothing to my sat-
isfaction that any other man may be disap-
pointed or pained by the result. May I ask

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

those who have not differed from me to join
with me in this same spirit toward those who
have?”

I quote his letter to the Reverend Alexander
Reed,—later pastor of the Central Presby-
terian Church of Philadelphia.

Executive Mansion, February 22, 1863.

My dear Sir: Your note, by which you, as
general superintendent of the United States
Christian Commission, invite me to preside at
a meeting to be held this day at the hall of the
House of Representatives in this city, is re-
ceived. While for reasons which I deem suffi-
cient I must decline to preside, I cannot with-
hold my approval of the meeting and its
worthy objects. 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. And what-
ever shall tend to turn our thoughts from the
unreasoning and uncharitable passions, prej-
udices, and jealousies incident to a great
national trouble such as ours, and to fix them
upon the vast and long-enduring consequences,
for weal or for woe, which are to result from
this struggle, and especially to strengthen

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

our reliance on the Supreme Being for the
final triumph of the right, cannot but be
well for us all. The birthday of Washing-
ton and the Christian Sabbath coinciding this
year, and suggesting together the highest in-
terests of this life and of that to come, is most
propitious for the meeting proposed.

Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.

I close my citation from his words by read-
ing from his Second Inaugural Address the
paragraphs that evidence his faith and his
charity in language alive with Scriptural ex-
pression and spirit.

“Neither party expected for the war the
magnitude or the duration which it has already
attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of
the conflict might cease with, or even before,
the conflict itself should cease. Each looked
for an easier triumph, and a result less funda-
mental and astounding. Both read the same
Bible, and pray to the same God; and each in-
vokes 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

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

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 be-
cause of offenses! for it must needs be that
offenses come; but woe to that man by whom
the offense cometh.’ If we shall suppose
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 due to those by whom
the offense came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those divine attributes which
the believers in a living God always ascribe to
him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we
pray, that this mighty scourge of war may
speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it
continue until all the wealth piled by the bonds-
man’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 by
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.’
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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

“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.”

Abraham Lincoln may have forgotten the
admonitions of his ‘‘Angel Mother” and failed
for years to accept the doctrines of the Book
with whose words he was so familiar and in
accord with whose teachings so much of his
life was lived, but when through gathering
storm and in battle flame he saw the call to
leadership and duty, he was not disobedient
to the heavenly vision, but heeding was trans-
formed, and as we read his immortal words
and contemplate his finished work it is not the
sceptic of the early day we hear and see, but
the divinely-called leader who, “patient in his
simple faith sublime,” was inspired to liberate
the slave, to save the Republic, and to write
the Second Inaugural.

Remembering the faith that never wavered,
the hope that never dimmed, the charity that

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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

never failed, may we not recur to the epistle
from which my text was taken and reverently
read, ‘““Abraham believed God, and it was reck-
oned unto him for righteousness, and he was
called the friend of God.”

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