In 1865, the bullet of an assassin suddenly terminated the life among
men of one who was an honor to his race. He was great and good. He was
great because he was good. Lincoln's religious character was the one
thing which, above all other features of his unique mental and moral
as well as physical personality, lifted him above his fellow men.
Because an effort has been made to parade Abraham Lincoln as an
unbeliever, I have been led to search carefully for the facts in his
life bearing on this point. The testimony seems to be almost entirely,
if not altogether, on one side. I cannot account for the statement
which William H. Herndon makes in his life of the martyred President,
that, "Mr. Lincoln had no faith." For twenty-five years Mr. Herndon
was Abraham Lincoln's law partner in Springfield, Ill. He had the best
opportunities to know Abraham Lincoln. When, however, he affirms that
"Mr. Lincoln had no faith," he speaks without warrant. It is simply
certain that he uses words in their usually accepted signification,
although his statement concerning Lincoln is not true.
Abraham Lincoln was a man of profound faith. He believed in God. He
believed in Christ. He believed in the Bible. He believed in men. His
faith made him great. His life is a beautiful commentary on the words,
"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." There
was a time in Lincoln's experience when his faith faltered, as there
was a time when his reason tottered, but these sad experiences were
temporary, and Abraham Lincoln was neither an infidel nor a lunatic.
It is easy to trace in the life of this colossal character, a steady
growth of faith. This grace in him increased steadily in breadth and
in strength with the passing years, until it came to pass that his
last public utterances show forth the confidence and the fire of an
ancient Hebrew prophet.
It is true that Lincoln never united with the Church, although a
lifelong and regular attendant on its services. He had a reason for
occupying a position outside the fellowship of the Church of Christ as
it existed in his day and in his part of the world. This reason
Lincoln did not hesitate to declare. He explained on one occasion that
he had never become a church member because he did not like and could
not in conscience subscribe to the long and frequently complicated
statements of Christian doctrines which characterized the confessions
of the Churches. He said: "When any Church will inscribe over its
altar as its sole qualification for membership the Savior'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 thyself,' that Church will I join
with all my heart and soul."
Abraham Lincoln in these words recognizes the central figure of the
Bible, Jesus of Nazareth, as "the Saviour." He recognizes God as the
supreme Lawgiver, and expresses readiness, while eschewing theological
subtleties, to submit heart and soul to the supreme Lawgiver of the
universe. His faith, according to this language, goes out manward as
well as Godward. He believed not only in God, but he believed in man
as well, and this Christianity, according to Christ, requires of all
disciples of the great Teacher.
About a year before his assassination Lincoln, in a letter to Joshua
Speed, said: "I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all
of this book upon reason that you can and the balance on faith, and
you will live and die a better man." He saw and declared that the
teaching of the Bible had a tendency to improve character. He had a
right view of this sacred literature. Its purpose is character
building.
Leonard Swett, who knew Abraham Lincoln well, said at the unveiling of
the Chicago monument that Lincoln "believed in God as the supreme
ruler of the universe, the guide of men, and the controller of the
great events and destinies of mankind. He believed himself to be an
instrument and leader in this country of the force of freedom."
From this it appears that his belief was not merely theoretical, but
that it was practical. He regarded himself as an instrument, as Moses
was an instrument in the hands of Almighty God, to lead men into
freedom.
It was after his election, in the autumn of 1860, and but a short time
before his inauguration as President of the United States, that in a
letter to Judge Joseph Gillespie, he said: "I have read on my knees
the story of Gethsemane, where the Son of God prayed in vain that the
cup of bitterness might pass from Him. I am in the garden of
Gethsemane now, and my cup of bitterness is full and overflowing."
From this it is clear that he believed the Jesus of the Gospels to be
"the Son of God." And what a sense of responsibility he must at the
time of writing this letter have experienced to cause him to declare,
"I am in the garden of Gethsemane now, and my cup of bitterness is
full and overflowing!" Only a superlatively good man, only a man of
genuine piety, could use honestly such language as this. These words
do not indicate unbelief or agnosticism. If ever a man in public life
in these United States was removed the distance of the antipodes from
the coldness and bleakness of agnosticism, that man was Abraham
Lincoln. This confession of faith, incidentally made in a brief letter
to a dear friend, is not only orthodox according to the accepted
standards of orthodoxy, but, better, it is evangelical. To him the
hero of the Gospel histories was none other than "the Son of God." By
the use of these words did Lincoln characterize Jesus of Nazareth.
Herndon has said in his life of Abraham Lincoln that he never read the
Bible, but Alexander Williamson, who was employed as a tutor in
President Lincoln's family in Washington, said that "Mr. Lincoln very
frequently studied the Bible, with the aid of Cruden's Concordance,
which lay on his table." If Lincoln was not a reader and student of
the inspired literature which we call the Bible, what explanation can
be made of his language just quoted, addressed to Judge Gillespie, "I
have read on my knees the story of Gethsemane, where the Son of God
prayed in vain that the cup of bitterness might pass from Him"?
I have admitted that in Lincoln's experience there was a time when his
faith faltered. It is interesting to know in what manner he came to
have the faith which in the maturity of his royal manhood and in the
zenith of his intellectual powers he expressed. One of his
pastors--for he sat under the ministry of James Smith, has told in
what way Lincoln came to be an intelligent believer in the Bible, in
Jesus as the Son of God, and in Christianity as Divine in its origin,
and a mighty moral and spiritual power for the regeneration of men and
of the race. Mr. Smith placed before him, he says, the arguments for
and against the Divine authority and inspiration of the Scriptures. To
the arguments on both sides Lincoln gave a patient, impartial, and
searching investigation. He himself said that he examined the
arguments as a lawyer investigates testimony in a case in which he is
deeply interested. At the conclusion of the investigation he declared
that the arguments in favor of the Divine authority and inspiration of
the Bible is unanswerable.
So far did Lincoln go in his open sympathy with the teachings of the
Bible that on one occasion in the presence of a large assembly, he
delivered the address at an annual meeting of the Springfield,
Illinois, Bible Society. In the course of his address he drew a
contrast between the decalog and the most eminent lawgiver of
antiquity, in which he said: "It seems to me that nothing short of
infinite wisdom could by any possibility have devised and given to man
this excellent and perfect moral code. It is suited to men in all the
conditions of life, and inculcates all the duties they owe to their
Creator, to themselves, and their fellow men."
Lincoln prepared an address, in which he declared that this country
cannot exist half slave and half-free. He affirmed the saying of
Jesus, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Having read this
address to some friends, they urged him to strike out that portion of
it. If he would do so, he could probably be elected to the United
States Senate; but if he delivered the address as written, the ground
taken was so high, the position was so advanced, his sentiments were
so radical, he would probably fail of gaining a seat in the supreme
legislative body of the greatest republic on earth.
Lincoln, under those circumstances, said: "I know there is a God, and
that He hates the injustice of slavery. I see the storm coming, and I
know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and a work for me, and
I think he has, I believe I am ready. I am nothing but truth is
everything. I know I am right, because I know that liberty is right,
for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God."
And yet we are asked to believe that a man who could express himself
in this way and show this courage was a doubter, a skeptic, an
unbeliever, an agnostic, an infidel. "Christ is God." This was
Lincoln's faith in 1860, found in a letter addressed to the Hon.
Newton Bateman.
Lincoln's father was a Christian. Old Uncle Tommy Lincoln, as his
friends familiarly called him, was a good man. He was what might be
called a ne'er-do-well. As the world counts success, Thomas Lincoln,
the father of Abraham Lincoln, was not successful, but he was an
honest man. He was a truthful man. He was a man of faith. He
worshipped God. He belonged to the church. He was a member of a
congregation in Charleston, Ill., which I had the honor to serve in
the beginning of my ministry, known as the Christian Church. He died
not far from Charleston, and is buried a few miles distant from the
beautiful little town, the county seat of Coles County, Ill.
During the last illness of his father, Lincoln wrote a letter to his
step-brother, John Johnston, which closes with the following
sentences: "I sincerely hope that father may recover his health, but
at all events tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our
great, and good, and merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him
in any extremity. He notes the fall of the 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 joyful meeting with loved ones
gone before, and where the rest of us, through the mercy of God, hope
ere long to join them."
From this it appears that Lincoln cherished a hope of life everlasting
through the mercy of God. This sounds very much like the talk of a
Christian.
Although Lincoln was not a church member, he was a man of prayer. He
believed that God can hear, does hear, and answer prayer. Lincoln said
in conversation with General Sickles concerning the battle of
Gettysburg, that he had no anxiety as to the result. At this General
Sickles expressed surprise, and inquired into the reason for this
unusual state of mind at that period in the history of the war.
Lincoln hesitated to accede to the request of General Sickles, but was
finally prevailed upon to do so, and this is what he said:
"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 into my room one day and locked the door, and got down on my
knees before Almighty God, and prayed to Him mightily for victory at
Gettysburg. I told Him this was His war, and our cause His cause, but
that we could not 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 Gettysburg I would stand by Him. And He did
and I will. And after that (I don't know how it was, and I can't
explain it) but soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that things
would go all right at Gettysburg, and that is why I had no fears
about you."
Such faith as this will put to the blush many who are members of the
church.
It was afterward that General Sickles asked him what news he had from
Vicksburg. He answered that he had no news worth mentioning, but that
Grant was still "pegging away" down there, and he thought a good deal
of him as a general, and had no thought of removing him
notwithstanding that he was urged to do so; and, "besides," he added,
"I have been praying over Vicksburg also, and believe our Heavenly
Father is going to give us victory there too, because we need it, in
order to bisect the Confederacy and have the Mississippi flow unvexed
to the sea."
When he entered upon the task to which the people of the United States
had called him, at the railway station in Springfield on the eve of
his departure to Washington to take the oath of office, he delivered
an address. It is a model. I quote it entire. It is as follows:
"My friends, no one not in my position can realize the sadness I feel
at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived
more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and here
one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. I
go to assume a task more than that which has devolved upon any other
man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except
for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied.
I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine blessing which
sustained him, and on the same almighty Being I place my reliance for
support. And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive
that Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which
success is certain. Again, I bid you an affectionate farewell."
At the time of Lincoln's assassination these words were printed in a
great variety of forms. In my home for a number of years, beautifully
framed, these parting words addressed to the friends of many years in
Springfield, Ill., ornamented my humble residence. And yet one of his
biographers refers to this address as if its genuineness may well be
doubted. At the time of its delivery it was taken down and published
broadcast in the papers of the day.
But it would be wearisome to you to recite all the evidences bearing
on the religious character of Abraham Lincoln. John G. Nicolay well
says: "Benevolence and forgiveness were the very basis of his
character; his world-wide humanity is aptly embodied in a phrase of
his second inaugural: 'With malice toward none, with charity for all.'
His nature was deeply religious, but he belonged to no denomination;
he had faith in the eternal justice and boundless mercy of Providence,
and made the Golden Rule of Christ his practical creed."
In this passage Mr. Nicolay refers especially to Lincoln's second
inaugural address. This address has the ring of an ancient Hebrew
prophet. Only a man of faith and piety could deliver such an address.
After the struggles through which the country had passed Lincoln's
self-poise, his confidence in God, his belief in and affection for his
fellow men, remained unabated. In Lincoln's second inaugural address
he used these words:
"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 when or even before the conflict itself
should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less
fundamental and astounding. 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. 'Wo unto the world because of
offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but we 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 wo 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 bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn
with a lash shall be paid with another drawn by a 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 lasting peace among our
selves and with all nations."
The spirit of this address, under the circumstances, is intensely
Christian, and it is one of the most remarkable speeches in the
literature of the world.
When Lincoln was urged to issue his Proclamation of Emancipation he
waited on God for guidance. He said to some who urged this matter, who
were anxious to have the President act without delay: "I hope it will
not be irreverent 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 that 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."
Stoddard, in his Life of Lincoln, gives attention beyond any of his
biographers to the religious side of Lincoln's character. Commenting
on the inaugural from which I have quoted, Mr. Stoddard said:
"His mind and soul have 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 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 which had put
away all thought of rebellious resistance to the will of God leading,
as in his earlier days of trial, to despair and insanity."
I wish to call special attention to Lincoln's temperance habits. He
was a teetotaler so far as the use of intoxicating liquors as a
beverage was concerned. When the committee of the Chicago Convention
waited upon Lincoln to inform him of his nomination he treated them to
ice-water and 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 conscientiously depart
from it on the present occasion. It is pure Adam's ale from the
spring."
Mr. John Hay, one of his biographers, says: "Mr. Lincoln was a man of
exceedingly temperate habits. He made no use of either whisky or
tobacco during all the years that I knew him."
Abraham Lincoln was a model in every respect but one. It was a mistake
on the part of this great and good man that he never identified
himself openly with the Church. I know what can be said in favor of
his position. It is not, however, satisfactory. If all men were to act
in this matter as Lincoln did, there would be no Church. This is
obvious. Hence the mistake which he made. Otherwise, as to his
personal habits; as to his confidence in God; as to his faith in man;
as to his conception and use of the Bible; as to his habits of prayer;
as to his judicial fairness; as to his sympathy with men--in all these
respects, as in many others, Abraham Lincoln is a character to be
studied and imitated.
[26] _From 'The Homiletic Review,' Funk & Wagnalls, Publishers._