As God appeared to Solomon and Joseph in dreams to urge them to make
wise choices for the power of great usefulness, so it would appear
that in their waking dreams the Almighty appeared to such
history-making souls as Paul and Constantine, Alfred the Great,
Washington, and Lincoln. It was the commonest kind of a life this
young Lincoln was living on the frontier of civilization, but out of
that commonest kind of living came the uncommonest kind of character
of these modern years, the sublimest liberative power in the history
of freedom. Lincoln felt there, as a great awkward boy, that God and
history had something for him to do. He dreamed his destiny. He chose
to champion the cause of the oppressed. He vowed that when the chance
came he would deal slavery a hard blow. When he came to his high
office, he came with a character which had been fitting itself for its
grave responsibilities. He had been making wise choices on the great
questions of human rights, of national union, of constitutional
freedom, of universal brotherhood.