"The Bible is the king's best copy, the magistrate's best rule, the
housewife's best guide, the servant's best directory, and the best
companion of youth."
In a log cabin at Nolin's Creek, Hardin County, Kentucky, the boy breathed
the first breath of life. Hope's anchor hung on a slender string, if we
are to measure by the child's home surroundings. But his birthplace
possessed a soul; for a home with a good book in it has a soul. This book
was the Bible. It mastered his manners, molded his mind, made mighty his
manhood, and gave to America the matchless man.
In the Bible he found the truth for the ills of men, the secret for the
solution of life's perplexing problems, the boon for the best beaten
path, the succor for the suffering, the calmest comforts for the dying,
and the faithful friend when foes are near and other friends so far away.
We shall speak of what others have said concerning Lincoln's use of the
Bible; what he himself said of it; the use he made of it; and the
influence of the Scriptures on his life and literature.
In Herndon's Life of Lincoln the partner and President is portrayed as a
foe rather than a friend of the Bible. This is seen to be erroneous by
simply reading his speeches, for they are like the dewdrops on the blades
of green in early fall, sparkling everywhere. It is hard to read a great
speech of Lincoln's without seeing the influence of the Bible on his life,
works, and style.
Sarah K. Bolton writes: "Mrs. Lincoln possessed but one book in the
world, the Bible; and from this she taught her children daily. Abraham had
been to school for two or three months, to such a school as the rude
country afforded, and had learned to read. Of quick mind and retentive
memory, he soon came to know the Bible well-nigh by heart, and to look
upon his gentle teacher as the embodiment of all the good precepts in the
book."
Lincoln's mother died after a lingering illness when he was ten years old.
It is said that during her sickness he cared for her as tenderly as a
girl, and that he often sat at her side and read the Bible to her for
hours. Much of his later life and style was influenced by his early
reading of the Bible.
L. E. Chittenden says: "Except the instructions of his mother, the Bible
more powerfully controlled the intellectual development of the son than
all other causes combined. He memorized many of its chapters and had them
perfectly at his command. Early in his professional life he learned that
the most useful of all books to the public speaker was the Bible. After
1857 he seldom made a speech which did not contain quotations from the
Bible."
Alexander Williamson, who was engaged as tutor in the Lincoln family in
Washington, said: "Mr. Lincoln very frequently studied the Bible with the
aid of Cruden's Concordance, which lay on his table." The Presbyterian
pastor in Springfield, Rev. James Smith, states that Lincoln became a
believer in the Bible and Jesus Christ as the Son of God. It is true that
Mr. Smith placed before Lincoln the arguments for and against the divine
authority of the Scriptures. He looked at it from a lawyer's viewpoint,
and, at the conclusion, declared the argument in favor of divine authority
and inspiration of the Bible unanswerable.
Mr. Arnold, in his Life of Lincoln, speaking of the Second Inaugural
Address, said: "Since the days of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, where is
the speech of emperor, king, or ruler which can compare with this? May we
not without irreverence say that passages of this address are worthy of
that holy book which he read daily, and from which, during his long days
of trial, he had drawn inspiration and guidance? This paper in its solemn
recognition of the justice of the Almighty God reminds us of the words of
the old Hebrew prophets."
Bishop Simpson, in his funeral address, said: "Abraham Lincoln was a good
man, a man of noble heart in every way. He read the Bible frequently; he
loved it for its great truths; and he tried to be guided by its precepts.
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. I doubt if any President has shown such trust in God,
or in public document so frequently referred to divine aid."
In the year 1901 President Roosevelt delivered an address before the
American Bible Society on "Reading the Bible," in which he said: "Lincoln,
sad, patient, kindly Lincoln, who, after bearing upon his shoulders for
four years a greater burden than that borne by any other man of the
nineteenth century, laid down his life for the people whom, living, he
had served so well, built up his entire reading upon his study of the
Bible. He had mastered it absolutely, mastered it as later he mastered
only one or two other books, notably Shakespeare, mastered it so that he
became almost a man of one book who knew that book, and who instinctively
put into practice what he had been taught therein; and he left his life as
part of the crowning work of the century just closed."
Lincoln often spoke and wrote of the value of the Bible. To Joshua F.
Speed, one of his most intimate friends, and at one time his roommate, he
wrote: "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," Mrs. Speed gave Lincoln a Bible, and, after a
visit to that home in 1841, he wrote to the daughter, Mary Speed, and at
the close said: "Tell your mother I have not got her present (an Oxford
Bible) with me, but I intend to read it regularly when I return home. I
doubt not that it is really, as she says, the best cure for the blues,
could one but take it according to truth."
On July 4, 1842, in writing to his friend Speed of the service he had been
in bringing Joshua and Fanny, his sweetheart, together, he said: "I
believe God made me one of the instruments of bringing you and Fanny
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' is my text just now."
It is stated on good authority that after his election in 1860 he said to
Judge Joseph 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 am in the garden of Gethsemane now, and my cup is running
over."
Lincoln's reply to a committee of colored people of Baltimore who
presented him with a Bible, September 7, 1864, gives his opinion of the
Bible: "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 this world was
communicated through this book. But for it we could not know 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."
At Springfield he addressed the Bible Society and 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 to their fellow men."
In J. G. Holland's Life of Lincoln he gives us the conversation with Mr.
Bateman: "Mr. Bateman, I have carefully read the Bible." Then he drew from
his pocket a New Testament: "These men will know that I am for freedom in
the territories, freedom everywhere as far as the Constitution and laws
will permit, and my opponents are for slavery. They know this, yet, with
this book in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live
a moment, they are going to vote against me. 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 for me--and I think he has--I
believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am
right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God."
In his Lyceum speech he speaks of the advantage of an education and being
able to read the history of his own and other countries, by which we may
appreciate the value of our free institutions, to say nothing of the
advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read for
themselves the Scriptures and other works both of a religious and moral
nature. In this same speech he uses this language: "If destruction be our
lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher." Then, speaking of the
Revolution, he desired the history of it to "be read and recounted as long
as the Bible shall be read."
The night before the President left Springfield for the White House a
friend from Chicago sent him the American flag with these words: "Have not
I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither
be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou
goest. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days
of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee."
It has been said by those who pride themselves on having no faith in the
inspiration of the Scriptures that Lincoln held their views. But he
addressed conventions and Sunday-schools, and the Bible was as often
quoted by him as Blackstone. The addresses and letters of Lincoln are
saturated with expressions from the Holy Scriptures. In his reply to
Douglas he gave his speech great force by the words of Christ: "A house
divided against itself cannot stand." In writing to Mr. W. Durley he uses
scriptural terms: "By the fruit the tree is to be known. An evil tree
cannot bring forth good fruit."
Ann Rutledge gave him a new view of the Bible and Shakespeare. Abraham
Lincoln's is the language of the Bible. He never used the Bible in an
irreverent way. In the Lincoln Museum, Washington, there is a copy of the
Holy Scriptures. It is well worn, and shows the signs of good use. Inside
the cover are these words in his own handwriting: "A. Lincoln, his own
book."
He wrote a letter to Rev. J. M. Peck in 1848 asking him, "Is the precept,
'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,'
obsolete, of no force, of no application?" In his description of Niagara
he said: "It calls up the indefinite past when Christ suffered on the
cross, when Moses led Israel through the Red Sea--nay, even when Adam
first came from the hand of his Maker; then, as now, Niagara was roaring
here."
In writing to John D. Johnston concerning his father's illness, he said:
"I sincerely hope Father will recover his health, but, at all events, tell
him to remember and call upon and confide in our great and good and
merciful Maker. 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."
Mr. William S. Speer wrote to Mr. Lincoln asking him to write a letter to
give his definite views on the slavery question. Lincoln replied: "I have
already done this many, many times, and it is in print and open to all who
will read. Those who will not read or heed what I have already publicly
said would not read or heed a repetition of it. 'If they hear not Moses
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the
dead.'"
In a letter to Reverdy Johnson he wrote: "I am a patient man, always
willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance, and also to give
ample time for repentance." Lincoln wrote to General J. A. McClernand:
"My belief is that the permanent estimate of what a general does in the
field is fixed by the 'cloud of witnesses' who have been with him in the
field."
Lincoln was ever bringing his knowledge of the Scriptures to the minds of
men. When an aged citizen, John Phillips, had done him honor, he wrote
him: "The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have
been already extended an average lifetime beyond the psalmist's limit
cannot but be valuable and fruitful."
We find in his speeches and letters the Bible at his tongue's end. In his
reply to Douglas at Alton he said: "He has warred upon them as Satan wars
upon the Bible. The Bible says somewhere we are desperately selfish." And,
writing to J. F. Speed, he writes of those who are so interested in
slavery, and says: "If, like Haman, they should hang upon the gallows of
their own building, I should not be among the mourners for their fate."
Then again he says: "Let us judge not, that we be not judged," Then the
words of the Christ: "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!"
In his temperance speech in 1842 he sees the spirit of temperance like the
conqueror in the Revelation going forth "conquering and to conquer," He
sees the drunkard reclaimed, and, like the man in the gospel, "clothed and
in his right mind"; then, describing the reclaimed, "out of their abundant
hearts their tongues give utterance." Then he speaks of the unpardonable
sin for the drunkard as unknown: "As in Christianity it is taught, 'while
the lamp holds out to burn the vilest sinner may return.'" Then he refers
to the Scriptures and says: "He ever seems to have gone forth like the
Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the
fairest born of every family." Then he takes us over to the prophet: "Come
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may
live."
He was very fond of a poem called "Adam and Eve's Wedding Song":
"When Adam was created
He dwelt in Eden's shade.
As Moses has recorded.
And soon a bride was made."
Some thought that Lincoln was its author, but he said: "I am not the
author. I would give all I am worth, and go in debt, to be able to write
so fine a piece." In speaking of the tariff he said: "In the early days
of our race the Almighty said to the first of our race, 'In the sweat of
thy face shalt thou eat bread.'"
In 1848, when President Polk sent a message to Congress stating that
Mexico "had shed American blood upon American soil," Lincoln made a long
speech against war with Mexico, and recalled the death of Abel thus: "That
he [President Polk] is deeply conscious of being in the wrong; that he
feels the blood of this war, like the blood of Abel, is crying to heaven
against him."
In Lincoln's eulogy on Henry Clay he brings the Book of God before the
people: "Pharaoh's country was cursed with plagues and his hosts were lost
in the Red Sea for striving to retain a captive people who had already
served them more than four hundred years. May this disaster never befall
us!"
His knowledge of the Bible is clearly seen in his debate with Judge
Douglas, for when the latter described man in the garden with evil or good
to choose from Lincoln's reply was: "God did not place good and evil
before man, telling him to take his 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." Later Judge Douglas said that Lincoln had a proneness
for quoting the Scriptures, and Lincoln replied in his Springfield
address, July 17, 1858: "If I should do so now it occurs that he places
himself somewhat upon the ground of the parable of the lost sheep which
went astray upon the mountains, and when the owner of the hundred sheep
found the one that was lost and threw it upon his shoulders, and came home
rejoicing, it was said that there was more rejoicing over the one sheep
that was lost and had been found than over the ninety and nine in the
fold. The application is made by the Saviour in this parable thus: 'Verily
I say unto you, there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance.'
Repentance before forgiveness is a provision of the Christian system." In
his fragments of a speech he claims "the revelation in the Bible, and his
revelation the Bible."
Lincoln has before his mind the ideas of the early church when he says:
"'Give to him that is needy' is a Christian rule of charity." In 1859 he
gave a lecture on "Discoveries, Inventions, and Improvements," in which
he gives a description of our first parents: "It was the destined work of
Adam's race to develop by discoveries, inventions, and improvements, and
the first invention of which we have any account is the fig-leaf apron.
Speech was used by our first parents, and even by Adam before the creation
of Eve."
At Cincinnati he speaks of "the loaves and fishes," and concludes his
speech almost with Bible words: "The good old maxims of the Bible are
applicable, and truly applicable, to human affairs; and in this as in
other things we may say here that he who is not for us is against us; and
he who gathereth not with us scattereth." He concludes his speech in
Kansas in the same year with the same words.
When the people were anxious to hear and see him on his way to the White
House he was desirous of keeping silence, and often quoted: "Solomon says
there is a time to keep silence." At Philadelphia, in Independence Hall,
he spoke: "All my political welfare has been in favor of the teachings
that come from these sacred walls. May my right hand forget its cunning,
and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if ever I prove false to
these teachings."
When Lincoln proclaimed a national fast day he declared that all must be
done in full conviction "that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom."
An old man had come to Lincoln for his son, who was to be shot, and said:
"Mr. Lincoln, my wife sent me to you. We had three boys. They all joined
your army. One of 'em has been killed, one's a-fighting now, and one of
'em, the youngest, has been tried for deserting, and he's going to be shot
day after to-morrow. He never deserted. He's wild and may have drunk too
much and wandered off, but he never deserted. 'Tain't in the blood. He's
his mother's favorite, and if he's shot I know she'll die." General Butler
was telegraphed to to suspend the execution. The old man was afraid to go
home with this message, thinking the President might give a different
order to-morrow. Lincoln said to the old man: "Tell his mother that I
said, 'If your son lives until they get further orders from me, when he
does die people will say that old Methuselah was a baby compared to him.'"
It is said that the best result which the convention achieved at Cleveland
in 1864, when it nominated Fremont for the presidency and John Cochrane
for the vice-presidency, was that it called forth a bit of wit from the
President. Some one remarked to him that, instead of the expected
thousands, only about four hundred persons were present. He turned to the
Bible which, say Nicolay and Hay, commonly lay on his desk, and read I
Sam. 22. 2: "And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in
debt, and every one that was in bitterness of soul, gathered themselves
unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about
four hundred men."
A primary and intermediate school was so located as to be separated by a
fence from the rear of the White House grounds. The President often
watched the children play. One morning the teacher gave them a lesson in
neatness, and asked each boy to come to school next day with his shoes
blacked. They all obeyed. One of them, John S., a poor one-armed lad, had
used stove polish, the only kind his home afforded. The boys were
merciless in their ridicule. The boy was only nine years old, the son of a
dead soldier, his mother a washerwoman, with three other children to
provide for. The President heard the boys jeering Johnny, and learned the
facts about the boy.
The next day John S. came to school with a new suit and with new shoes,
and told that the President had called at his home and took him to the
store and bought two suits of clothes for him and clothes for his sisters,
and sent coal and groceries to the house. In addition to this the lad
brought to the teacher a scrap of paper containing a verse of Scripture,
which Mr. Lincoln had requested to have written upon the blackboard:
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me."
Some weeks after the President visited the school, and the teacher
directed his attention to the verse, which was still there. Mr. Lincoln
read it; then, taking a crayon, said: "Boys, I have another quotation from
the Bible, and I hope you will learn it and come to know its truth as I
have known and felt it." Then below the other verse he wrote:
"It is more blessed to give than to receive.