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plumage was the symbol of memory. Through all ages, in all lands, the raven has been the emblem of haunting recollections. The world never will know the tearful memories and heart-rending forebodings of that night of agony. The transcendent genius of Edgar Allen Poe faintly portrays it:

"Prophet!' said I, 'thing of evil!-prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that heaven that bends above us-by that God we both adore-
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.'
Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.""

Unmindful of what was going on around him, silent, pale, his mind tempest-tossed, Mr. Lincoln was sinking into distressful melancholy. It was very kind in Joshua F. Speed, who had closed his business in Springfield, and who was going to Kentucky, to take Mr. Lincoln with him to his former home just out from Louisville. (*) There was tenderness in the sympathetic welcome given him by the mother of Mr. Speed, a great-hearted Christian woman.

To men who think for themselves, no matter what may have been their previous religious belief, there not unfrequently comes a period of doubting. Such a period came to Abraham Lincoln. The preachers whom he heard through his early years, for the most part, had little education. One of the Governors of Illinois says of them:

"They were without previous training, except in religious exercises and in the study of the Holy Scriptures. It was not thought necessary that a teacher should be a scholar. It was thought to be his business to make appeals warm from the heart; to paint heaven and hell to the imagination of the sinner, to terrify him with the one and to promise the other as a reward for a life of righteousness. . . . They made up by loud holloaing and violent action what they lacked in information." (')

Many of those who travelled from settlement to settlement knew very little about the Bible, but yet attempted to explain all its truths and events. At the camp-meetings held in groves along the streams there was weeping, wailing, excitement, frenzy, rolling upon the ground, ecstatic shoutings, "Amen!" "Glory!" "Hallelujah!" Shall we wonder that Abraham Lincoln came to the conclusion that there was not much true religion in such ecstasy and excitement? It is possible that some of those who shouted loudest were hard and grasping in their dealings with their neighbors; amens, hallelujahs, and loud praying did not make them better men. He had not forgotten his mother's

teachings. He could repeat much of the Bible, but he was not moved by emotional appeals. Many of the doctrines taught were repulsive to him. When Ann Rutledge died, and his soul was wrung with grief, no one had talked to him of divine love and eternal goodness. So far as he could see, his own life had been a failure. Hopes had not been realized, desires not gratified. He had accomplished nothing. "You will die unless you rally," the words of his dear friend, Mr. Speed.

"I am not afraid to die, and would be more than willing; but I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it," the mournful reply. (")

He is out in the desert-hungry, thirsty, weary, depressed in spirit— no star to guide him. But as the angels of God came to the carpenter's Son of Nazareth, so came Joshua F. Speed and Lucy Gilman Speed to him.

He finds himself in a hospitable home. Flowers are blooming around it; balmy breezes sweep through the halls. He breathes an atmosphere of restful peace. A saintly woman sits by his side, opens the New Testament, and reads the words of One who Himself had been in the wilderness. Her teachings are very different from what he has heard from the shouters. The Oxford Bible which she presents him as a token of her respect and affection (") has given her comfort and consolation in every hour of trouble. She talks of God as a Father, Jesus Christ as a Brother. New truths dawn upon him, and the Bible becomes a different book from what it has been in the past. That home, with its blooming flowers, restful shade, and atmosphere of peace and joy, is the gateway of a new life. Little does Lucy Gilman Speed know that God has crowned her with honor and glory, to be a ministering spirit in leading a bewildered wanderer out of the desert of despair and unbelief, that he may do great things for his fellow-men. Weeks go by, the gloom and anguish disappear. The period of doubt has gone, never to return. From that hour the Bible is to be his rule of life and duty.

His biographers-those who were near him later in life-have this to say of him:

"The late but splendid maturity of Lincoln's mind and character dates from this time; and although he grew in strength and knowledge to the end, from this year we observe a steadiness and sobriety of thought and purpose discernible in his life." (")

This estimate does not include the service rendered by Lucy Gilman

Speed. When the great account is made up, and the angels of God come from the harvest-fields to lay their sheaves at the feet of the Master, hers will be the changed life of Abraham Lincoln.

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As this biography unfolds, there will be seen, as the years go by and the responsibilities of life roll upon him, a reverent recognition of Divine Providence, an increasing faith and childlike trust in God.

8

NOTES TO CHAPTER VII.

(1) J. G. Holland, “Life of Abraham Lincoln,” p. 81.

(2) W. H. Herudon, "Lincoln," p. 340 (edition 1889). (3) Ibid., p. 327.

(*) Ibid., p. 343.

(*) Joshua F. Speed, Lecture on Abraham Lincoln, p. 31.

(*) W. H. Herudon, "Lincolu," p. 215 (edition 1889).

(') Letter to J. T. Stuart, quoted in Herndon's "Lincoln," p. 215 (edition 1889).

(*) Joshua F. Speed, Lecture on Abraham Lincolu, p. 39.

(°) Governor Ford, "History of Illinois."

(10) Joshua F. Speed, Lecture on Abraham Lincoln, p. 39. (") "Century Magazine," January, 1887.

(12) Ibid.

FROM

1841.

CHAPTER VIII.

SEVEN YEARS OF ACTIVE LIFE.

ROM the restful retreat in the home of Lucy Gilman Speed, Mr. Lincoln, with new hopes and ambitions, took passage on a steamboat down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and the Illinois rivers to his home. It was the most convenient route of travel. Without doubt, when he reached Gentry's Landing he recollected the day when he ferried two passengers out to a passing boat, and received in return two shining half-dollars, which seemed a fortune at the time. It was the locality where Katy Robie had made the evening hours pleasant by her presence. It was the home of Judge Pitcher, who had been so kind to him. From that point to the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi he had pulled an oar on a flatboat. From the Mississippi to Beardstown he would be once more amid the familiar scenes of his second trip to New Orleans. There is little question that the recollections of the auction of human beings came back to him, for once more he beheld the barbarism of the institution of slavery. In the Kentucky home where he had found such restfulness he had seen slavery in its most attractive form—the slaves cared for as members of the household, and a tender affection existing between them and their mistress. In such a home, the institution was patriarchal and seemingly beneficial, but upon the steamboat the illusion faded. In a letter to Miss Mary Speed he said:

"A fine example was presented on board the boat for contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in different parts of Kentucky, and was taking them to a farm in the South. They were chained six and six together; a small iron clevis was around the left wrist of each, and this was fastened to the main chain by a shorter one at a convenient distance from the others, so that the negroes were strung together precisely like so many fish upon a trout-line. In this condition they were being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood, their friends.

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