a mass-meeting in Illinois; that the messages became a part of history, and should be written accordingly. "What is the matter now?" inquired the President. Why," said Mr. De Frees, "you have used an undignified expression in the message;" and then, reading the paragraph aloud, he added, "I would alter the struc ture of that if I were you." "De Frees," replied Mr. Lincoln, " that word expresses precisely my idea, and I am not going to change it. The time will never come in this country when the people won't know exactly what sugar-coated means!" The following anecdote was related by President Lincoln with great effect, and proves that he well understood the deadly nature of the great conflict to come: "I once knew,' he said, 'a good sound churchman, whom we will call Brown, who was in a committee to erect a bridge over a very dangerous and rapid river. Architect after architect failed; and, at last, Brown said he had a friend named Jones, who had built several bridges, and could build this. "Let us have him in,” said the committee. In came Jones. "Can you build this bridge, sir?"-"Yes," replied Jones, "I could build a bridge to the infernal regions if necessary." The sober committee were horrified. But, when Jones retired, Brown thought it but fair to defend his friend. "I know Jones so well," said he, "he is so honest a man, and so good an architect, that, if he states soberly and positively that he can build a bridge to Hades, why, I believe it; but I have my doubts about the abutment on the infernal side." So,' Mr. Lincoln added, 'when politicians said they could harmonize the Northern and Southern wings of the democracy, why, I believed them; but I had my doubts about the abutment on the Southern side.' . * Rev. John S. C. Abbott's "History of the Civil War.* The following is a characteristic short sermon, which, it is stated, President Lincoln was in the habit of preach ing to his children: "Don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, don't swear, don't gamble, don't lie, don't cheat; love your fellow-men as well as God; love truth, love virtue, and be happy!" CHAPTER X. CHRISTIAN WORDS AND DEEDS. "Be good, sweet friend, and let who will be clever; REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY. "The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips.”— MALACHI ii. 6. ABRAHAM LINCOLN was a Christian; but no particular branch of Zion can claim him. He belongs to that universal Church of which Christ alone is head, and all whose members are imbued with their Master's spirit. Under different names, or perhaps, like him, with no denominational rank at all, the great souls that delight to do good, and desire to live and act for the honor of God, are moving forward at the command of one Leader, and to one grand destiny. These are the world's workers. Imbued with Christ's spirit of self-sacrificing love, they act as if, like him, they came to earth, "not to be ministered unto, but to minister." And who shall deny them a place amid God's elect, or shut against them at last the door of heaven? It is not so much creed as life that is to be weighed in the unerring scales of God's justice. A man may profess to have a pure and noble creed, but in daily deeds contradict it; and a man may have a warped and narrow view of truth, and yet his life be broader and better than his creed. But, generally, "as a man thinketh, so is he." Men are biassed by their religious views and opinions; and he who has profoundest faith in things unseen is most likely to labor assiduously in doing God's will amid the things that are seen and temporal. Thus did our martyred President. He never joined a church, because, as he said, he found difficulty in giving his assent, without mental reservation, to the long complicated statements of Christian doctrine which characterize their Articles of Belief, and Confessions of Faith. "When any church," he continued, "will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the Saviour'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 all my soul." The President was a great reader of the Bible. The last photograph taken of him represents him reading that blessed volume, with little Thaddeus standing at his side. Rev. W. M. Thayer says of him in his youth, “For a boy of his age, he was excelled by few in his acquaintance with the Scriptures. The Bible, catechism, and the old spelling-book named, being the only books in the family at this time, and there being no papers, either religious or secular, the Bible was read much more than it would have been if other volumes had been possessed. That same Bible is still in the possession of a relative in the State of Illinois." As long as he lived, the President valued the Best of Books. One who knew him intimately says, "The Bible was a very familiar study with the President; whole chapters of Isaiah, the New Testament, and the Psalms, being fixed in his memory: and he would sometimes correct a misquotation of Scripture, giving generally the chapter and verse where it could be found. He liked the Old Testament best, and dwelt on the simple beauty of the historical books. Once, speaking of his own age and strength, he quoted with admiration that passage, 'His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.' I do not know that he thought then, how, like that Moses of old, he was to stand on Pisgah, and see a peaceful land which he was not to enter."* It has been said that the President was in the habit of rising early, and spending an hour in the reading of the Scriptures, and prayer. It would be well if all in authority would imitate an example so good and salutary: then might we hope that our nation would speedily become "one whose God is the Lord," and be evermore a "praise in the earth." + Shaping his life-course by the chart, which, emanating from God himself, cannot be imperfect, the President was always a temperate man. "Through his whole life he remained the advocate of temperance. He regretted the intemperance that existed in the army. In reply to a delegation of the Sons * "Harpers' Monthly," July, 1865. † Like Daniel Webster, Byron, and other writers, Lincoln drew largely on the Bible for illustration. He said to a friend, that "many years ago, when the custom of lecture-giving was more common than since, he was induced to try his hand at composing a literary lecture, something which he thought entirely out of his line. The subject, he said, was not defined; but his purpose was to analyze inventions and discoveries, "to get at the bottom of things," and to show when, where, how, and why such things were invented or discovered; and, so far as possible, to find where the first mention is made of some uncommon things. The Bible, he said, he found to be the richest storehouse for such knowledge; and he then gave one or two illustrations which were new to his hearers. The lecture was never finished, and was left among his loose papers at Springfield when he came to Washington." * "Harpers' Monthly." |