ful to his chosen people. His forty years' seclusion in the dreary regions of Mount Horeb failed to diminish his fidelity to God or to weaken his faith in His promises. No leader ever was tried more severely than was he and none ever proved more constant and true. Considered in connection with the circumstances of his birth, Moses is a striking illustration of the power of prenatal influence, and a motherhood like that which produced this great man, if environment is not pronouncedly unfavorable, will enrich the world by contributions of exalted human qualities in posterity.

The marvelous fidelity of Jeremiah during a period of darkness and despair, when kings were false and enemies were victorious, is explained by Jehovah's declaration: "Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee."20 Such prenatal influence can be secured in any age and cannot fail to result as in the case of this great Hebrew prophet.

Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, when informed that her devout life was to be crowned with motherhood, retired to the seclusion of the hills of Judah, and there for months quietly communed with God and "was filled with the Holy Ghost." Therefore, it is said of her son that he was "filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb."""

Ishmael was a calamitous product of prenatal influence. His father was a man of the most exalted nature, a model for every age, in character, fidelity and faith. But his mother was a hot-blooded Egyptian woman who, by indulging in bitterness of spirit and furious resentment during her period of expectancy gave to this son of Abraham a nature which caused him to be "a wild ass among men" with "his hand against every man and every man's hand against him."

In striking contrast with the story of Hagar and Ishmael, so full of solemn warning, is the fascinating story of Hannah and her son Samuel, the most beloved and influential of all the Hebrew priests and prophets. Hannah's eager yearning for motherhood and her fervent prayer in the sacred taber20 Jer. 1:15.

21 Luke 1:41.

22 Luke 1:15.

nacle for "a male child" whom she promised to consecrate to the service of God's house, indicate her high plane of womanhood. And such a woman was Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the "Wilding lady still and true

Who gave us Lincoln and never knew."

As already shown she was a devout and unusually spiritually-minded Christian. During fragments of time snatched from pressing family cares and duties she diligently read the Word of God and kept in close and constant fellowship with Him by devout and earnest prayer. And Mr. Lincoln's acknowledgment of his conscious indebtedness to her for all he was and all he hoped to be was a fitting tribute to the one whom the world is coming to understand and appreciate at her true worth.

As were Jochebed, Hannah and Elizabeth, as were countless other women who became the mothers of noble men, so Nancy Hanks was fitted in body, soul and spirit to become the mother of one endowed with transcendent gifts and exalted character as was Abraham Lincoln.

During the months preceding the birth of Abraham Lincoln his mother's environment was such as an expectant mother should always have. There was no domestic discord in the Lincoln cabin to inflict a contentious spirit upon the coming child. Music and merriment had their rightful place in this pioneer household and the industrious wife, conscious of her high estate, faithfully attended to her daily duties with cheerfulness and joy.

Some regard the advent of Abraham Lincoln upon the scene of human action as something "outside the chain of natural cause and effect," and as implying an unfathomable mystery. This, if true, would deprive us of the lessons to be learned from the story of his birth, his character and life. He furnishes a striking illustration of the possibilities of an earthly life at its best, and he stands before the world as the living embodiment of what God can accomplish through His

children if permitted to have His way. Nowhere in history can there be found the story of a human life which more clearly and effectively illustrates the potency of prenatal influence than does that of Abraham Lincoln and his mother. There never has been, nor will there ever be, another Abraham Lincoln. But there may and will be many others much like him if the lessons taught by his birth and character are learned and duly heeded by those for whom he lived and died.

A FORTUNATE BEGINNING

The conditions into which Abraham Lincoln entered at his birth were in every particular favorable. His parents were poor in worldly goods, but they were rich in the love and loving kindness which they lavishly bestowed upon him. Above all possible estimate it was fortunate for Abraham Lincoln, for the nation, and for all the world that he began life in such an atmosphere of peace as was that which filled the humble habitation of his early days. Between his devoted parents there was an affinity of spirit and a constancy of love and tenderness which in spite of seeming inhospitable conditions kept the infant's better nature always in comfort and content. Some, in considering this scene, think only of the earthen floor and the scant rough furniture; but during those initial hours a higher power was ministering to this child of poverty with a skill which human hands have never known.

True, there was physical discomfort in that cabin, but it made for sturdy growth of mind and body, and for the development of trust in things unseen. As the oak is toughened and made more fit for service by the cold blasts that beat against it with pitiless severity, so Abraham Lincoln was aided to become staunch and strong by the rigor of his early life.

Near the cot on which the infant slept was his mother's Bible with the truths of which she was thoroughly familiar, and his childhood's first lessons from his mother's lips were the teachings of that Book. Thoroughly and well he learned those lessons for they were taught with fervency of soul by