and of individual alike and issued the Divine command not to be disobeyed by any soul: "Call nothing common or unclean."

It was out on the prairies of the West that the fire which burns only to refine was sweeping without let or hindrance over human souls. The itinerant preacher who had sometimes in discouragement ridden season after season through the trackless forest, over the still uncharted prairies, was now beginning to see the travail of his soul and reaping satisfaction. The revival of 1857-59 was sensitizing and sharpening the personal conscience of the people as no one could deny and making them to realize the meaning of the words of Emerson: "No greater calamity can befall a nation than the loss of worship." Worship was re-instated; the voice of prayer was heard throughout the land; men called upon God, and He answered, confessed that they were sinners, and He forgave. They acknowledged their heart wanderings and remissness, and He had mercy on them. He put grace into their hearts and a new song on their lips.

It was to hearts now at last awake to spiritual truth that the pioneer preachers appealed as they travelled their circuits and thundered in Buchanan's days against the institution of slavery. They minced no words. They prophesied no

"smooth things." They were warriors, fighting with their might "the devil and all his works." When they thought a thing was wrong they denounced it. No rich man in the pew could muzzle them. Mercenary motives were not theirs. They were feeders, not fleecers, of their flocks. Through forests they rode without fear, braving the dangers of swollen streams, tempests, wild beasts, and savage Indians. They kept step with the Almighty as they wended their way from appointment to appointment, spreading the glad news of redemption. They scorned the wrath of man. Peter Akers-like, they held slavery up to view in the fulness of its gross iniquity. They prophesied its extinction through the crisis of civil war. They denounced it as a crime. They called upon the people to help God sweep it from the land. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," was the burden of their theme, even before the revival of 1857-59 had ensured the harvest they had sowed. The work they did in preparation for the cosmic work of Lincoln has never been appreciated. It is beyond all human estimation.

Who can know what would have ensued when the shock came of the Civil War but for this spiritual awakening? There are always those who say God would have found some other way. But

who that reads history aright can find one instance of an epochal civic regeneration that was not ushered in by a thoroughgoing, heart-stirring religious revival? At any rate, back of Abraham Lincoln was the revival of 1857-59, awakening national conscience, preparing the way for the crisis of 1860, and thus ensuring permanency to the principle of popular government.

What a drama! All unconsciously the actors played their parts. A continent for a stage, acres fertile enough to feed the world, a soil underlaid with boundless stores of mineral wealth, refreshed with rivers like inland lakes and beautified with

lakes like rolling seas. For dramatis personæ:money-grabber, personifying sordid commercialism, pushing property rights to the front and human rights into the background; the slavedriver, whip in hand; the crouching negro, driven to his task; the preacher of righteousness, the evangel of freedom; Abraham Lincoln, the impersonation of benign fate, the soul of freedom, the champion of popular government, the man of God. Above all and behind all, "standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above His own," and ruling the mighty drama which, for the freedom and salvation of a world, "He doth Himself contrive, enact, behold."

CHAPTER XX

ON THE WAY IN PRAYER

LINCOLN'S face was now turned toward Washington, where the storm of an incomparable civil strife was soon to beat upon him.

The essential humility of his Christian character found remarkable expression in his farewell speech to his neighbours when about to leave his Springfield home for Washington. He spoke as simply as neighbours speak together over the back fence. None who knew him well could doubt his full appreciation of the magnitude of the task he was about to undertake. At the same time, it was a revelation of his dependence upon God and of his apprehension of the tragedy awaiting him, as indicated by the suggestion that he might never return to them. From the platform of the car he looked for a moment out upon the multitude of sad faces upturned to hear his parting word. Then with hat in hand and gravity upon his sympathetic face he said:

My friends, no one not in my situation can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place and the kindness of this people, I owe everything. Here have I lived a quarter of a century and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being Who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him Who can go with me and remain with you and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

While Mr. Lincoln had had some experience in public life, he was without experience in executive office. He was a country lawyer, comparatively unlettered. His association was scant with scholars and statesmen. He knew next to nothing of polite society. His outlook upon life had been from the prairie village and in the main from more than humble surroundings. His confident assumption of a task more difficult than that which had devolved upon Washington was naturally criticized by those antagonistic to his policies. They could not discern his God-given mission. He declared he would succeed only if guided and sup