ported by the Omniscient mind and the Almighty arm. By faith, he knew that, with God's help, he could not fail. It was the same prophetic insight that led him to say to his partner, Herndon, when they were taking a last look at the office in which they had worked together so many years, that he had an instinctive feeling that he would never return alive.

His feeling of reliance upon Divine aid was doubtless quickened by the flag which the martyred McKinley said was sent to Lincoln the day before his departure from Springfield, bearing upon its silken folds an inscription from the first chapter of Joshua: "Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of 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 shall I be with thee."

As Lincoln journeyed from Illinois across the country, he declared all along the route that he was going forth in the name of the Living God of Israel. At every railway station the sympathetic, anxious people in great crowds pleaded that he speak to them. He always complied, and in every speech he called upon the people to look to God

for help in that time of peril. No honest man can follow Lincoln on his trip to Washington, read the speeches he made all along the way, and doubt that he was a God-fearing and God-trusting man. Not even Moses praying, "If Thy presence go not with us carry me not up hence," seemed more dependent in the wilderness on God than Lincoln as he slowly journeyed on to Washington. At Columbus, Ohio, he said:

I know what you all know, that without a name, perhaps without a reason why I should have a name, there has fallen upon me a task such as did not rest even upon the father of his country. And so feeling, I turn and look for the support without which it would be impossible for me to perform that great task. I turn, then, and look to the great American people, and to the God Who has never forsaken them. entertain different views upon political questions, but none is suffering anything. This is a most consoling circumstance, and from it we may conclude that all we need is time, patience, and reliance upon that God Who has never forsaken His people.

To the people of Indianapolis he said:

We

When the people rise in mass, in behalf of the Union and the liberties of the country, then "the gates of hell cannot prevail against them."

Speaking before the Legislature of New York, Mr. Lincoln assured that body:

In the meantime, if we have patience, if we restrain ourselves, if we allow ourselves not to run off in a passion, we still have confidence that the Almighty, the Maker of the universe, will, through the instrumentality of this great and intelligent people, bring us through this as He has other difficulties of our country. Relying on this, I again thank you for this generous reception.

At Newark, New Jersey, the President-elect said:

I am sure, however, that I have not the ability to do anything unaided by God, and that without His support and that of a free, happy, prosperous, and intelligent people, no man can succeed in doing that the importance of which we all comprehend.

At Trenton, Mr. Lincoln declared:

I shall be most happy indeed, if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty and of this people, as the chosen instrument also in the hands of the Almighty, of perpetuating the object of that great struggle.

At Philadelphia, Lincoln gave utterance to these golden words, suitable as an epitaph to the noblest of God's noblemen:

I have said nothing but that I am willing to live by, and if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by.

Already had been heard mutterings of veiled threats to the effect that Lincoln would not be permitted to reach the Capital alive. So alarming, and so circumstantial, were the reports that Allan W. Pinkerton, the noted detective, was permitted to arrange secretly for a change of programme by which Mr. Lincoln was hurriedly taken from Harrisburg, through Baltimore, to Washington.

Leaving these expressions of confidence in God and devotion to duty to work in the hearts of the multitudes who had heard them on the way, and through them in the hearts of all loyal people of the nation, Abraham Lincoln, after a journey replete with thrilling incidents and threatened tragedy, twelve hours ahead of schedule time, entered the Capital of the nation.

CHAPTER XXI

THE PARTING OF THE ROADS

IN the spirit of reliance on God, breathed by Lincoln in his Springfield farewell speech, and with the same devout dependence upon the Almighty, repeatedly expressed as he travelled to the national Capital, he arose to deliver his first Inaugural Address, for which the whole country-the civilized world, in fact-waited with bated breath. For that supreme moment he had ample spiritual as well as intellectual preparation. After reading the Address that morning to his family he had sought in prayer the will of God and went forth from the closet of devotion calmed by communion with his Heavenly Father.'

The devotees of slavery hooted his election, caricatured his physical appearance, derided his lowly birth, impugned his motives, and were at that very moment plotting, as they had plotted for months, even years, to destroy the Government consecrated by the blood of the Revolutionary fathers.

See Letter of Rev. N. W. Miner in Lincoln's Scrapbook in the Library of Congress, p. 52