Temptation in the Wilderness and the Miracles. He never faltered in adherence to the orthodox explanation of the Atonement.' Some of his speeches and even proclamations are scarcely more than elaborations of the words of Jesus Christ. The keynote of his more than famous victory over Douglas in debate was simply the quotation from Jesus: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

The time came, however, when he wanted men to know without further question that like St. Paul," For him to live was Christ": for just before his death Mr. Lincoln solemnly remarked to a good friend: "When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ."

Not often did he speak about the Holy Spirit, but when he spoke he left no room to doubt that when men grow in goodness they do not grow by chance; they grow under the fostering care of

' Even in referring to the wounded on the battlefield, Lincoln once inquired if there "isn't something in Scripture about the 'shedding of blood' for the remission of sins."-Carpenter, p. 319. Lincoln's Memorial Album, O. H. Oldroyd, p. 366.

God's Holy Spirit. In references to the Holy Spirit his writings abound. No theologian has ever more confidently explained the Holy Spirit's place in human life than when Mr. Lincoln, after the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, called his people to invoke the influence of the

Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion, to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the counsels of the government with wisdom adequate to so great a national emergency, and to visit with tender care and consolation throughout the length and breadth of our land all those who, through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges, have been brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate, and finally to lead the whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission to the Divine Will back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace.

Some still wonder why he never joined a church. Is the day never to dawn when all will understand that Abraham Lincoln was absolutely honest with himself and with the church? He had spent his life among people who believed church membership signified a certain grade of other-worldliness which he never thought he had quite reached, when certainly the vast majority of church members were supposed to understand as well as to believe all the details of evangelical theology. Lincoln's

mind worked slowly. He would never urge it on. He wanted time to think, to read, to pray, before he took a step which seemed to him a virtual assertion that he held the full-orbed faith. He was troubled that the various denominations differed radically as to what they held to be essentials. He had heard some sermons which caused him to declare it blasphemy for a preacher to "twist the words of Christ around so as to sustain his own doctrine." He was afraid that some of the theology of the day conflicted with "the true spirit of Christ." Yet all the time he regularly attended church, first in Springfield and then in Washington, and in 1864 wrote his old friend, Joshua Speed, "I am profitably engaged reading the Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason that you can and the balance upon faith and you will live and die a better man."

The death of Willie and the countless graves he found at Gettysburg in 1863 seemed to sweep his heart along toward church membership in spite of any hesitations the head still entertained. He developed the habit of talking out his inmost feelings to the spiritually-minded whom he met. Carpenter' reports his statement to a woman representing the Christian Commission, "that it 1 Page 187.

has been my intention for some time at a suitable opportunity to make a public religious profession." To Noah Brooks and his beloved Pastor, Dr. Gurley, he spoke to the same purpose. Then when he was setting his house in order for the peace that followed war, death interrupted all his plans. Though he had not after all joined church,

Never to the mansions where the mighty rest,
Since their foundations, came a nobler guest.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE CHRIST-LIKE STORY-TELLER

IDIOMS, maxims, argument, even illustrations are not always adequate to sink truth deep into all types of mind. Some minds are too clever, some too dull, some too introspective and some too detached to apprehend truth presented in conventional form. But everybody understands a story. Everybody likes a well-told story with a moral which requires no afterword. The Fables of Esop, the Arabian Nights, the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer are as acceptable today as when they were first told.

He who spake as never man spake was habitually a story-teller. He couched much of his teaching in story form most easy to the understanding of plain people, most stimulating to the thoughtful, most arresting to those engrossed in "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things." He called his stories parables, and many scholars have gone far afield in giving them an esoteric meaning or in making