May 14th, 1864: "It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to heaven than any. God bless the Methodist Church. Bless all the churches, and blessed be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches."58

Mr. Lincoln's views respecting the justification for the existence of so many religious denominations is expressed in the following portions of his statements on that subject to a company of friends and reported by Dr. Robert Browne, as follows:

"In one of his cheeriest moods, one day, I remember, the subject of the many Protestant sects was being considered and talked over. One good old brother, a kind-hearted man, and as timid, lamented the number of sects, and hoped that some day a harmonizing spirit would prevail among all Christian believers, and that all of them would unite in one Church organization to serve the Master. Mr. Lincoln said: "My good brother, you are all wrong. The more sects we have, the better. They are all getting somebody in that the others could not; and even with the numerous divisions we are all doing tolerably well.

"It is not a certainty by any means that a quiet time is the best for progress. It is not so by any means in the progress of human liberty or the release of men from superstition and persecution under the forms of religion. The greatest achievements have always come in stirring, fighting times, like those of Luther, Cromwell, and the American revolution. What we need is not fewer sects or parties, but more freedom and independence for those we have. The sects are all right and will get through all right in the end. God is going to be more merciful to men trying to do right than most people think. He is so much more familiar with human frailties than a little sect in any single organization can be, that there is scarcely room for doubt that He will deal more gently with blundering, sinning humanity than the sects would deal with 58 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 100.

one another. I would rather there were more than less, if one were to hold all the power.

"Yet sects are right, and should hammer away until they reach the best that is attainable. God intends that men should fight their way to better conditions, and not be lazy or timid, or expect that their passage would be an easy one through the world or beyond in ignorant idleness. We are often confronted with the fear of too many sects, as so many timid people among them so often dread, and wonder which is right and which is best among them. They are all right.

"Think of the sect drilling so many of us have passed through, mostly to our advantage, as responsible beings. Our people came from the good old Quaker stock, through Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. Circumstances took us into the Baptist sect in Indiana, in which several of our people have remained. While there, a good Methodist elder rode forty miles through a winter storm out of his way to preach my mother's funeral sermon at Spencer Creek. Here in Illinois we are with the Presbyterians, where the Methodists are as thick as bees all about us.'

Mr. Lincoln believed in

9959

SALVATION BY FAITH IN CHRIST

This was indicated by many and very significant references to the Saviour, and the marked reverence and affection with which that name was always spoken by him. In earlier days he had been closely associated with Major Merwin in the temperance work in Illinois and always manifested deep sympathy with and interest in the gospel features of that work. Because of that interest he afterwards afforded Major Merwin every desirable opportunity to visit the front during the war to induce soldiers to abstain from intoxicants and to become Christians.

In the case of Colonel Loomis, elsewhere referred to, Mr. 59 Abraham Lincoln and the Men of his Time, Vol. II., pp. 427-428.

Lincoln was disinclined to retain him in the position which he held until he learned of the religious work he always had conducted among the men under his command; when he remarked that this was "his highest possible recommendation.”

According to the statement of Mrs. Rebecca Pomeroy, who was for fourteen weeks a nurse in the White House, the President frequently accompanied her upon her visitations to the hospitals, and would never permit her to pass over the religious exercises which formed part of her work, but always listened with close and constant attention while she pointed afflicted and suffering soldiers to Jesus Christ as the only one in whom they could find salvation, and from whom there could be administered to them consolation and comfort.

Mrs. Pomeroy in her very interesting and instructive record of the events of those weeks says that Mr. Lincoln, in a conversation with her at the White House, inquired with great diligence and minuteness concerning her methods of communicating to the soldiers the gospel message, and the evidence of their acceptance of the Saviour.

Mr. Lincoln accepted without qualification the doctrine of

PERSONAL REGENERATION.

The work of grace to which the Saviour referred when he said, "Ye must be born anew" (John 3:7), to which the Apostle referred when he said, "If any man is in Christ he is a new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17), that work which Mr. Lincoln designated as "a change of heart," was to his mind clearly taught by reason and Revelation. All that Mr. Lincoln is known to have said respecting his own religious experiences and standing bears witness to his settled conviction that personal regeneration is included in the work of saving grace and is indispensable to salvation. His carefully guarded expressions of uncertainty as to "the precise time" when he was the recipient of that gracious work of the Holy Spirit, and experienced "a change of heart," as he termed it, and his later

more definite declarations relative to the same matter give assurance of his recognition of the necessity for such an experience. His occasional reference to this matter indicates that he supposed his belief in the doctrine of regeneration was understood as a matter of course. This is confirmed by his statements which appear in later pages of this volume.

IV

LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER

N his statement before quoted Mr. Roosevelt employs a

IN

very unusual word when he says, "Lincoln studied the

Bible until he mastered it absolutely." It is not often that any one is credited with having "mastered" a great literary production, yet in a carefully prepared address upon an important occasion, when as chief magistrate of the nation he occupied a position which caused his words to have peculiar weight, Mr. Roosevelt declared that Lincoln had "mastered absolutely" the greatest book in existence.

Mr. Lincoln's methods of study were calculated to accomplish the result here claimed for him by the former President. He was always thorough in his examination of every subject that he deemed worthy of consideration. He carefully read, diligently studied and pondered over volumes which others hastily perused. Thus he became able to repeat verbatim extended passages from books and other publications upon which he had bestowed absorbing attention. By the same painstaking methods he studied the Bible and by so doing he came into that sublime and beautiful faith in prayer which for more than half a century has been the marvel of the world.

When Mr. Lincoln discovered a very skillfully constructed plot to secure by perjury a verdict against his client in the case he was conducting for Father Chiniquy, he said: "The only way to be sure of a favorable verdict tomorrow is that God Almighty will take our part and show your innocence. Go to Him and pray for He alone can save you." At three o'clock, the next morning, Mr. Lincoln came to Father Chiniquy's room, and finding him in agonizing and tearful prayer, merrily exclaimed: "Cheer up, their diabolical plot is all known and if