a man professing the religion of Jesus Christ, and especially a man who taught the religion of Jesus Christ, should be opposed to him. He felt that every religious man-every man who believed in God, in the principles of everlasting justice, in truth and righteousness-should be opposed to slavery, and should support and assist him in the struggle against inhumanity and oppression which he felt to be imminent. It was to him a great mystery how those who preached the gospel to the poor, and who, by their divine Master, were sent to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and to set at liberty those that were bruised, could be his opponents, and enemies." 77

Nor was Mr. Lincoln's agitation at the Bateman interview when he learned that the recognized representatives of the church were against him, caused by any feelings of wounded personal pride, but by the disappointment of his confident expectations respecting the fidelity of Christian people to their sacred trust. So exalted were his conceptions of the character and mission of the church that when he found it in what he regarded as manifest apostasy, his heart was sorely troubled. He loved the church as God's agency in the world to safeguard human rights and to promote human welfare, and his soul cried out in anguish in view of its unfaithfulness.

To this was added his painful apprehension that the proslavery attitude of pastors and their people would bring upon the nation the swift and severe judgments of the Almighty. It was this apprehension which wrung from his aching heart the prophetic exclamation, "Now the cup of iniquity is full and the vials of wrath will be poured out."

That conditions in the church at that crisis period were such as to cause Mr. Lincoln bitter disappointment and grief, must be to every follower of Christ an occasion for humiliation and regret. And in the scenes connected with the Bateman interview, and in the absence of Mr. Lincoln's name from the enrollment of the members of the church, is a very 77 Life of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 235-236.

solemn admonition to the church ever and boldly to maintain its divinely appointed attitude to the cause of righteousness among the children of men. How many Christian people of great worth have been kept out of the church by the unfaithfulness of God's people to questions and movements of moral and civic reform!

However, after the first assault upon the flag at Fort Sumter there was no longer occasion for humiliation on account of the condition and attitude of the church in the loyal states. Treason unmasked slavery and revealed it in its true character, and the antislavery membership of the churches in the North at once rose to dominance, and pro-slavery influences disappeared. Enthusiastic religious patriotism characterized all the services of the church, and from pulpit and pew brave Christian men promptly responded to the call for troops.

Slavery and rebellion at once became identical in public thought and the church responded magnificently to the requirements of the occasion. Many times during his administration President Lincoln expressed his appreciation of the church and his gratification at the services it rendered the govern

ment.

The convictions, however, expressed by Mr. Lincoln to Dr. Bateman concerning the rightful attitude of Christianity and of Christian people to questions of practical morality and righteousness were never by him either retracted or in the least degree modified. On May 30th, 1864, in a letter to Senator James R. Doolittle and others, Mr. Lincoln expressed himself upon this subject with great frankness and force. And in his opinion one of the most objectionable features of the rebellion was the claim that it was prompted by Christian motives.

On the 3rd of December, 1864, in an interview with two Southern women, he spoke with unusual severity upon this subject, and so desirous was he that his views, as then expressed, should be widely known that with his own hand he carefully prepared an account of the incident which he read

to Noah Brooks, who, at the President's request, secured its publication in the Washington Chronicle precisely as it was written by Mr. Lincoln. It was entitled, "The President's Latest, Shortest and Best Speech," and was as follows:

"On Thursday of last week, two ladies from Tennessee came before the President, asking the release of their husbands held as prisoners of war at Johnson's Island. They were put off until Friday, when they came again, and were again put off until Saturday. At each of the interviews one of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious man, and on Saturday the President ordered the release of the prisoners, when he said to this lady: 'You say your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him, that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their government, because, as they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven.' " 78

In his account of this affair Mr. Brooks says: "Mr. Lincoln showed a surprising amount of gratification over this trifle and set his signature at the bottom of the page of the manuscript at my suggestion, in order to authenticate the autograph.” 79

The account of the affair as written and signed by Mr. Lincoln was reproduced in exact facsimile in the above-mentioned magazine, which removes all possible doubt of its authenticity.

The claim that slavery and the Rebellion were sanctioned by the Christian religion was referred to by President Lincoln in his second Inaugural Address with that delicate charity which pervaded that sublime production, and yet in terms which make it impossible to doubt his severe displeasure at the reproach upon Christianity implied in that claim. The

78 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., pp. 279-280. 79 Scribner's Magazine, February, 1878, p. 566.

ardent affection which Mr. Lincoln had ever cherished for the church was greatly intensified and strengthened by the loyal Christian patriotism which during the war pervaded the church, and of the religious heroism displayed by church people at the front and in all loyal states.

INTENDED TO UNITE WITH THE CHURCH

And during the latter part of "his weary and chastened life," he repeatedly expressed his purpose, "at the first suitable opportunity, to make a profession of religion,” by uniting with the church. The assassin's bullet, however, intervened and that purpose was not carried out, but, although his name was never entered upon any roll of membership of the visible church on earth, who can doubt that his name was recorded in "the Lamb's Book of Life"?