Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-04
LINCOLN's RELIGIOUS LIFE.
His Former Private Secretary Tells o
His Abiding Faith in God.

His Former Private Secretary Tells of
His Abiding Faith in God.
At the weekly meeting OF the Baptist
ministers Monday. says the New York
World, Mr.. W. o. Stoddard, formerly the
private secretary Of Abraham Lincoln,
delivered the following address on the re-
Iigious life of the famous President:
about seventy-fve years ago, in a mis-
cradle little cabin built of logs, with a
floor of mud, in the wilds of Hardin county,
KY, there was born of poor white parents.
illiterate, ignorant to the last degree. de-
graded, worthless, goddess, an infant boy
OF father who to his dying day could not
earn living on the best farm that could
be given him and Of a mother who disap-
pears from history so early that we have
little means of knowing who she was or
what she was, and only know that to the
present day her grave is unmarked. From
that cabin to another cabin like it, and
from that place, at the age of nine, after
picking up, nobody knows how, reading
and writing, his father moved to the Ter
rltOry (ltwas then Of Indiana, and from
that they were raised to the dignity Of a
new log cabin. There was no glass i'm the
windows, neither floor nor bed nor chair.
/ and for miles around there We're no other
settlers, and up to full manhood in that
community he obtained. all told. includ-
ing his Kentucky schooling, twelve months
OF tuition. His first writing was upon a
single or on the back Of a wooden shovel.
and his first associations We're with this
rude backwOOds community. Two years
after he got there his father brought a
stepmOther into the cabin, the only mother
he ever knew. 1t was winter time, but
/ barefOOted in the snow he went to meet
- I n
kempt, unWashed, of whom years after
wards she said, The first thing | under
I took was to make him look a little like
human, and that was when he was eleven
wears old. Into that cabin the stepmOther
brought Bible, and it is of record it was
the only book there, and of course he be-
came familiar with it; and into that cabin
there came little while later a preacher.
and the only preacher that came there for
years. 1t was preacher who had died
in England long before, but who had
preched to every one of US, and his name
is Bunyan, and it is of record that the
! boys mind received every line of that pill
grimage.
His father moved to Illinois and built
/ another log cabin, and he took another
/ trip down the river, and ON his return
/ settled at New Salem, where at that time
there was neither law nor order: a town
where there was neither house nor store
that cost over 500. There was mill
there, with dam typical of the prevail
ing conversation in the community. Pass
ing through such a school, studying such
books as he could find, at the age Of twen-
ty-lour he obtained a copy OF the works
OF Nolney and Tom Paine, and their in
huence was such that he must needs write
a book to prove that the Bible was not the
word of God and that Jesus was not the
ma int TO
friends, and there was among them one
VINO had strong convictions, and ne took
the manuscript from the readers hand
and threw it in the fire.
There was another preacher came to
him and he was betrOthed. He gave his
whole life to her and she died. The teacher
had come and another process in his spir-
Itual development had arrived. His brain
gave way. He who could lift 100 pounds
lightweight and could shake the cham
pl0n wrestler of Illinois became insane
for weeks.'
Mr.. StOddard continuing told how, when
Mr.. LincOln's Observation-Disclosures ran
away with the funds and left him with
the debts, he worked hard and religiOusly
to pay every dollar. "The first work he
ever wTOte,' said Mr.. Stoddard, ''was on
cruelty to animals, the second was on
evils Of intemperance, and the third on
the necessity for popular education, and
although he was a member of a commu-
nifty degraded, reeking with impurity, l
never heard a word uttered against his
personal purity"
Theremaindero Of Mr.. Stoddard's address
was confined to a retrospect of Mr.. Lin
coins political career, showing by eX-
tracts from his public speeches and dOcu-
ments that his nature was thoroughly
imbued with spirituality, and that his
trust in all emergencies was in the Lord.