The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-02
LINCoLN's RELIGIOUS LIFE.
A Man Who Lived Clean Life When Sur
rounded by Moral Filth.
Address Of ". o. stoddard, in New York.

Address OF W. q. St0ddard, IN New Ork.
about seventy five years ago in miserable
little cabin built of logs, with floor of mud, in
the wilds of Hardin county, Ky, there was born
of poor white parents, lliterate, ignorant to the
last degree, degraded, worthless, goddess, an in
FAINT BOY of father who, to his dying day, could
not earn living on the best farm that could be
given him. and of mother who disappears 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 un-
marked. 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 Territory lit was
them of Indiana, and from chat they were raised
to the dignity of a new log cabin. There was no
glass in the windows, neither floor nor bed, nor
chair, and for miles around there were no other
settlers and up to full manhood in that com
munity he obtained, all told including his Ken
lucky schooling, twelve months OF tuition HIS
first writing was upon single or on the back
of wooden shovel, and his first associations
were with this rude backwoods community. Two
years after he got there his father brought a
step mother into the cabin, the only mother he
ever knew. 1t was winter time, out oaret0oted
in the snow he went to meet her-thiS boy that
L am talking of-unkempt unwaShed of whom,
years afterward, she said, THE first thing un-
dertook was to make him look little like hui
man. and that was when he was eleven years
old Into that cabin the step-mother brought
Bible, and it is of record that it was the only
book there, and of course he became familiar
with it, and into that cabin there came little
while later preacher, and the only preacher
that came there for years. 1t was preacher
who had died in England long before, but who
had preached to every one of us, and his name
is Bunyan, and it is on record that the boys
mind received every line of that pilgrimage.
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; town where there was neither house nor
ctn hat There a there
with a dam typical of the prevailing conversation
in the community. Passing through such
school, studying such books as he could find, at
the age of twenty four he obtained a CODY of the
works of Volney and Tom Paine, and their intiu-
ence was such that he must needs write bookto
prove that the Bible was not the word of God
and that Jesus was not the Christ He read the
manuscript to some friends, and there was among
them one who had strong convictions, and he
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 spiritual development had arrived.
His brain gave way He who could lift l, 100
pounds dead weight and could shake the cham
pion wrestler Of Illinois became insane for
weeks"
Mr.. Stoddard, continuing told how when Mr..
Lncoln's partner in business ran away with the
funds and left him with the debts, he worked
hard and relgiously to pay every dollar. THE
first work he ever wrote" said Mr.. Stoddard,
twas on cruelty to animals, the second was on
evils of intemperance, and the third on the ne
cessity for popular education; and although he
was member of a community degraded, reek-
ing with impurity, / never heard a word uttered
against his personal purity"
The remainder of Mr. Stoddard's address was
confined to a retrospect of Mr.. Lincoln's political
career, showing by extracts from his public
speeches and documents that his nature was
thoroughly imbued with spirituality, and that
his trust in all emergencies was in the Lord.