The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1889-09-05
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From the ecclesiastical point of view
Abraham Lincoln was no more of
religious man than George Washing
ton was. The one had a spiritual
training in the log cabin and in the
rough practical life of the early West;
the other grew up under the high bred
culture of the colonial churchmen of
Virginia. Neither of the men was a
commnicaut in any religious organiza-
ton. Each was called to administer
public affairs in trying positions and
under circumstances of the greatest
gravity, and each bias furnished us
with type Of religious character of a
high order. Washington was natu-
rally serious man, conscientious and
faithful to his obligations, and yet so
reserved in the expression of his own
feelings that he never communicated
his religious convictions TO others.
Lincoln had this same gravity, with a
Equick sense of humor that admirably
complemented it; and it was not until
he was forced into the breach that he
showed the spiritual side of his life.
He was as reticent as Washington. but
in his various public ut5erances you
man in whose mind spiT-
itual realities strongly marked and
controlled his views of practical life,
and who rose as a statesman to that
high point of calm waiting upon the
event in which he felt that Gods pur-
pose NAV be something different from
the purpose of party, and that the
event would surely show what Gods
purpose was. A mans religious
belief when put under this pressure
has no nonsense in it. and it is evident
from the fragmentary utterances OF
Lincoln, in which he brought his per-
fectiy honest soul face to face with his
maker. no man among US ever more
truly endeavored To conform
the ruling of men and the
guiding of affairs, so far as q
the will of God. He rises, in the dis
closures which the Century biography
gives us, to higher spiritual plane
than any American statesman after
Washington has reached. When you
come nearest to the man himself. to
| the very inmost core of him. there is
| nothing rotten or unsound: he is man
| ~ through and through. and his manIi-
| ness has the fear of God in it. In MIR.
Lodges studies of Washington, and in
| the present Lincoln biography, theSe
| two statesman are approached on the
side of character There is little APP
peal to our vanity about them; they
stand in their majesty as men, ana
have the truth told about them. 1t S
this revelation of. their truthfulnees
and sincerity to the very core which
makes the test of fuller knowledge COP
corning them simply foil for present
inc their individual character in a still
strrnger light: and it is seen in these
larger revelations that what may be
broadly called religious purpose en-
tered into and profoundly affected there
lives. There is something in the recent
disclosures concerning both that draws
us unconsciously nearer to them and
| Invests their lives with fresh meaning;
and it is believed that in both instan-
ces the broader and higher interest is
due to their avOwed purpose. the viii
of God, so far as in the handling of pub
lie affairs they could ascertain what that
will was. 1t is in this light that both
of these statesmen are now regarded
by the American people with fresh in
fernSt