Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-09-20
Lincoln'S Religion.
Boston Herald.

From the ecclesiastical point of view Alb
| raham Lincoln was no more of a religious
man than George Washington 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 church
men of Virginia. Neither of the men was
| a communicate in any religious organic
! alton. Each was called to administer pub
| lie affairs in trying positions and under
| circumstances of the greatest gravity, and
| each has furnished us with a type of re-
| ligious character of a high order. Wash
| ington was naturally a serious man, con-
| scientious and faithful to his obligations.
| and vet so reserved in the expression of his
| own feelings that he never communicated
| his religious convictions to others. Lin
| coin had this same gravity. with a quick
| sense of humor that admirably compile
| mented it, and it was not until he was
| forced into the breach that he showed the
| spiritual side of his life He was as ret
icent as Washington. but in his various
| public utteranceS you trace the convictions
| of man in whose mind spiritual realities
strongly marked and controlled his views
| of practical life, and who rose as Il states
| man to that high point Of calm waiting
upon the event in which he felt that Gods
purpose may be something different from
the purpose of party, and that the event
would surely show what God purpose was.
A man 5 religious belief when put under
this pressure has no nOnSence IN 1t: and 1t
Is evident from the fragmentary utterances
of Lincoln in which he brought his per
fectlv honest soul face to face with his
| maker. that no man among us ever more
truly endeavored to conform the ruling of
no III Of off. for
single human will can effect them. to the
will of God. He rises, i'll the disclosures
which the Century biography gives us. to d
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
manly through and through. and his man
illness has the fear of God in it. In Mr.
Lodge studies of Washington. and in the
present Lincoln biography. these two
statesmen are approached on the side of
character. There is little appeal to our
vanity about them: they stand in their
majesty as men, and have the truth told
about them. 1t Is this revelation of their
truthfulnesS and sincerity to the very core
which makes that test of fuller knowledge
concerning them SIMPLY foil for present.
ing their individual character IN still
stronger light; and it is seen in these
larger revelations that what may be broad
ly called religious purpose entered into
and profoundly affected their lives. There
is something in the recent disclosures con-
eerning both that draws us uneonsciously
nearer to them and invests their lives with
fresh meaning: and it Is believed that in
both instances this broader and higher in
terest is due to their avowed purpose to
follow the will of God; so far as in the
handling of public affairs they could ascer-
tain what that will was 1t Is in this light
that both of these statesmen are now re-
garded by the American people with fresh
interest.