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 " Some great cause, God's new Messiah " 
 
 MESSIAH PULPIT 
 
 ^f9 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 (Being a continuation of l/m'fy Pulpit^ Boston) 
 
 SERMONS OF M. J. SAVAGE 
 
 Vol. IV. FEBRUARY i6, 1900. No. 18. 
 
 Some Lessons from the Life of 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 GEO. H. ELLIS 
 
 272 CONGKESS StRBBT, BoSTON 
 
 104 E. 20TH Strbet, Nrw York 
 
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 Entered at the Pott-ofiee, Botton, Mom., <u seeond^lau mail matter 
 
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 HYMNS. 
 
 By MINOT J. SAVAGE, D.D. Uniform 
 with his " Poems " and " Light on the 
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 104 East 2oth St., New York. 
 
 
SOME LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 I TAKE one text from the New Testament and two from 
 the writings of Lincohi himself. The first is from the 
 First Epistle of John, the fourth chapter and the seventh 
 verse, — "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of 
 God ; and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth 
 God." The second is from the second Inaugural Address, 
 delivered March 4, 1865, — "With malice toward none, 
 with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives 
 us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we 
 are in." The third is from a private letter to his friend 
 Speed, — ** Die when I may, I want it said of me by those 
 who know me best that . I always plucked a thistle and 
 planted a Hower where I thought a flower would grow." 
 
 Such curious creatures of tradition are we that it would 
 not surprise me if there were persons here this morning who 
 should question the propriety of my taking a text from 
 anything except some Biblical writing. As a matter of 
 fact, the use of texts by Christian preachers is compara- 
 tively a modern custom. In the next place I do not know 
 where any nobler words can be found in any Scripture, 
 written in any nation or in any age in the history of all the 
 world, than those which I have given you from Lincoln 
 himself. Should I take the name of some person mentioned 
 in the Bible as my subject, no one would question that it 
 was a sermon I was to preach, no matter how little might 
 be known of him, no matter though we knew a great deal 
 and that great deal were disreputable, — it would be a 
 sermon if the man's name happened to be mentioned in the 
 
Bible. But perhaps there are persons here who will wonder 
 whether it is not a lecture, or a secular address, because 
 Lincoln happened to live since the writing of the Bible was 
 completed. But, as I have said concerning the words, no 
 finer can be read in any Scripture, so I say concerning 
 Lincoln. Leaving one side the central character, the 
 Nazarene, there is no man mentioned in the Bible, from the 
 first verse of Genesis to the last of Revelation, who can be 
 regarded as Lincoln's superior, either for greatness or for 
 goodness. And, since God is ultimately the author of all 
 Scripture and the Creator of all grand characters, may we 
 not find a sermon in some one of his higher and finer, be- 
 cause later, creations ? Let us then put aside all question 
 or thought or criticism of this nature, and note some of the 
 salient and instructive incidents in his career and the feat- 
 ures of his character. 
 
 Since his death we have learned facts in regard to his 
 origin, the blood that flowed in his veins, with which he him- 
 self was not familiar. It is sometimes said that a man is the 
 product of inheritance and of environment. Undoubtedly, 
 in some large and general way this is true ; and yet we can- 
 not carry out an idea like this in any minute fashion. A 
 poet does not necessarily give birth to poets for children ; 
 and men born in the midst of poetical surroundings are not 
 always distinguished for the possession of poetic gifts. Yet, 
 in some large and general way, this is true. 
 
 What blood, then, flowed in the veins of Lincoln ? He 
 was English, and New England sifted through the South. 
 From a Norfolk family in England we trace the stream to 
 Salem, Hingham, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ken- 
 tucky, Illinois. Sometimes the stream ran faint and feeble. 
 Sometimes it was underground. Then, again, it came to 
 the light. Sometimes it was muddy. Sometimes it was 
 clear. But, at the last, it sprung up into a fountain of life 
 and health and healing for the nation. 
 
 You are familiar with the schooling of Lincoln's poverty 
 
5 
 
 during his childhood. 1 am no friend of poverty. If it be 
 true that the poor we have always with us, I accept it as a 
 fact, but count it a misfortune rather than a blessing. I have 
 been too well acquainted with it myself to have any love for 
 it. But we need to distinguish between the kind of poverty 
 which Lincoln endured and that which marks the slums of 
 our great cities, — that poverty which is close akin to deceit, 
 to theft, to vice, to beggary, to evil of every kind. Lincoln 
 knew nothing of poverty such as that. His was that healthy, 
 outdoor poverty of the frontier, which struggles grimly, 
 sometimes desperately, with adverse conditions, but which 
 has health, at least, for a possibility in the physical veins, 
 and does not carry with it the temptation to degrading vices, 
 does not carry with it any taint of sycophancy, beggary, and 
 degeneration of the moral nature. Lincoln was a poor boy, 
 who struggled against every kind of obstacle, and educated 
 himself only because he had in him a thirst for knowledge. 
 I wish to note, in passing, the kind of education which 
 Lincoln attained. Was he educated in the true sense of 
 that word ? That depends entirely upon what we mean by 
 it. If only college-bred men are educated, then, of course, 
 he was not. If only men who can read Latin or speak 
 French or German are educated, then of course, again, he 
 was not. If only men familiar with the great literary and 
 art treasures of the world are educated, then again, of 
 course, he was not. If men only are educated who have 
 been able to devote themselves to profound researches in 
 philosophy and science, then again, of course, he was not. 
 He was not educated in the sense of having been made a 
 receptacle into which facts were poured. A man may be 
 brimful, running over with facts and information of every 
 kind, and still be a fool. This does not constitute educa- 
 tion. A man is educated who is so trained in his percep- 
 tive faculties, in his analytical powers, so trained in all his 
 abilities of one kind and another, that, put him down in the 
 midst of difficult surroundings, he will be able to see where 
 
he is, able to understand what the occasion calls for, be able 
 to master his conditions instead of being overwhelmed by 
 them. The man who can master himself and master his 
 surroundings, wherever he may be, only give him a little 
 time, — he is an educated man. Arid the man who is the 
 victim of his conditions and surroundings, with no practical 
 ability or power, may know ever so much, but he is not 
 educated. 
 
 Lincoln was one of the most grandly educated men of 
 his generation ; and yet he was ignorant of the great ma- 
 jority of things that people foolishly suppose to be abso- 
 lutely essential to education. As an illustration, perhaps I 
 may be pardoned for telling an anecdote with which you 
 may be familiar, which illustrates the point I have been 
 trying to make. 
 
 It is said that a man was being sailed across a lake some- 
 where in the Old World by a boatman, and that this gentle- 
 man was a puffed-up and conceited scholar and literary 
 man. He fell into conversation with the boatman, and said 
 to him, " Have you ever studied philosophy ? " And when 
 the answer came, " No," he said, "Then a quarter of your 
 life is lost." Then he said, " Did you ever study science ? " 
 And the answer being the same, he replied, " Then another 
 quarter of it is lost.'' " Do you know anything about art? " 
 " No." "Well, then, another quarter of your life is gone." 
 Just then a squall struck the boat, and the boatman turned 
 and said, " Sir, can you swim ? " " No," came the answer. 
 " Well, then," the boatman replied. " the whole of your life 
 is lost." 
 
 The one thing of first importance is to be able to swim, 
 and that art and science Lincoln had grandly mastered. 
 
 Let us note in passing — I wish only that you give a 
 glimpse at it — how closely in touch he was with the com- 
 mon people, the common thought, the common life. He 
 was one of the common people ; and the circumstances of 
 his life made the grocery store of a Western village the 
 
centre of all political discussion, discussion of every kind 
 that concerned the life of the people, and Lincoln, as the 
 result of his natural powers and abilities, became the centre, 
 leader, master, of these discussions. This was where all 
 public questions were discussed and settled. Lincoln could 
 tell the best and most pointed story, and could analyze the 
 problems that came up, and help decide the great questions 
 of the day better than any man in the midst of the surround- 
 ing country where he lived. 
 
 Now I wish to note the kind of character that he devel- 
 oped ; and this seems native, to have sprung up as water 
 springs from some hidden source under ground whose ulti- 
 mate and far-away fountain is God. The honesty of his 
 character; the simple fact that he was called " Honest Abe," 
 singled him out as peculiarly and distinctly honest. He did 
 not borrow what honesty he had from his neighbors. We 
 know there were plenty of questionable and slippery char- 
 acters in the midst of those that made up his neighbor- 
 hood in his ordinary life ; but there was this integrity in the 
 man's character that made it utterly impossible for him to 
 be anything but honest. 
 
 You remember that one little incident, characteristic of 
 the man, just as a little chipping from a granite block will 
 let you see the quality of the whole quarry. He had been 
 postmaster at the little town of New Salem, — one of those 
 small towns that flourished for a while and then went out of 
 existence, — and, when the business of the office was wound 
 up, it being very difficult in those days to communicate with 
 Washington, Lincoln put away what was left of money that 
 belonged to the government until it could be called for. 
 Some years afterwards an agent of the post-office called for 
 a settlement of the accounts. Lincoln not only gave him 
 the accounts, but went to the bottom of a trunk and picked 
 out an old stocking, and out of that stocking took the ideri- 
 tical silver and copper coins which belonged to the govern- 
 ment when he wound up his affairs, and, turning them over 
 
to the agent, said, — what would make a revolution in the life 
 of this country if everybody could say, — " I never use any 
 money but my own."' 
 
 , I do not mean by this that a man has not a right to bor- 
 row money that is not his own ; for, if he borrows it legiti- 
 mately, it is his own for the time being. But, if the business 
 of this country could be conducted in that fashion, the millen- 
 nium that people dream of would be some millions of years 
 nearer to us than it appears, so far as we can discern any 
 signs of its coming. 
 
 Honest in his personal character, honest in his profes- 
 sional character. I am perfectly well aware that there are 
 any number of good lawyers who claim, and honestly claim, 
 that they have a perfect right to light to attain anything for 
 their clients that the law will permit them to attain, whether 
 it is morally permissible or not. They say we did not make 
 the laws. It is our business to help administer law in ac- 
 corciance with the statutes ; and, if we can gain a point for 
 our clients and gain it legally, it is honest and right for us to 
 do it. There are large numbers of honest men in the legal 
 profession who hold that theory of their position and work. 
 'J'here are others, however, who differ. I have a friend in a 
 prominent position in Washington who studied law when 
 he was a young man ; and, when his professor told him that 
 such things were permissible and practised commonly at the 
 bar, he said, " Well, I won't be a lawyer." And he studied 
 something else instead. 
 
 Lincoln's theory of law practice w^as different from this. 
 He carried his idea of honesty into his profession to such 
 an extent that the simple fact that he was ready to advocate 
 any particular side was always proof to the jury that that 
 side ought to win ; for they knew that Lincoln was keen, 
 that he could analyze, that he could discover the facts. 
 And they said. We know he wouldn't take a case that he 
 didn't believe was right. That was the way he practised 
 law. As an illustration of it, it is said that one day Hern- 
 
don, his law partner, in preparing a case, guessed at some- 
 thing, thought it might be true, and put it forward as one 
 plea. Lincoln looked over the brief, and he said, " Hern- 
 don, do you know if that is so ? " The answer was, " No," 
 that he had guessed at it. Then Lincoln said : " Herndon, 
 that comes pretty near being a sham ; and a sham comes 
 pretty near to being a lie. Don't let it go on the record. 
 If you do, some day this cursed thing may come up and 
 stare us in the face long after the case is settled." That is 
 the way he conducted his law cases. 
 
 There were two young men, children of an old friend of 
 his, whom another lawyer had led into sharp practices. 
 They were trying to win a dishonest case. Lincoln appeared 
 on the other side, and pleaded with the jury to convict them 
 for their own sake. He said. These boys are children of 
 an old friend of mine, and I want to save them if 1 can ; and 
 I plead with you to convict them, to deliver them from the 
 course of dishonesty on which they are entering, to help 
 teach them the lesson that it won't pay. 
 
 In another case a man came to him, and said, "■ Lincoln, I 
 wish you would prosecute this claim for me." Lincoln 
 looked it over ; and he said : " Yes, I think I could win it. 
 I could get these few hundred dollars from the widow with 
 her helpless children ; but I think it probably belongs to 
 her quite as much as to you. I could do it, but I won't ; 
 for there are some legal rights which are moral wrongs." 
 
 And, then, he did another thing which, I presume, would 
 astonish most New York clients. He tried a case : and his 
 law partner, Lamon it happened to be at that time, took a 
 fee of $250, which he offered to share with Lincoln. It was 
 a case for a poor young woman whose mind was weak, and 
 who could not look after her own interests ; and Lincoln said, 
 " Lamon, I won't touch any half of any fee until you send 
 half of that back : it is too large a fee for the services we 
 have rendered." This was the quality of the man. Do you 
 wonder that he came to be looked upon with universal and 
 
10 
 
 unlimited trust by the common people, as they learned to 
 know what manner of man he was ? 
 
 It is not my business this morning to give you his biog- 
 raphy, to tell you in detail the outlines of his career. I 
 wish to pick up certain lessons which we maj'' apply to our- 
 selves day by day. Note the tenderness, the tender heart- 
 edness, the 'humanity of the great, strong, heroic soul, — 
 tenderness that did not simply take in all mankind, but 
 everything that could feel, that led him even to forget the 
 dignity of his character and his actions if he could prevent 
 pain. As an illustration, he was riding with some other 
 lawyers on a certain occasion. They missed him from their 
 company ; and pretty soon he appeared, covered with mud 
 from head to feet, — as he might easily do, as any of you will 
 know who understand what those Western roads can be, — 
 and they found he had got off of his horse for the sake of un- 
 miring a pig which was sinking slowly down into suffocation. 
 If any of you can find a nobler thing than that done by any- 
 body anywhere, though it may not lend itself to heroic 
 verse, I would like to hear the tale. 
 
 He was so tender-hearted in his dealings with those who 
 had broken the laws of the land that, so far as I have been 
 able to study his career, I have found only one case where 
 he wilfully and purposely, and with apparent gladness, re- 
 fused to pardon. I do not mean by this that he pardoned 
 everybody ; but he wanted to. He refused once to pardon 
 a slave-trader. That is the onjy case I have ever discov- 
 ered. He had very little sympathy with a man who could 
 trade in his fellow-men. They used to find fault with him, 
 as I well remember, because he was so lenient with those 
 who were guilty of breaches of military discipline. He said 
 on a certain occasion, writing to a friend, " It rests me, 
 after a hard day's work, to hunt for and find some good 
 reason for pardoning a poor fellow who is condemned to be 
 shot ; and I can go to bed happy, thinking how joyous 
 I have made him and his family and his friends." This 
 
II 
 
 great, all-embracing tenderness, tender as he who, — when 
 hanging on the cross, — said, " Father, forgive them : they 
 know not what they do ! " 
 
 I wish to note, in passing, — though this is no necessary 
 part of my theme, — the greatness of Lincoln. And let me 
 say here, as springing out of that thought, that the nation is 
 blessed that has great men ; and these great men are not 
 always to be envied on account of the supposed happiness 
 which they enjoy. I believe it is rather true that the great- 
 est souls of the world have been burdened, sad, tragic 
 souls, — lonely, like some mountain summits, cold in their 
 isolation ; but, like mountain summits, they are the sources 
 of the streams that trickle down their sides to fertilize and 
 beautify the valleys and to bear up on their bosoms the com- 
 merce of the world. 
 
 It is sometimes said that we must imitate God. No, 
 friends, just in so far as God is pictured to us as being 
 unhuman, or super-human, unlike man, just so far is it im- 
 possible for us to imitate him. We can only imitate human 
 qualities ; and here is one objection that I have to the lifting 
 of Jesus out of the range of our human sympathies. It is 
 only as he was a man that we can tread in his steps, that 
 we can find in him inspiration and uplift towards noble and 
 grand things. 
 
 I have been asked a great many times, if evolution is true, 
 why it is that the great men, so many of them, were in the 
 past. Why do we not have the greatest men now, if the 
 world is growing and lifting and rising all the time ? If this 
 were the place, I could go into a wide and elaborate dis- 
 cussion of that subject. 1 can touch now on only one 
 thought concerning it. I think that the popular impression 
 that the great men are in the past springs out of an entire 
 misconception of the past, and our tendency always to ideal- 
 ize that which is a good ways off. For example, we talk 
 about Plato, Aristotle, the great philosophers of the olden 
 time. There is not a philosopher in all the past history of 
 
12 
 
 the world who, for grasp and breadth of mind, for informa- 
 tion, for analytical, for constructive power, can be placed 
 beside Herbert Spencer. Aristotle and Plato, as thinkers, 
 were not his equals. So it is not true that the great men 
 were all in the past. 
 
 This leads me to say of Lincoln that I do not know of 
 any man in the past history of the world that I believe will 
 be estimated in the future as being greater than he, — great 
 not only in these moral qualities, but great in intellectual 
 grasp and power. Those who have studied the inside his- 
 tory of the nation during the time that he was at the head of 
 affairs know that it was he more than everybody else that 
 saved the nation. It was one of the most fortunate things 
 that ever happened in this country that Seward, for example, 
 had made himself so unpopular in Pennsylvania that the 
 political managers felt he could not carry that State in the 
 election, and so did not dare to nominate him. This was 
 the turning-point in the history of Lincoln. This country 
 would have been ruined in a year if any one other than Lin- 
 coln had been in his place. He mastered the strategies of 
 the battlefield as well as did the soldiers ; and he had the 
 instinct for selecting the best men and putting them in the 
 right place and keeping them there. People say Grant 
 saved the nation; but Lincoln saved Grant. Grant would 
 have been turned out of his position over and over again 
 but for Lincoln. He said, " I can't spare that man : he 
 fights." And you remember the familiar story of how, when 
 they told him of Grant's drinking, Lincoln replied, " I wish 
 I could find the kind of liquor he drinks, so that I could 
 give it to my other generals." 
 
 It was Lincoln, then, Lincoln's intellectual power as well 
 as his moral power, that saved the nation in our great 
 crisis. 
 
 I want to touch for a moment on that other qualit}' of 
 Lincoln's character that is always associated with him in 
 our memory, his keen sense of humor. This is not the 
 
13 
 
 place nor is this the hour for me to give you illustrations 
 of it. I simply note it as being one of the great and most 
 important, as I believe, constituents in his character. In 
 the first place, it is a saving quality in any man. The man 
 who can smile at his own discomforts, at disasters that come 
 to himself, is safe. The man who can relieve the great ten- 
 sion of bearing public burdens is safe. Lincoln used to 
 speak of this, or his friends used to speak of it for him, as 
 his safety-valve ; and, when some found fault with him for 
 indulging in it on what seemed unfitting occasions, he said 
 wearily, " If I could not laugh, I should die." Lincoln's 
 humor, his laughter, his mirth, was only the spray on the 
 crest of white caps that rolled over the fathomless deeps 
 where were caverns and mysteries that reached down to the 
 heart of the world. Lincoln was blessed by this power of 
 humor, which helped him bear himself bravely and find 
 relief in the midst of the great stress and burden of his 
 public affairs. 
 
 A personal friend of mine tells nie of meeting him one 
 night, or rather morning, in the grounds of the White 
 House. He told the story so graphically that, if I could re- 
 produce it, you would see him as I did and as my friend saw 
 him. It seemed to be typical of his character. This friend 
 was spending the night in Washington, and it was very 
 warm in the summer ; and he got up, being not far away from 
 the White House, and thought he would stroll through the 
 grounds. It was between two and three o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. He was walking leisurely along one of the paths when 
 he saw a strange figure coming. He stopped a moment, and 
 knew it was the I'resident. He had on a dressing-gown 
 and indoor cap and his slippers, and was walking wearily 
 along, his head bowed. My friend stood one side, and 
 watched that marred face ; watched that patient head, as 
 though of an Atlas supporting a world; watched him in the 
 darkness pacing up and down like a shepherd while his 
 people slept, thinking about some great, perplexing problem 
 
14 
 
 of peace or war, with head bowed, until he said the agony 
 of his look was burned into his consciousness so that he 
 should never be able to forget it as long as he lived. So he 
 bore our burdens, carried our sorrows, for our sakes was 
 smitten ; and with his stripes we have been healed. 
 
 I come now to touch on his religious character, to raise 
 first the question as to whether he had a religious charac- 
 ter ; for, friends, I propose to do this morning a thing I do 
 not often do. It would help clear the air if people would 
 rise and open their eyes and face facts a little now and 
 then. Was Lincoln a religious man ? If we are to judge 
 by the standards asserted and reasserted every day in the 
 year by the Vatican, judged from the point of view of the 
 great Roman Catholic Church, Lincoln was not a Christian 
 or a religious man ; and to-day he is tasting the cup of tor- 
 ment pressed to the lips of the lost. If the teaching of the 
 infallible Church is true, Lincoln has never been saved and 
 never can be saved. Judged by the standards of the An- 
 glican Church and the Episcopal Church of this country, 
 Lincoln is lost ; and there is no hope for him in any period 
 of the future. Measured by the standards of the Presbyte- 
 rian Confession of Faith, which is being published still 
 all over Europe and America, Lincoln is lost. He never 
 complied with one single condition of the Presbyterian 
 Church for being saved. Judged by the standards of the 
 great Methodist churches of England and America, Lincoln 
 is lost. Judged by the standards of the great Baptist 
 churches of Europe and America, Lincoln is lost. Judged 
 by the standards of the Congregational churches as affirmed 
 in their great National Council at Plymouth Rock a few 
 years ago, Lincoln is lost. 
 
 I say it will do us good now and then to think a little 
 straight and clear. If to say this shocks you, I am not 
 responsible. I did not make the creeds. I am simply tell- 
 ing you what they are. If it seems to you incredible, 
 unbelievable, too horrible to be true, to think that the great, 
 
15 
 
 gentle, magnanimous, loving, tender, helpful man, he who 
 next, perhaps, to Jesus himself, is entitled to be called a 
 Saviour, — if it seems too horrible for you to think of him as 
 being lost, then do not any longer support the creeds that 
 say so. Be honest and clear-headed enough to say on the 
 street what you think in the privacy of your souls. 
 
 What was Lincoln's religious opinion and character } 
 
 When he was a young man, he wrote a book which would 
 have been called an infidel publication, which would be now 
 if it were in existence. His friends got hold of it, and de- 
 stroyed it, because they were afraid that it would ruin his 
 political future. Undoubtedly it would have done it. Let me 
 say, in passing, there is not an office in the gift of the American 
 people that might not have been in the reach of Colonel Rob- 
 ert G. Ingersoll if he had been dishonest enough to conceal 
 his opinions. If Lincoln's opinions had been known when 
 he was a young man, they would have ruined his political 
 future. Undoubtedl)', he changed those opinions, and ap- 
 proached more nearly to common religious views as he grew 
 older. I will read you an extract from Carpenter's " Six 
 INIonths at the White House " : — 
 
 " The conversation turned upon religious subjects, and 
 INIr. Lincoln made this impressive remark : ' I have never 
 united myself to any church, because I have found difficulty 
 in giving my assent, without mental reservation, to the long, 
 complicated statements of Christian doctrine which charac- 
 terize their Articles of Belief and Confessions of Faith. 
 When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole 
 qualification for membership, the Saviour's condensed 
 statement of the substance of both law and gospel, " Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
 thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thy- 
 self," that church will I join with all my heart and all my 
 soul.' " 
 
 Perhaps some of you, although you are Unitarians, do not 
 know that that is precisely the basis of organization of the 
 
i6 
 
 National Conference of Unitarian Churches. If Lincoln 
 were alive now, that statement would make him one of our 
 own people; for that is the platform on which we stand — 
 love to God and love to man, as the essence of all true 
 religion, the essence of the religion which Jesus preached 
 and illustrated by his life. I do not mean to claim that, if 
 Lincoln had lived, he would have ever joined a Unitarian 
 church. But I do claim that his real place would have been 
 either with the Universalists or with ourselves. 
 
 Lincoln, then, if we are to measure him by the standard 
 of goodness, of devotion to his fellow-men, of consecration 
 to high ideals, of endeavoring to find and follow the law and 
 life of God, — then he was most magnificently religious. Let 
 me repeat here, because it is needed to complete my thought, 
 although I know it is trite, that saying of his concerning 
 getting on to the side of God. When some one asked him 
 why he felt confident that God was on our side, he said, 
 That is a thing I never trouble myself about one way or 
 another : the one thing I am anxious about is to find out 
 where God is, and get on his side. He did not expect to 
 change God ; and he tried to find where God was and get 
 beside him. If that makes a man religious, then there is 
 no man in the history of the world more grandly religious 
 than he. 
 
 In unselfishness and magnanimity of character, as illus- 
 trated in his public attitude and in his dealings with Stanton 
 and Chase, I know of no one with whom to compare him 
 except only the one great soul of Palestine. 
 
 One other point at the close. There have been a dozen 
 or twenty theories of the Atonement held since the begin- 
 ning of speculation. It is too long a story ev^en to hint this 
 morning ; but there is a true and profound sense in which 
 the men who have lived grandly and died heroically for 
 truth have atoned. I do not believe — or I should not be 
 in this church — that anyone's atonement means a substi- 
 tution of suft'ering or goodness for me. I do not believe it 
 
17 
 
 means an appeasing of God's anger or any change in the 
 nature or attitude of God towards any of his children. But 
 I do beUeve that every man who has been true, every man 
 who has been honest, outspoken, frank, every man who has 
 been faithful to his convictions, every man who has paid the 
 price by unpopularity or pain, any man who has stood firm 
 while fagots have kindled about his feet, any man who for 
 an idea has laid his head on a block, any man who has felt 
 the stifling clutch at his throat for truth, any man who has 
 given himself for God and his fellow-men, — has helped work 
 out the agelong atonement which brings men into perfect 
 reconciliation with God. 
 
 So I believe that Lincoln, as I have already said, was 
 bruised for our transgressions. I believe his stripes have 
 helped heal us. His faithfulness, his sorrow, the pangs that 
 he suffered, all these have helped work out the peace, the 
 prosperity, the glory of our great nation. 
 
 And if we love Lincoln, if we honor him, if we are worthy 
 of belonging to the same race not simply, but the same country, 
 let us try in our spheres to be a little faithful, as he was 
 much ; to be a little true, as he was much ; to be a little pa- 
 tient, as he was much ; to be a little honest, as he was much ; 
 to be a little devoted to the political welfare and uplifting of 
 the people, as he was always devoted. And then we shall 
 not only help him save the country ; but by and by we may 
 perhaps stand beside him and overlook the work that has 
 been accomplished here, and feel that we are worthy to 
 join in congratulating him on what he accomplished and 
 what we helped to bring to fuller fruition. 
 
 I wish to close by reading you two or three lines from 
 Lowell's " Commemoration Ode," the finest tribute, I think 
 that has ever been paid to this greatest of men : — 
 
 Nature, they say, doth dote, 
 And cannot make a man 
 Save on some worn-out plan, 
 Repeating us by rote : 
 
i8 
 
 For him her Old World moulds aside she threw, 
 
 And, choosing sweet clay from the breast 
 Of the unexhausted West, 
 With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, 
 Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. 
 
 How beautiful to see 
 Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed. 
 Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead ; 
 One whose meek flock the people joyed to be. 
 
 Not lured by any cheat of birth. 
 
 But by his clear-grained human worth. 
 And brave old wisdom of sincerity! 
 
 They knew that outward grace is dust ; 
 
 They could not choose but trust 
 In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill, 
 
 And supple-tempered will 
 That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust. 
 
 His was no lonely mountain-peak of mind, 
 
 Thrasting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars, 
 
 A sea-mark now, now lost in vapors blind ; 
 
 Broad prairie rather, genial, level lined. 
 
 Fruitful and friendly for all human kind, 
 Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars. 
 
 Nothing of Europe here. 
 Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still. 
 
 Ere any names of Serf and Peer 
 Could Nature's equal scheme deface 
 
 And thwart her genial will ; 
 Here was a type of the true elder race. 
 And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face. 
 
 I praise him not ; it were too late ; 
 And some innative weakness there must be 
 In him who condescends to victory 
 Such as the Present gives, and cannot wait, 
 Safe in himself as in a fate. 
 
 So always firmly he : 
 
 He knew to bide his time, 
 
 And can his fame abide. 
 Still patient in his simple faith sublime, 
 
 Till the wise years decide. 
 Great captains, with their guns and drums. 
 Disturb our judgment for the hour, 
 
 But at last silence comes ; 
 
19 
 
 These all are gone, and, standing like a tower. 
 Our children shall behold his fame, 
 
 The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man. 
 Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame. 
 New birth of our new soil, the first American. 
 
 Father, we thank Thee for him, Thy great, noble son. We 
 thank Thee that we are fellow-countrymen of his, that the 
 same blood beats in our veins, the same aspirations lift up 
 our hearts, the same great future awaits us and our children. 
 May we be worthy of him ; and may we, in gratitude to Thee 
 for giving him to us, try to live as he lived, and help our 
 country as he helped it. Amen. 
 
Life Beyond Death 
 
 Being a Review of the World's Beliefs on the Subject, a Con- 
 sideration of Present Conditions of Tltought and Feeling, 
 leading to the Question as to whether it can be demon- 
 strated as a Fact. 
 
 To which is added an Appendix containing Some Hints as to 
 Personal Experiences and Opiniotts. 
 
 By MINOT J. SAVAGE, D.D. 
 
 8°, cloth, 342 pages ^1.50 
 
 After a review of the beliefs held in the past concerning life 
 beyond death, Dr. Savage takes up the present conditions of be- 
 lief, and considers the agnostic reaction from the extreme " other- 
 worldliness " which it replaced, which was in turn followed by 
 the spiritualistic reaction against agnosticism. He points out 
 the doubts concerning the doctrine of immortality held by the 
 churches and the weakness of the traditional creeds and the 
 loosening of their hold upon people. He then considers the prob- 
 abilities of a future life, — probabilities which, as he admits, fall 
 short of demonstration. The volume includes a consideration of 
 the work of the vSociety for Psychical Research and also an 
 appendix giving some of the author's own personal experiences 
 in this line. Dr. Savage holds, as a provisional hypothesis, that 
 continued existence is demonstrated, and that there have been at 
 least some well-authenticated communications from persons in 
 the other life. The chief contents of the volume are as follows: 
 
 Contents: Primitive Ideas — Ethnic Beliefs — The Old Testament 
 and Immortality — Paul's Doctrine of Death and the Other Life — 
 Jesus and Immortality — The Other World and the Middle Ages — 
 Protestant Belief concerning Death and the Life Beyond — The Agnos- 
 tic Reaction — The Spiritualistic Reaction — The Worid's Condition 
 and Needs as to Belief in Immortality — Probabilities which fall Short 
 of Demonstration — The Society for Psychical Research and the Im- 
 mortal Life — Possible Conditions of Another Life — Some Hints as to 
 Personal E.xperiences and Opinions. 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons, 27 & 29 West 23d St., N.Y. 
 
 LbMylS