Page:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, v1.djvu/233

Rh animate objects. As he grew to manhood, his practical mind discarded all conventional matters appertaining to religion, and boldly took issue with every artificial barrier, mediator, or approach which lay between his Maker and man. Whether he kept his protest within the strict realms of ideal propriety it is needless to inquire; what the great martyr believed in the years of his adolescence can have none but speculative interest. The theories of the untutored mind are prone to fallacies, alike in sacred and secular things. What he believed as the result of maturity of intellect, inquiry, suffering, and experience is all that is valuable as example.

While all men are agents of the Deity to enforce His will, Mr. Lincoln was the especial nuncio and vicegerent of the Deity to execute a supernatural mission. So Mr. Lincoln believed, and he humbly and reverently accepted the mission, and performed it with zeal and fidelity.

Logically and inevitably, therefore, he believed in God; in His superintending Providence; in His intervention in mundane affairs for the weal of the race. To Him he made report; from Him he took counsel; at His hands he implored current aid; he ascribed glory and thanks to Him; he recognized Him as the Supreme Good. God came to him monitorially; with succor; with good cheer; with victory. He confounded the counsels of his accusers; He made the wrath of his enemies to minister to his good; His direct intervention the President experienced in many ways. Lincoln acknowledged all with a grateful heart; he ordered national thanksgivings and praises on every suitable occasion; and for some reason, clear to Omniscience but inscrutable to