at a
suitable opportunity, to make a public religious profession."

WITH THE HELP OF GOD.

Mr. Lincoln once remarked to Mr. Noah Brooks, one of his most intimate
personal friends: "I should be the most presumptuous blockhead upon this
footstool if I for one day thought that I could discharge the duties
which have come upon me, since I came to this place, without the aid and
enlightenment of One who is stronger and wiser than all others."

He said on another occasion: "I am very sure that if I do not go away
from here a wiser man, I shall go away a better man, from having learned
here what a very poor sort of a man I am."

TURNED TEARS TO SMILES.

One night Schuyler Colfax left all other business to go to the White
House to ask the President to respite the son of a constituent, who was
sentenced to be shot, at Davenport, for desertion. Mr. Lincoln heard the
story with his usual patience, though he was wearied out with incessant
calls, and anxious for rest, and then replied:

"Some of our generals complain that I impair discipline and
subordination in the army by my pardons and respites, but it makes me
rested, after a hard day's work, if I can find some good excuse for
saving a man's life, and I go to bed happy as I think how joyous the
signing of my name will make him and his family and his friends."

And with a happy smile beaming over that care-furrowed face, he signed
that name that saved that life.

LINCOLN'S LAST WRITTEN WORDS.

As the President and Mrs. Lincoln were leaving the White House, a
few minutes before eight o'clock, on the evening of April 14th, 1865,
Lincoln wrote this note:

"Allow Mr. Ashmun and friend to come to see me at 9 o'clock a. m.,
to-morrow, April 15th, 1865."

WOMEN PLEAD FOR PARDONS.

One day during the War an attractively and handsomely dressed woman
called on President Lincoln to procure the release from prison of a
relation in whom she professed the deepest interest.

She was a good talker, and her winning ways seemed to make a deep
impression on the President. After listening to her story, he wrote a
few words on a card: "This woman, dear Stanton, is a little smarter than
she looks to be," enclosed it in an envelope and directed her to take it
to the Secretary of War.

On the same day another woman called, more humble in appearance, more
plainly clad. It was the old story.

Father and son both in the army, the former in prison. Could not the
l