, New Jersey, had for his guest
Chief Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford of the Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia. Judge Stafford addressed the Men's Club of Dr.
Allen's church one evening, and next day, in company with his host,
visited the Lincoln statue on the court-house plaza. On the train that
bore him back to Washington that day, Judge Stafford wrote the poem on
the Statue. (See page 236).

A few weeks thereafter Dr. Allen visited his friend, the judge, in
Washington, and they made a little pilgrimage to the New York Avenue
Presbyterian church. In the Lincoln pew Dr. Allen sat and meditated,
and on his way back he wrote the verses.

"I had seen the Lincoln statue many times," says Dr. Allen, "but,
somehow, I could not get started on the poem I knew could be written
around it." And Judge Stafford wrote to his friend in Newark: "I had
seen the Lincoln pew a score of times without poetic result, yet you
come on a one-day visit and carry away the inspiration needed."

LINCOLN'S CHURCH IN WASHINGTON

Within the historic church both eye and soul
Perceived it. 'Twas the pew where Lincoln sat--
The only Lincoln God hath given to men--
Olden among the modern seats of prayer,
Dark like the 'sixties, place and past akin.
All else has changed, but this remains the same,
A sanctuary in a sanctuary.

Where Lincoln prayed! What passion had his soul--
Mixt faith and anguish melting into prayer
Upon the burning altar of God's fane,
A nation's altar even as his own.

Where Lincoln prayed! Such worshipers as he
Make thin ranks down the ages. Wouldst thou know
His spirit suppliant? Then must thou feel
War's fiery baptism, taste hate's bitter cup,
Spend similar sweat of blood vicarious,
And sound the cry, "If it be possible!"
From stricken heart in new Gethsemane.

Who saw him there are gone, as he is gone;
The pew remains, with what God gave him there,
And all the world through him. So let it be--
One of the people's shrines.

[Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1858

From a photograph in possession of Mr. Stuart Brown of
Springfield, Illinois]

John James Piatt was born in Indiana