ess may well be
doubted. At the time of its delivery it was taken down and published
broadcast in the papers of the day.

But it would be wearisome to you to recite all the evidences bearing
on the religious character of Abraham Lincoln. John G. Nicolay well
says: "Benevolence and forgiveness were the very basis of his
character; his world-wide humanity is aptly embodied in a phrase of
his second inaugural: 'With malice toward none, with charity for all.'
His nature was deeply religious, but he belonged to no denomination;
he had faith in the eternal justice and boundless mercy of Providence,
and made the Golden Rule of Christ his practical creed."

In this passage Mr. Nicolay refers especially to Lincoln's second
inaugural address. This address has the ring of an ancient Hebrew
prophet. Only a man of faith and piety could deliver such an address.
After the struggles through which the country had passed Lincoln's
self-poise, his confidence in God, his belief in and affection for his
fellow men, remained unabated. In Lincoln's second inaugural address
he used these words:

"Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
which it has already attained: neither anticipated that the cause of
the conflict might cease when or even before the conflict itself
should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less
fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the
same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem
strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in
wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us
judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be
answered: that of neither has been answered fully.

"The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Wo unto the world because of
offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but we to that man
by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery
is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs
come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now
wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this
terrible war, as the wo due to those by whom the offense came, shall
we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which
the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we
hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may
speedily pass away. Yet, if God will