The religious life of famous Americans

Contents

CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. ABRAHAM LINCOLN 3

II. RUFUS CHOATE I7

Chapter I. Abraham Lincoln

Among the interesting things shown in the Lincoln Museum in the Capital City of the nation is an old copy of the Bible. No one can look at its well-thumbed pages without being assured that it has been much studied. If you will look on the inside of the cover, you will find these words, written by the famous man who once owned it : "A. Lincoln, his own book."

Throughout his life, Abraham Lincoln was a devout student of the Bible. In his young manhood, when writing to his brother about his father's sickness, he uses these words : "He notes the fall of the sparrow and numbers the hairs of our heads." In all his early speeches, both at the bar and on the political stump, he quoted from the Bible more than from any other book, and he kept this up until the end of his life. Indeed, after he came to the Presidency of the United States and upon his shoulders were laid such heavy burdens, his religious life was evidently greatly intensified and deepened. About a year before the tragic end of his career on earth, he wrote to his friend, Joshua Speed : ''I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a better man."

After the Emancipation Proclamation, the colored people of Baltimore presented Mr. Lincoln with a handsome copy of the Scriptures. He responded in these words : *'In regard to the great book, I have only to say that it is the best gift which God has given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated through this book."

Mr. Lincoln's faith in God, his confidence in him as the author of the Bible, is brought out in strongest light in his second inaugural address. This tremendous paragraph stands as an immortal testimony to the great man's reliance and faith in God and his Word :

"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 man 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. 'Woe unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come : but woe to the man by whom the offence cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these offences, 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 woe due to those by whom the offence 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 soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it shall continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another drawn with the sword; as was said three thousand years ago, so it still must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' "

One of the strong writers of that day, commenting on the Christian spirit and faith breathed from Lincoln's second inaugural, said : "Since the days of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, where is the speech of emperor, king, or ruler which can compare with this ? May we not, without irreverence, say that passages of this address are worthy of that holy Book which daily he read, and from which, during his long days of trial, he had drawn inspiration and guidance ? Where else but from the teachings of the Son of God could he have drawn the Christian charity which pervades the last sentence, in which he so unconsciously describes his own moral nature: 'With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right' ? No other state paper in American annals, not even Washington's farewell address, has made so deep an impression upon the people as this. . . . This paper in its solemn recognition of the justice of Almighty God reminds us of the words of the old Hebrew prophets.'*

Abraham Lincoln had a most devout faith in prayer. General James F. Rusling gives a most interesting account of a call he and General Daniel E. Sickles made upon him after the battle of Gettysburg. During the conversation General Sickles asked if the President and the Cabinet had not been anxious about the battle? Mr. Lincoln replied that the Cabinet had, but he had not; and he then went on to make a confession that in the very pinch and stress of the Gettysburg campaign he had gone to the Almighty in secret prayer. He said he told the Lord this was his country, and the war was his war, but that we could not stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville ; and that he then and there made a solemn vow with his Maker that if he would stand by us at Gettysburg, he would stand by him; and then he added: "And he did, and I will!" He said that after he had prayed he could not explain how it was, but a sweet comfort had crept into his soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business there into his hands, and we were bound to win at Gettysburg.

Mr. Lincoln returned again to the subject of prayer in that same conversation with Sickles and Rusling, saying that he did not want it repeated then ; some might laugh ; but it was a solemn fact that he prayed mightily over both Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and verily believed our Heavenly Father was somehow going to take care of the American Republic. At the time of this conversation President Lincoln did not know that Vicksburg had already been captured.

No public man ever more clearly emphasized his faith in God in his public addresses, as well as in his private conversation and letters, than did Abraham Lincoln. When he started from Springfield, 111., to take his journey to Washington to become President, a large number of the citizens of Springfield, together with his neighbors and friends, gathered at the station to bid him farewell. Standing on the platform of the car, and speaking with deep emotion, he said :

"My friends, no one not in my position can realize the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. I go to assume a task more difficult than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine blessing which sustained him ; and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support. And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive the divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain."

The journey which Lincoln took to Washington will always be historic. At every station the people gathered and at every stop Mr. Lincoln spoke, and the key-note of all his speeches was his faith in God and his hope for the divine guidance. In his address at Columbus, Ohio, he said : "I turn then to God for support, who has never forsaken the people." At Steuben ville he said : "Nothing shall be wanting on my part, if sustained by the American lo RELIGIOUS LIFE.

people and God." At Buffalo, N. Y. : *'I am trusting in that Supreme Being who has never forsaken this favored land." At Albany he said : "1 still have confidence that the Almighty, the Maker of the universe, will bring us through this." At Newark, N. J., he said : ''I am sure, however, that I have not the ability to do anything unaided of God." At Trenton he said : "I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty and of this his most chosen people as the chosen instrument, also in the hands of the Almighty, of perpetuating the object of that great struggle." At Philadelphia, where the last address was made before reaching Washington, he used these words : "I have said nothing but that I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, die by." While these utterances are sufficient to prove beyond all doubt Mr. Lincoln's reverent faith in God, it is certainly a matter of comfort to all sincere Christian hearts that we have abundant evidence that during his Presidency of the United States Mr. Lincoln came into a definite, personal relation with Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Lord.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ii

Mr. Noah Brooks, who was a bosom friend of Lincoln, says that, while he never tried to draw anything like a statement of his religious views from him, Mr. Lincoln freely expressed to him **his hope of a blessed immortality through Jesus Christ."

Mr. Frank Carpenter, the painter, who had unusual opportunities for private conversation with Mr. Lincoln, relates that a lady in the service of the Christian Commission called on Mr. Lincoln on a number of occasions on the business of the Commission. On one occasion their conversation turned to the subject of religion. The President asked this good woman to give her views as to what constituted a religious experience, and she readily consented. After she had clearly set forth her views, Mr. Lincoln responded as follows: "If what you have told me is really a correct view of this subject, I think I can say with sincerity that I hope that I am a Christian. I had lived until my boy Willie died without fully realizing these things. That blow overwhelmed me. It showed me my weakness as I never felt it before, and if I can take what you have stated as a test, I think I can safely say that I know something of that change of which you speak. I will further add that it has been my intention for some time at a suitable opportunity to make a public religious confession."

On another occasion, speaking to Mr. Noah Brooks, to whom reference has already been made, Mr. Lincoln said : "When any church would inscribe over its altars 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 thyself,' that church will I join with all my heart and all my soul.'*

Colonel Henry Watterson, in his remarkable lecture on Abraham Lincoln, has this eloquent paragraph expressing his faith in the divine guidance and inspiration of Abraham Lincoln, in which all Christians may unite. Mr. Watterson says of him :

"Born as lowly as the Son of God, reared in penury and squalor, with no gleam of light nor fair surroundings, it was reserved for this strange being, late in life, without fame or name or seeming preparation, to be snatched from obscurity, raised to a supreme command at a supreme moment, and intrusted with the destiny of a nation. Where did Shakespeare get his genius? Where did Mozart get his music? Whose hands smote the lyre of the Scottish plowman and stayed the life of the German priest? God alone; and as surely as these were raised by God, inspired of God was Abraham Lincoln. A thousand years hence, no story, no tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with greater wonder than that which tells of his life and death. If Lincoln was not inspired of God, then there is no such thing on earth as special providence or the interposition of divine power in the affairs of men."

RUFUS CHOATE.

CHAPTER IL

RUFUS CHOATE.

RuFus Choate, one of the greatest of America's lawyers as well as one of her most famous orators, seems to have been born into the world with a thirst for knowledge, and with his first reading came the Bible. In the village library of the little town of Ipswich, Mass., where he spent his childhood, he found such books as ''RoUin's Ancient History," '^Josephus," 'Tlutarch," and these and many other books of a similar nature he read before he was ten years old. During all these early years the Bible was read and re-read with more than ordinary thoughtfulness, and early in the War of 1 812 he made what he thought was the great discovery of an undoubted prophecy of Napoleon Bonaparte in the book of Daniel.

He was at the same time an attentive and critical hearer of sermons, even when the minister was dull. ''When about nine years old," says his brother, ''he took us all by surprise one

Sabbath noon, by saying, 'Mr. (naming

the preacher) had better mind what he says about James (the apostle), even James,' repeating the words emphatically. The minister had been quoting Paul, and added, 'even James says, For what is your life ?' The remark went to show us (the family) not only that he had been attentive to what had been said (which we had not been), but that he saw an objection to the comparison, implied, at least, between the two apostles, both of whom were inspired."

The moral discipline of the family where Rufus Choate grew up was careful and exact. A portion of the Catechism was recited every Sabbath, and the lessons thus learned were so deeply engraved on his memory as never to be forgotten. On one occasion in later life, in commenting upon the testimony of a witness who professed his willingness to do any job that might offer on Sunday, just as he would on any other day, Mr. Choate repeated, word for word; one of the long answers of the Catechism on the import of the Fourth Commandment, and then turning to the Court, said, ''May it please your honor, my mother taught me this in my earliest childhood, and I trust I shall not forget it in my age."

After young Choate left college he spent a year in the office of William E. Wirt, in Washington. Mr. Wirt was then Attorney-General of the United States, and the association with him furnished great opportunity for the young lawyer. Writing to an old college chum during this year, this significant sentence occurs in his letter, ''I read every day some chapters in the English Bible." This early religious teaching and Bible reading produced, as it always will, strength of conscience. An educated conscience was Rufus Choate's supreme master. The story is told that on one very stormy night, during his residence in Danvers, Mass., he was called upon at a late hour to draw the will of a dying man who lived several miles distant. He went, performed the service, and returned home. But after going to bed, as he lay revolving in his mind each provision of the paper he had so rapidly prepared, there flashed across his memory an omission that might possibly cause the testator's intention to be misunderstood. He sprang from his bed and began dressing himself rapidly^, to the great surprise of his wife, only answering her inquiries by saying that he had done what must be undone, and in the thick of the storm rode again to his dying client, explained the reason of his return, and drew a codicil to the will which made everything sure.

He related this incident in after life, saying that sometimes, years after a case had been tried, he would feel a pang of reproach that he had not urged some argument which at that moment flashed across his mind. He always fought his lost cases over again, to see if he could find any argument whereby he might have gained them.

Mr. Choate's biographer, Samuel Gilman Brown, a former president of Hamilton College, gives a very touching and graphic description of the incidents connected with the death of a little girl but three years of age, which sets forth very tenderly the Christian faith and feeling of the great lawyer. Rev. Dr. Adams, who was pastor of the family.

was away from home, and so Mr. Choate wrote a letter which he sent by a special messenger to Rev. Hubbard Winslow, asking him to come immediately.

"Entering the chamber," says Dr. Winslow, "at the appointed time^ I found the family all assembled. A beautiful little girl of perhaps three years lay dying. We all kneeled in prayer, and after a few remarks I was about to retire, to leave the weeping family to the sacredness of their domestic sorrow, when Mr. Choate took my hand and besought me to remain with them while the child lived. I consented to remain until evening, when I had another engagement. He stood by the fireplace, resting his elbows on the marble, with his face in his hands, evidently absorbed in prayer; Mrs. Choate was bending over the pillow with the yearning tenderness of a mother, and the older children and servants stood around in silent grief, while I sat by the bedside, observing the child's symptoms, and sometimes repeating a passage of Scripture or a pertinent stanza of poetry. Thus a full hour passed in silence, in prayer, in tears, in communion with death and eternity, Mr.

Choate remaining motionless as a statue during the whole time. Perceiving the pulse failing and the breath becoming very short and difficult, I said, 'Mr. Choate, I fear the dear child is just leaving us.' He then came to the bedside, embraced her, kissed her three times, and then turned and resumed his position as before. All the family followed him in a parting kiss. A few moments after, the angel spirit fled. I closed the sightless eyes and said, 'My dear Mr. Choate, your sweet child is in heaven !' He burst instantly into a flood of tears, and sobbed aloud. He did not change his position, but remained with his face buried in his hands and the tears pouring like rain drops upon the hearthstone. And thus he continued, until duty compelled me to leave the chamber of death. He then came and thanked me, and said with deep emotion, *I feel greatly comforted. My dear child has gone home. It was God's will to take her, and that is enough.' "

Occasional references in Rufus Choate' s journals show that he was never so busy or so interested in other matters as to forget the necessity of feeding the spiritual life. During a trip to Europe, in 1850, he writes while on shipboard, "I have come away without a book but the Bible and Prayer Book and Daily Food." Later he writes down this resolution, "I will commit one morsel in the 'Daily Food' daily, and have to-day, that of the 29th of June." In a memorandum concerning a religious service which he had attended in London, he writes : "I have attended service in St. George's for want of knowing where to go. The music was admirable, forming a larger part than in the x\merican Episcopal Service, and performed divinely. The sermon was light and delivered in a cold 'sing-song' on 'The Character of David.' "

In laying out a plan for his daily conduct, during a stay in England, he wrote down this resolution, "And now for some plan of time and movement for England. Before breakfast I shall walk at least an hour observantly, and on returning, jot down anything worth it. This hour is for exercise, however. I mean next to read every day a passage in the Bible, a passage in the Old and in the New Testament, beginning each, and commit my 'Daily Food.' " And a month later, when he had been very much taken up, so that he had little time to write in his journal, he jots down this, "I read Bible, Prayer Book, and a page of Bishop Andrews' Prayers."

All the men who have written about Rufus Choate have agreed in this : that as life matured with him, the beautiful graces of the Christian character became ever more marked in all his relations to others. One says of him: "It seemed as if nobody was ever so gentle, and sweet hearted^ and tender of others as he. And when we consider the constant provocation of his profession, his natural excitability, the ardor with which he threw himself into a case, the vigor and tenacity of purpose with which he fought his battle, as well as his extreme sensitiveness to sharp and unkind words, it seems little less than a miracle."

Another says of him that he lavished his good nature upon all around him, in the court and in the office, upon students, witnesses, servants, and strangers as well. He was so reluctant to inflict pain that he would long endure annoyance, such as permitting himself to be bored by an undesired visitor, or put himself to great inconvenience in escaping from a difficult situation rather than to wound the feelings of another. We are assured that he never spoke ill of the absent, nor would suffer others to do so in his presence. He was affectionate, obliging, desirous to make every one about him happy, with strong sympathy for any one in trouble.

Dr. Adams, who was his pastor for many years, in his funeral address tells a characteristic little anecdote: ''He had not walked far, one morning, a few years ago, he said, and gave as a reason that his attention was taken by a company of those large, creeping things which lie on their backs in the paths as soon as the light strikes them. 'But of what use was it,' he was asked, 'for you to help them over with your cane, knowing that they would become supine again?' 'I gave them a fair start in life,' he said, 'and my responsibility was at an end.' Rufus Choate was always helping them on to their feet."

The great lawyer was very fond of music, especially sacred music. Every Sunday evening, after tea, he would gather his children around the piano and join them in singing the old Psalm tunes and chants. In his last illness his children sang these old songs of praise for him every night. His pure and happy spirit must have rejoiced on entering the heavenly chorus.

'J'SS

Chapter III. Samuel Finley Breese Morse

The first message ever sent over the telegraphic wire — 'What hath God wrought!" — taken from the twenty-third verse of the twenty-third chapter of the book of Numbers, reveals a spirit in perfect harmony with the entire life and character of Samuel F. B. Morse, the famous inventor of our modern telegraph system. Professor Morse was not only a Christian in his creed, but a sincere and genuine Christian in his practice. Both his father and his grandfather were ministers of the gospel. He gave himself, without reserve, to the Christian life in his youth, and held to it with consecrated devotion throughout his career. It was in his father's church in Charlestown, Mass., that he first publicly professed his faith in Christ. Later on, when the family removed to New Haven, Conn., he became a member of the First Congregational

Church of that city, where he remained in connection until the year 1847, when he settled in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and united with the First Presbyterian Church. But wherever he was, in London, or Paris, or Washington, on sea or land, in whatever company of people he was thrown, he was always known and recognized as a Christian. Those who knew him most intimately were constantly impressed with the feeling that he was guided in all his actions by reverent love toward God and sympathy and kindness toward his fellow-men. To him the Scriptures were the guide and rule of life, and he held his own life constantly to their standard. He was often unjustly assailed by those who were envious or jealous of him because of his inventive genius; yet these things which often bring out the seamy side in a man's character, had no such result with him. Through the most annoying experiences he maintained a composure and calmness, with a forgiving and gentle spirit, which caused those who beheld him to feel like saying,, as was said of Peter and John, that he "had been with Jesus and learned of him." He greatly delighted in Christian conversation, and walking on the street, or in the midst of business, when he was seemingly overwhelmed with business cares and perplexed with many business anxieties, he ever welcomed a conversation on the subject of personal religion and would talk with all the simplicity of a child with any friend who was ready to discuss the subject of the relation of the soul to God.

Professor Morse was far more than a sentimentalist in the Christian life. The Christian spirit pervaded all his business. He was active and conscientious in the use of his money and gave largely and cheerfully as his means increased to any object of Christian benevolence which appealed to his judgment. Few men, we are told, have given more in proportion to advance the cause of Christ. He held all his success to be God-given. After the first dispatch was sent and received, Morse said of it, "It baptized the American telegraph with the name of its Author." The Author, as he believed, was God. So grateful was he that he gave the first earnings of the telegraph as a sort of first-fruits to the church. From this beginning, which was only the commencement of a flow of wealth into his hands which ever afterward gave him abundance, he remained faithful to that sense of stewardship to God. He was Hberal in his gifts to colleges and theological seminaries, as well as to missionary and other religious causes.

During the later years of his life, when Professor Morse had become one of the famous men in the world and when honors and riches were heaped upon him, the marked characteristic of the man was the development of the spiritual life. None of his successes in any degree spoiled him. In the midst of earthly honors and riches his appreciation of spiritual riches increased.

Dr. Wheeler, of Poughkeepsie, who was Mr. Morse's pastor during the latter part of his life, has given a very charming picture of Morse's religious life during the years when he knew him. He writes: "It was at Locust Grove I knew him best and most. Here among the grand old trees, the fresh, green lawn, and rare plants which adorned his grounds, the fashion and substance of the man were seen. This home he greatly loved. Writing from one of the capitals in Europe at one time immediately after one of the grandest receptions that scholar or philosopher ever received, he says: 'My heart yearns for my dear old home on the Hudson; its calm repose, its sweet walks, where so often I have been with God.' I recall with great satisfaction the many times on his veranda, looking westward on flood and hills beyond, in large discourse he would dwell upon the 'things unseen' and his utterances would have such depth and scope that I marveled at the beauty and strength of that love for God and his realm which rose and fell like mighty tides in his heart."

On one occasion when his pastor was with him some allusion was made to his career and the honors which had thickened upon him. A significant smile stole over the face of the great inventor as he gently said : 'It is all of God. He has used me as his hand in all this. I am not indifferent to the rewards of earth and the praise of my fellow-men, but I am more pleased with the fact that my Father in heaven has allowed me to do something for him and his world." On another occasion when Dr. Wheeler called on him Morse met him with brimming eyes, and, grasping him with both hands, exclaimed: "Oh, you cannot tell how thankful I have been this morning, in thinking this matter of the telegraph all over, that God has permitted me to do something for the health and comfort of my fellows. I have just heard of a family made happy by a telegraphic dispatch from one of its absent members, announcing his safety, when the whole household v^as in grief over his supposed death; only think of the many homes that may be thus gladdened, relieved from solitude and pain!" Some scientific men have seemed to take a greater interest in trying to exclude God from his own universe than in finding out the truth ; but for such men Morse had no sympathy. He was a thoughtful, well-read, and thoroughly practical scientific seeker after truth; but he found God everywhere. Pointing one day to an insect's wing, he said: "There, that is enough of itself to satisfy any reasonable mind of God's being, wisdom and power. It is in these things which we call small that I am finding every day fresh proofs of God's direct and positive agency. I see in all these things God's finger, and I am so glad through them to get hold of God's hand ; and then," he added, with moistened eyes, and a voice husky with emotion, '^if God makes all these small things around us here so exquisitely beautiful, what grandeur must attach to the things beyond, unseen and eternal !"