WHY DID LINCOLN NEVER JOIN A CHURCH?
Give us men!
Men who, when the tempest gathers,
Grasp the standard of their fathers
In the thickest fight.
Men who strike for homes and altar,
(Let the coward cringe and falter—
God defend the Right).
True as truth, though lorn and lonely,
Tender as the brave are only—
Men who tread where saints have trod,
Men for Country, Right, and God—
Give us men!—I say again, again
Give us men!
III
WHY DID LINCOLN NEVER JOIN A CHURCH?
That Lincoln did not join a church is no reason for inferring that he was not a believer in Christianity. It was just the opposite in his case,—as the years passed his convictions and faith became stronger.
The warring creeds of Christianity looked to him like so many soldiers of the same army disagreeing among themselves as to the best way to win a battle. Lincoln would win in any way he could, and would look on that way as the best. In his day, even more than in ours, ministers fell out with one another touching the meaning of the Bible, and then, as always, weakened its influence and their own upon the public mind. Preachers and teachers even now devote their time to useless discussions which will never benefit any one, and to the investigation of controverted points in theology, deciding principles of interpretation and attacking chronological difficulties that have no more connection with winning men to right living than the battle of Lexington has with the reformation of drunkards.