"The President responded: 'Oh, yes, gentlemen; I have sent his name to the Senate, and he will no doubt be confirmed at an early day.' "One of the young men replied: 'We have not come to ask for the appointment, but to solicit you to withdraw the nomination.' "'Ah,' said Lincoln, 'that alters the case; but on what ground do you ask the nomination withdrawn?' "The answer was, 'Mr. Shrigley is not sound in his theological opinions.' "The President inquired: 'On what question is the gentleman unsound?' "Response: 'He does not believe in endless punishment; not only so, sir, but he believes that even the rebels themselves will finally be saved.' "'Is that so?' inquired the President. "The members of the committee both responded, 'Yes,' 'Yes.' "'Well, gentlemen, if that be so, and there is any way under heaven whereby the rebels can be saved, then, for God's sake and their sakes, let the man be appointed'" (L. M. A., pp. 336, 337). And he was appointed. JAMES E. MURDOCH. It is claimed that few public men have made greater use of the Bible than Lincoln. This is true. He was continually quoting Scripture or alluding to Scriptural scenes and stories, sometimes to illustrate or adorn a serious speech, but more frequently to point or emphasize a joke. The venerable actor and elocutionist, James E. Murdoch, who had met Lincoln, both in Springfield and Washington, relates an anecdote of him while at Washington which serves to illustrate this propensity: "One day a detachment of troops was marching along the avenue singing the soul-stirring strain of 'John Brown.' They were walled in on either side by throngs of citizens and strangers, whose voices mingled in the roll of the mighty war-song. In the midst of this exciting scene, a man had clambered into a small tree, on the sidewalk, where he clung, unmindful of the jeers of the passing crowd, called forth by the strange antics he was unconsciously exhibiting in his efforts to overcome the swaying motion of the slight stem which bent beneath his weight. Mr. Lincoln's attention was attracted for a moment, and he paused in the serious conversation in which he was deeply interested and in an abstracted manner, yet with a droll cast of the eye, and a nod of the head in the direction of the man, he repeated, in his dry and peculiar utterance, the following old-fashioned couplet: 'And Zaccheous he did climb a tree, His Lord and Master for to see.'" (L. M. A., pp. 349, 350).