"At this point we may pause, for we need no further demonstration of the indebtedness of English prose style to the Bible, nor would it be easy to discover a better illustration of biblical qualities in modern guise exemplified in a passage of more interest to all the world. South recognized it as a mark of illiteracy to be fond of high-flown metaphors and allegories, attended and set off with scraps of Greek and Latin. If this be true, the American people so far escape the imputation as they have set their seal of approval on such writings as Lincoln's; and that they have had judgment and taste to do so is due, more than to any other cause, to their familiarity with the Bible." The spirit life of the Bible was built into Lincoln's boyhood, expanded in his young manhood, ripened in his middle age, sustained him when sorrows seared his soul, and gave to him a grip upon God, man, freedom, and immortality. The influence of the Bible upon him gave him reverence for God and his will; for Christianity and its Christ; for the Holy Spirit and its help; for prayer and its power; for praise and its purpose; for the immortal impulse and its inspiration. Truly might Henry Watterson ask: "Where did Shakespeare get his genius? Where did Mozart get his music? Whose hand smote the lyre of the Scottish plowman, and stayed the life of the German priest? God, God, and God alone, and surely as these were raised up by God, so was Abraham Lincoln."