Ann Rutledge gave him a new view of the Bible and Shakespeare. Abraham Lincoln's is the language of the Bible. He never used the Bible in an irreverent way. In the Lincoln Museum, Washington, there is a copy of the Holy Scriptures. It is well worn, and shows the signs of good use. Inside the cover are these words in his own handwriting: "A. Lincoln, his own book." He wrote a letter to Rev. J. M. Peck in 1848 asking him, "Is the precept, 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,' obsolete, of no force, of no application?" In his description of Niagara he said: "It calls up the indefinite past when Christ suffered on the cross, when Moses led Israel through the Red Sea--nay, even when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker; then, as now, Niagara was roaring here." In writing to John D. Johnston concerning his father's illness, he said: "I sincerely hope Father will recover his health, but, at all events, tell him to remember and call upon and confide in our great and good and merciful Maker. He notes the fall of the sparrow and numbers the hairs of our heads, and he will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in him." Mr. William S. Speer wrote to Mr. Lincoln asking him to write a letter to give his definite views on the slavery question. Lincoln replied: "I have already done this many, many times, and it is in print and open to all who will read. Those who will not read or heed what I have already publicly said would not read or heed a repetition of it. 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.'" In a letter to Reverdy Johnson he wrote: "I am a patient man, always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance." Lincoln wrote to General J. A. McClernand: "My belief is that the permanent estimate of what a general does in the field is fixed by the 'cloud of witnesses' who have been with him in the field." Lincoln was ever bringing his knowledge of the Scriptures to the minds of men. When an aged citizen, John Phillips, had done him honor, he wrote him: "The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have been already extended an average lifetime beyond the psalmist's limit cannot but be valuable and fruitful." We find in his speeches and letters the Bible at his tongue's end. In his reply to Douglas at Alton he said: "He has warred upon them as Satan wars upon the Bible. The Bible says somewhere we are desperately selfish." And, writing to J. F. Speed, he writes of those who are so interested in slavery, and says: "If, like Haman, they should hang upon the gallows of their own building, I should not be among the mourners for their fate." Then again he says: "Let us judge not, that we be not judged," Then the words of the Christ: "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!"