The Soul of Abraham LincolnBarton, William E. (William Eleazar)
Religion
The Soul of Abraham Lincoln
Barton, William E. (William Eleazar)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Religion; Presidents -- United States -- Biography
"'"25. I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is
beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.
"'"26. But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not
hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more
unto me of this matter.
"'"27. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes
westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it
with thine eyes; for thou shalt not go over this Jordan."'
"After the President had read these words with great solemnity, he
added:
"'My dear Father Chiniquy, let me tell you that I have read these
strange and beautiful words several times, these last five or six
weeks. The more I read them, the more it seems to me that God has
written them for me as well as for Moses.
"'Has He not taken me from my poor log cabin, by the hand, as He did
Moses, in the reeds of the Nile, to put me at the head of the greatest
and most blessed of modern nations just as He put that prophet at
the head of the most blessed nation of ancient times? Has not God
granted me a privilege, which was not granted to any living man, when
I broke the fetters of 4,000,000 of men, and made them free? Has not
our God given me the most glorious victories over my enemies? Are
not the armies of the Confederacy so reduced to a handful of men,
when compared to what they were two years ago, that the day is fast
approaching when they will have to surrender?
"'Now, I see the end of this terrible conflict, with the same joy of
Moses, when at the end of his trying forty years in the wilderness;
and I pray my God to grant me to see the days of peace and untold
prosperity, which will follow this cruel war, as Moses asked God to
see the other side of Jordan, and enter the Promised Land. But, do
you know, that I hear in my soul, as the voice of God, giving me the
rebuke which was given to Moses?
"'Yes! every time that my soul goes to God to ask the favor of seeing
the other side of Jordan, and eating the fruits of that peace, after
which I am longing with such an unspeakable desire, do you know that
there is a still but solemn voice which tells me that I will see those
things only from a long distance, and that I will be among the dead
when the nation, which God granted me to lead through those awful
trials, will cross the Jordan, and dwell in that Land of Promise,
where peace, industry, happiness, and liberty will make everyone
happy; and why so? Because He has already given me favors which He
never gave, I dare say, to any man in these latter days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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