"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present Civil War it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the best instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true: that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By His mere great power on the minds of the now contestants He could have saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun, He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds."--NICOLAY AND HAY, Life of Lincoln, _Century_, August, 1889. Vol. 35, pp. 567-68. PART III: THE RELIGION OF LINCOLN CHAPTER XX WHAT LINCOLN WAS NOT It is amazing to discover how many forms of faith and non-faith have claimed Abraham Lincoln. "_Seven cities strove for Homer, dead, Through which the living Homer begged his bread._" More than seven churches have striven for the dead Abraham Lincoln, some of whom would not even now admit to their membership a living man who professed his sentiments. Before we undertake the difficult task of assessing the real faith of Abraham Lincoln, let us dispose of a few of the claims that have been made on his behalf, or the charges that have been made against him, and which clearly have no sufficient weight of evidence. Let us ask first, _Was Abraham Lincoln an atheist?_ Herndon declared that Lincoln was an infidel, "sometimes bordering on atheism." This last phrase has been overstrained. What Herndon appears to have meant was that in some of Lincoln's blackest hours of gloom his mind hung over that utter void; and he more than hints that in such hours Lincoln's mind was scarcely sound. Herndon was far from believing or meaning to charge that atheism was Lincoln's real view of God and the world. The contrary is shown in a score of places in Herndon's works and letters. Some years ago the _Open Court_ of Chicago contained an article by Theodore Stanton, quoted from the _Westminster Review_. It said: