Some who have known of Lincoln's particular utterances on certain of these points have been misled, as it appears to me, by the similarity of some of these points to doctrines held by particular religious sects and have sought to identify Lincoln more or less with those denominations. The fact that he took portions of his positive thinking from Theodore Parker and William Ellery Channing, does not necessitate that he was a Unitarian; nor does the fact that he did not believe in eternal punishment compel his classification with Universalists. Theodore Parker and William E. Channing chanced to be the authors whose writings came into his possession at a time when they served to define particular aspects of his own faith. Horace Bushnell, or Henry Ward Beecher might have served him quite as well and possibly in some respects better. For Lincoln's Calvinism was too deep-rooted to be eradicated; and a positive faith, both liberal and constructive, that could have been grafted on to that root might very possibly have served him better than anything so radical as in its nature to deny any essential part of what he felt he must continue to believe. Parker and Channing served him as James Smith's _Christian's Defence_ and Robert Chambers' _Vestiges of Creation_ served him in assuring him that a man could hold the views he held and know more about them than he knew and still be a reverent Christian. Such a Christian Abraham Lincoln appears to me to have been. I do not think that any claim which I am here making for the faith of Abraham Lincoln can be denied on the basis of any authentic utterance of his. If at any point he is known to have said or written anything which is apparently inconsistent with these affirmations, that utterance I think will be found somewhere in this volume and the reader will have no difficulty in finding it and in giving it its proper weight. But I do not think the general position which this chapter sets forth can be seriously shaken. In the sense which this chapter has endeavored truthfully to set forth, Abraham Lincoln believed in God, in Christ, in the Bible, in prayer, in duty, and in immortality. Religion is one thing and theology is another. A love of flowers is one thing and a knowledge of botany is another. A man may love a flower and call it by the wrong name, or know no name for it. A man may have the religion of Christ, and hold very wrong opinions or conjectures concerning Christ. We are saved by faith, not by conjecture. No man is saved or lost because of the correctness of his opinions. Correct thinking is important; but it is not so important as a right attitude toward spiritual realities and practical duties. Faith and opinion are not unrelated, but neither are they identical.