heard a sermon by a traveling Presbyterian minister--the Rev. Dr. Smith--(afterwards of the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Illinois) then a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The subject was: "Is there no Balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician there?" The sermon was delivered at the village of Rockfort, four miles from the small farm of Thomas Lincoln, Abraham's father. There was a great revival on that occasion. Always a deep thinker, even when a boy, Lincoln was seriously impressed. Adopting his own words, he remembered the sermon for more than twenty years afterwards. Book after book he then read on the authenticity of the Scriptures, and was satisfied. Many years after delivering that sermon Dr. Smith removed to Springfield, Illinois. This same Dr. Smith, I spent two years with here at Dundee, and attended him to his death in 1871. He was the bosom friend of Lincoln, and the friend and dearly beloved pastor of the Lincoln family. Some years after Dr. Smith happened on a Sabbath day, in his church at Springfield, to re-deliver his sermon (delivered, I think, eighteen years previous). "Is there no Balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician there?" Lincoln, always a regular attendant, was there and was much startled. When the congregation had gone, he sought the preacher. "Dr. Smith," said he, "was it you who preached that sermon when I was a boy at Rockfort?" "Yes." "Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "I have never forgotten that sermon, and never will." I need not narrate what then passed between them. Sometime after this a discussion arose in Springfield, as to the credibility of the Scripture. Knowing Lincoln's well-balanced mind, his studious and deep-thinking nature and downright honesty, a gentleman, anxious to have his views, asked if he believed the Scriptures were strictly true. Lincoln answered: "I have investigated that matter thoroughly, as a lawyer would do, examining testimony, and I hold that the arguments in favor of the credibility, inspiration, and Divine authority of the Scripture are unanswerable." At an annual meeting of the Presbyterian Church of Springfield, or rather of the Bible Society of that church, Lincoln delivered a long address on the same subject--the authenticity of the Scriptures. An able address it was. His arguments are too lengthy for me to narrate. For seven years, down to the day of his departure for Washington to ASSUME THE DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENCY,