There are two interesting facts about this incident related by Representative Deming. One is that Lincoln knew his Bible well enough to challenge an unfamiliar passage and require that it be shown to him before believing that the Bible contained it. Only a man who had read his Bible much would have been so confident. The other is that this story recalled to Mr. Deming that very important declaration of Lincoln which is attested by a number of other credible witnesses in substance, but which Deming first gave to the world in his notable address: "I am here reminded of an impressive remark which he made to me upon another occasion, and which I shall never forget. He said, he had never united himself to any church, because he found difficulty in giving his assent, without mental reservations, to the long complicated statements of Christian doctrine which characterize their Articles of Belief and Confessions of Faith. 'When any church,' he continued, 'will inscribe over its altar as its sole qualification for membership the Saviour's condensed statement of the substance of both the law and Gospel, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,--that church will I join with all my heart and soul.'"--_Eulogy upon Abraham Lincoln, before the General Assembly of Connecticut, 1865_, p. 42. Henry C. Whitney knew Lincoln well, from the days of their circuit riding in Illinois till Lincoln's death. His testimony is valuable: "Mr. Lincoln was a fatalist: he believed, and often said, that '_There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will,_' and as a corollary from this belief, that the Almighty controlled the affairs of men and made the wrath of men to praise Him. In all stages of his administration and before, commencing with his first public utterance after his election, he declared that with God's help he should succeed, and without it he would fail. Likewise, before he was run for the Presidency, he made frequent references to God in the same spirit of devoutness and trust; and, therefore, he was honest; honest with his Father on his dying bed, honest in what he feared was (and which proved to be) his last affectionate farewell to his neighbors, honest to the many eminent bands of clergymen and Christian people who visited him, and honest with his Cabinet in the most important consultation it ever held; then Lincoln, whether as man or as President, believed in God as the Ruler of the Universe, in a blessed hereafter, and in the efficacy of prayer. . . . Mr. Lincoln believed himself to be an instrument of God; and that, as God willed, so would the contest be. He also believed in prayer and its efficacy, and that God willed the destruction of slavery through his instrumentality, and he believed in the Church of God as an important auxiliary."--_Life on the Circuit with Lincoln_, pp. 267-68.