A Religious Experience

Hezekiah Butterworth, in writing about the Christian faith of Abraham Lincoln, tells this story: “One day Mr. Lincoln met an army nurse, a woman of true Christian character. ‘I have a question to ask you,’ he said, in effect. ‘What is a religious experience?’ It was the most important question that one can ask in the world. The woman answered: ‘It is to feel one’s need of divine help and cast one’s self on God in perfect trust and know his presence,’ or words to that effect. ‘Then I have it,’ he answered. ‘I have it, and I intend to make a public profession of it.’ About the same time, or later, he said to Harriet Beecher Stowe: ‘When I entered the White House I was not a Christian. Now I am a Christian.’ In this period of divine trust he made a vow to God to free the slaves by a proclamation. At a cabinet meeting he said: ‘The time has come to issue a proclamation of emancipation; the people are ready for it, and I promised God on my knees I would do it.’”