JANUARY 17

Their rock is not our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. Deuteronomy 32:31.

This Rock on Which I Stand.

(To Mr. Bateman. Continued from preceding page.)

Doesn't it seem strange that men can ignore the moral aspect of this contest? A revelation could not make it plainer to me that slavery or the Government must be destroyed. The future would be something awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on which I stand [alluding to the New Testament, which he still held in his hand], especially with the knowledge of how these ministers are going to vote. It seems as if God had borne with this thing [slavery] until the teachers of religion have come to defend it from the Bible, and to claim for it a divine character and sanction; and now the cup of iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will be poured out.

But patient struggling in the right,
And suffering wrong that right may win,
Achieves the victory final, bright,

O'er foes without and fears within.
It must be so, for right must win,
Since God is God and sin is sin.

-Milton.

JANUARY 18

Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. Genesis 15: 1.

In the Garden of Gethsemane.

(Said to Judge Gillespie at Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois, January, 1861.)

Gillespie, I would willingly take out of my life a period in years equal to the two months which intervene between now and my inauguration. Because every hour adds to the difficulties I am called upon to meet, and the present administration does nothing to check the tendency towards dissolution. I, who have been called to meet this awful responsibility, am compelled to remain here, doing nothing to avert it or lessen its force when it comes to me. I see the duty devolving upon me. I have read upon my knees the story of Gethsemane, when the Son of God prayed in vain that the cup of bitterness might pass from him. I am in the Garden of Gethsemane now, and my cup of bitterness is full to overflowing.

Each one has his Gethsemane; for each there is a day
When he shall halt, fear-stricken by the darkness in the way;
When he, faint-hearted, weary of the griefs he yet must bear,
Shall turn aside into the shade and soothing calmness there-
Shall turn aside and bow his head, and on his bended knees
Pray that he may not take the cup and drain it to the lees.
-Anonymous.

JANUARY 19

All nations shall call you blessed. Malachi 3:12.

Perpetual Peace and Friendship.

(Extracts from a letter written January 19, 1863, in reply to a testimonial of sympathy and confidence from the workingmen of Manchester, England.)

When I came on the 4th of March, 1861, through a free and constitutional election, to preside in the government of the United States, the country was found at the verge of civil war. Whatever might have been the cause, or whosoever the fault, one duty paramount to all others was before me, namely, to maintain and preserve at once the Constitution and the Federal Republic. A conscientious purpose to perform this duty is the key to all the measures of administration which have been, and to all which will hereafter be pursued. . . . It is now a pleasant duty to acknowledge the demonstration you have given of your desire that a spirit of peace and amity toward this country may prevail in the councils of your Queen, who is respected and esteemed in your own country only more than she is by the kindred nation which has its home on this side of the Atlantic. . . . I hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that, whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exist between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual.

...

Columbia, child of Britain-noblest child;

I praise the glowing luster of thy youth,
And fain would see thy great heart reconciled
To love the mother of 80 blest a birth:
For we are one Columbia! still the same
In lineage, language, and ancient fame,
The natural nobility of earth.

-Tupper.

JANUARY 20

The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord. Revelation 11:15.

Norway and Sweden.

(Reply to speech of minister representing the Kingdom of
Norway and Sweden, January 20, 1865.)

My memory does not recall an instance of disagreement between Sweden and the United States. Your predecessor was most agreeable in his intercourses with this Government, and I greet you with the same good feeling which was entertained for him while he resided with us. . . . You may be assured that on my part every occasion will be improved to exhibit the sincere desire which this Government entertains for the prosperity and welfare of the Government and Kingdom of Sweden and Norway.

America! the sound is like a sword

To smite th' oppressor! like a loving word

To cheer the suffering people, while they pray
That God would hasten on the promised day
When earth shall be like heaven, and men shall stand
Like brothers round an altar, hand in hand.

Oh! ever thus, America, be strong

Like cataracts' thunder pour the freeman's song,
Till struggling Europe joins the glad refrain.
And startled Asia bursts the despot's chain;
And Africa's manumitted sons, from thee
To their own fatherland shall bear the song-
Worth all their toils and tears-of Liberty:
For these good deeds, America, be strong!

-Mrs. Hale.

JANUARY 21

Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

Titus 2:6.

To the Young Men.

(Reported by W. H. Herndon.)

Now, as to the youg men. You must not wait to be brought forward by the older men. For instance, do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men? The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it.

Let, us then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

-Longfellow.