nts who
had lost their sons in battle; and when his personal friend, young
Ellsworth, one of the first and most gallant to fall, was killed at
Alexandria, the President directed that his body be brought to the White
House, where his funeral was held in the great East Room.

Though a member of no church, Mr. Lincoln was most sincerely religious
and devout. Not only was his daily life filled with acts of forbearance
and charity; every great state paper that he wrote breathes his faith
and reliance on a just and merciful God. He rarely talked, even with
intimate friends, about matters of belief, but it is to be doubted
whether any among the many people who came to give him advice and
sometimes to pray with him, had a better right to be called a Christian.
He always received such visitors courteously, with a reverence for their
good intention, no matter how strangely it sometimes manifested itself.
A little address that he made to some Quakers who came to see him in
September, 1862, shows both his courtesy to them personally, and his
humble attitude toward God.

"I am glad of this interview, and glad to know that I have your sympathy
and prayers. We are indeed going through a great trial, a fiery trial.
In the very responsible position in which I happen to be placed, being a
humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father as I am, and as
we all are, to work out His great purposes, I have desired that all my
works and acts may be according to His will, and that it might be so
I have sought His aid; but if, after endeavoring to do my best in the
light which he affords me, I find my efforts fail, I must believe that
for some purpose unknown to me, He wills it otherwise. If I had had my
way, this war would never have been commenced. If I had been allowed my
way, this war would have been ended before this; but we find it still
continues, and we must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose
of His own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though with our limited
understandings we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we cannot but
believe that He who made the world still governs it."

Children held a warm place in the President's affections. He was not
only a devoted father; his heart went out to all little folk. He had
been kind to babies in his boyish days, when, book in hand, and the
desire for study upon him, he would sit with one foot on the rocker of a
rude frontier cradle, not too selfishly busy to keep its sm