In regard to the change in his religious views, this fact is more questionable, but attested by all who knew him, and by most of his biographers.  As a lawyer in Springfield his religious views, according to his partner and biographer Herndon, were extremely liberal, verging upon those advanced theories which Volney and Thomas Paine advocated, even upon atheism itself.  As he grew older he became more discreet as to the expression of his religious opinions.  Judge Davis, who knew him well, affirms that he had no faith, in the Christian sense, but only in laws, principles, cause and effect,—­that is, he had no belief in a personal God.  No religion seemed to find favor with him except that of a practical and rationalistic order.  He never joined a church, and was sceptical of the divine origin of the Bible, still more of what is called providential agency in this world.  But when the tremendous responsibilities of his office began to press upon his mind, and the terrible calamities he deplored, but could not avert, stirred up his soul in anguish and sadness, then the recognition of the need of assistance higher than that of man, for the guidance of this great nation in its unparalleled trials, became apparent in all his utterances.  When he said, “as God gives us to see the right,” he meant, if he meant anything, that wisdom to act in trying circumstances is a gift, distinct from what is ordinarily learned from experience or study.  This gift, we believe, he earnestly sought.

It must have been a profound satisfaction to Mr. Lincoln that he lived to see the total collapse of the rebellion,—­the fall of Richmond, the surrender of Lee, and the flight of Jefferson Davis,—­the complete triumph of the cause which it was intrusted to him to guard.  How happy he must have been to see that the choice he made of a general-in-chief in the person of Ulysses Grant had brought the war to a successful close, whatever the sacrifices which this great general found it necessary to make to win ultimate success!  What a wonder it is that Mr. Lincoln, surrounded with so many dangers and so many enemies, should have lived to see the completion of the work for which he was raised up!  No life of ease or luxury or exultation did he lead after he was inaugurated,—­having not even time to visit the places where his earlier life was passed; for him there were no triumphal visits to New York and Boston,—­no great ovations anywhere; his great office brought him only hard and unceasing toil, which taxed all his energies.

It was while seeking a momentary relaxation from his cares and duties, but a few weeks after his second inauguration, that he met his fate at the hands of the assassin, from peril of whose murderous designs no great actor on the scene of mortal strife and labor can be said to be free.  All that a grateful and sorrowing nation could do was done in honor of his services and character.  His remains were carried across the land to their last resting-place in Illinois, through our largest cities, with a funeral pageantry unexampled in the history of nations; and ever since, orators have exhausted language in their encomiums of his greatness and glory.