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LINCOLN'S RELIGION
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spirits, and talked with a personal God. Although in apparent opposition to his tendencies to fatalism, he yet believed in the direct intervention of God in our national affairs, and he frequently used to ask Him in a direct, manly way to grant this boon, avert that disaster, or advise him what to do in a given contingency. "The Mystics," says Murdock, "profess a pure, sublime, and perfect devotion, wholly disinterested, and maintain that in calm and holy contemplation, they have direct intelligence with the Divine Spirit, and acquire a knowledge of Divine things which is unattainable by the reasoning faculty." In religion, Lincoln was in essence a mystic, and all his adoration was in accordance with the tenets of that order.
