Article April 6, 1899 Issue

Lincoln As a Christian

The Rev. Dr. Charles H. Eaton, in the Church of the Divine Paternity, New York City, preached recently on "Abraham Lincoln's Christian Character." Although Lincoln was not attached to any church, he said, he answered all the tests in his life that could be put to his Christianity.

"If Abraham Lincoln was not a Christian," said Dr. Eaton, "then all the worse for Christianity. If the platform of the Christian religion is not broad enough to furnish standing room for one so pure and lofty as the great emancipator then the Christian religion is fatally weak. And yet the discussion which was carried on with heat and some bitterness at the time of the death of Lincoln has lately been revived, and men are contending together as to the Christian character of the man who saved the Union.

"If we mean by the Christian one who accepts an orthodox creed then Abraham Lincoln was not a Christian. If we mean by Christian one who has associated himself with an established church, identifying himself with its work and dogmas, then Lincoln was not a Christian.

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