He Can Who Thinks He Can

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I. HE CAN WHO THINKS HE CAN



PROMISED my God I would do it.” In September, 1862, when Lincoln issued his preliminary emancipation proclamation, the sublimest act of the nineteenth century, he made this entry in his diary ” I promised my God I would do it.” Does any one doubt that such a mighty resolution added power to this marvelous man ; or that it nerved him to accomplish what he had undertaken? Neither ridicule nor caricature neither dread of enemies nor desertion of friends, could shake his indomitable faith in his ability to lead the nation through the greatest struggle in its history.

Napoleon, Bismarck, and all other great achievers had colossal faith in themselves. It doubled, trebled, or even quadrupled the ordi- nary power of these men. In no other way can we account for the achievements of Luther, Wesley, or Savonarola. Without this sublime faith, this confidence in her mission, how could the simple country maiden, Jeanne d’Arc, have led and controlled the French army? This divine self-confidence multiplied her power a thousandfold, until even the king obeyed her, and she led his stalwart troops as if they were children.

After William Pitt was dismissed from office, he said to the Duke of Devonshire, ” I am sure I can save this country, and that no- body else can.” ” For eleven weeks,” says Bancroft, ” England was without a minister. At length the king and aristocracy recognized Pitt’s ascendency, and yielded to him the reins.”

It was his unbounded confidence in his ability that compelled the recognition and led to the supremacy in England of Benjamin Disraeli, the once despised Jew. He did not quail or lose heart when the hisses and jeers of the British parliament rang in his ears. He sat down amid the jeering members, saying, ” You will yet hear me.”
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