God’s sovereignty. Similarly, those who do not believe in a divine being but rather in the processes of history also have an obligation to the past. If man’s story in this world is all the truth we have, then how much heavier is our responsibility to it, how much more sacred our devotion to fact? Perhaps more than most figures from the past, Lincoln’s life demands this fidelity to history as it was lived. He always surprises, always resists confinement to the forms and definitions imposed upon him. He