////Wills says that Lincoln and the other three held themselves aloof from the organized churches of the day, although they we certainly influenced by Transcendentalism.////

Wm Herndon relayed a story about Lincoln when both men were law partners in Springfield. It had just rained during a cloudburst and the street was muddy with puddles but the sun was coming out. Herndon and Lincoln were walking to their offices talking about business. In front of law office, a black shoeshine boy named Willie was playing in the mud. Lincoln gently scolded him saying, "Willie, you shouldn't be playing in the mud, you know your mother will be angry if you go home with muddy clothes."

Willie replied that he was being careful not to get muddy and that his mother would approve of his activity since he was making a church.

"A church?" exclaimed Lincoln, "What kind of a church, Willie?"

Willie showed him. "There's the walls, see? There's the pews, the pulpit and the steeple."

Lincoln studied Willie's sculpture intently and finally said, "Well, it all seems to be there, Willie, except for one thing: the preacher. Can't have a church without a preacher, Willie, so where is he?"

Willie innocently replied, "Laws, Mr. Lincoln, I didn't have enough mud for that!"

Herndon said Lincoln threw his head back and laughed so hard that Herndon had to help him up the stairs to their offices. According to Herndon, who was a lifelong friend of the president's, Lincoln retold that story hundreds of times until the year of his death never failing to laugh heartily.