Providentially Prepared for His Career [excerpt]

     While President, he journeyed to Yellowstone Park with John Burroughs for a brief vacation and rest. He left his secretary, physician, and secret service men outside the Park. Then, one quiet day, he requested the privilege of tramping off into a solitude to spend the day all alone. How did he spend such times? No one can declare dogmatically but a conclusion may be safely drawn from one incident related to me by Mr. Leary:

     While campaigning in Canton, Ohio, Mr. Roosevelt suddenly disappeared and a reporter who told me about it finally found him kneeling beside the grave of William McKinley.

When I related this incident to Dr. Lambert, he said, “I could well believe that to be true from my knowledge of him.” He believed in God. Why should he not go apart to take stock of his spiritual supplies and test his relationship to God? Elijah found that the still small voice of direction followed the “strong wind,” the earthquake, and the fire. Why should other prophets be deprived of equal assurance and guidance when sorrows and storms shake their souls? [88][89] If so, then Mr. Roosevelt had such solaces. It was written of Moses “like one who saw the King Invisible he never flinched” (Moffatt translation). That fact can alone explain the life of Theodore Roosevelt.