4-13-15<\/p>\n
April 15th. A Day That Will Live in Infamy. No… not Income Tax day. It is the day Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed. This year, it is the sesquicentennial of the horrible crime \u2013 150 years ago. My readers know that I revere Theodore Roosevelt above almost all Americans in history, and for myriad reasons. Yet I think that Lincoln was the closest we have had to a civic saint: certainly a secular saint for his wisdom, actions, and imparted words. I think so partly because he was not exalted, except by ballots, but more as he was the simplest of men; common; honest. <\/p>\n
TR\u2019s way of reaching the same assessment of Lincoln was to say (also about
\nWashington): \u201cThere have been other men as great and other men as good; but in all the history of mankind there are no other two great men as good as these.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anniversaries are useful things when they suggest to us reasons to remember, or set us to seriously think about worthwhile things. Lincoln left us 150 years ago. But that sentence is wrong, at least certainly inadequate as to the situation. And the situation is this: Abraham Lincoln was a once-in-a-lifetime man; that is, the lifetime of a nation. There was little that could have predicted his greatness; his elevation to the presidency, over many famous and seasoned rivals, was an anomaly; and his decisions, despite frequent controversy, were brilliant \u2013 exactly what was needed to preserve the Union.<\/p>\n
More than anything, we are struck by Lincoln\u2019s humanity. He was forever patient. He arrived at policies through anguish, but he executed them firmly. He knew firsthand the turmoil of broken families, brothers fighting brothers. And suffered all these painful tests and duties. We know he kept his sense of humor. But what I have come to admire as much as any other trait is Lincoln\u2019s faith.<\/p>\n
It is a matter of debate how \u201creligious\u201d Lincoln was; whether he accepted Jesus as the Son of God; whether he believed in salvation or the need of personal salvation. It is not a matter of debate that he seldom attended or joined churches. It is a matter of record that he read the Bible his entire life, quoted even obscure verses often, and laced his speeches and writing with Bible quotations, scriptural allusions, King James cadences.<\/p>\n
We cannot judge most of these things: some close friends like his longtime Illinois law partner Billy Herndon claimed that Lincoln was a gnarly heathen \u2013 but Herndon\u2019s relationship was always rocky, and he wrote a biography of Lincoln after the assassination that sniped at a hundred particulars. Lincoln\u2019s personal secretary John Hay, however, testified to Lincoln\u2019s spiritual struggles, and his reliance on prayer in the White House. This at a time, generally, of private expressions of faith, when many Christians thought that respecting Christ\u2019s teachings was more important than affirming His divinity (this is not a recent phenomenon!), and when Old Testament lessons were preached more than New Testament parables. And most babies received Hebrew names.<\/p>\n
But I am here to appreciate the aspect of Lincoln\u2019s faith that is beyond doubt. God never resents whatever crises bring us to our knees, but clearly the pressures of holding a country together and prosecuting a horrendous war… coincided with Lincoln\u2019s growing faith. It is inspiring to read of this evolution (and I have read more than 65 books on Lincoln, including his complete letters and all his speeches), but more inspiring is to read his own words themselves.<\/p>\n
There was a steady progression of appeals to God… invocations of Providence… seeking the Lord\u2019s guidance… biblical quotations… allusions to Bible history… setting aside national days of prayer, as well as fasting, humiliation, and thanksgiving, multiple times. By the end of the war, the speeches and proclamations of President Abraham Lincoln resembled sermons. Always beseeching God in humility, never presumptuous. Always inspiring.<\/p>\n
It is this Lincoln we remember today. Some of his quotations included his
\nreference in the first inaugural address to \u201ca firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land.\u201d In the second address, \u201cthe judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.\u201d And of course his reference in the Gettysburg Address that this \u201cnation shall under God have a new birth of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
A proclamation: In private communication, 1862: About his black moments when Lee\u2019s army invaded Pennsylvania, Lincoln wrote: During the war, Lincoln responded to someone\u2019s wish that \u201cthe Lord was on the Lincoln said about the Bible: And other reflections: God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way. I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.<\/span><\/p>\n As we remember Abraham Lincoln on the sesquicentennial of his murder, his + + +<\/p>\n Here is a country version of \u201cWhat a Friend We Have in Jesus\u201d \u2013 perhaps evoking Lincoln\u2019s roots in Kentucky, Indiana, and central Illinois \u2013 with a story of the president granting a condemned soldier\u2019s pardon, in the spirit of Christ. (The secretary in the real story was not Secretary of State Seward, as pictured here, but his personal secretary John M Hay.)<\/p>\n
\nIt is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of God; to bow in humble submission to His chastisement; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and to pray, with all fervency and contrition, for the pardon of their past offenses, and for a blessing upon their present and prospective action. And whereas when our own beloved country, once, by the blessings of God, united, prosperous and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him and to pray for His mercy.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nWe are indeed going through a great trial \u2013 a fiery trial. In the very responsible position in which I happened to be placed, being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am, and as we all are, to work out His great purposes, I have desired that all my works and acts may be according to His will, and that it might be so, I have sought His aid.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nWhen everyone seemed panic-stricken… I went to my room… and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed… Soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into His own hands….<\/span><\/p>\n
\nUnion’s side.\u201d Lincoln responded:
\nI am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nIn regard to this Great Book, I have but to say I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nI have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction
\nthat I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed
\ninsufficient for that day.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nmartyrdom, we should be inspired anew by his words. And reflect on the contrast between the words of a president once called an \u201cagnostic, deist, infidel\u201d; and the words of a contemporary president whose mentions of Christianity are often to criticize it and its adherents, even if having to reach back a thousand years.<\/p>\n