Pastor of my dreams - Baptist Bible Tribune

But both Herndon and Ingersoll are correctinsofar that Lincoln, prior to his electionin 1861, was a man untroubled by a deepreligious conviction that was the hallmarkof the age in which he became president.Lincoln had the misfortune of beingboth the catalyst for and the presidentduring the bloodiest war in the nation’shistory. Southern politicians had promisedthat they would foment rebellion ifLincoln, the “black Republican,” becamepresident, and they kept their word.Eventually, 600,000 Americans, north andsouth, died in the rebellion, and Lincoln,a man averse to cruelty and bloodshed,could not help but wonder what role hehad played in causing it.Also, in February of 1862, at thebeginning of the war, Lincoln’s belovedWillie died. Willie’s death drove Mary ToddLincoln to psychic mediums for comfort. InLincoln’s case, it suffused the remainder ofLincoln’s life with the personal grief fromthe loss. Lincoln never overcame his beliefin the “Doctrine of Necessity” and wasfond of quoting a line from Hamlet:There’s a divinity that shapes our endsRough-hew them how we will.In a letter to a grieving daughter of anold friend from his days as a circuit-ridinglawyer in Illinois, after her father had diedin a battle in Mississippi, Lincoln told her toremember that despite the pain “[y]ou aresure to be happy again” adding that whilein “this sad world of ours, sorrow comesto all,” to the young, it “comes with bitteragony, because it takes them unawares.The older have learned to ever expect it.”But underneath the fatalism, Lincolnbegan to understand that a benevolentGod was ordering his life for a purpose.Lincoln was neither the first nor the lastman to be driven back to the faith of hischildhood by personal tragedy. But thejourney back was more poignant underthe tremendous pressure the prosecutionof the war made on Lincoln. The presidentrented a pew at the New York AvenuePresbyterian Church in Washington, andhad a series of discussions with the pastor,Phineas D. Gurley, about the death ofWillie and the assurance that the child wasin heaven. Lincoln began to pepper hisremarks and speeches with direct referencesto God, something that he had notfrequently done before his election.Lincoln told members of the EvangelicalLutheran Church in May of 1862 thathe placed his “whole dependence uponthe favor of God.” In an interview in Octoberof 1862, Lincoln asserted that he wasa “humble instrument in the hands of ourHeavenly Father” who desired that “all myworks and acts may be according to Hiswill.” Lincoln stated that if he had his way,the war would have never commenced,and would already be over, but he confessedthat through some “wise purposeof his own, mysterious and unknown tous” God allowed the war to continue andthat even though he could not understandwhy, with his “limited understanding”Lincoln was confident that “we cannotbut believe, that He who made the worldLincoln wasneither the firstnor the last manto be driven backto the faith ofhis childhood bypersonal tragedy.still governs it.” In 1863, Lincoln invokedthe “gracious favor” of “Almighty God”in issuing the Emancipation Proclamationand hoped that the nation, “under God,”would have a “new birth of freedom,” inthe Gettysburg Address.Some biographers dismiss thesereferences to God as examples of “civicreligion” designed to play to public opinion.Lincoln’s internal thoughts, however,reveal a man not making allowances forpublic opinion, but instead struggling withhow God might be using him in the nation’sgreat struggle. In a private note thatLincoln wrote in September of 1862, heforeshadowed arguments that he woulduse during the Second Inaugural Address:The will of God prevails. In greatcontests each party claims to act inaccordance with the will of God. Bothmay be, and one must be wrong. Godcannot be for and against the samething at the same time. In the presentcivil war it is quite possible that God’spurpose is something different fromthe purposes of either party — and yetthe human instrumentalities, workingjust as they do are the best adaptationto effect His purposes. I am almostready to say that this is probably true— that God wills this contest, and willsthat it shall not end yet.That Lincoln read the Bible prior to becomingpresident is without question. Asmost Americans of the mid-19th century,it was probably one of the first books thatLincoln read. Prior to his election, Lincolnhad used Jesus’ rebuke to the Phariseesconcerning attributing Christ’s miracles toSatan in his “House Divided” speech in1858. Such biblical references were easilyrecognizable to the Americans of Lincoln’sday who would have known instantly fromwhere the reference came. These referenceswere more than just rhetorical flourisheson Lincoln’s part. In the summer of 1864,Lincoln’s old friend, Joshua Speed, foundLincoln reading his Bible. Speed complimentedLincoln on being so “profitablyengaged” but stated that if Lincoln hadrecovered from his “skepticism,” Speedhad not. Lincoln admonished his old friendhe was wrong, and advised that “take allof this book upon reason that you can,and the balance on faith, and you will live12 Baptist Bible Tribune [ February 2009 ]