The ever-popular Sarah Palin’s remarks on Lincoln’s belief that we should pray to be on God’s side reminded me of an amusing quote from Lincoln in the book “American Gospel” by John Meacham. Problem is, I don’t remember what the quote was. I remember the story had something to do with Lincoln not standing up during a church service and responding to the minister who brought it up.
Both the aforementioned book and “Team of Rivals” have great quotes from Lincoln, but I’d be interested in starting a thread of Lincoln’s religious quotes, specifically if someone can tell me the quote that I’m looking for in Meacham’s book.
“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.”
"When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees. "
"Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality. "
"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right. "
"In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. "
"I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. "
"I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. "
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them. "
Thing is, Lincoln is awfully hard to categorize in any conventional religious sense. He really was all over the board in his thinking. So, whether you’re a devout Christian, a militant atheist or a Universalist, you will have little trouble finding something Lincoln said or wrote that indicates he was on your side.
My sense is that, intellectually, Lincoln believed in a God who gave meaning and order to the Universe… but that he’d experienced so much pain and heartache in his life (the deaths of his children, in particular) that he couldn’t buy the Christian notion of a warm, loving, benevolent God.
I know. I’ve read a lot about him. I’m just curious about the quotes, especially the one I referenced that took place in a church (or at least during a service).
Well it wasn’t in a Service. But when I think of Lincoln and religion I think of an awesome speech and it “feels” true to me. I am referring to his Farewell Address aka The Farwell Address to Springfeild as I think it is more or less off the cuff and reflects some of his true feelings toward God at that time:
My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.
The is a very interesting and well-reference article on Wikipedia regarding Lincoln’s religious views. One notable quote is from a letter he wrote to Judge J.S. Wakefield in 1862 following the death of his son Willie:
Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity, July 31, 1846: That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or any denomination of Christians in particular…I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.
Letter to Eliza Gurney, September 4, 1864:
*I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers and consolations; and to no one of them, more than to yourself.
*
The Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865: …Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether…”
Letter to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855: Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it, ‘all men are created equal, except negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read, ‘all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.’ When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
I’m pretty sure I know the anecdote you’re looking for.
When Lincoln was running for Congress (the story goes), he stopped into a church. The minister was giving his sermon, and said, “All of you who want to go to heaven, stand up!”. Everyone stood up except for Lincoln. The minister saw him sitting and said, “You, sir! Why don’t you stand? Don’t you want to go to heaven?”