After the post on Endemic Hypocrisy, which referenced Lincoln’s attitude toward enemies, I happened upon an interesting YouTube video that reported some of Lincoln’s words a few days after the Battle of Gettysburg. He was in Washington, at the bedside of a wounded Northern general, and they were discussing the recently ended famous battle.
Although many in the District of Columbia were worried that the rebel army might succeed in its northern incursion and eventually attack the Capitol, Lincoln told the wounded general that he had not been worried. Here’s what Lincoln reportedly said,
I had no fears of Gettysburg, and, if you really want to know, I will tell you why. Of course, I don’t want you and Colonel Rusling here to say anything about this. At least not now. People might laugh if it got out, you know. But the fact is, in the very pinch of the campaign there, I went to my room one day, got down on my knees, and prayed Almighty God for victory at Gettysburg. I told him that this was his country and that the war was his war, but that we really could not stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. And then and there I made a solemn vow to my maker that if he would stand by you boys at Gettysburg I would stand by him, and after thus wrestling with the Almighty in prayer—I don’t know how it was, and not for me to explain—but somehow or other, a sweet comfort crept into my soul, that God Almighty had taken the whole business there into his own hands, and we were bound to win at Gettysburg. And he did stand by you boys at Gettysburg. And now I will stand by him.
Thanks to Ron, from Life on the Civil War Research Trail.
Here is yet another example of Lincoln’s greatness, not only as a President, but as a human being. Of course, how people expressed religious feelings more than 150 years ago is different from how most of us do now. But whatever Lincoln believed about the Creator, he maintained a humble reverence.
Today’s Presidency is held by a different sort of man, who would never speak to a deity he doesn’t believe in. Instead, he would hold up as a prop for television cameras an upside-down Bible, or be palpably uncomfortable, closing his eyes as duped believers around him lay on hands and pray.
Many Christian supporters think that God has chosen this man and that he advances a divine agenda. If true, I would feel sorry for the Creator. Apparently, no politically capable believer was available. One would think a more capable non-believer would have been preferable. If the Creator acts as these Christians propose, I would call him most inscrutable. Instead, I suspect the inscrutable ones are his so-called followers.