Elton Trueblood, Abraham Lincoln: Lessons In Spiritual Leadership Quotes
Lincoln had entirely outgrown juvenile delight in religious argument. Talking with God seemed to the mature Lincoln more important than talking about Him.
He (Lincoln) recognized the delicate balance between immanence and transcendence, refusing to settle for either of these alone. His was a God who was both in the world and above the world.
He (Lincoln) was accustomed to hearing words, many of them boring, but he was not accustomed to group silence.
The Biblical language was so deeply embedded in the great man's mind that it became his normal way of speaking.
Upon being given a Bible, President Abraham Lincoln replied, "In regard to this Great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man.
Deeply convinced of the reality of the divine will, he (Lincoln) had no patience at all with any who were perfectly sure they knew the details of the divine will.
A major element in Lincoln's greatness was the way in which he could hold a strong moral position without the usual accompaniment of self-righteousness.
Man is most free when he is most guided.
His (Lincoln's) patriotism was saved from idolatry by the overwhelming sense of the sovereignty of God.
He was too perplexed to please the conventional and too reverent. to please the infidels.
God, Lincoln believed, is seen more clearly events that in nature, though He maybe seen there also. It is a majestic thing, thought Lincoln, for a person to be RESPONSIBLE.
It is most remarkable that Lincoln, when he saw so much that was vulnerable in the leadership of the Church, did not move to the opposite error and become a scoffer.
The question, he (Lincoln) said over and over, is not what a man's particular abilities may be, but what his rights are as a human being made in God's image.