[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Wednesday, February 12, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all.  For those of us scattered along the eastern seaboard of the United States north of Florida, I hope that you are preparing for the severe weather that's supposed to visit our area.  I hear from my neighbor that in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, that there are over 200,000 places without electricity as I write this, and that the governor has declared a state of emergency.  Pray that they can weather the storm, and if there are any people reading this who live in the city or its suburbs, well all I can say is that we are all pulling for you.

Here in the United States, today is the birthday of the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, born in 1809 in a log cabin some three miles south of Hogensville KY close to Elizabethtown KY.  On the occasion of his birthday, I've an article originally published in a magazine some years ago called "Pulpit Helps" that was also published in the Gospel Messenger magazine, the house organ of the Gospel Association for the Blind, that I'd like to share with you today.  It's entitled "Lincoln At the Cross" and is rather long, but I hope that, if you are Christian Americans with an interest in Christian history, that you will appreciate it.  It is rendered as follows:

We often learn best from the examples of others.  This is true in the spiritual realm, as well as the secular.  Many of us are what we are today because of the example of a godly mother, father, relative, or friend whose influence touched us in a special way.

The spiritual example of President Abraham Lincoln is of significance to us, too.

In the formative years of Lincoln's life, he sat on his godly mother's knee and listened to the Ten Commandments from Holy Scriptures.  During later years, Lincoln would recount that these were among his fondest memories of boyhood.  The Biblical teachings would have an effect on his daily life and behavior.  But was he a Christian?

Lincoln's honesty is proverbial.  He walked several miles just to return a penny that was overpaid to him in a business transaction.  As a lawyer, he defended the poor--free of charge.  To every attempted bribe, he responded with a flat refusal.  Even today, we know him as "Honest Abe." When asked about honesty, he replied, "Whenever I am confronted with some temptation, I can still hear vividly in my mind the tone of my mother's voice saying, I am the Lord thy god... Thou shalt not steal!"

Although he was but nine years old when his mother died, Lincoln continued to attend church with his stepmother and her daughter, Sarah.  Each child sat on one side of the mother--there they sat, Abraham and Sarah.

Yet, for all of Lincoln's outstanding personal character and knowledge, the evidence shows that he had not yet acknowledged Christ as his Savior.

Next came the period when Lincoln went into politics.  His life was being transformed and fused by the power of God.  Lincoln was going to Washington, D.C.  On his way, someone sent a flag with the following words inscribed:  "Be strong and of good courage:  be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed:  for the Lord thy God is with thee wheresoever thou goest" (Joshua 1:9).

These words became a source of limitless courage to Lincoln.  For although he was described as unattractive, illiterate, self-opinionated, and ill-mannered, he was putting forth efforts to amend his character by turning to the Word of God to find strength and guidance.  He was clay in the hands of the Lord.

To honesty, Lincoln added courtesy, humility and vision.  Yet, something was missing.  Lincoln's personal bodyguard had this to say about him, "The misery that dripped from Lincoln as he walked was caused by his lack of personal religious faith."

How could this be? How could the great Abraham Lincoln be said to lack religious faith? He thought of God as being distant and remote, as One who ordained the temporal affairs of men.  But he had not come to a personal relationship with Him as the One who sent His only begotten Son into history to suffer and die upon the cross in payment for sins, so that we, in turn, might repent of them, put our trust in His merits and sacrifice, and so be saved through eternity.

During the Civil War, Lincoln faced sorrow--public and private.  Over and over again during the conflict, he was seen praying--sometimes all night long, "O God, I cannot lead this people.  O God, unless Thou dost help us, we shall have no victory.  O God, help me.  Thou, Lord, must help."

One evening his friends left him sitting by the fireplace, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands.  They came back the following morning to find him still in the same position.  As they stepped quietly into the room, they could hear him praying in agonizing tones, over and over again, "O God, O God, if it be possible let this cup pass from me."

Lincoln's sorrow was private, too.  His son, the apple of his eye, the delight and joy of his life, was stricken with a severe illness.  Day after day, the president stood watch by his son's bed, along with the nurse.  Toward the end, Lincoln became so anxious and overwhelmed that, when the boy died, the nurse thought the president was going to go to pieces.  It seemed as though he might never continue his work.

But the nurse who stood with Lincoln during those hours of agony was a Christian.  During this wave of grief, she took opportunities to point Lincoln toward the cross and the Savior.

Some believe it was her influence, more than any other, which made possible his conversion a short while later at Gettysburg.  There, as Lincoln viewed the thousands upon thousands of crosses marking graves of the war dead, he came face to face with Christ.  He wrote in a letter to a friend, "When I came to Springfield, I was not a Christian.  When I left Springfield for Washington and asked you to pray for me, I was not a Christian.  When I went to Gettysburg, I was not a Christian.  But there at Gettysburg, I consecrated my heart to Christ."

He who had freed the slaves now was freed from the shackles of his sins--and had found the new birth that comes to those who trust in Jesus Christ.  "With tears in his eyes, Lincoln told his friends that he had at last found the faith that he had longed for.  He realized, he said, that his heart was changed and that he loved the Savior.  The president was at the cross!" says one historian.

Further evidence of Lincoln's conversion to Christ was uncovered recently (2005) when the New York Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C., where Lincoln was a regular attendant, a letter in its archives signed by the President shortly before his death.  The letter states that he had given a great deal of thought to the question of his soul's salvation, and he was ready to make a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.  The letter was dated Tuesday, April 13, 1865.  His reception into the church was set for Sunday, April 18, 1865.  But barely 24 hours after he signed this letter, there rang through the Ford Theater the "maddest pistol shot in the history of the ages," says a historian.  And Abraham Lincoln died.

That night of April 14, Lincoln went with his wife to the theater.  The play was nearing its end when they had arrived, but he was not watching it.  His wife, Mary, was at his side.  He was leaning in his chair and talking to her.  There was a lilt in his voice.  The long war and the struggle was over.  The victory was won.  The union was secure.

What were Lincoln's last words on that fateful night? He said, "Mary, you know what I would like most of all in the world to do? I would like to take you with me on a trip to the Near East.  We could go to Palestine.  We could visit Bethlehem, where He was born."

At this point, John Wilkes Booth stepped into the box.

Lincoln went on, "We could go to Nazareth--and Bethany."

Booth lifted the gun toward the president's head.

"And, Mary," the president continued, "we could go up to Jeru--."

A shot rang out.  The consequence was death.

I am convinced that Lincoln rose up because the Lord raised him up.  Lincoln heard the bugle's trill, he heard the bells ringing; Lincoln saw the faces exalting as he was welcomed by an innumerable host into heavenly glory.  Why? Because Lincoln trusted in Christ, who died for him.

Lincoln can teach us that it is not sufficient to think we are respectable morally and that we are law abiding.  Nor is it sufficient that we feel deserving of Heaven because we have suffered so much here below.  What matters is that we have gone in spirit to the "green hill far away without the city wall, where our dear Lord was crucified and died to save us all."

And there you have it for today.  Even if you aren't an American, I hope and pray that the example of Abraham Lincoln those many years ago will embolden you to be courageous in tough times.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, tomorrow there will be another Daily Thought message for you.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul