Thomas Freiling - Abraham Lincolns Daily Treasure. Moments of Faith with Americas Favorite President

2002 by Thomas Freiling

Published by Revell

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.revellbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-1957-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Unless otherwise marked, Scripture is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked RSV is taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Contents

Acknowledgments

I want to thank the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago for finding for me early twentieth-century, out-of-print books about Lincolns religious views. The books of Edgar DeWitt, William J. Wolf, William Barton, and Dr. G. George Fox all provided invaluable research and resources.

Im also grateful to Brian Peterson, acquisitions editor at Baker Book House, for allowing me the opportunity to share this treasure. Thanks also to Cheryl England, who dutifully transcribed notes and manuscripts. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Nancy, for her enduring support. She always helps the most.

Introduction

In this book I offer the reader daily doses of Abraham Lincolns spiritual and moral axioms equaling a years worth of godly advice from Americas greatest president. I call them daily treasures, first, because many of them are based on a nineteenth-century devotional book used by Lincoln during the Civil War entitled The Believers Daily Treasure. The second reason I call them treasures is because they will make you rich. Read them and youll abound in godly wisdom and spiritual truth.

This book does not argue or contend. It does not build a case for or against what Lincoln believed about religion. Opinions based on evidence that seems to point in different directions vary widely and did even when he was alive. But this book does not weigh that evidence. That kind of scrutiny is best left to scholars and historians. I certainly have my own views, which Ill share with you. But my aim in this book is not to analyze. It is to inspire and motivate, to stir your soul with spiritual nuggets of the things Lincoln said and wrote about God, prayer, faith, and morality.

Lincolns life was no easy road. He was poverty-stricken, self-taught, and for much of his life, a failure. He grieved the loss of his mother and two sons. He was homely and awkward. Yet he somehow got through it, rising above the depths of depression to become one of historys most venerable figures. From a lowly frontiersman to commander in chief and emancipator, Lincoln grew in stature until the day of his death. Even today his image looms larger than life on the landscape of American history. If ever an American statesman reached a legendary, almost immortal status, it was Lincoln. Leo Tolstoy called him a Christ in miniature.

This book gives you the proverbs of this great man, Abraham Lincoln, along with my own remarks and observations relating them to our lives today. This book will help you answer the question What would Lincoln do? Indeed, what Lincoln said 150 years ago does apply today. Like the Scripture itself, Lincolns words are alive with the truth. They have a perpetual freshness and will live as long as the conscience and memory of man, according to Lincoln archivist Archer Shaw.

If youre struggling to overcome the odds, if youve experienced great grief or loss in your life, or if it looks like youre about to lose a job or promotion, let Lincolns words forge a way out. If you struggle to be honest, loyal, or humble, let Lincoln go to work on your character. If you give no time to God, struggle to find Gods will. If you have no need of Gods Word, let Lincoln stir your soul.

I discovered The Believers Daily Treasure while browsing the dusty shelves of a used-book store. You see, Im a rare book collector. While others spend their time on the golf course, I can be found at antiquarian book shops. I especially like to collect books about American history and government, probably because of my career in Washington, D.C., at the United States House of Representatives.

The small devotional, originally published in England in 1852, was filled with Scripture, prose, and poetry for every day of the year. This particular edition of The Believers Daily Treasure contained notes written by Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg.

Sandburg wrote that a well-worn copy of this pocket-size book, inscribed with Lincolns own signature, had been discovered in an old library. Sandburg surmised that the long-lost book might indeed have been the pocket Bible Lincoln reportedly read from during the Civil War. Sandburg said that inside its pages Lincoln could come upon many sentences and phrases famous, important and often quoted; and many of the passages in the book could have had special interest to him.

It was quite exciting to read the same devotions Lincoln may have used during his own personal prayer and meditation time. If Lincoln drew strength from it to overcome all sorts of obstacles, then I wanted some of that strength too! I found the devotions to be quite inspiring.

As I meditated with The Believers Daily Treasure, I also began collecting my favorite Lincoln adages and combining them with reading from it. The combination of old-fashioned, Bible-based devotions and Lincolns own spiritual words were, I thought, a real treasure. Thats how this book was born.

I learned a lot about Lincoln as I edited this book, mostly about how much he relied on religious and spiritual principles to get by in life, to make important decisions, to comfort himself in sorrow, and to develop stronger character.

There is no doubt Abraham Lincoln wrote and said more about religion and spirituality than any other president in American history. From public podiums to private letters and conversations, Lincoln made it evident that he took the matter seriously. And while there is admittedly some conflicting evidence, I see no reason to believe Abraham Lincoln was anything but a Christian in the historical sense of the word.

In doing research for this book, I found that modern historians mostly avoid the topic. Maybe they dont want to admit what they know theyll find. While many books have been published about Lincoln, only a handful of them discuss his religious beliefs. There are books about his military prowess during the Civil War, his views on slavery, his oratorical skills, and his political ambitions. Hundreds of books focus on his tragic assassination, while others focus on his childhood and life as a young frontiersman. There are books filled with quotes and quips and others with stories. Some books look at Lincoln from the perspective of those who knew him best, while others are written from the perspective of Lincoln himself. There are books to help you apply Lincolns management style in your small business, books about his relationships with women, and even one that reveals the secrets of his DNA code. But there are almost no books in print about Lincolns faith in God. The best I could find was part of a book written by Marvin Olasky, senior fellow of The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. In his The American Leadership Tradition, Olasky looks at the Christian influences in Lincolns life. But in compiling and editing this book, I had to look back more than half a century to find any complete books devoted to the subject.