February 12, Lincoln's Providence.

O, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His

judgments and how inscrutable His ways.

Romans 11, 33.

Abraham Lincoln, who was born on this day in 1809, remains skeptical.

And at times even cynical about religion into His forties.

So it is a most striking thing, how personal and national suffering drew Lincoln into

the reality of God rather than pushing him away.

In 1862, when Lincoln was 53 years old, his 11-year-old son Willie died.

Lincoln's wife tried to deal with her grief by searching out new age mediums.

Lincoln turned to Phineas Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington.

Several long talks led to what Gurley described as a conversion to Christ.

Lincoln confided that he was driven many times upon his knees by the overwhelming conviction

that I have nowhere else to go.

Similarly, the horrors of the dead and wounded soldiers assaulted him daily.

There were 50 hospitals for the wounded in Washington.

The rotunda of the capital held 2,000 cuts for wounded soldiers.

Typically, 50 soldiers a day died in these temporary hospitals.

All of this drove Lincoln deeper into the providence of God.

We cannot but believe that he who made the world still governs it.

His most famous statement about the providence of God in relation to the Civil War was

his second inaugural address given a month before he was assassinated.

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