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THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
I believe the will of God prevails;
Without Him all human reliance is vain;
Without the assistance of that Divine Being I cannot succeed;
With that assistance I cannot fail.
I believe I am a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father;
I desire that all my works and acts be according to His
will;
And that it may be so I give thanks to the Almighty and seek His aid.
Abraham Lincoln
(formulated by Carl Sandburg from Lincoln's own words; from The War Years).
"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have
been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in
numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have
forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace,
and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in
the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some
superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we
have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us,
then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national
sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."
Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting,
Humility and Prayer on April 30, 1863
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