Washington and Lincoln

Their birthdays are jointly celebrated giving a commercial and vacation flourish to a three-day weekend. Their memories are mostly anchored to political history, but their spiritual dimensions deserve our attention, especially when some ask whether or not they were true Christians. I will share few facts and quotes, and let you be the judge.

George Washington held religious exercises daily in his military tent for the eight years of the Revolutionary War. He hand wrote a week-long personal prayer schedule. Monday’s includes, "…I have sinned and done very wickedly, be merciful to me, Oh God, and pardon me for Jesus Christ’s sake. … Thou gavest Thy Son to die for me; and hast given me the assurance of salvation …" Clergyman Henry Muhlenberg, a Lutheran pastor in the Valley Forge area, wrote, " … For [Washington]respects God’s Word, believes in the atonement through Christ, and bears himself in humility and gentleness."

Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States with his finger pointing to Psalm 127:1. "Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build." His first official act was to stoop his 6’2" frame and kiss the Bible. Washington’s Mount Vernon tomb is inscribed with John 11:25. "… I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live…"

Abraham Lincoln’s personal faith is a bit more difficult to determine since in his early years he failed to ascribe much value to preaching or preachers. His son Willie died, and the Civil War raged savagely on bringing Lincoln to Gettysburg for his famous address, his attitude changed, and he said he became a Christian. Of the Bible, Lincoln told a friend, "Take all you can on reason and the rest by faith." To Baltimore church members who presented him a Bible, he wrote, "…I believe the Bible is the best gift God’s has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for this book we wouldn’t know right from wrong."

The last legislation Lincoln signed was to include "In God we trust" on our national coins. The Lincoln’s final words before the assassin’s bullet shattered his brain were spoken to his wife who reported, "He said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the Savior. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem."

Rev. Phineas Gurley of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church wrote, "I have had frequent and intimate conversations with him on the Subject of the Bible and the Christian religion, when he could have had no motive to deceive me, and I considered him sound not only on the truth of the Christian religion but on all its fundamental doctrines and teachings. And more than that, in the latter days of his chastened and weary life, after the death of his son Willie, and his visit to the battlefield of Gettysburg, he said, with tears in his eyes, that he had lost confidence in everything but God, and that he now believed his heart was changed, and that he loved the Savior, and, if he was not deceived in himself, it was his intention soon to make a profession of religion.

It is reported that Lincoln intended to publicly profess Christ in Gurley’s church on Easter Sunday, but he was mortally shot on Good Friday evening at Ford’s Theater.

The written witness of two of our greatest presidents apparently indicates their personal salvation. In Lincoln’s case, his profession would have made it much clearer. Our personal opportunity of public profession is a priceless treasure.

Jesus said, "…whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8).

Dave Virkler