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About this quote

What does it mean?
Lincoln describes how seeing war casualties at Gettysburg led him to commit personally to Christianity despite earlier non-belief.
In plain terms
Seeing dead soldiers at Gettysburg made him believe in and love Jesus.
What can you take from it?
Tragic events can deeply change personal spiritual beliefs.

Where it applies

  • grief processing
  • religious conversion
  • wartime reflection

Putting it to work

  • reflect on personal belief during crisis
  • honor sacrifice through faith

Questions to consider

  • Does suffering always deepen faith?
  • How do we reconcile loss with belief?

Another view

It assumes war trauma is a valid path to faith conversion for everyone.

More from Abraham Lincoln

  1. Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.

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  2. If you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will.

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  3. There is no room for two distinct races of white men in America, much less for two distinct races of whites and blacks. I can conceive of no greater calamity t…

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