“His Own Purposes”

The following is a passage from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural speech (March 4, 1865): “Both [North and South] read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces. . . . The prayers of both could not be answered. . . . The Almighty has his own purposes.”