Never trust a theologian who doesn't have a sense of humor.

It is most remarkable that Lincoln, when he saw so much that was vulnerable in the leadership of the Church, did not move to the opposite error and become a scoffer.

The ultimate verification of our religion consists of the changed lives to which it can point and for which it is responsible.

We need to be agnostics first and then there is some chance at arriving at a sensible system of belief.

Man is most free when he is most guided.

One of the noblest words in our language is grace, defined as unearned blessing. We live by grace far more than by anything else. Accordingly, I find that the one thing which I want to put into practice in my own life is the conscious and deliberate habit of finding someone to thank.

Deeply convinced of the reality of the divine will, he (Lincoln) had no patience at all with any who were perfectly sure they knew the details of the divine will.

It takes a noble man to plant a seed for a tree that will someday give shade to people he may never meet.

Engineering is a predictive science, not a manipulative art.

The more we study the early Church, the more we realize that it was a society of ministers. About the only similarity between the Church at Corinth and a contemporary congregation, either Roman Catholic or Protestant, is that both are marked, to a great degree, by the presence of sinners.

Thoughtful people are concerned with the future because that is the only area of experience about which anything can be done. We cannot change the past, and the present is gone as soon as it is reported, but the future is that in which we can make a difference.

From the prophets of Israel Lincoln had learned the note will idea that there can be serving people, with responsibility to the entire family of man.

In the Church he (Lincoln) saw people who, though they hated war as much as the editors did, saw with clarity what the moral alternative was.

Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation. D.

Lincoln had entirely outgrown juvenile delight in religious argument. Talking with God seemed to the mature Lincoln more important than talking about Him.

It is the vocation of the Christian in every generation to out-think all opposition.

The Biblical language was so deeply embedded in the great man's mind that it became his normal way of speaking.

His (Lincoln's) patriotism was saved from idolatry by the overwhelming sense of the sovereignty of God.

The spoken word is never really effective unless it is backed up by a life, but it is also true that the living deed is never adequate without the support the spoken word can provide.

Our religion is one which challenges the ordinary human standards by holding that the ideal of life is the spirit of a little child. We tend to glorify adulthood and wisdom and worldly prudence, but the Gospel reverses all this. The Gospel says that the inescapable condition of entrance into the divine fellowship is that we turn and become as a little child.