We recently celebrated the birth date of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. He certainly displayed the virtue of tolerance in his second inaugural address, proclaiming "...malice toward none, with charity towards all.."Here is another Lincoln quote on tolerance that is worth pondering:
"Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict [slavery] might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both 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; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."
Lincoln was keen to know that we cannot claim that God is on our side. We must hope and trust that WE are on God's side. That should be a Mason's prayer, as well.
