Document Text
I am glad of this interview, and glad to know that I have your sympathy and prayers. We are indeed going through a great trial---a fiery trial. In the very responsible position in which I happen to be placed, being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am, and as we all are, to work out his great purposes, I have desired that all my works and acts may be according to his will, and that it might be so, I have sought his aid---but if after endeavoring to do my best in the light which he affords me, I find my efforts fail, I must believe that for some purpose unknown to me, He wills it otherwise If I had had my way, this war would never have been commenced; If I had been allowed my way this war would have been ended before this, but we find it still continues; and we must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose of his own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though with our limited understandings we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we cannot but believe, that he who made the world still governs it.
Close Reading
In Depth Close Reading
A truly great, but long, close reading which addresses this document and many other facets of Abraham Lincoln's religion was done by Marybeth Donnelly. It can be found below.
Bibliography
Donnelly, Marybeth. Lincoln’s First Letter to Eliza P. Gurney, a Quaker (a Close Reading). Quora.
https://abrahamlincoln.quora.com/Lincoln%E2%80%99s-First-Letter-to-Eliza-P-Gurney-a-Quaker
Lincoln, Abraham. Reply to Eliza Gurneyl, [26 October 1862], , in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 5: 478 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/.
https://abrahamlincoln.quora.com/Lincoln%E2%80%99s-First-Letter-to-Eliza-P-Gurney-a-Quaker
Lincoln, Abraham. Reply to Eliza Gurneyl, [26 October 1862], , in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 5: 478 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/.