Quotes by Elton Trueblood

“A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.”

“The unexamined faith is not worth having.”

“The world is equally shocked at hearing Christianity criticized and seeing it practiced.”

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

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

He (Lincoln) recognized the delicate balance between immanence and transcendence, refusing to settle for either of these alone. His was a God who was both in the world and above the world.

He (Lincoln) was accustomed to hearing words, many of them boring, but he was not accustomed to group silence.

(The death of his child) was the first experience of his life, so far as we know, which drove him to look outside of his own mind and heart for help to endure a personal grief. It was the first time in his life when he had not been sufficient for his own experience.

Lincoln matured best in sorrow.

He (Lincoln) differed from fanatical moralists primarily in that he was always perplexed. No sooner did he believe he was doing Gods will that he began to admit that Gods purposes might be different from his own. In short, he never forgot the mens contrast between the absolute goodness of God and the faltering goodness of all who are in the finite predicament.

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

Take all of this Book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man.

He (Lincoln) saw how intellectually and spiritually impoverished a person would be if he was limited to his own personal resources. The Bible, he recognized, vastly enlarged the area of experience on which an individual might depend.

Upon being given a Bible, President Abraham Lincoln replied, In regard to this Great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man.

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.

A major element in Lincolns greatness was the way in which he could hold a strong moral position without the usual accompaniment of self-righteousness.

The key to Lincolns famous employment of humor is not that he failed to appreciate the tragic aspects of human existence, but rather that he felt these with such keeness that some relief was required.

Man is most free when he is most guided.

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

Always, in Lincolns mature theology, there is paradox. There is starting this, yet there is also tenderness; there is melancholy, yet there is also humor: there is moral law, yet there is also compassion. History is the scene of the working out Gods justice, which we can never escape, but it is also the scene of the revelation of the everlasting mercy.