LINCOLN’S
CRITICS RECANT

Topics: Character; Compromise; Convictions; Criticism; Integrity; Leadership; Persecution; Rewards

References: Matthew 10:17–20; Acts 5:27–39

After Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves during the Civil War, he was condemned by the London Times as “a sort of moral American pope” destined to be “Lincoln the Last.”

After Lincoln’s assassination, the paper realized his greatness, saying, “Abraham Lincoln was as little a tyrant as any man who ever lived. He could have been a tyrant if he pleased, but he never uttered so much as an ill-natured speech.”

In the Christian life, there will be times when we must take an unpopular stand—at work, at school, even at church—and stubbornly stick to principle. We will be called all manner of names, but if we’re in God’s will, we will be vindicated, certainly in the next life, but sometimes in this one.

—Thomas Bailey and David Kennedy, eds., The American Pageant, 9th ed. (D. C. Heath, 1991)