The Almighty has His own purposes

The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.

- Lincoln knew that history was full of chastisements, and indeed purifications greater than the Civil War were lurking. The Lord hated false gods and that was what scientism was creating: a god of technology. The telegraph was taking the place of prayer and electricity the place of the Holy Spirit. Through chemistry men were transmuting reality and thus scientism – the obsessive overuse of science – was even denying God His role as Creator. While expertly documenting evolution, which simply meant an “unfolding,” Darwin made the grave error of attributing that unfolding not to God but to “natural selection.” Such a theory purveyed the mechanical and rationalistic notion that mere freaks of nature, mutation, guided the way organisms developed.
- Life was a grand mistake!...It was absurd and arrogant, an affront to logic, but it’s what the devil wanted: denunciation of the supernatural element. If there was not supernatural, there was no God.
- …Thus Satan was trying to undermine faith. Thus was he trying to quash spiritual sight. But his problem was the Virgin Mary, who by her mere presence blasted a hole in atheism. – Michael Brown

Michael Brown is the Web Master for http://www.spiritdaily.com and author of several books, including The Last Secret, quoted above, p.251-252. ISBN 1-56955-023-9