What did Lincoln say about religion and God?

Religion and God were matters I turned to with increasing seriousness as the weight of the war pressed upon me. Let me speak plainly from my own record. In my letter to Eliza P. Gurney, written in September of 1864, I put it this way: “The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance” I went on to say that we had hoped for an earlier end to the terrible war, but that God knows best. My posture was one of humility before a Providence I could not fully read. In my Second Inaugural Address, I wrestled openly with the question of why God permitted so terrible a conflict. I put the hard truth to my countrymen that the prayers of both sides could not be fully answered, and I wrote: “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away” Yet I would not flinch from the possibility that God willed its continuation as a just reckoning for the sin of slavery. I also said, in receiving the Bible presented by the Loyal Colored People of Baltimore, “it is the best gift God has given to man” I never claimed a settled theological system. I claimed only that some great purpose was working through events no mortal could make or stay — and that we must work earnestly in the best light God gives us.