SPRINGFIELD (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – The newest thing -- well, actually, it's not new at all -- at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield is a Bible given to President Lincoln in 1864.
In unveiling the newly donated artifact Thursday morning, museum director Alan Lowe said the bible revives debate about Lincoln's spirituality and whether he believed in a higher power.
Lincoln was not a churchgoer; in fact, even though the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield still displays a "Lincoln family pew," he was never a member of any church and was said by some to be a "skeptic," perhaps even an atheist.
Lincoln received the gift during a visit to a fair in Philadelphia. After his death, Mary Lincoln gave it to a friend who was a Baptist minister, and the minister's descendants donated it to the museum.
The Bible is on display in the museum's Treasures Gallery until the end of this year.





