The intended quote is, "The brave men, living and dead who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract." Lincoln is arguing a soldier's struggle is holy and blessed by God. He also feels that his words, or anyone else's, cannot truly capture the magnitude of a soldier's sacrifice.

One should not take Lincoln's words to mean the war was a holy crusade. Elsewhere, Lincoln noted both sides claimed God was on their side, but obviously, he continued, God could not be on both sides, and the faith and belief of both sides was sincere. Abolitionists condemned slavery as inconsistent with Christian defense of the helpless and the equality of all children of God. Slavery defenders pointed to Israelite leaders owning slaves and distorted the story of the Sons of Ham, allegedly the first African.

The consensus over time is that the Gettysburg Address is among the most eloquent of anything spoken not just by Lincoln, but any American president. Nothing else Lincoln said or wrote, including his famed inaugural addresses and the Lincoln Douglass Debates, are as well known or as often quoted.

Lincoln was actually a Deist for most of his life; he believed in God or a god but not in organized religion. Late in his life, when his young son died suddenly, Lincoln and his wife, Mary, turned to the Spiritualist Church and actually held seances hoping to contact their deceased son.