This post could very well be one of the most important lessons for America collectively, as well as individually, read carefully. Frankie The Earthman.
First we must reflect on the history of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. We must learn the turning points of the Civil War and look at what actually happened at the end.
Before you read Lincolns speech, Look at the battles of Vicksburg, Port Gibson, Gettysburg, and Chancellorsville. My point being, everything changed in a three day period. It began with Lincoln calling for a National Day of Prayer on April 30th, 1863. Look for yourself at what occurred on May 1st and May 2nd, Then look at the following Lincoln speech.
Note: What if the South had won the Civil War? What if it was only the North that remained as a remnant of what was the United States, the 36 States. What country would have been around to fight in World War I and World War II and other conflicts? Consider this and more as you study. Do we see how Lincoln’s understanding of “If my people will humble themselves, then I will hear in heaven” … led him to call for this national day of prayer which changed the outcome of not only the Civil War, but future world conflicts?
Lincon’s speech: Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the holy scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord; And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of Civil War which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do buy this my proclamation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits,
and to unite at their several places of public worship in their respective homes in keeping the day wholly to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of are now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace. (Abraham Lincoln.)
We as a people must see that God’s Word is eternal. Can we see today’s headlines in Lincoln’s speech? The suggestions in Lincoln’s speech need to be understood as being as relevant for today’s divisions as they were in Lincoln’s day, if not more so. Frankie The Earthman.
Note: Inspiration for this post gleaned from J. Cahn’s Harbinger 2, the chapter concerning THE RETURN.
Don’t overlook the relevance of Lincoln’s speech, that is beyond evident.
Frankie The Earthman 