Posted on 11/25/2008 8:10:31 PM PST by dvan
“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."
What?! Didn’t Lincoln know about the separation of church & state? I’m shocked, I tell you, utterly shocked.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with
the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these
bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to
forget the source from which they come, others have been
added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot
fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually
insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In
the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity,
which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to
provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all
nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been
respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed
everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that
theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies
and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of
strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national
defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the
ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and
the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals,
have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.
Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste
that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field;
and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented
strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years
with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand
worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of
the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our
sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to
me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and
gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the
whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens
in every part of the United States, and also those who are at
sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart
and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of
Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who
dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while
offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular
deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble
penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience,
commend to his tender care all those who have become
widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil
strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently
implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the
wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be
consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of
peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
1. Before the Lord we bow,
The God who reigns above
And rules the world below
In boundless pow’r and love.
Our thanks we bring,
In joy and praise
Our hearts we raise
To heav’n’s high King.
2. The nation Thou hast blest
May well Thy love declare,
From foes and fears at rest,
Protected by Thy care.
For this fair land,
For this bright day,
Our thanks we pay—
Gifts of Thy hand.
3. May ev’ry mountain height,
Each vale and forest green,
Shine in Thy Word's pure light
And its rich fruits be seen!
May ev’ry tongue
Be tuned to praise
And join to raise
A grateful song!
4. Earth, hear thy Maker's voice,
Thy great Redeemer own;
Believe, obey, rejoice,
And worship Him alone.
Cast down thy pride,
Thy sin deplore,
And bow before
The Crucified.
5. And when in power He comes,
Oh, may our native land
From all its rending tombs
Send forth a glorious band,
A countless throng,
For aye to sing
To heaven's high King
Salvation's song!
Hymn #575
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Psalm 145:1
Author: Francis S. Key, 1832, alt.
Composer: John Darwall, 1770
Tune: “Darwall’s 148th”
Lincoln had it right.
So did Francis Scott Key:
4. Earth, hear thy Maker's voice,
Thy great Redeemer own;
Believe, obey, rejoice,
And worship Him alone.
Cast down thy pride,
Thy sin deplore,
And bow before
The Crucified.
(Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter later married President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March 2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast day was observed.)
""By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.
And 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, by 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 and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy 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 our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.""
Amen and all the more for today!
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