c-86
chapter 86
A YOUNG NATION FORGETTING SO QUICKLY BUT A WISE PRESIDENT TO TURN US BACK ON TRACK
Another great early leader with a biblical name ,Abraham Lincoln, in a proclamation on March 2, 1863 , called for a national day of fasting and prayer Because we had become arrogant and spoiled as a nation of soddish (spoiled ) children thinking that the greatness of growth , that we were achieving , was due to some work of our hands and we were FORGETTING ALMIGHTY GOD ALREADY , and have continued to push Almighty God further and further from our minds .
The Resolution in Congress was one month before the fast day was observed.
It is indeed perfectly fitting that Abraham Lincoln acknowledged where
the unprecedented blessings we have received came from, having the same
first name as Abraham in the Bible , who the blessings WERE ORIGINALLY
GIVEN TO , to be passed down to US !
Abraham Lincoln being the eloquent , articulate , Almighty God fearing man that he was , said; “And whereas it is the DUTY of nations as well as of men, to own their
dependence upon the overruling power of Almighty 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 Almighty 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 ,maybe but a punishment , inflicted upon US
, for our presumptuous sins , to the needful end of our national
reformation as a whole People ? “ (CIVAL WAR AS PUNISHMENT FOR THIS COUNTRYS GREATEST SIN OF SLAVERY
AND RESULTING REFORMATION OF OUR NATION ) . Continuing with Lincolns
quote , “ WE HAVE BEEN THE RECIPIENTS OF THE CHOICEST BLESSINGS 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 GROWN , But we have FORGOTTEN Almighty 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 Almighty 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.” When Abraham Lincoln said ; “ vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of
our own heart “ he was in reference to Jeremiah 17:9 ; “The heart is
deceitful above all things , and desperately wicked : who can know it ? “ Yes , Abraham Lincoln had the wisdom to see that we , even back then
,had become a nation who had forgotten Almighty God , a nation that has
become drunk with the success not due to its own efforts, a nation that
had become unthankful, taking all the credit and glory to itself . He knew the fate of the nation hung in the balance . Where is the wise president today to realize that is what we need again? ? ? ? ? ? After 200 years going by , obviously we are much , much , much worse.