CIVIL WAR
There was recently a movie made with the title “Civil War,” a fictional rendering of what might occur should disagreement develop to a point where actual conflict could result. Now this was fictional, but our neighbour to the South will be having an election shortly after this is posted and the rhetoric and disagreement seems to be at a point that has not been seen in recent times. Admittedly, this is all verbal and ideological at present but who knows just what could evolve if level heads do not prevail.
In 1861 just such an event developed in the US and an actual civil war did break out. Ideological differences at that time did seem insurmountable and physical conflict did develop between the Union and Confederate states. For approximately two years, battles were fought between the opposing armies with considerable loss of life on both sides. It seemed at first that the Southern States might prevail for most, if not all, the battles seemed to be Confederate victories.
At the present time, with ideological differences worsening both here and in the nation to our south, it seems difficult to imagine how these differences can be resolved without some form of conflict developing. At the same time, with the world in the state it’s in we really should be more united than ever. It seems hard to conceive, however, that in the present day leaders would resort to the same type of methods that the leaders of the Union did during those bleak days of Civil War. Because, on March 30th, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation as follows.
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 30th day of March, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN*
It is of interest that within a few weeks of this proclamation and the designated day of prayer, the Confederacy lost a major leader which so demoralized the South that the tide of battle changed and the Union eventually went on to victory. The Bible states:
“[I]f My people who are called by My name will humble themselves,
and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
(2 Chronicles 7:14)
The Bible also states that:
…Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation,
and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
(Matthew 12:25)
Abraham Lincoln, in 1858, reiterated that thought when he said in his address at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield that: A house divided against itself cannot stand.
In this present day, with so much at stake and with so much animosity in our lands, can we afford not to pay attention to what our previous leaders had the fortitude to undertake and realize again that we need God’s help and guidance in our lives?
It is certainly something to think and pray about.
*American Presidency Project Proclamation 97
