March 4, 1865
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
(ht: Craig)
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2 comments:
I am convinced by a reading of the various documents of Lincoln's presidency that sometime between the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation and his second inauguration, he was genuinely regenerated. Does he not in the document here quoted vigorously embrace both the sovereign justice and grace of Almighty God?
Simply put, Abraham Lincoln was
the
greatest
president
ever.
Check out Piper's blog -- he talks about a Presbyterian pastor who claims that Lincoln was converted sometime after the death of his second son.
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1072/
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