We mourn today the passing of Tucker McHugh and remember the blessing he was to so many.
TO ENJOY THE VIDEO IN TODAY’S POST, PLEASE CLICK THE LINK ABOVE IN YOUR EMAIL, OR click here.
The will of God will prevail.
But how? And how do we know what it is? How can we tell what is right?
“In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
How is it that so many Christians proclaim the MAGA doctrine as the will of God?
How could this be?
It’s not the first time the country has faced such a quandary.
Abraham Lincoln had to wrestle with a similar quandary in his presidential campaign of 1860. Perhaps his story helps us consider our situation today.
Here’s a firsthand account…
At the time of Lincoln’s nomination, in Chicago, Newton Bateman, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Illinois, occupied an office adjoining Lincoln’s.
Lincoln often called Bateman into his office for a quiet chat.
On one such occasion, right before the presidential election of 1860, Bateman recounted this meeting. (Remember, as you note the language that follows, that American women did not yet have the right to vote.)
Lincoln had shown Bateman a tally of individuals in Springfield who had announced they were supporting his opponent, Stephen Douglas, in the election.
He said, “Let us look over the list; I wish particularly to see how the clergymen of Springfield are intending to vote.”
After some time Lincoln turned to Bateman and said,
“Here are twenty-three ministers of different denominations, and all of them are against me, and here are a great many prominent members of churches, a very large majority are against me.
“Mr. Bateman, I have carefully read the Bible, and I do not pretend to understand the book. But these so called Christian men know well what I am for. Freedom for all men in the territories, freedom for all men everywhere, as free as the Constitution and the laws will permit. And that my opponent is for slavery.
“They know this and yet, with this book in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against me; I do not understand it at all.”
Here it was reported that Lincoln paused, his features charged with emotion and with Bible in hand,
rose and walked up and down the reception room in the effort to regain his composure.
Stopping at last, he said, with a trembling voice and cheeks wet with tears, “I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it.
“If He has a place and work for me, and I think He has, I believe I am ready. I know I am nothing and truth is everything. I know I am right, because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it.
“I have told them that a house divided against itself cannot stand; and Christ and reason say the same, and they will soon find it so.
“Douglas doesn’t care whether slavery is voted up or down, but God cares, and humanity cares, and I care, and with God’s help I shall not fail.
“I may not see the end, but it will come, but I shall be vindicated; and these men will find they have not read their Bible right.”
“Doesn’t it seem strange that men can ignore the moral aspect of this contest?
“The future would be something awful, given the knowledge of how these ministers are going to vote.
“The teachers of religion have come to defend slavery from the Bible and to claim for it a divine character and sanction.
“And now the cup of iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will be poured out.”
History provides a bitter record of how God’s will was ultimately decided:
- A civil war was fought
- 600,000 lives were lost
- The slaves were freed
And Lincoln, as an instrument of God’s, will — paid for it with his life.
So it is now, we face the same questions.
- Who will decide the will of God?
- How will it be determined?
- What will be the cost?
Just a thought…
Pat
I’ve selected two Christian hymns for our voyager trip to eternity;
Ave Maria by Franz Schubert sung by Luciano Pavoratti
How Great Thou Art” is a Christian hymn based on an original Swedish hymn entitled “O Store Gud” (How Great Thou Art) written in 1885 by Carl Boberg, performed by Sissel and the Tabernacle Choir.