Emphasis Preaching Journal

Abraham Lincoln, on March 4, 1865, just weeks before he was killed, gave what was probably his greatest speech, the Second Inaugural Address. "If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences 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 offence 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 bondman's 250 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 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.' With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

Lincoln understood, just as Jesus says, that national tragedies are often used by God to call people to repentance. Just as the farmer in the parable spared the fig tree for another year, so God in his mercy gives us another chance to renew our faith in him and his Son Jesus Christ and change our ways that we might be forgiven and have life through his name.