Jan u ary , 1941
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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• " T h e Am e r ica n t ra d it io n lead s • » of life? I t Is not so much a matter of preserving as purifying our way of life. We need not so much a defense as a restoration of our traditional way of life. This American way of life has been un der attack, from within rather than from without, for decades. One some times wonders how much of it is left to “defend.” . True Americanism must be revived rather than conserved. In Ms proclamation of March, 1799, President Adams set forth the reasons for reliance upon prayer. Here is one of the best statements ever made of the fundamentally religious character and Christian convictions which identi fy the American way of life:
The following year, he issued another proclamation: “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 transgres sions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repent ance will -lead to mercy and par don, to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that thos? nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord . . .” _ “Those nations only are b l e s s e d whose God is the Lord’’—would that this truth might be Impressed upon those who, while singing “God Bless America,” have no comprehension of how God deals with men and with na tions, according to His own inspired revelation! Lincoln concluded thus: "And, inasmuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like in dividuals, are subjected to punish ments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war that now desolates the land may be but' a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins . . . ? * 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 gra cious hand which ‘preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, In the deceitful ness 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 Pow er, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and for giveness . . Historically and- traditionally, prayer has been the American way—to peace ahd prosperity, to the preservation of liberty and justice. If we are to con tinue as a free nation, if America is to remain American, we must return to the path of prayer the fathers trod.
“As no truth is more clearly taught in the Volume of Inspiration, nor any more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages, than that a deep sense and due acknowl edgment of the governing provi dence of a Supreme Being and of the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and the righteous distributor of rewards and punishments are conducive equally to the happiness and rectitude of Individuals and to the well-being of communities; as it is also most rea sonable in itself that men who are made capable of social arts and relations, who owe their improve ments to the social state, and who derive their enjoyments from it, . should, as a society, make their ac knowledgments of dependence and obligation to Him who hath endow ed them with these capacities and elevated them in the scale of ex istence by these distinctions; as it is likewise a plain dictate of duty and a strong sentiment of nature that in circumstances of great ur gency and seasons of imminent dan ger, earnest and particular suppli cations should be made to Him who is able to defend or to destroy . . LINCOLN’S CALL: • Abraham Lincoln was the greatest President we ever had—or could hope to have—in time of dire trouble. Signif icantly, Lincoln asked for the prayers of the people more frequently than h®8 any other chief executive; and he asked for them in words which revealed his (jeep belief that the Bible is the Word of God, In his first proclamation, it was stated: “Whereas, it is fit and becoming in all people a t all times to ac knowledge and revere the supreme government of God, to bow in hum ble submission to His chastisements, to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full con viction th a t the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and to pray with all fervency and contri tion for the pardon of their past offenses and for a blessing upon their present and prospective ac tion . .
TQE REAX AMERICAN WAY: • Prayer was the source of strength up on which the Pounding Fathers relied. Prayer has an Impregnable place in American history. Indeed, the Amer- can tradition leads our people to their knees- In times Of crisis, this nation has always turned to God. As we con template the present program for “na tional defense,” we wonder whether this important factor is hot being neglected. During the administration of John Adams, American communications and commerce were seriously interfered with by the warring nations of Europe. Our country was in the shadow of despotic aggression from abroad, in much the same way as it is today. President Ad ams’ prayer proclamation, in part, called for: “A day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that the citi zens of these States, abstaining on th a t day from their customary worldly occupations, offer their de vout addresses to the Father of Mercies agreeably to those forms or methods which they have severally adopted as the most suitable and becoming; that all religious congre gations do, with the deepest hu- ’ mility, acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions with which we are justly charge able as individuals and as a nation, beseeching Him at the same time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer of the World, freely to remit all our offenses, and to in cline us by His Holy Spirit to that sincere repentance and reformation which may afford us reason to hope . . BIBLE BASIS OF AMERICANISM: • In recent years, there has been an increasing tendency, in governmental as well as educational circles, to ignore the Biblical foundations of America. E'fren executive proclamations calling the people to prayer, when infrequently issued, have usually omitted all refer ence to God’s Word, confining them selves rather to empty generalities.
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