1866 Prayer

The following prayer is from an 1866 preacher following the American Civil War:

Peace has followed civil war.  For this, O Prince of Peace we thank Thee, Thou Giver of this good and perfect gift!  And with the incoming of this heavenly visitant, shall not love spring up where hate has been, and kindliness seek to wipe out bitter memories?  It must be so.  Peace shall have her victories, greater and more memorable than war.  Rulings of unquiet spirits, – conquests over evil passions, hates, and jealousies,- uplifting of souls above our past strifes and alienations, shall bring the old days of love again when the hearts of the people shall be as the heart of one man.  We thank our God that the harbingers of this glad reunion to us this community of interest and commingling of love!

Thanks may we offer, too, for the dawning future which shall be ours.  We have a goodly heritage; Even our sorrows have taught us to prize our nation’s home, to look up with reverent love to our nations’ God.  We who in our prosperity were waxing proud – we who with self-complacency were crying out, “Love this great land which we have made so glorious, we who were forgetting our God, have been recalled by judgment to a recognition of His gifts in the past, His mercies in the present, and our need of Him in the future.  Grateful may we be to God that in judgment, He has remembered mercy, grateful that we, who for our sins, deserved to be consumed are still permitted to look forward to a future of prosperity.

And our thankfulness for national blessings past, present, and to come should lead us as individuals to turn from our individual sins.  As we are filled with gratitude to God for past deliverances, and our hearts swell with love to Him for present mercies, as we rejoice in the tokens of prosperity still ours, and we call to mind today our individual responsibility for the righteousness that exalteth a nation, or the sin that is a reproach to any people, our festival of thanksgiving should incite us to the offering of ourselves a living sacrifice unto God in Christ, then shall the feast be one of blessing – our hearts, washed, pardoned, sanctified, shall find day by day, and year by year, fresh themes for grateful praise.”  – William Stephens Perry – 1866

Our nation has survived many challenges through the last few centuries.  May we ask God to help us do our part in making our nation better and stronger.

Thankful for our national liberties,

 Pastor Larry

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