Fast Day in WarApril 30, 1863
The prayer prayed by Henry Ward Beecher before delivering his sermon on the day proclaimed by Civil War President Abraham Lincoln, April 30, 1863, as a national day of humiliation, fasting and prayer.
PRAYERS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT
by Henry Ward Beecher
The Pilgrim Press
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867,
BY CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
Transcribed by Mary Katherine May, owner of Qualtiy Music and Books.
INVOCATION
Be pleased, Almighty God, this morning to smile upon us; for we are drawn hither by thy Spirit, moved, we trust, to repentance and to confession before thy great and reverend name. Prepare our hearts, then, for the offices of this work. Withdraw our thoughts from things that shall hinder. Lift up our minds to that sphere where thou dwellest, that we may take the measure of human judgments and of human wants from thy inspiration. And may the exercises of the sanctuary to-day, and the exercises of our homes, be acceptable in thy sight. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.
(Prayer before) BEFORE SERMON
Almighty God, give us thy divine influence, by which we shall reach forth to thee and find thee. Let us not to-day take counsel of our weakness, nor of our sins, nor of our passions. Raise us by thine own inbreathing, that we may think of thee from our own conscience, from love, and from that in us which is higher and diviner, that we may come to the knowledge of God indeed. And grant that we may be so separated from our own sympathies and self-pityings, that we may for the time stand by thy side and look back upon our life, individually and collectively, and measure it, without shrinking, as thou dost measure it, and pronounce sentence upon it, as thou, from out of the law of righteousness, shalt judge it. Deliver us, we beseech thee, from the delusions of sin, and from that blindness which we bring upon ourselves by self-flattery. Deliver us from a disposition to defend our misconduct. Let us not seek to extenuate or palliate it. Grant that we may behold our delinquency, or our complicity with others that have sinned, and that with simpleness and singleness of heart, and true contrition, we may confess them all before thee; and may, with full purpose of heart, covenant to forsake our transgressions.
Grant that every one of us may this morning review his own state. Reveal to us by the Holy Spirit what we are. Grant that we may have some estimate of how we stand in the presence of our God. And help every one of us with secret thought and with silent fidelity to measure and estimate and confess his individual sins before thee. Whatever there has been of selfishness, of guile, of hardness, whatever of pride and vanity, whatever of vagrancy of imagination, whatever of neglect of things that were incumbent upon us, whatever of unperformed duties, O Lord, help us to confess it with contrition of heart. They are sovereign delinquencies, for they are against thee. Our sins are buffetings, and we have smitten him whose patience bears with us and gives us the very power to sin. We pray that we may feel to-day how hateful it is to take advantage of God's goodness that should lead us to repentance, and build upon it an argument for carelessness and continuance in wrongdoing.
O God, may we be melted by thy love, and drawn away from the wish to sin. May we have that ingenuousness and frankness of heart which shall, when we detect or even suspect our wrong, fill us with sorrow, and bring us speedily to thee for confession and for strength against easily besetting sins; for only thou canst cleanse us. We have not the power to cleanse ourselves. We can in each case discern the wrong, for we may separate it, and resist special temptation, and know that we are responsible; and yet life flows, not with single drops, but as a flood, and we are caught, and whirled, and whelmed in the multitude of its events. We cannot find out all sinful tendencies nor waive them. Every day we find that we have been inspired by things not suspected; that we have over-measured or under-estimated; and continually our judgment is against us, and we know that unless there is given us that sovereign inspiration of God which shall cause us to dwell in that higher atmosphere, and that holier moral disposition which temptation can scarcely shoot so strong as to hit, we cannot maintain ourselves nor please thee. Grant, then, that we may have the divine help to be lifted above the region where temptations mainly roll and dash, that we may be secure and pure.
Grant, also, that we may look into our households, to see what is wrong there, and that with an inspired hand we may put that right which is wrong. Deliver us, we beseech thee, from that wickedness of pride which shall make us unwilling to do that which is right, because we have done that which is wrong. Grant that we may examine the law of our lips and see if we have sinned there. May we examine our hearts, and know if the law of love or unkindness is there. May we see what fidelities we have meted out on every side. May it be our honest and earnest purpose to serve God more faithfully in our households than ever we have done before.
And, O God, grant us heart-searchings and strivings of the Spirit in regard to the whole sphere of duties that have lain so lightly upon us in respect to our neighbors and our fellow-men. How have we sought chiefly our own good! How hard have been our affections! We have not been easy to be entreated. We have not counted it better to give than to receive. We have come to be ministered unto, and not to minister. We have refused to be servants of others, that we might thus be chief. We have sought our own glory, and walked in the light of our own interest. We have been of the world, worldly. We confess our transgressions. We see the better way, O Lord God; and how shall we walk it? The purpose is with us, the law is holy and just and good, and we do approve it after the inward man; but how, in the seductions of the world, in the allurements of the feelings, shall we walk according to the lordliness of thine example? Grant, O God, that with a sense of our misconduct and sinfulness, and of the hatefulness of it--grant that, with a sense of the beauty of holiness in this sphere of action and duty, we may have from this time forth grace ministered to us to do better than we have ever done before.
And we beseech thee that thou wilt also help us to review the sins that lay upon as a burden, in view of our connection with this great civil estate into which we are born. We cannot withdraw ourselves from its care and responsibility. It is ordained of God, and our duties as citizens are a part of our duty to thee. We are called of God to frame laws; we are called of God to appoint officers to execute those laws; we are called of God to determine all the policies of this great nation; and we look upon our life to see whether we have served this nation according to its desert, according to the purpose that God had in its establishment, and according to all that it was sent to do for this poor sin-smitten world; and we behold how, through our negligence it hath been tampered with, poisoned, corrupted, and diseased; how, while we have slept, the enemies of God have been wakeful and jubilant; and how iniquity hat stolen the march of goodness.
We mourn over our past delinquency, our guilty silence, our culpable indifference, our selfishness in security, our fear of reputation, that held us back from faithful testimonies in the days of trial. We look at our indifference toward those that have been wronged, and bear our part of the guilt of wickedness and oppression in this land. O Lord, we pray that thou wilt hold thy people in the hollow of thy hand, that they may look at the oppressions of those who have suffered a thousand times more than they. When they rush to war to vindicate their own rights, may they not be deaf to the outcries of the oppressed. And may we remember that if we have not ourselves put the yoke upon them, we have helped to lay that burden on them which they have been yoked to bear and draw. If we have not inflicted the suffering, we have stood consenting, and bearing the clothes of those who were stoning and beating them down. We have known that our brethren suffered, bone of our bone, blood of our blood, children of redemption, heirs of Calvary, God-thought-of, angel-watched, convoyed by sweet and blessed messengers from the throne of the universe, and tending to the same heaven to which we are tending; and we have been indifferent to their great trouble. We have suffered our land to be overrun by injustice; the ways of government to be perverted and, from interest, from a sense of our own security, and from most unrighteous indifference to the wrongs of others, we have allowed this great evil to come upon the nation.
And now, O God, thou hast come down to hear the cries of those that have pleaded long, but whom we would not hear. And we are suffering beneath thy blows. We cannot help it; and we rejoice that thou art a God that will hear the oppressed, though we are their oppressors. Thou, O God, wilt vindicate the poor and needy. If they are dumb, they need not speak to be heard; if they are utterly helpless, the right hand of Omnipotence is theirs. And all the reasonings of men, and all their glozings of deceit, and all pretentious excuses are in they sight as the dust of the summer's threshing-floor; and when thou shalt breathe thy winds upon them, they shall be swept away utterly and for ever.
We adore thy throne of judgment, that stands unmoved in the midst of war and confusion; and we humble ourselves before thee to-day, not attempting to discriminate between our sins and others, but asking thee to accept the confession that we make for our unmeasured transgressions. We discern and feel that as members of this great nation we have most grievously sinned against light and knowledge, against the truth of thy word, against our own education, against the generous sentiments of every unperverted human bosom. We have sinned against examples. We knew that we were doing wrong; and our briberies have been the goods that perished in this world. And we have been brought into this exigency because we have taken a mess of pottage for our birthright of liberty.
May we not add other sins to the past ones. let us not seek anew to deceive thee as we have deceived ourselves, and sought to deceive thee in times past. let there be a thorough work wrought in this people. We thank thee for any signs and tokens of remembrance, and we pray that thou wilt restore us to the love of simple justice, and that the rights of men as children of God may become precious in the sight of this great nation. And prepare it for that mission for which we trust it is now passing through the fire.
Be pleased to remember all that are in authority. Be with the President of these United States. We thank thee that thou hast been pleased to guide him so safely and so prudently thus far. Yet uphold him. Augment his wisdom with gathered experience. Make him more and more simple and single for justice and righteousness. May all those that are his counselors be themselves counseled of God. And may this nation, by its government, be led in a way that it knows not of. May the generals that command our armies be more and more men that shall love the principles of that government for which they contend. Grant unto them victory. Grant unto our armies the power to cope with those that are in battle array against liberty and its constituted government. Overthrow rebellion. Change the minds of those that are now involved in its mischiefs. Restore them again, we beseech of thee, to the love of union as the instrument of liberty. And we prya that thou wilt not give us peace, until thou shalt have prepared this nation to be champion of human rights and liberties. Still stir us up; and, if need be, chastise us again and again, until by our suffering we shall come into sympathy with those that suffer. Then may our righteousness be as the morning light. Then let the choral testimony of the multitudes of this land be heard rolling as the anthem of salvation all around the world. Then may they that sit in darkness, wondering that the sun hath risen in the west, rise up. Then may the nations that are oppressing their common people be overthrown in their dynasties, and the rights of men be established everywhere. Then may there speedily be heard that glorious song, that shall fill all the heavens above, announcing that the cause of the nations in this world has become the cause of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and that he shall reign on the earth. And the praise shall be given to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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