Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1863

It took an extraordinary soul to pen these words, three weeks after the dedication of the military cemetery at Gettysburg. 


October 3, 1863

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the everwatchful providence of almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.

Pastor Peters' Pithy, Profound Thanksgiving Message

OS scribbles.

Pastor Peters writes, ya'll! That's why OS keeps him linked on the right side of his page. He takes Reformation orthodoxy and makes it sing.

This latest offering is one of his best, and OS encourages one and all, from all points of the compass, to take the time to read and digest his thoughts.

He reminds us of the things that truly constitute The Good Life, and ends with a profound few lines about the proper role of earthly government in that scheme of things.

The worst in us is the selfishness that thinks of me before others and before God. What is in our interest is not what defines the Christian life but what is good and right and true, what glorifies God and is true to His grace, and what promotes and extends His gracious reign of love and compassion.

What is the best in us is nothing less than faith that hears and responds, that receives and rejoices in all that God's mercy provides us. What is best in us is nothing less than a grateful heart which overflows with thanksgiving that we get not what we deserve but grace upon grace and mercy new each and every morning. What is best in us is nothing more and nothing less than living in faithfulness to Christ even when this path is unpopular, misunderstood, and causes us to be persecuted for His name's sake.

So what is the role of government except to provide us a free arena in which we have the liberty to live out this peaceful, quiet, godly and dignified life of faith? This is why God has given the sword of His authority to the leaders of the nations – not to bring His kingdom on the earth by human might but to provide the freedom and opportunity for us to live unhindered and unconstrained, the good, the peaceful, the quiet, the godly and the dignified life that Christ has made possible by His dying for sin and His rising to everlasting life. Such a government not only protects the weak and the vulnerable, seeks justice and equity, and encourages virtue, it allows us the freedom to be the people God has called us to be in our baptism. This is the government for which we give thanks tonight and for which we pray daily.

So Much To Give Thanks For...

...and not an adequate command of the language to express it all.

For those of us so blessed to live in the United States, our eternal gratitude first must go to our Maker, and to those wise and brave souls who sacrificed so much to make all this possible. Os hopes, in some small manner, to live up to their example.

For our friends overseas, especially those in the UK, thank you. We wouldn't be who we are, and have what we have, were it not for you.

Enjoy the day, everybody, and keep safe.

Too Many Blessings To List

It's Thanksgiving Day, 2009. I'm in my armchair with a glass of sherry. My extraordinary wife is busily cooking and cheerfully gossiping with our houseguest, a young lady we have helped raise for the past decade.
I could never have imagined ten years ago just what an accomplished and poised young lady she would become. The credit for all that goes to my extraordinary wife.

I'm fifty-ish. A little over twenty years ago, I wasn't at all certain I'd live to see thirty-five, and wasn't even certain I wished to. (A long story, not worth telling, much less reading.) I wake up every day surprised and grateful to be alive, much less happily married and sipping sherry on Thanksgiving Day.

The list past that stretches past the horizon.

So, Happy Thanksgiving. The world seems to be in the charge of idiots, but the Potentate of Time trumps them all.