Happy Birthday on PRESIDENTS DAY to WASHINGTON and LINCOLN

Dear Friends, we honor past presidents of the U.S.A. – all of them but particularly George Washington, the Father of the Country (my favorite, my hero), and also Abraham Lincoln (although he certainly was the first of the big-government interventionist presidents).  I have some furthering comments and quotations from these astute gentlemen of past years, our former Presidents, at the end, but initially, please enjoy.

George Washington: “You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all the religion of Jesus Christ.” (to the Delaware Indian Chiefs on Aug 12, 1779)

“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God,. to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits , and humbly to implore his protection and favor… beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether inpublic or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed” (Thanks giving Proclamation, October 3, 1789)

Abraham Lincoln: “In regard to this Great Book (The Bible), I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it, we would not know right from wrong.” (Lincoln farewell at Springfield, II, February 11, 1861)

The following is from “Apostle of Liberty: The World-Changing Leadership of George Washington” by Stephen McDowell in the Leaders In Action book series. McDowell is a friend and co-founder of The Providence Foundation (see “links” page). This book is available by contacting them, or Nordskog Publishing. Highly recommended!

“George Washington is one of the most significant men in all of history. When it comes to the advancement of liberty, he may well be the most significant. His contemporaries acknowledged God’s hand in his selection as commander of the Continental army and later as president, believing that, without him, America would not have prevailed in the Revolution or prospered as a new nation founded in liberty.

“He provided the leadership to hold the troops together during the Revolutionary War, and once the war was won, he rebuffed an attempt to make him king of the United States, thereby preventing a monarchy or military rule.

“Apostle of Liberty: The World-Changing Leadership of George Washington is a biography of the great man, but in truth it is more than a mere biography. It also looks at his unique qualities as a leader and how those qualities marked him as a leader among leaders. In doing so, it reveals a man whose greatness did not stem from oratorical skills, superior knowledge, or brilliant military tactics, but rather from virtue.

“He understood his duty and his proper role, and he pursued them with invincible resolution. Largely, this was due to his belief that God in His providence had chose him to lead the new nation — founded on civil, religious, and economic liberty — and that the experiment that had begun under his leadership as president of the Constitutional Convention and was successful under his leadership in battle would also prosper under his leadership and change the world if given the opportunity to succeed.”

Following are further excerpts from President Abraham Lincoln’s March 30, 1863 Proclamation during the dark days of the Civil War (un-civil that is) in which he declared national days of fasting and prayer. Lincoln was following a practice that had been followed throughout the American experiment by its Founding Fathers, and he is to be commended for his coming to faith in Christ, as he admitted, at the time of his famous Gettysburg Address:

“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 transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

“…We have been 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.

“…It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

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