In 1861, Julia Ward Howe visited the troops with her husband in Washington, DC. For several months, she had heard the soldiers singing an appealing tune, “John Brown’s Body,” but she didn’t like the words. Her minister, who was in her party visiting troops that day, suggested she write other lyrics. One day, just before dawn, the words for the hymn “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory” resonated within her.
“I sprang out of bed,” she said, “and in the dimness found an old stump of a pen, which I remembered using the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper.”
In February 1862, “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory” was published as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in The Atlantic Monthly. The hymn related the Civil War to the judgment of the wicked at the end of time. It did not take long for the lyrics that resonated within Julia Ward Howe to resonate throughout the country.
It is reported that President Abraham Lincoln attended a rally where the hymn was sung. He was moved to tears and cried out for it to be sung again. Over a year later, President Lincoln delivered a speech at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
Saturday, I saw a truck with a large logo stating, “Family, Dedication, Determination, and Sacrifice.” Have we lost these attributes in this nation? Many dedicated and determined men and women have sacrificed their lives for the freedom this country offers. Lincoln said on that day in November 1863, “We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Lincoln’s words resonate. Is this our resolve? Are we dedicated to “the great task remaining before us?” That unfinished work tests “whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
“As He died to make us holy, let us die to make men free, while God is marching on,” Julia Ward Howe penned.
God has never left us or forsaken us. His goodness and mercy have never left us. We are the ones who wander from His truth. And He gives us the freedom to return to His love and grace. Our freedom in Christ cost us nothing because Jesus paid for it with His life. We have the freedom to choose God or reject Him. We have the freedom to stand for His truth or reject it.
Men and women have died for our gift of freedom in this country. They have given the ultimate price. What is my response to those who have died so that I might pursue the unalienable rights God has given me? What is my determination and my sacrifice? Is it really a sacrifice to vote? No. It is my God-given gift. It is my right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.
John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers of our country and its second president, said: “But a Constitution of Government, once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
www.lynnlacher.com/2024/11/liberty-once-lost-is-lost-forever.html
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