Református ujság - Fraternity-Testvériség, 1940 (18. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1940-04-01 / 4. szám
TESTVÉRISÉG 5 subjugation simply because of their difference in race and color on the other hand. He argued that if America is sincere in its presentations of human liberty, then America must apply the principles of human freedom to every honest human being regardless of race or color. That was the principal point in the honesty of “honest Abe” that made history. How farsighted and how God-inspired were both of these men, Washington and Lincoln, perhaps we can perceive better than any other generation before us. How providential it is, that it is the mighty country they created independent and preserved in unity which is standing guard over those ideals and principles, when they are brought into question and disrepute in many lands! It is not much to say that if it were not for America, those ideals would have perished from the face of the world already. See, these men were not ''notorious,” but they were really “great” men, whose greatness long outlives the span of their natural earthly life. They stood for causes that stood the test of history and that stand the test of Christ, who truly said of himself: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” “Under the yoke of hard work” III. Now in the third place, let us notice that both of these great men, as all the truly great ones, put their heart and soul into the cause that fired them, for the Lord put it into their breast as a consuming fire. If space would allow it, or if I were not sure, that you know it, I could tell you incident upon incident both from Washington’s and Lincoln’s life, how zealous, how perseverant and hardworking both of them were. Greatness did not come in any easy way to them. They had to toil for it, they had to fight for it, and Lincoln even had to die for it. Both of them had grit, Both of them confirm the rule, that while all truly great men felt themselves chosen and commissioned by God to accomplish their task, none of them were dangling their feet in idleness, carelessness and slugishness, but placed them selves under the yoke of hard work, heavy responsibility, untold anguish and constant danger to their lives. They were not like so many of the young people of today, who get as far as dreaming and wishing for success, but then immediately sit down and begin to moan and wail that success does not fly to them. But they resembled the “Light of the world,” the Lord Jesus Christ, who said when His disciples offered food to Him: “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” He, too, gave His life unflinchingly, when He saw that it was only the cross, upon which He could say: “It is finished!” — Yes, I state again, that there is no true greatness without resemblance to the Lord Jesus, that great Captain of all the great. “Dropped on their knees” IV. Finally, let me make this one last observation about the great men of history and particularly about Washington and Lincoln. And that observation is that they all depended and leaned heavily upon God. They were men of faith and faith-born prayer. If not in their youth, they inevitably came to it. Both of them were “commanders-in-chief,” but their main trust was not in their armies, but in God. In Him and in Him alone did they find solace, strength and confidence in the final victory of their cause. Listen to this from the life of Washington: The American Army was in winter quarters in Valley Forge. They had nothing but huts built of boughs of trees, and were obliged to lie upon the ground. So scarce were blanlkets that many of the soldiers sat up all night by the fires. “At one time,” says a historian, “more than a thousand soldiers had not a shoe to their feet. We could trace their march by the blood which their naked feet left in the ice.” It was a terrible time for the hopes of America. Many times the ragged half fed troops would have given up had it not been for their faith in their commander- in-chief. And what sustained him ? The general and his staff boarded at the house of one named Potts. It’s all there yet and it is well worth a Sunday afternoon’s drive to see it, just a couple of miles outside of Philadelphia. Here it was noticed that every day Washington went out alone into the woods and invariably returned with a more cheerful countenance. Wondering at this, his host followed him one day. What did he see? Washington upon his knees amid the snow, engaged in prayer. And now let’s see Lincoln. All the chief biographers of Lincoln declare him to have been profoundly religious. In one of his letters to a friend, referring to his troubled heart, he wrote: “Whatever he designs, he will do for me yet. ‘Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,’ is my text just now.” He attended public wor
