“With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty
and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to
raise my hands against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in
the Amy, and save in defense of my native state, with the sincere hope that my
poor services may never need be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw
my sword. . . “
One of the tragedies of the American Civil War is that it
pitted Christian against Christian in one of the most savage conflicts in our
history. Despite Lee’s sincere hope he
was inevitably drawn into the conflict, and but for his skill and determination
as a military leader the war would likely have been considerably shorter. The time would come when General Ambrose
Burnside would stolidly and stupidly send his Union troops in a feckless
assault of the Confederate positions on the heights above Fredericksburg. On December 13th, 1862 Lee made
the following remark, “It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would
grow too fond of it.”
Lee’s fierce right hand man Stonewall Jackson was a man of
ardent faith, and fearless disposition.
Of his sense of security in battle Jackson said, "My religious
belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed.” Whether or not one agrees with Lee and
Jackson, or with Lincoln and Union Leaders like Joshua Chamberlain their faith
should be taken seriously.
On the opposite wall at the Gilcrease is a quote from
Lincoln at the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair in June of 1864. A Sanitary Fair raised funds for the medical
and practical care of soldiers by auctioning art, curios and memorabilia. In his speech Lincoln said,
“War at its best, is terrible, and this war of ours, In its
magnitude and in its duration is one of the most terrible . . . it has carried
mourning to almost every home, until it can almost be said that the ‘heavens
are hung in black.’ Yet the war is continues.”
Individual Christians from time to
time find themselves in opposition to each other, but that is the nature of the
fallen world in which we live. Only the
very naïve would make the mistake of thinking that the conflicts of the past, of
either the American Civil War, or of the past of each person can be fairly
evaluated by hind sight. In the midst of
the conflicts of life it is not always so easy.
There is perhaps even a reason for war, as God’s way of teaching his
hard hearted people the ways of faith.
Now these are the nations that
the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not
experienced all the wars in Canaan. It
was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war,
to teach war to those who had not known it before” [Judges 3:1].
No comments:
Post a Comment