Out of Africa: Prayer for the Fatherless

Psalms 10:17-18 (ESV)
¹⁷ O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear ¹⁸ to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

There are no good stories behind how one becomes an orphan.  However, there is something extra repulsive when a child becomes an orphan by the hand of man's hate.

This is the story throughout Liberia and in particular in the Fairfield Baptist Mission orphanage in Liberia.  Every child in this orphanage is a war orphan.  This was a war of hate which is often the root of most wars.  However, as I listened to the people talk about the war, it was clear that in this war, there was no side on the side of justice.

Prince

My third night at the orphanage (still on my own) I hung out on the back porch with the teenage boys.  One of them had a cell phone.  Cell phones are abundant in Liberia.  One may not have bread on the table but still have a cell phone.  Nobody was making any calls.  My guess is that there are rarely any minutes available on this phone.  We were all sitting around listening to the musical ring tones like you might expect to see a bunch of teenagers doing in the US sitting around a boom box.

They were laughing, singing, dancing and making fun of each other like teenage boys do.  I decided that I would share some American music with them so I pulled out my iPod and let them listen to Toby Mac.  I did not have speakers so the boys took turns listening on the headphones.  Toby Mac was a big hit.  However, the bigger hit was the pictures on my iPod.

As we huddled around sharing the headphones, we browsed through my family pictures.  These boys were all excited to see pictures of my kids and my wife.  There was not a sense of sadness of seeing pictures of a family they did not have.  I sensed more a presence of hope.  A hope that there was a world beyond the orphanage where there were moms and dads and families.

A young man named Prince told me that he did not have a mom and dad.  He told me that the president killed them both.  I knew he meant in the war of hate, the government soldiers killed his parents.  I have no idea why, but why does not matter when a 10-year old boy has his parents killed by his government.

Prince is 15 now and has been without a mom or dad for 5 years.  He told me that night, that now I was his dad since he did not have one.  I was his dad, why?  Because I had shared some music and pictures?  No, because I was there which meant to him, I must care.

Prince did not ask to come home with me.  He only asked me for some flip flops.  His had busted.  There is a real sense of needs versus wants when you visit a country buried in poverty.  "I have an American visiting and he wants to know what he can do for me.  I'll ask for my hearts desire, a new pair of flip flops."  Is that the request I would get from a typical teenage boy in America?

Moses

Moses was with us as we looked at the pictures.  Being the celebrity that had actually been to America, he started to tell the other boys how great America was and how bad Liberia was.  This did not go over well with Maude and she rightly admonished him that he should not talk that way about his country, a country she has chosen to stay in to care for children like himself.

Moses does not like to be corrected (do you know any other thirteen year olds like that?).  His emotions that he had been keeping in came out.  He wept in the midst of his friends for most of the rest of the night.  It was heart wrenching.

The good news is that the next day we had a successful visit with a lawyer in Monrovia.  There is a Liberian family in our church in Cypress that wants to adopt Moses.  This lawyer was fairly confident that he would be able to get the paperwork through a system that had been bogged down to this point as Liberia investigates child trafficking problems.

One of the reasons he was confident in our success was the legitimacy earned by bringing Moses back when his medical visa expired.  While Moses does not understand why we had to take him back (he asked my why I did not just call the President and explain his situation) it pays to honor God by following the laws of the land.

Pastor Anthony and I correspond each week.  He says he is praying with Moses and helping Moses to understand and learn patience waiting on God.  This is a hard lesson for us grown-ups.  It has to seem like an impossible task to a 13-year old boy.

Princess

We met Princess my last day at the orphanage.  We were eating with the kids in their lunch hall (a dark mud-brick building with two long tables for 70 kids).  A 9-year old girl came over to Pastor Bill.  Unlike all of the other children here, Princess was not wearing a smile.  As soon as she came over, Pastor Bill began to cry (I can't even write this without tears).  He explained to us that she had seen rebel soldiers kill her parents.  In fact, she witnessed a rebel soldier slice her dad's throat from behind.  Princess was 4 at the time.

The boys and girls in this orphanage are well fed thanks to Christian Aid.  However, Christian Aid can only supply food for 50 children as Liberian law only allows 50 orphans per orphanage.  There are 75 orphans being cared for by the Fairfield Baptist Mission in Liberia.  Nonetheless, all the children are fed.

The needs are great.  At one level, the needs seem too great and too overwhelming.  However, when you ask the children what they need the answers are simple.  A matchbox car, a baby doll, but really a request that someone knows they exist.  I can't tell you how many of these kids wanted to make sure I knew their name and wanted to know my name, my wife's name and my children's names.  They want to be connected.

Our church is working with an organization called BrightPoint to do just that.  Our goal is to match up every child in the orphanage with a family sponsor in our church.  A family that they can call their own.  A family that will know their name, pray for them and write them.  They want a mom and dad because "man who is of the earth" stole theirs .  We hope that together with Bright Point, God can use us to bring them that desire of their heart.

If you or your church want to get involved and reach out to the fatherless and the oppressed you can do it.  Check out organizations like BrightPoint and Children's HopeChest.  There is really no reason to ignore the fatherless, whether in Africa or your own backyard.

However, I must warn you.  Once you open up your heart to hear what is on God's heart, your life cannot ever be the same again.  There is no telling what God will have you do.

My journey is now leading me back to Africa once more.  This time, Ethiopia, where God has a fatherless child that he has prepared for our home, to change our lives forever.  Read more over at Hipp is my middle name.

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Out of Africa: Vision and Hope

Romans 15:13 (ESV)
¹³ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

I am not sure what I expected in Liberia.  I had seen some pictures of the orphanage and I knew it was a vastly different world than my home.  I knew Liberia was one of the poorest countries in the world. 

On one hand, I was not surprised.  The poverty in Liberia was as extreme as the pictures.  On the other hand, there was something beyond the pictures that God wanted me to see.  It was the people God wanted me to meet.

Anthony had started working for Fairfield Baptist Church Liberia in May.  He was hired as a teacher at the school.  However, the head pastor, Pastor Bill, had quickly realized that Anthony was a man that could not only teach the children, he could preach the Word.  Actually, Anthony had been preaching for various churches for ten years, since he was seventeen.

Pastor Anthony and I spent most of my first day in Liberia together.  He took me around the school and introduced me to the kids and the teachers.  He and Pastor Bill drove me into town to check-in with the embassy (which ended up being closed).  I got to see Monrovia and Painesville in the daylight after driving through in the dark the night before. 

After our errands, I joined Pastor Anthony for a bible study.  Actually, he had prepared a bible study for his adult bible study class and wanted to practice it on me.  It was just me and Anthony and God's Word.  That's what the bible study was about, God's Word and God's vision.

Pastor Anthony has a passion for God's Word that is contagious.  He also has a vision.  A vision for taking God's Word to a community desperate for hope.  A vision for taking God's Word to a country devastated by war.  A vision for taking God's Word throughout an entire continent.

This is a big vision for an assistant Pastor in a small church in Liberia.  An assistant pastor that had his formal education cut short by a civil war.  A small church with about fifty active adult members.

This is vision reserved for big American churches, isn't it?  Churches with money. American churches with with a mandate from God to spread the Gospel throughout the world.  Missionaries are supposed to be sent to Liberia, not out of Liberia.  Right?

Brother Johnson is a former superintendent of one of the counties in Liberia.  He's a deacon at the church.  I'm not sure of Brother Johnson's age.  If I had to guess, I would say he's in his late seventies.  I don't guess this age because he looks like an old man.  I guess this age by the wisdom in his words.  Sometimes you can just feel the wisdom of the years from people as you visit with them.

Brother Johnson has a vision as well.  He has a vision for a rebuilt Liberia.  I sat on the porch with Brother Johnson and a man named Frank and learned of his vision.  A vision for starting a community farm so that the community, and eventually the country, can start producing it's own food.  He tells me anything you plant in Liberia will grow but that the country imports most of its food.  If the ships don't bring the food, the people don't eat.

Frank attends the small Liberian church and he is the owner of a small construction company.  His company won the bid to install the $12,000 security fence that the government required around the orphanage.  One of our purposes of our visit to Liberia was to inspect their work and make the final payment.

Frank has a vision for his country recovering from the catastrophe of war.  Frank is living out that vision with the fence building project.  A dozen young men had work putting in this new fence for the orphanage.  I don't know when these men will have a job this big again.  However, they are living with hope with men like Frank leading the way.

Of course there was also Pastor Bill and his wife Maude.  A couple that has given the last ten years of their life to this small church, school, and orphanage.  Bill and Maude also have a vision.  Their vision is to educate the children and to teach them about the hope in Christ.  They're not looking to have seventy orphans adopted and sent to America.  Their vision is for seventy orphans to receive love and hope and grow up to help rebuild their country.

As I sat there listening to Pastor Anthony teach me my second bible study, the sustenance of God, I understood why God wanted me in Liberia and why he wanted me there for two days by myself.  God wanted me to meet the people.  He wanted me to meet His people.  He wanted me to meet brothers and sisters in Christ with His vision and His hope.

I've lost about a third of my 401k this year.  Most of that in the past week.  I'm not alone.  Many Americans are seeing their vision and their hope diminish before their eyes.  It does not take a lot of imagination anymore to see what could happen to our own country, whether by divine punishment or just reaping what we sow.

The good news is the Good News.  No matter what happens, Jesus is Lord.  No matter what happens, Jesus still died for my sins and rose again.  No matter what happens, like my brothers and sisters in Liberia, I can have a vision and hope focused on on the cross.

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Out of Africa: The Journey Begins...

Proverbs 19:21 (ESV)
²¹ Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

There is so much to write about my trip to Liberia.  Yet I am finding it hard get everything out that has gone on inside me during my trip.  I thought one way that might help is to chronicle my trip over 2-3 posts and see where that leads me.

Three of us from our church made the trip to Liberia.  Pastor Jim, our head pastor, Charlie, an engineer to inspect a fence that was being built, and me.  My role on this trip was to escort Moses back.

Moses and I had to take a different route than Pastor Jim and Charlie.  We had to travel on Moses' return ticket route that would take us through Chicago and a 8 hour layover.  The others had a more direct route with just a short hour layover in Frankfurt before Brussels.  The plans were to meet up in Brussels and all fly on the same flight to Monrovia.

In Chicago, Moses and I took a train downtown to kill some time.  I needed to buy an extra pair of pants for the trip so we found our way to Macy's.  We were quite a pair walking around Macy's carrying backpacks and a small duffel bag.  I'm sure there were plenty of security eyes following us around the store.

The trip downtown did manage to burn the layover time for us.  For me, it was a lot of walking and riding in a crowded Chicago train and not a great site seeing adventure.  To  Moses it was a blast.  He mentioned through out the trip how much fun he had on our excursion into Chicago.  His joy in the trip made the layover worth it.

From Chicago we flew directly to Brussels to meet up with Pastor Jim and Charlie.  It was a packed plane but we were able to settle in for a non-eventful flight.  I had plenty of time to read the book I had with me, Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper.

Don't Waste Your Life is about living your life for the glory of God.  There were some challenging chapters in this book as you can probably imagine.  One of the more challenging topics was living for the glory of God during trials and testing of your faith.  I was soon about to have the opportunity to live this challenge out.

In Brussels Moses and I found our connecting gate and started our wait for the others.  Their flight was about 2 hours behind ours.  Their flight landed on time at 10:30am.  At 11:00am Moses and I started eagerly staring down the terminal corridor waiting for our friends.

Our flight from Brussels to Monrovia was scheduled to leave at 12:30pm.  At noon, Moses and I started boarding our plane, with no Pastor Jim or Charlie in sight.

Here I was about to fly to Liberia with Moses but all by myself.  It was obvious Pastor Jim and Charlie had missed a connection somewhere.  I had no idea where and no way to find out.  My cell phone did not have international access.  As I got on the plane I prayed, "Lord, I have no idea what you have planned here but I glorify your name."  This was a prayer of faith, not feelings.  My feelings were more like, "Lord, what are you doing here?  This is not what we had planned!"

I was not too concerned at this point.  I figured Pastor Jim and Charlie had missed a connection and would be on the next flight down.  What I did not realize at the time was that the Brussels to Monrovia flight is only every other day.  I was about to get two whole days by myself in a Liberian orphanage where the only person I knew was Moses.

There was that thought again...God wants to show me something and he wants my undivided attention.

Things got a little dicey when we arrived in Liberia.  I did not know the address or phone number for the orphanage.  Moses did, and people from the church were at the airport waiting for us, however this did not help me as I sat in the customs office by myself.  Customs officials aren't too keen when you arrive without any idea of where you are going to visit.

Fortunately, God was good, as always.  The Customs officials eventually took pity on me and let me go.  The prayer going through my head while I waited my fate was, "to God be the glory...wherever this leads".  Again, it's not what I felt but it was what I prayed.

Once I made it out I found Moses and we found a bus load of orphans outside the airport ready to give Moses a hero's welcome.  His friends were excited to have him home and excited about his new hand.  It was a great welcoming.

It was about an hour drive from the airport to the orphanage.  On the way we passed through streets that were so packed with people that traffic was often stopped trying to make it's way through the pedestrians.  The folks I was with seemed nice enough but they were strangers nonetheless.  Here I was thousands of miles from home, by myself, and no way to call home.  It was quite an E.T. experience.

That night as I laid in a very nice guest bed, in an orphanage somewhere in Liberia, reality was creeping in on me.  I had found out by now that the others would not be arriving for two more days.  I'm by myself.  Alone in Africa.  I felt nauseous as the stress began to weigh in.  "God, what are you doing?"

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Out of Africa: Behind the Scene

Revelation 21:1-4 (ESV)
¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

I was sitting in a small church in Maude Town, Liberia this past Sunday wondering what I would say if I was asked to speak to the congregation.  I'd been in Liberia for four days.  My head was full of thoughts, most of them disjointed.  What if they asked their American visitors to share a few words?  What should I say?  What could I say?

The thought that came to me as I was sitting there was God's promise of a new heaven and a new earth.  This is a wonderful promise from God.  Yet to this point in my life, I'd had a pretty shallow appreciation for this promise.  After all, this current earth has not been that bad for me.  I certainly have not been in a hurry to leave it.

However, as the images of this war torn country ran through my head, I could really appreciate the beauty of this promise.  This new appreciation was much more than just seeing the tin shacks and dirt roads full of craters that made up the landscape.  It was the potential beauty that you could see behind the scenes.  In my minds eye, if I just took an eraser and erased the shacks and the garbage and the craters, what was left was a landscape that looked like a paradise.

Well, I was asked to speak to this small congregation of brothers and sisters in Christ.  I started to talk about my time with Moses and how much my family loved him and then I started crying like a baby.  I cried because I not only loved Moses but because I loved all these people.  However, these were not necessarily tears of sorrow for my new friends.  These were tears of love and tears of pride for my new found family in Christ.

I composed myself and shared Revelation 21:1-4 with the church.  I wasn't sharing anything they did not already know.  What I was sharing was that now I know what this promise means.

There is much more to write about my trip.  Many of my thoughts are still disjointed.  I'll share more in the days and weeks to come.

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Back to Liberia - For now

Genesis 50:20 (ESV)
²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

I don't know why I was born healthy and have enjoyed a life of physical and material blessings here in America.  I don't know why Moses Kollie was born in poverty in Liberia.  I don't know why his mother was killed by rebels when he was only weeks old.  I don't know why God let Moses lay trapped under his dead mother for a week causing him to live his childhood with a deformed hand. 

All I know is that God is sovereign and God is good.

Moses' visa is expiring so we are taking him back to Liberia on Tuesday.  I'll be traveling with Moses from Houston to Chicago to Brussels to Monrovia.  We'll meet up with our pastor and another brother from the church in Brussels.

Meeting Moses has changed my life forever.  If you've noticed my passion on this blog for the poor in this world, Moses is who God used to light that spark.

When our family took Moses in to live with us for a couple of months, we really thought God was opening a door for us to adopt him.  We believed this was God's calling for us to get involved in living out God's love.  However, that was not what was in God's plan.  You can read more about that in other posts here on Moses. 

Moses is a typical 12\13 year-old in a lot of ways.  We had our ups and downs adjusting to a teenager in our home but we prayed our way through it and God softened ours and Moses' heart.  He'll always be a part of our family.  We love him because of who he is and because of how God has used him to change us from the inside out.

I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop but we are pretty sure that God has much bigger plans for my family than we have or can imagine, which is usually the case.  Now that I know what I know and have felt what I have felt, there is no going back to life as I knew it.  Step one in my journey is my trip to Liberia.  I don't know God's end game.  I just know He has told me He wants to show me something in Liberia.  It might be the people, it might be the poverty, it might just be me.

Please pray for our safe passage to Liberia and back.  Please pray for Moses as he leaves this Disneyland we call America and returns to real life in a Liberian orphanage.  Pray for God's sovereign will to continue to reign in Moses' life.

And a special prayer...God has brought forward a Liberian couple in our area that has met Moses and wants to adopt him.  They have two children in college already and two younger children still at home.  There are a lot of obstacles still to be overcome but God is supreme.

I'll be out of blog contact for the next week.  I look forward to sharing when I return.

Grace and peace y'all.

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Scripture Thursday - Children obey your parents

Ephesians 6:1-3 (ESV)
¹ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), ³ "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land."

The bible is very clear about admonishing children to obey their parents.  In fact, this precept made God's top 10 list.  Most people that read this blog may say "Amen" to this commandment, as many of us are parents.  But, why is this precept so important to God?

I can think of a couple of reasons.  One is that a rebellious heart is a sinful heart and rebellion often starts in the home.  While all children of all ages should be obedient to their parents, I think this commandment is especially directed at older children, those that are starting to reach adulthood and starting to think they know more than mom and dad.

God first gave this command to the Israelites.  He knew that the new generations would be tempted by the other peoples in their land.  He had warned their parents to teach their children about Him and how He led them out of Egypt.  However, if the children did not care to listen to their parents, these lessons would be lost.  As you read the book of Judges you see this happening on an ongoing cycle.

What about us older children?  Do we still honor and obey our parents or are we exempt once we get married and have our own children?  I think as mature adults it is easy for us to forget the wisdom of our parents.

The other reason I think this command is so important to God is because if we do not honor our earthly fathers and mothers, we may have a hard time honoring our heavenly Father.  How often do we choose our own way over God's ways?

A couple of other points about my thoughts on this passage... 

Sometimes, parents can be ungodly parents, even evil parents.  It's a sad and shameful reality of our broken world.  I had loving parents so it is hard for me to imagine the pain of those whose parents really let them down.  I think God would still have us honor our parents regardless of the pain they may have caused.  However, I know that is easy for me to say, not having to experience that kind of pain myself.

The other point I want to make about this passage is the commentary added by Paul.  He says this is the first commandment with a promise.  Just what is this promise?

Some translations like the NIV and even NASB read the promise as, "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."  This makes it sound like a promise for a long life if you are an obedient child that honors your parents.  However, does this mean that children, teenagers, or young adults that die at a young age were disobedient and dishonoring to their parents?

Paul is quoting Exodus 20:12 here, which is actually being given as the sixth of the ten commandments.   The promise is that if the young Israelites obey and honor their parents it will go well for them in the new land.  Even in the NIV and NASB the word used is land rather than earth in Exodus.  I think this makes the ESV version more accurate and we should assume that Paul is quoting the commandment as stated in the Old Testament.

So the promise is not a long life on earth but a long life in the land.  As mentioned above, we find the young Israelites unable to live up to this commandment and all is not well for Israel.

The point is that this is not necessarily a "promise" for every child that obedience and honoring your parents will lead to a long life.  An early death does not mean a young person was a rebellious child.  That said, I do think this is a Christian principle.  A child that obeys and honors his parents will have a life that honors God, regardless of the the number of days on this earth.  A rebellious, disobedient child that dishonors his or her parents is more likely to have a life that can lead to an early destruction, again, regardless of the number of days on this earth.

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New post to test width

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How do we get posts back

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Another new posts

Did I get my blogger comment window back yet?

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This is a test post

This is a test post to see how the discussion format comments work.

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Anohter post to test the clouds

I’m writing this post in response to comments on my Sabbath post. The understanding of the issues raised by these comments is key to the understanding of grace and the understanding of the gospel itself.

I wrote my post on the Sabbath based on a question raised in my Sunday school class. The question was whether or not we were forsaking God’s law in preference of worldly traditions by worshipping on Sunday instead of Saturday.

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new post again

Messing around.

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Second Post

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives,
Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years--a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected.

All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.
By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as 'deeply', as 'finally', staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.
To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally 'conspicuous' in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

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Post One

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.

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