Drought problems tied to loss of faith
Dear Editor, As we in the Southeast yearn for relief from persisting drought conditions, perhaps we would profit by carefully heeding words of wisdom from the late great President Abraham Lincoln:
“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 . . . and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
“We know that by His divine
law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity. . . which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins. . . ? We have been the 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. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us. . . and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined. . . that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pay to the God that made us.
“It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. . .” (Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation).
And more importantly, we must heed the words of Almighty God - His prescription for drought relief:
“If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (II Chronicles 7:13,14)
Lynda L. Jiles, Carrollton