A Page Out Of History

We know that the premise of privatization is flawed because who we are in public is determined by what we have learned and cherished in private. The role of the home is ineradica­bly etched into the mind of every individual. We have all heard the popular saying, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." History has demonstrated this to be pro­foundly true. '

A page out of Abraham Lincoln's life brings a thrilling story to light. When Lincoln was seventeen years old, he sang a song with a tender message at his sister's wedding.

The woman was not taken
From Adam's feet we see;
So he must not abuse her
The meaning seems to be.

The woman was not taken
From Adam's head, we know;
To show she must not rule him­
Tis evidently so.

The woman she was taken
From under Adam's arm;
So she must be protected
From injuries and harm.

How Lincoln first came across these thoughts put to song is a strong demonstration of a life that bore the fruit of early instruction. Rather than trying to present it in my words, let me do so in the words of the great English essayist F. W. Boreham:

The quaint verses as anyone with half an eye can see, are merely Matthew Henry turned into rhyme. But what did Abraham Lincoln at seventeen know of Matthew Henry? Yet one remembers an incident described by Judge Herndon-a thing that happened some years before Abraham Lincoln's birth. A camp meeting had been in progress for several days. Religious fervor ran at fever heat. Gathered in complete accord, the company awaited with awed intensity the falling of the celestial fire. Sud­denly the camp was stirred. Something extraordinary had hap­pened. The kneeling multitude sprang to its feet and broke into shouts which rang through the primeval shades. A young man who had been absorbed in prayer, began leaping, dancing, and shouting. Simultaneously, a young woman sprang forward, her hat falling to the ground, her hair tumbling about her shoulders in graceful braids, her eyes fixed heavenwards, her lips vocal with strange, unearthly song. Her rapture increased until, grasping the hand of the young man, they blended their voices in ecstatic melody. These two, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married a week later, and became the parents of the great president.

Boreham explains that the preacher at those meetings, Peter Cartwright, and others with him were very familiar with the biblical commentaries of the devout English preacher Matthew Henry and often quoted from his writ­ings. Following the trail from Henry to Cartwright to Hanks to Lincoln, Boreham could not resist this postscript: "It is interesting to know that at that formative stage of his epoch­making career, the noblest of the American presidents was sitting at the feet of our English Puritan."

I do not believe for a moment that Boreham has stretched his point, because the faith of Lincoln's mother is well known, and his love for her is proverbial. Though he was only nine years old when she died, her last words to him were to admonish him to be faithful to his heavenly Father.

One cannot help but wonder what would have happened to the United States if a man of Lincoln's character had not been president at her most painful time of internal strife as brother fought against brother. The nation was in the grips of her most defining days. As blood flowed and dark days be­clouded the horizon, the leadership of the land was in the hands of this great man. Who Lincoln was in private is what made him what he was in public. We are all familiar with his famed Gettysburg Address, but we would also do well to see him with his face in his hands before God, pleading with Him to save the nation.

History is replete with the instances of leaders prostrated before God when their nation faced its most critical mo­ments. As the spires of Russia burned under the scorching hand of Napoleon's armies the czar was on his face before God in St. Petersburg, praying for the nation. As Ferdinand Marcos's helicopter gunships hovered over a small band of eight hundred soldiers who had called for him to step down from his dictatorship, this paltry group of soldiers were hav­ing read to them the words of Psalm 91: "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." Such, indeed, are the moments that try men's souls, and if the soul of the one leading the nation has been marred, wholeness is lost at the grassroots, and malevolence sprouts from the polluted soil of culture. Evil then reigns supreme.

No one realizes this need for the strength of a nation's soul more deeply than honest, sensitive politicians. They know just how impossible is the task of leading a nation, especially at a time of crisis when passions run deep, tempers run high, and brute force is unleashed. I recall a veteran congressman telling me that Washington is the loneliest city in the world. Each day he is pulled in different directions on someone else's whim, and in each instance his deepest personal convictions are tested. Privatization may seem fair and objective at face value. But it is a mindless philosophy that assumes that one's private beliefs have nothing to do with public office. Does it make sense to entrust those who are immoral in private with the power to determine the nation's moral issues and, indeed, its destiny? One of the most dangerous and terrifying trends in America today is the disregard for character as a central necessity in a leader's credentials. The duplicitous soul of a leader can only make a nation more sophisticated in evil.

The time has come to give careful attention to whether public life and private behavior can indeed be severed with impunity. Perhaps in the short run gains in single issues may be made, but in the long stretch this thinking will destroy the soul of the culture. If those who are empowered with public trust impeach their own character in private, it does matter, and it ought to matter. One can no more reconcile immoral­ity in private with a call to public integrity than one can rec­oncile being a racist in private with being unprejudiced in public

Extracted From Ravi Zacharias’ Deliver Us From Evil.