Abraham's Covenant

A covenant was made with God,

Lincoln knew he would live no longer.

He surrendered for us all, 

For righteousness, merit, and honor.  

God exacts a price on freedom,

And as a nation, to Him, we have been blind.

Let us repent for what we've done, 

Let us restore love, and seek to be more kind

Let us look for the good

In ourselves and each other

Restoring brotherhood

Let us serve one another

http://web.gbtv.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=22473741&topic_id=24584158&tcid=vpp_copy_22473741&v=3

belief.net:

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles recalled the meeting the same way Chase did. Lincoln called them together and said the slaves were to be freed. “He had, he said, made a vow, a covenant, that if God gave us the victory in the approaching battle (which had just been fought) he would consider it his duty to move forward in the cause of emancipation.” Lincoln knew his listeners might be skeptical or puzzled, but there it was. “We might think it strange, he said, but there were times when he felt uncertain how to act; that he had in this way submitted the disposal of matters when the way was not clear to his mind what he should do. God had decided this question in favor of the slave. He was satisfied he was right—was confirmed and strengthened by the vow and its results; his mind was fixed, his decision made.

Thirty years before, in the Age of Jackson, Tocqueville heard an American clergyman utter these words at a public gathering: “O Lord! Never turn thy face away from us; permit us always to be the most religious people as well as the most free.” In Lincoln’s understanding, God required, first, a guilelessness and purity of purpose, and in exchange would relieve the country of fear and sustain her through the fires of war, and the penance he was exacting. Then, and only then, might light come from darkness.

Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2006/05/Abraham-Lincolns-God.aspx#ixzz1yfZ4Xe36