President Abraham Lincoln was not the primary speaker at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.  Edward Everett gave the primary oration at the dedication ceremony.  Everett spoke for two hours.

President Lincoln had been invited to come by the committee who organized the event to officially dedicate the cemetery.  One of the committee’s members, David Wills, in his invitation to the President, wrote: “It is the desire that, after the Oration, you, as Chief Executive of the nation, formally set these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.”

Those “few appropriate remarks” given by President Lincoln comprise one of the best-known speeches in American history.  Many recall studying the opening lines of his address: “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.”

Lincoln’s entire address was given in just a few minutes in only ten sentences and 271 words.  Yet, it is his “Gettysburg Address” that is memorialized as one of the greatest speeches ever given.

In his brief speech, Lincoln proclaimed that it was not those present who could dedicate those grounds.  “In a larger sense, we can not dedicate – and 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 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.”

Lincoln noted that It was those who “gave the last full measure of devotion” that consecrated that ground. *

On the first day of every week, members of the church of Christ engage in a memorial.  It is called “the Lord’s Supper.”  It was instituted by Jesus when He met with His disciples and observed the Passover feast just hours before He would be taken away by an angry mob and nailed to a cross.  Read Matthew’s account in 26:26-29.  Read the Apostle Paul’s instructions about the proper observance of the Lord’s Supper (when it was being abused) in 1 Corinthians 11:20-30.

The Lord’s Supper is a memorial.  “Do this in remembrance of Me,” Jesus said.  We are instructed to remember what Jesus did on the cross for us as we partake of the Lord’s Supper.  “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).  He shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 26:28).  On the cross, Jesus paid the price for our sins, for our redemption (1 Peter 1:18-19).

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

Then those who have accepted His offer of salvation and eternal life on His terms have the opportunity to remember the One Who “gave the last full measure of devotion” in obedience to God and for our salvation.  We remember what He did for us in the observance of a weekly memorial.  It was the Price that was paid for us that hallows and consecrates the memorial of the One who died for us so that we might live.  We must never forget what He did for us on the cross.

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from Wikipedia’s entry for “Gettysburg Address.”

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

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