Monday Morning Music Ministry

8-1-22

If a poll were to be taken, for instance at ComiCon International, whose annual fest just concluded in San Diego; and let’s say especially in such a control-group sample of geeks and nerds (take it easy, I spent a portion of my career serving them) – and the question was about superheroes…

Let’s say, Who is the greatest superhero of them all? or Who has the greatest powers? Whose conflicts, challenges, victories are the most impactful? Who can endure anything, from bombs to betrayal, and maybe come back stronger? …The answers would be many, and even cosplay attendees might start shoving each other around.

The questions do not arise from preconceived habits or childhood favorites, but rather the intricate premises of the Marvel and DC (etc) “universes,” and the passionate investment that young fans (and older college students) (and adults) make in the worlds of these characters and the consistently maintained cocoons of comics and movies.

When I was an editor at Marvel Comics (and generally regarded as someone who was always bewildered by such things) there were periodic bullpen, or bull, sessions, brainstorming new ideas, directions, stories, and costumes. More than once I proposed a concept and was shot down. “That’s not logical!” “That could never happen!” – as the editors returned to discuss piercing the Sixth Dimension or stealing the appearance of a villain after drugging some interplanetary potion.

“OK, I understand,” I said. But I didn’t. When I left Marvel I spent a few years writing comic-book stories for Disney. Somehow, talking mice and half-naked ducks seemed closer to reality.

Stan Lee used to talk to us about comic books and superheroes being reliant on the “suspension of disbelief.” That basic formula (actually promulgated centuries ago by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, not Stan Lee!) has provided an appeal to young readers since the 1930s. As I wrote last week, it seems to me that the well has been a bit poisoned. In comics and spun-off movies, good versus evil is obsolete, or at least superseded and made somewhat nuanced by political correctness, a desperation for newer premises, and the culture’s general decline in values that I think propels the increase in sex and violence.

All while art imitates life imitates art in society. But in one corner, there is a growing active and fertile group of creators staking a claim – not only for traditional values and wholesome storylines… but for Biblical Christianity. Good guys who are good guys, and who win.

I call this new corps of Christian cartoonists “disciples,” maybe more numerous than Jesus’s original gang, but spreading the Good News nonetheless. Al Nickerson (The Sword Of Eden) is one of the best, and a favorite of mine. Daniel Hancock is part of the creative ferment at Terminus Media (https://www.terminusmedia.com ) where he collaborated with Daryl Peninton and Matt Baker as editor on “Samson: Rise,” and works closely with Dr. Barron Bell as story/scriptwriter of the sci-fantasy graphic novel series Dominion: Fall of the House of Saul. He is also founder and director of Bible Actors Productions, creator of End Of Darkness, a full-cast audio drama on the life of Jesus.

Daniel shared a statement from Terminus: “We want everything we do to honor the Creator who has authored the greatest true story of love and redemption that the world has ever seen. We want to love our neighbors (all our neighbors) by using our gifts and talents to entertain and equip them to live abundant lives.”

Outside the traditional comic-book realm everyone remembers the ubiquitous Veggie Tales, all Bible-based. Tom and Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook, and Jeff Keane, are superb animators and committed Christians. There are groups and studios of creators but probably the largest – a fellowship of very professional business minds – is the Christian Comic Arts Society (https://my.christiancomicarts.com )

This group deserves a careful look, at least at their website with its impressive mission statement; and the roster of member cartoonists, including aspirants. The members produce all sorts of stories – yes, also serving kids who were weaned on gritted-teeth fights and explosions and breathless rescues – but it is refreshing to read the creators’ testimonies and visions; their commitment to Christ; and – my view, speaking from the outside – their efforts to redeem the culture.

I will mention other Christian cartoonists of the day, wanting to give honor to those who honor God through their work. They additionally include Eric Jansen, Chivas Davis, Art Ayris, Doug TenNapel, Scott McDaniel, Steve Crespo, and Paul Castiglia.

Al Nickerson (The Sword Of Eden – www.theswordofeden.com ), was an artist for DC Comics, Archie Comic Publications, Marvel Comics, and Warp Graphics. He has been a designer and animator for Sesame Street, MTV Animation, and Nickelodeon. The Sword Of Eden is an inventive series, arrestingly drawn, and revolving around retrieving the legendary sword used by angels to keep Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. The speculative adventures includes demons (which, of course, do exist in Bible narratives), villains, and a possible detour to locate Noah’s Ark.

“Comics, sequential art, is a powerful literary art form,” Nickerson said; “a wonderful medium through which to share the Gospel message…. I have the opportunity to create Christian comics that Christian readers can enjoy without feeling attacked.

“There is a bias [against Christianity] in entertainment. Modern Western culture promotes a godless woke agenda. The world hates Jesus, Christianity, and Christians. Therefore, it is vital to support true Christian entertainment. Don’t let the liars and people who are filled with hate influence your work or what you have to say. We live in a broken and sinful world in need of the Savior. The message of repentance and belief in Jesus the Messiah unto salvation should always be shared.”

My new best friend, introduced by the amazing facilitator Gordon Pennington, is Jim Krueger. He wrote the story script for Midway Games’ Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks video game, which won the Satellite Award for Best Action/Adventure Video Game. In the comics field, his main focus, Jim wrote the 12-issue miniseries Justice with Alex Ross for DC Comics. It was a New York Times Bestseller, and won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Novel. About a decade after I left Marvel, Jim became its Creative Director.

His original works include The Foot Soldiers; Alphabet Supes; The Clock Maker; The Runner; The High Cost of Happily Ever After: and The Last Straw Man. Jim’s other work for Marvel Comics includes the Earth X trilogy with Alex Ross; Avengers; X-Men; and Avengers/Invaders. His comics work for other publishers includes Star Wars; The Matrix Comics; Micronauts; Galactic; and Batman. Jim’s company is “26 Soldiers,” where he serves as president and publisher.

Jim is a committed Christian, even now working on new projects, and will guest on this blog soon.

Good and evil, in mainstream commercial comics and movies, have become tokens, not gems nor compasses. I was invited to write for the animated TV series ThunderCats years ago, and the creator emphasized that there were to be “lessons” at the end of every episode. In fact he called them “morals,” but they were neither (to my emerging conscience) – the template sounded good, but the “story bible” forbade spiritual messages or, certainly, Biblical values even sanitized. Empty clichés: the way of contemporary society.

Christians must realize and act on the premise that any values divorced from Biblical truth are counterfeit. Viewers and readers being presented, say, “New Gods” while the old God was ignored, dismissed, and, most tellingly, disbelieved are enabling evil. Innocent people are encouraged to find comfort in the saying that believing something… is enough. A false choice when Revealed Truth is available to us.

A society with no core beliefs cannot, by definition, operate on any positive standards or values. A culture that does not recognize right and wrong; practices Relativism; and rejects Absolute Truth… will die at the hands of forces that create their own rules. If you doubt me, check out the nightly news.

People who follow horoscopes and read tarot cards usually dismiss the Bible as mumbo-jumbo. Kids who are obsessed with superheroes don’t want to think about the Jesus Who walked on water and through walls, made the blind see and could read minds, and conquered death. Victims of terminal illnesses will grasp at copper bracelets and expensive herbal remedies and the Power of Wishful Thinking… but too often reject documented cases of real miracles by the “Lord Who Healeth Thee.” Tragic.

In the parlance of today’s comics culture, Jesus was the greatest superhero of them all. He was sent to earth; He knew the past of prehistory and could foretell the future; He turned water into wine; He fed a multitude by praying an increase over a basket of fish and bread; He raised people from the dead, and rose Himself despite agonizing torture and putrefaction in a tomb. He changes lives like mine, maybe the grandest miracle I know.

His costume was a simple robe, except for the holy Blood that covered Him in line with uncountable prophesies and predictions. And He did this all for us sinners while we were yet in our sins.

And Jesus was not a fictional character, but indisputably a historical figure.

I knew Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who invented Superman as teenagers in Cleveland. “It seemed like a fun character, a fun story to think about.” I asked Bob Kane how he came to create Batman. A similar story – at least no high-culture or pop-culture babble about cosmic forces of evil and revenge. “A fun idea,” he claimed.

Christianity is nothing if not about the supernatural. Welcome to Reality, not Fantasy!

All hail the POWER of Jesus’ name!

+ + +

Video Click: Power In The Blood 🎵 The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

7-25-22

It is almost impossible lately, during at least one week in July or August, not be aware of costumed heroes, red-carpet interviews, breathless announcements of new video games, and outrageous prices being paid for ancient, fragile comic books. It is the week of “ComiCon,” the San Diego International Comic Convention.

Even if you are not (in order) a fan of superheroes, celebrities, new movies and games, or collectible comic books… it is difficult to avoid cable-TV coverage, entertainment-show stories, news packages, and internet views of scholars and nerds, 135,000 of them, crowding the aisles of the Convention Center in otherwise placid San Diego.

It holds my interest for several reasons. I was in that world – and of that world – for much of my life. Actually more than one career, for I have been a political cartoonist, scenarist of strips and graphic novels, syndicate comics editor, editor of Marvel Comics magazines, writer for Disney, comics anthologist and historian, etc.

More, I have attended many of the comics festivals around the world, usually as a speaker or guest. Many are larger, and at one time more scholarly, than San Diego. But my first ComiCon was in 1976, and in those days they were small affairs, held in old halls or hotel basements. In fact ComiCon basically was a collectors’ swap meet with celebrity panels. As Editor at Marvel, I arranged for us to be the first major publisher to rent space and display new releases there. (I humbly confess that a strong motivation was to have Stan Lee sign off on 10 fun days with my staff in sunny California…)

Before the Con was largely subsumed by films and games I was kind of tight with board members of SDCC, so I was in its orbit. But these days it takes the James Webb Telescope of the Comics Universe to spot me. My interest in the art form has not waned at all – I am deep in a couple projects about comics history – but, as I said, SDCC is more about movies, games, and toys than strips.

But superheroes still stalk the halls, the representatives of comic books and their Hollywood spin-offs.

I have never fully understood America’s fascination with superheroes – before, during, and after my tenure at Marvel. We are too deep in the forest to see the trees; if the world survives, it will take analysts of the future to explain America’s obsession with violence and sex; protagonists who rely on muscles, weapons, and absurd powers to pursue justice. Other civilizations built the heroes of their myths (commonly agreed standards and values) on integrity, courage, and wisdom. Many of their heroes failed, the source of literal “tragedy,” a term that is, significantly, misused these days. But in contemporary America, every “hero,” every sketch drawn for fans at ComiCon, employs grimaces, knotted brows, bleeding scratches, clenched teeth, and, usually, a ravished buxom woman at his feet.

Why has America developed this conception of a hero, and why has an audience demanded or welcomed such characters, for surely they are synergistic factors.

Having worked in the “forest,” as I said, all my career, I can discern the trees but cannot identify them, nor explain their sustenance. Even my cherished Disney characters, whom I cast in countless scripts as I wrote premises and stories, have been transformed. I no longer recognize the denizens of the Magic Kingdom; No: I do recognize them, and I don’t like them. They don’t like me. Walt must be turning his grave like a rotisserie chicken. (I recently wrote about this for a national magazine.)

There are signs of hope, reasons for optimism, evidence of some redemption. Not only for desperately needed diversity of content, but as push-backs against the troubling vortex of thematic rot. Villains, and even heroes, I knew as a kid and during my time at Marvel, have now engaged in serial excess – demonology, satanism, perversion (“oh, we must give the good guys something to oppose”), rougher violence, and bloodier graphic representations of it all.

But subcultures of Christian cartoonists are creating stories and inventing heroes with positive virtues; self-publishing, when necessary, and with… happy endings. Or, for discerning readers, pointing to the Truth. Among these creators are very talented artists and writers. Many of them are at the ComiCon, and many are exhibiting, offering their work to the public, and… well, evangelizing. Missionaries in a hostile world – America, not only fan conventions.

When I was young I knew Al Hartley, who was permitted to draw a line of Archie comics for the Christian market; Hank Ketcham did the same with a line of Dennis the Menace comic books. Today’s new breed has taken the fight as St Paul did: “all things to all people” — there are series of heroes; fantasy themes; humor; adventure. The creators do not hide their faith, hoping to lure unsuspecting pagans… but rather, they share their witness boldly and cleverly.

Once there was Jack Chick, who published controversial comics as tracts. There was political cartoonist Wayne Stayskal, who also drew for religious publications. There is the Australian pastor Ian Jones, for whose anthology of Christian strips Pearly Gates I wrote an Introduction. I had many conversations with Charles Schulz who, early in his career, evangelized on street corners; he grew weary and wary of organized religions but always discussed Christian faith.

Of the “rising generation” there are many. And many of them are at ComiCon, individually and as members of the Christian Comics Society. This activity might surprise some Christians; but if the work was more widely read and discussed, the whole world might – and should – know of it. In the next blog message I will highlight some of the cartoonists and their work.

In the meantime, I will note that it is inspiring that some cartoonists are working not to impress each other or attract fans by whatever means they can use… but are conscious of the One Reader they seek to please.

+ + +

Video Click: It Is No Secret

7-18-22

Almost all of us know the story of the adulteress brought before Jesus. Almost all of us have not considered the myriad aspects and many lessons, nor asked – much less answered – the questions it presents.

From The Gospel of John, Chapter 8.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning, He came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and He sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test Him, that they might have some charge to bring against Him.

Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more He bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him.

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

And Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”…

I will share some thoughts I have, among many, from this story about that scene. I trust you will have more. Needless to say, I discern messages for our time, and for our lives, my life directly, as always happens when the Bible opens itself.

• Jesus did not minimize the woman’s sin. He maximized repentance and forgiveness.
• Religious leaders sought tricks to corner and twist and block the righteous. (They still act the same way today.) It is clear that the Pharisees, the professional religious hypocrites, were less concerned with the Law of Moses or even the woman acting justly, than trying to trick and discredit Jesus.
• Jesus FULFILLED the law, and did not seize upon it to condemn people. The harsh punishments of Old Testament rules were abolished by the Person and the Ministry of Jesus the Christ. Adherence to those laws was impossible, and righteousness is now found in true fellowship with Jesus.
• Jesus was writing in the sand with his finger. What was He writing? The Bible does not say. I believe He was not drawing doodles nor scribbling nonsense. In my mind’s eye He was writing the numbers 1 to 10 for all to see. Why? So the people might begin thinking about the Ten Commandments… and how many of those laws each of them had kept… or broken.
• The woman was face-to-face with her Savior. As He freed her, forgiveness flowed. How powerful is God’s forgiveness, and its “reach” into our lives? Jesus forgave before she asked… just as Christ gave His life for us while we were yet sinners! Our response then is to resist the sin nature, working to “sin no more” in life as the Holy Ghost enables.
• When He said, “Go and sin no more,” it closely followed the absolution… but the next verse indicates that the hypocritical Pharisees remained close by, and that message was directed to them too. And to us: Go and sin no more.

You might think I will relate this incident and its lessons to events that swirl around us today. You might be right.

I don’t have to do this, because the messages of the Holy Bible, and the Words of Jesus, stand on their own with applications for all people in all places at all times. Yet we are commanded to apply these truths.

Contemporary debates about abortion, and court decisions, and laws, relate to the incident of the woman… as well as to the attitudes of those who condemn her. Deeper is the motivation of the religious hypocrites: they hated Jesus and schemed to silence His message; and they had no compassion for the woman or her situation.

Her dilemma (and many Bible scholars believe that she specifically was unmarried and pregnant) is described as a consequence of her adultery. Jesus did not criticize her past actions, but lovingly sent her back to her home with the admonition to change her ways.

The abortion “debate” today is clothed in everything from cries for freedom to love for babies not yet born. Freedom and love somehow morph into violence and hate. Myself, I am not equating the two sides, like people who say “at least they’re sincere”: I believe abortion is murder.

Yet I see some sort of resolution to the current maelstrom of malice by returning, if we can imagine it, to that spot in the shadow of the Mount of Olives where the religious leaders tried to corner Jesus, and used the woman as a pawn.

Jesus identified the crisis of that confrontation. It was not mere adultery; it was sin. To the crowd, He defused their fury by confronting them with their hypocrisy. After her encounter with the Savior, she could not undo her sin… but she could repent, and she could change her life.

That is all Jesus asks when we accept Him.

And those numbers 1 to 10? If that’s what He wrote, it is significant that they were written in the sand. Irrelevant? No! But written by, explained by, and fulfilled by, Jesus Christ.

Let us go and resolve to sin no more.

+ + +

Video Click: Take My Life and Let It Be

https://youtu.be/qQfxc_zhlvA

7-11-22

At times all believers wonder – no differently than do secular folk – Why do the “good” suffer? Indeed, why do sinners prosper? Where is God? Why is it necessary to go through trials at all? Why did my spouse die? How can I survive this economy? Can a blessing please come my way?

God answers prayer, yes; but why is the answer so often No? Why does God seem to delay His answers… or seem seldom to answer a specific pleading?

… Why does an all-powerful God, who loves us so much – and which we hardly doubt – where is He when we cry? Why must we suffer anguish? We feel we are not selfish, but why, God, are You so often late??? Have you cried out with such questions?

I have friends who have been in that place lately, and so have I. Our souls cry out, even as we know the truths, and we know His word: we don’t need Bible college to know that He is sovereign. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, as Hebrews Chapter 11 states. “Trust and Obey,” the old Gospel song assures us. There are hundreds of Bible promises. “Father knows best!” Even that has spiritual application!

But yet we hurt. And wait. And listen. And, sometimes, our spiritual shopping-list seems to have been ignored.

Among many clues to these questions in the Bible, I think today of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, and a special friend, we read, of Jesus. Lazarus was sick… Jesus was sent for to pray healing over him… Jesus was “late,” arriving four days after his friend died and was entombed. Why, why, cried the women and many other followers, Why were you late, Jesus?

Jesus wept (the shortest verse in Scripture), we are told. He prayed to His Father that His divinity might be manifest in that moment, to assert (once again) to witnesses that He was indeed sent by God. He instructed mourners that the stone over the tomb’s entrance be rolled away… despite protestations that there would be ugly putrefaction from a four-day-old dead body.

But Lazarus walked out. He was whole and healed.

Jesus directed that the remaining burial cloths be removed. The Lord was, we see, not the only example of a resurrection recorded in Scripture… and neither the last. (Many are to come!)

The lessons are many. First, regarding timely prayer requests: Was Jesus “four days late”… or was He, rather, precisely on time? I urge you to watch the short music video below, enacting the scene but sharing the Truth better than I am doing.

And we ought to practice humility. Our agenda is not God’s; our urgency is not His. My comment about a shopping-list is too often how we approach the Lord. That is not communication as God desires.

Also there is the point about God’s sovereignty. Jesus’ timing was perfect… but we need to learn that Jesus did not raise everybody from the dead. He might have healed everyone He met, but the Bible does not claim that. He loves us, but His ways are not our ways.

Do you begin to see the “problem” we sometimes have with prayer? The problems can be with our approach, not His hearing. The ultimate lesson is to have faith. “Be still and know that I am God,” He tells us.

I was persuaded, years ago, to have an all-in belief in Divine Healing, close to the “name it and claim it” theology we hear discussed. Then one day I realized that an evangelist I fervently followed… wore glasses. And his wife talked about sharing Jesus… during her physical therapy sessions. Hmmm.

My late wife underwent heart and kidney transplants despite praying that she be supernaturally healed instead. A year later she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, was “prayed over” but underwent surgery, after which the doctors “couldn’t explain it,” but there were no traces of cancer cells.

God is sovereign. Why do we always need reminders?

I take away one more lesson from Lazarus. He was from Bethany, but he is also a Metaphor, if you will forgive me. Lazarus was dead… and before Jesus shows up in our lives, we too are dead in our sins.

And others might pray for us… but only a personal encounter with the Savior will bless us.

Also: instead of thinking of yourself as a Mary or Martha or an onlooker… imagine yourself as Lazarus. He was not only dead by all the ways they could measure. But, remember Jesus ordered that the bandages and burial cloths be removed? Let us think about that: we often, and in many ways, are encumbered, and bound, by our sins. Burial cloths, in a way of thinking, restraining us.

Death accompanies such restraints – sins – on our lives. Jesus looses and frees us from them. And like Lazarus, we may be born again.

+ + +

Video Click: Four Days Late

7-4-22

When my children were young, my wife and I had them memorize our family’s address, in case they ever strayed from home or lost their way. To orient themselves or assist those who would help.

In these times, we would do well – all of us, adults as well as children – to memorize another Address ourselves. We have, in many and substantial cases, strayed from Home as a people. Our culture seems to have lost its way.

On the Fourth of July we observe a national birthday, commemorating the date affixed to the Declaration of Independence. With the Constitution and other founding documents, speeches, and sermons, it is testimony that the nation and the very “idea” of a Republic were endowed by our Creator.

Many Americans have grown cold or indifferent to those ideals, and we see examples of citizens taking their rights and blessings for granted At the other extreme, radicals denigrate those ideals and besmirch the Founders and Framers.

However, elsewhere in the world there remain lonely and courageous freedom-seekers who are inspired by those words. There are young and fragile governments who model their struggles on those words.

There should be American children and, yes, adults, too who commit to memory some of the ringing words of our heritage.

July Fourth is a unique day for several reasons. Among them, the Declaration was signed; it was when Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders secured San Juan Hill in a bloody battle; and it was the day (actually one of three days) that the consequential Battle of Gettysburg was fought.

There are some people today who reject the idealism of statesmen and soldiers of our past. They dismiss the sacrifices and hard-fought benefits of our difficult civic evolution. They reject the blessings of God; His working in a land when His guidance was sought; they deny God Himself.

Among other heresies, people claim that the conscience of a nation was not roused by the cancer of slavery; that other motives animated a civil war. But I have archives newspaper and magazines of the era, and it is striking how simple citizens – even newly arrived immigrants – affirmed and reaffirmed allegiance to a nation they could not abide splitting apart. And there was a burning determination to end slavery. As President Lincoln said, “If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong,” and hundreds of thousands died so that bondsmen they did not know would be free.

When I was in grade school I chose to memorize Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I am still moved when I recite it, or read it, or hear it spoken. It is only about 250 words long, and when Lincoln delivered it, the address followed a two-hour speech by that event’s “main” speaker. Witnesses say that the assembled crowd had barely settled, after stretching their bodies and routinely applauding, when it ended!

But its words – Lincoln’s message and meaning – were soon regarded as profound. It is now regarded as one of the great orations, great essays, of humankind.

I am afraid, to use Lincoln’s invitations, that if we cannot re-dedicate ourselves to what constitutes “this nation, under God,” we are lost as a people. The world might indeed little note nor long remember whatever it was we have done here in America.

We need to be reminded of our home addresses, so to speak, for we have lost our way.

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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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.

+ + +

Video Click: