The Words of In Jin Moon from 2011
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The Words of In Jin Moon from 2011 |
Good morning, brothers and sisters. Happy Independence Day. Happy July 4th weekend. I'm terribly glad to be with you once again. I thought that you can't really celebrate Independence Day properly without a little bit of Bon Jovi in the morning. So when I was exercising and torturing myself the other day – I usually like to torture myself on the Stairmaster to the music of Bon Jovi – I thought, "This is the kind of stuff that really gets people going and it takes me successfully through all my torturous routines." I thought, "What a great way to wake up on Sunday morning, getting us all prepared for a great deal of festivities on Monday, celebrating Independence Day."
For those of us who grew up in this country or who were born in this country and who now call ourselves citizens of this country, Independence Day has a profound meaning. We know that it commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed the thirteen colonies to be free from Great Britain. It was an attempt for self-government and attempt to take destiny into American hands.
Starting from that time, America has grown to become one of the superpowers of the world, wielding a great deal of influence in countries around the world. So America has a great deal of responsibility in its desire to exercise freedom. When we contemplate the word independence, we see that Webster's defines it for us as "freedom from control or influence, or the determination of another." That word has a very interesting place in all of our lives. Particularly for those of us who are young and looking toward our life and different things we would like to do, the word freedom may override anything else in our lives.
For a lot of people, freedom can seem to mean you can do whatever you want. But freedom is guaranteed not because it exists alone but because it exists in the context of the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees freedom for all its citizens. Just because we long to be free does not mean we can do whatever we want if it infringes on the right of another citizen or individual in the United States of America.
Likewise, when I reflect on the word freedom, I see it as being made up of two syllables – free and dumb. Viewing the word in this way can help remind all of us seeking freedom in our lives and wanting to express it that, yes, we need to be free in that we have the right to make the important decisions ourselves, but as we know from Divine Principle we also have a 5 percent responsibility. We have the free will to decide what we're going to do. But we need to do that wisely and lovingly. We need to do it thinking and living for the sake of others. Therefore, we should all be "free," but not be involved in things that fall into the category of things that are "dumb."
We can be free, but if we tell people, "I am free to hurt you," that is not a smart thing to do. Or, "I am free to cause myself bodily harm." That is indeed not a smart thing to do. Or, "I am free to inflict misery on myself, or be my own prisoner, my own taskmaster in such a way that I no longer function as an eternal son or daughter of God." That also would not be the smart thing to do. Those things might fall under the category of things that could be considered dumb.
I notice that when we make progress in a technological area or in the process of modernization, every step forward allows us to be a little more free in doing other things. For instance, with the invention of a laundry washer and dryer, we became more free with our time to do other things. When the State of New York decided to implement EasyPass at tollbooths, it was an attempt to free us from rummaging through our pockets as we approach the tollbooth and then trying to get all those coins into the tollbooth before we drive away. The process of modernization is freeing us from things we were held bondage to, such as our chump change and having to get that change into the tollbooth.
When the Lovin' Life team at Headquarters prepared the Launch Pad that we have shared with all the district pastors around the country, it was an effort on the part of Headquarters and Lovin' Life Ministries to help you create an efficient satellite community to the best of your ability. Preparing the Launch Pad was our way of serving you and your community by helping each community to own its worship – to develop its own programs, its own circles, and its own projects. In this way, the Launch Pad is a tool for every state all around the country to use in making Lovin' Life its own.
One thing I noticed about freedom is that when a new tool to support greater freedom is made available, it can still take a long time for people to change their ways.
For instance, in the State of New York, even though we've had EasyPass for over 15 years, there are still many people who have a hard time switching over from the habitual understanding of a tollbooth – rummaging through their pockets, driving up to the window, throwing the coins in, and then driving away.
By initiating the Launch Pad and sending it out to all the district pastors around the country, Headquarters is providing a way to make the ride more efficient, more effective, and more comfortable. That's what the Launch Pad is trying to do: to give the power to you to develop your own successful Lovin' Life satellite. But just like the EasyPass, many of you are not using the Launch Pad. Many of you are not familiar with the thought processes that we've already gone through at Headquarters and gifted to you, so when you think about the possible phrase that you might want to use as a slogan or banner for different projects that you might want to do, like "Live Out Loud," it's already been thought out, gifted, and freely given.
We have given all the district pastors and communities the right to exercise freedom to make Lovin' Life your own, but if you don't own that freedom, receive it and make it yours, that freedom won't award anything to anybody.
When we consult the Bible, we find a wonderful passage in Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed in renewing your mind, so that you may prove that which is good, acceptable and perfect – the will of God." Highlight the verbs in this passage – "do not be conformed to this world," conform; "but be transformed," transform. How do we do so? By renewing our minds. Why be transformed by renewing our minds? So that we can prove the will of God, the will of God that is perfect, acceptable, and good.
If we are to savor this passage a little, what the Bible is saying is, "Do not get stuck in what has been accepted. Do not get stuck in the ways that we've done things before. Do not become habitualized to the ineffective ways of doing things. Do not become habitualized to the miserable type of living." Some people don't want to get out of poverty because they need to feel the pain every day of their lives. Even when you afford these people the means of getting themselves out, pulling themselves up to a better life, many people don't leave.
It's interesting how when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862 and it became effective the year after, there were a lot of slaves who were told, "You no longer are slaves; now you are free men and women. Now you can go as you please." They were awarded the freedom to be citizens of this country; they were no longer slaves or second-class citizens. But even though this freedom was awarded to these people through the Emancipation Proclamation, a lot of the slaves did not want to leave their masters because they were conformed to the world. They were habitualized in their slavery. They knew nothing else.
Instead of taking the courage to seek a better life, they preferred to stay in the state of being a slave. That is quite shocking for a lot of people, but slavery takes many different forms. Yes, the African Americans were given their Emancipation Proclamation, but even in this modern-day era there is slavery of many different sorts. For instance, many are slaves to drugs. Even though we want to afford these people the freedom to rid themselves from a life of bondage to drugs, they don't want to leave because they have been conformed to their world. It has been habitualized and accepted, and they allow themselves to be stuck.
What the Bible is asking us to do is not to be conformed to the world. When we send out the Launch Pad to every district pastor, what we are asking them is, don't be conformed to the world as we have known it. We just celebrated the end of the world on May 21, 2011 with True Parents, right? It was prophesied by many great prophets and the Good Book a long time ago. When we're sending out the Launch Pad, it's an invitation not to be conformed to the world as we have known it. This is a time when we can build something new, something better, something that's worthy of our children and our grandchildren.
The Bible goes on to say, "Be transformed." It's not saying, "God will transform you." It is saying, "Be transformed." In other words, the Bible is asking us to be responsible adults who will decide to exercise the 5 percent responsibility of our free will and become agents of change who will determine our own great destinies. The Bible says, "Be transformed." How do we transform ourselves? By renewing our minds.
What the Bible is actually saying is, "Get yourselves unstuck from the habitualized way of thinking, living, and expressing yourselves to each other – and be transformed, meaning all of us, me, you, us, we." We are not to wait for God to do the job for us, not to wait for a band of angels to sing good wishes to us. We need to be our own transformation by renewing our minds.
I've owned several apartments, and I have a home in Boston. When it comes to that time of year and the paint on the outside is looking a bit flaky and dull, I'm thinking about renovating the house, possibly painting the exterior or painting the interior different colors, to renovate it, giving it a brand-new face and feeling on which we can all be carried throughout the year.
I know that when I decide to renovate something, it's a conscious decision. I become my agent of change, and I decide for myself that a little bit of transformation is necessary to move the house from dull to fabulous, from something that looks a bit putrid to glorious – something that looked boring to exciting. Transformation means moving something from one state to another. It presupposes growth and movement. Transformation is a wonderful word that promises growth and movement in our lives from one state to another.
How do we do that? Simply by changing the way we think – by renewing, renovating, and overhauling the way we think and the way we have gone about doing what we did before. For each district director around the country, I have to say, "God bless you. We are so lucky to have all of you." But what we are asking, and what the Good Book is asking for us to do, is something a little bit different. It's not to do the old method of approaching the tollbooth, rummaging through our pockets and throwing the coins in. It's asking us to try the EasyPass, and it's telling us that the more people who try it and use it, the better the morning rush traffic will be. It will be good for everybody.
It's a call to help transform ourselves, our families, our societies, our nations and our communities into something better, to move from one state of being to another. How? By renewing our thinking, by changing our thinking and deciding that we are not going to be dependent and addicted children dragging down God and our True Parents. We are going to be healthy, independent children who love and honor God and want to do something great, to build something wonderful by changing and renovating our thinking, and by being constantly on the lookout for different and new ways to transform what's really beautiful. We are going to help bring the beautiful brothers and sisters that we have in our fold up to the modern-day era so that we can be more effective as a family, a community, and a movement. And in doing so we will prove the will of God.
If we understand that God is our Heavenly Parent, our father and mother in heaven, and we know that when God thought about creating His and Her children, the first thing that God had in mind was to love and be loved. God wanted to experience love by creating children. The desire of God as parents, gazing upon God's beautiful sons and daughters all around the world, is for them to be incredibly wonderful and beautiful sons and daughters, truly loving life.
Our Heavenly Parent would like all of us to love life and to inherit the true love of God, meaning that our children or all of us will have the chance and opportunity to experience true love, and true life, but also true lineage, building families of our own. In that way we realize that God is not sitting on a high throne casting commands in heaven to make the children miserable and make them suffer. What God is hoping is that if the children are suffering perhaps through a difficult time, the children will learn something, or perhaps become deeper, stronger, and better. But what He and She wish for all of us is to be happy, healthy and in love, truly loving life. That's what our Heavenly Parent wants.
If the goal of our life is to prove the will of God, we need to think about the word prove. When you want to prove the truth of something, first of all you have to have a concept of what the truth is. You have to be able to conceive what you want to prove – this truth or this particular mathematical equation. Then you have to believe in the process – that once you understand what you want to prove, there is a process that needs to be played out.
In geometry when you prove something, you're explaining how you get from one premise to the other. You have to conclude it elegantly. When we're thinking that our goal and mission in life is to be the embodiment that proves the will of God, the wish and desire of God to see all of us as a remarkable son or daughter of God, we realize that once we have a concept of this truth in our mind, we have to believe it. We have to keep the faith in the process of actualizing or substantiating or achieving God's wish and desire in our lives.
When you prove something, you make real something that was originally a concept in your head. When the Good Book asks us to prove the will of God, it is telling us that we as God's sons and daughters have this paramount responsibility to be the divine being, the eternal son or daughter. It's asking us to simply put into practice the three steps of conceive, believe – keep the faith while you're doing it – and achieve.
When I read this passage several times, I said to myself, I need to work on not being conformed to this world. A couple of weeks ago I was dealing with a particular conformity in the sense that I had a great deal of pain in my neck and shoulders. It was as though I didn't have the time or the will to take myself to the doctor. It was just an added inconvenience in my day of all the different things that I had to do. I never really took care of it, and it kept getting worse and worse. I was conforming to the world as I knew it. It was an excruciatingly painful world. In a strange way, the pain became my friend. That's when I knew I was in trouble.
I had heard about a wonderful acupuncturist, a member of our faith. My daughter has been having pain for the last two years, and every time she danced it would flare up and cause her a great deal of pain. Like mother, like daughter; she would just grin and bear it, hoping a little bit of rest would make it go away, but it kept getting worse and worse.
When I read Romans 12:2, I said, "Well, the Bible says, 'Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by renewing your mind so that you can prove the will of God." That told me that somebody up there was hinting that I should get my life in gear and fix the problem. I shouldn't be conformed and just suffer with the pain. I should transform myself. I should make my health better by renewing my mind, by deciding I am going to do something about it and prove the will of God – meaning, "prove that God is not wishing for me to be suffering each day and night."
We had heard that this acupuncturist was very good, but we had also heard that unlike other acupuncturists this is a no-mercy doctor. If you come to him for treatment, you are there to be treated, and you are at his mercy. I had heard that no amount of screaming or Hallelujahs would save you from the treatment he's going to inflict on you once you are in his care.
We were a bit apprehensive, but the Bible says, "Do not be conformed," so off we went. This doctor is a rather tiny man, with a very happy, smiley face with crescent moon eyes. He didn't look like somebody who could inflict a great deal of pain. So we thought, "Okay, we're doing pretty well." He was very soft-spoken, asking, "Tell me what is going on."
I told him, "I've been having this excruciating pain, like I'm carrying something on my right shoulder but it doesn't quite feel like an arm." My daughter told him, "I have this incredible pain. I can't step on my foot without feeling like I want to scream." He quietly dipped his hand into his black bag and out came this little metal box. He closed his eyes and quietly opened the box.
I've been to acupuncturists many times before, and the ones I got treatment from use really skinny needles. You barely feel the needles when they poke you. The needles don't go in more than a centimeter. But when this man opened his metal box, there were metal rods, not needles, and they were very long. I looked at Ariana and we thought, "Oh, my goodness." But once we go into treatment, there's no way out until he's finished. It's an understood thing.
A regular acupuncturist usually puts the needles in where you are experiencing the pain. If you have pain on the right side of your neck, that's where the needle goes. But he said, "Those acupuncturists don't know Divine Principle. They don't understand subject-object. They don't understand masculine-feminine. They don't understand yin and yang. They don't understand heaven-earth, they don't understand East and West. They are putting the needle in the wrong place. You don't put the needle in the pain. You put the needle where you can excite the nerve to do something about the pain."
All the previous acupuncturists that I had been to had stuck needles in my neck and my shoulder. This guy stuck metal rods, huge long metal rods, on the exact opposite place of where my pain was. He stuck them on the left shoulder, where I had no pain. I was thinking, "What is this man doing?" He was saying, "Yin and yang, the left part, right part are connected."
I said, "Explain to me your metal rod system." He said it's like when you are falling asleep, for instance, in the middle of Sunday service, which I hope none of you are doing right now, and somebody next to you nudges you, you realize that when you are trying to stay away, every nudge makes you more tired. When you are in class and you're super-tired, you've been up all night – hopefully in the library and not partying – and somebody next to you needles you with a pen to wake you up, you become more tired.
He was saying that many times Western-style medicine is like trying to nudge you awake when you're falling asleep. He said his heavenly rod method of acupuncture is not to nudge the person but to slap him awake so hard that it shocks the system and starts it up all over again with extreme renewed, renovated, and rehauled energy. He was saying, "Because when you are slapped awake, your sleepiness suddenly disappears and you are like, 'Who did this? Come out of the woodwork!' You suddenly become awake." He said, "That's the philosophy for my heavenly rod acupuncture system."
So we just sat there while he tortured us. These needles were thick. The thin needles other acupuncturists use you can't even feel – a pinch at the most. This needle you can feel going in, and when he twists it, you can feel the circuitry that he's manipulating because you realize that the body is literally a circuit board. He's pinning you here, drilling slowly that heavenly rod on your neck, but you feel it on your lower back. He puts it on your shoulder, but you feel it down on your legs. It was really quite miraculous.
He was twisting it, saying, "This will be painful." I was thinking, "Okay, not only do you slowly drill me with this rod of iron but you're telling me it's going to be painful as if it's going to make it any better. It didn't make it any better, but at least he warned me." But he kept on poking me. He said, "Yes, you're very stressed out. It's very good that you came to see me because if you went much further, something might have had to give." I said, "Well, that's good news." He said, "You need to come back and see me two more times." I said, "Oh, no!" I was hoping for a one-time recovery.
My daughter saw the needles and she said, "Nooo!" He was getting the needles ready to put them in the foot that was not affected. She just would not lie down because she had to see what the man was going to do to her feet. The doctor was saying, "Lie down; don't look!" But she was so scared that she was clinging onto me and I had to hold onto her other leg because she kept on wanting to kick the doctor away. She was kicking me in the process, trying to free herself. I said, "We're here, so let's just give it a go."
Then he took hold of her foot and started turning in the metal rod. He said, "Yes, this will hurt." The first treatment she was screaming like a coyote. It was extremely painful, but she sat through and completed the treatment. It was extremely painful because it was on the bone and these metal rods are long. They're really long, like this.
But after the first treatment, two years of pain – which meant that she could barely walk many times because it was so inflamed and painful – went away. She said, "This is incredible. The other doctors I went to wanted to operate on the foot that was affected. They were treating the foot that was affected with electronic devices, but nothing got rid of the pain. But he treated the other foot and the pain went away."
He said, "Come back two more times." We did complete our treatment. He said, "It's going to take some time, so you have to take care of your health. Please take these herbal medications and you'll feel better." The interesting thing was that both of us could have continued on living with the pain because it was what we were used to, what we became accustomed to, instead of exerting the added effort of making that phone call to the doctor and getting ourselves over there.
In some ways our experience was similar to learning to use the computer instead of being stuck to a typewriter. You have to try to learn something new. You have to go from being somebody who is computer illiterate to being somebody who is computer literate, and that might take a process. But in the end it frees us up to do so much more.
Going through the process of receiving torturous acupuncture in the end yielded the kind of result that allows me to do much better in my mission of proving the will of God, by trying to be an eternal daughter of God, fulfilling all of my divinity, realizing that I am not just dust in the wind meant to float around in the air and feel glorious about myself, but there is a meaning and a purpose to my existence. For each of us our life is an opportunity to do just that, to actualize what God originally intended for His first son and daughter, Adam and Eve.
I realized in this whole experience of the acupuncture treatment that there has to be a decision, a defining moment when you say, "Enough is enough. We need to do something different. Let's see if we can take ourselves from one state to another. Let's see if we can make ourselves better by changing our way of thinking. Let's see if we can change the course of our destiny by taking it by the horns and driving it ourselves. We're not going to wait around for our parents to do the job for us all the time. We are going to be independent, responsible children who exercise the freedom to do the right thing and to do things in the right way."
By embodying the philosophy of living for the sake of others we grow to be free in knowing all the blessings that have been given to us, and understanding that we are governed by a powerful philosophy: living for the sake of others. We need to exercise our freedom by practicing it in our daily lives, caring for the ones we care about and helping the community we care about.
District leaders, don't just sit on the Launch Pad that we have sent you. The second packet should have arrived last week. Please utilize it in your community. We created it to help you do your job better, to help you own your own ministry, to help you develop your own communities.
We've never really had a system like this before, but it doesn't mean we can't have one now. The amazing thing about the ministry that our Heavenly Parent has allowed us to experience and partake of is that whether those districts are following the Launch Pad as we would recommend, or not, every month 30 or 40 members are joining. So imagine how much better that average would be if you really started using the Launch Pad, so that people can talk freely about it.
Do we even know the theme? Are the district pastors, or youth ministers or assistant pastors aware that the theme of the Launch Pad is "I care"? We're using compassion and caring as our theme.
Regardless of how much we do at Headquarters, if we don't have your support – not just receiving but implementing the packet, sharing the packet, talking about it, brainstorming about it, inviting your congregation, your youth to participate and make the ministry their own – then it's not going to be as effective as we would all like.
Sun
Myung Moon, Hyung Jin Moon, and Yun Ah Lee Moon, May 2011
Despite its full use or not, continual growth takes place. But how much faster and how much more effective could the growth be, especially in light of the fact that we're looking toward the date of 2013? There's a whole lot of breaking news that needs to be shared: the news of our True Parents, that we can finally live as one family under God.
How do we become one family? Everyone thinks Reverend Moon is crazy for mass weddings, but it's not just two people getting married with thousands of other couples. It's really their testament, their wanting to share with the world, "Look, we are willing to say that we are going to transcend the barriers of race, religion and culture to come together in this common denominator, understanding God as our Heavenly Parent. We understand ourselves as eternal sons and daughters proclaiming that we will live a compassionate life, an altruistic life living for the sake of others and raising others to be better than ourselves. In the process we will become not only internally excellent but also externally excellent, so that the internal knowledge of who we are as a divine being is manifested in all the different things that we may do – whether it be lawyers, ministers, teachers, nurses, chefs or any other living practice to which we may be called. It doesn't matter, because we know that success will follow if we're beautiful on the inside and we're strong in knowing that we are here for a purpose, we have a mission, and we have this amazing gift of a life that we should unfold as part of our myth-making."
Considering these insights, we realize that we have been given an exciting, engrossing, and compelling ride called our lives, so we are empowered to approach our life with gratitude. We can approach our life with excitement in knowing that we were meant to leave something beautiful behind. What is more beautiful than our children of the next generation, who are better prepared than we are to usher this world into the next millennium?
You cannot have peace without truly understanding how to love. The way you truly understand how to love is by understanding how relationships work in a family. That's why Reverend and Mrs. Moon teach that building ideal families is the cornerstone of building a peaceful world. If we don't know how to love, we will not know how to be peaceful men and women. We will not know how to be harmonious men and women.
These international blessings are really an effort to see our world as one family. They are highlighting the understanding that no one race is better than another, no one culture is better than the other, no one economic class is better than the other. We are all children of God. That is what our True Parents and our Heavenly Parent are asking us to concentrate on.
Brothers and sisters, when Jesus was healing the sick, he said in Matthew 9:29 to the people who came to him to be healed, "According to your faith, be it unto you." The healing that Jesus provides will be according to our faith. Be it unto you. Be it unto us.
So the healing that our True Parents and our Heavenly Parent bring to the world is according to our faith, be it unto all of us. If we can remain vigilant in our faith in our Heavenly Parent, in our faith and loyalty to our True Parents, there is nothing we cannot heal. There is nothing we cannot accomplish.
An extremely profound saying comes from the Buji tribe of Nigeria: small pebbles are the strength in walls. All these small pebbles are you and I, but we together become the strength in the wall, or the city or the world that we are building. We need to make sure that these little pebbles, you and I, are inspired, that we are not conformed to the world, but that we can transform ourselves by renewing our way of thinking so we can live the rest of our lives proving the will and desire of our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother.
So brothers and sisters, on this beautiful July 4th weekend as we celebrate Independence Day, please have a safe weekend. There may be lots of pyromaniacs in the audience. Young people, please take care. Have a great time. Have great family sharings all throughout the weekend, and please keep the faith. Thank you.
1: I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
2: Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
3: For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.
4: For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function,
5: so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
6: Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
7: if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching;
8: he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
9: Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
10: love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor.
11: Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord.
12: Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
13: Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.
14: Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
15: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
16: Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited.
17: Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
18: If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all.
19: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
20: No, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head."
21: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
By the President of the United States of America:
A
Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary
of State.
1: And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.
2: And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."
3: And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming."
4: But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?
5: For which is easier, to say, `Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Rise and walk'?
6: But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- he then said to the paralytic -- "Rise, take up your bed and go home."
7: And he rose and went home.
8: When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
9: As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.
10: And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.
11: And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
12: But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
13: Go and learn what this means, `I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
14: Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
15: And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
16: And no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.
17: Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; if it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."
18: While he was thus speaking to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."
19: And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples.
20: And behold, a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment;
21: for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well."
22: Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well.
23: And when Jesus came to the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd making a tumult,
24: he said, "Depart; for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him.
25: But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.
26: And the report of this went through all that district.
27: And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David."
28: When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord."
29: Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you."
30: And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them, "See that no one knows it."
31: But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
32: As they were going away, behold, a dumb demoniac was brought to him.
33: And when the demon had been cast out, the dumb man spoke; and the crowds marveled, saying, "Never was anything like this seen in Israel."
34: But the Pharisees said, "He casts out demons by the prince of demons."
35: And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity.
36: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
37: Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
38: pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."