“This nation _____ ___, shall have a new birth of freedom” —A. Lincoln, Nov. 19, 1863. When Barack Obama takes the oath of office as America’s first African-American president, he will place his left hand on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and raise his right hand under the inaugural theme: “a new birth of freedom,” the phrase first uttered in the Gettysburg Address by the man who emancipated the slaves and whose 200th birthday will be celebrated in 2009.

Will this “new birth of freedom” take Barack Obama’s legacy as far as it took Abraham Lincoln’s? If history is our guide, we know that the success of a nation under crisis is tied to two essential words that Lincoln knit to this “new birth of freedom.” These words, conspicuous for their absence in the 2009 inauguration festivities, were the two most important words in Lincoln’s entire presidency.

“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain,” Lincoln said on that Gettysburg battlefield, “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.”

Did you catch it?

Lincoln knew from cruel experience that the nation absolutely could not survive unless it was newly born under God.

That year, 1863, proved to be one of the most momentous of his presidency. The nation, riven by crisis and war, faced collapse. But the president was determined to preserve the union. In the spring, Lincoln charted a course to heal the nation’s division, beginning by addressing the cause.

In a proclamation appointing a national fast day, he said:

It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God … and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord …. We have been the recipients of the choicest blessings of heaven. … We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation ever has grown; but we have forgotten God!

This great president then issued a proclamation for a day of fasting and prayer to confess this national sin before God: “Now therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.”

Lincoln knew that only God could rescue the nation. God heard and answered that great national prayer offensive—and, just before it was to be torn in half, the nation was preserved.

What about our nation today? What will the next four years bring? The challenges of the day are fierce—dwindling influence, economic turmoil, international instability, shifting alliances. Americans watch expectantly to see how the new administration will navigate these storms.

In this moment, let us not forget the lesson that preserved the nation and secured Abraham Lincoln’s legacy: The new birth of freedom must be under God.

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