By Lesley Barker
Perhaps your youth group would be interested in drawing a comparison between the cholera epidemic of 1849 and the current COVID-19 pandemic. This may prompt a conversation about the role of prayer and fasting as spiritual strategies to shift adverse circumstances on the earth. It may motivate the students to take more public stands rooted in their personal faith towards God or for an evaluation of how influential their own devotional lives could be.
For the past eight months the COVID-19 virus has ravaged the
world, interrupting everything. People have compared this plague to the Spanish
Flu from a century ago. In 1849, the world was touched by a different illness,
cholera. About 150,000 Americans died that year from cholera. It was such a
serious problem that Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, who is not known for his
personal prayer life, sponsored a joint resolution in Congress to ask the
president to declare a “Day of Public Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting to be
observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity”[1].
The president, who was not very religious either, agreed. On July 3, 1849
President Taylor made a proclamation setting the first Friday of August, a
month later, for the whole country to put aside time for prayer. It may be
fitting to contrast the humility of this petition with our nation’s attitude
towards our current pandemic. This is the proclamation that President Taylor
made:
“At a season when the
providence of God has manifested itself in the visitation of a fearful
pestilence which is spreading itself throughout the land, it is fitting that a
people whose reliance has ever been in His protection should humble themselves before
His throne, and, while acknowledging past transgressions, ask a continuance of
the Divine mercy. It is therefore earnestly recommended that the first Friday
in August be observed throughout the United States as a Day of Fasting,
Humiliation, and Prayer… It is recommended to all persons of all religious
denominations to abstain as far as practical from secular occupations and to
assemble in their respective places of public worship, to acknowledge the
Infinite Goodness which has watched over our existence as a nation, and so long
crowned us with manifold blessings, and to implore the Almighty in His own good
time to stay the destroying hand which is now lifted up against us.”[2]
Zachary Taylor, from
Louisville, Kentucky, was the twelfth president of the United States. President
Taylor did not belong to any church. He was not known to be particularly
religious. However, he did fear God enough to refuse to take the presidential
oath of office on a Sunday. His wife, Peggy, though, was a devout Christian.
She spent her days in prayer beginning each morning at St. John’s Episcopal
Church across from the White House. Mrs.
Taylor neither hosted nor attended galas at the White House. Her daughter,
Betty, took that role. Mrs. Taylor did involve herself in more intimate
meetings and dinners with dignitaries and politicians but she has been judged
to have been one of the least effective first ladies in history. When a Baptist
Sunday School group visited the White House on July 4, 1849, Peggy Taylor was
there to receive them. Later that year she was honored with a lifetime
membership in the American Sunday School Union. [3]
Could it be that Mrs. Taylor was the influence behind
president’s decision to call for a national day of humiliation? According to
author, Tim O’Neil, this was effective to turn the tide. He wrote: “The number
of deaths [from cholera] dropped suddenly in August.”
Do your students think this example from history has any
relevance for today?
[1] Federer,
Bill. “President Zachary Taylor- Man of Faith”. A Minute with Bill Federer.July 9, 2015.
[2] Ibid.
[3]
First Lady Biography: Margaret Taylor. ONLINE. www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=13.
Accessed 4/27/2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment