04 Pray to the Same God
林肯总统第2次就职演讲：我们祷告的是同一个上帝

在美国的历任总统当中，华盛顿、林肯和富兰克林•罗斯福被公认为是3位最伟大的美国总统，其中华盛顿被历史学家称为国父，林肯则被誉为国家的拯救者。美国南北战争的爆发和结束，都在林肯的总统任期内。林肯在连任总统的1个多月之后，南北战争结束，但他却在战争结束后的第6天，遭到主张奴隶制度的分子暗杀。这也让他成为第一个遭到刺杀的美国总统。以下是林肯总统任期内的时间简表。

1861年3月4日 林肯第1任的总统任期开始

1861年4月12日 南北战争爆发

1865年3月4日 林肯第2任的总统任期开始

1865年4月9日 南北战争结束

1865年4月15日 林肯遇刺身亡

林肯出生在肯塔基州，21岁时举家搬到伊利诺伊州。林肯去世后被葬在伊利诺伊州春田市，因此伊利诺伊州的一个别称就是“林肯之州”（Land of Lincoln）。1867年3月，林肯遇刺后将近2年时，美国国会通过了兴建林肯纪念堂的法案，并于1922年竣工。“林肯纪念堂”（Lincoln Memorial）位于华盛顿特区国家广场（National Mall）的西侧，与“国会大厦”（Capitol Building）和“华盛顿纪念碑”（Washington Monument）连成一直线，是美国著名的纪念性建筑。

林肯纪念堂的中央有一座大理石雕成的林肯座像，其高达5.8米，在座像的左侧墙壁上，刻着林肯第2次的就职演讲，右侧则刻着林肯另一篇著名的演讲————《葛底斯堡宣言》（Gettysburg Address）。另外，在知名的旅游景点拉什莫尔山国家纪念公园（Mount Rushmore National Memorial，俗称美国总统山）内，有4座高达18米左右的美国前总统头像，其由左到右分别是华盛顿、杰斐逊、西奥多•罗斯福和林肯。

Speaker 美国第16任总统亚伯拉罕･林肯（Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865）

Time1865 年3月4日

Place 美国华盛顿特区（Washington, D.C.）

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MP3-8

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil-war. All dreaded it——all sought to avert it.

While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgentagents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war——seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecatedwar; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.

Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.

Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged.

The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!"

If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providenceof God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribeto Him?

在4年前这个同样的场合里，所有人关注的都是即将爆发的内战。那时大家都深感恐惧，想尽办法要避免。

当时我在这里就职演讲，大家集思广益，希望能在不发动战争的情况下拯救联邦。然而城里的反对分子却处心积虑想在不发动战争的情况下，让联邦瓦解，以便在谈判桌上分割联邦。当时两派人士都想避免战争，但其中一方宁愿打仗，也不愿让国家继续存在下去，而另一方则是宁可接受战争，也不愿意让国家灭亡。于是，战争爆发了。

我们全国人口的八分之一是黑奴，他们不是遍布整个联邦，而是集中在一些南方地区。大家都知道，这些黑奴代表了一种特殊且巨大的利益，而这也成为了导致战争的原因。因为政府主张限制黑奴区域的扩大，所以反对分子不惜发动战争以分裂联邦，而其目的就是为了加强、保持和扩大这种利益。

当初双方阵营都没有预料到这场战争会蔓延得那么广、打得这么久。大家也都没有想到，早在战争结束、甚至尚未结束之前，战争的原因就不复存在了。双方都希望想办法尽快获得胜利，并寻求一个比较中立、温和的结果。

我们双方都读着同一本圣经，向同一个上帝做祷告，并祈求上帝帮助自己打败对方。很不可思议，人类竟敢祈求上帝帮助自己去抢夺别人辛苦挣来的面包！然而，我们不要评判别人，免得自己也被评判。

我们双方的祈祷是不可能同时如愿的，而我们目前也没有任何一方的祈求是完全被实现的。上帝有他自己的旨意，“这世界有祸了，因为将人绊倒了；绊倒人这种事，是免不了的，但那绊倒人的有祸了！”

如果美国的奴隶制度是属于这种“绊倒人”的罪恶，而且按上帝的旨意而言是免不了的话，那在罪恶持续了上帝所指定的一段时间之后，上帝现在要消除罪恶了。上帝让南北双方掀起这场惨烈的战争，让灾难降临到罪恶者的身上，这难道会有悖于信徒们心中所认定的上帝的圣德吗？

MP3-9

Fondly do we hope——fervently do we pray——that this mighty scourgeof war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequitedtoil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

我们真诚恳切地祈祷，希望这场战争的浩劫能很快就结束。然而，如果上帝要让这场战争继续下去，直到黑奴们这250年来，辛劳工作、没有拿到半毛钱而累积下来的成果付诸东流，直到鞭笞黑奴所流的每一滴血，用刀枪之下所流的血来血债血还，就像3000年前人们所说的那样，那我们仍然只能说“上帝的审判正确而且完全正义。”

我们不对任何人怀有恶意，我们爱护所有的人。上帝让我们看见正义，我们就应该坚守正义，为尚未完成的事业努力奋斗，愈合国家分裂的伤口，关心那些为战争作出牺牲的人及其遗孀和遗孤，并尽一切力量来实现并维护国内外的正义与永久和平。