The Chronicles of Snobbery; Vol. 2; Robert E. Lee

(The Chronicles of Snobbery; a day to reflect on history as His-story.  One that does not know history cannot see forward or interpret the signs of the times.)

God's faithfulness, His faithfulness in all situations.  He has always raised up His people to be salt and light in a lost and dying world.  One such man was General Robert E. Lee of the Army of Virginia.  

John 17:14-23

Christ prays for His own

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“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

 

Robert E. Lee performed his duties to the Army of Virginia to the best of his abilities.  He was fighting for the defense of his beloved Virginia from what he saw as foreign invaders.  When it was all over and he had surrendered at Appomattox, he told his troops that, “true patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another and the motive which impels them—the desire to do right –is precisely the same.  The circumstances which govern their actions change; and their conduct must conform to the new order of things.”  

After the war, as he was serving as the President of Washington College, in Lexington, Virginia, he wanted to make sure that the truth of events that surrounded the war to be truthful.  He told Jubal Early, “We shall have to be patient, and suffer for awhile at least;…At present the public mind is not prepared to receive the truth.  My only object is to transmit, if possible, the truth to posterity, and do justice to our brave Soldiers.”  He never got the chance to record for future generations what the truth was from his perspective.  He labored on at the college beginning with just a dozen students and by the end of three years, it had grown in attendance to over 300.  He also brought back to life the grounds and the buildings of the college that had been destroyed making it once again into a reputable place for young men to receive instruction. During his last years at the college he could be seen taking long rides on Traveller, his beloved horse, through the beautiful Shenandoah countryside.  In defeat he sought for the truth to be brought forth, the faithful to be exonerated, and the new authority of the Union to be obeyed and respected.  He knew when to fight, and he knew when the time for fighting was over.  

Lee could have turned into a bitter old man after his defeat.  He could have chosen to spread his vitriol throughout the rest of his life, but he chose the high road of submitting to the “new” authority under the President of the United States, and to continue to work training young men to be faithful men under all circumstances of life. 

Lee knew this passage of Scripture out of John 17.  Jesus is praying for His disciples to know that the world will hate them, because the world hated Him.  He wanted them to be faithful where they were called no matter what the cost (defeat or success), not to give up, but to work until He comes back, and to continue to submit to the authorities that God has placed us under.

 This can be one of the hardest lessons of life.  How do you remain faithful to Jesus, but at times despise, scorn, and deride the authorities that have been put in place in your life?  This is where Lee gives us a great example in which to emulate. He lost, what he thought was the driving passion, purpose, and goal of his life and it ended in defeat.  Yet, at the end, he told his fellow Virginians to come together with the Union and to go back to their homes with “the satisfaction that proceeds for the consciousness of duty faithfully performed.”  A man that hates, or doubts, or is only seeing his perspective could not have uttered those words.  A man that hates, or doubts, or sees only from his perspective does not go on to build character into the lives of young people until the day he died.  Lee knew the truth and it had set him free.  He knew that God in His sovereignty had a plan, and he could trust that plan.  He knew that if when he didn’t agree with the authorities in his life, they ultimately were not the final authority.  He knew that there was someone else in charge.  Not just old men can become bitter, angry, sullen, and defeated by their own attitudes about the circumstances, and the authorities in their lives. 

  On a rainy evening September 28^th, 1870, Lee walked slowly home from church after a leadership meeting.  He removed his hat and coat, hung them up on the hook beside the door, and sat down in the chair at the dinning room table.  Mrs. Lee greeted him, but never received an answer.  She found him with his head down on the table, having had a stroke.  He lingered for two more weeks, only uttering an average of one word per day, until on October 12, with family nearby, he died peacefully.  Let Lee be our example of a man faithfully performing his duties not to earthly authorities, but to heavenly ones.