Spreading The Gospel In Early America
SPREADING THE GOSPEL IN EARLY AMERICA
Subject: Good thing our ancestors got off the boat :-)
DID YOU KNOW...
September 16, in 1620 (in today's calendar, the 6th September in the Julian Calendar, before you write in) the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth. She did not land first at Plymouth Rock, but at the tip of Cape Cod on 11 November - she did not reach the rock until 21 December.
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Subject: THE HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Edition – THE HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING
The first day of thanks in America was celebrated in Virginia at Cape Henry in 1607, but it was the Pilgrims' three-day feast celebrated in early November of 1621, which we now popularly regard as the "First Thanksgiving." The first real Calvinist Thanksgiving to God in the Plymouth Colony was actually celebrated during the summer of 1623 when the colonists declared a Thanksgiving holiday after their crops were saved by much needed rainfall. The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England on September 6,
1620. They sailed for a new world with the promise of both civil and religious liberty. For almost three months, 102 seafarers braved harsh elements to arrive off the coast of what is now Massachusetts, in late November of 1620.
On December 11, prior to disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the "Mayflower Compact," America's original document of civil government and the first to introduce self-government.
The Puritan Separatists, America's Calvinist Protestants, rejected the institutional Church of England. They believed that the worship of God must originate in the inner man, and that corporate forms of worship prescribed by man interfered with the establishment of a true relationship with God. The Separatists used the term "church" to refer to the people, the Body of Christ, not to a building or institution. As their Pastor John Robinson said, "[When two or three are] gathered in the name of Christ by a covenant made to walk in all the way of God known unto them as a church."
Most of what we know about the Pilgrim Thanksgiving of 1621 comes from original accounts of the young colony's leaders, Governor William Bradford and Master Edward Winslow, in their own hand:
"They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; for some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no wante. And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter aproached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degree). And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they took many, besids venison, &c. Besids they had aboute a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corne to yt proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports." -W.B. (William Bradford)
"Our Corne did proue well, & God be praysed, we had a good increase of Indian Corne, and our Barly indifferent good, but our Pease not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sowne, they came vp very well, and blossomed, but the Sunne parched them in the blossome; our harvest being gotten in, our Governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more speciall manner reioyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst vs, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed fiue Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed upon our Governour, and upon the Captaine, and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time with vs, yet by the goodneses of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
-E.W. (Edward Winslow) Plymouth, in New England, this 11th of December,
1621.
The feast included foods suitable for a head table of honored guests, such as the chief men of the colony and Native leaders Massasoit ("Great Leader" also known as Ousamequin "Yellow Feather"), the sachem (chief) of Pokanoket (Pokanoket is the area at the head of Narragansett Bay). Venison, wild fowl, turkeys and Indian corn were the staples of the meal.
It likely included other food items known to have been aboard the Mayflower or available in Plymouth such as spices, Dutch cheese, wild grapes, lobster, cod, native melons, pumpkin (pompion) and rabbit."
By the mid-17th century the custom of autumnal Thanksgivings was established throughout New England.
One hundred and eighty years after the first day of Thanksgiving, the Founding Fathers thought it important that this tradition be recognized by proclamation. Soon after approving the Bill of Rights, a motion in Congress to initiate the proclamation of a national day of Thanksgiving was approved.
Mr. [Elias] Boudinot (who was the President of Congress during the American Revolution) said he could not think of letting the congressional session pass over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would propose the following resolution:
"Resolved, that a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God..."
"Mr. [Roger] Sherman (a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution) justified the practice of thanksgiving on any signal event not only as a laudable one in itself, but as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ...This example he thought worthy of a Christian imitation on the present occasion; and he would agree with the gentleman who moved the resolution...The question was put on the resolution and it was carried in the affirmative."
This resolution was delivered to President George Washington who readily agreed with its suggestion and put forth the following proclamation by his signature:
"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."
"Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best."
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3rd day of October, AD 1789
George Washington
After 1815, prophetically, there were no further annual proclamations of Thanksgiving until the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln declared November 26, 1863, the last Thursday in November, a Day of Thanksgiving:
"No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy... I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens...[it is] announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord...It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people."
October 3, 1863, Lincoln's proclamation passed by an Act of Congress. That proclamation was repeated by every subsequent president until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day up one week earlier than had been tradition, to appease merchants who wanted more time to feed the growing pre-Christmas consumer frenzy. Folding to Congressional pressure two years later however, Roosevelt signed a resolution returning Thanksgiving to the last Thursday of November.
Roosevelt's inclination to manipulate Thanksgiving for commercial interests, foretold much of the secular nature of "thanksgiving" to come. But, amid all the oppression of secular materialism in advance of that day in December when we give thanks for the birth of Christ, oppression vastly different but somehow remarkably similar to that of our Pilgrim forefathers, we are still at our core, a nation eternally thankful to God.
On this Day of Thanksgiving, 26 November 1998, may God rest your heart and mind, may He bless and keep you and your family, and may He extend His blessing upon our great nation, guiding us one and all by His calling.
Amid the haste, we remember His words, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3-10)
Source: The Federalist
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NOTEWORTHY QUOTE:
"Remember ever, and always, that your country was founded, not by the 'most superficial, the lightest, the most irreflective of all European races,' but by the stern old Puritans who made the deck of the Mayflower an altar of the living God, and whose first act on touching the soil of the new world was to offer on bended knees thanksgiving to Almighty God."
SOURCE: Former U.S. Senator Henry Wilson (1855-72), and Vice-President
under Ulysses S. Grant (1873-75), AMERICA'S GOD AND COUNTRY, William J. Federer, 1994.
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Subject: WHAT THANKSGIVING MEANS TO AMERICA - A MUST!!
PRAYER
Is the offering of the emotions and desires of the soul to
God, in the name and through the mediation of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. It is the communion of the
heart with God through the aid of the Holy Spirit, and is
to the Christian the very life of the soul.
Without this
filial spirit, no one can be a Christian, Job 21:15; Ps
10:4.
WHAT THANKSGIVING MEANS TO AMERICA
Thanksgiving is probably the most significant American holiday because of the favor it has experienced from some of our greatest leaders. And the Thanksgiving tradition serves as a valuable history lesson for civil libertarians who carelessly attempt to ignore our nation's prominent religious heritage that should not be swept under the proverbial rug.
The Thanksgiving tradition can be traced back to the early Pilgrims who held a feast in 1621, after a substantial harvest.
Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving, inviting Indian chief Massasoit and many of his people to this three-day feast. Squanto, the Pilgrim's translator and friend, was present as well. While this banquet would not become an annual event, it beautifully signified the heartfelt thanks of the early colonists for God's blessing on them.
On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, determined that they would officially express thanks for their prosperity. By unanimous vote, they instructed clerk Edward Rawson to proclaim June 29 as a day of thanksgiving.
That proclamation read, in part: "... and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being persuaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and souls as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ."
Delaware Constitution of 1776
"Everyone appointed to public office must say, "I do profess faith in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost. In God who is blessed forevermore I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures and the Old and New Testaments which are given by divine
inspiration."
President George Washington
It was not, however, until November 1, 1777, that the first official national recognition of Thanksgiving was given, when declared by the Continental Congress following Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga. The defeat of Burgoyne and his army came following a grueling campaign that began with the British victory at Ticonderoga and our leaders desired to express thanks to God for the victory.
Throughout the 1700s, it was common practice for the colonies to observe days of thanksgiving throughout the years.
Then, on October 3, 1789, George Washington, during his first year as president, set aside Thursday, November 26, as "A Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer." This official decree by the young national government determined that the day should "be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God."
"...The Smiles of Heaven can never be expected On a Nation that disregards the eternal rules of Order and Right, which Heaven Itself Ordained." President George Washington
President George Washington
John Quincy Adams: "The Bible is the best Book in the world."
"Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof."
" The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible. I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you, Search the Scriptures! " John Quincy Adams
President John Quincy Adams
"The Bible is the Rock on which this Republic rests." President Andrew Jackson
President Andrew Jackson
Thomas Jefferson: "A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian; that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."
"I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent and sublime which have ever been preached to man..." President Thomas Jefferson
President Thomas Jefferson
The words of James Madison:
We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
President James Madison
On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation distinguishing the fourth Tuesday of November as a national Thanksgiving holiday. President Lincoln also declared days of Thanksgiving for Sunday, April 13 - following the Union victory at Shiloh -and August 6, 1863, in recognition of the Union's success at Gettysburg.
Mr. Lincoln's October 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation read, in part: "No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy."
Lincoln never let the world forget that the Civil War involved an even larger issue.
This he stated most movingly in dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--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."
The spirit that guided him was clearly that of his Second Inaugural Address, now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C.: "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.... " ."
Immediately afterwards, Lincoln kissed the Bible, bowed, and retired from the
platform.
"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior (Jesus) of the world is communicated to us through this book."
Abraham Lincoln
What eloquent and provocative words these are.
President Abraham Lincoln
President Andrew Johnson set aside a special Thanksgiving on December 7, 1865 (celebrating the Union victory), and each president since that time has declared an annual national Thanksgiving. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the holiday to the third Thursday of November (to broaden the Christmas shopping season), but after much protest, two years later changed Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday in November, where it remains today.
President Andrew Johnson President Franklin D. Roosevelt
President Harry S. Truman: "The fundamental basis of this nation's law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the right for anybody except the state."
President Harry S. Truman
President Theodore Roosevelt: "The thought of modern industry in the hands of Christian charity is a dream worth dreaming. The thought of industry in the hands of paganism is a nightmare beyond imagining."
President Theodore Roosevelt
Thanksgiving holds a special place in the history of our nation. Our Founders were men who were not afraid to boldly declare their thanks to Almighty God for honoring the nation.
Benjamin Franklin:
" Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world."
The words of Benjamin Franklin, speaking to the Constitutional Convention, on June 28, 1787, brilliantly express the sentiment of our Founding Fathers: "I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"
"I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- God Governs in the Affairs of Men, And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, Is it possible that an empire can rise without His aid?" Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Noah Webster: "The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions...."
"Education is useless without the Bible."
"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles....
This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government."
"It is the sincere desire of the writer (Noah Webster) that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible , particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion." Noah Webster
Noah Webster
The COMPLETE Patrick Henry Quote!!:
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shall not fight alone. God presides over the destinies of nations. The battle is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, ALMIGHTY GOD! Give me liberty or give me death!"
Patrick Henry of the Constitutional Convention
"The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed." Patrick Henry
"but I expect to find the solution to those problems just in the proportion that I am faithful in the study of the Word of God. " President Woodrow Wilson
President Woodrow Wilson
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter - 39th President: " We believe that the first time we're born, as children, it's human life given to us; and when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it's a new life. That's what "born again" means. "
President Jimmy Carter
"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under." President Ronald Reagan
President Ronald Reagan
PRAYING FOR OUR COUNTRY
President George W. Bush
This Thanksgiving, I encourage all parents and grandparents to remind their families of the great Judeo-Christian heritage of America. While the enemy is busy re-writing our children's history books in an effort to completely erase our Christian heritage, it is up to us to keep alive the legacy of religious freedom and passion that sparked this nation. May the words of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" (1938) remain our constant theme as we battle to preserve the Judeo-Christian heritage of our dear nation.
"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above.
From the mountains To the prairies,
To the ocean white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home."
Source for material: The Library of Congress
America's God and country: encyclopedia of quotations
by Dover Publications, Inc.
May God richly bless you and you give Thanks for all of His Blessings!!!
The History of Mendham
The First people to occupy this watershed region were the Lenape Indians--one of the many sub-tribes of the great Algonquin Nation. This area was called roxiticus by the Indians. The word means "a meeting place." Later, Roxiticus was used to designate the two white settlements Black Horse and Wills Settlement, now known as Mendham and Ralston.
About 1700, what the Indians called succasunna (black stone) proved to be iron, and it lured people from Connecticut and Long Island. The first authentic settlement in this area was by an Englishman, James Wills, who in 1713 bought what is now known as Ralston. The family never made any real settlement and soon disposed of their holdings to various settlers.
In 1722 James Pitney, of Scottish-Irish descent, settled on what was known as Pitney Corner. In the 1740's the Byram family did much to make this early settlement a town. In 1742 Ebenezer Byram gave this settlement a center--The Black Horse Inn, a proud "Hilltop" church in 1745, and on March 29 1749, the name Mendham. Eliab Byram, son of Ebenezer Byram, was apparently the first Byram to discover this area. As a young graduate from Yale Divinity School, he traveled with David Brainard, an Indian missionary, who made frequent trips to Delaware and stopped here along the way. They would hold services when here and preached in a little log church.
Byram was eventually asked to stay on as permanent pastor. At the same time, his father was apparently finding Puritan intolerance in Massachusetts, "intolerable," and prepared to move here by purchasing, in 1740, the small farm house that would become The Black Horse Inn. When Byram moved from Massachusetts he brought with him a band of hearty men and women of like mind. In 1744, Eliab Byram was officially ordained as the church's first pastor, and construction on the first of four "Hilltop" churches that would occupy the same location, originally chosen by Byram, was begun. Ebenezer Byram's will, recorded in 1753, speaks of his wife Hannah, six children, a granddaughter and two great-grandchildren...to be continued.
NameMayorTown CouncilE. W. Elliott 1906- 1917G. S. DeGroot, M.D.
1906 - 1921William N. Phoenix
1906 - 1913 George Delp
1906 - 1913 J. K. Burd
1906 - 1913J. M. Hoffman
1906 - 1913 E. L. Garabrant
1906 - 1930Dean Sage 1918 - 1922 1914 - 1917J. Smith Gunther
1914 - 1934Charles H. Day 1923 - 34 1917 - 1922Frank Woodruff
1922Frederick R. Guerin
1923 - 30George S. Sutton
1923 - 30William DeVore
1927 - 1938Clarence McMurtry
1927 - 1936 Michael Coghlan1937-38 1930 - 1936Edward Talmage
1931 - 1934Hugh M. Babbitt
1931 - 1939Frank Freeman 1939 - 19401931 - 1938 William W. Cordingley 1935-1936 1941-1942Richard Farrelly
1935 - 1939Dore Apgar
1937 Benjamin Mosser
1937 - 1946Walter Gunther
1938 - 1942 Ferdinand Jelke
1938 - 1942 James L. Bruff1943 - 19461939 - 1942Thomas A. Carton
1940 - 1946Frank Prior
1940 Francis Prior
1941 - 1942Willard Carley
1943 - 1946Wiolliam Coghlan
1943 - 1946 Walter Rockafeller 1957 - 1960 1943 - 1946Henry Landon
1943 - 1946F. Clyde Bowers, M.D 1947 - 1950 Cyril H. Birch
1947 - 1950 Arthur Robinson
1947 - 1950James Gunther
1947 - 1950*David F. O'Keefe
1947 - 1950 Laurence M. Thompson 1951 - 1956Edward Barnes
1951 - 52 Raymond Greenlaw
1951Col. John W. Stutesman
1951Robert McKean Thomas, Jr
1951 - 1956John W. Dippel 1961 - 19641953 - 1960 Harold W. Traudt
1952 - 1964* Henry Gette
1953 - 1956William VonMeister
1952 - 1955*Howard Dean
1957 - 1970Andrew W. Fletcher1965 - 19701955* - 1964John Parrillo
1957 - 1960Francis Hewens
1961 - 1964* Phillip Parrillo
1961 - 1971+ John Dormer
1965 - 1971+ Robert Muir, Jr.
1964* - 1970* Robert E. Mulcahy III 1971+1965- 1970 Vernon Garabrant
1965 - 1970Philip R. Arvidson
1971+ Harold Ketchum
1971+ William Steelman
1971+ Ralph Williams
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
Jonathan Edwards, considered by many to be one of the greatest preachers and churchmen in American history, was born in East Windsor, Connecticut into a family with a long tradition of ministry.
Entering Yale as one of its earliest students at the age of thirteen, Edwards graduated at the head of his class four years later and began a two-year course of theological study in New Haven.
Having completed his education in 1722, he took up a pastorate in a Presbyterian church in New York, but left there to take a position as tutor at Yale in 1724, a position that he held for two years.
From 1725 he served as an assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, who was the Congregationalist pastor of Northampton, Massachusetts.
Upon Stoddard's death in 1729, Edwards succeeded to the pulpit. His preaching during this period was received with mixed results. On the positive side, the power of his message is credited with bringing about the first Great Awakening of American history, beginning in 1734, when six sudden conversions in Edwards' parish turned into a flood of thirty per week, drawing people from up to a hundred miles away. Despite this success, however, Edwards alienated many in his congregation by insisting on more stringent membership requirements than were customary at the time. His first inclination was to insist on visible evidence of conversion and regeneration, but he eventually settled for a public profession of faith. His move to exclude from the Communion those who did not meet these standards led to a two-year battle within the congregation. In 1750, Edwards was dismissed from his pastorate.
Much of Edwards' most celebrated work comes from his Northampton period.
These works include his Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, his Treatise on Grace, and many of his most important sermons.
The ensuing years were difficult for the family as they struggled with debt and loss of income. Edwards settled Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Indians. It was here that he completed his fine work, The Freedom of the Will.
After several years on the frontier, Edwards yielded to considerable pressure and assumed the presidency of Princeton in the fall of 1757. He held the position for less than a year, dying in March 1758 of a fever in reaction to a smallpox innoculation.
More than two centuries after his death, Edwards is remembered as a fine preacher and an adamant defender of Calvinist theology.
A fine site for further information on Edwards and his works is Jonathan Edwards On-Line.
This text copyright 1997, Mark Browning. Permission is granted for all noncommercial use of this article.
George Whitefield
BORN: December 16, 1714 - Gloucester, England
DIED: September 30, 1770 - Newburyport, Massachusetts
LIFE SPAN: 55 years, 9 months, 14 days
GEORGE WHITEFIELD was the most traveled preacher of the gospel up to his time and many feel he was the greatest
evangelist of all time. Making 13 trips across the Atlantic Ocean was a feat in itself, for it was during a time when sea travel was primitive. This meant he spent over two years of his life traveling on water -- 782 days. However, his diligence and sacrifice
helped turn two nations back to God. Jonathan Edwards was stirring things up in New England, and John Wesley was doing
the same in England. Whitefield completed the trio of men humanly responsible for the great awakening on both sides of the
Atlantic. He spent about 24 years of ministry in the British Isles and about nine more years in America, speaking to some ten
million souls.
It is said his voice could be heard a mile away, and his open-air preaching reached as many as 100,000 in one gathering! His
crowds were the greatest ever assembled to hear the preaching of the gospel before the days of amplifi- cation--and, if we
might add, before the days of advertising.
He was born in the Bell Inn where his father, Thomas, was a wine merchant and innkeeper. The father died when George was
two. George was the youngest of seven children. His widowed mother, Elizabeth (born in 1680), strug- gled to keep the
family together. When the lad was about ten his mother remarried, but it was not a happy union. Childhood measles left him
squint-eyed the rest of his life. When he was twelve he was sent to the St. Mary de Crypt Grammar School in Gloucester.
There he had a record of tru- ancy but also a reputation as an actor and orator.
At about 15 years of age George persuaded his mother to let him leave school because he would never make much use of his
education -- so he thought! He spent time working in the inn.
Hidden in the back of his mind was a desire to preach. At night George sat up and read the Bible. Mother was visited by an
Oxford student who worked his way through college and this report encouraged both mother and George to plan for college.
He returned to grammar school to finish his preparation to enter Oxford, losing about one year of school.
When he was 17 he entered Pembroke College at Oxford in November, 1732. He was gradually drawn from former sinful
associates, and after a year, he met John and Charles Wesley and joined the Holy Club. Charles Wesley loaned him a book,
The Life of God in the Soul of Man. This book -- plus a severe sickness which resulted because of long and painful periods of
spiritual struggle -- finally resulted in his conversion. This was in 1735. He said many years later:
I know the place...Whenever I go to Oxford, I cannot help running to the spot where Jesus Christ first revealed him- self to me, and gave me the new birth.
Many days and weeks of fasting, and all the other tortures to which he had exposed himself so undermined his health that he
was never again a well man. Because of poor health, he left school in May, 1735, and returned home for nine months of
recuperation. However, he was far from idle, and his activity attracted the attention of Dr. Benson, who was the bishop of
Gloucester. He announced he would gladly ordain Whitefield as a deacon. Whitefield returned to Oxford in March of 1736 and on June 20, 1736, Bishop Benson ordained him. He placed his hands upon his head -- whereupon George later declared, "My heart was melted down, and I offered my whole spirit, soul and body to the service of God's sanctuary."
Whitefield preached his first sermon the following Sunday. It was at the ancient Church of Saint Mary de Crypt, the church
where he had been "baptized" and grown up as a boy. People, including his mother, flocked to hear him. He described it later:
"...Some few mocked, but most for the present, seemed struck, and I have since heard that a complaint was made to the bishop, that I drove fifteen people mad, the first sermon."
More than 18,000 sermons were to follow in his lifetime, an average of 500 a year, or ten a week. Many of them were given
over and over again. Less than 90 of them have survived in any form.
The Wednesday following his first sermon, he returned to Oxford where the B.A. degree was conferred upon him. Then he
was called to London to act as a supply minister at the Tower of London. He stayed only a couple of months, and then
returned to Oxford for a very short time, helping a friend in a rural parish for a few weeks. He also spent much time amongst
the prisoners at Oxford during this time.
The Wesley brothers had gone to Georgia in America, and Whitefield got letters from them urging him to come there. He felt
called to go, but the Lord delayed the trip for a year, during which time he began to preach with power to great crowds
throughout England. He preached in some of the principal churches of London and soon no church was large enough to hold
those who came to hear him.
He finally left for America from England on January 10, and on February 2, 1738, sailed from Gibraltar, although he had left
England in December. The boat was delayed a couple of places, but Whitefield used the extra time preaching. He arrived in
America on May 7, 1738. Shortly after arrival he had a severe bout with fever. Upon recovering he visited Tomo-Chici, an
Indian chief who was on his death bed. With no interpreter available, Whitefield could only offer a prayer in his behalf.
He loved Georgia and was not discouraged there as were the Wesleys. He was burdened about orphans, and started to collect funds for the same. He opened schools in Highgate and Hampstead, and also a school for girls in Savannah. Of course he also
preached. On September 9, 1738, he left Charleston, South Carolina, for the trip back to London. It was a perilous voyage.
For two weeks a bad storm beat the boat. About one-third of the way home, they met a ship from Jamaica which had ample
supplies to restock the dwindling food and water cargo on their boat. After nine weeks of tossing to and fro they found
themselves in the harbor of Limerick, Ireland, and in London in December.
On Sunday, January 14, 1739, George Whitefield was ordained as a priest in the Church of England by his friend, Bishop
Benson, in an Oxford ceremony. Upon his return to London, he thought that the doors would be opened and that he would be
warmly received. Instead it was the opposite. Now many churches were closed to him. His successes, preaching, and
connection with Methodist societies -- in particular his association with the Wesleys -- were all opposed by the establishment.
However, he preached to as many churches as would receive him, working and visiting with such as the Moravians and other
non-conformist religious societies in London. However, these buildings were becoming too small to hold the crowds.
Alternative plans had to be formulated.
Howell Harris of Wales was preaching in the fields. Whitefield wondered if he ought to try it too. He concluded he was an
outcast anyway, so why not try to reach people this "new" way? He held a conference with the Wesleys and other Oxford
Methodists before going to Bristol in February. Soon John Wesley would be forced to follow Whitefield's example.
Just outside the city of Bristol was a coal mine district known as Kingswood Hill. Whitefield first preached here in the open on
February 17, 1739. The first time about 200 came to hear him, but in a very short time he was preaching to 10,000 at once.
Often they stood in the rain listening with the melodies of their singing being heard two miles away.
One of his favorite preaching places was just outside London, on a great open tract known as Moorfields. He had no
designated time for his services, but whenever he began to preach, thousands came to hear -- whether it was 6 a.m. or 8 p.m.
Not all were fans, as evidenced by his oft-repeated testimony, "I was honored with having stones, dirt, rotten eggs and pieces of dead cats thrown at me." In the morning some 20,000 listened to him, and in the evening some 35,000 gathered! Whitefield was only 25 years old. Crowds up to 80,000 at one time gathered there to hear him preach for an hour and a half.
There seems to be nothing unusual in content about his printed sermons, but his oratory put great life into them. He could paint
word pictures with such breathless viv- idness that crowds listening would stare through tear-filled eyes as he spoke. Once,
while describing an old man trem- bling toward the edge of a precipice, Lord Chesterfield jumped to his feet and shouted as
George walked the man unknowingly toward the edge -- "He is gone." Another time in Boston he described a storm at sea.
There were many sailors in the crowd, and at the very height of the "tempest" which Whitefield had painted an old salt jumped
to his feet and shouted, "To the lifeboats, men, to the lifeboats!" Often as many as 500 would fall in the group and lay prostrate under the power of a single sermon. Many people made demonstrations, and in several instances men who held out against the Spirit's wooing dropped dead during his meetings. Audible cries of the audience often interrupted the messages. People usually were saved right during the progress of the service. The altar call as such was not utilized.
On August 1, 1739, the Bishop of London denounced him -- nevertheless on August 14 he was on his way to his second trip
to America, taking with him about $4,000 which he had raised for his orphanage. This time he landed near Philadelphia on
October 30, preaching here before going south. The old courthouse had a balcony, and Whitefield loved to preach from it
whenever he came here. People stood in the streets all around to listen to him. When preaching on Society Hill near
Philadelphia he spoke to 6,000 in the morning and 8,000 in the evening. On the following Sunday the respective crowds were
10,000 to 25,000. At a farewell address, more than 35,000 gathered to hear him. Benjamin Franklin became a good friend of
the evangelist, and he was always impressed with the preaching although not converted. Once Franklin emptied his pockets at
home, knowing that an offering would be taken. But it was to no avail. So powerful was the appeal at Whitefield's meeting that
Franklin ended up borrowing money from a stranger sitting nearby to put in the plate!
From Philadelphia Whitefield went to New York. Again the people thronged to hear him by the thousands. He preached to
8,000 in the field, on Sunday morning to 15,000, and Sunday afternoon to 20,000. He returned again and again to these cities.
After a short stay here, he was eager to reach Georgia. He went by land with at least 1,000 people accompanying him from
Philadelphia to Chester. Here he preached to thousands with even the judges postponing their business un- til his sermon was
over. He preached at various places, journeying through Maryland and ending up at Charleston, South Carolina. He finally
ended up in Savannah on January 10, 1740, going by canoe from Charleston. His first order of business was to get an
orphanage started. He rented a large house for a temporary habitation for the homeless waifs, and on March 25, 1740, he laid
the first brick of the main building, which he named Bethesda, meaning "house of mercy."
With things under control in the South, he sailed up to New England in September, 1740, for his first of three trips to that area.
He arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, to commence what historians call the focal point of "the first great awakening." Jonathan
Edwards had been sowing the seed throughout the area -- and Whitefield's presence was the straw that was to break the devil's back. He preached in Boston to the greatest crowds ever assembled there to hear the gospel. Some 8,000 assembled in the morning and some 15,000 returned to the famous Commons in the evening. At Old North Church thousands were turned
away, so he took his message outside to them. Later, Governor Belcher drove him to the Commons where 20,000 were
waiting to hear him. He was invited more than once to speak to the faculty and students of Harvard. At Salem, hundreds could
not get into the building where he spoke.
He then preached four times for Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts (October 17-20), and, though he stayed in New
England less than a month that time, the re- vival that was started lasted for a year and a half. He left January 24, 1741, and
returned to England March 14, 1741. There he found that John Wesley was diverging from Calvinist doctrine, so he withdrew
from the Wesley Connexion which he had embraced. Thereupon, his friends built him a wooden church named the Moorfields
Tabernacle. A reconciliation was later made between the two evangelists, but they both went their separate ways from then on.
Thenceforth, Whitefield was considered the unofficial leader of Calvinistic Methodism.
Unique details are available following his break with Wesley. They begin with his first of fourteen trips to Scotland July 30,
1741. This trip was sponsored by the Seceders, but he refused to limit his ministrations to this one sect who had invited him -- so he broke with them. Continuing his tour, he was received everywhere with enthusiasm. In Glasgow many were brought under deep conviction. The largest audience he ever addressed was at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, where he spoke to an estimated 100,000 people! He preached for an hour and a half to the tearful crowd. Converts from that one meeting numbered nearly 10,000. Once he preached to 30,000; another day he had five services of 20,000. Then he went on to Edinburgh where he preached to 20,000. In traveling from Glasgow to Edinburgh he preached to 10,000 souls every day. He loved it so much he cried out, "May I die preaching," which, in essence, he did.
Then he went on to Wales, where he was to make frequent trips in the future, and was received with great respect and honor. Here he met his wife to be, Elizabeth James, an older widow. They were married there on November 14, 1741, and on
October 4, 1743, one son was born, named John, who died at age four months, the following February.
In 1742 a second trip was made to Scotland. During the first two visits here Scotland was spiritually awakened and set "on fire" as she had not been since the days of John Knox. Subsequent visits did not evidence the great revivals of the early trips, but
these were always refreshing times for the people. Then a tour through England and Wales was made from 1742 to 1744. It
was in 1743 that he began as mod- erator for the Calvinistic Methodists in Wales, which position he held a number of years.
In 1744 George Whitefield almost became a martyr. He was attacked by a man uttering abusive language, who called him a
dog, villain, and so forth, and then proceeded to beat him unmercifully with a gold-headed cane until he was almost
unconscious. About this time, he was also accused of misappropriating funds which he had collected. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
At least once he had to sell what earthly possessions he had in order to pay a certain debt that he had incurred for his
orphanage, and to give his aged mother the things she needed. Friends had loaned him the furniture that he needed when he
lived in England. When he died he was a pauper with only a few personal possessions being the extent of his material gain.
Another trip was made to America from 1744 to 1748. On his way home because of ill health, he visited the Bermudas. It was
a pleasant trip. On the trip he preached regularly and saw many souls won to the Lord. It was in 1748 that he said, "Let the
name of Whitefield die so that the cause of Christ may live." A fourth trip to America was made October 27, 1751, to May,
1752.
Upon his return to England he was appointed one of the chaplains to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon -- known as Lady
Huntingdon, a friend since 1748. His mother died at 71 in December of 1751. In 1753 he compiled "Hymns for Social
Worship." This was also the year he traveled 800 miles on horseback, preaching to 100,000 souls. It was during this time that
he was struck on the head by stones and knocked off a table upon which he had been preaching. Afterwards he said, "We are
immortal till our work is done," a phrase he would often repeat.
In 1754 Whitefield embarked again for America, with 22 orphans. En route he visited Lisbon, Portugal, and spent four weeks
there. In Boston thousands awakened for his preaching at 7 a.m. One auditorium seating 4,000 saw great numbers turned away while Whitefield, himself, had to be helped in through a window. He stayed from May, 1754, to May, 1755.
In 1756 he was in Ireland. He made only two, possibly three, trips here. On this occasion, at age 42, he almost met death.
One Sunday afternoon while preaching on a beautiful green near Dublin, stones and dirt were hurled at him. Afterwards a mob
gathered, intending to take his life. Those attending to him fled, and he was left to walk nearly a half a mile alone, while rioters
threw great showers of stones upon him from every direction until he was covered with blood. He staggered to the door of a
minister living close by. Later he said, "I received many blows and wounds; one was particularly large near my temples." He later said that in Ireland he had been elevated to the rank of an Apostle in having had the honor of being stoned.
Also in 1756 he opened the Congregational Chapel bearing his name on Tottenham Court Road, London. He ministered here
and at the before-mentioned Moorsfield Tabernacle often. A sixth trip was made to America from 1763 to 1765.
In 1768 he made his last trip to Scotland, 27 years after his first. He was forced to conclude, "I am here only in danger of being hugged to death." He visited Holland, where he sought help for his body, where his health did improve. It is also recorded that he once visited Spain. His wife died on August 9, 1768, and Whitefield preached the funeral sermon, using Romans 8:28 as a text. He dedicated the famous Tottenham Court Road Chapel on July 23, 1769.
On September 4, 1769, he started on his last voyage to America, arriving November 30. He went on business to make
arrangements for his orphanage to be converted into Bethesda College. He spent the winter months of 1769-70 in Georgia,
then with the coming of spring he started north. He arrived in Philadelphia in May, traveling on to New England. Never was he
so warmly received as now. The crowds flocked in great numbers to see him. July was spent preaching in New York and
Albany and places en route. In August he reached Boston. For three days in September he was too ill to preach, but as soon
as he could be out of bed he was back preaching. His last written letter was dated September 23, 1770. He told how he could
not preach, although thousands were waiting to hear.
On September 29, he went from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Newburyport, Massachusetts. He preached en route in the
open at Exeter, New Hampshire. Looking up he prayed, "Lord Jesus, I am weary in thy work, but not of thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for thee once more in the fields, seal thy truth, and come home and die."
He was given strength for this, his last sermon. The subject was Faith and Works. Although scarcely able to stand when he first came before the group, he preached for two hours to a crowd that no building then could have held.
Arriving at the parsonage of the First Presbyterian Church in Newburyport -- which church he had helped to found -- he had
supper with his friend, Rev. Jonathan Parsons. He intended to go at once to bed. However, having heard of his arrival, a great number of friends gathered at the parsonage and begged him for just a short message. He paused a moment on the stairs,
candle in hand, and spoke to the people as they stood listening -- until the candle went out. At 2 a.m., painting to breathe, he
told his traveling companion Richard Smith, "My asthma is returning; I must have two or three days' rest." His last words were, "I am dying," and at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning he died -- September 30, 1770.
The funeral was held on October 2 at the Old South First Presbyterian Church. Thousands of people were unable to even get
near the door of the church. Whitefield had requested earlier to be buried beneath the pulpit if he died in that vicinity, which
was done. Memorial services were held for him in many places.
John Wesley said:
"Oh, what has the church suffered in the setting of that bright star which shone so gloriously in our hemisphere. We have none left to succeed him; none of his gifts; none anything like him in usefulness."
Subject: From Cranbury, NJ
From: [email protected] (Elizabeth Wagner)
The best source for David Brainerd is at Princeton University or Rutgers University. Our little history center has only some articles written about David Brainerd who was here a short time. He did spend time over in Jamesburg and Manalapan Township at Tennent Church.
But the best source is Princeton University Library and Princeton Theological Seminary. Roi Taylor, Cranbury History Center
Subject: Eliab Byram
Eliab Byram, minister of the Presbyterian church at Mendham and Amwell, New Jersey, was born in the East Parish of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on December 4, 1718, the second son of Captain Ebenezer and Hannah (Hayward) Byram. At college he roomed with his classmate Hale in Old Stoughton and was perhaps the most inconspicuous member of his generation. In November, 1741, he accompanied Eleazar Wheelock (Yale 1733) on an evangelical preaching tour through the Old Colony, and on December 3 he married Phoebe, daughter of Ephraim and Martha (Perkins) Leonard of Bridgewater.
Byram had been preaching for some fourteen months in Titicut Parish, Middleborough, where the congregation intended to settle him as soon as it could obtain incorporation, but early in 1742 he followed the Leonards to New Jersey where he took the civil oath as an inhabitant of Morris County. The next year he was back in Massachusetts participating in disorderly exhorting. Othniel Campbell (A.B. 1728) enraged his congregation by permitting Byram to use his pulpit. When George Whitefield arrived, Byram invited him to preach at Bridgewater, and when the minister, John Angier (A.B. 1720), refused the exhorters the use of the meetinghouse, he had the revivalist preach in the family barn. In protest to Parson Angier's action, the Byram family moved to Rocksiticus in Morris County, New Jersey, where the Captain became the leading man.
The people in that part of Morris County attended a Congregational church at Chester, which had, migrated from Southhold, Long Island, several generations before. Byram split this congregation and carried the New-Light faction to a newly erected Presbyterian meetinghouse on the Morris Turnpike, a mile and a half west of the modern village of Mendham. This settlement so throve that the Captain soon brought a carpenter down from Bridgewater to build a new and large meetinghouse for his son.
Besides preaching, Byram kept the school at Mendham, but he was away for months at a time, preaching as an itinerant under the direction of the Presbytery or the Synod. The diary of David Brainerd (Yale 1743) tells of such an expedition into the wilderness of Lucerne County, Pennsylvania, and gives the religious pitch:
Met Brother Byram, who came at my Desire, to be my Companion in Travel to the Indians. I rejoiced to see him; and I trust God made his Conversation profitable to me; I saw him , as I thought, more dead in the world, its anxious Cares, and alluring Objects, than I was and this made me look within my self, and gave me a greater Sense of my Guilt, Ingratitude, and Misery... Set out on my Journey, in Company with dear Brother Byram, and my Interpreter, and two chief Indians from the Forks of Delaware. Traveled about 25 Miles and lodged in one of the last Houses on the Road, after which there was nothing but a hideous and howling Wilderness.
The next year, 1745, Byram and William Dean of the Log College went on a preaching expedition to Augusta County, Virginia, where they made a profound impression and set off a revival. In September, 1747, the New York Synod sent him back to Virginia where he so pleased the people of Falling Spring and New Providence that they gave him a call; but in May he returned to New Jersey. Two years later the Synod asked him to go again to Virginia.
Phoebe Byram died on February 28, 1748 and on October 23, 1749 the Parson being in Raynham, Massachusetts, married Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Walker) Leonard of that town.
Subject: FORSAKEN ROOTS IN THE USA
Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence were orthodox, deeply committed Christians?
The other three all believed in the Bible as the divine truth, the God of scripture, and in His personal intervention.
It is the same Congress that formed the American Bible Society.
Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of scripture for the people of this nation.
Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution, is still remembered for his words, Give me liberty or give me death." But in current textbooks the context of these words is deleted. Here is what he actually said: An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."
These sentences have been erased from our textbooks.
Was Patrick Henry a Christian? You be the judge. The following year, 1776, he wrote this: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."
Consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote on the front of his well-worn Bible: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator "He was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role.
On July 4, 1821, President Adams said, The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."
Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President of the United States reaffirmed this truth when he wrote, "The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country."
In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools."
William Holmes McGuffey is the author of the McGuffey Reader, which was used for over 100 years in our public schools with over 125 million copies sold until it was stopped in 1963. President Lincoln called him the
"Schoolmaster
of the Nation." Listen to these words of Mr. McGuffey: "The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our notions on the character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions.
From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. For all these extracts from the Bible I make no apology."
Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636.
In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number 1 was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the scriptures:
"Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten commandments."
So much for the so-called "separation of church and state."
Today, we are asking God to bless America. But, how can He bless a Nation that has departed so far from Him? Prior to September 11, He was not welcome in America and is still unwelcome in all of our public schools.
Most of what you read in this article has been erased from our textbooks.
Revisionists have rewritten history to remove the truth about our country's Christian roots.
"I tremble for my country when I recall that God is just, and that His justice will not sleep forever." -- Thomas Jefferson
Note: You are encouraged to make copies, and share with others, so that
the
truth of our nation's history will be told.
Rev. Dan Gates
Columbus, Georgia
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----
I don't know who currently owns the church in Lafayette, but according to a book I have it was built in 1831 and Rev John Teasdale was the first regular pastor.
Dave
--
Any info you have or if you could point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
Mark Tross
5561 Gladstone Drive North East
Rio Rancho, NM 87144
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The First Railroad in Sussex County New Jersey http://SussexBranchMemorial.com
Monomania can be a good thing
Subject: THE DOLLAR BILL - A History Lesson
Take out a one dollar bill, and look at it. The one dollar bill you're looking at first came off the presses in 1957 in its present design.
This so-called paper money is in fact a cotton and linen blend, with red and blue minute silk fibers running through it. It is actually material. We've all washed it without it falling apart. A special blend of ink is used, the contents we will never know. It is overprinted with symbols and then it is starched to make it water resistant and pressed to give it that nice crisp look.
If you look on the front of the bill, you will ! see the United States Treasury Seal.
On the top you will see the scales for a balanced budget. In the center you have a carpenter's square, a tool used for an even cut. Underneath is the Key to the United States Treasury. That's all pretty easy to figure out, but
what is on the back of that dollar bill is something we should all know.
If you turn the bill over, you will see two circles. Both circles, together, comprise the Great Seal of the United States. The First Continental Congress requested that Benjamin Franklin and a group
of men come up with a Seal. It took them four years to accomplish this task and another two years to get it approved.
! If you look at the left-hand circle, you will see a Pyramid. Notice the face
is lighted, and the western side is dark. This country was just beginning.
We had not begun to explore the West or decided what we could do for Western Civilization. The Pyramid is un-capped, again signifying that we were not even close to being finished. Inside the capstone you have the all-seeing eye, an ancient symbol for divinity. It was Franklin's belief that one man couldn't do it alone, but a group of men, with the help of God, could do anything.
"IN GOD WE TRUST" is on this currency.
The Latin above the pyramid, ANNUIT! COEPTIS, means, "God has favored our undertaking." The Latin below the
pyramid, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, means, "a new order has begun." At the base of the pyramid is the Roman Numeral for 1776.
If you look at the right-hand circle, and check it carefully, you will learn that it is on every National Cemetery in the United States. It is also on the Parade of Flags Walkway at the Bushnell, Florida National Cemetery, and
is the centerpiece of most hero's monuments. Slightly modified, it is the seal of the President of the United States, and it is always visible whenever he speaks, yet very few people know what the symbols mean.
The Bald Eagle was selected as a symbol for victory for two reasons: First, he is not afraid of a storm; he is strong, and he is smart enough to soar above it. Secondly, he wears no material crown.
We had just broken from the King of England. Also, notice the shield is unsupported. This country can
now stand on its own. At the top of that shield you have a white bar signifying congress, a unifying factor. We were coming together as one nation. In the Eagle's beak you will read, "E PLURIBUS UNUM", meaning, "one nation from many people".
Above the Eagle, you have thirteen stars, representing the thirteen original colonies, and any clouds of misunders! tanding rolling away. Again, we were coming together as one.
Notice what the Eagle holds in his talons. He holds
an olive branch and arrows. This country wants peace, but we will never be afraid to fight to preserve peace. The Eagle always wants to face the olive branch, but in time of war, his gaze turns toward the arrows.
They say that the number 13 is an unlucky number. This is almost a worldwide belief. You will usually never see a room numbered 13, or any hotels or motels with a 13th floor. But think ! about this: 13 original colonies, 13 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 13 stripes on our flag, 13 steps on the Pyramid, 13 letters in the Latin above, 13 letters in "E Pluribus Unum", 13 stars above the Eagle, 13 bars on that shield, 13 leaves on the olive branch, 13 fruits, and if you look closely, 13 arrows. And, for minorities: the 13th Amendment.
I always ask people, "Why don't you know this?" Your children don't know this, and their history teachers don't know this. Too many veterans have given up too much to ever let the meaning fade. Many veterans remember coming home to an America that didn't care. Too many veterans never came home at all.
Share this page with everyone, so they can learn what is on the back of the UNITED STATES ONE DOLLAR BILL, and what it stands for... Otherwise, they will probably never know
Subject: Finally someone says it right!
Finally someone says it right!
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone
who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one:
An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in
America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to
armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes
the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness. An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need.
When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other
nation to the poor in Afghanistan.
Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from many, many other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world.
But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place.
They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.
P.S. On the American Internet, I might add.
Pass this around the World.
Subject:
Democracy, How Long?
Most of us have seen the first part of this before, but I had not seen the second part data, interesting perspective.
>>> At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new
>>> constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history
>>> professor at The University of Edinborough) had this to say about "The
>>> Fall of The Athenian Republic" some 2,000 years prior.
>>>
>>> "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as
>>> a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up
>>> until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves
>>> generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the
>>> majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits
>>> from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will
>>> finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always
>>> followed by a dictatorship."
>>>
>>> "The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the
>>> beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200
>>> years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
>>>
>>> From Bondage to spiritual faith;
>>> From spiritual faith to great courage;
>>> >From courage to liberty;
>>> From liberty to abundance;
>>> From abundance to complacency;
>>> From complacency to apathy;
>>> From apathy to dependence;
>>> From dependence back into bondage."
>>>
>>> Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul,
>>> Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most
>>> recent Presidential election:
>>>
>>> Population of counties won by:
>>>
>>> Gore=127 million
>>> Bush=143 million
>>>
>>> Square miles of land won by:
>>>
>>> Gore=580,000
>>> Bush=2,2427,000
>>>
>>> States won by:
>>>
>>> Gore=19
>>> Bush=29
>>>
>>> Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
>>>
>>> Gore=13.2
>>> Bush=2.1
>>>
>>> Professor Olson adds:
>>>
>>> "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land
>>> owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore's
>>> territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned
>>> tenements and living off government welfare..."
>>>
>>> Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the "complacency and
>>> "apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy; with some
>>> 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the
>>> "governmental dependency" phase.
Subject: The Miracle of the Carpenter
The Miracle of the Carpenter
Max Lucado
It's no accident that new mexico is called the "Land of Enchantment."
Sprawling deserts spotted with sage.
Purple mountains wreathed with clouds.
Adobe homes hidden on hillsides.
Majestic pines. Endless artifacts. A cloverleaf of cultures from the conquistador to the Comanche to the cowboy. New Mexico enchants.
And in this land of enchantment, there is a chapel of wonder.
A block south of the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, on the corner of Water Street and Old Santa Fe Trail, you will find Loretto Chapel. As you step through its iron gate, you enter more than a chapel courtyard. You enter another era. Pause for a moment under the sprawling branches of the ancient trees. Imagine what it was like when the Mexican carpenters completed the chapel in 1878.
Can you see the settlers stomping through the muddy streets? Can you hear the donkeys braying? The wagon wheels groaning? And can you see the early morning sun spotlighting this gothic chapel—so simple, so splendid—as it sits against the backdrop of the desert hills?
Loretto Chapel took five years to complete. Modeled after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, its delicate sanctuary contains an altar, a rose window, and a choir loft.
The choir loft is the reason for wonder.
Were you to stand in the newly built chapel in 1878, you might see the Sisters of Loretto looking forlornly at the balcony. Everything else was complete:
the doors had been hung, the pews had been placed, the floor had been laid.
Everything was finished. Even the choir loft. Except for one thing. No stairs.
The chapel was too small to accommodate a conventional stairway.
The best builders and designers in the region shook their heads when consulted.
"Impossible," they murmured. There simply wasn't enough room. A ladder would serve the purpose, but mar the ambiance.
The Sisters of Loretto, whose determination had led them from Kentucky to Santa Fe, now faced a challenge greater than their journey: a stairway that couldn't be built.
What they had dreamed of and what they could do were separated by fifteen impossible feet.
So what did they do? The only thing they could do. They ascended the mountain. Not the high mountains near Santa Fe. No, they climbed even higher.
They climbed the same mountain that Jesus climbed 1,800 years earlier in Bethsaida. They climbed the mountain of prayer.
"He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray."
Jesus faced an impossible task. More than five thousand people were ready to fight a battle he had not come to fight.
How could he show them that he didn't come to be a king, but to be a sacrifice?
How could he take their eyes off an earthly kingdom so that they would see the spiritual one? How could they see the eternal when they only had eyes for the temporal?
What Jesus dreamed of doing and what he seemed able to do were separated by an impossible gulf. So Jesus prayed.
We don't know what he prayed about.
But I have my guesses:
• He prayed that eyes blinded by power could see God's truth.
• He prayed that disciples dizzied by success could endure failure.
• He prayed that leaders longing for power would follow him to a cross.
• He prayed that people desiring bread for the body would hunger for bread for the soul.
He prayed for the impossible to happen.
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he didn't ask for anything. Maybe he just stood quietly in the presence of Presence and basked in the Majesty. Perhaps he placed his war-weary self before the throne and rested.
Maybe he lifted his head out of the confusion of earth long enough to hear the solution of heaven. Perhaps he was reminded that hard hearts don't faze the Father. That problem people don't perturb the Eternal One.
We don't know what he did or what he said. But we do know the result. The hill became a steppingstone; the storm became a path. And the disciples saw Jesus as they had never seen him before.
During the storm, Jesus prayed. The sky darkened. The winds howled. Yet he prayed. The people grumbled. The disciples doubted. Yet he prayed. When forced to choose between the muscles of men and the mountain of prayer, he prayed.
Jesus did not try to do it by himself.
Why should you?
There are crevasses in your life that you cannot cross alone. There are hearts in your world that you cannot change without help. There are mountains that you can-not climb until you climb His mountain.
Climb it. You will be amazed.
The Sisters of Loretto were.
As the story goes, the nuns prayed for nine days. On the last day of the novena, a Mexican carpenter with a beard and a wind-burned face appeared at the convent. He explained that he had heard they needed a stairway to a chapel loft.
He thought he could help.
The mother superior had nothing to lose, so she gave him permission.
He went to work with crude tools, painstaking patience, and uncanny skill. For eight months he worked.
One morning the Sisters of Loretto entered the chapel to find their prayers had been answered. A masterpiece of carpentry spiraled from the floor to the loft. Two complete three-hundred-sixty-degree turns.
Thirty-three steps held together with wooden pegs and no central support. The wood is said to be a variety of hard fir, one nonexistent in New Mexico!
When the sisters turned to thank the craftsman, he was gone. He was never seen again. He never asked for money.
He never asked for praise. He was a simple carpenter who did what no one else could do so singers could enter a choir loft and sing.
See the stairway for yourself, if you like. Journey into the land of Enchantment. Step into this chapel of amazement and witness the fruit of prayer.
Or, if you prefer, talk to the Master Carpenter yourself. He has already performed one impossible feat in your world. He, like the Santa Fe carpenter, built a stairway no one else could build.
He, like the nameless craftsman, used material from another place. He, like the visitor to Loretto, came to span the gap between where you are and where you long to be.
Each year of his life is a step.
Thirty-three paces. Each step of the stair is an answered prayer. He built it so you can climb it.
And sing.
Subject: Good thing our ancestors got off the boat :-)
DID YOU KNOW...
September 16, in 1620 (in today's calendar, the 6th September in the Julian Calendar, before you write in) the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth. She did not land first at Plymouth Rock, but at the tip of Cape Cod on 11 November - she did not reach the rock until 21 December.
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Subject: THE HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Edition – THE HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING
The first day of thanks in America was celebrated in Virginia at Cape Henry in 1607, but it was the Pilgrims' three-day feast celebrated in early November of 1621, which we now popularly regard as the "First Thanksgiving." The first real Calvinist Thanksgiving to God in the Plymouth Colony was actually celebrated during the summer of 1623 when the colonists declared a Thanksgiving holiday after their crops were saved by much needed rainfall. The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England on September 6,
1620. They sailed for a new world with the promise of both civil and religious liberty. For almost three months, 102 seafarers braved harsh elements to arrive off the coast of what is now Massachusetts, in late November of 1620.
On December 11, prior to disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the "Mayflower Compact," America's original document of civil government and the first to introduce self-government.
The Puritan Separatists, America's Calvinist Protestants, rejected the institutional Church of England. They believed that the worship of God must originate in the inner man, and that corporate forms of worship prescribed by man interfered with the establishment of a true relationship with God. The Separatists used the term "church" to refer to the people, the Body of Christ, not to a building or institution. As their Pastor John Robinson said, "[When two or three are] gathered in the name of Christ by a covenant made to walk in all the way of God known unto them as a church."
Most of what we know about the Pilgrim Thanksgiving of 1621 comes from original accounts of the young colony's leaders, Governor William Bradford and Master Edward Winslow, in their own hand:
"They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; for some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no wante. And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter aproached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degree). And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they took many, besids venison, &c. Besids they had aboute a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corne to yt proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports." -W.B. (William Bradford)
"Our Corne did proue well, & God be praysed, we had a good increase of Indian Corne, and our Barly indifferent good, but our Pease not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sowne, they came vp very well, and blossomed, but the Sunne parched them in the blossome; our harvest being gotten in, our Governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more speciall manner reioyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst vs, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed fiue Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed upon our Governour, and upon the Captaine, and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time with vs, yet by the goodneses of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
-E.W. (Edward Winslow) Plymouth, in New England, this 11th of December,
1621.
The feast included foods suitable for a head table of honored guests, such as the chief men of the colony and Native leaders Massasoit ("Great Leader" also known as Ousamequin "Yellow Feather"), the sachem (chief) of Pokanoket (Pokanoket is the area at the head of Narragansett Bay). Venison, wild fowl, turkeys and Indian corn were the staples of the meal.
It likely included other food items known to have been aboard the Mayflower or available in Plymouth such as spices, Dutch cheese, wild grapes, lobster, cod, native melons, pumpkin (pompion) and rabbit."
By the mid-17th century the custom of autumnal Thanksgivings was established throughout New England.
One hundred and eighty years after the first day of Thanksgiving, the Founding Fathers thought it important that this tradition be recognized by proclamation. Soon after approving the Bill of Rights, a motion in Congress to initiate the proclamation of a national day of Thanksgiving was approved.
Mr. [Elias] Boudinot (who was the President of Congress during the American Revolution) said he could not think of letting the congressional session pass over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would propose the following resolution:
"Resolved, that a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God..."
"Mr. [Roger] Sherman (a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution) justified the practice of thanksgiving on any signal event not only as a laudable one in itself, but as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ...This example he thought worthy of a Christian imitation on the present occasion; and he would agree with the gentleman who moved the resolution...The question was put on the resolution and it was carried in the affirmative."
This resolution was delivered to President George Washington who readily agreed with its suggestion and put forth the following proclamation by his signature:
"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."
"Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best."
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3rd day of October, AD 1789
George Washington
After 1815, prophetically, there were no further annual proclamations of Thanksgiving until the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln declared November 26, 1863, the last Thursday in November, a Day of Thanksgiving:
"No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy... I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens...[it is] announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord...It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people."
October 3, 1863, Lincoln's proclamation passed by an Act of Congress. That proclamation was repeated by every subsequent president until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day up one week earlier than had been tradition, to appease merchants who wanted more time to feed the growing pre-Christmas consumer frenzy. Folding to Congressional pressure two years later however, Roosevelt signed a resolution returning Thanksgiving to the last Thursday of November.
Roosevelt's inclination to manipulate Thanksgiving for commercial interests, foretold much of the secular nature of "thanksgiving" to come. But, amid all the oppression of secular materialism in advance of that day in December when we give thanks for the birth of Christ, oppression vastly different but somehow remarkably similar to that of our Pilgrim forefathers, we are still at our core, a nation eternally thankful to God.
On this Day of Thanksgiving, 26 November 1998, may God rest your heart and mind, may He bless and keep you and your family, and may He extend His blessing upon our great nation, guiding us one and all by His calling.
Amid the haste, we remember His words, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3-10)
Source: The Federalist
-------------------
NOTEWORTHY QUOTE:
"Remember ever, and always, that your country was founded, not by the 'most superficial, the lightest, the most irreflective of all European races,' but by the stern old Puritans who made the deck of the Mayflower an altar of the living God, and whose first act on touching the soil of the new world was to offer on bended knees thanksgiving to Almighty God."
SOURCE: Former U.S. Senator Henry Wilson (1855-72), and Vice-President
under Ulysses S. Grant (1873-75), AMERICA'S GOD AND COUNTRY, William J. Federer, 1994.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: WHAT THANKSGIVING MEANS TO AMERICA - A MUST!!
PRAYER
Is the offering of the emotions and desires of the soul to
God, in the name and through the mediation of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. It is the communion of the
heart with God through the aid of the Holy Spirit, and is
to the Christian the very life of the soul.
Without this
filial spirit, no one can be a Christian, Job 21:15; Ps
10:4.
WHAT THANKSGIVING MEANS TO AMERICA
Thanksgiving is probably the most significant American holiday because of the favor it has experienced from some of our greatest leaders. And the Thanksgiving tradition serves as a valuable history lesson for civil libertarians who carelessly attempt to ignore our nation's prominent religious heritage that should not be swept under the proverbial rug.
The Thanksgiving tradition can be traced back to the early Pilgrims who held a feast in 1621, after a substantial harvest.
Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving, inviting Indian chief Massasoit and many of his people to this three-day feast. Squanto, the Pilgrim's translator and friend, was present as well. While this banquet would not become an annual event, it beautifully signified the heartfelt thanks of the early colonists for God's blessing on them.
On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, determined that they would officially express thanks for their prosperity. By unanimous vote, they instructed clerk Edward Rawson to proclaim June 29 as a day of thanksgiving.
That proclamation read, in part: "... and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being persuaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and souls as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ."
Delaware Constitution of 1776
"Everyone appointed to public office must say, "I do profess faith in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost. In God who is blessed forevermore I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures and the Old and New Testaments which are given by divine
inspiration."
President George Washington
It was not, however, until November 1, 1777, that the first official national recognition of Thanksgiving was given, when declared by the Continental Congress following Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga. The defeat of Burgoyne and his army came following a grueling campaign that began with the British victory at Ticonderoga and our leaders desired to express thanks to God for the victory.
Throughout the 1700s, it was common practice for the colonies to observe days of thanksgiving throughout the years.
Then, on October 3, 1789, George Washington, during his first year as president, set aside Thursday, November 26, as "A Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer." This official decree by the young national government determined that the day should "be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God."
"...The Smiles of Heaven can never be expected On a Nation that disregards the eternal rules of Order and Right, which Heaven Itself Ordained." President George Washington
President George Washington
John Quincy Adams: "The Bible is the best Book in the world."
"Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof."
" The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible. I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you, Search the Scriptures! " John Quincy Adams
President John Quincy Adams
"The Bible is the Rock on which this Republic rests." President Andrew Jackson
President Andrew Jackson
Thomas Jefferson: "A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian; that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."
"I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent and sublime which have ever been preached to man..." President Thomas Jefferson
President Thomas Jefferson
The words of James Madison:
We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
President James Madison
On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation distinguishing the fourth Tuesday of November as a national Thanksgiving holiday. President Lincoln also declared days of Thanksgiving for Sunday, April 13 - following the Union victory at Shiloh -and August 6, 1863, in recognition of the Union's success at Gettysburg.
Mr. Lincoln's October 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation read, in part: "No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy."
Lincoln never let the world forget that the Civil War involved an even larger issue.
This he stated most movingly in dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--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."
The spirit that guided him was clearly that of his Second Inaugural Address, now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C.: "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.... " ."
Immediately afterwards, Lincoln kissed the Bible, bowed, and retired from the
platform.
"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior (Jesus) of the world is communicated to us through this book."
Abraham Lincoln
What eloquent and provocative words these are.
President Abraham Lincoln
President Andrew Johnson set aside a special Thanksgiving on December 7, 1865 (celebrating the Union victory), and each president since that time has declared an annual national Thanksgiving. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the holiday to the third Thursday of November (to broaden the Christmas shopping season), but after much protest, two years later changed Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday in November, where it remains today.
President Andrew Johnson President Franklin D. Roosevelt
President Harry S. Truman: "The fundamental basis of this nation's law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the right for anybody except the state."
President Harry S. Truman
President Theodore Roosevelt: "The thought of modern industry in the hands of Christian charity is a dream worth dreaming. The thought of industry in the hands of paganism is a nightmare beyond imagining."
President Theodore Roosevelt
Thanksgiving holds a special place in the history of our nation. Our Founders were men who were not afraid to boldly declare their thanks to Almighty God for honoring the nation.
Benjamin Franklin:
" Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world."
The words of Benjamin Franklin, speaking to the Constitutional Convention, on June 28, 1787, brilliantly express the sentiment of our Founding Fathers: "I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"
"I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- God Governs in the Affairs of Men, And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, Is it possible that an empire can rise without His aid?" Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Noah Webster: "The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions...."
"Education is useless without the Bible."
"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles....
This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government."
"It is the sincere desire of the writer (Noah Webster) that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible , particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion." Noah Webster
Noah Webster
The COMPLETE Patrick Henry Quote!!:
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shall not fight alone. God presides over the destinies of nations. The battle is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, ALMIGHTY GOD! Give me liberty or give me death!"
Patrick Henry of the Constitutional Convention
"The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed." Patrick Henry
"but I expect to find the solution to those problems just in the proportion that I am faithful in the study of the Word of God. " President Woodrow Wilson
President Woodrow Wilson
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter - 39th President: " We believe that the first time we're born, as children, it's human life given to us; and when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it's a new life. That's what "born again" means. "
President Jimmy Carter
"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under." President Ronald Reagan
President Ronald Reagan
PRAYING FOR OUR COUNTRY
President George W. Bush
This Thanksgiving, I encourage all parents and grandparents to remind their families of the great Judeo-Christian heritage of America. While the enemy is busy re-writing our children's history books in an effort to completely erase our Christian heritage, it is up to us to keep alive the legacy of religious freedom and passion that sparked this nation. May the words of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" (1938) remain our constant theme as we battle to preserve the Judeo-Christian heritage of our dear nation.
"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above.
From the mountains To the prairies,
To the ocean white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home."
Source for material: The Library of Congress
America's God and country: encyclopedia of quotations
by Dover Publications, Inc.
May God richly bless you and you give Thanks for all of His Blessings!!!
The History of Mendham
The First people to occupy this watershed region were the Lenape Indians--one of the many sub-tribes of the great Algonquin Nation. This area was called roxiticus by the Indians. The word means "a meeting place." Later, Roxiticus was used to designate the two white settlements Black Horse and Wills Settlement, now known as Mendham and Ralston.
About 1700, what the Indians called succasunna (black stone) proved to be iron, and it lured people from Connecticut and Long Island. The first authentic settlement in this area was by an Englishman, James Wills, who in 1713 bought what is now known as Ralston. The family never made any real settlement and soon disposed of their holdings to various settlers.
In 1722 James Pitney, of Scottish-Irish descent, settled on what was known as Pitney Corner. In the 1740's the Byram family did much to make this early settlement a town. In 1742 Ebenezer Byram gave this settlement a center--The Black Horse Inn, a proud "Hilltop" church in 1745, and on March 29 1749, the name Mendham. Eliab Byram, son of Ebenezer Byram, was apparently the first Byram to discover this area. As a young graduate from Yale Divinity School, he traveled with David Brainard, an Indian missionary, who made frequent trips to Delaware and stopped here along the way. They would hold services when here and preached in a little log church.
Byram was eventually asked to stay on as permanent pastor. At the same time, his father was apparently finding Puritan intolerance in Massachusetts, "intolerable," and prepared to move here by purchasing, in 1740, the small farm house that would become The Black Horse Inn. When Byram moved from Massachusetts he brought with him a band of hearty men and women of like mind. In 1744, Eliab Byram was officially ordained as the church's first pastor, and construction on the first of four "Hilltop" churches that would occupy the same location, originally chosen by Byram, was begun. Ebenezer Byram's will, recorded in 1753, speaks of his wife Hannah, six children, a granddaughter and two great-grandchildren...to be continued.
NameMayorTown CouncilE. W. Elliott 1906- 1917G. S. DeGroot, M.D.
1906 - 1921William N. Phoenix
1906 - 1913 George Delp
1906 - 1913 J. K. Burd
1906 - 1913J. M. Hoffman
1906 - 1913 E. L. Garabrant
1906 - 1930Dean Sage 1918 - 1922 1914 - 1917J. Smith Gunther
1914 - 1934Charles H. Day 1923 - 34 1917 - 1922Frank Woodruff
1922Frederick R. Guerin
1923 - 30George S. Sutton
1923 - 30William DeVore
1927 - 1938Clarence McMurtry
1927 - 1936 Michael Coghlan1937-38 1930 - 1936Edward Talmage
1931 - 1934Hugh M. Babbitt
1931 - 1939Frank Freeman 1939 - 19401931 - 1938 William W. Cordingley 1935-1936 1941-1942Richard Farrelly
1935 - 1939Dore Apgar
1937 Benjamin Mosser
1937 - 1946Walter Gunther
1938 - 1942 Ferdinand Jelke
1938 - 1942 James L. Bruff1943 - 19461939 - 1942Thomas A. Carton
1940 - 1946Frank Prior
1940 Francis Prior
1941 - 1942Willard Carley
1943 - 1946Wiolliam Coghlan
1943 - 1946 Walter Rockafeller 1957 - 1960 1943 - 1946Henry Landon
1943 - 1946F. Clyde Bowers, M.D 1947 - 1950 Cyril H. Birch
1947 - 1950 Arthur Robinson
1947 - 1950James Gunther
1947 - 1950*David F. O'Keefe
1947 - 1950 Laurence M. Thompson 1951 - 1956Edward Barnes
1951 - 52 Raymond Greenlaw
1951Col. John W. Stutesman
1951Robert McKean Thomas, Jr
1951 - 1956John W. Dippel 1961 - 19641953 - 1960 Harold W. Traudt
1952 - 1964* Henry Gette
1953 - 1956William VonMeister
1952 - 1955*Howard Dean
1957 - 1970Andrew W. Fletcher1965 - 19701955* - 1964John Parrillo
1957 - 1960Francis Hewens
1961 - 1964* Phillip Parrillo
1961 - 1971+ John Dormer
1965 - 1971+ Robert Muir, Jr.
1964* - 1970* Robert E. Mulcahy III 1971+1965- 1970 Vernon Garabrant
1965 - 1970Philip R. Arvidson
1971+ Harold Ketchum
1971+ William Steelman
1971+ Ralph Williams
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
Jonathan Edwards, considered by many to be one of the greatest preachers and churchmen in American history, was born in East Windsor, Connecticut into a family with a long tradition of ministry.
Entering Yale as one of its earliest students at the age of thirteen, Edwards graduated at the head of his class four years later and began a two-year course of theological study in New Haven.
Having completed his education in 1722, he took up a pastorate in a Presbyterian church in New York, but left there to take a position as tutor at Yale in 1724, a position that he held for two years.
From 1725 he served as an assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, who was the Congregationalist pastor of Northampton, Massachusetts.
Upon Stoddard's death in 1729, Edwards succeeded to the pulpit. His preaching during this period was received with mixed results. On the positive side, the power of his message is credited with bringing about the first Great Awakening of American history, beginning in 1734, when six sudden conversions in Edwards' parish turned into a flood of thirty per week, drawing people from up to a hundred miles away. Despite this success, however, Edwards alienated many in his congregation by insisting on more stringent membership requirements than were customary at the time. His first inclination was to insist on visible evidence of conversion and regeneration, but he eventually settled for a public profession of faith. His move to exclude from the Communion those who did not meet these standards led to a two-year battle within the congregation. In 1750, Edwards was dismissed from his pastorate.
Much of Edwards' most celebrated work comes from his Northampton period.
These works include his Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, his Treatise on Grace, and many of his most important sermons.
The ensuing years were difficult for the family as they struggled with debt and loss of income. Edwards settled Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Indians. It was here that he completed his fine work, The Freedom of the Will.
After several years on the frontier, Edwards yielded to considerable pressure and assumed the presidency of Princeton in the fall of 1757. He held the position for less than a year, dying in March 1758 of a fever in reaction to a smallpox innoculation.
More than two centuries after his death, Edwards is remembered as a fine preacher and an adamant defender of Calvinist theology.
A fine site for further information on Edwards and his works is Jonathan Edwards On-Line.
This text copyright 1997, Mark Browning. Permission is granted for all noncommercial use of this article.
George Whitefield
BORN: December 16, 1714 - Gloucester, England
DIED: September 30, 1770 - Newburyport, Massachusetts
LIFE SPAN: 55 years, 9 months, 14 days
GEORGE WHITEFIELD was the most traveled preacher of the gospel up to his time and many feel he was the greatest
evangelist of all time. Making 13 trips across the Atlantic Ocean was a feat in itself, for it was during a time when sea travel was primitive. This meant he spent over two years of his life traveling on water -- 782 days. However, his diligence and sacrifice
helped turn two nations back to God. Jonathan Edwards was stirring things up in New England, and John Wesley was doing
the same in England. Whitefield completed the trio of men humanly responsible for the great awakening on both sides of the
Atlantic. He spent about 24 years of ministry in the British Isles and about nine more years in America, speaking to some ten
million souls.
It is said his voice could be heard a mile away, and his open-air preaching reached as many as 100,000 in one gathering! His
crowds were the greatest ever assembled to hear the preaching of the gospel before the days of amplifi- cation--and, if we
might add, before the days of advertising.
He was born in the Bell Inn where his father, Thomas, was a wine merchant and innkeeper. The father died when George was
two. George was the youngest of seven children. His widowed mother, Elizabeth (born in 1680), strug- gled to keep the
family together. When the lad was about ten his mother remarried, but it was not a happy union. Childhood measles left him
squint-eyed the rest of his life. When he was twelve he was sent to the St. Mary de Crypt Grammar School in Gloucester.
There he had a record of tru- ancy but also a reputation as an actor and orator.
At about 15 years of age George persuaded his mother to let him leave school because he would never make much use of his
education -- so he thought! He spent time working in the inn.
Hidden in the back of his mind was a desire to preach. At night George sat up and read the Bible. Mother was visited by an
Oxford student who worked his way through college and this report encouraged both mother and George to plan for college.
He returned to grammar school to finish his preparation to enter Oxford, losing about one year of school.
When he was 17 he entered Pembroke College at Oxford in November, 1732. He was gradually drawn from former sinful
associates, and after a year, he met John and Charles Wesley and joined the Holy Club. Charles Wesley loaned him a book,
The Life of God in the Soul of Man. This book -- plus a severe sickness which resulted because of long and painful periods of
spiritual struggle -- finally resulted in his conversion. This was in 1735. He said many years later:
I know the place...Whenever I go to Oxford, I cannot help running to the spot where Jesus Christ first revealed him- self to me, and gave me the new birth.
Many days and weeks of fasting, and all the other tortures to which he had exposed himself so undermined his health that he
was never again a well man. Because of poor health, he left school in May, 1735, and returned home for nine months of
recuperation. However, he was far from idle, and his activity attracted the attention of Dr. Benson, who was the bishop of
Gloucester. He announced he would gladly ordain Whitefield as a deacon. Whitefield returned to Oxford in March of 1736 and on June 20, 1736, Bishop Benson ordained him. He placed his hands upon his head -- whereupon George later declared, "My heart was melted down, and I offered my whole spirit, soul and body to the service of God's sanctuary."
Whitefield preached his first sermon the following Sunday. It was at the ancient Church of Saint Mary de Crypt, the church
where he had been "baptized" and grown up as a boy. People, including his mother, flocked to hear him. He described it later:
"...Some few mocked, but most for the present, seemed struck, and I have since heard that a complaint was made to the bishop, that I drove fifteen people mad, the first sermon."
More than 18,000 sermons were to follow in his lifetime, an average of 500 a year, or ten a week. Many of them were given
over and over again. Less than 90 of them have survived in any form.
The Wednesday following his first sermon, he returned to Oxford where the B.A. degree was conferred upon him. Then he
was called to London to act as a supply minister at the Tower of London. He stayed only a couple of months, and then
returned to Oxford for a very short time, helping a friend in a rural parish for a few weeks. He also spent much time amongst
the prisoners at Oxford during this time.
The Wesley brothers had gone to Georgia in America, and Whitefield got letters from them urging him to come there. He felt
called to go, but the Lord delayed the trip for a year, during which time he began to preach with power to great crowds
throughout England. He preached in some of the principal churches of London and soon no church was large enough to hold
those who came to hear him.
He finally left for America from England on January 10, and on February 2, 1738, sailed from Gibraltar, although he had left
England in December. The boat was delayed a couple of places, but Whitefield used the extra time preaching. He arrived in
America on May 7, 1738. Shortly after arrival he had a severe bout with fever. Upon recovering he visited Tomo-Chici, an
Indian chief who was on his death bed. With no interpreter available, Whitefield could only offer a prayer in his behalf.
He loved Georgia and was not discouraged there as were the Wesleys. He was burdened about orphans, and started to collect funds for the same. He opened schools in Highgate and Hampstead, and also a school for girls in Savannah. Of course he also
preached. On September 9, 1738, he left Charleston, South Carolina, for the trip back to London. It was a perilous voyage.
For two weeks a bad storm beat the boat. About one-third of the way home, they met a ship from Jamaica which had ample
supplies to restock the dwindling food and water cargo on their boat. After nine weeks of tossing to and fro they found
themselves in the harbor of Limerick, Ireland, and in London in December.
On Sunday, January 14, 1739, George Whitefield was ordained as a priest in the Church of England by his friend, Bishop
Benson, in an Oxford ceremony. Upon his return to London, he thought that the doors would be opened and that he would be
warmly received. Instead it was the opposite. Now many churches were closed to him. His successes, preaching, and
connection with Methodist societies -- in particular his association with the Wesleys -- were all opposed by the establishment.
However, he preached to as many churches as would receive him, working and visiting with such as the Moravians and other
non-conformist religious societies in London. However, these buildings were becoming too small to hold the crowds.
Alternative plans had to be formulated.
Howell Harris of Wales was preaching in the fields. Whitefield wondered if he ought to try it too. He concluded he was an
outcast anyway, so why not try to reach people this "new" way? He held a conference with the Wesleys and other Oxford
Methodists before going to Bristol in February. Soon John Wesley would be forced to follow Whitefield's example.
Just outside the city of Bristol was a coal mine district known as Kingswood Hill. Whitefield first preached here in the open on
February 17, 1739. The first time about 200 came to hear him, but in a very short time he was preaching to 10,000 at once.
Often they stood in the rain listening with the melodies of their singing being heard two miles away.
One of his favorite preaching places was just outside London, on a great open tract known as Moorfields. He had no
designated time for his services, but whenever he began to preach, thousands came to hear -- whether it was 6 a.m. or 8 p.m.
Not all were fans, as evidenced by his oft-repeated testimony, "I was honored with having stones, dirt, rotten eggs and pieces of dead cats thrown at me." In the morning some 20,000 listened to him, and in the evening some 35,000 gathered! Whitefield was only 25 years old. Crowds up to 80,000 at one time gathered there to hear him preach for an hour and a half.
There seems to be nothing unusual in content about his printed sermons, but his oratory put great life into them. He could paint
word pictures with such breathless viv- idness that crowds listening would stare through tear-filled eyes as he spoke. Once,
while describing an old man trem- bling toward the edge of a precipice, Lord Chesterfield jumped to his feet and shouted as
George walked the man unknowingly toward the edge -- "He is gone." Another time in Boston he described a storm at sea.
There were many sailors in the crowd, and at the very height of the "tempest" which Whitefield had painted an old salt jumped
to his feet and shouted, "To the lifeboats, men, to the lifeboats!" Often as many as 500 would fall in the group and lay prostrate under the power of a single sermon. Many people made demonstrations, and in several instances men who held out against the Spirit's wooing dropped dead during his meetings. Audible cries of the audience often interrupted the messages. People usually were saved right during the progress of the service. The altar call as such was not utilized.
On August 1, 1739, the Bishop of London denounced him -- nevertheless on August 14 he was on his way to his second trip
to America, taking with him about $4,000 which he had raised for his orphanage. This time he landed near Philadelphia on
October 30, preaching here before going south. The old courthouse had a balcony, and Whitefield loved to preach from it
whenever he came here. People stood in the streets all around to listen to him. When preaching on Society Hill near
Philadelphia he spoke to 6,000 in the morning and 8,000 in the evening. On the following Sunday the respective crowds were
10,000 to 25,000. At a farewell address, more than 35,000 gathered to hear him. Benjamin Franklin became a good friend of
the evangelist, and he was always impressed with the preaching although not converted. Once Franklin emptied his pockets at
home, knowing that an offering would be taken. But it was to no avail. So powerful was the appeal at Whitefield's meeting that
Franklin ended up borrowing money from a stranger sitting nearby to put in the plate!
From Philadelphia Whitefield went to New York. Again the people thronged to hear him by the thousands. He preached to
8,000 in the field, on Sunday morning to 15,000, and Sunday afternoon to 20,000. He returned again and again to these cities.
After a short stay here, he was eager to reach Georgia. He went by land with at least 1,000 people accompanying him from
Philadelphia to Chester. Here he preached to thousands with even the judges postponing their business un- til his sermon was
over. He preached at various places, journeying through Maryland and ending up at Charleston, South Carolina. He finally
ended up in Savannah on January 10, 1740, going by canoe from Charleston. His first order of business was to get an
orphanage started. He rented a large house for a temporary habitation for the homeless waifs, and on March 25, 1740, he laid
the first brick of the main building, which he named Bethesda, meaning "house of mercy."
With things under control in the South, he sailed up to New England in September, 1740, for his first of three trips to that area.
He arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, to commence what historians call the focal point of "the first great awakening." Jonathan
Edwards had been sowing the seed throughout the area -- and Whitefield's presence was the straw that was to break the devil's back. He preached in Boston to the greatest crowds ever assembled there to hear the gospel. Some 8,000 assembled in the morning and some 15,000 returned to the famous Commons in the evening. At Old North Church thousands were turned
away, so he took his message outside to them. Later, Governor Belcher drove him to the Commons where 20,000 were
waiting to hear him. He was invited more than once to speak to the faculty and students of Harvard. At Salem, hundreds could
not get into the building where he spoke.
He then preached four times for Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts (October 17-20), and, though he stayed in New
England less than a month that time, the re- vival that was started lasted for a year and a half. He left January 24, 1741, and
returned to England March 14, 1741. There he found that John Wesley was diverging from Calvinist doctrine, so he withdrew
from the Wesley Connexion which he had embraced. Thereupon, his friends built him a wooden church named the Moorfields
Tabernacle. A reconciliation was later made between the two evangelists, but they both went their separate ways from then on.
Thenceforth, Whitefield was considered the unofficial leader of Calvinistic Methodism.
Unique details are available following his break with Wesley. They begin with his first of fourteen trips to Scotland July 30,
1741. This trip was sponsored by the Seceders, but he refused to limit his ministrations to this one sect who had invited him -- so he broke with them. Continuing his tour, he was received everywhere with enthusiasm. In Glasgow many were brought under deep conviction. The largest audience he ever addressed was at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, where he spoke to an estimated 100,000 people! He preached for an hour and a half to the tearful crowd. Converts from that one meeting numbered nearly 10,000. Once he preached to 30,000; another day he had five services of 20,000. Then he went on to Edinburgh where he preached to 20,000. In traveling from Glasgow to Edinburgh he preached to 10,000 souls every day. He loved it so much he cried out, "May I die preaching," which, in essence, he did.
Then he went on to Wales, where he was to make frequent trips in the future, and was received with great respect and honor. Here he met his wife to be, Elizabeth James, an older widow. They were married there on November 14, 1741, and on
October 4, 1743, one son was born, named John, who died at age four months, the following February.
In 1742 a second trip was made to Scotland. During the first two visits here Scotland was spiritually awakened and set "on fire" as she had not been since the days of John Knox. Subsequent visits did not evidence the great revivals of the early trips, but
these were always refreshing times for the people. Then a tour through England and Wales was made from 1742 to 1744. It
was in 1743 that he began as mod- erator for the Calvinistic Methodists in Wales, which position he held a number of years.
In 1744 George Whitefield almost became a martyr. He was attacked by a man uttering abusive language, who called him a
dog, villain, and so forth, and then proceeded to beat him unmercifully with a gold-headed cane until he was almost
unconscious. About this time, he was also accused of misappropriating funds which he had collected. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
At least once he had to sell what earthly possessions he had in order to pay a certain debt that he had incurred for his
orphanage, and to give his aged mother the things she needed. Friends had loaned him the furniture that he needed when he
lived in England. When he died he was a pauper with only a few personal possessions being the extent of his material gain.
Another trip was made to America from 1744 to 1748. On his way home because of ill health, he visited the Bermudas. It was
a pleasant trip. On the trip he preached regularly and saw many souls won to the Lord. It was in 1748 that he said, "Let the
name of Whitefield die so that the cause of Christ may live." A fourth trip to America was made October 27, 1751, to May,
1752.
Upon his return to England he was appointed one of the chaplains to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon -- known as Lady
Huntingdon, a friend since 1748. His mother died at 71 in December of 1751. In 1753 he compiled "Hymns for Social
Worship." This was also the year he traveled 800 miles on horseback, preaching to 100,000 souls. It was during this time that
he was struck on the head by stones and knocked off a table upon which he had been preaching. Afterwards he said, "We are
immortal till our work is done," a phrase he would often repeat.
In 1754 Whitefield embarked again for America, with 22 orphans. En route he visited Lisbon, Portugal, and spent four weeks
there. In Boston thousands awakened for his preaching at 7 a.m. One auditorium seating 4,000 saw great numbers turned away while Whitefield, himself, had to be helped in through a window. He stayed from May, 1754, to May, 1755.
In 1756 he was in Ireland. He made only two, possibly three, trips here. On this occasion, at age 42, he almost met death.
One Sunday afternoon while preaching on a beautiful green near Dublin, stones and dirt were hurled at him. Afterwards a mob
gathered, intending to take his life. Those attending to him fled, and he was left to walk nearly a half a mile alone, while rioters
threw great showers of stones upon him from every direction until he was covered with blood. He staggered to the door of a
minister living close by. Later he said, "I received many blows and wounds; one was particularly large near my temples." He later said that in Ireland he had been elevated to the rank of an Apostle in having had the honor of being stoned.
Also in 1756 he opened the Congregational Chapel bearing his name on Tottenham Court Road, London. He ministered here
and at the before-mentioned Moorsfield Tabernacle often. A sixth trip was made to America from 1763 to 1765.
In 1768 he made his last trip to Scotland, 27 years after his first. He was forced to conclude, "I am here only in danger of being hugged to death." He visited Holland, where he sought help for his body, where his health did improve. It is also recorded that he once visited Spain. His wife died on August 9, 1768, and Whitefield preached the funeral sermon, using Romans 8:28 as a text. He dedicated the famous Tottenham Court Road Chapel on July 23, 1769.
On September 4, 1769, he started on his last voyage to America, arriving November 30. He went on business to make
arrangements for his orphanage to be converted into Bethesda College. He spent the winter months of 1769-70 in Georgia,
then with the coming of spring he started north. He arrived in Philadelphia in May, traveling on to New England. Never was he
so warmly received as now. The crowds flocked in great numbers to see him. July was spent preaching in New York and
Albany and places en route. In August he reached Boston. For three days in September he was too ill to preach, but as soon
as he could be out of bed he was back preaching. His last written letter was dated September 23, 1770. He told how he could
not preach, although thousands were waiting to hear.
On September 29, he went from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Newburyport, Massachusetts. He preached en route in the
open at Exeter, New Hampshire. Looking up he prayed, "Lord Jesus, I am weary in thy work, but not of thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for thee once more in the fields, seal thy truth, and come home and die."
He was given strength for this, his last sermon. The subject was Faith and Works. Although scarcely able to stand when he first came before the group, he preached for two hours to a crowd that no building then could have held.
Arriving at the parsonage of the First Presbyterian Church in Newburyport -- which church he had helped to found -- he had
supper with his friend, Rev. Jonathan Parsons. He intended to go at once to bed. However, having heard of his arrival, a great number of friends gathered at the parsonage and begged him for just a short message. He paused a moment on the stairs,
candle in hand, and spoke to the people as they stood listening -- until the candle went out. At 2 a.m., painting to breathe, he
told his traveling companion Richard Smith, "My asthma is returning; I must have two or three days' rest." His last words were, "I am dying," and at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning he died -- September 30, 1770.
The funeral was held on October 2 at the Old South First Presbyterian Church. Thousands of people were unable to even get
near the door of the church. Whitefield had requested earlier to be buried beneath the pulpit if he died in that vicinity, which
was done. Memorial services were held for him in many places.
John Wesley said:
"Oh, what has the church suffered in the setting of that bright star which shone so gloriously in our hemisphere. We have none left to succeed him; none of his gifts; none anything like him in usefulness."
Subject: From Cranbury, NJ
From: [email protected] (Elizabeth Wagner)
The best source for David Brainerd is at Princeton University or Rutgers University. Our little history center has only some articles written about David Brainerd who was here a short time. He did spend time over in Jamesburg and Manalapan Township at Tennent Church.
But the best source is Princeton University Library and Princeton Theological Seminary. Roi Taylor, Cranbury History Center
Subject: Eliab Byram
Eliab Byram, minister of the Presbyterian church at Mendham and Amwell, New Jersey, was born in the East Parish of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on December 4, 1718, the second son of Captain Ebenezer and Hannah (Hayward) Byram. At college he roomed with his classmate Hale in Old Stoughton and was perhaps the most inconspicuous member of his generation. In November, 1741, he accompanied Eleazar Wheelock (Yale 1733) on an evangelical preaching tour through the Old Colony, and on December 3 he married Phoebe, daughter of Ephraim and Martha (Perkins) Leonard of Bridgewater.
Byram had been preaching for some fourteen months in Titicut Parish, Middleborough, where the congregation intended to settle him as soon as it could obtain incorporation, but early in 1742 he followed the Leonards to New Jersey where he took the civil oath as an inhabitant of Morris County. The next year he was back in Massachusetts participating in disorderly exhorting. Othniel Campbell (A.B. 1728) enraged his congregation by permitting Byram to use his pulpit. When George Whitefield arrived, Byram invited him to preach at Bridgewater, and when the minister, John Angier (A.B. 1720), refused the exhorters the use of the meetinghouse, he had the revivalist preach in the family barn. In protest to Parson Angier's action, the Byram family moved to Rocksiticus in Morris County, New Jersey, where the Captain became the leading man.
The people in that part of Morris County attended a Congregational church at Chester, which had, migrated from Southhold, Long Island, several generations before. Byram split this congregation and carried the New-Light faction to a newly erected Presbyterian meetinghouse on the Morris Turnpike, a mile and a half west of the modern village of Mendham. This settlement so throve that the Captain soon brought a carpenter down from Bridgewater to build a new and large meetinghouse for his son.
Besides preaching, Byram kept the school at Mendham, but he was away for months at a time, preaching as an itinerant under the direction of the Presbytery or the Synod. The diary of David Brainerd (Yale 1743) tells of such an expedition into the wilderness of Lucerne County, Pennsylvania, and gives the religious pitch:
Met Brother Byram, who came at my Desire, to be my Companion in Travel to the Indians. I rejoiced to see him; and I trust God made his Conversation profitable to me; I saw him , as I thought, more dead in the world, its anxious Cares, and alluring Objects, than I was and this made me look within my self, and gave me a greater Sense of my Guilt, Ingratitude, and Misery... Set out on my Journey, in Company with dear Brother Byram, and my Interpreter, and two chief Indians from the Forks of Delaware. Traveled about 25 Miles and lodged in one of the last Houses on the Road, after which there was nothing but a hideous and howling Wilderness.
The next year, 1745, Byram and William Dean of the Log College went on a preaching expedition to Augusta County, Virginia, where they made a profound impression and set off a revival. In September, 1747, the New York Synod sent him back to Virginia where he so pleased the people of Falling Spring and New Providence that they gave him a call; but in May he returned to New Jersey. Two years later the Synod asked him to go again to Virginia.
Phoebe Byram died on February 28, 1748 and on October 23, 1749 the Parson being in Raynham, Massachusetts, married Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Walker) Leonard of that town.
Subject: FORSAKEN ROOTS IN THE USA
Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence were orthodox, deeply committed Christians?
The other three all believed in the Bible as the divine truth, the God of scripture, and in His personal intervention.
It is the same Congress that formed the American Bible Society.
Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of scripture for the people of this nation.
Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution, is still remembered for his words, Give me liberty or give me death." But in current textbooks the context of these words is deleted. Here is what he actually said: An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."
These sentences have been erased from our textbooks.
Was Patrick Henry a Christian? You be the judge. The following year, 1776, he wrote this: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."
Consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote on the front of his well-worn Bible: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator "He was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role.
On July 4, 1821, President Adams said, The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."
Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President of the United States reaffirmed this truth when he wrote, "The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country."
In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools."
William Holmes McGuffey is the author of the McGuffey Reader, which was used for over 100 years in our public schools with over 125 million copies sold until it was stopped in 1963. President Lincoln called him the
"Schoolmaster
of the Nation." Listen to these words of Mr. McGuffey: "The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our notions on the character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions.
From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. For all these extracts from the Bible I make no apology."
Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636.
In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number 1 was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the scriptures:
"Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten commandments."
So much for the so-called "separation of church and state."
Today, we are asking God to bless America. But, how can He bless a Nation that has departed so far from Him? Prior to September 11, He was not welcome in America and is still unwelcome in all of our public schools.
Most of what you read in this article has been erased from our textbooks.
Revisionists have rewritten history to remove the truth about our country's Christian roots.
"I tremble for my country when I recall that God is just, and that His justice will not sleep forever." -- Thomas Jefferson
Note: You are encouraged to make copies, and share with others, so that
the
truth of our nation's history will be told.
Rev. Dan Gates
Columbus, Georgia
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I don't know who currently owns the church in Lafayette, but according to a book I have it was built in 1831 and Rev John Teasdale was the first regular pastor.
Dave
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Any info you have or if you could point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
Mark Tross
5561 Gladstone Drive North East
Rio Rancho, NM 87144
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The First Railroad in Sussex County New Jersey http://SussexBranchMemorial.com
Monomania can be a good thing
Subject: THE DOLLAR BILL - A History Lesson
Take out a one dollar bill, and look at it. The one dollar bill you're looking at first came off the presses in 1957 in its present design.
This so-called paper money is in fact a cotton and linen blend, with red and blue minute silk fibers running through it. It is actually material. We've all washed it without it falling apart. A special blend of ink is used, the contents we will never know. It is overprinted with symbols and then it is starched to make it water resistant and pressed to give it that nice crisp look.
If you look on the front of the bill, you will ! see the United States Treasury Seal.
On the top you will see the scales for a balanced budget. In the center you have a carpenter's square, a tool used for an even cut. Underneath is the Key to the United States Treasury. That's all pretty easy to figure out, but
what is on the back of that dollar bill is something we should all know.
If you turn the bill over, you will see two circles. Both circles, together, comprise the Great Seal of the United States. The First Continental Congress requested that Benjamin Franklin and a group
of men come up with a Seal. It took them four years to accomplish this task and another two years to get it approved.
! If you look at the left-hand circle, you will see a Pyramid. Notice the face
is lighted, and the western side is dark. This country was just beginning.
We had not begun to explore the West or decided what we could do for Western Civilization. The Pyramid is un-capped, again signifying that we were not even close to being finished. Inside the capstone you have the all-seeing eye, an ancient symbol for divinity. It was Franklin's belief that one man couldn't do it alone, but a group of men, with the help of God, could do anything.
"IN GOD WE TRUST" is on this currency.
The Latin above the pyramid, ANNUIT! COEPTIS, means, "God has favored our undertaking." The Latin below the
pyramid, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, means, "a new order has begun." At the base of the pyramid is the Roman Numeral for 1776.
If you look at the right-hand circle, and check it carefully, you will learn that it is on every National Cemetery in the United States. It is also on the Parade of Flags Walkway at the Bushnell, Florida National Cemetery, and
is the centerpiece of most hero's monuments. Slightly modified, it is the seal of the President of the United States, and it is always visible whenever he speaks, yet very few people know what the symbols mean.
The Bald Eagle was selected as a symbol for victory for two reasons: First, he is not afraid of a storm; he is strong, and he is smart enough to soar above it. Secondly, he wears no material crown.
We had just broken from the King of England. Also, notice the shield is unsupported. This country can
now stand on its own. At the top of that shield you have a white bar signifying congress, a unifying factor. We were coming together as one nation. In the Eagle's beak you will read, "E PLURIBUS UNUM", meaning, "one nation from many people".
Above the Eagle, you have thirteen stars, representing the thirteen original colonies, and any clouds of misunders! tanding rolling away. Again, we were coming together as one.
Notice what the Eagle holds in his talons. He holds
an olive branch and arrows. This country wants peace, but we will never be afraid to fight to preserve peace. The Eagle always wants to face the olive branch, but in time of war, his gaze turns toward the arrows.
They say that the number 13 is an unlucky number. This is almost a worldwide belief. You will usually never see a room numbered 13, or any hotels or motels with a 13th floor. But think ! about this: 13 original colonies, 13 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 13 stripes on our flag, 13 steps on the Pyramid, 13 letters in the Latin above, 13 letters in "E Pluribus Unum", 13 stars above the Eagle, 13 bars on that shield, 13 leaves on the olive branch, 13 fruits, and if you look closely, 13 arrows. And, for minorities: the 13th Amendment.
I always ask people, "Why don't you know this?" Your children don't know this, and their history teachers don't know this. Too many veterans have given up too much to ever let the meaning fade. Many veterans remember coming home to an America that didn't care. Too many veterans never came home at all.
Share this page with everyone, so they can learn what is on the back of the UNITED STATES ONE DOLLAR BILL, and what it stands for... Otherwise, they will probably never know
Subject: Finally someone says it right!
Finally someone says it right!
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone
who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one:
An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in
America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to
armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes
the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness. An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need.
When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other
nation to the poor in Afghanistan.
Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from many, many other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world.
But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place.
They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.
P.S. On the American Internet, I might add.
Pass this around the World.
Subject:
Democracy, How Long?
Most of us have seen the first part of this before, but I had not seen the second part data, interesting perspective.
>>> At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new
>>> constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history
>>> professor at The University of Edinborough) had this to say about "The
>>> Fall of The Athenian Republic" some 2,000 years prior.
>>>
>>> "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as
>>> a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up
>>> until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves
>>> generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the
>>> majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits
>>> from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will
>>> finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always
>>> followed by a dictatorship."
>>>
>>> "The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the
>>> beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200
>>> years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
>>>
>>> From Bondage to spiritual faith;
>>> From spiritual faith to great courage;
>>> >From courage to liberty;
>>> From liberty to abundance;
>>> From abundance to complacency;
>>> From complacency to apathy;
>>> From apathy to dependence;
>>> From dependence back into bondage."
>>>
>>> Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul,
>>> Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most
>>> recent Presidential election:
>>>
>>> Population of counties won by:
>>>
>>> Gore=127 million
>>> Bush=143 million
>>>
>>> Square miles of land won by:
>>>
>>> Gore=580,000
>>> Bush=2,2427,000
>>>
>>> States won by:
>>>
>>> Gore=19
>>> Bush=29
>>>
>>> Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
>>>
>>> Gore=13.2
>>> Bush=2.1
>>>
>>> Professor Olson adds:
>>>
>>> "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land
>>> owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore's
>>> territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned
>>> tenements and living off government welfare..."
>>>
>>> Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the "complacency and
>>> "apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy; with some
>>> 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the
>>> "governmental dependency" phase.
Subject: The Miracle of the Carpenter
The Miracle of the Carpenter
Max Lucado
It's no accident that new mexico is called the "Land of Enchantment."
Sprawling deserts spotted with sage.
Purple mountains wreathed with clouds.
Adobe homes hidden on hillsides.
Majestic pines. Endless artifacts. A cloverleaf of cultures from the conquistador to the Comanche to the cowboy. New Mexico enchants.
And in this land of enchantment, there is a chapel of wonder.
A block south of the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, on the corner of Water Street and Old Santa Fe Trail, you will find Loretto Chapel. As you step through its iron gate, you enter more than a chapel courtyard. You enter another era. Pause for a moment under the sprawling branches of the ancient trees. Imagine what it was like when the Mexican carpenters completed the chapel in 1878.
Can you see the settlers stomping through the muddy streets? Can you hear the donkeys braying? The wagon wheels groaning? And can you see the early morning sun spotlighting this gothic chapel—so simple, so splendid—as it sits against the backdrop of the desert hills?
Loretto Chapel took five years to complete. Modeled after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, its delicate sanctuary contains an altar, a rose window, and a choir loft.
The choir loft is the reason for wonder.
Were you to stand in the newly built chapel in 1878, you might see the Sisters of Loretto looking forlornly at the balcony. Everything else was complete:
the doors had been hung, the pews had been placed, the floor had been laid.
Everything was finished. Even the choir loft. Except for one thing. No stairs.
The chapel was too small to accommodate a conventional stairway.
The best builders and designers in the region shook their heads when consulted.
"Impossible," they murmured. There simply wasn't enough room. A ladder would serve the purpose, but mar the ambiance.
The Sisters of Loretto, whose determination had led them from Kentucky to Santa Fe, now faced a challenge greater than their journey: a stairway that couldn't be built.
What they had dreamed of and what they could do were separated by fifteen impossible feet.
So what did they do? The only thing they could do. They ascended the mountain. Not the high mountains near Santa Fe. No, they climbed even higher.
They climbed the same mountain that Jesus climbed 1,800 years earlier in Bethsaida. They climbed the mountain of prayer.
"He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray."
Jesus faced an impossible task. More than five thousand people were ready to fight a battle he had not come to fight.
How could he show them that he didn't come to be a king, but to be a sacrifice?
How could he take their eyes off an earthly kingdom so that they would see the spiritual one? How could they see the eternal when they only had eyes for the temporal?
What Jesus dreamed of doing and what he seemed able to do were separated by an impossible gulf. So Jesus prayed.
We don't know what he prayed about.
But I have my guesses:
• He prayed that eyes blinded by power could see God's truth.
• He prayed that disciples dizzied by success could endure failure.
• He prayed that leaders longing for power would follow him to a cross.
• He prayed that people desiring bread for the body would hunger for bread for the soul.
He prayed for the impossible to happen.
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he didn't ask for anything. Maybe he just stood quietly in the presence of Presence and basked in the Majesty. Perhaps he placed his war-weary self before the throne and rested.
Maybe he lifted his head out of the confusion of earth long enough to hear the solution of heaven. Perhaps he was reminded that hard hearts don't faze the Father. That problem people don't perturb the Eternal One.
We don't know what he did or what he said. But we do know the result. The hill became a steppingstone; the storm became a path. And the disciples saw Jesus as they had never seen him before.
During the storm, Jesus prayed. The sky darkened. The winds howled. Yet he prayed. The people grumbled. The disciples doubted. Yet he prayed. When forced to choose between the muscles of men and the mountain of prayer, he prayed.
Jesus did not try to do it by himself.
Why should you?
There are crevasses in your life that you cannot cross alone. There are hearts in your world that you cannot change without help. There are mountains that you can-not climb until you climb His mountain.
Climb it. You will be amazed.
The Sisters of Loretto were.
As the story goes, the nuns prayed for nine days. On the last day of the novena, a Mexican carpenter with a beard and a wind-burned face appeared at the convent. He explained that he had heard they needed a stairway to a chapel loft.
He thought he could help.
The mother superior had nothing to lose, so she gave him permission.
He went to work with crude tools, painstaking patience, and uncanny skill. For eight months he worked.
One morning the Sisters of Loretto entered the chapel to find their prayers had been answered. A masterpiece of carpentry spiraled from the floor to the loft. Two complete three-hundred-sixty-degree turns.
Thirty-three steps held together with wooden pegs and no central support. The wood is said to be a variety of hard fir, one nonexistent in New Mexico!
When the sisters turned to thank the craftsman, he was gone. He was never seen again. He never asked for money.
He never asked for praise. He was a simple carpenter who did what no one else could do so singers could enter a choir loft and sing.
See the stairway for yourself, if you like. Journey into the land of Enchantment. Step into this chapel of amazement and witness the fruit of prayer.
Or, if you prefer, talk to the Master Carpenter yourself. He has already performed one impossible feat in your world. He, like the Santa Fe carpenter, built a stairway no one else could build.
He, like the nameless craftsman, used material from another place. He, like the visitor to Loretto, came to span the gap between where you are and where you long to be.
Each year of his life is a step.
Thirty-three paces. Each step of the stair is an answered prayer. He built it so you can climb it.
And sing.