"Our Path to Freedom"

 It is true that even the most patriotic among us cannot really grasp the full appreciation and gratitude that is due to God for the blessing of this nation. On March 11, 1792, in a letter to John Armstrong, George Washington stated: "I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of the God who is alone able to protect them." - George Washington.

The path to America as are all nations traced back into the depths of human history through God's unfathomable Providence. It shines brightly before us even in the 15th century with Columbus in his discovery in 1492. Upon arriving in the New World, the first act was the voice of prayer and the melody of praise coming from his ship. Upon landing it was to prostrate himself upon the earth to give thanksgiving. 

However, there was another ship to be seen in God's Providence, it would be called the Mayflower. In 1492 the seed of the Gospel would be planted, in 1620 it would continue to germinate and grow. Speaking of the Mayflower, Benjamin F. Morris quotes Webster saying, "Her deck was the altar of the Living God. Fervent prayers on bended knees mingled morning and evening with the voices of the ocean and the sighing of the winds in her shrouds." - Benjamin F. Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, p.65.

This little ship landed at Plymouth Rock carrying a small group of people whose Christian faith through prayer, planted the seed of a Christian empire in this New World. It was the start of an organic Christian nation on the path to the greatest experiment of civil and religious freedom the world had ever known. They would speak concerning themselves, "We give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the word of his grace, for the teaching, ruling, and sanctifying of us, in matters of worship and conversation; resolving to cleave unto him alone for life and glory, and to reject all contrary ways, canons, and constitutions of men in his worship." - Benjamin F. Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, p.69.

They would do this in faithfulness by the commission given to them upon leaving Holland by their Pastor John Robinson, "I charge you to take heed what you receive as truth; examine it, consider it, and compare it with the scriptures of truth before you receive it." - Benjamin F. Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, p.65.

One of their first acts was to institute a form of civil government in conformity with the revealed will of God, and under whose legislation they were to enjoy their civil and religious freedoms. This legislation would state their purpose being, " . . . for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith . . . [to] covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid . . . [to] frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony;" (Mayflower Compact).

This would set the precedent for creating constitutions of government as the nation developed. We recognize this through men such as John Quincy Adams who stated, "The compact of the Puritans is a full demonstration that the nature of civil governments, abstracted from the political institutions of their native country, had been an object of their serious meditation." - John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States.

Daniel Webster would state, "This Constitution invokes a religious sanction and the authority of God on their civil obligations;" - Daniel Webster

He would go on to say, "Our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment." - Daniel Webster

The early commitment to the advancement of the Christian faith as stated in the Mayflower Compact continued to bear fruit, in 1658, John Eliot, a pastor of Roxbury Massachusetts, completed the translation of the entire Bible in the native American language. 

I am afraid George Washington would be pained, for none of these precepts would be the majority sentiment in American society today. Is that to judge us? Perhaps we should simply judge ourselves, we still lay claim to our freedoms, and boast of the American spirit and its exceptionalism. Yet, in doing so it seems we are neglecting and in many respects outright rejecting the very principles that gave us these things. We are a troubled society today, confused in our morality, angered in our politics, violent in our streets, and endangered in our schools. 

The questions we ask and the answers we give do everything but take us back to those principles. It is not that these things are obscure to us, as we have seen in our last post they are etched in stone all over our nation. It is that now we are educated in a wiser way, we must find a way to improve ourselves by ourselves and the exertion of our own energies. The resolve and the trust of God and the principles of his word are not only not sufficient for us anymore but are becoming a weight and a drudgery for us to bare. 

So we judge ourselves unworthy of those lofty principles and set our course riding upon our own wisdom. Though we deplore the idea of a nation being governed by God and resting upon his principles to guide us, it is the course we were given by those before us. They gave us the system by their wisdom, but they knew it could never be coerced. A Constitution they gave us, then with it a means to alter and change it at our pleasure. In their wisdom, they placed safeguards that would require a majority to do so, but with freedom of conscience in mind, they made way for us to cast it off if so desired.  It was great wisdom to provide us with such measures, for we could change our nation peacefully through legislation without the force of war among us. At least that should be the result. 

In the sermon today our Pastor exposited from Malachi 1:6 through 2:9 and demonstrated Israel was keeping up their religious worship but their heart was not in it. They had corrupted their worship. Similarly, we as Americans hold to a way of life, yet the principles by which we attained that way of life no longer rest upon the heart. We love the life we have been privileged to experience, but we are burdened by the responsibility of its maintenance. 

This very weekend is a memorial weekend for us as we remember the great price that has been paid to honor that responsibility. Yet, we laughingly jest with such statements concerning the weather for our festivities saying, "the forecast this weekend calls for a 100% chance of beer."

These things need not be for condemnation but for correction. We need not think those before us, even our heroes were without fault. Our nation is but a mere earthly kingdom with all the weakness of men at its helm. The principles we have talked about are noble, but we have not always been faithful to them or fully expressed them in many ways. Our American history owns its failures, but the principles have always steered us back to course or strengthened our stride. 

We must also remember these Christian principles only aid society to the extent they are embraced within the heart. They do not offer eternal Salvation except to the soul who has received grace to believe the Gospel, but to the extent that grace is received the society, in general, is strengthened. Can a non-Christian love and enjoy the freedoms provided by this great nation? Certainly, they can even be affected and moved by the culture born of these principles. We honor many this weekend who paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom who were not Christian. Nevertheless, it was the Christian principles that gave them the freedom they loved and died for. Nations throughout history have come and gone, and this one may as well, yet we are not relieved of the responsibility to know our history, both who we were and who we are. May God guide us, may He give mercy and repentance, may we continue to live free, and most of all may our laws and justice be right and our morality rest upon His sure foundation. 

"Public utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience." -  James McHenry, Signer of the Constitution

"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them." - Jedediah Morse Patriot and “Father of American Geography”

May the grace of God be with each of you,

David