Carl Sandburg was one of America’s most popular, “down to earth” literary authorities and poets of modern times. He deeply loved God and America. However, he was greatly concered about what the young people of America were being taught. I have recorded here what others thought on the same subject. Also, here I have recorded some of his most popular sayings and writings for you to review, appreciate, and enjoy.                                                    Ron

In an interview with Frederick Van Ryn of This Week Magazine (January 4, 1953, p. 11.) The great poet, Carl Sanburg stated: “I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision.”

Carl Sandburg was born on January 6, 1878, to Swedish immigrants who worked on the railroad.

After 8th grade, Carl Sandburg left school, borrowed his father’s railroad pass, and traveled the country as a hobo.

Carl Sandburg volunteered for military service, was sent to Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American War, and then attended college on a veteran’s bill.

Carl Sandburg wrote children’s fairytales, called Rootabaga Stories, and mused of his wanderings in American Songbag.

Once he was hosted for a gathering of poets by Katherine Lee Bates, daughter of a Congregational minister, who wrote the lyrics of America the Beautiful.

Carl Sandburg wrote in Remembrance Rock (1948, ch. 2, p. 7): “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.”

He continued his pro-life remarks: “A baby, whether it does anything to you, represents life. If a bad fire should break out in this house and I had my choice of saving the library or the babies, I would save what is alive. Never will a time come when the most marvelous recent invention is as marvelous as a newborn baby. The finest of our precision watches, the most super-colossal of our supercargo and plants, don’t compare with a newborn baby in the number and ingenuity of coils and springs, in the flow and change of chemical solutions, in timing devices and interrelated parts that are irreplaceable.

A baby is very modern. Yet it is also the oldest of the ancients. A baby doesn’t know he is a hoary and venerable antique — but he is. Before man learned how to make an alphabet, how to make a wheel, how to make a fire, he knew how to make a baby — with the great help of woman, and his God and Maker.”

Carl Sandburgi, in 1926, wrote Abraham Lincoln-The Prairie Years, and in 1939 he wrote Abraham Lincoln-The War Years, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize.

In 1959, Sandburg was invited to address Congress on Lincoln’s birthday.

On October 25, 1961, Sandburg was invited to the White House by John F. Kennedy.

In his Complete Poems, for which he won a Pulitzer, 1951, Carl Sandburg wrote: “All my life I have been trying to learn to read, to see and hear, and to write. At sixty-five I began my first novel. It could be, in the grace of God, I shall live to be eighty-nine. I might paraphrase: ‘If God had let me live five years longer I should have been a writer.'”

In his poem Prayers of Steel, Carl Sandburg wrote: “Lay me on an anvil, O God. Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar. Let me pry loose old walls. Let me lift and loosen old foundations. Lay me on an anvil, O God. Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike. Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together. Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders. Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into white stars.

Sandburg wrote: “God, The game is all your way, the secrets and the signals and the system; and so for the break of the game and the first play and the last. Our prayer of thanks.”

Sandburg wrote in “Washington Monument by Night” (Slabs of the Sunburnt West, 1922): “The Republic is a dream. Nothing happens unless first a dream.”

Carl Sandburg wrote: “When a nation goes down, or a society perishes, one condition may always be found; they forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along.”

Sandburg’s statement is similar to Pulitzer Prize winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., who wrote in an op-ed titled “Folly’s Antidote” (The New York Times, January 1, 2007):  “History is to the nation as memory is to the individual. As persons deprived of memory become disoriented and lost, not knowing where they have been and where they are going, so a nation denied a conception of the past will be disabled in dealing with its present and its future. ‘The longer you look back,’ said Winston Churchill, “the farther you can look forward. I believe a consciousness of history is a moral necessity for a nation.”

John F. Kennedy wrote in the Introduction to the American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States (1960): ):  “History, after all, is the memory of a nation.  Just as memory enables the individual to learn, to choose goals and stick to them, to avoid making the same mistake twice – in short, to grow – so history is the means by which a nation establishes its sense of identity and purpose. History, after all, is the memory of a nation. Just as memory enables the individual to learn, to choose goals and stick to them, to avoid making the same mistake twice – in short, to grow – so history is the means by which a nation establishes its sense of identity and purpose.”

Harvard Professor George Santayana wrote in Reason in Common Sense (Vol. I of The Life of Reason, 1905): “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Judge Learned Hand wrote: “The use of history is to tell us past themes, else we should have to repeat, each in his own experience, the successes and the failures of our forebears.”

Aristotle, in his book Rhetoric (4th century BC), called this “deliberative rhetoric,” using examples from the past to predict future outcomes: “The political orator is concerned with the future: it is about things to be done hereafter that he advises, for or against.”

Lord Acton wrote in 1877: “The story of the future is written in the past.”

Patrick Henry stated March 23, 1775: “I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.”

Edmund Burke wrote in Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790: “People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.”

Cicero stated in Ad M. Brutum, 46 BC: “Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever.”

J. Edgar Hoover warned in the introduction to Edward L.R. Elson’s book, America’s Spiritual Recovery, 1954: “We can see all too clearly the devastating effects of secularism on our Christian way of life. The period when it was smart to “debunk” our traditions undermined high standards of conduct. A rising emphasis on materialism caused a decline of “God-centered” deeds and thoughts.”

Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall stated: “Along with our higher education came a debunking contest a sort of national sport. It was smarter to revile than to revere more fashionable to depreciate than to appreciate. Debunking is a sign of decaying foundations.”

Socialist historian Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States (1980) has been one of the primary works “debunking” America’s heritage.

An exposé revealing Zinn’s manipulation of the facts has been written by Mary Garbar, Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America (2019).

Zinn’s tactic was one of deconstruction, a type of “gene-replacement therapy” for a culture, which uses a “Drive–Neutral–Reverse” methodology to ideologically undermine a nation. The first step is to separate students from their country’s past by portraying the founders of the country in a negative light, ignoring the fact that the founders gave them a system which provides for maximum individual liberty and opportunity; then students are in a neutral phase of being “open-minded”; finally, the students are indoctrinated with a whitewashed socialist-sharia cancel-culture future.

President Donald Trump stated July 3, 2020: “The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats, in every case, is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions. Our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition. No movement that seeks to dismantle these treasured American legacies can possibly have a love of America at its heart. No person who remains quiet at the destruction of this resplendent heritage can possibly lead us to a better future.”

Will & Ariel Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization, 1967: “History is an excellent teacher with few pupils.”

The Durants wrote in The Lessons of History, 1968:  “Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted civilization would die, and we should be savages again.”

Reagan warned the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, March 30, 1961: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”

Carl Sandburg died July 22, 1967.

At his 85th birthday party (6 January 6, 1963, Sandburg had stated (The Best of Ralph McGill: Selected Columns, 1980): “Time is the coin of your life. You spend it. Do not allow others to spend it for you.”

President Ronald Reagan stated in his State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984: “Each day your members observe a 200-year-old tradition meant to signify America is one nation under God. I must ask: If you can begin your day with a member of the clergy standing right here leading you in prayer, then why can’t freedom to acknowledge God be enjoyed again by children in every school room across this land? America was founded by people who believed that God was their rock of safety.”

Reagan concluded:

“I recognize we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it’s all right to keep asking if we’re on His side. The famous Carl Sandburg said………….

‘I see America not in the setting sun of a black night of despair. I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God.'”

Ron

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The Bible Says: Psalm 33:12

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord”

Our nation is always in need of prayer. In good times and bad, whether at war or at peace, during seasons of overflowing abundance or great need, it’s always important for us to intercede for our country.

Why? First because our fellow citizens need to accept Jesus as their savior. if we desire for our nation to be characterized by godly families, wise and capable leaders, and strong communities, then we need to pray our countrymen will enthrone the Lord to their homes and hearts.

Second, we need the Father’s favor and protection against threats and terrorist attacks, natural disasters, epidemies, and economic downturns. If we wish for our country to remain safe, productive, and strong, we will need God’s divine provision.

So today, kneel before the Lord, seek His face, repent from your sins, and ask Him to bless the nation. Only the Lord can truly transform our country . And He has promised to do so when we ask according to His will and act in obedience to Him (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Ron

After the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the Northwest from May 1804 to September 1806, meeting natives tribes along the way.

Several years later, in 1831, three Nez Perce Indians and one Flathead Indian, traveled 2,000 miles, all the way from the Oregon Territory to St. Louis, Missouri, looking for the “Book to Heaven.”

Bishop Rosati wrote in the Annals of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith, December 31, 1831: “Some three months ago four Indians who live across the Rocky Mountains near the Columbia River (Clark’s Fork of the Columbia) arrived at St. Louis. After visiting General Clark who, in his celebrated travels, has visited their country they came to see our church and appeared to be exceedingly well pleased with it.

Two of our priests visited them. They made the sign of the Cross and other signs which appeared to have some relation to baptism. The sacrament was administered to them.”

William Walker, who was the first provisional governor of the Nebraska-Kansas Territory, gave an eye-witness account. His account was printed, March 1, 1833, in the Christian Advocate & Journal and Zion’s Herald of New York, a Methodist Episcopal publication which at the time had the largest circulation of any periodical in the world: “Immediately after we landed in St. Louis, on our way to the west, I proceeded to Gen. Clark’s, superintendent of Indian affairs. While in his office he informed me that three chiefs from the Flat-Head nation were in his house, and were quite sick, and that one (the fourth) had died a few days ago. They were from the west of the Rocky Mountains. Curiosity prompted me to step into the adjoining room to see them, having never seen any, but often heard of them. I was struck by their appearance. The distance they had traveled on foot was nearly three thousand miles to see Gen. Clarke, their great father, as they called him, he being the first American officer they ever became acquainted with”

Walker continued: “Gen. Clark related to me the object of their mission, and, my dear friend, it is impossible for me to describe to you my feelings while listening to his narrative. (They had heard) the white people away toward the rising of the sun had been put in possession of the true mode of worshiping the great Spirit. They had a book containing directions how to conduct themselves in order to enjoy his favor and hold converse with him; and with this guide, no one need go astray, but every one that would follow the directions laid down there, could enjoy, in this life, his favor; and after death would be received into the country where the great Spirit resides, and live for ever with him. Upon receiving this information, they called a national council to take this subject into consideration. They accordingly deputed four of their chiefs to proceed to St. Louis to see their great father, Gen. Clarke, to inquire of him.”

William Walker wrote further of being at William Clark’s home in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1831 and meeting the Nez Perce and Flathead Indians: They arrived at St. Louis, and presented themselves to Gen. Clark the latter was somewhat puzzled being sensible of the responsibility that rested on him; he however proceeded by informing them that what they had been told by the white man in their own country, was true. Then went into a succinct history of man, from his creation down to the advent of the Savior; explained to them all the moral precepts contained it he Bible, expounded to them the decalogue (ten commandments). Informed them of the advent of the Savior, his life, precepts, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the relation he now stands to man as a mediator—that he will judge the world.

The published account of the Nez Perce and Flathead Indians visiting St. Louis inspired Dr. Marcus Whitman. In 1835, he went with missionary Samuel Parker to minister to Nez Perce and Flathead Indians in Idaho and Montana.  

The next year, Marcus and his newly-wed wife, Narcissa, left Massachusetts and become missionaries to the Indians of Oregon and Washington. Accompanying them were Presbyterian missionaries Henry and Eliza Spalding. This made Narcissa and Eliza the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains.

President Warren G. Harding, in dedicating the Oregon Trail Monument, July 3, 1923, recounted how Dr. Marcus Whitman traveled, clad in buckskin breeches, fur leggings and moccasins, an) episode took place within these walls. Seated at his desk was, John Tyler, tenth President of the United States. Facing him was the lion-visaged Daniel Webster, Secretary of State. The door opened and there appeared before the amazed statesmen a strange and astonishing figure. It was that of a man of medium height and sturdy build, deep chested, broad shouldered, yet lithe in movement and soft in step. He was clad in a coarse fur coat, buckskin breeches, fur leggings, and boot moccasins, looking much worse for the wear.

It was that of a religious enthusiast, tenaciously earnest yet revealing no suggestion of fanaticism, bronzed from exposure to pitiless elements and seamed with deep lines of physical suffering, a rare combination of determination and gentleness – obviously a man of God, but no less a man among men. Such was Marcus Whitman, the missionary hero of the vast, unsettled, unexplored Oregon country, who had come out of the West to plead that the state should acquire for civilization the empire that the churches were gaining for Christianity.”

Harding continued: “The magnificence of Marcus Whitman’s glorious deed has yet to find adequate recognition in any form. Here was a man who, with a single companion, in the dead of winter (1842), struggled through pathless drifts and blinding storms, four thousand miles, with the sole aim to serve his country and his God. He was pushing grimly and painfully through this very pass on his way from Walla Walla to Fort Hall, thence, abandoning the established northern route as impassable, off to the South through unknown, untrodden lands, past the Great Salt Lake, to Santa Fe, then hurriedly on to St. Louis and finally, after a few days, again on the home-stretch to his destination, taking as many months as it now takes days to go from Walla Walla to Washington.”

Harding continued:  “It was more than a desperate and perilous trip that Marcus Whitman undertook. It was a race against time. Public opinion was rapidly crystallizing into a judgment that the Oregon country was not worth claiming, much less worth fighting for; that, even though it could be acquired against the insistence of Great Britain, it would prove to be a liability rather than an asset. Webster before had pronounced Oregon ‘a barren, worthless country, fit only for wild beasts and wild men’; Whitman turning to the President Tyler added beseechingly: All I ask is that you will not barter away Oregon or allow English interference until I can lead a band of stalwart American settlers across the plains. For this I shall try to do!’ The just and considerate Tyler could not refuse. ‘Doctor Whitman,’ he rejoined sympathetically, ‘your long ride and frozen limbs testify to your courage and your patriotism. Your credentials establish your character. Your request is granted!'”

Harding added: “Whitman a few months later (1843) had completed an organization of eager souls, and led the first movement by wagon train across plains and mountains along this unblazed trail. What a sight that caravan must have appeared to the roaming savages! And what an experience for the intrepid pioneers! More that two hundred wagons, bearing well-nigh a thousand emigrants, made up the party. They traveled by substantially the same route that Whitman had taken when he first went out to Oregon; from a rendezvous near what is now Kansas City they moved due northwest across northeast Kansas and southeast Nebraska to the Platte River; followed the Platte to the middle of what is now Wyoming, thence crossing the mountains by way of the Sweetwater Valley and the South Platte; and from Fort Hall, following the well-known route, roughly paralleling the Snake River, into Oregon.

The difficulties of the trip, involving beside the two hundred wagons, the care of women and children, and of considerable herds of live stock, were such that its successful accomplishment seems almost miraculous. But stern determination triumphed and the result was conclusive. Americans had settled the country and in the end the boundary settlement was made on the line of the forty-ninth parallel, your great Northwest was saved, and a veritable Empire was merged in the young Republic. Never in the history of the world has there been a finer example   of civilization following Christianity. The missionaries led under the banner of the cross, and the settlers moved close behind under the star-spangled symbol of the nation.”

Harding acknowledged the missionaries by name: “Among all the records of the evangelizing efforts as the forerunner of human advancement, there is none so impressive as this of the early Oregon mission and its marvelous consequences. To the men and women of that early day whose first thought was to carry the gospel to the Indians—the Lees, the Spauldings, the Grays, the Walkers, the Leslies, to Fathers DeSmet and Blanchet and DeMars, and to all the others of that glorious company who found that in serving God they were also serving their country and their fellowmen—to them we pay today our tribute; to them we owe a debt of gratitude, which we can never pay, save partially through recognition such as you and I have accorded today.”

Unfortunately, when an outbreak of measles occurred, several Cayuse Indians died. The mission was blamed and the Whitmans, along with 11 others, were massacred.

President Harding concluded his Oregon Trail tribute by acknowledging: My appreciation both as President of the United States and as one who honestly tries to be a Christian soldier, of the signal service of the martyred Whitman.”

The State of Washington placed the statue of Dr. Marcus Whitman in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

In 1856, Mother Joseph led five missionaries to the Pacific Northwest where they founded: 11 Hospitals, 7 Academies, 5 Indian schools, and 2 Orphanages.

The State of Washington placed a statue of Mother Joseph in the U.S. Capital.

Chief Moses befriended Missionary Henry Spalding and was educated at a Presbyterian mission school. Chief Moses traveled to Washington, D.C., where he met with President Rutherford Hayes.

In the Wind River area of Wyoming, Shoshone Chief Washakie (whose father was a Flathead), learned to speak French, English, and numerous native languages. Around 1840, he united the Shoshone tribes. He became friends with fur trappers and explorers, such as Kit Carson, John Fremont, and Jim Bridger. At the urging of Jim Bridger, who became his son-in-law, Chief Washakie attended councils and signed treaties with the U.S. Government, preserving the existence of the Shoshone.

Missionary John Robert translated the Bible into Shoshone and Arapahoe, and with the help of Chief Washakie, founded a Christian boarding school. In 1897, Chief Washakie was baptized as a Christian in the Episcopal faith. His statue is in the U.S. Capital.

In 1859, Oregon became the 33rd state to join the Union. The original Oregon State Constitution stated: “Bill of Rights, Article I, Section 2.:

All men shall be secure in the Natural right, to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences.”

Ron

• 7 academies,
• 5 Indian schools, and
• 2 orphanages.

The State of Washington placed a statue of Mother Joseph in the U.S. Capital.

The Bible says: Ephesians 1:18

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance.

What do think of when you hear the word heir?  Does it evoke images of wealth handed down through generations?  Perhaps it reminds you of someone you love who has passed away.

The truth is, not many people inherit a vast estate or receive great gifts from wealthy relatives. But when Jesus becomes your Savior, He makes you a co-heir of all God’s immeasurable riches (Romans 8:16-17). He wants to be your fullness and abundant supply for every aspect of your life.

Do you need strength? God has all power and gives you energy for every task. Do you lack wisdom? He provides discernment and insight that can cut through even the densest fog of confusion. Are you searching for contentment? Jesus gives you peace beyond human understanding. Friend, material wealth can be depleted and taken away. But the inheritance you have in Christ is unchanging and inexhaustible forever. Therefore, embrace how rich you truly are in Him.

(General Thomas Gage had blockaded Boston and occupied it with 4,000 troops. Boston harbor was filled with his whole fleet. It was his plan to leave and burn the whole town to the ground as he left. General Washington knew that 300 miles north, on the Canadian border, Fort Ticonderoga had 59 large, long-range cannons. General Washington sent young Henry Knox way up there in the dead of winter to bring those cannons back down to Boston. Through amazing innovations and great difficulty, braving vicious blizzards, Knox got all of them back down to Boston.

In the dead of night General Washington got all of them up onto the high bluffs overlooking Boston and its harbor. The next morning when General Gage saw that look line of cannons looking down on him; he knew that General Washington could destroy his whole fleet right there. This changed the whole complex of the war for independence.

Do read the story below to see what happened, and the rest of the life and exploits of the amazing Henry Knox.)

William Knox had emigrated from Scotland to Ireland; then to the West Indies; then to Boston in 1728.He helped establish the Church of the Presbyterian Strangers. William Knox died in 1762 while on business in the West Indies.

His 12-year-old son, Henry Knox, began supporting the family by working as a bookbinder at Wharton and Bowe’s Book Store.

In 1771, at the age of 21, Knox opened his own bookstore in Boston. At age 23, while hunting birds on Noddle Island, his fowling piece misfired, taking off two fingers of his left hand. From then on, when in public, he covered that hand with a handkerchief.

A young woman who frequented Henry’s book shop was Lucy Flucker, whose father was Thomas Flucker, the Royal Secretary of the Province of Massachusetts.

To her father’s disapproval, Henry and Lucy fell in love. Her parents considered Henry in a lower class, and were put off because he associated with patriotic rebels. They tried to entice Henry to take a commission serving the King in the British Artillery, but he refused.

When Henry and Lucy were married, June 16, 1774, her parents disowned her.

Henry Knox witnessed the Boston Massacre in 1770. Then during the Boston Tea Party in 1773, Henry, who was six feet tall and over 250 pounds, served on guard duty to make sure no tea was unloaded from the ship Dartmouth until the night Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty arrived.

On May 13, 1774, British General Thomas Gage arrived as Military Governor of Massachusetts. On June 1, 1774, Gage commenced a blockade of Boston’s Harbor by British ships. Knox experienced the resulting city’s deprivation.

With 4,000 British troops, Gage imposed a military occupation, confiscating over 2,000 muskets from the citizens. He prohibited town hall meetings, complaining that “democracy is too prevalent in America.”

Gage had Knox’s name put on a list of the most dangerous persons. Gage made Boston a prison. No one was permitted to leave.

The British looted Henry’s bookshop and used his home to lodge soldiers. One night in the spring of 1775, 25-year-old Henry, and his 19 -year-old wife, fled on horseback out of Boston. Lucy had sewn his sword inside her cape.

In March of 1775, Parliament replaced Thomas Gage with British Commander William Howe. Howe filled Boston with 4,500 more troops.

The Battle of Bunker Hill soon followed on June 17, 1775. Knox volunteered to serve in the American military. General George Washington, age 43, made Henry Knox a colonel because of his amazing exploits while fighting in that battle.

On December 1, 1775, General Washington sent Colonel Henry Knox to Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York near Canada to bring 59 cannons to Boston to drive out the British.

Knox and his men arrived at Fort Ticonderoga. Knox put the cannons on big flat-bottomed boats, and rowed them through freezing weather to the southern end of Lake George. Knox dragged the cannons across the snow, as he reported to Washington, December 17, 1775: “I have had made 42 exceedingly strong sleds and have provided 80 yoke of oxen to drag them as far as Springfield where I shall get fresh cattle to carry them. I hope in 16 or 17 days to be able to present your Excellency a noble train of artillery.”

They arrived at the Hudson River, but the ice was not thick enough to support the sleds and one sank. On January 8, 1776, Knox wrote in his diary that local pastors organized farmers to help: “Went on the ice about 8 o’clock in the morning and proceeded so carefully that before night we got over 23 sleds and were so lucky as to get the cannon out of the River, owing to the assistance the good people of the city of Albany gave.”

The 3 month endeavor of dragging the cannons over 300 miles from Ft. Ticonderoga to Boston was called by historian Victor Brooks “one of the most stupendous feats of logistics ever performed in Young America.”

Knox arrived at Cambridge, Massachusetts. On the night of March 4th, a diversionary attack was made to distract the British, while Washington’s men wrapped the wagon wheels with straw to muffle the noise and frantically moved the cannons up to a strategic point on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston Harbor.

To make it appear even more impressive, they painted some logs to look like cannons. The next morning an astonished British General William Howe looked up at Dorchester Heights and remarked: “The rebels did more in one night than my whole army would have done in one month.”

On March 6, 1776, from his Cambridge Headquarters, General Washington ordered: “Thursday, the 7th being set apart by this Province (Massachusetts) as a Day of Fasting, Prayer and Humiliation, to implore the Lord and Giver of all victory to pardon our manifold sins and wickedness, and that it would please Him to bless the Continental army with His divine favor and protection,’ all officers and soldiers are strictly enjoined to pay all due reverence and attention on that day to the sacred duties to the Lord of hosts for His mercies already received, and for those blessings which our holiness and uprightness of life can alone encourage us to hope through His mercy obtain.”

Coincidentally, on that Day of Fasting, March 7, 1776, General Howe was assembling 3,000 troops to land and charge up Dorchester Heights, but a violent snowstorm arose causing the sea to be too turbulent for the attack.

General Washington wrote his younger brother, John Augustine Washington, March 31, 1776: “Upon their discovery of the works (cannons on Dorchester Heights) next morning, great preparations were made for attacking them; but not being ready before the afternoon, and the weather getting very tempestuous, much blood was saved and a very important blow prevented. That this most remarkable Interposition of Providence is for a wise purpose, I have not a doubt.”

Rev. Alexander MacWhorter, who was a chaplain with Henry Knox’s brigade, wrote December 12, 1799: “General Washington attended divine services with his brigades. He considered the distinction of the great denominations of Christianity rather as necessary shades of differences, than anything substantial or essential to salvation.”

Because of that massive array of cannon looking down on them, on March 8, General Howe sent word to Washington that if the British were allowed to leave Boston unmolested, they would not burn the city on their way out.

Eights days passed, and on March 16, 1776, the Continental Congress approved without dissent a Day of Fasting: “Congress desirous to have people of all ranks and degrees duly impressed with a solemn sense of God’s superintending providence, and of their duty, devoutly to rely on his aid and direction do earnestly recommend  a Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer; that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and, by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease God’s righteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain this pardon and forgiveness.”

The next day, March 17, 1776, British General Howe finally gave the order to his troops to board their ships and evacuate Boston. Sailing away with the British forces were nearly a thousand British loyalists. Among them were Lucy Knox’s parents, the Fluckers. She never saw them again.

Being newlyweds when the war started, Henry was separated from his wife, Lucy, for months at a time. He wrote to her: “I maledict this war only because it separates me from my Love. No man on earth separated from all that he holds Dear on earth has ever suffer’d more than I have suffer’d in being absent from (my Love) whom I hold dearer than every other object I think of rarely any thing else. Indeed, my dear Girl, I love you too well to be separated from you at all.”

Henry wrote to Lucy, August 25, 1777: “I shall reserve myself until I have the ineffable pleasure of seeing you. When that will be I can’t say, but please God at all events before Christmas. May God soon bring us together again and I sincerely beg Him to bless you, your affectionate husband. H Knox.”

Henry Knox went on to fight in New York, where Washington told his army after receiving a copy of the Declaration of Independence, July 1776:  “This important event will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer, and soldier, to act with fidelity and courage, as knowing that now, the peace and safety of his country depends, under God, on the success of our arms.”

Knox fought in the New Jersey campaign. Also, he arranged Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River with John Glover’s seamen from Marblehead, Massachusetts, rowing the boats. It was Knox’s artillery that helped defeat the Hessian mercenaries at the Battle of Trenton after crossing the ice laden river.

Knox as promoted to Brigadier General, and fought at Princeton, in the Philadelphia campaign, Germantown, Monmouth, and Yorktown.

George Washington wrote to Henry Knox, March 2, 1797: “It is not for man to scan the wisdom of Providence. The best he can do, is to submit to its decrees. – Reason, Religion & Philosophy teaches us to do this, but ’tis time alone that can ameliorate the pangs of humanity, & soften its woes.”

In 1782, Knox was promoted to be the army’s youngest major general. In 1785, he was chosen as the nation’s second Secretary of War, following Benjamin Lincoln. In addition to Fort Knox, located in Kentucky, places named for him include: 14 counties and cities across America, including Knox County Texas, just north of Abilene.

In 1985, the U.S. Post Office issued a stamp honoring Henry Knox.

For nearly 20 years, Henry and Lucy did not have a home of their own, living in military encampments and army bases.

In the midst of the Revolution, Knox wrote to his wife, Lucy:

“We want great men, who when fortune frowns will not be discouraged. God will I trust in time give us these men.”

Ron

The Bible says: John 10:4

“The sheep follow him because they know His voice.”

Do you know how investigators are trained to recognize counterfeit money? They diligently study the true currency—the real thing. Then, when held against the standard, the counterfeit bills stand out.

Likewise, the best way to learn the Lord’s voice is by studying the words He’s declared to all generations—by reading the Holy Bible.

There are several principles you can apply to what you’re hearing to gauge whether it is of God, but the most basic and most important is whether the message conflicts with Scripture. The Father won’t tell you to do anything that counters what He already has recorded for all mankind.

Therefore, the best way to know His voice is to get to know Him. Spend time in His Word and immerse yourself in His truth. Because as you do, you’ll be able to differentiate God’s direction from the messages the world, the enemy, or your flesh are sending you. You will know His voice, and He will certainly lead you well.

(Teddy Roosevelt warned us about the need to keep Christian Civilization alive at all costs. Here I have chronicled how that has been accomplished over the centuries, right up to today. I think it is important for you to know the major details of how it has been done. Do review them below.)

“We will advance Christian CIVILIZATION or revert to the horrors of brutal paganism. The choice between the two is upon us” -Theodore Roosevelt

President William Howard Taft had stated at a missionary conference in 1908: “No man can study the movement of modern CIVILIZATION from an impartial standpoint, and not realize that Christianity and the spread of Christianity are the basis of hope of modern CIVILIZATION in the growth of popular self government. The spirit of Christianity is pure democracy. It is equality of man before God — the equality of man before the law, which is, as I understand it, the most God-like manifestation that man has been able to make.”

In 1923, in his last public address, titled “The Road Away from Revolution,” President Woodrow Wilson warned: “In these doubtful and anxious days, when all the world is at unrest, the road ahead seems darkened by shadows which portend dangers. Ground for the universal unrest is not to be found in superficial politics or in mere economic blunders. It probably lies deep at the sources of the spiritual life of our time”

Wilson added: “That supreme task, which is nothing less than the salvation of CIVILIZATION, now faces democracy. We call ours a Christian CIVILIZATION, a Christian conception of justice. Our CIVILIZATION cannot survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually. It can be saved only by becoming permeated with the spirit of Christ and being made free and happy by the practices which spring out of that spirit.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated October 6, 1935: “The 400th anniversary of the printing of the first English Bible is an event of great significance. We trace not only a measurable increase in the cultural value and influence of this greatest of books, but a quickening in the widespread dissemination of those moral and spiritual precepts that have so greatly affected the progress of Christian CIVILIZATION.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt stated at the Dedication of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, September 2, 1940: “There is another enemy at home that mocks at ideals, sneers at sacrifice and pretends that the American people can live by bread alone. If the spirit of God is not in us, and if we will not prepare to give all that we have and all that we are to preserve Christian CIVILIZATION in our land, we shall go to destruction.”

John F. Kennedy wrote to Brazil’s President, January 31, 1961: “To each of us is entrusted the heavy responsibility of guiding the affairs of a democratic nation founded on Christian ideals.”

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stated June 18, 1940: “The Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian CIVILIZATION.”

Churchill stated July 14, 1940: “We are not fighting for ourselves alone. Here in this strong City of Refuge which enshrines the title-deeds of human progress and is of deep consequence to Christian CIVILIZATION; here, girt about by the seas and oceans where the Navy reigns, shielded from above by the prowess and devotion of our airmen, we await undismayed the impending assault.”

President Truman introduced Winston Churchill in Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.  Churchill stated: “Except in the British Commonwealth and in the United States where Communism is in its infancy, the Communist parties or fifth columns constitute a growing challenge and peril to Christian CIVILIZATION.”

On V-J Day, August 14, 1945, President Harry S Truman stated at a News Conference announcing the end of World War II: “I have received this afternoon a message from the Japanese Government. ‘His Majesty the Emperor is prepared to authorize all the forces under their control wherever located to cease active operations, to surrender arms.’

The next day, President Truman released a message:  “The enemies of CIVILIZATION who would have destroyed completely all freedom of religion have been defeated. All faiths unite in thanksgiving to Almighty God on our victory over the forces of evil. Let us now all join to create the kind of peace settlement which will keep alive freedom of religious belief all over the world, and prevent the recurrence of all this misery and destruction. That is the most fitting memorial we can erect to those who have fought and suffered and labored and died in this struggle for mankind.”

On August 16, 1945, Truman proclaimed a Day of Prayer: “The warlords of Japan have surrendered unconditionally. This is the end of the schemes of dictators to enslave the peoples of the world, destroy their CIVILIZATION, and institute an era of darkness and degradation.”

He added: “Our global victory has come from the courage of free men and women united in determination to fight. It has come from the massive strength of arms created by peace-loving peoples who knew that unless they won, decency in the world would end. It has come from millions of peaceful citizens turned soldiers overnight, who showed a ruthless enemy that they were not afraid to fight.”

Truman concluded: “It has come with the help of God, Who was with us in the early days of adversity and Who has now brought us to this glorious day of triumph. Let us give thanks to Him and dedicate ourselves to follow in His ways.”

President Theodore Roosevelt included in his book Fear God and Take Your Own Part (1916), his address to the American Sociological Congress: “The CIVILIZATION of Europe, America and Australia exists today at all only because of the victories of civilized man over the enemies of CIVILIZATION. Because of victories stretching through the centuries from Charles Martel in the 8th century and those of John Sobieski in the 17th century. During the thousand years that included the careers of the Frankish soldier and the Polish king, the Christians of Asia and Africa proved unable to wage successful war with the Moslem conquerors; and in consequence Christianity practically vanished from the two continents; and today nobody can find in Mohammedism any ‘social values’ whatever, in the sense in which we use the words, so far as the sphere of Mohammedan influences are concerned.”

Roosevelt continued: There are such ‘social values’ today in Europe, America and Australia only because during those thousand years the Christians of Europe possessed the warlike power to do what the Christians of Asia and Africa had failed to do— that is, to beat back the Moslem invader.”

In his last public address, President Richard Nixon warned August 8, 1974: “In the Middle East, there are 100 million people in the Arab countries who worship Mohamed. Down deep, they are a major potential enemy. We must continue to oppose their principles if necessary, so that cradle of CIVILIZATON will not become its grave.”

David Horowitz, a conservative author who had previously been a 1960s radical Marxist, wrote in the Jewish World Review, September 6, 2001: “The ‘social justice’ organizations, socialist protesters of today, are the Fifth Column vanguards plotting to tear down Christian Civilization from within.”

What is at stake?

Do you, as an individual, like having the choice of where to live, what career to pursue, who to marry, what religion to adhere to, or not, how to dress, what to eat, and what to think? If you like making these choices for yourself, you like Western Civilization. Western Civilization can be summed up in one word — “individual.”

President Dwight Eisenhower addressed the American Legion’s Back-to-God Program, February 20, 1955: “The Founding Fathers expressed the ideal of Government based on the individual. That ideal previously, had existed only in the hearts and minds of men. They recognized God as the author of individual rights.”

Simply put, you have a worth and an identity simply because you are made in the image of God.

All other social structures can be summed up in the word “group.” In them your worth and identity are in relation to your acceptance by a group, a clan, a tribe, a gang, a family, a community, an ummah, a clique, a brotherhood, a society, a state, a company, a social network, the vaccinated, or a political party.

They are called “honor-shame cultures,” if you conform or contribute to this group and the group praises you, you are worth more. Online, it is being friended, followed, liked, trending. If you do not contribute, or are considered a drain or a threat to the group, you are worth-less, and the group shames, fires, ostracizes, or kills you. Online, it is being unfriended, unfollowed, unliked, blocked, de-platformed, cyber-bullied, cancelled. And like a pecking order, every group ends up having an influencer, a party boss, a gang leader, a king.

Critical Race Theory is the process of categorizing everyone into groups, then pitting them against each other to create division, fear, panic, and hysteria. In the confusion, people will trade freedom for security, allowing the government to usurp power.

In the Old Testament, God called ancient Israel out of the group — the Egyptian world, and set them apart.

In the New Testament, Jesus calls each individual to come out of the world, to personally love Him more than being accepted by any group. Believers are to shun peer-pressure and the fear of man, and leave the herd mentality, the mob mentality, the pack mentality, and instead, care only about being accepted in the sight of God.

Jesus said: “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” John 5:44

 This thought influenced America’s founders. President Reagan stated in 1961: “In this country of ours took place the greatest revolution that has ever taken place in the world’s history. Every other revolution simply exchanged one set of rulers for another. Here for the first time in all the thousands of years of man’s relation to man the founding fathers established the idea that you and I had within ourselves the God-given right and ability to determine our own destiny.”

Henry Cabot Lodge, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Committee, spoke against joining the League of Nation, August 12, 1919: “The United States is the world’s best hope. Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance; this great land of ordered liberty. For if we stumble and fall, freedom and CIVILIZATION everywhere will go down in ruin.”

And to sum it all up, once again we turn to the great, tough Teddy Roosevelt, who warned in 1909:

“I believe that the next half century will determine if we will continue to advance the cause of Christian CIVILIZATION or revert to the horrors of brutal paganism. The choice between the two is upon us.”

Ron

—

The Bible says: Proverbs 18:24 (NKJV)

“A man who has friends must himself be Friendly”

The Lord desires for you to have an intimate relationship with Him, but He doesn’t stop there. He wants you to have enriching fellowship with other people as well. When you are lonely, you are to turn first to the Father. But you can also rely upon the people He has placed in your life.

Friend, God has given you people to love. They may not be the ones you wish you had a relationship with, but the Lord has placed them in your life for a purpose. And your loneliness will be remedied by interaction with them rather than by an escape into fantasy or other addictive behavior.

One of the greatest blessings in life is a godly friend. So don’t be reluctant to call upon your loved ones when you experience moments of loneliness, grief, debilitating loss, or profound despair. He has placed other people in your life to love you, spend time with you, and help you break through the wall of separation you feel from the world.

Therefore, don’t remain isolated. Reach out to others and thank God for your friendships.

(Jefferson is most known for writing the Declaration of Independence. He also contributed significantly to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and many other significant American documents. Since he was so important to the founding of America, I think it is significant to know where and how he got his ideas. Below, I have chronicled that for you. Do read it so that you will know.)

On January 1, 1802, the people of Cheshire, Massachusetts, delivered a giant block of cheese weighing 1,235 lbs to President Thomas Jefferson, being presented by the famous Baptist preacher, John Leland.

On the block of cheese, they put Jefferson’s motto, which was also on his personal seal: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”

After delivering the cheese, John Leland was then invited to preach to the President and Congress in the U.S. Capitol. The subject of his talk was “separation of church and state.”

Baptists had been particularly persecuted in colonial Virginia, as Francis L. Hawks wrote in Ecclesiastical History (1836): “No dissenters in Virginia experienced for a time harsher treatment than the Baptists. They were beaten and imprisoned, Cruelty taxed and were subjected to new modes of punishment and annoyance.”

So many Baptist ministers were harassed, and their church services disrupted, that James Madison introduced legislation in Virginia’s Legislature on October 31, 1785, titled “A Bill for Punishing Disturbers of Religious Worship,” which passed in 1789.

Colonial Virginia had a government imposed belief system, an “establishment” of the Church of England, or “Anglican Church” from 1606 to 1786. Establishment meant mandatory membership, mandatory taxes to support it; and no one could hold public office unless they were a member. This was modeled after European nations who had establishments of different Christian denominations.

Patrick Henry almost succeeded in having Virginia not ratify the Constitution as it did not have a Bill of Rights guaranteeing, among other things, the freedom of religion. Baptist Preacher John Leland had considered running for Congress, as he wanted an Amendment added to the new United States Constitution which would protect religious liberty.

Leland reportedly met with James Madison near Orange, Virginia. Upon Madison’s promise to introduce what would become the First Amendment, Leland agreed to persuade Baptists to get involved in politics and support Madison.

John Leland wrote in Rights of Conscience Inalienable, 1791, that they wanted not just toleration, but equality: “Every man must give account of himself to God, and therefore every man ought to be at liberty to serve God in a way that he can best reconcile to his conscience. If government can answer for individuals at the day of judgment, let men be controlled by it in religious matters; otherwise, let men be free.”

Following George Whitefield’s First Great Awakening Revival, 1730-1755, a Second Great Awakening Revival took place between 1790-1840. In Thomas Jefferson’s county of Albemarle, Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist revival meetings were held. Even Jefferson’s daughter, Mary, attended a Baptist revival preached by Lorenzo Dow.

On July 4, 1826, the editor of the Christian Watchman (Boston, MA) published an account: Thomas F. Curtis wrote in The Progress of Baptist Principles in the Last Hundred Years (Charleston, S.C.: Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1856): “ANDREW TRIBBLE was the Pastor of a small Baptist Church, which held its monthly meetings at a short distance from Mr. JEFFERSON’S house, eight or ten years before the American Revolution. Mr. JEFFERSON attended the meetings of the church for several months in succession, and after one of them, asked Elder TRIBBLE to go home and dine with him, with which he complied.

Mr. TRIBBLE asked Mr. JEFFERSON how he was pleased with their Church Government?

 Mr. JEFFERSON replied, that it had struck him with great force, and had interested him so much; that he considered it the only form of pure democracy that then existed in the world, and had concluded that it would be the best plan of Government for the American Colonies.”

(Thus, it is recorded and codified that the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were patterned after the democratic principles of the government of Baptist Churches which were found most preferable by Thomas Jefferson. Read further of you want to see them more iterated.)

“A gentleman in North Carolina knowing that the venerable Mrs. (Dolley) Madison had some recollections on the subject, asked her in regard to them. She expressed a distinct remembrance of Mr. Jefferson speaking on the subject, and always declaring that it was a Baptist church from which his views were gathered.”

President Calvin Coolidge stated at the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1926: “This preaching reached the neighborhood of Thomas Jefferson, who acknowledged that his ‘best ideas of democracy’ had been secured at church meetings.”

After Jefferson’s wife and two children died of the plage, he became depressed and moved to France for a little while. Upon returning to America, Jefferson introduced a bill in the Virginia Assembly. Jefferson’s bill, with the help of James Madison, was passed by Virginia’s Assembly, January 16, 1786.

So significant was this bill, that Jefferson noted it on his gravestone as “The Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom.” It stated: “Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in His Almighty power to do. To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions, which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical. Be it enacted that no man shall suffer on account of his religious opinions.”

This last paragraph, if applied today, would mean that Jefferson would have opposed Christian parents having to pay taxes to have their children indoctrinated in public schools with anti-biblical views on sex and marriage.

Consistent throughout his life Jefferson believed that there was a Creator and that the government should never force one’s conscience. Over time, brilliant legal minds have used Jefferson’s words about the “separation of church and state” to prohibit Jefferson’s beliefs; even though he intended them to mean only that the state should not interfere with the church. He never intended that they should ever be used to separate one from the church, or God.

Jefferson believed in a Creator, as he wrote in the Declaration: “All men are endowed by their CREATOR.”

Yet in 2005, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones, in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, ruled students could not be taught of a CREATOR: “to preserve the separation of church and state.”

Inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, DC is Jefferson’s warning:

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

RON

The Bible says: Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)

“let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

God always wants you to go to Him. Always. As His child, you are eternally welcome in His holy presence. Any feeling of shame that keeps you from approaching Him originates from you—not from Him.

This is one of the reasons the enemy will temp you to sin or violate commands. He knows that if he can get you to rebel against God, you will feel so guilty and embarrassed about it, you will hide from the Father’s loving presence. The more the enemy can get you to focus on your unworthiness, the easier it is for him to keep you from the Savior who makes you worthy.

But understand that God wants to forgive you and welcome you into His presence no matter what you’ve done or how you feel. Go to Him. Pray to Him, turn from sin, and accept his grace. His loving arms faithfully await you.