(Americans are aware of how Captain John Smith came across the Atlantic and saved first English colony in North America. Jamestown was established on May 14, 1607. Jamestown was established on May 14, 1607. Smith trained the first settlers to work at farming and fishing, thus saving the colony from early devastation. He publicly stated, “He that will not work, shall not eat“, alluding to 2 Thessalonians 3:10. Harsh weather, a lack of food and water, the surrounding swampy wilderness, and attacks from Native Americans almost destroyed the colony. However, with Smith’s leadership, Jamestown survived and eventually flourished. Smith was forced to return to England after being injured by an accidental explosion of gunpowder in a canoe. Also, many Americans are aware of the story where Captain John Smith was about to be killed by Chief Powhatan but was saved by the pleadings of 11–year–old Pocahontas.

However, almost none in America have heard of the early days of Captain John Smith. He very effectively fought the Muslims and is greatly responsible for keeping them from conquering Europe. Otherwise we would be speaking Arabic today an worshiping Allah. Do read below about those historic early days of “John Smith, the Warrior.”)

‘The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith, 1630′ recorded that six years before he came to America, John Smith joined the Austrian forces and fought in the “Long War” against the Muslim Ottoman Turks in Eastern Europe.

Mehmed the Third, 1566–1603, became Ottoman Sultan in 1595. He had his 16 brothers strangled to death to eliminate rivalry to his throne.

Bertrand Russell, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature, stated in his Nobel Lecture, 1950: “Over and over again in Mohammedan history, dynasties have come to grief because the sons of a sultan by different mothers could not agree, and in the resulting civil war universal ruin resulted.”

Sultan Mehmed the Third raised an army of 60,000 and in 1596 conquered the Hungarian city of Erlau. He defeated the Austrian Habsburg and Transylvanian forces at the Battle of Mezõkeresztes.

Sultan Mehmed the Third raised an army of 60,000 and in 1596 conquered the Hungarian city of Erlau. He defeated the Austrian Habsburg and Transylvanian forces at the Battle of Mezõkeresztes.

UNC Press, 1986) reported that at age 21, John Smith joined the ranks of Austrian Hapsburg Earl of Meldritch, assigned to the General of Artillery, Baron Kisell.

The book, Captain John Smith by Charles Dudley tells of Smith marching with German, French, Austrian and Hungarian troops to fight Muslims who had captured Budapest and were invading Lower Hungary, Wallachia, Moldovia, Romania and Transylvania near the Black Sea.

In 1600–1601, during the campaign of Romanian Prince Michael the Brave, John Smith introduced ingenious battle tactics. When Muslims were besieging the garrison at Oberlymback, Smith devised a method of signaling messages with torches and using gunpowder to create diversions. The resulting victory earned him the rank of captain with a command of 250 horsemen.

At the siege of Alba Regalis, Smith assisted Duc de Mercoeur by devising makeshift bombs of earthen pots filled with gunpowder, musket shot and covered with pitch, and catapulted them into the city, leading to an evacuation.

Muslims had captured the city of Regall, located in a pass between Hungary and Transylvania, “the Turks having ornamented the walls with Christian heads when they captured the fortress.”

Smith fought under General Moyses, serving the Prince of Transylvania, Sigismund Bathory, to lead a campaignto regain the city. During a lull in the fighting, the bashaw — officer — of the Turks put out a challenge.

In a “David and Goliath” style contest, the 23–year–old John Smith was chosen to fight. He defeated the bashaw, cutting off his head. To avenge the bashaw’s death, another Muslim challenged Smith and lost his head. This happened a third time, resulting in Smith being awarded a “coat-of- arms” depicting three severed turbaned heads.

General Moyses, with Captain John Smith, soon recaptured Regall, then Veratis, Solmos and Kapronka. At Weisenberg, Prince Sigismund Bathory conferred on John Smith a shield-of-arms with “three Turks’ heads.” Smith continued in the regiment of Earl Meldritch, fighting in 1602 for Radu Serban to defend Wallachia against invading Turkish Muslims.

In the battle, the Earl of Meldritch was killed along with 30,000 soldiers. John Smith was wounded and left for dead: among the slaughtered dead bodies, and many a gasping soul with toils and wounds lay groaning among the rest, till being found by the pillagers he was able to live, and perceiving by his armor and habit, his ransom might be better than his death, they led him prisoner with many others.

At Axopolis, Smith was sold with other prisoners at the slave market to Bashaw Bogall, “so chained by the necks in gangs of twenty they marched to Constantinople.” There, Smith was pitied by Bashaw Bogall’s mistress, who sent him to her brother, Tymor Bashaw.

Unfortunately, Tymor “diverted all this to the worst cruelty,” stripped Smith naked, shaved him bald, riveted an iron ring around his neck, clothed him in goat skins and, as slave of slaves, was given only goat entrails to eat.

Following a beating received while thrashing in a field, Smith seized the opportunity and killed his master. He hid the body in the straw, put on his master’s clothes, took a bag of grain and rode off toward Russia. After 16 days he reached a Muscovite garrison on the River Don, where the iron ring was removed from his neck. With their help he found his way through Poland back to his troops in Transylvania. After being released from service with a large reward, John Smith traveled through Europe to Morocco in Northern Africa to fight Muslim Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. (He was an amazing warrior.)

In 1605, at the age of 26, he returned to England. In 1606, Captain John Smith set sail to help found Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English colony in North America.

In 1614, six years before the Pilgrims arrived, Smith explored Maine and Massachusetts Bay.

In his Advertisements for Unexperienced Planters, published in London, 1631, John Smith wrote: “When I first went to Virginia, I well remember for a church, we did hang an awning—which is an old sail—to three or four trees to shadow us from the sun, our walls were rails of wood, our seats unhewed trees, till we cut planks, our pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighboring trees, in foul weather we shifted into an old rotten tent, for we had few better. This was our church, till we built a homely thing like a barn.

We had daily Common Prayer morning and evening, every day two Sermons, and every three months the holy Communion, till our Minister died. But we held Prayers daily, with an Homily on Sundays.”

(Yes, John Smith was an incredible and adventurous warrior, but he was really close to God.)

Ron

(Many people have heard about the Crusades, but know little about them; especially what really caused them to happen; and the history and outcome of each one. For your edification, below I have chronicled what really caused them, and then a brief history of each one. Do read it and become informed.)

What happened Palm Sunday 937 AD that led Europe to respond with the Crusades.

Palm Sunday, 937 A.D., Caliph al-Radi ordered the destruction of Jerusalem’s Church of Calvary and the Church of the Resurrection.

What was the background of that?

Jerusalem had been a Jewish city since the time of King David, around 1000 B.C. It had been a Christian city since Emperor Constantine, circa 325 A.D.

Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, which had previously been Christian lands, were conquered by Islamists. Then Muslim warriors under Caliph Umar took Jerusalem away from the Christian Byzantine Patriarch Sophronius in 637 A.D. “Caliph” is the title of Islam’s supreme religious, political and military leaders.

Caliph Umar forced Christian and Jewish inhabitants to live as second-class citizens under “Jim Crow” style laws called “dhimmi.” 

In the 700’s, Christians were banned from giving religious instruction to their children and displays of the cross were banned in Jerusalem. Pilgrims to the Holy Land began to be harassed, massacred and even crucified.

In 772 A.D., Caliph al-Mansur of the Abbasid Caliphate ordered Jews and Christians to be branded on the hand.

In 846 AD, 11,000 Arab Saracen Muslim warriors invaded Rome, Italy, and damaged the Basilica of St. Peters and the Church of St. Paul Outside the Walls, desecrating the graves of St. Peter and St. Paul. In response, Pope Leo IV built a 39 foot wall around the Vatican.

In 923 A.D., Caliph al-Muqtadir of the Abbasid Caliphate began enforcing sharia in Jerusalem, inciting Muslim rioters to destroy churches in Jerusalem.

In 937A.D., on Palm Sunday, Abbasid Caliph al-Radi ordered Muslim rioters to plunder the Church of Calvary and the Church of the Resurrection.

1004, Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah of the Fatimid Caliphate, known as the “Mad Caliph” or the “Nero of Egypt,” began a ten year persecution of Christians and Jews. Thousands were forced to convert or die. 30,000 churches were destroyed.

1008, Mad Caliph al-Hakim forbade Christians from having their annual Palm In Sunday procession from Bethany.

In 1009, al-Hakim ordered frenzied rioters to use picks, hammers and fire to destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, considered the holiest site in Christendom.

In Egypt, al-Hakim demanded everyone speak Arabic. Those caught speaking the traditional Egyptian language of Coptic had their tongues removed.

In In 1958, Egypt, President Gamal Nasser told a gathering: “I met with the head of the Muslim Brotherhood and he made his requests to make wearing the hijab mandatory in Egypt. I told him, if I make that a law they will say that we have returned to the days of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who forbade people from walking at day and only allowed walking at night.”

1075, Seljuk Turkish Muslims captured Jerusalem from Arab Muslims. Travelers returning from pilgrimages to the Holy Land shared reports of Islamic persecution of “dhimmi” Christians.

The Italian city-states of Pisa, Genoa and Catalonia fought the Muslims who were raiding Italy’s coasts, Majorca, Sardinia, and Italian Catalonia.

By 965, Muslim forces had succeeded in their 130 year conquest of Sicily.

Nearly a century later, in 1057, the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard fought against the Islamic warriors of Sicily and gained control of Calabria in the “toe of Italy.”

In 1071, the Seljuk Turkish Muslims inflicted a major defeat on the Byzantine Christians at the Battle of Manzikert and took control of all but the coastlands of Asia Minor.

Cries for help were carried back to Europe. Europe sent help, it was called The Crusades.

Europeans had just two centuries of crusades compared to Islam’s fourteen centuries of jihad crusades which are still continuing, killing an estimated 240 million.

The Europeans’ nine major Crusades lasted from 1095 till 1291, when Acre was finally recaptured by Islamic forces. The First Crusade began when, in desperation, the proud Byzantine Emperor Alexius the First Comnenus humbled himself and sent ambassadors to the Council of Piacenza in March of 1095, appealing for aid from his religious rival, the Roman Catholic Pope.

The seriousness of this call for help is underscored by the fact that it occurred just a few years after the Great East-West Schism of 1054, where the Byzantine Church and the Roman Catholic Church split.

Pope Urban II gave an impassioned plea at the Council of Clermont in 1095 for Western leaders to set aside their doctrinal differences and come to the aid of their Byzantine Christians brethren.

Pope Urban described how Christians were treated by Islamists, who “compel (them) to extend their necks and then, attacking them with naked swords, attempt to cut through the neck with a single blow,” as recorded by Robert the Monk in Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University.

First Crusade (1096=1099)

With Spain exuberant after successfully driving the Muslim occupiers from Toledo and Leon a few years earlier, the First Crusade began in 1097, led by Godfrey of Bouillon. It freed Iconium, though it was later lost.

The First Crusade defeated Islamic warriors at Dorylaeum and Antioch, and captured Jerusalem in 1099, holding it for nearly 100 years.

Second Crusade (1147-1149)

After Muslims conquered Edessa, another crusade was called for by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1147. It was made up of French and German armies, led by King Louis VII and Conrad II.

The Second Crusade failed to take Damascus and returned to Europe in 1150. Bernard of Clairvaux was disturbed by reports of misdirected violence toward some Jewish populations.

On July 4, 1187, the Muslim leader Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, captured Crusaders who had not yet made it back to Europe at Hattim and ordered their mass execution.

Third Crusade (1187-1149)

In 1190, Pope Gregory VIII called for a Third Crusade. It was led by German King Frederick I, called Frederick Barbarossa—meaning Redbeard—who was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He was joined by Richard I of England and Philip II of France.

Frederick led 100,000 soldiers across Byzantium, driving out Muslims and temporarily freeing Iconium. He most likely would have freed Jerusalem had he not fallen off his horse while crossing the Göksu River in Cilicia, Asia Minor. Being 67 years old and weighted down with heavy armor, Frederick Barbarossa drowned in waist deep water and the Crusade went into confusion.

Richard the Lionheart was suddenly in charge leading the Third Crusade and successfully captured Acre. Due to rivalries, Philip II, without warning, abandoned the Crusade and returned to France in 1191.

Richard’s troops came within sight of Jerusalem in 1192 which had now been taken back by the Muslims under their very capable leader, Saladin. However, they grew weary as it did not look like they were making an impact.

Then word came to Richard that Phillip II was trying to take away Normandy from England, so Richard quickly ended his part in the Crusade to go back and defend his kingdom.

Richard got things in order back home, and then he heard that Crusade troops had Jerusalem surrounded and later heard Saladin was on the verge of defeat and was propping up dead soldiers along the walls. Saladin allowed some Christians to leave Jerusalem if they paid a ransom, but according to Imad al-Din, approximately 15,000 could not pay their ransom and were enslaved.

So, Richard was determined to return to Jerusalem. He went by ship to get there more quickly. But was shipwrecked and attempted to travel on foot across Europe in disguise. But he was recognized near Vienna and captured by Duke Leopold VI of Austria. He was then imprisoned at Dumstein for three years.

Legend has it that Richard’s loyal minstrel, Blondel, traveled from kingdom to kingdom across Europe trying to find him by singing Richard’s favorite song.

When Richard heard the song, he sang the second verse from the prison tower, and was found. Richard’s brother, King John, had to raise taxes for the “king’s ransom.” This was the origins of the story of Nottingham, Sherwood Forest, and Robin Hood.

The Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI, prepared for another crusade in 1197, but died from malaria.

Once back in England, Richard ruled only a few years before being shot and killed with an arrow during the siege of a castle in Normandy.

His brother, King John, once again ruled, where he raised taxes oppressively. When he lost Britain’s claim to Normandy after the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, English baron’s were upset, as they also lost their titled lands there.

Angry barons then surrounded King John on the plains of Runnymede on June 15, 1215, and forced him to sign the Magna Carta – the cornerstone of English liberty.

(Yes, it was a political victory for the Barrons, but the Magna Carta turned out to be one of the most important documents in history. For the first time since the 400 year rule by ‘the people’ established way back there by Moses, people were able to rule themselves. Thus, England was able to become rich and powerful; so were the other countries in that area by copying its principles. And it sowed the seeds that ultimately caused the Pilgrims to self rule, and became the founding principle of the American Constitution. Rule by the people instead of a King.)

Saladin prevailed at Jerusalem; however, though almost defeated, and eventually took over all the surrounding country.

Richard’s exploits gave rise to the legends of the Lion-Hearted, and, through them, Richard acquired a posthumous prestige. Richard did regain Acre and Jaffa for the Christians, but that as all.

The agreement he finally reached with Saladin gave pilgrims free access to Jerusalem and little else. The city itself and the adjoining kingdom, except for some coastal cities were still subject to the same law—The Koran, not the Holy Bible. So the troops of the Third Crusade went home.

The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)

Initiated by Pope Innocent III, the Fourth Crusade was largely composed of Frenchmen and Venetians.

Innocent was greatly disappointed by the events of the Crusade. In the original agreement, the Venetians had promised to transport the French crusaders to the Holy Land and to provide them with military equipment and provisions.

When the Frenchmen arrived in Venice, they were too few to pay for the contracted amount; only twelve thousand of the expected thirty thousand warriors came. The Venetians who had constructed ships and had assembled provisions for the original number. It was proposed that the Frenchmen make up the deficit by assisting them in attacking the seaport of Zara. Ruled by the Christian king of Hungry, Zara was the greatest Adriatic rival of Venice. To the Venetians, this was reason enough for an attack, and they cajoled the French into helping them make it.

Following the sack of Zara, the Venetians had another plan. They suggested that the expedition now direct its efforts against Constantinople and restore the dethroned Byzantine emperor, Isaac II Angelos. Pope Innocent again issued a reprimand to the crusaders, which they again disregarded; they captured Constantinople on April 13, 1204, and spent the next three days pillaging it. Their seizure of Zara had been uncalled for; their sack of Constantinople was unparalleled.

 The crusaders established a new Latin empire and selected the Count of Flanders for its ruler. This empire lasted until 1261, but it never ruled all Byzantium; it comprised most of the land in Thrace and Greece, where the French barons were rewarded with feudal fiefs. For their contributions, the Venetians obtained the harbor rights in Constantinople plus a commercial monopoly throughout the empire and the Aegean Islands. The Fourth Crusade was a complete victory for the Venetians but for nobody else; it never reached the Holy Land. 

So that part of the Fourth Crusade returned to Europe. However, there was another part to that Crusade that few have heard or. It was called:

The Children’s Crusade (1212)

This Crusade was the most pathetic of all Christian attempts to free the Holy Land. It was also the most senseless. The movement originated in France and Germany, and peasant children in two separate bands flocked to join it. They were convinced they could succeed where older and more sinful crusaders had failed: the miraculous power of faith would triumph where the force of arms had not. Many parish priests and parents encouraged such religious fervour and urged the children on. The pope and higher clergy opposed the outburst but were unable to stop it entirely. Despite all their efforts, a land of several thousand children (reportedly led by a Cologne boy named Nicholas) set out for Italy. About a third survived the march over the Alps and as far as Genoa, another group reached Marseilles. The luckier ones eventually managed to get safely home, but many others paid dearly for their innocence and ignorance. For them, the route to Jerusalem came to a dead end on the auction blocks of Mediterranean slave dealers.

The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221)

Instigated by Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, this Crusade was fixed for 1217 under John Brienne, king of Jerusalem, with the intention of conquering Egypt. John was replaced as leader by the papal legate Pelagius in 1218, and in 1219 the city of Damietta was captured by the Crusaders. The sultan of Egypt offered to exchange Jerusalem for Damietta but this was rejected. After an unsuccessful assault on Cairo in 1221, the Crusaders surrendered Damietta in return for the freedom to retreat.

The Sixth Crusade (1228-1229)

Often called the Diplomatic Crusade, this expedition was led by Emperor Fredrick II, the grandson of Frederick I Barbarossa. After several postponements, Frederick undertook the Crusade in 1228, but he fought no battles. Instead, by negotiation, he obtained Jerusalem and a strip of territory from Acre to Jerusalem for the Christians. He had previously (1225) married Yolanda, the young heiress of the kingdom. Following her death in 1228, Frederick crowned himself king of Jerusalem.

The Seventh Crusade (1248-1250)

Led by King Louis IX of France and directed against the Arabs of Egypt, this Crusade was a complete failure. After the capture of Damietta, the crusaders were decisively defeated at Cairo and King Louis was captured. Completely victorious, the Arabs demanded and received a huge ransom for the release of the king.

The Eighth Crusade (1270)

Disregarding his advisers, King Louis IX again attacked the Arabs in North Africa. This time he struck the city of Tunis. The Crusaders picked the hottest season of the year for campaigning and were devastated by a pestilence. One of its victims was Louis IX, whose death in 1270 ended the Crusade,

 These holy wars were driven by religious zeal, seeking adventure, and reclaiming “Christian lands”. While achieving initial victories—notably the first crusade—they ultimately failed to hold Jerusalem permanently. However, they significantly increased trade, cultural exchange, and scientific knowledge between Europe and the Middle East, paving the way for the Renaissance. 

Ron

—

The Bible says: 1 Corinthians 1:18

“The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Have you experienced the power of God’s Word in your life? Have you seen how the Father uses it to sustain your soul and transform your life? It’s not only when He heals a disease or provides for your needs in a supernatural way that He’s active on your behalf. Often the greatest miracles He does involve breaking you free of strong holds and useless behaviors.

However, realize that God releases His miraculous truth in your life not only to liberate you but also as a testimony to those who don’t know Him. Your unsaved loved ones and others see the Savior’s power in your life and it inspires them to believe in Jesus and be saved.

So as you spend time in Scripture and faithfully testify of God’s love, look for ways He exhibits His power in your life. Ask the Father to use you mightily as His representative to those around you. And then watch as He uses His Word to work miraculously through you.

(Not all Indians in America were vicious savages. Some were, but in the New England Colonies were many who found the real God and became great examples of Christianity for generations. Below is the inspiring history of those Indians, the white men who led them to Christ, and the Indian pastors who fostered and perpetuated their Christian walk. Do read about them.)

Settlers in New England were caught between the need for self-preservation on one hand, and the desire to selflessly share the love of the Gospel on the other.

Dr. Paul Jehle of the Plymouth Rock Foundation highlighted in “Answered Prayer and a Day of Thanksgiving”, how in 1623 an Indian named Hobbamock saw the Pilgrims offer public prayer during a drought, after which came a gentle rain. Edward Winslow recorded:

“Of this the Indians, by means of Hobbamock, took notice, which when he knew, and saw what effects, admired the goodness of our God towards us showing the difference between their conjuration, and our invocation in the name of God for rain; theirs being mixed with such storms and tempests, as sometimes, instead of doing them good, it layeth the corn flat on the ground; but ours in so gentle and seasonable a manner, as they never observed the like.”

Nathaniel Morton reported Hobbamock remarking: ‘Now I see that the Englishman’s God is a good God, for he hath heard you, and sent you rain, and that without storms and tempests and thunder, which usually we have with our rain, which breaks down our corn, but yours stands whole and good still; surely your God is a good God.”

A reprint of Good News from New England stated: “In New England’s First Fruits, published in London in 1643, Hobbamock is described as follows:

‘As he increased in knowledge, so in affection reforming and conforming himself accordingly; and though he was much tempted by enticements, scoffs, and scorns from the Indians, yet he could not be turned against the English, nor from seeking after their God.”

Some settlers viewed natives as souls to be won for the Kingdom of God through kindness. Other settlers viewed them as an unpredictable danger, as sometimes they would steal from farms, scalp, or kidnap women and children.

Among the thousands kidnapped were:

• Mary Rowlandson and 3 of her children, by the Narraganset during King Philip’s War in 1676;

• Hannah Dustin and her six day old baby, by the Abenaki in 1697;

• Eunice Williams, at the age of 8 years old, after the Mohawk killed her family in 1704;

• Mary Draper Ingles, at the age of 23, after the Shawnee massacred her family in 1755;

• Mary Jemison, at the age of 12 years, by the Shawnee in 1755.

• Mary Campbell, at the age of 10, was kidnapped by Chief Pontiac’s warriors in 1758.

• Frances Slocum, at the age of 5, was kidnapped by the Delaware in 1778. Indiana’s Frances Slocum Trail and State Park is named for her.

In a larger sense, what settlers and natives were experiencing was a colliding of civilizations. By the 1600s, nearly all of Europe, Asia, China, India, North Africa, and the Middle East, had:

• written languages;
• metal tools;
• scientific advancements;
• agricultural technologies; and
• armor, gunpowder and advanced weapons.

By comparison, native inhabitants of North America had a subsistence lifestyle. This was due in part to the abundance of wild game, fish, and edible plants to forage on the North American continent.

The plentiful food in North America meant they could survive adequately without the need to:

• domesticate animals or crops;
• or smelt copper, bronze and iron, or forge steel;
• or communicate through reading or writing;
• or invent the wheel for transportation.

When settlers arrived, Indians traded animal pelts to them in exchange for manufactured items, such as knives, axes, guns, and unfortunately, alcohol.

The Indians’ dilemma was that, on one hand, they wanted to trade with the colonists, but on the other hand, they grew in their dependency.

Indians also did not have the concept of land ownership, as the settlers did. This led to a resentment of settlers who encroached into areas considered Indian territory.

Eventually, there erupted the first major confrontation— the Pequot War of 1637.

In the midst of this, Gospel-motivated settlers wanted to show the Indians as much love and kindness as possible, in hopes they would open up to hearing the message of how much the Creator loved them and sent His son to die for them.

These included:

• Thomas Tupper (1578-1676), a founder of Sandwich, Massachusetts, who as a charter member of the church there, being deeply interested in religious work among the Indians.

• Richard Bourne (1610-1682), who sought fair treatment for the Indians and worked for 20 years to secure for them protected reservation land at Mashpee.

A historical marker reads: Burying Hill, site of the First Meeting House for Indians in Plymouth Colony, established by Richard Bourne and Thomas Tupper, soon after their settlement in Sandwich, 1637. By their influence peace was preserved throughout the Cape during the perilous times of Indian warfare.”

An amazing and miraculous thing happened 1646, Richard Bourne came upon a large rock around which a few hundred natives were dancing and offering sacrifices, one of which was human.

Bourne lifted his arms and raised his voice, declaring “if you do not stop your horrible work I will call upon my God to visit his wrath upon you! Suddenly, a flash of lightning split the rock into pieces. Immediately following this, hundreds of Indians converted.

The rock, located near Bournedale, Massachusetts, is referred to as Sacrifice Rock or Chamber Rock.

Another Gospel-motivated settler was Missionary John Eliot. He was called “Apostle to the Indians.” John Eliot was baptized in England as an infant on August 5, 1604. He sailed to America and preached his first sermon in the Algonquian language in 1646.

Eliot printed the first book in North America—the Bay Psalm Book.

Eliot translated the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Bible, the first to be printed in America, in 1663.

A Massachusetts historical marker reads: “John Eliot established here in 1651 a village of Christian Indians called Hassanamesit—‘at a place of small stones.’ It was the home of James the Printer who helped Eliot to print the Indian Bible.”

Another historical marker reads: “In reverent Memory of Eliot, Born in England 1604, Died in Roxbury, 1690, Lover of God, Lover of Men, Seeker of the Christian Commonwealth, Who in this spot preached to his friends the Indians in their own tongue the mercies and the laws of The Eternal.”

Eliot wrote: “The Word of God is the perfect system of laws to guide all moral actions of man.”

In a 1674 census, there were 4,000 “Praying Indians” in 14 self-ruling villages complete with houses, streets, bridges, and their own ministers.

A marker reads: “Indian Village Pakachoag, One-half mile up Malvern Road is the Indian Spring and the site of the Indian Village Pakachoag- Clear Spring, One of three Indian villages on Worchester ground. John Eliot preached here in 1674.”

“Praying Indian” villages were located throughout Massachusetts, Martha’s Vineyard and Rhode Island. A marker reads: “Ponkapoag Plantation, The north line of Ponkapoag Plantation, second of the Apostle Eliot’s Praying Indian towns set apart by the Dorchester Proprietors in 1657.”

Another marker reads: “Chaubunagungamaug, site of Praying Indian town established by John Eliot and Daniel Gookin in 1674 and known as Chaubunagungamaug.”

In A Brief Narrative, July 20, 1670, John Eliot wrote: “These Indians being of kin to our Massachusett Indians received amongst them the Light and love of the Truth. On a day of fasting and prayer, elders were ordained.

The Teacher of the Praying Indians of Nantucket, with a Brother who made good Confessions of Jesus Christ, did make report that there be about ninety families who pray unto God in that island, so effectual is the Light of the Gospel.”

Another historical marker there reads: On this site, John Eliot helped his Indian converts to build their first meeting house in 1651, with a ‘Prophet’s Chamber’ where he lodged on his fortnightly visits to preach to them in their own language. His disciple Daniel Takawambait succeeded to the Pastoral office in 1698.” Daniel Takawambpait was New England’s first native Indian minister, ordained in Natick, Massachusetts, in 1681.

Pilgrim leader William Bradford and Wampanoag Chief Massasoit had been friends, which maintained peace between settlers and Indians. Sadly, after Bradford died in 1657 and Chief Massasoit in 1661, tensions arose between the settlers and Indians. This was similar to the Book of Acts, where following the Apostle Paul’s successful preaching, opposers of the Gospel would arrive to stir up violence.

Massasoit’s son was known as chief or “King” Philip. In 1675, he became upset over settlers allowing their livestock to graze on wild Indian crops and encroach onto Indian territories. The new Plymouth Colony Governor, Josiah Winslow, did nothing to appease the concerns of King Philip. As a result, King Philip recruited warriors and attacked more than half of New England’s 90 towns.

A marker read”Sudbury Fight, one-quarter mile north took place the Sudbury Fight with King Philip’s Indians on April 21, 1676. Captain Samuel Wadsworth fell with twenty-eight of his men. Their monument stands in the burying ground.”

During King Philip’s War, 1675-1678, over 800 settlers died, 1,200 homes burned, 8,000 cattle lost, and the entire English population of 52,000 in Massachusetts and Rhode Island was threatened to be driven back to the coast. A marker reads: “Redemption Rock, Upon the rock fifty feet west of this spot Mary Rowlandson, wife of the first minister of Lancaster, was redeemed from captivity under King Philip. The narrative of her experience is one of the classics of colonial literature.”

Unfortunately, John Eliot’s Christian “Praying Indians” were caught in the middle. They were not trusted by King Philip’s warriors nor by the panicking colonists. As a results, many tragically died. A marker reads: “Praying Indians lived here living peacefully with white settlers to whom Sachem Tahatttawan sold 6 sq. miles. John Eliot converted Indians, including Tahattawan, to Christianity. In 1654, Nashoba, meaning ‘land between the waters’ was named the Sixth Praying Indian town.

In 1675, during King Philip’s War, Praying Indians were accused of mischief, rounded up and marched to Deer Island in Boston Harbor where many died. Survivors were released in 1677, but only a few returned, including Sarah Doublet. They were given 500 acres called New Town. Sarah Doublet died in 1730, the last Praying Indian.

A small remnant of the Christian Wampanoag continued, with “Blind” Joe Amos as the first ordained Mashpee Wampanoag Indian minister. He brought the Baptist faith to the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in the early 1830’s, and advanced the concept of self-governance.

In 1832, Rev. “Blind” Joe Amos formed a second Baptist congregation among the Wampanoags at Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard, serving as the pastor. There, he built the first Indian Baptist Church building in America.

The Gay Head Lighthouse, authorized by Congress during President John Adams’ Administration, was the first lighthouse built on Martha’s Vineyard, using a lamp which burned whale oil.

In 1920, Aquinnah Wampanoag Indian Charles W. Vanderhoop, Sr. was appointed as the tenth Principal Lighthouse Keeper, followed by his son in 1986. Local Aquinnah Indians of the Wampanoag Tribe helped maintain the lighthouse, including rotating the lamp which turned on large wooded gears that became swollen due to the moisture.

Mwalim Peters, a researcher of Mashpee Wampanoag history, stated that Rev. “Blind” Joe Amos “knew the entire King James Bible by heart and could recite it in both English and Wampanoag.” Peters noted that Rev. Amos: “preached under the shade of a large oak tree every Sunday throughout the seasons.”

Rev. Amos was joined by Rev. William Apes, an itinerant Pequot Indian minister adopted by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. Rev. Amos continued on at Martha’s Vineyard, where he died in 1869.

Rev. Curtis W. Frye, Jr., was the great-great-great-grandson of Rev. Blind Joe Amos. Frye served as the pastor of Mashpee Baptist Church from 2007 till his death in 2014.

Rev. Frye helped refurbish the Old Indian Meetinghouse used by the church. He stated: “Being able to perform a wedding there, or a funeral or a service, being able to follow in the footsteps of Blind Joe Amos and Reverend Apes, every time I do a service there to me it brings home a lot of feelings, a flood of feelings. It is so original, so close to the way it was back when they were preaching inside that building.”

Rev. Curtis W. Frye, Jr., recounted: “Blind Joe was one of the preachers who brought the Gospel to the Wampanoag people. We are still here and we are still doing what Blind Joe did, and that’s preach the word of God.

(So, if you stayed with me through all of this, you now know about the ‘praying Indians of New England’ and that their tradition of prayer and worship of God lives on there to this very day!)

Ron

—

(We study much about amazing people of past times. However, here is an amazing man of modern times that you really should know about. Below I have chronicled a brief history of his amazing life and thoughts for you.)

Albert Schweitzer was born January 14, 1875, in a village in Alsace, Germany. The son of a Lutheran-Evangelical pastor, he won acclaim at playing the organ. He earned doctorates in philosophy and theology. Schweitzer was pastor of St. Nicholas Church.

He was also the principal of St. Thomas College and a professor at University of Strasbourg.

Then, at age 30, his life changed.

He read a Paris Missionary Society article of the desperate need for physicians in Africa. To everyone’s dismay, he enrolled in medical school and became a medical missionary.

In 1912, he married a nurse, Helene Bresslau. The next year they traveled to west central Africa, and founded a hospital in the jungle village of Lambarene, Gabon.

After first using a chicken hut as their medical clinic, they erected a hospital building of corrugated iron in 1913. In the first 9 months they saw over 2,000 patients.

World War I started, and the conflict between France and Germany went global, reaching into Africa. The Schweitzers were arrested and put under French military supervision, then taken to a prison camp in France.

After the war, they moved to Alsace-Lorraine, a border area between France and Germany, where their only child was born, a daughter, Rhena.

Saving their money, Helene stayed back with their daughter, Rhena, and Albert returned to Gabon in1924. Traveling back and forth several times, they rebuilt the hospital. They served uninterrupted throughout World War II, being joined by additional staff.

The patients they treated suffered from: malaria, fever, dysentery, severe sandflea bites, tropical eating sores, leprosy, crawcraw sores, sleeping sickness, yaws (tropical infection of skin & bones), nicotine poisoning, necrosis, heart disease, chronic constipation, strangulated hernias, and abdominal tumors.

He helped Mbahouin tribes and pygmies who lived in fear of cannibalism.

Albert Schweitzer spoke in Europe and in 1949 visited the United States. Once he was asked “Why are you traveling in the 4th class?” He replied “Because there is no 5th class.” Once on a train two schoolgirls asked him, “Dr. Einstein, will you give us your autograph?” Not wanting to disappoint them, he signed: “Albert Einstein, by his friend Albert Schweitzer.”

Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein taught a class on the theory of relativity to black students at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in May of 1946. In accepting an honorary degree from the school, he stated: “There is a separation of colored people from white people in the United States. That separation is not a disease of colored people. It is a disease of white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it.”

Dr. Schweitzer’s daughter, Rhena, became a medical technician and married an American doctor, David C. Miller, who was serving at the African hospital—‘Albert Schweitzer Hospital’.

Albert Schweitzer joined Albert Einstein in warning the world of the dangers in developing nuclear weapons.

In 1952, Dr. Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He used the prize money to build a leper colony.

Schweitzer embraced a pro-life philosophy, explaining: “For months on end, I lived in a continual state of mental agitation. Without the least success I concentrated— even during my daily work at the hospital, on the real nature of the affirmation of life and of ethics. I was wandering about in a thicket where no path was to be found. I was pushing against an iron door that would not yield.

In that mental state, I had to take a long journey up the river. Lost in thought, I sat on deck of the barge, struggling to find the elementary and universal concept of the ethical that I had not discovered in any philosophy. I covered sheet after sheet with disconnected sentences merely to concentrate on the problem.

Two days passed. Late on the third day, at the very moment when, at sunset, we were making our way through a herd of hippopotamuses, there flashed upon my mind, unforeseen and unsought, the phrase: ‘Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben’ (‘Reverence for Life’). The iron door had yielded. The path in the thicket had become visible.”

Schweitzer’s words stand in contrast to utilitarian cultures and political party platforms advocating euthanasia, organ harvesting, honor-killings, and abortion.

You have read about the horrible things that the Nazis did when they were in power and how they showed such amazing little regard for human life. In Lutheran circles of Schweitzer, by contrast, life is regarded as something that God alone can take.

Similar to Nazis, in recent times, utilitarian governments gave hospitals financial incentives for administering experimental gene therapies, ventilator treatments and expensive pharmaceuticals, with little or no respect for conscientious objections, while refusing alternative treatments. Recently even in America, government even had schools groom children into questioning their sex and then steer them into experimental surgeries which result in higher risks of suicide.

In contrast to these utilitarian views and financially incentivized treatments, Dr. Schweitzer stated: “Ethics is nothing other than Reverence for Life. Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life, and to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil.”

THE GLOBAL WAR ON CHRISTIANS (Random House) author John Allen stated that followers of Jesus are “indisputably the most persecuted religious body on the planet.”

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY estimates that every year 100,000 Christians, 11 every hour, die because of their faith.

After reading these tragic reports, one is challenged by a sermon of Dr. Albert Schweitzer: “Our Christianity, yours and mine, has become a falsehood and a disgrace, if the crimes are not atoned for in the very place where they were instigated. For every person who committed an atrocity someone must step in to help in Jesus’ name. “When you speak about missions, let this be your message: We must make atonement for all the terrible crimes we read of in the newspapers. We must make atonement for the still worse ones, which we do not read about in the papers, crimes that are shrouded in the silence of the jungle night.”

After his wife died, Schweitzer continued to work in Africa till he died at the age of 90.

Overcoming innumerable difficulties, he once wrote: “One day, in my despair, I threw myself into a chair in the consulting room and groaned out: ‘What a blockhead I was to come out here to doctor savages like these!’. Whereupon his native assistant quietly remarked: ‘Yes, Doctor, here on earth you are a great blockhead, but not in heaven.'”

Dr. Albert Schweitzer wrote:

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

Ron

—

The Bible says: 1 Peter 1:14-15

(“Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but be like the holy One who called you, be holy.”)

Do you sense something in your life needs to change? Are there areas that simply aren’t working? Are you willing to say, “Lord, I want to exalt You. I’ve had enough of my own way—I want to live by Yours”?

If so, ask God to identify the areas where you’re like self-centered, and struggling rather than Christ centered and victorious. Whatever He brings to mind, acknowledge that He is right and make the decision to turn from your ways. He will show you how as you read Scripture.

As He reveals principles from His Word, apply them to your life—even when they don’t completely make sense—and trust Him to bless your obedience.

Answer all of the questions, dilemmas, and challenges you encounter with this: “Lord Jesus, what would You have me do? I want to obey You.” Not only will doing so transform your life, it will build the most wonderful, profound, and indescribable intimacy between you and the Savior.

The Bible says: Ecclesiastes 5:1

“Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen.”

When you pray, do you do all the talking? To have God speak to your heart is an awesome experience—one you may miss if you monopolize the conversation and never pause to listen.

But when you remain quiet the Lord will transform you, changing how you think and conforming you to His ways. How does He do so? He may remind you of an important passage of scripture, reveal a biblical truth for you to apply, expose unconfessed sin, or bring someone to mind that needs your ministry. In other words, He will direct your path (Proverbs 3:6).

This is why it is so important for you to sit before Him in silence and allow Him to pour Himself into you. He will reveal His will and bring peace to your inner being.

Friend, sitting before God allows Him to speak to your heart clearly, positively, and unmistakably—showing you what to do. You will know that the Lord has truly spoken to you—and that’s the definition of life at its very best.

(Yes, he was a movie star, but his persona and his sayings and his thoughts that he expressed on what is best for securing the safety and ‘health’ of America were an influence on many in our whole country for a generation. Below I have chronicled a bit of his life, and some of his sayings and thoughts on the preservation of America for you. John Wayne was for sure a “man’s man”!)

John Wayne was born May 26, 1907.

His given name was Marion Mitchell Morrison, grandson of a Scots-Irish Presbyterian veteran of the Civil War.

 He played football for University of Southern California. and worked behind-the-scenes at Fox Studios.

Raoul Walsh, director of film The Big Trail (1930), first suggested his screen name be “Anthony Wayne” after Revolutionary War general “Mad Anthony” Wayne, but settled upon “John Wayne.”

He became an Academy Award winning actor for portraying cowboys and soldiers in action western and war films, appearing in over 200 films, and holding the Hollywood record of starring in 142 films.

John Wayne’s career took off when director John Ford cast him in epic western films such as:

• Fort Apache (1948);
• She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949); and
• Rio Grande (1950).

The immensely popular 1952 movie, The Quiet Man, depicting the humorously stubborn traditions of Irish courtship, is memorialize by a statue in the town of Cong, Ireland, with John Wayne carrying his fiery-tempered redhead co-star, Maureen O’Hara.

John Wayne became an icon of the U.S. Armed Forces for depicting the strength and sacrifice of American military personnel during World War II, Korea and Vietnam:

• The Flying Tigers (1942);
• The Fighting Seabees (1944);
• They Were Expendable (1945);
• Back to Bataan (1945);
• The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949);
• The Flying Leathernecks (1951);
• Operation Pacific (1951);
• The Longest Day (1962);
• In Harm’s Way (1965); and
• The Green Berets (1968).

These films had the international effect of publicizing America’s military might and moral values, was demonstrated when Japanese Emperor Hirohito visited the United States in 1975 and asked to meet John Wayne.

Wayne stated:

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

“All battles are fought by scared men who’d rather be some place else.”

“Life it tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid.”

Regarding socialism, John Wayne stated in an interview, May 1971:

“In the late Twenties, when I was a sophomore at University of Southern California, I was a socialist myself — but not when I left.

The average college kid idealistically wishes everybody could have ice cream and cake for every meal.

But as he gets older and gives more thought to his and his fellow man’s responsibilities, he finds that it can’t work out that way — that some people just won’t carry their load.

 I believe in welfare — a welfare work program. I don’t think a fella should be able to sit on his backside and receive welfare.

I’d like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living.

I’d like to know why they make excuses for cowards who spit in the faces of the police and then run behind the judicial sob sisters.

I can’t understand these people who carry placards to save the life of some criminal, yet have no thought for the innocent victim.”

Wayne stated:

“… Government has no wealth, and when a politician promises to give you something for nothing, he must first confiscate that wealth from you — either by direct taxes, or by the cruelly indirect tax of inflation.”

“… I would think somebody like Jane Fonda and her idiot husband would be terribly ashamed and saddened that they were a part of causing us to stop helping the South Vietnamese. Now look what’s happening. They’re getting killed by the millions. Murdered by the millions. How the hell can she and her husband sleep at night?”

“… My hope and prayer is that everyone know and love our country for what she really is and what she stands for.”

On May 26, 1979, the U.S. Congress awarded him the Congressional Gold Medal.

President Jimmy Carter, who later awarded John Wayne the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously, stated:

“I have today approved a specially struck gold medal to John Wayne. For nearly half a century, the Duke has symbolized the American ideals of integrity, courage, patriotism, and strength and has represented to the world many of the deepest values that this Nation respects.”

In 1998, the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation honored John Wayne with the Naval Heritage Award for his support of the U. S. Navy and military.

 A Harris Poll, January 2011, ranked John Wayne third among America’s favorite film stars.

In 1979, California’s Orange County airport was named John Wayne Airport.

Ronald Reagan said November 5, 1984:

“I noted the news coverage about the death of my friend, John Wayne. One headline read ‘The Last American Hero’ …

No one would be angrier than Duke Wayne at the suggestion that he was America’s last hero.

Just before he died, John Wayne said in his unforgettable way, ‘Just give the American people a good cause, and there’s nothing they can’t lick.'”

Ron

The Bible says: Psalm 25:5 (NIV)

“Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you.”

The Father has given you the powerful gift of choice—the ability to select the direction of our life. In fact, every day you’ll face a continuous series of options—some that honor the Lord and others that don’t. Some that lead to His abundant life and others that divert you away from it to destruction.

One of the most powerful, life changing decisions you can make is to invite God to guide you—trusting that everything He allows in your life is for the purpose of building your character and bringing you into his freedom.

Friend, God’s plan for you is unquestionably the best. The question is: will you allow Him to direct you? If so, pray:

“Lord change me and work through me in any way You please. I believe that You will form Your character in me, shape me into Your likeness through my circumstances, and lead me to life at its best. Thank You, dear Jesus, amen.”

(We hear about and study the early great men who founded our country, and we should. However, there were great men in recent times who had a profound influence on our country, also. One of those was the Chaplain of the United States Senate, Peter Marshall. You have probably heard of him, but he was so incredible, that I would like you to know more about him and his amazing life and thoughts. Below, I have supplied those for you. Do read them.)

The morning of December 7, 1941, Rev. Peter Marshall addressed the midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, class of ’42.

At the last minute, he set aside his prepared remarks and felt compelled to preach instead, a prophetic message………”Go Down, Death.”

Within an hour after he finished, news of Imperial Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor spread across the nation. And in his remarks Marshall had just stated: “I am one of those who believe that there are some principles worth fighting for and worth dying for, if need be.

Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall had also just stated:

• “The trouble with our time is that when we can’t believe there is anything left to us worth dying for, then we’re not sure there’s anything worth living for either.
• God permits war in order that we might see what sin really is.”
• “War forces us to examine the very foundations of life itself.”
• “What man refuses to learn in times of peace, God teaches him in times of war.”

After the war and the wonderful patriotism fostered in our country by war, times began to change. The socialist tactic of “deconstruction” began and started to infiltrate our very schools. Peter Marshall commented on the socialist tactic of “deconstruction” in a publication that he published in 1971:

“Then there dawned the day when with our higher education came a debunking contest. This debunking became a sort of national sport. It was smarter to revile than to revere. more fashionable to depreciate than to appreciate. In our classrooms no longer did we laud great men—those who had struggled and achieved. Instead, we merely ferreted out their faults. Our debunking is a sign of decaying foundations of character to the individual and in the national life.”

At the age of 25, Peter Marshall emigrated from Scotland, arriving at New York’s Ellis Island in 1927. Members of his Sunday School class paid his way to seminary in Atlanta, where he graduated in 1931.

Rev. Peter Marshall pastored a small church in Covington, Georgia, then preached at Atlanta’s Westminster Presbyterian Church. There he met Catherine Wood, a student at Agnes Scott College, and they married.

Catherine Marshall’s book on Peter’s life, A Man Called Peter, was turned into the movie. Her novel, Christy, was made into a CBS television series.

In 1937, at the age of 35, Peter Marshall became pastor of Washington, D.C.’s prestigious New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, the same church where Dr. Phineas Gurley was pastor during Lincoln’s presidency.

Rev. Peter Marshall stated in a 1971 Publication: “I have come to know Lincoln, the heart and spirit of the man, since I met him in the tradition of this church I now serve in Washington, than ever I knew him in history books.

Soon after assuming this pastorate, I happened one day upon an old safe, little used, in the church basement. Fascinating minutes of session meetings were there, dating almost back the year the church was born, 1802.

Among these were some pew rental books, and I flipped open to a page with the inscription at the top: ‘A. Lincoln.’ The annual rent of the pew was fifty dollars a year, and the notations of payments began in March, 1861, and continued until the President’s assassination four years later.”

Marshall continued: “Upon coming to Washington, Mr. Lincoln had sought the advice of a member of his cabinet on the choice of ‘a suitable church home’ for himself, his wife, and his three boys. One of his stipulations was that it had to be ‘a clergyman who holds himself aloof from politics.’ The President’s choice was Dr. Phineas Gurley of this church.

As the clouds of Civil War gathered, increasingly, Mr. Lincoln sought the friendship of the clergyman. On nights when the President would be deeply disturbed by the horror of Americans having to fight fellow-Americans, he would sometimes ask to see Dr. Gurley.

Later, Dr. Gurley was to tell how the two of them would walk up and down the south portico of the White House, up and down, all through the night talking and praying until dawn flushed pink in the eastern sky. For here was a man on the horns of that terrible dilemma: he believed that a nation divided could not stand; that the Union was worth saving, yet he loathed war, all of it from Fort Sumter to Appomattox.”

He continued: “In the end, according to Dr. Gurley who knew Lincoln so well, Lincoln found no way except the route of faith in God: After being near him steadily and with him often for more than four years,  Dr. Gurley said, ‘I can affirm that God’s guidance and mercy were the props on which he humbly and habitually leaned; that they were the best hope he had for himself and for his country. He recognized and received the truth that God is the governor among the nations, and that our only hope, in the President’s own words, was; to humble ourselves, confess our national sins, and pray for clemency and forgiveness.'”

Marshall added: “The biographers who have rather desperately tried to prove that Abraham Lincoln was an unbeliever, have wisely ignored Dr. Gurley’s testimony. The minister was present when little Willie Lincoln died in the White House, and received from him the little iron bank containing pennies which the little boy asked him to give to the Sunday school. He was there in the tiny hall bedroom in the red brick house on Tenth Street, keeping an all-night vigil with the leaders of the nation, as the President lay dying. As daylight broke and the faint breathing died away, the Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, broke the stillness with words which were almost a sob, ‘Now he belongs to the ages.’ Then he asked Dr. Gurley to pray.”

Marshall concluded: “The nation needed prayer more than ever, without Lincoln. That was the note of the eulogy in the East Room which Dr. Gurley delivered, ‘It is by his steady confidence in God that he would speak to us today. His message would be: Cling to liberty and right, battle for them, bleed for them, if need be, but most important, have faith in God.’ It is because of those intimate anecdotes. and many more, that we in this church treasure the memory of men like Abraham Lincoln.”

Marshall ministered to Presidents, Cabinet members, and Supreme Court Justices.

Rev. Peter Marshall became a U.S. citizen in 1938.

He was asked to preach the Christmas Sermon to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his family.

After World War II ended and as the Korean War began, the U.S. Senate appointed Peter Marshall to be their Chaplain on January 4, 1947.

On May 22, 1947, during the 80th Congress, U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall offered the prayer: “God of our fathers, give unto us, thy servants, a true appreciation of our heritage, of great men and great deeds in the past, but let us not be intimidated by feelings of our own inadequacies for this troubled hour. Remind us that the God they worshiped, and by whose help they laid the foundations of our Nation, is still able to help us uphold what they bequeathed and give it meaning.”

Chaplain Marshall further prayed: O Lord our God, even at this moment as we come blundering into Thy presence in prayer, we are haunted by memories of duties unperformed, promptings disobeyed, and beckonings ignored. Opportunities to be kind knocked on the door of our hearts and went weeping away.”

On July 3, 1947, the day before Independence Day, U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall prayed: God of our Fathers, whose Almighty hand hath made and preserved our Nation, grant that our people may understand what it is they celebrate tomorrow. May they remember how bitterly our freedom was won, the down payment that was made for it, the installments that have been made since this Republic was born, and the price that must be paid for our liberty.”

He continued: “May freedom be seen not as the right to do as we please but as the opportunity to please to do what is right. May it be ever understood that our liberty is under God and can be found nowhere else. May our faith be something that is not merely stamped upon our coins, but expressed in our lives. Let us, as a nation, be not afraid of standing alone for the rights of men, since we were born that way, as the only nation on earth that came into being ‘for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.'”

Marshall concluded: “We know that we shall be true to the Pilgrim dream when we are true to the God they worshiped. To the extent that America honors Thee, wilt Thou bless America, and keep her true as Thou hast kept her free, and make her good as Thou hast made her rich. Amen.”

In Senate Marshall stated: “The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct. Character is what a person does when he is alone, the decisions he makes away from the persuasions of his friends. True character must always be founded upon Christianity.”

Just 6 months before he died, June 11, 1948, U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall opened Congress with the prayer: “Help us, our Father, to show other nations an America to imitate, the America that loves fair play, honest dealing, straight talk, real freedom and faith in God.”

He explained: “Most of us never think of death or dying. We act as if we had a long lease on life as though we had immunity somehow. The first disciples (of Jesus) knew that human personality will survive because One who went into the grave and beyond, had come back to say: ‘Whosoever believeth in Me shall not perish but have eternal life.'”

Peter Marshall died of a heart attack in 1949 at the age of 46. He had stated: “When the clock strikes for me, I shall go, not one minute early, and not one minute late. Until then, there is nothing to fear.”

Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan described Peter Marshall: “He always spoke with courage, with deepest human understanding, and with stimulating hope.”

Laying of the cornerstone of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, April 3, 1951, President Harry S Truman stated: “New York Avenue Presbyterian Church has played an important part in the history of Washington. For almost 150 years a Presbyterian congregation has worshiped on or near this spot. During all that period, this church has preached the Christian message to this busy Capital City.”

At the cornerstone laying ceremony, Rev. Peter Marshall’s young son, Peter John Marshall, gave President Truman a New Testament, to which the President responded: “Well, thank you very much for this Testament. I appreciate very much having it. And all I can say to you is, I hope you will grow up to be as good a man as your father.”

The son, Peter John Marshall, grew up to become a best-selling author, who, together with co-author David Manuel, wrote popular books chronicling God’s Providential Hand in the expansion of liberty in America’s early history.

These books include: The Light and the Glory; From Sea to Shining Sea; and Sounding Forth The Trumpet.

Finally, On January 13, 1947, U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall stated: “The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I am rather tired of hearing about our rights. The time is come to hear about responsibilities. America’s future depends upon her accepting and demonstrating God’s government.”

He challenged: “We all hate and loathe war; it is contrary to all the principles and ethics of Christ, yet there are certain liberties, certain precious heritages for which a man should be willing to fight and even dare to die.”

Ron