Holding On (Repost)

#27

The night Eleanor Roosevelt died, Adalay Stevenson made the statement which we all heard many times ' She had rather light a candle than curse the darkness.' Behind the speakers lectern, many times in my life, I have made the statement that one holds onto his faith in God and country by his very fingernails.  When we are bombarded daily, with a sense that many around us as well as those in places of power have lost their character; The character  we prize as a people and a country. Character determines destiny, I truly believe our religious faith is just raw courage. Somehow, we must find the courage for our final destination as individuals and as a people. 

Once, one of the Politburo (the Governing body of the Communist party) asked Premier Joseph Stalin (Who probably murdered 26 million Russians) if it were 'necessary to be as cruel as the commissars were in controlling the Russian populace.' Stalin said, bring me a chicken. Stalin took the chicken then proceeded to defeather the chicken by jerking out all of the chicken's feathers.  He then threw the squawking, bleeding, naked chicken on the floor. The chicken began to move around a little. Stalin picked up a handful of grain and the chicken immediately came over and began to eat the grain from his hand. Stalin is reported to have said, 'Take everything they have away from them (this means the abolition of all private property) and then they will depend on you for everything and will eat out of your hand.' Is there anyone so dense in this country, which is not yet totally communist, that one cannot see what is slowly but surely happening.

The first colonial governor of Massachusetts, in 1622, William Bradford, who as a child, walked ten miles from his home in Austerfield, England to hear someone preach the truth because the people of England were only suppose to attend the Church of England.  He had studied enough and desired to hear the truth.  'Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.'(Eph. 5:1-2)    The early Pilgrims under the leadership of Gov. Bradford held these truths to be self evident that 'All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these life, liberty , and the pursuit of happiness,That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.' (Declaration of Independence)


Sir Walter Scott whose ancestral home I once visited in Scotland, probably best known for his book Ivanhoe, once was approached by a journalist who asked him questions about the character of another well known English author. He said to the journalist ' do you know that your charges are true?' Do you know that your knowledge is useful?, do you know that your knowledge will do any good? Then Sir Walter said ' these are the filters I used to determine any second hand gossip or information I hear about anyone else.' If it will not pass this filter test. I see no need for passing it on.

We need, as never before as Americans, once proclaimed as a Christian nation, to hold onto what is true, useful, and above all to what is good in this country so blessed of God. I speak as a totally blind, 100% disabled , service connected veteran. Remember this when you evaluate your country. There were many who felt it was worth dying for.  Presently there are 124,913 U.S. war dead interred at these cemeteries outside the USA, 30,921 of World War I, 93,242 of World War II and 750 of the Mexican War. Additionally 6,149 American veterans and others are interred in the Mexico City and Corozal American Cemeteries. I have stood at that cemetery in Normandy where 9,700 are buried and at the largest military cemetery, in Manila, where 17,200 are buried. Remember, most of these our finest, were paid 21 dollars a month for their service and all were buried wrapped only in the flag of their country. Every word in God's inerrant Word is valuable but this is my favorite verse: 'Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God' (I Cor. 10:31)