Split Rail Fences

Before you take any fence down, survey carefully why it was put up in the first place. At a time when national borders are meaningless to some insurgents, at when a time when robbery is on the increase, fences are more important than ever...property fences, even psychological fencing.

In history, we studied Abraham Lincoln splitting tree trunks for rail fences. At that time in history, there was none of the fencing available now, such as the electric fence, and every type of galvanized wire, wood or plastic fences. Our ancestors in Europe used stones and hedges. Both my maternal and paternal families were among the first settlers in North Carolina, (deeds showing their property lines as the first in the courthouse). On the farm where my mother was reared and several of her family generations previously, as a child I was wandering around and found real, authentic rail fencing. These were fences that had been installed by my family many generations ago.

On the farm where my father's family was reared, and his family many generations before, I found some of the oldest barbed wire known to exist. There are antiquarian barbed wire fence collectors, old barbed wire was very different from that which you can buy now.

I have noticed all over the world, with fences in which wood posts were used, often the wood posts would sprout, and a large tree would ensue, forever binding the wire inside the tree. This shows really fertile soil, the difference in a tree and a post is growth. Another lesson, a post installed vertically, the split rail fence, which eventually would decompose, installed horizontally. The vertical dimension is the most important fact of life.

From the earliest farms it only took about 100 years for Mr. Roosevelt and his acreage controls, government trying to stabilize every area of farm operations, farms became smaller and are rapidly disappearing, just as the yard for the home, where at one time you saw children playing, has disappeared.

From the Garden of Eden, before the great flood, after the great flood, the history of the Jewish nation, people from the garden on have been stiff-necked, disobedient. We have seen values deteriorate, the value of self-sufficiency in your own space. One of the greatest fruits of the holy spirit (Galatians 5:22), the spirit of “joy”. There is a difference in joy and happiness, happiness can be very superficial, often does not last very long, joy has a greater meaning, is much deeper, those with joy are easily recognizable, joy is always there. The courts, and indeed most books and academics, treat men as animals, but we men are made in the image of God, and we are capable of present, constant, and eternal joy.

It is the saddest thing of understanding that man so limits himself, so cheats himself of the joy of the unrestricted areas and disciplines of joy in knowledge. The goat, the dog, the lower animals have no appreciation of knowledge, through fences they will learn of boundaries, but the animals knows nothing of boundless joy, limitless eternity, the satisfaction of knowledge. We can see God in mountains and plains, the animal cannot. 60% of all sins comes from words, the lower animal does not talk or understand.

Man is capable of understanding astronomy, stars, planets, weather. The Queen of England, now in Australia is trying to educate her subjects there, about the great Queensland flood. Much of the capital, Brisbane underwater, 3 million evacuated, “there will be a long recovery.” In the United State, snow on 49 states, with inconvenience, school closings, bad roads, would it not be unfortunate that children never saw snow? Just as in Israel, a land which grows tropical fruit, there is always snow on Mount Hermon. Bible writers knew the significance of white snow, covering everything dirty, filthy and dark.

Man is capable of understanding chemistry, the absolutes of the atomic weights of the periodic table, the absolutes of the balancing of chemical equations, mathematical exactness. It does not take the student long to realize that when God created the world and everything in it, he supplied every element, every chemical we would need for our life.

Man is capable of understanding physics, electromagnetic fields, radiation, energy and the equations of forces. Defy these laws of physics at your own risk. In astrophysics we find that there is bizarre weather every 19 years, the magnetic north pole is moving, there is a variation in magnetism. The lower animals cannot understand Newton's Laws of Motion, only the consequences of disobeying them. The student of sociology or theater, can take the easy academic road of life, and understand minor things, but it takes a brain to understand physics...quantum theory, molecular mathematics, nuclear energy. We forget one of the greatest blessings of God, wiring the brains of man so he can understand engineering, mechanics and the natural sciences.

As I heard the brilliant physicians talk about the treatment of the patients involved in the Tuscon, Arizona massacre. I thought of the blessings of those willing to explore the darkness of the science involved. It is a combination, compilation, of printed words, gleamed from centuries of investigation...men and women willing to “split the rails” leading to knowledge that they could use in fencing off invaders and violators of man's morphological intricacies affecting every discipline, every art, every science. The fences of the judiciary, from the first two laws of the garden of Eden, until the 21^st century, those willing to split the rails and establish fences of legal control.

One of the greatest fallen leaders in the massacre was Judge John McCarthy Roll, a father, a grandfather, an active Catholic. This Republican supported the fallen Democrat congresswoman, and was with her on this occasion, as he was on most of her visits. They were friends, friendship that blurred party lines.

Thank God that man is capable of understanding music, balm for the soul. Understanding between people regardless of language skills. In 1883, a magazine was produced called Etude, those of us fortunate to play an instrument are familiar with it's pages. Music is a universal language, the pianist in Moscow uses the same sheets and instrument as the musician in Taipei, Taiwan. It takes one year to build a Steinway piano, each built from scratch individually. First, the soundboard is stretched, the rails are split. Just as the one who plays the keys, just as the one who puts the last coat of varnish on the wood, each important and there is never any doubt about the real thing, the real instrument. Life is a gift, our eternal relationship with our Creator is the greatest gift. How unfortunate that so many act and react as lower animals.