Yesterday’s post reminded me of a conversation between Schroeder and Lucy in a Charles Schultz Peanuts cartoon. Schroeder is, of course playing his toy piano. Lucy, leaning on it asks: “I have an historical question for you.”
Then she asks: “Did Beethoven ever have any beautiful girls nearby while he was practicing his piano?”
Schroeder replies: “No. I don’t think Beethoven ever had any nutty females hanging on his piano while he was trying to practice!”
I’ll bet you can’t tell who said the following:
“You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories; to create readiness, to nudge people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it.”
Thomas Jefferson was a true Christian as he said himself. He was so interested in the teachings of Christ that he used his language skills to cut out and place the 4 books of the New Testament Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) side by side in 4 different languages (in which Tom himself was proficient, of course) so that he could see for himself the minute differences rendered in each language.
Incidentally that is why some history writers deemed Tom to be an anti-Christian, because some copies of the Bible in different languages was found upon Jefferson’s death. These Bibles were, of course mutilated and destroyed by cutting words out of pages—lots of them! Thomas was thorough in his studies, and serious in his findings.
Some have said that the Founding Fathers were not Christian. They haven’t read the words of these men themselves. They all left quotes and references that would convince most anyone otherwise..
Read George Washington’s Farewell address. Read Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Read James Madison’s notes on the Constitutional Convention. Give yourself time to read Benjamin Franklin’s speeches at that same Convention.
Patrick Henry summed it up well in his last will and testament. “This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.
Here’s a quote from a recent religious gathering. It caught my attention because it seemed to me to teach just what our Founding Fathers believed according to their own writings.
“Each of us was given a portion of God’s light, called ‘the Light of Christ,’ to help us distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong. This is why even those who live with little or no knowledge of the Father’s plan can still sense, in their hearts, that certain actions are just and moral while others are not.
Thomas Paine had a great influence in the hearts of early Americans, especially the soldiers serving under General George Washington. George expected obedience and loyalty from his troops. He wanted them to quit the use of foul language, to show respect to others, and to do their duty. The soldiers grew to love their leader.
Thomas Paine wrote a couple of highly touted booklets that raised the spirits of the colonists, especially Washington’s troops, who would soon fight the battle of Trenton.
Patrick Henry warned us about losing some of our rights, even with the new Constitution. Yes, just as he warned, I was unjustly and falsely accused of conspiracy to defraud the government. To avoid a possible 37 year prison sentence, I accepted a plea offer. Later I was exonerated when the civil court decided I had done no wrong.
Read about this In my upcoming book “A Patriot Imprisoned.” Sometimes people ask me how I could have made it through confinement, imprisonment, and detention, and remain confident, optimistic, and even positive? It’s because those are my choices. That is my character.
Carefulness, caution, and good sense. That’s what they meant by prudence. That’s kind of like what Benjamin Franklin defined as “Moderation” in his Project for Moral Perfection. He defined moderation as “Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.” Moderation should be used in all your decisions and actions. Use reason and common sense to solve most problems.
Most of the Founding Fathers seemed to think along these same lines. Use common sense, which is not so common any longer.
In this Easter season I’ve been posting about the Illegal Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It all began because all Hebrew authority was concentrated in their Great Sanhedrin (they were allowed to govern themselves as a ‘client state’ of Rome). There were no checks and balances. Christ was found guilty of blasphemy.
There was no death penalty allowed to be carried out by the Sanhedrin without the express approval of the Roman representative. Hence, the Chief Priests took their guilty subject to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea as representative of Caesar. They wanted approval of their death penalty crime. It was granted.
Christ the Lord is risen today,
Sons of Men and angels say,
Raise your joys and triumphs high,
Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth reply,
Love’s Redeeming work is done,
Fought the fight, the vict’ry won,
Jesus’ agony is o’er,
Darkness veils the earth no more,
Lives again our glorious King,
Where, O death, is now thy sting?
Once he died our souls to save,
Where thy victory, O grave?
ALLELUIA!
Charles and John Wesley, 1707-1788