Protesters of Native American Injustices Destroy Statue of Man Who Saved Thousands of Indian Lives
Stephen McDowell
Apparently Native American lives don’t matter to a group of Black Lives Matter protesters, who tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus on June 9 in Richmond, Virginia, and tossed it into a lake. Similar incidences have occurred in many cities. The Richmond activists said they were standing in solidarity with indigenous people, but being educated in government schools dominated by revisionist history and Marxist ideology, they were never taught that Columbus rescued untold thousands of peaceful Arawak natives from the cooking pots of the brutal cannibalistic Caribs.
During his exploration of the Caribbean Islands, Columbus encountered different native tribes, some peaceful and some vicious. The Caribs were especially feared by the Arawak’s and other natives since they were cannibals who regularly attacked and captured their peaceful neighbors.
The physician during Columbus’ second voyage, Dr. Diego Alvarez Chanca, describes an encounter they had with the Caribs on Guadeloupe Island. They asked some native women prisoners what the islanders were like who lived there. They said they were “Caribs” and were glad to learn the Europeans abhorred such kind of people who eat human flesh. Chanca wrote:
They told us that the Carib men use them with such cruelty as would scarcely be believed; and that they eat the children which they bear them, only bringing up those whom they have by their native wives. Such of their male enemies as they can take away alive they bring here to their homes to make a feast of them and those who are killed in battle they eat up after the fighting is over. They declare that the flesh of man is so good to eat that nothing can compare with it in the world; and this is quite evident, for of the human bones we found in the houses, everything that could be gnawed had already been gnawed so that nothing remained but what was too hard to eat; in one of the houses we found a man’s neck cooking in a pot…
In their wars on the inhabitants of the neighboring islands these people capture as many of the women as they can, especially those who are young and handsome and keep them as body servants and concubines; and so great a number do they carry off that in fifty houses we entered no man was found but all were women. Of that large number of captive females more than twenty handsome women came away voluntarily with us.
When the Caribs take away boys as prisoners of war they remove their organs, fatten them until they grow up and then, when they wish to make a great feast, they kill and eat them, for they say the flesh of women and youngsters is not good to eat. Three boys thus mutilated came fleeing to us when we visited the houses.[1]
Another man on that voyage, Michele de Cuneo, confirmed Carib atrocities:
The Caribs whenever they catch these Indians eat them as we would eat [goats] and they say that a boy’s flesh tastes better than that of a woman. Of this human flesh they are very greedy, so that to eat of that flesh they stay out of their country for six, eight, or even ten years before they repatriate; and they stay so long, whenever they go, that they depopulate the islands.[2]
The Carib’s cruelty was reflected and propagated in their religion. Cuneo writes:
We went to the temple of those Caribs, in which we found two wooden statues, arranged so that they look like a Pieta. We were told that whenever someone’s father is sick, the son goes to the temple and tells the idol that his father is ill and the idol says whether he should live or not; and he stays there until the idol answers yes or no. If he says no, then the son goes home, cuts his father’s head off and then cooks it.[3]
Cuneo also says that “the Caribs are largely sodomites,” and that “accursed vice” may have come to the other natives through them.[4]
When Columbus first heard stories from the Arawaks and others of how the Caribs captured, tortured, and ate them, Columbus could not believe it. But after speaking to many Arawak prisoners and observing first hand evidence, he became convinced.
It happened that the Caribs attacked Columbus’ men, and in response the Admiral sent a punitive force against them, capturing 1600 Carib prisoners in the fight. The Arawaks welcomed the defeat of their enemy, and would have liked to see them all destroyed. Hoping to civilize and Christianize these brutal men, Columbus sent 550 of them to Spain as prisoners. Another 650 were given to the local natives, who executed their own brand of justice upon them. The remaining 400 were set free.
Thus, Columbus delivered the peaceful Arawaks from the future brutal actions of their evil enemy, saving many lives from slavery and the roasting fire. I imagine these Arawaks would gladly display the Columbus statue torn down by the protesters. Far from being an oppressor, he was their liberator.
[1] Dr. Diego Alvarez Chanca, Letter, quoted by Felipe Fernandez-Arnesta, Columbus and the Conquest of the Impossible, New York: Saturday Review Press, 1974, p. 118.
[2] Michele de Cuneo, Letter, 1495, reprinted in Samuel Eliot Morison, Journals & Other Documents on the Life & Voyages of Christopher Columbus, New York: Heritage Press, 1963, p. 219.
We have a calling in life. It is a divine calling. We are first called to God, to become His child and part of His family. Next we have a calling in the earth as part of mankind’s mission to rule or take dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:26-28). The amelioration of mankind is part of this cultural mandate; that is, we are to work to elevate mankind, to bring advancement to man and make his life better. God gives us unique gifts and skills to help us accomplish our unique task in life.
Os Guinness defines calling as “the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service.”[i] The call of God impacts all areas of life and work, not just our religious life. Fulfilling our calling requires us to discover truth through sciences, apply truth through technology, interpret truth through humanities, implement truth through commerce and social action, transmit truth through education and arts, and preserve truth through government and law.
Historically, Christians have led the way in each of these areas. As these men and women have been faithful to fulfill the call on their lives and utilize the talents God gave them, they have contributed greatly in taking dominion over the earth and extending God’s purposes and government in this world.[ii] The people that God has used have come from diverse backgrounds and many, like Louis Braille, had to overcome great obstacles. But they all embraced their calling and persevered.
The Story of Louis Braille
Even as a blind boy, Louis Braille felt called for a purpose. God had a mission for him. His mission was to make it possible for blind people all over the world to have their own books and their own libraries. These books would bring light to the dark eyes of the blind. He had experienced this darkness for most of his life.
When this mission was growing in his mind, it seemed a remote dream since most blind persons were ignored or looked down upon by society. Through history past, the blind stumbled through life generally alone on a terrifying road. Some shelters were built for the blind by Christians as early as the 4th century, and medieval convents and monasteries usually had an almshouse for unfortunate people. However, most blind did not benefit from this charity. Many were locked up in mental institutions and some used as freak show attractions. Most wandered on their own in the streets. Some were used by con artists to collect hand-outs in the streets, promising to provide for them through these collections but pocketing most of the money for their own use. The blind were cut off from education, apprenticeship, job training, and any sort of normal life. They lived in darkness, not only physical but also mental, having little opportunity to gain knowledge.
When Louis was a boy there was one school for the blind in Paris that had been started by Valentin Hauy some years before. While it provided useful verbal instruction in the academic disciplines as well as training in music, it was very limited in self-teaching tools for the blind. The school only had three books that the blind could “read.” These large volumes contained pages of raised letters in Latin. The books could only have short discourses since each page could only contain a few sentences, and it took great time and effort for the blind to “read” them.
As a boy, Louis hoped someone would come up with a way for the blind “to see.” But there seemed to be no one. God inspired him with a vision. The Scripture became a source of inspiration. He remembered the words spoken by Father Palluy from the book of Genesis, the first chapter: “Then God said, Let there be light; and the light began.” Louis thought that God surely wanted the light to shine for everyone, even those who lived in physical darkness.
His Life
Louis Braille was born in the small village of Coupvray, France, some 20 miles east of Paris, in 1809. As devout Catholics, his parents had him baptized, hoping to keep him protected from all the dangers that existed for youth in the world at this time.
His father produced all kinds of leather goods in his local harness shop. When Louis was three years old he accidently jabbed an awl in his eye when he was trying to punch a hole in a leather strap in his father’s workshop. The cut became infected and spread to his other eye, blinding him in both eyes. Over time he learned to not only get around his family’s house and yard with the help of a cane, but could travel by himself to the nearby village. His heightened senses enabled him to learn much about his small world. Louis had an insatiable desire to learn; he even wanted go to school like the other boys and girls, but how could a blind boy keep up with those who could see?
With the encouragement of his family and the local Catholic priest, Father Jacques Palluy, Louis entered the local school and quickly excelled. While learning many things, Louis still could not read any of the books in the school or in the church library. Father Palluy gave him a book, whose pages Louis would often feel, but what he earnestly wanted was to be able to read a book on his own instead of having to ask his sister or parents to read to him. But how could he who was blind ever be able to read?
One day Father Palluy came to visit Louis and answered that question. He had learned of a school for the blind in Paris that had developed a way for the blind to read. They had books designed for that purpose. And he would help him enroll and get a scholarship.
At age ten, Louis was the youngest student at the National Institute for Blind Youth, but he quickly excelled. Yet, he had to wait one year before he was allowed to “read” one of the three books for the blind that were in the library. It did not take him long to read these and a few other available pamphlets. While better than not being able to read at all, the technique then in use was slow and very limiting. Large raised letters of the Latin alphabet used by those who could see only lifted the darkness a little for the blind. Louis thought there must be a better way.
A raised letter Bible for the blind produced by the American Bible Society in 1846.
He hoped the leader of the school, a professor, or someone would invent a new system of reading for the blind. None of those who could see had a vision to do so. As Louis pondered this hope, he began to think that perhaps he could be the one to fulfill the dream that he believed God put in his heart. But he was only a teenager. How he could accomplish what others older and wiser than he had not?
His desire to read books like other youth only grew. He could not escape the vision. There was work that needed to be done. He would seek to fulfill the mission of God. He would do all he could to make it possible for blind people everywhere to have their own books and their own libraries. He would make his life count and find a way to enable the blind to have books. He would help bring great light to those who lived in darkness. He would seek to fulfill his calling.
Finding a solution was not easy. He pondered it day and night. The fingers were the eyes of the blind. The few books he had read were by feeling raised letters on paper. But this was slow, and the blind could not write using this method, so it was very limiting. How could he produce an alphabet that would enable the blind to quickly and easily read with their fingers but also write to others? He experimented with many things, looking for a code.
Help came when he learned that a Captain Barbier had invented a code during the war that soldiers used in the dark to communicate with one another. His system of “night-writing,” called sonography, enabled orders to be sent that could be read with the fingers without use of any light, which might alert the enemy.
A raised letter Bible open to the Gospel of Mark. “Reading” the raised words of regular English lettering was slow and required large letters. This was before the Braille system was widely accepted.
Unfortunately, Barbier’s “night-writing” was very limiting as it was based upon sounds, not letters, and used a pattern of dashes and dots that were rather complex, and hence was useful to send only simple messages. But it helped point Louis in the right direction.
In the months that followed, Louis worked on devising a code that the blind could use to read and write. It consumed his spare time, while at school in Paris or during the summer break at home in Coupvray. He carried with him a writing board and pointed tool where he could make pinpricks on paper, experimenting with hundreds of combinations of dots and dashes. His fingers became extremely sensitive, able to “read” with the slightest touch.
He patiently endured failure after failure, often forgetting to eat as he worked on the problem. A new code began to emerge where each letter could fit under the fingertips, thus enabling him to move quickly across the page, just as the eyes move along reading sentences. After three years of almost constant effort, he finally developed a system that worked well. He could write pages quickly and easily and read them back with his fingers, just about as fast as eyes can read.
While over the years he would make some changes to improve his code (he removed use of dashes for dots only), the basics were there. The code, which would later be called Braille in honor of the inventor, was based upon a tiny cell of six raised dots that was two lines wide and three lines deep.
1 . . 4
2 . . 5
3 . . 6
Each letter had a unique raised dot pattern within this cell, as seen here:
Louis, a fifteen-year-old boy, had created a system of reading for the blind that would one day rank him as one of the greatest of inventors. Yet, as is often the case with inventions, it would take many years before this light-giving tool would be recognized and used on a wide scale. In fact, Louis would see limited use of his Braille system during his life. Many even worked against the dispersal of his code.
Some teachers at the school for the blind resisted implementing the Braille dot system because it would require them to learn the method in place of how they had been teaching for years. The French Ministry of the Interior stated the government favored no changes at the school. Consequently the administrators of the Institute worried if they did embrace Braille’s dots they may lose their government funding and would have to rely on meager donations. The leader of the Institute for the Blind, Dr. Pignier, was supportive of Louis and his dots, but said they “will have to go on teaching the embossed-letter reading until we have permission otherwise from the government.”[iii]
While Louis fought for use of his method, he continued his studies in all areas, especially music, in particular the organ. He became so proficient he was praised by noted composer Felix Mendelssohn and was hired as the organist at a nearby small church. In accepting the meager-paying job, he was showing a blind person could hold a position of importance.
At age 19 he was chosen to be an apprentice teacher at his school, the first blind student to be hired. During this time he began work on a book that explained his six-dot cell method of teaching reading and writing. It would be written using his dot cell alphabet, and hence readable by blind as well as those with sight, and was entitled: Method of Writing Words, Music and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them.
The American Bible Society published this card for the blind containing the Braille alphabet and the Scripture verse John 14:6.
He hoped it would help sway the government and others to embrace his system. But year after year the government rejected Dr. Pignier’s requests to make the dot system the official method of reading and writing at the Institute. Louis’ system would be able to save almost any blind person from being ignorant, but few could see its importance.
Some of those few who strongly embraced the Braille system were the blind students at the Institute. At age 25 Louis was appointed to a professorship at the Institute, along with two other blind teachers. (He taught at the Royal Institution from 1834 to 1839.) All three used the dot cell method and the students excelled. Louis himself increased his reading speed up to 2500 dots per minute.
Over time Braille and his students were able to give demonstrations of rapid reading and writing with the dot system, which brought much praise, even from the French King Louis Philippe. Even so, most still could not see the great importance of Braille’s invention.
In his 30s, Louis was diagnosed with consumption (likely tuberculosis), which had been afflicting him for many years and would take his life in his prime years. Yet even with declining health, he continued to fight for his dot-system against those who opposed it. One of those men, Dr. Armand Dufau, was appointed the new director at the institute where Louis taught. He directed that the Braille dot-system not be used in the classrooms. Even more devastating, Dr. Dufau ordered all of the books that Louis had transcribed into dots to be burned. But Louis relied on God and continued in his calling.
Louis and his students protested and remained resolute until Dr. Dufau reversed his position on banning the Braille code. Their continued efforts eventually brought about acceptance of the Braille method in the school of the blind, and much later in France and nations around the world. They also helped open the Institute to girls for the first time.
Louis went on to invent, with another blind man Pierre Foucault, a machine that would print raised dots on paper. This printing method, called raphigraphy, enabled the blind to read and write any- thing. Blind and sighted persons could now send messages that both could read. This machine was a primitive version of the typewriter.
Although it was slow, Braille’s dot-system gradually spread. It would forever change the life of the blind. No matter how many obstacles got in his way, Louis acted upon his life mission, his calling. He could see the forest in the seed, while most people could not. In his short life he saw small advances in the use of his dot-system, but it would take generations for Braille’s work to have its fullest impact. Louis never lost heart. Likewise, we should continue to pursue the call of God on our lives. God calls. We obey. He brings the increase in His time, which is often not as we hope or expect. As with Louis, when God calls us, we can have faith that he will provide, naturally or supernaturally, everything needed to accomplish the mission.[iv]
Throughout his life, Louis Braille was provided all he needed to accomplish his calling: the friendship and guidance of a minister, loving and supportive parents, a scholarship to the blind school, a role as teacher and professor, and contacts with many influential people.
Tuberculosis eventually took Braille’s life at age 43. His Christian faith remained evident on his deathbed. To lamenting friends he said: “Please do not fear for me. I am quite content. God simply must be telling me that my work here is finished.”[v] As the end approached he asked to receive Holy Communion. He is reported to have said: “God was pleased to hold before my eyes the dazzling splendours of eternal hope. After that, doesn’t it seem that nothing more could keep me bound to the earth?”[vi]
He died on January 6, 1852, two days after his 43rd birthday, having fulfilled his calling. A friend, Hippolyte Coltat, later entered in his diary: “Louis Braille [had] delivered up his pure soul to the hands of God.”[vii] Louis was buried in a simple grave in his hometown at Coupvray. Little notice was taken of the death of Louis Braille because his invention had not yet spread widely. This has been true of many other creators and inventors. It would take many decades for the world to see the significance of his work.
The Louis Braille commemorative U.S. silver dollar was released in 2009 and has readable braille on the back.
After his death a few crusaders produced the Lord’s Prayer in dots in five different languages. The Book of Psalms was printed in the six-dot type facings, and prayer books were produced to be used for chapel services. The Scottish missionary to China, W.H. Murray, used the Braille system to translate writings into Chinese so the blind there could read. Over time the American Bible Society produced the Bible in Braille in dozens of languages.
Today the Braille system is accepted as the universal language by which the blind can read and write. A great variety of books are now available in Braille. It took over 100 years, but on June 20, 1952, France honored her influential son by removing Louis Braille’s body from the simple grave in Coupvray and reinterring it in the Pantheon in Paris. This man who could not see is now universally recognized for bringing light and “sight” to millions who are blind. The impact of his fulfilled calling will continue for generations.
End Notes
[i] Os Guinness, The Call, Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998.
[ii] For scores of examples see, Stephen McDowell, Transforming Nations through Biblical Work, Charlottesville: Providence Foundation, 2018.
[iii] Anne E. Neimark, Touch of Light, The Story of Louis Braille, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1970, p. 141. This is one of innumerable examples supportive of keeping government out of education.
[iv] There are many such examples in the Bible. For example, as Jesus approached Jerusalem just prior to His crucifixion he told His disciples to go into the nearby village and they would find a colt that they were to bring to Him (Matt. 21), and if anyone questioned them they were to say the Lord had need of it. Here was a supernatural provision for the fulfillment of prophecy and Christ’s mission. Jesus even provided for unjust government taxes in a supernatural way, telling Peter he would find a coin in the mouth of a fish (Matt. 17:27).
The evidence of the Christian Foundation of America is great. The Providence Foundation has presented much of this in our books and publications, including America’s Providential History, America a Christian Nation, Building Godly Nations, and others. Many other people have written on the topic as well. But the material is so vast that it would take myriads of books to even present a good introduction. In this Providential Perspective we add more to the evidence with words of some of the people who gave birth to this nation — words that these men wanted their posterity to remember them by.
In their Last Will and Testaments, many of our Founders testified of their strong Christian faith. Some who were devout Christians, as seen in other writings and actions, made little or no mention of this in their wills (for example Roger Sherman), while others who had written little of their Christian beliefs during their life proclaimed their strong faith in this last testament. Some wills are very explicit in showing their reliance upon Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; others reflect their reverence for God briefly — using such terms as “In the name of God” (George Washington) and “By permission of Almighty God” (James McClurg). Many declared in language similar to Josiah Bartlett, Signer of the Declaration: “Firstly I commit my Soul into the hands of God, its great and benevolent author.”
The following are excerpts of some of the Founding Fathers’ wills that express their Christianity. While these are from the time of American independence and the early years of our republic, we could have examined many of those who colonized America. For example, John Smith, leader in early Virginia, stated in his will:
John Smith
First I commend my soule into the handes of Allmightie God my maker hoping through the merites of Christ Jesus my Redeemer to receave full remission of all my sinnes, and to inherit a place in the everlasting kingdome.
The wills of leading women in early America also reveal the Christian faith of our Founders. Mary, the mother of George Washington, stated in her will:
In the name of God! Amen. I, Mary Washington, . . . do make and publish this, my last will, recommending my soul in the hands of my Creator, hoping for a remission of all my sins through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind.
(These quotes have been taken from copies of the wills in our files, most made available by courtesy of WallBuilders. These wills may be obtained from various state and county archives; and some from historical societies and documents.)
Samuel Adams (1722-1803)
Signer of the Declaration, Father of the Revolution, Governor of Massachusetts
In the name of God. Amen. . . . Principally & first of all, I commend my Soul to that Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.
Samuel Adams
Daniel of Saint Thomas Jenifer (1723-1790)
Signer of the Constitution, Maryland
In the Name of God Amen. I Daniel of Saint Thomas Jenifer . . . commend my Soul to my blessed redeemer.
Richard Stockton (1731-1781)
Signer of the Declaration, New Jersey
And as my children will have frequent occasion of perusing this instrument, and may probably be particularly impressed with the last words of their father, I think it proper here not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great and leading doctrines of the Christian Religion, such as the Being of God, the universal defection and depravity of human nature, the divinity of the person and the completeness of the redemption purchased by the blessed Saviour, the necessity of the operations of the divine Spirit; of divine Faith, accompanied with an habitual virtuous life, and the universality of the divine Providence: but also, in the bowels of a father’s affection, to exhort and charge them, that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, that the way of life held up in the Christian system, is calculated for the most complete happiness that can be enjoyed in this mortal state; that all occasions of vice and immorality is injurious either immediately or consequentially; even in this life; that as Almighty God hath not been pleased in the holy Scriptures to prescribe any precise mode in which he is to be publickly worshipped, all contention about it generally arises from want of knowledge or want of virtue. I have therefore no particular advice to leave with my children upon this subject, save only that they deliberately and conscientiously, in the beginning of life, determine for themselves, with which denomination of Christians they can, the most devoutly and profitably worship God; that after such determination they statedly adhere to such denomination without being given to change; and without contending with or judging others who may think or act differently upon a matter so immaterial to substantial virtue and piety. That distinguished abilities, stations and authority are only desireable as occasions of doing greater private and public good, but that their footsteps being invariably masked with envy and opposition, make them enemies to private peace, and therefore unless public life is evidently pointed out by divine providence it should rather be avoided than coveted.
John Dickinson (1732-1808)
John Dickinson
Signer of the Constitution, Revolutionary General, Delaware
Rendering Thanks to my Creator for my Existence and Station among his works, for my Birth in a Country enlightened by the Gospel and enjoying Freedom, and for all
his other Kindnesses, to him I resign Myself, humbly confiding in his Goodness, and in his Mercy through Jesus Christ, for the Events of Eternity.
Christopher Gadsden (1724-1805)
Member of First Continental Congress, Revolutionary General, South Carolina
My Soul with humble submission and confidence in the merits of my blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, I hope in the last trying moment to resign with chearfulness, to that
Almighty and Merciful being who gave it.
John Blair (1732-1800)
Signer of the Constitution, Supreme Court Justice, Virginia
After commending my soul to God, the Universal Creator, and trusting that he will exercise towards it the same beneficent care and protection, for which I have such abundant reason, in the course of a fully long life, to thank him with earnest devotion: and that he will thro the merits of a crucified Saviour, raise up my body at the last day to partake, in union with my soul; of endless life and bliss.
John Jay (1745-1829)
John Jay
Member of First and other Continental Congresses, First Supreme Court Chief Justice, author of The Federalist, New York
Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for his manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by his beloved Son. He has been pleased to bless me with excellent parents, with a virtuous wife, and with worthy children. His protection has accompanied me through many eventful years, faithfully employed in the service of my country; and his providence has not only conducted me to this tranquil situation, but also given me abundant reason to be contented and thankful. Blessed be his holy name. While my children lament my departure, let them recollect that in doing them good, I was only the agent of their Heavenly Father, and that he never withdraws his care and consolations from those who diligently seek him.
Robert Treat Paine (1731-1814)
Signer of the Declaration, Massachusetts
I am constrained to express my adoration of the Supreme Being, the author of my existence, in full belief of his Providential Goodness and his forgiving mercy revealed
to the World through Jesus Christ, through whom I hope for never ending happiness in a future state acknowledging with grateful remembrance the happiness I have enjoyed in my passage through a long life.
George Mason (1725-1792)
George Mason
Constitutional Convention, Father of the Bill of Rights, Virginia
My soul I resign into the hands of my Almighty Creator, whose tender mercy’s are all over his works, who hateth nothing that he hath made, and to the Justice and Wisdom of whose Dispensations I willingly and chearfully submit humbly hopeing from his unbounded mercy and benevolence, thro the Merits of my blessed Savior, a remission of my sins.
Philip Livingston (1715-1778)
Signer of Declaration, New York
In the name of God Amen. . . . First I do resign my soul to the Great Most Mighty and Most Merciful God who gave it in hopes thro mercy alone by the merits of Jesus Christ to have joyfull Resurrection to life Eternal.
John Langdon (1741-1819)
Signer of Constitution, Governor New Hampshire
First: I commend my Soul to the infinite mercies of God in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, who died and rose again, that he might be the Lord of the dead, and
of the living; and my body I commit to the earth, to be interred in a decent manner, at the discretion of my Executors hereinafter named, professing to believe and hope in
the joyful Scripture doctrine of a resurrection to eternal life.
Henry Knox (1750-1806)
General in Revolution, Secretary of War
First, I think it proper to express my unshaken opinion of the immortality of my Soul or mind; and to dedicate and devote the same to the Supreme head of the Universe — To that great and tremendous Jehovah — who created the Universal frame of Nature, Worlds and Systems in number infinite, and who has given intellectual existence to
the rational beings of each globe, who are perpetually migrating and ascending in the scale of mind according to certain principles always founded on the great basis of
morality and virtue — to this awfully sublime Being do I resign my spirit with unlimited confidence of his mercy and protection.
John Hall
Member of Continental Congress
I recommend my Soul to God who made me hopeing for his mercy and forgiveness of all my sins through the merits and mediation of our blessed saviour Jesus Christ.
Elias Boudinot (1740-1821)
Elias Boudinot
President of Congress under Articles of Confederation, Member of the First Congress under the Constitution from New Jersey, Director of U.S. Mint
I do therefore improve so good an Opportunity of repeating the profession I have made for more than Sixty Years, and which by the free grace of God, thro’ Jesus Christ and by the continued influences of his holy Spirit has been strengthened & confirmed by the most happy Experiences, founded on solid grounds, and by a thorough examination & Enquiry into the divine Scriptures thro’ that long period, and in which I hope, under the same blessed influences, to finish my mortal life, I mean that of a firm, unfeigned & prevailing belief in one sovereign, omnipotent & eternal Jehovah, a God of infinite Love & Mercy, “who hath delivered us from the powers of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son; in whom we have redemption thro his blood, even the forgiveness of Sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature. and He is before all things and by him all things consist” and who ever has been and still is reconciling a guilty world unto himself, by his Righteousness & atonement, his death & his Resurrection, thro whom alone Life & Immortality have been brought to 1ight in his gospel, and by the all powerful influences of his holy Spirit, is daily sanctifying, enlightening & leading his faithful people into all necessary Truth. And as it has pleased a holy & sovereign God to favour me with the Continuance of one only Child, to whom I do most cordially wish & pray for the best & greatest possible good in time & Eternity; I do in the most solemn manner, as in the presence of the one only great & glorious God, The Father the Son and the holy Spirit, and in view of an approaching Eternity, beseech & intreat her, to make the fear & the love of God, the great objects of her constant attention & pursuit. And in a particular manner that she will, by a persevering inquiry into, and a thorough knowledge of the Spirit of Power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which she has been so long, and I trust thro’ divine mercy, savingly acquainted with, endeavour to cherish & increase the like Temper, disposition & usefulness in life, as are therein so clearly & plainly taught [& impressed?] and which generally speaking, consist in an universal benevolence, meekness, self denial, deep contrition for sin & unfeigned love to our Brethren, with an habitual of lively faith in & dependence upon our Lord Jesus Christ as the only atonement for our Sins, and the source of every blessing. . .
John Hart (1711-1779)
Signer of the Declaration, New Jersey
Thanks be given unto Almighty God therefore, and knowing that is appointed for all men once to die and after that the Judgment, do make & ordain this my last Will and
Testament . . . First and principally I give & recommend my Soul into the Hands of Almighty God who gave it and my Body to the Earth to be buried in a decent and
Christian like manner . . . not doubting but to receive the same again at the General resurrection by the mighty power of God and as touching all such Temporal Estate
wherewith it hath pleased Almighty God to bless me in this life.
William Samuel Johnson (1727-1819)
William Samuel Johnson
Signer of the Constitution, Connecticut
I give and bequeath to the first of my grandsons who shall apply himself to the study of divinity and take Holy Orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church my Polyglot Bible the two Hebrew Bibles and Hebrew Psalter which my father used, Bates’ translation of the Pentateuch Hanes Hebrew Psalms Grabis Septuagint and an interleaved Greek Testament.
Peter Muhlenberg (1746-1807)
Minister, Revolutionary General, Member of First National Congress, Pennsylvania
Principally and first of all I recommend my immortal Soul into the hands of God who gave it and my Body to the Earth to be buried in a decent christian like manner . . . And as to such worldly Goods and Estate wherewith God has been pleased to bless me in this life I give and dispose of it in the following manner.
Patrick Henry (1736-1799)
Patrick Henry
Orator of the Revolution, First Continental Congress, Governor Virginia
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.
Gabriel Duval (1752-1844)
Congressman from Maryland, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
I resign my soul into the hands of the Almighty who gave it in humble hopes of his mercy through our Savior Jesus Christ.
John Morton (1724-1777)
Signer of the Declaration, Pennsylvania
With an Awful Reverence to the Great Almighty God Creator of all mankind, I John Morton of Ridley in the County of Chester in the province of Pennsylvania, being sick
and weak in Body but of sound mind & memory, thanks be given to almighty God for the same, and for all other his mercies and favours, and considering the certainty of
death & the uncertainty of the time thereof, do for the settling such Temporal Estate as it hath pleased God to bless me with in this life make this my last Will and Testament as followeth.
Henry Middleton (1717-1784)
First and Second Continental Congresses, South Carolina
In the Name of God Amen. I Henry Middleton . . ., being in declining state of Health, but of sound and disposing Mind and Memory (Thanks be to God for the Same) do
make and declare this Instrument of Writing to be my last and only Will and Testament in Manner following, that is to say, first and principally I commend my
Soul to God the Author and Giver of Life, hoping for a blessed Immortality through the Merits and Mediation of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Jonathan Trumbull (1710-1785)
Jonathan Trumbull
Governor of Connecticut, Minister, trusted counselor of Washington during the war
Principally and first of all, I bequeath my Soul to God the Creator and giver thereof; and body to the Earth, to be buried in decent christian burial at the discretion of my Executors hereafter named, nothing doubting but that I shall receive the same again at the General Resurrection thro’ the power of Almighty God; believing and hoping for eternal life thro’ the merits of my dear, exalted Redeemer Jesus Christ.
Philip Schuyler (1733-1804)
Member of Continental Congress from New York, Revolutionary General, New York Senator in first Congress
In the name of God, Amen. I, Philip Schuyler . . . being by the mercy of the Father of all mankind of sound and disposing mind and memory, do make this my last will and
Testament. . . To the great Omnipotent Just and merciful Sovereign who directs the destinies of created beings, I humbly submit, that of my Soul, relying for the pardon of
my sins on his free grace, thro the mediation of the blessed Redeemer of mankind.
David Ramsay (1749-1815)
Member of Congress under Articles of Confederation, physician, author of history of Revolution, South Carolina
I give my Soul to God in the hope of his Mercy through the Merits & intercession of his Son Jesus Christ & my body to the Grave there to be kept till the resurrection day agreeable to the hopes inspired by Gods holy word contained in the Bible the best of Books & given by divine inspiration for the Salvation of the fallen race of Adam.
Rufus Putnam (1738-1824)
Revolutionary General, New York Congressman, founder of Marietta, Ohio, Surveyor-general of U.S., member of Constitutional convention of Ohio.
First, I give my soul to a holy Sovereign God who gave it, in humble hope of a blessed immortality, through the atonement and righteousness of Jesus Christ and the
sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. My Body I commit to the Earth to be buried in a decent Christian manner, In full belief that this body shall by the mighty power of God
be raised to life at the Last day, “for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.”
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746-1825)
Signer of the Constitution, Revolutionary General, South Carolina
To the eternal immutable and only true God be all honour and Glory now and forever Amen!
Eliphalet Dyer (1721-1807)
Member of First and many early Continental Congresses, Connecticut Judge
Whereas it has pleased God in his good Providence to bestow upon me considerable worldly estate & property, and calling to mind my own frailty & mortality & hope and
trust in the fear of God.
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)
Seventh President of the United States
First, I bequeath my body to the dust, whence it come, and my soul to God who gave it: hoping for a happy immortality through the atoning merits of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Saviour of the world.
The focal point of the Protestant Reformation was the Bible being translated and made available in the common languages of the people. People began to read the Bible, and when they did these things happened: 1) Individuals were transformed; 2) The Church began to be changed, putting off corruption; 3) The state was gradually reformed. The fruit of the Reformation was revival of individuals, restoration of the church, and reformation of all society.
God uses individuals to change nations and the course of history. Some of those people God used in the Protestant Reformation included Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale, and John Knox.
Martin Luther
God used a flawed, rough, and at times harsh man to launch a gigantic revolution. Martin Luther stood up against the whole force of the religious establishment. “His profound experience of forgiveness in Christ gave him the courage to stand alone against the entire weight of established and entrenched religious deception and blow it to the winds.”[iii]
Many things affected Luther’s development. He committed to become a monk after a narrow escape from lightning – he prayed, “If I survive this storm, I will become a monk!” While at a monastery he read a tract by John Huss, which deeply touched him: “I wondered why a man who could write so Christianly and powerfully had been burned…. I shut the book and turned away with a wounded heart.”[iv]
On a trip to Rome in 1510, he went through every pilgrim devotion possible — from viewing relics to climbing the stone steps of the Santa Scala on his bare knees. “He earned so many indulgences that he almost wished his parents dead so he could deliver them from purgatory.” But he had no peace. The immorality and corruption he saw horrified him. He described the papal court as “an abomination,” writing that it was “served at supper by six naked girls.”[v]
His fellow monks gave him a Latin Bible that he diligently searched for truth. He came to be convinced that “salvation was a new relationship to God based not on any work of merit on man’s part, but on absolute trust in the divine promises.”[vi] This and other truths were contained in Luther’s “95 Theses” that he nailed to the church door at Wittenburg on October 31, 1517. His writings that followed addressed many scriptural truths (such as the priesthood of all believers) and ways to reform the corruption in the church and state (including cutting Papal taxes, reducing bulky government, closing brothels, and reforming university education).
He greatly rocked the boat of the church world and was summoned in 1521 to appear before a papal council in the city of Worms to recant. Friends were terrified at what would happen if he went. Some urged him not to go, others left him, fearing for their own safety. Luther set his face like flint to go, saying: “If there be as many devils at Worms as tiles on the roof-tops, I will enter!”[vii] In his defense before the Diet of Worms, Luther declared:
“I am,” he pleaded, “but a mere man, and not God; I shall therefore defend myself as Christ did, who said, ‘If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil’. . . . For this reason, by the mercy of God I conjure you, most serene Emperor, and you, most illustrious electors and princes, and all men of every degree, to prove from the writings of the prophets and apostles that I have erred. As soon as I am convinced of this, I will retract every error, and will be the first to lay hold of my books, and throw them into the fire. . . . I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the councils, because it is clear as the day that they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless, therefore, I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture, or by the clear reasoning, unless I am persuaded by means of the passages I have quoted, and unless my conscience is thus bound by the Word of God, I cannot and will not retract; for it is unsafe and injurious to act against one’s own conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other: may God help me! Amen.[viii]
Understanding how dangerous it was to disagree with the church leadership at this time magnifies the boldness of Luther’s statements. In the 50 years prior to Luther sparking the Protestant Reformation, “the Spanish Inquisition alone had burned alive thirteen thousand men, women, and children, and had racked, tortured, and thrown into fearful dungeons a hundred and seventy thousand more.”[ix]
Luther was condemned to death by the state, but since he was promised safe passage beforehand he was allowed to leave. On the road he was abducted by the friendly King Fredrick the Wise who hid him in his castle in Wartburg. Here, he finished much writing, including Scripture translation.
Luther had many shortcomings, especially by modern standards. He was impetuous, rough, sometimes crude, and at times issued shockingly harsh statements. Yet, God used him to help bring about a mighty revival and restore the light of truth to a dark world – even while Luther himself exhibited some of the fruit of that dark world.
Through his belief in Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) and his translation of the Bible (in 1534 in German), he helped establish truth amidst the common people — the truth of justification by faith and the place of the Bible in the life of the Christian. The truth in Scripture is the foundation for all revival. Charles Spurgeon wrote:
That great religious excitement has occurred apart from Gospel truth we admit; but anything which we as believers in Christ would call a revival of religion has always been attended with clear evangelical instruction upon cardinal points of truth.[x]
This was the backbone of the Protestant Reformation. According to Spurgeon, “The Reformation was due not so much to the fact that Luther was earnest, Calvin learned, Zwingli brave, and Knox indefatigable, as to this — old truth was brought to the front and to the poor the Gospel was preached.”[xi]
Revival is not founded on religious fervor, passion or human emotion, but upon truth — truth that is acted upon, truth made known by the Holy Spirit. Some of the truths recovered in the Reformation included: (1) The recovery of the source of Truth, the Scriptures — sola scriptura; (2) Justification by faith; (3) The Lordship of Christ, over men and nations; (4) The sovereignty of God, fulfilling his purpose in men and nations; (5) The priesthood of all believers.
*This article was excerpted from Biblical Revival and the Transformation of Nations. It can be ordered here.
[i] See Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell, America’s Providential History, Charlottesville, Vir.: Providence Foundation, 2010, pp. 43-44 for more.
[ii] See Foxes Book of Martyrs, Fair Sunshine by Jock Purves, and By Their Blood, Christian Martyrs of the 20th Century by James and Marti Hefley for the stories of some who were persecuted and killed.
[vii]Martin Luther and the Reformation by Beard, quoted in Pratney, p. 43.
[viii] From History of the Christian Church by Henry C. Sheldon, quoted in Rosalie Slater, Teaching and Learning America’s Christian History, San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1980, p. 169.
So many ministers participated in the War for Independence that they were called “the Black Regiment,” in reference to their pulpit gowns, by the opposition. One member of the “Black Regiment,” Peter Muhlenberg, is honored by a statue in the United States Capitol Building. Benson J. Lossing writes of his beginning involvement:
In those days politics were preached in the pulpits and men were led to action on the side of freedom by faithful pastors. The eminent General Muhlenberg was one of this stamp. When the war for independence was kindling, he was a clergymen in Virginia, and at the close of 1775, he concluded a sermon with the words of Scripture: “There is a time for all things—a time to preach and a time to pray;” but those times, he said, had passed away; and then, in a voice that sounded like a trumpet-blast through the church, he exclaimed: “There is a time to fight, and that time has now come.” Then laying aside his sacerdotal gown, he stood before his flock in the full uniform of a Virginia colonel. He ordered the drums to be beaten at the church door for recruits; and almost the entire male audience, capable of bearing arms, joined his standard. Nearly three hundred men enlisted his banner on that day.[i]
Rev. Peter Muhlenberg became one of Washington’s primary Brigadier Generals in the Continental Army, serving with him in every major conflict from that time through the surrender of the British at Yorktown. When his brother Frederick, who was a pastor of a church in New York City, heard how Peter had left the ministry to get involved in civil and military affairs, he wrote him a letter opposing his action, stating: “You would have acted for the best if you had kept out of this business from the beginning. I now give you my thoughts in brief: I think you were wrong.”[ii] Peter responded:
You say, as a clergyman nothing can excuse my conduct. I am a clergyman, it is true, but I am a member of society as well as the poorest layman, and my liberty is as dear to me as to
Peter Muhlenberg’s statue in the U.S. Capitol with his pulpit gown draped over his shoulders exposing his military uniform.
any man. Shall I then sit still, and enjoy myself at home, when the best blood of the continent is spilling? Heaven forbid it!…
The first Speaker of the House of Representatives was a minister, Frederick A.C. Muhlenberg. His painting hangs outside the House Chamber in the U.S. Capitol.
But even if you was [sic] on the opposite side of the question, you must allow that in this last step I have acted for the best. You know that from the beginning of these troubles I have been compelled to have a hand in public affairs. I have been chairman to the committee of delegates from this county from the first. Do you think, if America should be conquered, I should be safe? Far from it. And would you not sooner fight like a man than die like a dog? I am called by my country to its defence. The cause is just and noble. Were I a bishop, even a Lutheran one, I should obey without hesitation, and so far am I from thinking that I am wrong, I am convinced it is my duty so to do, a duty I owe to my God and to my country.[iii]
The next year, in 1777, British troops marched into New York City and destroyed or burnt 10 of the 19 churches in the city.[iv] One of those they destroyed was that of Frederick Muhlenberg, after which he began to rethink his position on involvement in political affairs, realizing as did his brother Peter that if the church and her leaders do not take action in public affairs, there will be no liberty to worship or preach the Gospel. Frederick went on to serve in government, being elected a member from Pennsylvania of the first Congress under the U.S. Constitution. When the first Congress gathered in New York City in 1789, he was elected as the first Speaker of the House of Representatives. As such, he was one of only two people who signed the Bill of Rights. Thus, the first Speaker of the House of Representatives, Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, was a minister who had been inspired by his minister brother to get involved in politics for the good of the nation and the good of Christ’s Kingdom. His painting hangs in the Capitol Building today and reminds us of the important role ministers played in our history.
Samuel F. B. Morse invented the telegraph in 1832 and worked during the next decade to improve it. The first inter-city line was tested in 1844, when a message was sent from the Capitol Building in Washington to Baltimore.
The invention of the telegraph was one of the most significant technological discoveries in history. It ranks with the printing press in its impact in the area of communication. The message from Washington to Baltimore took a few minutes, which before would have taken about a day. When cables were laid across the Atlantic and across the continent, messages that would have taken days and weeks, now took just a moment.
The New York Herald declared Morse’s telegraph “is not only an era in the transmission of intelligence, but it has originated in the mind … a new species of consciousness.” Another paper concluded that the telegraph is “unquestionably the greatest invention of the age.”[1]
Morse was a Christian who believed he had been chosen by God to invent the telegraph and, for the first time, harness the use of electricity. This discovery would contribute greatly to the advancement of man and the fulfilling of God’s purpose for mankind. Annie Ellsworth, a friend of Morse’s, composed the first message sent over the Washington-Baltimore line on May 24, 1844. She “selected a sentence from a prophecy of the ancient soothsayer Balaam” — “What hath God wrought!”[2] Of this message Morse wrote:
Plaque in the U.S. Capitol commemorating Morse’s invention with the words transmitted: “What Hath God Wrought.”
Nothing could have been more appropriate than this devout exclamation, at such an event, when an invention which creates such wonder, and about which there has been so much scepticism, is taken from the land of visions, and becomes a reality.[3]
Morse considered it remarkable that he, an artist, “should have been chosen to be one of those to reveal the meaning of electricity to man! How wonderful that he should have been selected to become a teacher in the art of controlling the intriguing ‘fluid’ which had been known from the days when the Greeks magnetized amber, but which had never before been turned to the ends of common man! ‘What hath God wrought!’ As Jehovah had wrought through Israel, God now wrought through him.”[4] Morse wrote to his brother:
That sentence of Annie Ellsworth’s was divinely indited, for it is in my thoughts day and night. “What hath God wrought!” It is His work, and He alone could have carried me thus far through all my trials and enabled me to triumph over the obstacles, physical and moral, which opposed me.
“Not unto us, not unto us, but to Thy name, O Lord, be all the praise.”
I begin to fear now the effects of public favor, lest it should kindle that pride of heart and self-sufficiency which dwells
Morse Telegraph 1837
in my own as well as in others’ breasts, and which, alas! is so ready to be inflamed by the slightest spark of praise. I do indeed feel gratified, and it is right I should rejoice with fear, and I desire that a sense of dependence upon and increased obligation to the Giver of every good and perfect gift may keep me humble and circumspect.[5]
Morse would remark in a speech many years later:
If not a sparrow falls to the ground without a definite purpose in the plans of infinite wisdom, can the creation of an instrumentality, so vitally affecting the interests of the whole human race, have an origin less humble than the Father of every good and perfect gift? I am sure I have the sympathy of such an assembly as is here gathered, if in all humility and in the sincerity of a grateful heart, I use the words of inspiration in ascribing honor and praise to him to whom first of all and most of all it is pre-eminently due. “Not unto us, not unto us, but to God be all the glory.” Not what hath man, but “What hath God wrought!”[6]
[1] Carleton Mabee, The American Leonardo, A Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943, p. 279.
