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All Saintsʼ Day — (Almanac, Nov. 1)

So many were martyred in the first three centuries of the church that eventually, by

papal decree, this Christian feast day (November 1) was set aside in their honor? The

persecutions fulfilled the prophecies of Jesus, who told His followers they would be like

sheep sent out in the midst of wolves (Matt. 10:16). Thus, Christian martyrdom, then

and now, is the ultimate witness to the truth of the gospel, to the infinite value of Christ

and His cross, and to the hostility of men toward God and His holy purposes.

Henry Laurens — (Almanac, Nov. 1)

Of Huguenot (French Calvinist) ancestry, this South Carolinian Merchant

(1724–1792) served the American republic as president of the Continental Congress

and, later on, as a diplomat who was captured by the British on the high seas? America

did not get him back until after the decisive Battle of Yorktown (1781), in a momentous

prisoner exchange for Lord General Cornwallis. Following his release, the persevering

patriot participated in the Peace of Paris negotiations to end the War for Independence.

More on Melville — (Almanac, Nov. 3)

Thereʼs something to be said for a writer, or anyone in any sphere, whoʼs true to himself

and, even more importantly, true to the fundamental and vital issues of life that flow from

the heart (Prov. 4:23).

Herman Melville (1819–1891), as mentioned in an earlier post (Fall H&H — #8), was

such a writer. When he quit his craft in 1857, his novels having failed to satisfy the

demands of mass marketability, he said, “What I feel most moved to write will not pay.

Yet write the other way, I cannot.”

In this respect at least (a refusal to make peace for profitʼs sake with diminished or

debased standards), Melville is a model for us today. On a personal level, there has to

be more to life than success, getting ahead, and making money. Or in some grand

collective sense (the rich, the poor, workers, capitalists, the people, people of color,

women, gays, etc.), striving for an ever greater slice of the pie, not the one supposedly

in the sky but the one most definitely of this world.

Earthʼs necessities (What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?) do

matter, of course, but they never matter most of all. “For what will it profit a man,” asked

Jesus, “if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matt. 16:26)

Melville, itʼs safe to surmise, wanted to succeed in the literary and commercial milieu of

19th-century America. But not at the expense of his soul.

Salem Revisited — (America, Vol. 1, p. 50)

Compounding the disgrace of the infamous Salem Witch Trials (1692) has been a false

and misleading historiography, down through the years, with respect to the events

themselves. Unfortunately, author Bill Bennett repeats one of the more characteristic

errors when he says that Puritan divine Cotton Mather (1663–1728) “argued that

spectral evidence should be accepted” against the accused.

(spectral evidence consists of claims of threatening or hostile acts made by the ghosts

or specters of those suspected of engaging in the black arts)

Mather, like most of the New England clergy, conceded the existence of witchcraft in

Salem and the legitimacy of the trials to repress it, but cautioned against the use of

spectral evidence. He also recommended prayer and pastoral care for the souls of

those tormented by evil spirits or an inflamed conscience. The whole tenor of his

counsel leaned clearly toward mercy for the accused.

The tragic episode originated in the playful experimentation of adolescent girls

(including the daughter of parish minister Samuel Parris), probably influenced by the

magic arts of a West Indian slave-girl named Tituba. The girlsʼ behavior became

increasingly bizarre (inexplicable fits, convulsions, moans & groans, etc.), and they said

witches in town were doing them harm. Such claims may have seemed fanciful, yet

onlookers couldnʼt deny that something nightmarish had happened to these girls.

In the highly-charged atmosphere of the court, more and more people got implicated.

Finally, when citizens with sterling reputations were also accused of being in league with

the Evil One, the trials ground to a halt. Twenty of the accused (deemed unrepentant)

were executed.

“By 1697 Massachusetts was ready,” writes historian Richard Lovelace, “to confess its

guilt in the shedding of innocent blood by observing a public fast day. The common

opinion by that time was that the Devil had indeed been active in Salem, but not so

much in the suspected witches as in their accusers, who had been both tormented and

used as instruments to slander the innocent.”

Ever since, various “free-thinkers” (those who dismiss religion and tradition as sources

of knowledge) have cited Salem to discredit the existence of witches, devils, the

supernatural realm in general, and the intelligence of Christians.

Wisdom (via the light of the Word and the lamp of experience), however, would concede

the reality of the occult, and reflect on how difficult it can be for a society to deal with it

truly, justly, and compassionately. All our resources in religion, education, science, and

politics seem, oftentimes, unequal to the task.

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But what canʼt be faulted is his genius, his magnanimity, his determination to improve and reform everything to which he applied his mind, his heart, and his labor.Of Teddy Roosevelt, George Grant writes, “He read at least five books every week of his life and wrote nearly fifty on an astonishing array of subjects—from history and biography to natural science and social criticism. He enjoyed hunting, boxing, and wrestling. He was an amateur taxidermist, botanist, ornithologist, and astronomer. He was a devoted familyman who lovingly raised six children. And he enjoyed a lifelong romance with his wife.”

Smallwonder even his rivals and critics respected him.

Maryland — (America, Vol.1, pp. 42-43)

This Anglo-American colony can be traced to Sir George Calvertʼs conversion to Catholicism and his subsequent appeal to King Charles I for permission to settle the north shore of Chesapeake Bay? Sir George died before any action was taken on his request, but a charter was eventually granted to Cecilius, his son, in 1634. Before long, however, Protestants outnumbered Catholics in the new colony, prompting authorities to decree aToleration Act (1649) securing religious liberty to all professing Christians.

Jesuits or Society of Jesus — (America, Vol.1, pp. 47-48)

Isaac Jogues was among the 17th-century French missionaries of this Catholic order of priests and monks who met martyrdom at the hands of North American Indians? Generally, the fearless French priests ventured hundreds of miles throughout Canada and the Great Lakes and had some success, notably among the Hurons. The Iroquois confederation, however, proved unreceptive to the visits of those they called the “black robes”; the Mohawks, for instance, tortured and tomahawked the saintly Jogues. 

smallpox inoculation — (America, Vol.1, p. 53)

BenFranklinʼs scientific career got off to a none-too-promising start when, as a teenager in the early 1720s, he campaigned with his older brother in the pages of their New England Courant against this new medical procedure? The breakthrough had been reported by the Royal Society of London and was strongly supported by the pious and learned Mathers of Boston (Increase & his son, Cotton). The latter felt compelled to critique the youthful Franklinsʼ benighted journalism.

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It was English journalist G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936) who wondered about the wisdom of imperialism when he first heard that the sun never set on his native landʼs Union Jack.  “What good is a country without a sunset?” asked Chesterton.

 “The Wisest Fool in Christendom” — (America, Vol.1, p. 37)

Learned but lacking wisdom, the Stuart dynastyʼs James I of England (r. 1603–1625) was branded (by his foes) with this derisive title?  James sought conformity among rival Protestant factions (Anglicans, Puritans, Separatists), but even his sponsorship of literatureʼs greatest masterpiece (King James Bible, 1611) failed to achieve his goal. Growing desperate, he set the stage for an historic religious exodus by demanding that dissenters cease their dissent, or else he would “harry them out of the land.”

 Plymouth Rock — (America, Vol.1, p. 39)

“Here is a stone which the feet of a few outcasts pressed for an instant; and the stone becomes famous; it is treasured by a great nation; its very dust is shared as a relic.”

The quote above comes from the political classic Democracy in America (1835) by FrenchmanAlexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859).  Tocquevilleʼs 17th-century “outcasts” were in the habit of electing yearly (about 30 times) as their governor the noble William Bradford, and the stone the French scholar lauds is this New England landmark?

 “AModel of Christian Charity” — (America, Vol.1, pp. 40-41)

Aboard the ship Arbella in the “Great Migration” of English Puritans to Massachusetts Ba(1630), lawyer John Winthrop (soon to be the colonyʼs first governor) preached a famous lay sermon which went by this title?  Winthropʼs words were a reminder to his brethren that their declared intention to build a “Bible Commonwealth” in the New World would not go unnoticed elsewhere.  “We shall be as a city upon a hill,” he said (quoting Christʼs Sermon on the Mount). “The eyes of all people are upon us.”

 Veritas — (America, Vol.1, p. 41)

This Latin word meaning “truth” was made the motto of Harvard College, founded by Puritans in Cambridge (Massachusetts Bay) as early as 1636?  The purpose of the college was to advance the gospel by means of an educated ministry, for which candidates were trained in the Scriptures and the classics in their original tongues.  The Puritans, both in England and New England, were a highly educated breed who carried the Old Worldʼs standards of literacy and learning to the New World.

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Longing to keep the religious peace, Elizabeth ruled as a cautious Protestant.  She suppressed public celebration of the Catholic mass, but refrained from any extensive campaign to search for (and bring charges against) secret Catholics.  She also maneuvered shrewdly to dampen the fiery disputes of the sons of the Reformation, preferring, if possible, to split the differences betweenAnglicans and Puritans.

 What Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wifeAnne Boleyn, prized most were the love and loyalty of her people and their Parliament.  That she won and never lost.

 Shakespeareʼs England — (America, Vol.1, p. 27)

Author Bill Bennett cites the following from Shakespeareʼs Richard II, a passage that movingly expresses the triumphant sense the English once had of living in a land especially favored and blessed:

 !           This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

!           This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

!           This other Eden, demi-paradise,

!           This fortress built by Nature for herself

!           Against infection and the hand of war,

!           This happy breed of men, this little world,

!           This precious stone set in the silver sea,

!           Which serves it in the office of a wall

!           Or as a moat defensive to a house,

!           Against the envy of less happier lands,

!          This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

 Acautionary tale for today?  Modern Brits, suffice to say, have no such sensibility. Divine favor can be withdrawn and with it contentment in present circumstances and hope for the future.  Nations may boast of their far-flung dominion or their high ideals

(“liberty, equality, fraternity”–“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”), but there is no substitute for submission to Christ, His Gospel, and His Church.  Psalm 2 comes to mind (verses 10-12, ESV, quoted below).

 “           Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

!           !           be warned, O rulers of the earth.

!           Serve the LORD with fear,

!           !           and rejoice with trembling.

!           Kiss the Son,

!	!	lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
!		for his wrath is quickly kindled.

!           Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

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Comments and questions this week come from George Grant’s Almanac sketches, Bill
Bennett’s America, vol.1, and the daily Bible studies in Tabletalk as indicated.

September 22 — Oxford
A vignette on perhaps the greatest university city in the world, “crowded with incident
and achievement,” Oxford, England. The astronomer Edmund Halley, architect
Christopher Wren, moral philosopher (and economist) Adam Smith, historian Edward
Gibbon, and playwright Oscar Wilde were among many, many notable figures to have
studied and labored there. It was the inspired milieu of Oxford where J.R.R. Tolkien
crafted his inventive fantasy of Middle Earth: The Hobbit (1937) and its sequel The Lord
of the Rings (1954-55). C.S. Lewis said of Tolkien and his work, “such a tale, told by
such an imaginative mind, could only have been spawned in such a place as Oxford.”

September 27 — The “acknowledged dean” of American Evangelicalism
The man described here is colonial New England’s Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758),
first-rate theologian and philosopher, Congregational pastor in Northampton, MA, and
frontier missionary to the Indians in Stockbridge, MA. For the record, the author of
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” spoke as much or more about the heavenliness
of heaven as he did the hellishness of hell. The emphasis of our text was on Edwards’
unwillingness to compromise the Word of God, to dilute either theological or ethical
standards, for the sake of either influential critics or the will of the masses. He suffered
loss of status and standing on account of this (being dismissed from the congregation
he served for over 25 years), but his role in the Great Awakening and the profundity of
his writings have secured his reputation for all time among the learned and the pious.

September 29 — Kipling Meets Twain
An entertaining account of an 1889 meeting between English poet and novelist Rudyard
Kipling (d. 1939) and an American writer he deeply admired, Mark Twain (d. 1910).
Kipling was fairly young (in his 20s) and still working his way up the literary ladder at the
time, while Twain was enjoying immense popularity and the financial rewards that
usually accompany it. “Reading his books,” Kipling revealed, “I had striven to get an
idea of his personality, and all my preconceived notions were wrong and beneath the
reality. Blessed is the man who finds no disillusion when he is brought face to face with
a revered writer. That was a moment to be remembered; the landing of a twelve-pound
salmon was nothing to it. I had hooked Mark Twain, and he was treating me as though
under certain circumstances I might be an equal.”
Now if we could cultivate something of the depth of feeling for a favored author that
Kipling had for Twain, we might be teachable yet.

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil — (Tabletalk, Sept. 26-28)
Biblical theologians through the ages have identified generally these three entities as
the chief enemies of Christians in their quest for spiritual growth? The first foe listed
represents that persistent pattern of life in society that deviates from the standards of
God, while the second calls attention to the wayward impulses that remain in the hearts
even of true Christians. The third, foremost of all, is the supernatural origin of evil itself
specializing in accusing the saints of (and inciting them to) sin.

Out of Africa: White Men and Black Slaves — (Bennett’s America 1, pp. 2-3)
Today’s critics of the West (Western Civilization) often give the impression that white
European Christians introduced slavery to an otherwise peaceful and prosperous
African continent. Did they? Hardly. What they did do, however, was purchase legions
already enslaved by fellow Africans and Arabs and remove them to their own lands and
overseas possessions. Sometimes the slaves were treated well and their lives were
improved, but more often than not they were simply exploited and abused.

Bennett writes: “Slavery was an inescapable part of African life. Mansa Musa, a devout
Muslim, was the king of Mali (currently part of Niger). He sold fourteen thousand female
slaves to finance his journey to Cairo in 1324. The Arabs were always .seizing our
people as merchandise,’ complained the black king of Bornu (in present-day Nigeria) to
the sultan of Egypt in the 1390s. With the extension of Islam into West Africa’s .Gold
Coast’ came an increasingly vigorous trade in black slaves. The Christian Portuguese
emulated this practice. Three hundred years before adoption of the U.S. Constitution,
decisions made in Europe and Africa would have great and terrible consequences for a
nation as yet unimagined and a people still unnamed.”

Students, parents, & friends: we continue our study of our Western inheritance with
some recent Almanac entries and some thoughts on Bill Bennett’s introduction to his
America, Volume 1.

September 20 — St. Francis and the Stigmata
Here the author drew our attention to an intense mystical encounter with Christ said to
have been experienced by St. Francis of Assisi late in his life (in 1224; Francis died in
1226). Francis’s monastic commitment to a life of “poverty, chastity, and obedience”
was dramatically confirmed for him when he apparently bore in his own body the
wounds of Jesus (known as the stigmata). It’s truly a classic incident in what is called
hagiography (the history of the saints), though one not subject to easy or certain
evaluation. The Roman Catholic Church, incidentally, claims about 300 Christians have
experienced something similar, though Francis is believed to have been the first.

September 20 — Chester A. Arthur Gets “Religion”
Arthur (1830–1886) was a Republican party politician in New York with a reputation for luxurious living and the misuse of public office for his own and his friends’ gain. His
party nevertheless nominated him for U.S. Vice President on the ticket with victorious
presidential candidate James Garfield in 1880, and he succeeded to the presidency
when the latter, an Ohio college president and Union veteran, was assassinated a year
later. Arthur apparently amended some of his ways in his one term as chief executive
(1881–1885). Rather than merely hand out lots of federal jobs to cronies and his
party’s supporters (the “spoils system”), he approved a Civil Service System that
sought to base hiring and promotions on professional merit.

“This Last Best Hope of Earth” — from Bennett’s America 1, p. xiii
The phrase is Lincoln’s (from late 1862), the 16th-president observing, in the throes of
crisis like none other in our history, that “we shall nobly save or meanly lose this last
best hope of earth.” It’s one of countless examples of how his prose sings like poetry.

Bill Bennett wants us, among other reasons for writing his book, to rekindle this
Lincolnian hope in America as the hope of the world. He rightly points out that many
great Americans of the past have so believed, and they were inspired to do great deeds
for which we are all grateful. Moreover, what goes by the name of “American
exceptionalism” sometimes seems to demand such belief.

Permit this teacher, if you will, to demur just a bit or to take exception with this aspect of
our native exceptionalism.

It’s not that it’s a Godless doctrine. Many, after all, will say (and have said) that God
Himself in His providence has called America to play precisely such a role in the world.
But where do we read such a thing in Scripture? How far shall we push our
speculations, particularly when they flatter us so?

It seems far safer, and much more modest, to say simply what the Bible says: Christ
(for, in, and through His Church) is the true and only hope of men on planet earth. Even
the U.S., as fine a land as she has been, is no substitute for the King and His kingdom.

Here’s a question with which we Americans may need to grapple: Can we still be proud
of our country, love her, admire her, and acknowledge her goodness (despite her faults)
if it turns out we’re not #1 after all? What if the 21st-century Chinese, or any other
people, surpass us in economic and military matters? What then? Our response will
surely reveal whether our hearts burn with true patriotism or mere nationalistic pride.

America is not, and never has been, the world’s “best hope.” The good news, however,
is that America surely has had hope, and will continue to have hope, but only to the
degree she longs for the True Hope of the World by receiving His Word, submitting to
His rule, and honoring His Church.

Call it a paradox; call it what you will. A nation becomes an earthly example for others
only by calling attention to a heavenly example. A people find hope for this age when
they hope, first and foremost, for another.

Somehow, somewhere, from the days of John Winthrop and the Puritans to today,
American aspirations exceeded their proper bounds. It’s a noble thing to shine a lamp
or build a city on a hill here below, so long as you want to reflect or imitate in some
measure the light and city above. But when you start to shroud the latter in order to
bask in the former, sooner or later the lights go out and you’re left with a heap of rubble.

One suspects that what you really have in utterances like Lincoln’s on America’s
mission in the world, and the similar but far less elegant assertions of others, is the
secularization of a sacred tradition.

Trying to be the “last best hope of earth” is a burden too big for men, even for
Americans.

p.s. The years listed above for Chester A. Arthur (1830–1886), interestingly
enough, correspond exactly to those of reclusive poetess Emily Dickinson of
Amherst, Massachusetts. This teacher spent his collegiate years (1972–76) in that western MA town.

Students, parents & friends, the following comments or H&H-type questions may assist
you in thinking through our early September Christian Almanac readings:

September 1 — Scots’ Patriotism
An overview of a great revival of Scots’ patriotism in the 19th-century (1800s), its
primary themes being family, faith, and freedom. The revival was fueled by the poetry of
Robert Burns (d. 1796), the novels of Sir Walter Scott (d. 1832), and the preaching
and teaching ministry of Thomas Chalmers (d. 1847). The mid-1800s raising of the
national monument commemorated the heroism of warrior William Wallace (d. 1305),
champion of the struggle for Scottish independence from Edward I’s England.

September 6 — The Mayflower
The Pilgrims, a tight-knit group of English Calvinists separated from the Church of
England (a.k.a. “Separatists”), began their historic voyage to America (original
destination northern Virginia) upon the Mayflower on September 6, 1620. The ship
itself, only 90 feet long and 26 feet wide, carried 101 passengers across the Atlantic in a
little over 2 months, first landing on what is today Cape Cod, Massachusetts. With an
heroic determination to advance the gospel and establish Christian civilization, they built
Plymouth Plantation.
September 6 — William McKinley (1843–1901)
An Ohio lawyer and Republican party politician, McKinley became the third U.S.
president to be victimized by assassination (after fellow Republicans Lincoln & Garfield).
He was elected to the presidency twice (1896 & 1900) and, like most leaders of his
party, promoted aggressively the interests of powerful bankers, industrialists, and
merchants. Pro-big business Republican policies included protective tariffs, financial
grants and subsidies, favorable tax rates and regulations, and the construction of
transportation and communication systems that spanned the continent (like railroads).

September 8 — The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
We are all familiar with Lincoln’s poetic description of democracy at Gettysburg
(November 19,1863) as “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Here’s another gem implying the advisability of democracy in the longterm delivered in
1858 in a speech in Clinton, Illinois: You can fool all of the people some of the time;
some of the people all of the time; but not all of the people all of the time.

September 8 — Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661)
17th-century Scottish professor, pastor, and theologian who participated in England’s
Westminster Assembly and helped shape the influential Westminster Shorter
Catechism, the one that begins with the question, “What is the chief end of man?”
Rutherford is best known, however, for his argument for limited government, even
limitations upon the powers of kings, in Lex Rex (Law is King). Our assigned reading
highlighted his loyalty to everyday people in his small rural parish by noting, “He was
always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechising, always
writing, and always studying.”

September 13 — catechisms
According to English literary giant Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), the miniature
questions and answers of these Christian instructional booklets “afford us a glimpse
at the inner framework of the Western view of the world”? The first such booklets,
apparently, were drafted by scholarly monks like Alcuin in the early Middle Ages. But it
was the 16th-century Reformation, through the writings of men like Luther and Calvin,
that revived and advanced the highly effective teaching technique.

September 15 — Preamble to the U.S. Constitution
The following paragraph, from the pen of Founding Father Gouverneur Morris (NY &
PA), forms this section or subdivision of the U.S. Constitution(?):
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

September 15 — Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816)
A New York lawyer, planter, and statesman of distinguished ancestry, this American
Founder (1752–1816) edited and revised the final draft of the U.S. Constitution and the famous words of its Preamble are his? He spoke more often at the Great Convention
than any other delegate (173 times), and his leanings were aristocratic (the president
the Senate, he argued, should be elected for life). Biographer M.E. Bradford called him
the “least sanguine of the Framers, but one of the most brilliant.”