2023_02_20-- Presidents Day's Message

Prelude to Tyranny? Twilight's Last Gleaming?

(by Chuck Missler)

With an election coming next month - and one that may prove to be a "watershed" for the future of the Republic - it is an appropriate time to review the realities we are facing.

The Life Cycle of Democracies

There is a view among some historians that a democracy is an intrinsically unstable form of government:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse...from the public treasury... The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years...

And the cycle is surprisingly predictable:

...from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again into bondage. -Alexander Tyler, 1750

Studies of the predictable decay of empires and cultures generally discern three primary aspects of their decline: Social Decay, Cultural Decay, and Moral Decay.1

The first, Social Decay, is characterized by the crisis of lawlessness, the loss of economic discipline, and the rise of bureaucracy.

This is associated with Cultural Decay: the decline of education, the weakening of cultural foundations, and the loss of respect for tradition.

All this is, of course, the result of Moral Decay: the rise of immorality, the decay of religious beliefs, and the subsequent devaluation of human life.

Where do we stand in this cycle? Let's take a brief inventory.

OCTOBER 12, 2016 BY MSGR. CHARLES POPE

The Eight Stages of the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

blog10-12Cultures and civilizations go through cycles. Over time, many civilizations and cultures have risen and then fallen. We who live in painful times like these do well to recall these truths. Cultures and civilizations come and go; only the Church (though often in need of reform) and true biblical culture remain. An old song says, “Only what you do for Christ will last.” Yes, all else passes; the Church is like an ark in the passing waters of this world and in the floodwaters of times like these.

For those of us who love our country and our culture, the pain is real. By God’s grace, many fair flowers have come from Western culture as it grew over the past millennium. Whatever its imperfections (and there were many), great beauty, civilization, and progress emerged at the crossroads of faith and human giftedness. But now it appears that we are at the end of an era. We are in a tailspin we don’t we seem to be able to pull ourselves out of. Greed, aversion to sacrifice, secularism, divorce, promiscuity, and the destruction of the most basic unit of civilization (the family), do not make for a healthy culture. There seems to be no basis for true reform and the deepening darkness suggests that we are moving into the last stages of a disease. This is painful but not unprecedented.

Sociologists and anthropologists have described the stages of the rise and fall of the world’s great civilizations. Scottish philosopher Alexander Tyler of the University of Edinburg noted eight stages that articulate well what history discloses. I first encountered these in in Ted Flynn’s book The Great Transformation. They provide a great deal of perspective to what we are currently experiencing.

Let’s look at each of the eight stages. The names of the stages are from Tyler’s book and are presented in bold red text. My brief reflections follow in plain text.

From bondage to spiritual growth – Great civilizations are formed in the crucible. The Ancient Jews were in bondage for 400 years in Egypt. The Christian faith and the Church came out of 300 years of persecution. Western Christendom emerged from the chaotic conflicts during the decline of the Roman Empire and the movements of often fierce “barbarian” tribes. American culture was formed by the injustices that grew in colonial times. Sufferings and injustices cause—even force—spiritual growth. Suffering brings wisdom and demands a spiritual discipline that seeks justice and solutions.

From spiritual growth to great courage – Having been steeled in the crucible of suffering, courage and the ability to endure great sacrifice come forth. Anointed leaders emerge and people are summoned to courage and sacrifice (including loss of life) in order to create a better, more just world for succeeding generations. People who have little or nothing, also have little or nothing to lose and are often more willing to live for something more important than themselves and their own pleasure. A battle is begun, a battle requiring courage, discipline, and other virtues.

From courage to liberty – As a result of the courageous fight, the foe is vanquished and liberty and greater justice emerges. At this point a civilization comes forth, rooted in its greatest ideals. Many who led the battle are still alive, and the legacy of those who are not is still fresh. Heroism and the virtues that brought about liberty are still esteemed. The ideals that were struggled for during the years in the crucible are still largely agreed upon.

From liberty to abundance – Liberty ushers in greater prosperity, because a civilization is still functioning with the virtues of sacrifice and hard work. But then comes the first danger: abundance. Things that are in too great an abundance tend to weigh us down and take on a life of their own. At the same time, the struggles that engender wisdom and steel the soul to proper discipline and priorities move to the background. Jesus said that man’s life does not consist in his possessions. But just try to tell that to people in a culture that starts to experience abundance. Such a culture is living on the fumes of earlier sacrifices; its people become less and less willing to make such sacrifices. Ideals diminish in importance and abundance weighs down the souls of the citizens. The sacrifices, discipline, and virtues responsible for the thriving of the civilization are increasingly remote from the collective conscience; the enjoyment of their fruits becomes the focus.

From abundance to complacency – To be complacent means to be self-satisfied and increasingly unaware of serious trends that undermine health and the ability to thrive. Everything looks fine, so it must be fine. Yet foundations, resources, infrastructures, and necessary virtues are all crumbling. As virtues, disciplines, and ideals become ever more remote, those who raise alarms are labeled by the complacent as “killjoys” and considered extreme, harsh, or judgmental.

From complacency to apathy – The word apathy comes from the Greek and refers to a lack of interest in, or passion for, the things that once animated and inspired. Due to the complacency of the previous stage, the growing lack of attention to disturbing trends advances to outright dismissal. Many seldom think or care about the sacrifices of previous generations and lose a sense that they must work for and contribute to the common good. “Civilization” suffers the serious blow of being replaced by personalization and privatization in growing degrees. Working and sacrificing for others becomes more remote. Growing numbers becoming increasingly willing to live on the carcass of previous sacrifices. They park on someone else’s dime, but will not fill the parking meter themselves. Hard work and self-discipline continue to erode.

From apathy to dependence – Increasing numbers of people lack the virtues and zeal necessary to work and contribute. The suffering and the sacrifices that built the culture are now a distant memory. As discipline and work increasingly seem “too hard,” dependence grows. The collective culture now tips in the direction of dependence. Suffering of any sort seems intolerable. But virtue is not seen as the solution. Having lived on the sacrifices of others for years, the civilization now insists that “others” must solve their woes. This ushers in growing demands for governmental, collective solutions. This in turns deepens dependence, as solutions move from personal virtue and local, family-based sacrifices to centralized ones.

From dependence back to bondage – As dependence increases, so does centralized power. Dependent people tend to become increasingly dysfunctional and desperate. Seeking a savior, they look to strong central leadership. But centralized power corrupts, and tends to usher in increasing intrusion by centralized power. Injustice and intrusion multiplies. But those in bondage know of no other solutions. Family and personal virtue (essential ingredients for any civilization) are now effectively replaced by an increasingly dark and despotic centralized control, hungry for more and more power. In this way, the civilization is gradually ended, because people in bondage no longer have the virtues necessary to fight.

Another possibility is that a more powerful nation or group is able to enter, by invasion or replacement, and destroy the final vestiges of a decadent civilization and replace it with their own culture. Either way, it’s back to crucible, until suffering and conflict bring about enough of the wisdom, virtue, and courage necessary to begin a new civilization that will rise from the ashes.

Thus are the stages of civilizations. Sic transit gloria mundi. The Church has witnessed a lot of this in just the brief two millennia of her time. In addition to civilizations, nations have come and gone quite frequently over the years. Few nations have lasted longer than 200 years. Civilizations are harder to define with exact years, but at the beginning of the New Covenant, Rome was already in decline. In the Church’s future would be other large nations and empires in the West: the “Holy” Roman Empire, various colonial powers, the Spanish, the Portuguese, and the French. It was once said that “The sun never sets on the British Empire.” Now it does. As the West began a long decline, Napoleon made his move. Later, Hitler strove to build a German empire. Then came the USSR. And prior to all this, in the Old Testament period, there had been the Kingdom of David, to be succeeded by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

The only true ark of safety is the Church, who received her promise of indefectibility from the Lord (Matt 16:18). But the Church, too, is always in need of reform and will have much to suffer. Yet she alone will survive this changing world, because she is the Bride of Christ and also His Body.

These are hard days, but perspective can help. It is hard to deny that we are living at the end of an era. It is painful because something we love is dying. But from death comes forth new life. Only the Lord knows the next stage and long this interregnum will be. Look to Him. Go ahead and vote, but put not your trust in princes (Ps 146:3). God will preserve His people, as He did in the Old Covenant. He will preserve those of us who are now joined to Him in the New Covenant. Find your place in the Ark, ever ancient and yet new.

I lift mine eyes to the Mountains from whence cometh my help (Psalm 121).

George Washington was nearly impossible to kill

by Blake Stilwell

Posted On September 12, 2019

Despite having two horses shot out from under him, history would have been much different if George Washington was born a 90-pound weakling. As it was, he was an abnormally large man, especially for the American Colonies. At 6’2″ and weighing more than 200 pounds, he was literally and figuratively a giant of a man. This might be why nine diseases, Indian snipers, and British cannon shot all failed to take the big man down. It’s not just that the man was fearless in battle (even though he really was). Washington suffered from a number of otherwise debilitating, painful ailments and diseases throughout his life that would have taken a lesser man down — but not the man who founded the most powerful country ever to grace the Earth.

“Let them take cover in the woods! We’ll fight the indians in straight lines, in tight formations. That’ll show them who’s boss.” It didn’t show them who’s boss. He should have died at the Battle of the Monongahela. Near what we today call Pittsburgh,a British force under General Edward Braddock was soundly defeated by a force of French Canadians and Indians during the French and Indian War. Braddock died of wounds sustained in the fighting, but Washington survived despite having two horses shot out from under him. When all was said and done, he also found four musket-ball holes in his coat.

“C’mon guys… let’s make this quick. Suuuuuper quick.” He had dysentery the whole time. During much of the French and Indian War, Washington reported bouts of dysentery, an infection that causes (among other things) persistent diarrhea. He suffered from this while dodging bullets at the Monongahela River. The discomfort from it actually made him sit taller on his horse. “This is way easier when you don’t have dysentery!” He trotted 30 yards from enemy lines. During the 1777 Battle of Princeton, Washington rode on his horse as bullets fired from British rifles 30 yards away whizzed around him. When troops worried about their leader getting shot, he simply said, “parade with me my fine fellows, we will have them soon!”

America would get two more epic swings at German troops. Trenton was cold as hell. Crossing the Delaware was actually much more dangerous than the stories would have you believe. Giant chunks of ice were in the dark water that night and each threatened to overturn the longboats. Washington set out with three boats to make the crossing, and only his made it. Falling into the water likely meant a slow, freezing death for any Continental, even if they managed to get out of it. Two Continental soldiers who survived the crossing stopped to rest by the side of the road and were frozen by morning.

He had six of the most lethal diseases of his time. Normally, if you’re reading about someone in the 1700s contracting tuberculosis, dysentery, pneumonia, malaria, smallpox, or diphtheria, it’s because that’s how they died. Not only did Washington survive all of these conditions, he knew how to inoculate his army against smallpox, claiming the British tried using as an early form of biological warfare. It was the first mass military inoculation in history — and it worked. In the end, Washington was felled by what modern doctors think was a case of epiglottitis, an acute bacterial inflammation of the little flap at the base of the tongue that covers the trachea. Like the Rebel Alliance finding an exhaust port in the Death Star plans, life found a way to take down one of history’s greatest. It took 67 years and whole lot of trial and error.

Quotations About George Washington and Religion

(by Stephen McDowell)

https://www.nordskogpublishing.com/george-washington-an-instrument-in-the-hands-of-providence/

George Washington is one of the most significant men in all of history. Regarding the direct advancement of civil and political liberty in the earth, he may well be the most significant champion in all history. Certainly he was the central figure of bringing a new era of liberty to the world in modern times. Abraham Lincoln observed: “Washington is the mightiest name of earth — long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it.” Founding Father Fisher Ames said that Washington changed the standard of human greatness. One biographer wrote, “Washington was without an equal, was unquestionably the greatest man that the world has produced in the last one thousand years.” Thomas Paine observed: “By common consent, Washington is regarded as not merely the Hero of the American Revolution, but the World’s Apostle of Liberty.”

In his famous “Oration on the Death of General Washington,” Gen. Henry Lee said that Washington was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” “Vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand; the purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues.” Washington was first because, as Lee said, he was “the man designed by Heaven to lead in the great political, as well as military, events which have distinguished the area of his life. The finger of an overruling Providence pointing at Washington was neither mistaken nor unobserved.”

https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-washington-and-religion

Washington was the great, great grandson of Lawrence Washington, an Anglican pastor. Difficulties between Lawrence Washington and the Church may have ultimately resulted in his heirs moving to Virginia. Thus the reason Washington was born in Virginia may have been related to religious developments. The First Great Awakening was taking place in England in the years leading up to Washington's birth, and played a significant role in the ethos of a growing American religious environment in the eighteenth century. However, the influence of the Great Awakening was felt strongest by Baptists and Presbyterians, and was less influential in the Anglican community that included Washington. An Anglian family headed by a mother who was devoted to personal spirituality raised George Washington, which may have had an influence on Washington's own sense of religion.

Regarding direct church participation, Washington was a devoted member of the Anglican Church. In 1762, Washington became a vestryman in Truro Parish, overseeing the affairs at Pohick Church. He served as a churchwarden for three terms, helping to care for the poor. Washington's church attendance varied throughout his life, with his attendance becoming sporadic for periods of time and then picking up again during his presidency. However, one former pastor at Pohick did state that "I never knew so constant an attendant at church as Washington.

In regard to personal spirituality, Washington was generally private about his religious life. Washington is reported to have had regular private prayer sessions, and personal prayer was a large part of his life. One well-known report stated that Washington's nephew witnessed him doing personal devotions with an open Bible while kneeling, in both the morning and evening. It is clear that when it came to religion, Washington was a private man, more so than with other aspects of his life.

Notably, Washington did see God as guiding the creation of the United States. It is also possible that Washington felt he needed to discern the will of Providence. These facts point to belief in a God who is hidden from humanity, yet continually influencing the events of the universe. This does not illustrate conclusively that he was a devout Christian, however. Washington never explicitly mentioned the Name of Jesus Christ in private correspondence. The only mentions of Christ are in public papers, and those references are scarce. However, Washington's lack of usage may be due to the accepted practice of his day; Jesus was not typically referenced by Anglicans or Episcopalians of Washington's generation.

https://faculty.wts.edu/posts/the-invisible-hand-in-george-washingtons-leadership/

by Peter Lillback

Our era is marked by political correctness and efforts to downplay Western civilization. Yet Americans still recognize George Washington as a great leader. Washington’s sweeping contributions include:

Securing American independence as General in the Revolutionary War

Presiding over the framing of the U.S. Constitution

Protecting and advancing religious liberty for all, inclusive of minority faiths

Establishing the precedents of the American presidency

Modeling the orderly and peaceful transition of power

But a key element of Washington’s leadership often remains unacknowledged or unrecognized: how the Bible shaped him as he shaped America. Washington’s biblical knowledge ranged from Genesis to Revelation, with well over 200 biblical allusions or citations in his writings including numerous references to Christianity, God, heaven, prayer, and the Ten Commandments, to name a few. Consider a letter he wrote in April 1789. Its classic style bristles with Biblical and theological concepts: “The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institutions may be abused by human depravity; and that they may even, in some instances be made subservient to the vilest of purposes.” Washington’s leadership often reflected Scriptural emphases. Consider three examples of Biblical ideas that impacted Washington’s leadership: providence, perseverance, and humility.

https://providenceforum.org/story/george-washington/

George Washington was placed on the One-Dollar bill for good reason. He was the champion of the Revolutionary War, and more. He was already being called “the father of his country” during his lifetime. At his funeral, he was eulogized as “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” As the hero of the nation, his views were especially important. His deep commitment to the providence of God is thus particularly significant.

Washington’s earliest dramatic experience of God’s providential protection occurred during General Braddock’s defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela, near modern day Pittsburgh, in 1755. Following the Battle, Washington wrote to his brother, John A. Washington on July 18, 1755: But by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me. Consistent with Washington’s early experience of God’s providential aid at the battle of Monongahela are his remarks penned on August 20, 1778, as the commander in chief of the Revolutionary Army. Referring to recent instances of divine intervention during the War for Independence, Washington wrote to Brigadier-General Nelson, describing himself as a man of faith and as a preacher of providence! “The hand of Providence has been conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. But it will be time enough for me to turn preacher when my present appointment ceases; and therefore I shall add no more on the doctrine of Providence.”

This remarkable story prompted the colonial Presbyterian preacher Rev. Samuel Davies of Hanover Virginia, and later President of the College at Princeton, N. J. to declare in a sermon entitled “Religion and Patriotism the Constituents of a Good Soldier”, “I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved him in so signal a manner, for some important service to his country.” Moreover, Washington’s grandson relates an astounding story of a subsequent encounter by Washington sixteen years later in 1770 with some of the very Indians that had sought to kill him at Braddock’s defeat. Twenty years after Washington’s experience of “the all-powerful dispensations of Providence” at Monongahela, he would be selected as the General of the Continental Army. The leaders of the new nation committed their military commander to the protection of Divine Providence.

Frequently throughout his career, Washington asserted the reality of divine providence. On the first of May, 1777, the American camp learned that France was joining the war on the side of America. Announcing this most significant French decision to his Army, Washington proclaimed at Valley Forge: “It having pleased the Almighty Ruler of the universe to defend the cause of the United American States, and finally to raise up a powerful friend among the princes of the earth, to establish our liberty and independence upon a lasting foundation, it becomes us to set apart a day for gratefully acknowledging the divine goodness, and celebrating the important event, which we owe to His divine interposition.”

Washington’s opportunity to become a preacher of providence occurred at his Inauguration as the first President of the United States under the American Constitution. A portion of Washington’s First Inaugural Address is as follows: “It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, [and] who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States.” On October 3rd in 1789, mindful of the many blessings God had bestowed upon America, President Washington proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving:

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” Washington, who assured the synagogue in New Port, Rhode Island that the American government “…gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance…,” also saw the duty of America to acknowledge and adore the care of divine providence for the American people. In his First Inaugural Address, he declared, “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency . . . We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.”139 Abraham Lincoln Statements

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/abraham_lincoln.html

• “A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.”
• “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
• “A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.”
• “All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother.”
• “All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.”
• “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”
• “Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.”
• “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”
• “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”
• “Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
• America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
• “And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”
• “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.”
• “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”
• “As our case is new, we must think and act anew.”
• “Avoid popularity if you would have peace.”
• “Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.”
• “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”
• “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
• “Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.”
• “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
• “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
• “Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.”
• “Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”
• “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.”
• “Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”
• “Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.”
• “Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”
• “Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.”
• “Everybody likes a compliment.”
• “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
• “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
• “God must love the common man, he made so many of them.”
• “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”
• “He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”
• “He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.”
• “Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.”
• “How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.”
• “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
• “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”
• “I can make more generals, but horses cost money.”
• “I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.”
• “I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.”
• “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.”
• “I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”
• “I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.”
• “I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.”
• “I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.”
• “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.”
• “I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.”
• “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”
• “I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.”
• “I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”
• “I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.”
• “I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”
• “I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.”
• “I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”
• “I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.”
• “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax.”
• “If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.”
• “If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
• If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.”
• “If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.”
• “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.”
• “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.”
• “If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg.”
• “If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.”
• “Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.”
• “In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.”
• “In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”
• “It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”
• “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.”
• “Knavery and flattery are blood relations.”
• “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
• “Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.”
• “Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
• “Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.”
• “Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
• “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
• “My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.”
• “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”
• “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”
• “Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.”
• “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”
• “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.”
• “No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.”
• “Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.”
• “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
• “Public opinion in this country is everything.”
• “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.”
• “Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.”
• “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”
• “Some day I shall be President.”
• “Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything.”
• “Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.”
• “Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.”
• “Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.”
• “That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”
• “The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.”
• “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”
• “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”
• “The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.”
• “The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.”
• “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”
• “The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.”
• “The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he makes so many of them.”
• “The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.”
• “The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.”
• “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”
• “The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”
• “The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.”

• “The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.”
• “The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.”
• “There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, "Truth is the daughter of Time.”
• There is nothing true anywhere, The true is nowhere to be seen; If you say you see the true, This seeing is not the true one.”
• “These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”
• “These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.”
• “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
• “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”
• “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”
• “To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.”
• “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”
• “To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men.”
• “Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.”
• “We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.”
• “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
• “What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.”
• “Whatever you are, be a good one.”
• “When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.”
• “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.”
• “When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.”
• “When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.”
• “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
• “With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.”
• “With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.”
• “With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.”
• “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
• “You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.”
• “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
• “You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.”

USA was a Christian nation-- https://app.box.com/s/s6daabfhl9s3or9y4ykbdfe0y47snasa

Foundational Documents of the Genesis of the United States of America logically indent formatted:

https://app.box.com/s/o6jb1cewahe9uouc07z6zfonjjy8vby2

Educational statue about the establishment of liberty in the USA--

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Monument_to_the_Forefathers

miscellaneous secular quotations in ETRLF-- https://app.box.com/s/zf9ilm46hb5q4l98hyrocysgwnrh6dnm

***Good advice for USA-- https://app.box.com/s/xm6yr

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Congress, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands

which have connected them with another

and to assume among the powers of the Earth, the separate and equal station

to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,

a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires

that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —

****What rights does God give Christians? What rights does the United States Constitution give? What rights are most of the Democrat political leaders and the liberal media wanting to make laws for? What rights do the just mentioned power-hungry individuals want taken away from Republicans and Christians?

*** I need to share the following about the country I have been in since December 1946.

I have done a lot of research and reading about its unique history.

It was founded by courageous men who believed and love God and His Word.

No other country in humankind history had such a start.

The United States Constitution is the longest government document

and the United States has the longest time of no violent power transitions.

The most arguing was about the Articles of Confederation which was created before the Constitution.

The Founding Fathers did not want the USA to become a democracy

because in history the democracies had resulted in a dictatorship or chaos.

So that is why they created a republic with

separation of powers for the 4 major parts of the Federal Government

and protections for the state governments.

United States was changed from a republic to a democracy in 1914 because President Woodrow Wilson,

who was a Presbyterian, took advice from Col. House (who actually was a communist).

The state legislature choosing of United States Senators was changed

to the direct election of the just mentioned

and the Federal Banking System was established.

Before Wilson died, he confessed orally and in writing that he was wrong

about taking Col. House's advice.

Later the Democrats have wanted a Constitutional Convention

in order to change it drastically for socialism.

President Reagan and the latter Presidents were wrong to promote democracy.

Charles de Montesquieu /

"Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principal source of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He is also known for doing more than any other author to secure the place of the word "despotism" in the political lexicon. His anonymously published The Spirit of the Laws, which was received well in both Great Britain and the American colonies, influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States in drafting the U.S. Constitution."

***"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate tireless minority keen to start brush fires in the peoples minds." Samuel Adams

*** “Avarice, ambition”, warned John Adams, “would break the strongest cords of our Constitution

as a whale goes through a net.

Our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people.

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

***”Since the general civilization of mankind,

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people

by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation.”

-- President James Madison (one of the USA Founding Fathers)

***”Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.

As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” - Benjamin Franklin

*** “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.” ~~Margaret Thatcher

The Pilgrims arrived in that state and were taught by Indians to survive.

They had begun with Socialism and half of them died the first winter.

*** “Socialism is

a philosophy of failure,

the creed of ignorance,

and the gospel or envy,

its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” — Winston Churchill

***George Santayana: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Julie Green PROPHETIC WORD?[IT'S ALL ABOUT TO BE OVERTURNED] A Shift Has Started Prophecy - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuHoywp2oK8