What would you give up your life for?
For whom would you hand over every dime you have?
Sobering questions, aren't they?
This Sunday at 9:50 a.m., we'll look at Stephen's witness in
Acts 6:8-15 and Acts 7. Stephen was stoned for his beliefs; he was the first Christian martyr.
You'll enjoy the route we take in examining our passage.
I always try to relate our lesson to things happening today. It makes the story more vivid.
So what's going on in the world right now? Is there an election coming up?
Tuesday is Election Day. It's the day we'll decide who will lead our country for the next four years.
I
wanted to step back from all the bile and vitriol that's been spewed
from both sides. (Translation: Let's step out of the political mud for a
moment.)
Let's go all the way back to when our country was
born. Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence which
severed our ties with Great Britain.
How did that work out for them? Here's an excerpt from "The Americans Who Risked Everything":
· Francis Lewis, New York delegate saw his home plundered -- and his
estates in what is now Harlem -- completely
destroyed by British Soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great
brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the
efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse.
· William Floyd, another New York
delegate, was able to escape with his wife and children across Long Island
Sound to Connecticut,
where they lived as refugees without income for seven years. When they came
home they found a devastated ruin.
· Philips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated and
his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still working in
Congress for the cause.
· Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber,
crops, and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and
family.
· John Hart of Trenton,
New Jersey, risked his life to
return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he
escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined
his farm and wrecked his homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he
was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he
was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13
children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779,
without ever finding his family.
· Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey,
later called Princeton. The British occupied
the town of Princeton,
and billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college
library in the country.
· Judge Richard Stockton, another New Jersey delegate signer, had rushed back
to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. The family found
refuge with friends, but a Tory sympathizer betrayed them. Judge Stockton was
pulled from bed in the night and brutally beaten by the arresting soldiers.
Thrown into a common jail, he was deliberately starved. Congress finally
arranged for Stockton's
parole, but his health was ruined. The judge was released as an invalid, when
he could no longer harm the British cause. He returned home to find his estate
looted and did not live to see the triumph of the Revolution. His family was
forced to live off charity.
· Robert Morris, merchant prince of Philadelphia,
delegate and signer, met Washington's
appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised arms and
provisions which made it possible for Washington
to cross the Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at
sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry.
· George Clymer, Pennsylvania signer, escaped with his family from their
home, but their property was completely destroyed by the British in the Germantown and Brandywine
campaigns.
· Dr. Benjamin Rush, also from Pennsylvania,
was forced to flee to Maryland.
As a heroic surgeon with the army, Rush had several narrow escapes.
· John Martin, a Tory in his views previous to the debate,
lived in a strongly loyalist area of Pennsylvania.
When he came out for independence, most of his neighbors and even some of his
relatives ostracized him. He was a sensitive and troubled man, and many
believed this action killed him. When he died in 1777, his last words to his
tormentors were: "Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they
shall acknowledge it [the signing] to have been the most glorious service that
I have ever rendered to my country."
· William Ellery,
Rhode Island delegate, saw his
property and home burned to the ground.
· Thomas Lynch, Jr., South
Carolina delegate, had his health broken from
privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in the military.
His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies
and on the voyage, he and his young bride were drowned at sea.
· Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward,
Jr., the other three South Carolina signers,
were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston.
They were carried as prisoners of war to St.
Augustine, Florida,
where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of
the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large
landholdings and estates.
· Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia,
was at the front in command of the Virginia
military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, fire from
70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown
piece by piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their headquarters into
Nelson's palatial home. While American cannonballs were making a shambles of
the town, the house of Governor Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in
rage to the American gunners and asked, "Why do you spare my home?"
They replied, "Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson cried, "Give
me the cannon!" and fired on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to
bits. But Nelson's sacrifice was not quite over. He had raised $2 million for
the Revolutionary cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a
newer peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson's property was
forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, impoverished, a few years later at
the age of 50.
Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine
died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned,
in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire
families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were
at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes.
Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything
they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor,
and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.
And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark.
He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary
Army. They were captured and sent to that infamous British prison hulk afloat
in New York Harbor
known as the hell ship Jersey, where 11,000
American captives were to die. The younger Clarks
were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in
solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost
won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request
when they offered him his sons' lives if he would recant and come out for the
King and Parliament. The utter despair in this man's heart, the anguish in his
very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his
answer: "No."
The 56 signers of the Declaration Of Independence proved by
their every deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most
magnificent curtain line in history. "And for the support of this
Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honor."
There is no more profound sentence than this: "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..."
These are far more than mere poetic words. The underlying
ideas that infuse every sentence of this treatise have sustained this nation
for more than two centuries. They were forged in the crucible of great
sacrifice. They are living words that spring from and satisfy the deepest cries
for liberty in the human spirit.
"Sacred honor" isn't a phrase we use much these
days, but every American life is touched by the bounty of this, the Founders'
legacy. It is freedom, tested by blood, and watered with tears.
This came from a speech given by the father of radio talk-show host
Rush Limbaugh. You may like or dislike Rush Limbaugh, but you cannot
argue with the sacrifice made by many of the signers of the document
which created our great country.
We live in a place that does not require sacrifice on a scale even remotely close to what our founders faced.
Yet, as Christians, God calls us to give everything we have and everything we are to Him.
Are you willing to do that?
Finish Friday strong. Enjoy Saturday with your family. See you Sunday!
Loyally yours,
Darren Bayne
Speaking about his preaching style: “I simply set myself on fire and people come to watch me
burn.”
- John Wesley
