As of this reading, the Fourth of July will by now have passed. Many others have written far better than I can hope to about the meaning and relevance of this and other holidays in modern day America but still I couldn’t help but think of how surprisingly similar some aspects were even in the years not too far passed in our country’s birth, especially with respect to those who were part of it.
Two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Benjamin Rush and John Adams, who had a deep friendship. In just over three decades after that signing, Rush wrote the following to Adams:
“Dear old friend
The 4th of July has been celebrated in Philada: in the manner I expected... Scarcely a word was said of the solicitude and labors, and fears, and sorrows and sleepless nights of the men who projected, proposed, defended and Subscribed the declaration of independence. Do you recollect your memorable speech upon the Day on which the Vote was taken? Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress, to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants? The Silence and the gloom of the morning were interrupted I well recollect only for a moment by Col: Harrison of Virginia who said to Mr. Gerry at the table, ‘I shall have a great advantage over you Mr. Gerry when we are all hung for what we are now doing...”
Rush continued with this recollection of gallows humor in that atmosphere, and (their) present day situation in which not only were many of the founding fathers ignored but even at times held in derision, irrespective of the extreme sacrifices that were made to secure the foundations of the freedoms they had come to enjoy.
In our times, revisionist historians have worked hard to eradicate as much as possible the incontrovertible centrality of Christianity, Christ Jesus and His Word in both our country’s inchoate founding and within the lives of many of those same founders, many of whom directly and purposefully drew from the examples of God and His people in the Bible.
Today, not only has God been taken out of how we reckon time (B.C./A.D. vs B.C.E./C.E), but without mentioning the many efforts made to obviate God from our schools and public forums, there are now increasing calls to go so far as to replace the Constitution itself.
It reminds me of a very human trait, which is to take for granted the blessings we have in our individual lives. The Israelites were at various times as guilty of this just as we all have been. All that said, the Fourth of July is but one of many areas were we would do well to remember that true peace and blessings come only from our Creator, often wrought through the selfless efforts of the faithful, in deference to Christ Jesus, Who gave His life for us all.
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