A Better Way
"That which is not just is not law."
William Lloyd Garrison, Abolitionist and Editor (1805-1879) [1]
"Can anyone truthfully claim that he did not know stealing was wrong? Possessiveness seems to be a basic impulse in humans, but while a child may want other children's toys, he soon comes to know that they are not his. Small thefts grow into larger ones unless the desire is curbed... This urge to take another's property is exhibited in many forms — theft, bribery, driving hard bargains, evasion of income taxes, extortion, covetousness, greedy court actions, misrepresentations which seek to take something for nothing, and so on. Anyone who practices any such form of dishonesty needs to repent, develop a clear conscience, and be free from fetters, chains, worries, and fears."[2]
In the Anglo-Saxon writings, there is a story of a King Ine (Ina), who had been king for a very long time. Ethelburga, his wife, had been trying to get him to retire. One day, she found the opportunity to make it happen. This is the story of how she did it:
"His queen had long exhorted him, as his age advanced, to retire from the concerns of the world; but the charms of habitual power for some time defeated her eloquence. One day, as she travelled with the king to one of his rural mansions, where a splendid feast was prepared with all the pomp and bustle of royal luxury, she seized the occasion of converting it to a moral lecture on her favourite theme. They left the place after the repast, and a rustic by her orders, in their absence, scattered the festive hall with filth and rubbish, and placed a swinish litter on the couch where he reposed [or lay]. Before they had advanced two miles on their road, she desired to return, and Ina courteously complied with her request; but when he entered the hall of his festivity, and saw the disgusting change, he contemplated it with silent astonishment and displeasure, till informed that the queen had directed it; he demanded from her an explanation of the strange mystery. She smiled and answered, 'My lord and husband! this is not, indeed, the noisy hilarity of yesterday: here are no brilliant hangings, no flattery, and no parasites: here are no tables weighed down with silver vessels; no exquisite delicacies to delight the palate: all these are gone like the smoke and wind. Have they not already passed away into nothingness? And should not we feel alarmed who covet them so much, because we shall be as transient? Are not all such things, are not we ourselves, like a river, hurrying, heedless and headlong, to the dark ocean of illimitable time? Unhappy must we be if we let them absorb our minds! Think, I entreat you, how disgusting those things become of which we have been so enamoured. See to what filthy objects we are attached. In these loathsome relics we may see what our pampered bodies will become. Ah! let us reflect, that the greater we have been, and the more powerful we are now, the more alarmed should be our solicitude; for the greater will be the punishment of our misconduct.'"[3]
After the king saw the wisdom of his queen, the king retired. He then moved to Rome and set up a school and died shortly after. Does this story not demonstrate how we need to not place so much value on the things of this world? Things only have value because we value them. Is there not a better way? Is the better way the way George Washington referred to when he wrote a letter to the chief men and deputies of the Delaware Nation and said the following:
"Brothers.
I am glad you have brought three of the Children of your principal Chiefs to be educated with us. I am sure Congress will open the Arms of love to them - and will look upon them as their own Children and will have them educated accordingly...You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life and above all - the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are."[4]
"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."
Declaration of Independence
The men who founded this country pledged their Lives, their Fortunes, their Sacred Honor, and did they not also rely on Divine Providence? When they signed the Declaration of Independence, they were signing away their lives — if they would have been captured. Some of them died broke. Some of them had family members tortured or killed. Some of them lost their fortunes that they had earned before the Revolutionary War. Is it not our turn to do the same? After reading these things, do you not now recognize that our country and our freedoms are in peril? Is not the time NOW for us to pledge OUR Lives, OUR Fortunes, OUR sacred Honor, and to rely on Divine Providence? If you feel so moved, donate to this cause. Help me. Help me to open the eyes of others. HELP ME TO LIGHT THE FIRE OF PATRIOTISM IN OTHERS! Subscribe TODAY! Subscribe
[1]: Am I Not A Man, The Dred Scott Story, Mark L. Shurtleff, p. 423, Valor Publishing Group, LLC 2009, ISBN: 978-1-935546-00-9
[2]: A Companion to your Study of the Old Testament, Daniel H. Ludlow, p. 152, Deseret Book Company 1981, ISBN: 0-87747-853-8
[3]: The History of the Anglo-Saxons, Vol. 1, 6th Ed., Sharon Turner, p. 236
[4]: This Glorious Struggle, George Washington's Revolutionary War Letters, Edward G. Lengel, p. 179, ISBN: 978-0-06-125131-3 http://www.harpercollins.com