American Minute

[Soldier4Christ]

President Hoover wrote in 1932: "Your CHRISTMAS Service held each year at the foot of a living tree which was alive at the time of the birth of Christ...should be continued as a further symbol of the unbroken chain of life leading back to this great moment in the spiritual life of mankind." President Eisenhower remarked in 1960: "Through the ages men have felt the uplift of the spirit of CHRISTMAS. We commemorate the birth of the Christ Child by...giving expression to our gratitude for the great things that His coming has brought about in the world." President Carter commented in 1977: "CHRISTMAS has a special meaning for those of us who are Christians, those of us who believe in Christ, those of us who know that almost 2,000 years ago, the Son of Peace was born." President Reagan stated in 1983: "CHRISTMAS is a time...to open our hearts to...millions forbidden the freedom to worship a God who so loved the world that He gave us the birth of the Christ Child so that we might learn to love." Reagan continued: "The message of Jesus is one of hope and joy. I know there are those who recognize CHRISTMAS DAY as the birthday of a wise teacher...then there are others of us who believe that he was the Son of God, that he was divine."

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The first six months of the Revolution saw the Continental Army chased from New York, New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. Ranks dwindled from 20,000 to 2,000 exhausted soldiers- most leaving at year's end when their six-month enlistment was up. Expecting British invasion, the Continental Congress fled Philadelphia and sent the word "until Congress shall otherwise order, General Washington be possessed of full power to order and direct all things." In an operation with the password "Victory or Death," Washington's troops crossed the ice-filled Delaware River at midnight Christmas Day. Trudging in a blinding blizzard, one soldier freezing to death, they attacked the feared Hessian troops at daybreak DECEMBER 26, 1776, capturing nearly a thousand in just over an hour. A few Americans were shot, including James Monroe, the future 5th President. Washington wrote August 20, 1778: "The Hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this-the course of the war-that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more wicked that has not gratitude to acknowledge his obligations; but it will be time enough for me to turn Preacher when my present appointment ceases."

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An attack of smallpox when he was four-years-old left him with crippled hands and poor eyesight. Overcoming those handicaps, he studied Copernicus' works and at age 23 became a professor of astronomy. His name was Johannes Kepler, born DECEMBER 27, 1571. His laws of planetary motion, known as Kepler's Laws, helped Newton formulate the theory of gravity. In his work, "The Harmonies of the World," book five, Kepler stated: "O, Almighty God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee!...The book is written, to be read either now or by posterity, I care not which. It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer." In comparing celestial orbits of the planets with polyphonic harmonies in music, Kepler wrote: "Holy Father, keep us safe in the concord of our love for one another, that we may be one just as Thou art with Thy Son, Our Lord, and with the Holy Ghost, and just as through the sweetest bonds of harmonies Thou hast made all Thy works one," Kepler continued: "and that from the bringing of Thy people into concord, the body of Thy Church may be built up in the Earth, as Thou didst erect the heavens themselves out of harmonies."

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Armenia was the first nation to become Christian, with its capitol of Ani called the "city of a 1,001 churches." Muslim Turks began invading in the 11th century, making Christian second-class citizens called "dhimmi" and forcing boys to convert and serve the Muslim army as "Janissaries." When the Ottoman Empire declined in the 1800's, Greeks, Serbs and Romanians won independence, but Armenians were trapped by Sultan Abdul Hamid, who killed 100,000. During World War I, "Young Turks" murdered over a million men, women and children in a jihad, marching them into the desert without water, throwing them off cliffs or burning them alive. Armenian cities of Kharpert, Van and Ani were leveled. Russia came to their aid till the Bolshevik revolution began. Armenia's pleas at the Paris Peace Conference led President Wilson in a failed effort to make Armenia a U.S. protectorate. Woodrow Wilson, who was born DECEMBER 28, 1856, told Congress, May 24, 1920: "The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has established the truth of the reported massacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian people have suffered... Sympathy for Armenia among our people has sprung from untainted consciences, pure Christian faith and an earnest desire to see Christian people everywhere succored in their time of suffering."

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The first President to light the National Menorah, Jimmy Carter, speaking of hostages held by Islamic terrorists in Iran, 1979, said: "Commitments to be free are ever present in the hearts of all Americans because 50 of our fellow citizens are not free." Ronald Reagan, the second President to give a HANUKKAH Message, 1983, remarked: "Whether we be Americans or Israelis, we are all children of Abraham, children of the same God. The bonds between our two peoples are growing stronger, and they must not and will never be broken." In his 1991 HANUKKAH Message, George H.W. Bush stated: "When Judah Maccabee and his followers prepared to rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem, they found...only enough oil to light the menorah for one night. Miraculously, it lasted eight." Bill Clinton, in his 1993 HANUKKAH Message, said: "The eternal lesson of HANUKKAH-that faith gives us the strength to work miracles and find light in times of darkness." President George W. Bush said in his 2001 HANUKKAH Message: "For the first time in American history, the HANUKKAH menorah will be lit at the White House residence...America and Israel have been through much together...A better day is coming when this Festival will be celebrated in a world free from terror."

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"Oh, East is East, and West is West, And never the twain shall meet, Till earth and sky stand presently, At God's great judgment seat" wrote Rudyard Kipling in Ballad of East and West. Born DECEMBER 30, 1865, in Bombay, India, he was sent back to England at age 5 for schooling. Poor eyesight ended hopes of a military career, so at age 16 he returned to India as a journalist, winning acclaim for his poems. He fell in love with his friend's sister, Caroline Balestier, while visiting in America. They married and settled in Vermont, where two of their children were born. There he wrote Captains Courageous and The Jungle Books. Once back in England, he declined King George V's offer of knighthood, Poet Laureate and Order of Merit, though accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. His works include: Kim, Wee Willie Winkie, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Gunga Din. President Reagan said, December 13, 1988: "As I prepare to lay down the mantle of office...I cannot help believe that what Rudyard Kipling said of another time and place is true today for America: 'We are at the opening verse of the opening page of the chapter of endless possibilities.' Thank you, and God bless you."

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On DECEMBER 31, 1955, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led a nonviolent protest by boycotting the city buses of Montgomery, Alabama. Rev. King stated: "If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, 'There lived a great people...who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.'" At the end of the year, 1962, President John F. Kennedy stated: "We mark the festival of Christmas which is the most sacred and hopeful day in our civilization. For nearly 2,000 years the message of Christmas, the message of peace and good will towards all men, has been the guiding star of our endeavors...the birthday of the Prince of Peace." President Kennedy continued: "To the one million men in uniform who will celebrate this Christmas away from their homes...and to all of you I send my very best wishes for a blessed and happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year."

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Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Portland Chase, reported that September 1862, President Lincoln commented to his Cabinet after the
Confederate Army lost the Battle of Antietam: “The time for the annunciation of the emancipation policy can no longer be delayed. Public sentiment will sustain it, many of my warmest friends and supporters demand it, and I have promised God that I will do it.” When asked about the last statement, Lincoln replied: “I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee were driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves.” The Emancipation Proclamation stated: “I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief...do, on the FIRST DAY OF JANUARY, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three...publicly proclaim...that all persons held as slaves...are, and henceforward shall be, free... And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence... and... recommend... they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.” Lincoln concluded: “And upon this act...I invoke...the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

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JANUARY 2nd is Betsy Ross Day. Born a day earlier, January 1, 1752, to a Quaker family in Philadelphia, she was 8th of 17 children. Apprenticed as a seamstress, she fell in love with upholsterer John Ross, son of an Episcopal rector at Christ Church and nephew of George Ross, signer of the Declaration of Independence. As Quakers forbade interdenominational marriage, John and Betsy eloped, being married by New Jersey Governor William Franklin, Ben Franklin's son. Attending Christ's Church with Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin, their pew number 12 was near George Washington's. During the Revolution, John Ross died when a munitions depot he was guarding blew up. Shortly after, in June 1776, General Washington reportedly asked Betsy Ross to sew the American Flag. In 1777, Betsy married sea captain Joseph Ashburn at the Old Swedes Church. That winter the British forcibly quartered in their home. Joseph Ashburn sailed to the West Indies to get war supplies, but was captured by the British and sent to Old Mill Prison, where he died in 1782. Another prisoner there was John Claypoole, who married Betsy in May 1783 at Christ Church and together they had 5 children.

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Frederick the Great of Prussia called these ten days "the most brilliant in the world's history." After winning the Battle of Trenton, Christmas night, George Washington's small force met General Cornwallis' 8,000 man British army. The night before the battle, Washington left his campfires burning and silently marched his army around the back of the British camp at Princeton, New Jersey. At daybreak, JANUARY 3, 1777, Washington attacked, capturing three regiments of British troops. Enthusiasm swept America. Yale President Ezra Stiles stated in an Election Address before the Governor and General Assembly of Connecticut: "In our lowest and most dangerous state, in 1776 and 1777, we sustained ourselves against the British Army of 60.000 troops, commanded by...the ablest generals Britain could procure throughout Europe, with a naval force of 22,000 seamen in above 80 men-of-war. Who but a Washington, inspired by Heaven, could have conceived the surprise move upon the enemy at Princeton-or that Christmas eve when Washington and his army crossed the Delaware?" Ezra Stiles continued: "The United States are under peculiar obligations to become a holy people unto the Lord our God."

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Called the "Father of American Medicine," he signed the Declaration of Independence, was Surgeon General of the Continental Army, and a staff member of the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he opened the first free medical clinic. His name was Benjamin Rush, and he was born JANUARY 4, 1745. He founded the Philadelphia Bible Society, a Sunday School Union and a Society for the Abolition of Slavery. A proponent of public education, Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote his Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic, 1786: "I proceed...to inquire what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all of the advantages that are to be derived from the proper instruction of the youth; and here I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid on the foundation of religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments." Benjamin Rush continued: "But the religion I mean to recommend in this place is that of the New Testament...Its doctrines and precepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society and the safety and well-being of civil government."

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Kidnapped after the Civil War, he was ransomed with a horse. Raised by German immigrants, Moses and Susan Carver, he left home at eleven and attended school in Neosho, Missouri, paying tuition by doing odd jobs. He drifted from Kansas to Iowa, working as a cook and doing laundry. He studied at Simpson College, then received a bachelor's and master's degree from Iowa State. Booker T. Washington recruited him to teach at Tuskegee Institute, where he introduced hundred of uses for the peanut, soybean and sweet potato, revolutionizing the South's economy. This was George Washington Carver, who died JANUARY 5, 1943. He addressed Congress, met with Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Roosevelt, was offered jobs by Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, and received correspondence from world leaders, including Gandhi and Stalin. In 1928, Dr. Carver stated: "Human need is really a great spiritual vacuum which God seeks to fill...With one hand in the hand of a fellow man in need and the other in the hand of Christ, He could get across the vacuum...Then the passage, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me,' came to have real meaning."

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In 567 AD, the Council of Tours ended a dispute. Western Europe celebrated Christmas, December 25, and Eastern Europe celebrated Epiphany, JANUARY 6, recalling the Wise Men's visit and Jesus' baptism. The Council made all 12 days from December 25 to January 6 "holy days" or "holidays," thus the "Twelve Days of Christmas." A song from 1625, "In Those Twelve Days," assigned meanings to each day: "What are they that are but one? We have one God alone...What are they which are by two? Two testaments, Old and New...What are they which are but three? Three persons in the Trinity...What are they which are but four? Four sweet Evangelists there are...What are they which are but five? Five senses...What are they which are but six? Six days to labor...What are they which are but seven? Seven liberal arts hath God sent down...What are they which are but eight? Eight Beatitudes...What are they which are but nine? Nine Muses...with sacred tunes...What are they which are but ten? Ten statutes God to Moses gave...What are they which are but eleven? Eleven thousand virgins...suffered death for Jesus' sake. What are they which are but twelve? Twelve attending on God's son."

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Becoming the 13th President when Zachary Taylor died unexpectedly, he sent Commodore Perry to Japan and admitted California, which just began the Gold Rush, into the Union. This was Millard Fillmore, born JANUARY 7, 1800. When the Library of Congress caught fire, he formed a bucket brigade to extinguish the flames. On July 10, 1850, Millard Fillmore stated: "I dare not shrink; and I rely upon Him who holds in His hands the destinies of nations to endow me with the requisite strength for the task." In his Annual Message, December 2, 1850, Millard Fillmore stated: "I can not bring this communication to a close without invoking you to join me in humble and devout thanks to the Great Ruler of Nations for the multiplied blessings which He has graciously bestowed upon us. His hand, so often visible in our preservation, has stayed the pestilence, saved us from foreign wars and domestic disturbances, and scattered plenty throughout the land." In his Annual Message, December 6, 1852, President Fillmore stated: "We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the Constitution and Government...bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit...to our children."

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American Minute for January 8th:

    Though the War of 1812 had ended two weeks earlier, news had not yet reached New Orleans and on January 8, 1815, five thousand British soldiers charged in a frontal assault against General Andrew Jackson's Tennessee and Kentucky sharpshooters. French pirate Jean Lafitte and his men aided the Americans. In just a half-hour, over two thousand British were killed and only 8 Americans. On JANUARY 8, 1815, General Andrew Jackson wrote to Robert Hays regarding the victorious Battle of New Orleans: "It appears that the unerring hand of Providence shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets, when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death." Known as "Old Hickory," Andrew Jackson commented to Major Dravezac on his confidence before the Battle: "I was sure of success, for I knew that God would not give me previsions of disaster, but signs of victory. He said this ditch can never be passed. It cannot be done." Andrew Jackson wrote to Secretary of War James Monroe: "Heaven, to be sure, has interposed most wonderfully in our behalf, and I am filled with gratitude, when I look back to what we have escaped."