Trying Men’s Souls
Christmas, 2020
Paine and Freedom
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
Thomas Paine
December 23, 1776
Trying
Men’s Souls
Almost exactly
244 years ago today, Thomas Paine’s words capture our nation’s heartbeat as if
they were crafted for this morning’s newspaper headline that is if there was a
newspaper that would carry such a message. Of course, that is because 92% of
the remaining American print copy suffers the same fate as 92% of the words
written by the modern scribes.
There is
little suggestion any of them are direct descendants of the Founding Fathers if
genetics are the guiding markers.
The change
from now to then is profound. None other than John Adams estimated that 90% of
Americans were Whig sympathizers at the time of the American Revolution. It
there was objective consideration of why such a high percentage of those people
leaned that direction, the reasoning is actually simplistic. Education, what
there was of it, was grounded in the Bible, the classics, and the writings of
their English predecessors (there are many of us who believe their direct
companionship with the real natural world and all the realities thereof had an
equally profound impact on those people). That collection of words was
predicated on several thousand years of thought implicit in the creation of a
long line of civilizations ranging from Babylonia through Israel, Egypt,
Greece, and Rome and from Homer, to Socrates, Plato, Cicero, and on to the
likes of St. Thomas Acquinas and the English writers.
The millenniums
of crises and assessment became their foundation of knowledge.
Fresh in
their minds were the English writers and foremost among them were John Locke
and William Blackstone. Blackstone was not a Whig, but he agreed with many of
their republican philosophies. His famous four volume work of English law
combined common law and the compilation of the English constitutional law up
until just before our Revolution. His work became the primary bibliography sourcing
for much of the debate and the documents that would shortly erupt.
Locke,
though, was the contributor of the revolutionary premise that the people, rather
than the crown, were sovereign.
Locke may
well be the literary cornerstone of earthly man’s hope for individual and
humanistic freedom. He cast into words the suggestion that, by nature, people
had certain rights and duties. This included life, liberty, and the ownership
of property. With these rights, people had the right and the obligation to
govern themselves. Further, he counseled that civil rulers hold their power not
absolutely, but only and simply conditionally. Government should only be a
moral trust allowed and overseen among the citizenry.
Locke would
not be welcome into the hierarchy of the democratic or the communist party of
today.
He may not
be a welcome member of the republican party, either. The growing number of
those sunshine patriots seem to have no stomach for disrupting a corrupted
status quo. So, we watch as our economy tailspins into an ever-expanding abyss,
the specter of evil unveils itself in full regalia, and witness the pitiful
order of the day by the flashy summer soldiers to submit to fight another day.
Paine
and Freedom
The
continued words of Thomas Paine are central to the message as well as the
season.
…
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with
us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain
too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its
value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be
strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated.
Consider
those words.
If that part of his quote was the
introduction of our message today rather than embedded in the body, it would be
difficult to discern what he was actually writing about. Was it the time of
conflict that impacted his state of mind or was it something else? It would be
no stretch to conclude the words to be a prelude to a Christmas message.
After all, the birth of Jesus
Christ set in motion the most glorious of all triumphs, the forgiveness of
sins.
The words are a timeless doctrine
of civilized man. They are folded into the path to redemption in a world of
chaos and corruption. Try to separate that message from the blessings of our
Christian faith and existence and it cannot be done. In fact, they stand in
such coordinated juxtaposition with Bible verse that perhaps Thomas Paine
should be elevated to stand not just with patriots, but with … a higher angelic
cast of characters.
Christmas, 2020
This may be the most important
Christmas of our modern existence.
At a time when we are being ordered
by conditional civil rulers to disrupt the most basic and sacred aspects of our
lives, we can find no greater solace than to pray and act in the support of our
like-minded brothers and sisters of Christian faith. Seek them!
Place added importance on family. Remind
them of their importance to you. Pray with them the prayer He taught us. Pray,
too, for one honest man among us standing in the sight of God. Above all, seek
the most glorious triumph that is set before each one of us.
Christmas is the true day of Freedom.
Stephen
L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “In 1806, John Adams observed
I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its
inhabitants or affairs in the last thirty years than Thomas Paine. In 2020,
like-minded brothers and sisters of Christ must remember it is He who
set the value of our lives for eternity.”
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