While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
"The entrance of thy word giveth light, it
giveth understanding to the simple. Open
thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous
things out of thy law."-David.
An American citizen does not need to go
to far-off India or Africa to learn how
people live without the Bible. Every heathen
nation, living in ignorance and degradation
furnishes a practical illustration. This
illustration may be found by visiting the
countries on the other side of the southern
boundary line of the United States, where
for several centuries under dominant
catholic influence the Bible has been a
forbidden book in the few public educational
institutions of the country. The result may
now be seen in the general prevalence of
ignorance, poverty and oppression; the
ownership of land limited to a comparatively
few persons, corruption and rapacity on the
part of public officials, general
improvement checked and the country
impoverished by frequent insurrections and
revolutions, that indicate incapacity for
stable and prosperous self-government.
France, however, once made the actual
experiment of suppressing the Bible and
Bible readers for two centuries, during the
period from 1572 to 1795, while the
Reformation of the 16th century was
progressing in Germany, Switzerland, Britain
and other countries.
Thomas Carlyle, in his history of the
French Revolution, that occurred 1788 to
1795, has very dramatically portrayed scenes
and incidents, which become pregnant with
new and thrilling interest, when briefly
summarized to illustrate the folly and sad
consequences of suppressing the Bible and
Bible readers in that nation. The historic
value of these incidents should make this
story interesting and instructive to every
student and teacher.
Atheism, Deism,
Philosophism
Louis XV, king of France, at the end of a
reign of fifty-nine years, dies unwept and
unmourned in 1774. Affirming there is no God
or heaven, at the beginning of his long
reign, and not permitting any of his
courtiers to mention the word "death" in his
presence, he abandons himself to a life of
forbidden pleasure, humiliates and
scandalizes the people of France instead of
enlightening and elevating them. He inherits
and maintains the tyrannous and oppressive
feudal system that prevents the common
people from acquiring ownership of land. His
career has been described, "as an hideous
abortion and mistake of nature, the use and
meaning of which is not yet known." The
persecution of Bible readers, or
Protestants, is begun with a general
massacre at Paris, on the anniversary of
Saint Bartholomew in 1572. Those who escape
the bloody horrors of that occasion, are
commanded to emigrate from France, on pain
of death. The following events occur, during
the latter part of the last half century,
preceding the French Revolution.
The leaders in thought are the shameless and
selfish infidels and deists, Voltaire,
Rosseau, Robespierre and others like them.
Paris admires her deistical authors and
makes them the objects of hero-worship.
They are called "Philosophs," and Bible
readers must not stand in their way.
Philosophism sits joyful in glittering
saloons, is the pride of nobles and promises
a coming millennium. Crushing and scattering
the last elements of the Protestant
Reformation, they blindly and falsely talk
of a Reformed France. The people applaud,
instead of suppressing these false teachers.
The highest dignitaries of the Church waltz
with quack-prophets, pick pockets and public
women. The invisible world of Satan is
displayed and the smoke of its torment goes
up continually. No provision is made for the
general education of the common people and
yet the government is fast becoming
bankrupt.
In 1774 Louis XVI succeeds his father, as
the last King of France. He is youthful,
uneducated, imbecile. He is wedded to a
giddy superficial queen. Both are infidels
and incapable of any intelligent acts of
government. With imbecility and credulity on
the throne, corruption continues to prevail
among high and low. Instead of individual
thrift and general prosperity, poverty and
famine prevail throughout the land.
Appeal For Bread
In 1775, impelled by a scarcity of bread, a
vast multitude from the surrounding country
gather around the royal palace at
Versailles, their great number, sallow faces
and squalid appearance indicating widespread
wretchedness and want. Their appeal for
royal assistance is plainly written, in
"legible hieroglyphics in their winged
raggedness."
The young king appears on the balcony and
they are permitted to see his face. If he
does not read their written appeal, he sees
it in their pitiable condition. The response
of the king is an order, that two of them be
hanged. The rest are sent back to their
miserable hovels with a warning not to give
the king any more trouble.
Mirabeau, a French writer, describes a
similar scene that occurs later that same
year. "The savages descending in torrents
from the mountains our people are ordered
not to go out. The bagpipes begin to play,
but the dance in a quarter of an hour is
interrupted by a battle. The cries of
children and infirm persons incite them, as
the rabble does when dogs fight. The men,
like frightful wild animals, are clad in
coarse woolen jackets with large girdles of
leather studded with copper nails. Their
gigantic stature is heightened by high
wooden clogs. Their faces are haggard and
covered with long greasy hair. The upper
part of their visage waxes pale, while the
lower distorts itself into a cruel laugh, or
the appearance of a ferocious impatience."
These proceedings are a protest of the
common people, of whom there are twenty
millions, against government by
blind-man's-buff. These people, paying their
taxes, are protesting against corrupt
officials depriving them of their salt and
sugar, in order to maintain royal and
official extravagance. Stumbling too far
prepares the way for a general overturn.
Moral And Financial
Bankruptcy
There is no visible government. Its
principal representative is the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, or king's treasurer; and
"Deficit of revenue" is his constant
announcement, to the feudal lords, who
exercise local government. In 1787 Cardinal
Lomenie becomes the king's new treasurer.
His predecessor has been ousted because the
treasury was bankrupt, but his unscrupulous
methods continue to be adopted because no
better ones can be devised. As late as the
next year the cardinal demands the
infliction of the death penalty on all
Protestant preachers.
The period has become one of spiritual and
moral bankruptcy. The Bible has been
suppressed and blind human reason has been
exalted. There is no bond of morality to
hold the people together. Men become slaves
of their lusts and appetites, and society, a
mass of sensuality, rascality and falsehood.
Infidelity, despotism and general bankruptcy
prevail every where. There is no royal
authority and the palace of justice at
Versailles is closed.
The poverty and misery, experienced by the
peasants in their comfortless hovels,
awakens a feeling of discontent and protest.
This feeling of protest, among the poor and
illiterate, permeates upward and becomes
more intense as it proceeds. In this
unorganized protest the hand of one is
arrayed against his fellow man. The common
people are arrayed against the nobles; the
nobles, against each other, and both nobles
and people are bitter against the
government. Townships are arrayed against
townships and towns against towns. Gibbets
are erected everywhere and a dozen wretched
bodies may be seen hanging in a row. The
mayor of Vaison is buried alive; the mayor
of Etampes, defending a supply of food, is
trampled to death by a mob exasperated with
hunger, and the mayor of Saint Denis is hung
at Lanterne. The ripening grain is left
ungathered in the fields, and the fruit of
the vineyards is trodden under foot. The
bloody cruelty of universal madness prevails
everywhere.
A frightful hail storm, that destroys the
grain and fruits of the year at the
beginning of harvest, is followed by a
severe drought in 1788. Foulon, an official
grown gray in treachery and iniquity, when
asked,
"What will the people do?"
makes response,
"The people may eat grass."
The royal government is now described, as
existing only for its own benefit; without
right, except possession; and now also
without might. "It foresees nothing, and has
no purpose, except to maintain its own
existence. It is wholly a vortex in which
vain counsels, falsehoods, intrigues and
imbecilities whirl like withered rubbish in
the meeting of the winds."
Commerce of all kinds, as far as possible,
has come to a dead pause, and the hand of
the industrious is idle. Many of the people
subsist on meal-husks and boiled grass.
Armed Brigands begin to make their
appearance and a "reign of terror," is
ushered in.
First Popular Assembly
On May 4, 1789, the first popular assembly
meets at Versailles, more Churches than
other buildings having been used as polling
places, at this first election in France.
The assembly is composed of nobles, clergy
and commoners, the last representing the
people.
Six "parlements," consisting only of
nobles, have previously been convened by the
king's treasurer, and as often have been
dismissed by the king, because they were not
willing to tax themselves more, to increase
the revenues of the king. In this assembly,
there are six hundred commoners, who, when
the king dismissed the assembly, under the
leadership of Mirabeau refused to be
dismissed, and bind themselves by an oath,
to remain in session, until they have framed
and adopted a constitution.
This act of the commoners is the beginning
of the French Revolution. This Revolution
has been defined, as "An open, violent
rebellion and victory of unimprisoned
anarchy, against corrupt worn-out authority;
breaking prison, raging uncontrollable and
enveloping a world in fever frenzy, until
the mad forces are made to work toward their
object, as sane and regulated ones."
These commoners are shut out of their hall
and their signatures are attached to their
oath in a tennis court. They are later
joined by Lafayette, the friend of
Washington, and by other nobles and 149
Roman clergy. They are treated offensively,
but cannot be offended. They are animated
with a desire to prepare a constitution that
will regenerate France, abolish the old
order and usher in a new one.
Paris, always very demonstrative under
excitement, grows wild with enthusiasm for
the commoners, and others, who compose their
first National Assembly. They go simmering
and dancing, thinking they are shaking off
something old and advancing to something
new. They have hope in their hearts, the
hope of an unutterable universal golden age,
and nothing but freedom, equality and
brotherhood on their lips. Their hopes,
however, are based on nothing but the
"vapory vagaries of unenlightened human
reason," instead of the unchanging truths
and principles of Divine Revelation. They
experience an indescribable terror, of the
unnumbered hordes of Europe rallying against
them, in addition to the constant dread of
their own cruel, armed brigands and inhuman
official executioners.
Unfortunately the commoners had not been
previously trained in the art of
statesmanship, and after a long session,
that lasted until September 14, 1791, the
constitution then proposed was still
incomplete; and had to be submitted to
another assembly to be completed. They
however accomplish some things worthy of
note. In 1789 they abolish feudalism, root
and branch; and the payment of tithes. The
latter meant the separation of Church and
state, in matters of support and government;
and this event seemed to the deists, like a
time of Pentecost.
Republic Of France
On Sept. 22, 1792 the Republic of France is
declared. On Jan. 1, 1793, King Louis XVI,
who had become a runaway king, and on
October 16th following, Marie Antoinette,
the queen, are executed. These events are
followed by another reign of terror, the
plundering of Churches and a war with Spain.
The Republic of France, when first
established, proves to be one of a mob,
robbing and murdering those, who had
property. The people become despotic as soon
as they have disposed of their useless king,
and queen. There were only nine prisoners in
the Bastille, when it was destroyed, but now
in two days and under the name of liberty,
eight thousand innocent persons are
massacred in prison. Walter Scott in his
Life of Napoleon adds: "Three hundred
thousand other persons, one third of whom
are women, are ruthlessly committed to
prison," the executioners usurping the place
of the judges and, without trial,
pronouncing sentence against them." Their
watchwords, while the Revolution continues,
are, "Unity, Brotherhood or Death." These
principles are enforced by edicts of exile,
imprisonment, or death by the guillotine.
Reign Of Terror
This reign of terror continues until July
28, 1794, when the cruel hearted Robespierre
and his consorts are condemned to death on
the guillotine, a cunningly devised
beheading machine, on which he had been
practicing with innocent and helpless
victims, for twenty-two years.
In 1795 a new constitution is adopted, and
after the suppression of a number of bloody
riots and insurrections that year, by the
young Napoleon with his batteries of
artillery, public order is restored and the
Revolution is regarded as ended.
People Unprepared For
Freedom
These are but a few of the many riotous and
disorderly events that occurred in France
just at the close of the American
Revolution, in which Lafayette co-operated
with so much honor to himself and his
country. These suffice to show how
unprepared the people were for any great or
concerted movement, and how destitute the
nation was of men, fit to serve as leaders
in thought and action, until the rise of
Napoleon with his genius for military
affairs. Mirabeau, their first trusted
leader, dies before the end of their first
assembly. Lafayette, a prominent member of
the first assembly, when made military
commander at Paris, finds the rabble will
not listen to his counsels, and he resigns.
In 1782 he makes another attempt to
re-instate authority in Paris, and the
attempt proving a failure he retires from
further participation in public affairs.
No one is able to anticipate the next
movement of the populace, or win and hold
their confidence, any length of time. One
event follows another "explosively." Men,
fearing to remain longer in their huts or
homes, fugitively rush with wives and
children, they know not whither. Under the
leadership of the infidels, Rosseau and
Robespierre, they experience terrors such as
had not fallen on any nation, since the fall
of Jerusalem.
Insurrection Of Women
An insurrection of women is suddenly started
in Paris, in October 1789, at the call of a
young woman who seizes a drum and cries
aloud, "Descend O Mothers; Descend ye
Judiths to food and revenge!" Ten thousand
women, quickly responding to this call,
press through the military guard to the
armory in Hotel de Ville, and when supplied
with arms march on foot to Versailles, and,
taking the king and his family captives,
bring them and the National Assembly to
Paris the next day, October 5th, followed by
a good natured crowd, estimated at 200,000.
Now that the king occupies the palace of the
Tuileries at Paris, the people hungry, but
hopeful, shake hands in the happiest mood,
and assure one another "the New Era has been
born."
Results
The principal results of the French
Revolution may be briefly summarized as
follows:
Good riddance of a half century line, of
worse than useless, atheistic kings and
queens; the suppression of the tyrannous
feudal system, that prevented the common
people from acquiring ownership of land, the
suppression of the Bastille, a feudal prison
and robber den, and of the guillotine; the
suppression of religious persecution, and
the separation of Church and state in
matters of government and support; and the
adoption of a constitution, that provides
for the people to have a voice, in the
management of the affairs of the government.
Land Of Calvin And
Lafayette
France is the land that gave birth and
education to John Calvin, the pioneer
advocate of civil and religious liberty, and
in his day the good work of the Reformers
had gained an encouraging foot hold in his
native land, but after the lapse of a
century of cruel extermination, one looks in
vain to see the expected fruits of his great
work. A century, of Bible suppression and
persecution of Bible readers, has left the
people in ignorance of the Word of God,
which is the Light and Life of the World,
and in its place Catholicism and infidelity,
like hoar frosts or destructive black
clouds, have spread over the land. Oppressed
with a feeling of need and seeking something
not clearly defined, the people grope in
darkness and stumble on events, as if
playing blind-man's-buff. The one hundred
and forty-nine Roman clergy in the first
assembly are so lacking in intelligence and
patriotism, they exert no special influence
worthy of note.
Very different were the scenes that
Lafayette witnessed, during the period he
co-operated with the colonies of America, in
their struggles for liberty and
independence. Here he met many of the
descendants of the very people, whom the
bitter persecutions in France had driven to
this country. Many of them, as early
settlers in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware
and Virginia, exerted a considerable
influence, in molding the character of the
American people. He found all the people
engaging intelligently in the cause of
freedom. Their leaders knew what they were
endeavoring to achieve, and every movement
was characterized by good order, patriotism
and superior wisdom.
Romanism Behind The Times
This historic contrast of the good fruits of
the open Bible among the people in America,
with the sad and deplorable results of
Romanism and infidelity in France, previous
to the great revolutions, that occurred in
both countries in the days of Lafayette, is
certainly very interesting and instructive.
Other countries in which Romanism has been
dominant and the Bible suppressed, as
Ireland, Spain, Mexico, the Philippine
Islands and the states of Central and South
America, show a similar unfavorable
contrast. In South America, where Romanism
has suppressed the Bible for centuries, only
two percent of all the college students in
1913, according to Bishop Kensolving of the
Episcopal Church in Brazil, "affirm their
allegiance to any religious faith."
In Spain, according to a recent issue of the
Herald of Madrid, there are 30,000 towns and
rural villages that are yet without schools
of any kind. There are thousands of the
people whose homes can be reached only by
bridle-paths. They lack schools, roads and
railroads. Seventy-six per cent of the
children and youth are unable to read and
write. In Spain, Mexico and South America,
Romanism has proven itself to be, but little
more than a pious form of paganism, an
oppressive and widespread relic of ancient,
pagan Rome.
During the two hundred years preceding the
Revolution in France no one was ever
persecuted for being an atheist, deist,
infidel or Roman catholic, but all of these
united in suppressing the general use of the
Bible and the presence of Bible readers, to
the great injury of the public welfare. If
that country had not foolishly and wickedly
exterminated the people, that were fast
becoming Bible readers at the time of the
Reformation, it would no doubt have been
saved from many of the blind and bloody
scenes of the period of the Revolution.
Romanism, by suppressing the Bible,
encourages ignorance, superstition and
bigotry. It also tends to break down the
sanctity of the Sabbath as the Lord's day;
winks at the liquor traffic, and by its
confessional strikes at the very foundation
of free manhood, freedom of thought and
liberty of conscience.
This contrast shows clearly that Romanism,
whatever good it may have done, is now many
centuries behind the times. This is a very
serious defect. It has the Bible, a Latin
version called the Vulgate which it claims
as its own. It has the New Testament and for
that reason it is classed as a Christian
religion. It has however, opposed and
suppressed the reading of the Bible by the
people, lest the spread of intelligence,
through a personal knowledge of its
contents, would lessen the respect and
obedience of the people to the false claims
of the pope, clerical orders and priesthood.
Several generations of slave holders in this
country gave this same reason, as a good one
for not providing educational facilities for
their slaves, fearing that intelligence,
which greatly increases the value of the
workman, would tend to lessen their
authority over them. It serves to illustrate
the old worn-out adage, that "might makes
right," instead of the newer and better one,
"God is with the right."
The ability to rule, in both cases, is based
on the ignorance, instead of the
intelligence of the subject. When thus
expressed in plain words, it certainly does
not sound very creditable, or as if it were
the best policy. It is not uncharitable to
say, that as a policy, it is "out of date."
Our Lord Jesus was a teacher as well as
Savior. He went from place to place,
teaching and encouraging the people to
"search the scriptures," that they might
know, what to believe concerning Him, in
order to inherit eternal life and "have life
more abundantly."
This is one of the good features of
Protestantism. It is based on a personal
knowledge of the Bible and the general
intelligence of the people. Its motto is
"Let the Light Shine." Truth is mighty and
in the end will prevail, for "justice and
judgment are the habitation of God's
throne."
Human Reason Blind
When the Bible was suppressed in France and
human reason exalted, all the infernal
elements of a depraved human nature held
high carnival. Enthusiasm and fanaticism,
the allies of ignorance and superstition,
caused the people to think and act wildly.
If in his heart there is no devout faith, to
develop the sense of personal responsibility
and duty, man becomes ready for any evil
under the sun. Sin, however, has been and
always will be the parent of misery. "The
wages of sin is death." This one terrific
experiment, of a half-century in France
without the Bible, should be enough for a
thousand worlds, through countless years.
Light, Life and Liberty
The life-giving word of Divine Truth is the
salt that preserves learning and a sense of
personal obligation to do that which is
right, amid the changing scenes of time and
life. Learning is knowledge based on fact,
and not on fiction or unbelief. Duty as a
practical matter has regard for that
"righteousness, that exalteth a nation," as
well as the salvation that saves the
individual.
"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall
make you free." A knowledge of the truth
tends to produce that self-restraint, that
is essential to freedom; and that sense of
duty and right, that results in faithful
public service. Genuine liberty has never
been realized, where there has not been also
an intelligent self-restraint.
The fundamental principle of the Reformation
was expressed by Luther as follows: "The
Word of God, the whole Word of God, and
nothing but the Word of God."
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Choctaw Freedmen and Oak Hill Industrial
Academy, 1914, Robert Elliott Flickinger
