No. 1072 - THE POWER OF SIMPLE STATEMENTS!
No. 1072
Jim Davidson -- NEWSPAPER COLUMN
THE POWER OF SIMPLE STATEMENTS!
As a reader, have you ever thought about the power that some simple statements have on our lives? Throughout history we have many important examples of this, and I would like to share a few of them during our visit today. As you read along, I hope you will think about why they are important.
Patrick Henry, American Patriot, said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Nathan Hale, American Patriot – “I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States -- “Ask not what your country can do for you but rather ask what you can do for your country.” Winston Churchill, Former British Prime Minister -- “We will never, never, never give up.”
Pledge of Allegiance to the United States Flag -- “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Preamble to the United States Constitution -- “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
While considerably longer than the others, President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is considered to be his best speech ever. Far shorter than a two-hour speech by the preceding speaker, it is a masterpiece, “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
“We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
“It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
Obviously, there are many others, very worthy, that space does not permit me to include. I am always grateful for those gifted men and women who truly have something worthwhile to say and can condense their thoughts to a simple, yet powerful form. My prayer is that you have found something worthy here, for you to feel good about investing your precious time.
From my perspective, two of the most powerful simple statements ever made in human history is when, after being crucified by Roman soldiers, Jesus while hanging on a cross between two criminals, uttered these words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” and “It is finished, into thy hands I commit my spirit.” To be sure, God has truly blessed our nation.
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