The American Soul
The American Soul
The Christian's Duty Is To Hold The Line When No One Else Will
Walking in truth isn't just a biblical platitude—it's a radical call to spiritual courage in a world that increasingly celebrates moral confusion. As marriages crumble, children suffer, and society fragments, the root cause becomes ever clearer: we've abandoned God's clear instructions for how men and women should live, love, and lead.
The epistle of 2 John offers striking guidance that challenges our modern sensibilities. When John writes that those who reject Christ's teachings shouldn't even receive our greeting, he's establishing a standard of spiritual discrimination that feels foreign to our inclusive mindset. Yet this boundary-setting isn't about hatred—it's about preserving truth. Every time we celebrate or endorse behaviors Scripture condemns, we become participants in those actions, regardless of our personal feelings or intentions.
This concept extends to what I call "Christless conservatism"—the moderate stance that attempts to straddle moral fences while claiming fiscal responsibility. Such positions may appear reasonable and measured, but they ultimately serve only to give destructive ideologies more time to advance their agendas. True courage doesn't seek the middle ground when truth is at stake.
The story of Major Kenneth Bailey at Henderson Field provides a powerful metaphor for our spiritual struggles. When surrounded by enemy forces with no reinforcements coming and nowhere to retreat, Bailey continued fighting until his final breath. His valor reminds us that when we face seemingly hopeless situations—whether battling addiction, fighting to save a marriage, or trying to reconnect with estranged children—we must persevere just one more day. You never know what reinforcements God might send tomorrow.
What battle are you fighting right now that seems impossible to win? Remember that duty is yours, but results belong to God. Make Him your first priority today—not something you squeeze in when convenient—and watch how that single decision begins to transform everything else.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and energy, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Time and energy, a little piece of your day, I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us all some extra tools for our toolbox and hopefully it'll draw each of us a little closer to God and Jesus Christ. Therefore, country a little closer to God and Jesus Christ. For those of you all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much, very, very grateful. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you. I'm incredibly grateful for your prayers, need them, want them. Thank you so much, father. Thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins. Thank you that your Son, jesus Christ, was willing to come and that you were willing to send him. Thank you for rain. Son Jesus Christ was willing to come and that you were willing to send him. Thank you for rain. Thank you for food to eat and clothes to wear and a roof over our heads. Thank you for sunshine. Help us to do your will. Above all else, help us to follow the commands of your son, jesus Christ, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. To love our with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength to love our neighbors as ourselves. Forgive us when we fail in that. Forgive us all of our many sins our pride, greed, vanity, lust, financial or sexual or otherwise. Our adulterous thoughts and actions, gossip, slander, judgment of others, our rash words and actions, our cowardice and our unbelief. Help us to overcome them all. We do believe. Father, be with those who are listening to the podcast, wherever they are, across the nation, here in America and around the world. Be with their families, guide and bless them, surround them with your angels. Protect us from evil of any kind. Father, help us, help us to run the race well, all the way to the end and bring us home to you and your Son, jesus Christ. And God. My words here Father, please, in your Son's name, we pray, amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray? Is he at the top of your priority list? Is he at the bottom? Is he somewhere in the middle? Do you just kind of squish him in when you can? And if you're married, does your spouse know it? Do you act like it on a day-to-day basis, meaning that they are your second priority above everyone and everything else, that they are your second priority above everyone and everything else except God and Jesus Christ, his Son and the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 1:We talk about this each day on the podcast, folks, because all you have to do is look around our nation If you really want to see the problems that we have. Go volunteer at a school for a couple weeks pretty much any school across the nation, particularly well, I'll just leave it at that any school, pretty much there's some exceptions and pay attention to the kids, really pay attention to them, and you will see how desperate the state of affairs in our country is today. And if you can't do that, for whatever reason, can't go volunteer. Find a counselor or teacher or coach that's done it for a while that you really trust as an honest individual, buy them a cup of coffee and sit down and listen to them for a little while. As a whole, as a nation, here in America and really across Western civilization as a whole, our marriages, our families are in disarray because our marriages are in disarray. And our marriages are in disarray because we refuse to follow God's clear commands.
Speaker 1:For us as men and women, as husbands and wives, and it really just gets down to priorities, and we know this inherently. We know if we really want a job, we have to work hard for it. If we really want to be in shape, we have to work hard at it. If we want some academic or athletic accolades, we have to dedicate time and energy and work to them. And yet, when it comes to our faith and our marriage, even though a pretty good chunk of us would claim that they're our top priorities, we don't act like it. And the actions really tell the whole story, folks. Actions show the world what's really important to us and what's not important to us. And just as a reminder before we move on, as our pastor said a couple weeks ago, you cannot really love without obedience. All right, let's see where we were.
Speaker 1:I think we finished 1 John, so I think we will go into 2 John, which is just one chapter, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God, the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another and this is love. That we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
Speaker 1:For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face so that your joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you.
Speaker 1:So even in this little short book there's a lot. You hear a lot about the truth in this chapter, right the elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth. I saw a man that I follow on X, a pastor, talking about this today. We don't need to try and add to God's word. We don't need to try and take away from God's word. We don't need to make it fancy. We just need to share it in love and truth and grace.
Speaker 1:And I think a lot of times and this is pretty arrogant on our part we feel like we need to either add a little something or hide, take away a little something from the gospel in order to make it more palatable, and that's not our job, folks, there's definitely parts, a lot of parts actually, of the Bible that I can't explain fully to you, and all I can do there is fall back on what my pastor says, which is, if I could explain the Bible, if I could explain God perfectly all the way through, then I would be God, and he wouldn't be much of a God, because my level of intelligence certainly couldn't create the universe and every single thing in it. And so that you have to remember that Jesus Christ is truth, the Bible is truth, and so our job is to share that truth with anyone and then leave, as John Quincy Adams, that quote that we say that I love so much. Duty is ours, results are God's. You know, in verse 4, again, here I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we received commandment to do from the Father. How do our children walk in truth if we don't teach them the truth?
Speaker 1:And just look at the confusion. Again, you go back to the schools, like we were talking about at the beginning of the podcast. Look at the confusion in the schools, Look at the sexual deviance, immorality, just confusion. The kids just desperate for connection, for someone who will actually love them, because so many come from broken homes and they have no clue whether they're loved or not, and they have no clue about what truth is, what is right and wrong. They don't have somebody there teaching them the Bible. You know, the moral compass that they get, then, is just whatever they get from around the world, from daycare workers, from TV or YouTube videos or TikTok videos, which that ought to scare the heck out of all of us. They don't even know whether they're a boy or a girl anymore. We don't even know whether they're a boy or a girl anymore, or whether boys are supposed to be with girls or boys are supposed to be with boys or boys are supposed to be with animals, and the same for girls.
Speaker 1:We took truth out of our schools Verse 6, and this is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. This is what our pastor said, what I said earlier you can't love without being obedient. Christ tells us specifically if we really love him, we'll follow his commandments. Not perfectly, folks. None of us are going to follow them perfectly, because we're all sinners, despite what some denominations try and tell you that there were people that lived perfectly, there weren't. That's just not biblical. There's nowhere in the Bible that says that anybody else lived a sinless life and therefore did not need Jesus Christ. Else lived a sinless life and therefore did not need Jesus Christ. Not any of the apostles, not the thief on the cross, not Mary, not Joseph, not John the Baptist. There's nowhere else in the Bible where it says that there was somebody that lived a perfect, sinless life, because there hasn't been. Everybody, every single one of us, needs Jesus Christ to get into heaven and he tells us if we really love him, right, we'll follow his commandments obedience.
Speaker 1:There's a hierarchy and I wish I had CS Lewis's book Mere Christianity in front of me right now. He talks about this. You cannot have two different commanding officers for the same unit in the military and you can't have that in our unit quote unquote of ourselves, right. You can't have that in our marriages, our families. There's got to be a hierarchy of authority and it's clearly laid out in scripture God, jesus Christ, the church, right, god, jesus Christ, and then us as individuals In that unit. That's the hierarchy In the marriage. It's god or, yeah, god, jesus christ. The husband and then the wife. That's that's the hierarchy of authority, and if we don't follow that, then we're we're not really loving and this is why we talk about so often at the beginning of the podcast.
Speaker 1:You know our priorities each day. We claim to love God. Do we follow his commands? It's really that simple. We claim to love our spouse. Again, do we follow God's commands in regard to our spouse? For the husband, that means loving, nourishing, cherishing our wife each day, just like Christ laid his life down for the church, just like we nourish our own bodies. That determines whether we really love our wife or not. Do we do that each day? So the wife it has to do with respect, submission and physical satisfaction. Do you do those things each day? And those are straight, straight out of scripture, folks. Ephesians 5, titus 2, 1 Peter 3, 1 Corinthians 7, 1 Peter 3, 1 Corinthians 7, hebrews 13, 4, proverbs 5, 19,. Song of Solomon All straight out of Scripture. Do we do those things or do we not?
Speaker 1:Verse 9, anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching. He has both the father and the son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. So there's two things out of these three verses. One if anybody's telling you something that's not in scripture, if they're adding something to it or if they're denying something that is in scripture, don't have anything to do with them. And that doesn't matter if it's an individual or if it's an entire denomination. If you've got a priest or pastor, bishop, cardinal, cleric, lawyer, pope, doesn't matter whatever it is. If they're telling you something that's not in Scripture, or if they're denying something that is in Scripture, don't have anything to do with them. Don't even receive them into their house, into your house, right? Don't even give them a greeting. Here in verse 10. And that's the second part out of these three verses, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.
Speaker 1:That verse verse 11, to me sounds pretty applicable to a lot of the debates we have today about loving the sinner but hating the sin. Hating the sin right, and you hear a lot of people, for example, say well, I don't approve of gay marriage, but my friend's kid is gay and they're getting married and I just want to be supportive. And yet here in verse 11, it's saying if somebody doesn't abide in the teachings of Christ, if they don't bring the teachings of Christ, don't even greet them, because if you greet them you participate in their evil deeds. And I think that greeting to me sounds a lot less extreme than going to celebrate perhaps going to celebrate a sexually immoral marriage. And you can just kind of take that analogy and spread it to other things. Going to celebrate a sexually immoral marriage, you know, and you can just kind of take that analogy and spread it to other things. We would never go and celebrate somebody robbing a bank, but we seem to celebrate, or at least imply that we're celebrating. Celebrating gay marriage, abortion, rejection of God's clear commands for men and women, right, we celebrate feminism, we celebrate separation of God and state. We celebrate these things at least implicitly, if not explicitly. And here in verse 11, god's saying if we even give a greeting to someone that comes to us and doesn't bring the teachings of Scripture, we're participating in those evil deeds. I don't even want to think about how many times, folks, I've gone along with something, um, just to keep the peace in that regard, right, like I don't want to rock the boat. Maybe for sure we need to rock the boat a little bit more, and have needed to for quite a while. And then verse 12 just this is just me. Folks, I have many things to write to you. I don't want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face so that your joy may be made full. That just strikes me. With modern technology and screens today, how many times do we sit and stare at a screen when we have a real person sitting right in the same room with us, whether it's our parents, our friends, our kids, our spouse? How much time do we sit and stare at a screen, like I hope, when y'all listen to this podcast, at least some of the time you're able to do it with friends so that you can talk about some of the stuff that we talk about here. I just have somebody else there that you have. You can look forward to listening to this together with. We need people in our lives, folks, way more.
Speaker 1:When you get to age 80 and you look back at your life, you're never, ever, ever going to wish that you had spent more time in front of a screen, but there's going to be a lot of regrets for a lot of us, sadly, that we wish we would have spent more time face-to-face, speaking and sharing joy with those around us Parents, siblings, friends, kids, spouses and again, as our pastor said a couple weeks ago folks. Every opportunity for love that we pass up, that particular opportunity is gone forever and you can think about it like a savings account over your life, a savings account that generates interest. Every time we pass up putting money into that account, that amount of interest until the end of our bank account's life the end of our life that amount of interest can never be. You can't ever get it again right. You can add extra money in and you can make the bank account healthy, but you can't ever go back and put that amount of money in that would generate interest over the life of your account, over your life and your relationships are like that you can't ever go back in. You can't ever go back in. Every interaction that we have strengthens that relationship. You know every face-to-face interaction versus a screen and every time we pass that up we're missing an opportunity. And every time we pass that up we're missing an opportunity to build, strengthen that relationship, that love, that joy. I don't feel like I did a very good job at all of describing that, but hopefully that makes more sense to y'all than it sounds like in my head right now. All right, medal of Honor, let's see where we left off. Figure that out, let's see where we left off. I think it was James E Bailey. I think that's where we. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Kenneth D Bailey. Kenneth Dylan Bailey. Major World War II Charlie Company 1st Marine Raider Battalion, us Marine Corps. Action date 12-13 September 1942, henderson Field, guadalcanal, solomon Islands. Citation For extraordinary courage and heroic conduct, above and beyond the call of duty.
Speaker 1:As commanding officer of Charlie Company 1st Marine Raider Battalion during the enemy Japanese attack on Henderson Field, guadalcanal, solomon Islands, 12 to 13 September 1942. Completely reorganized following the severe engagement of the night before, major Bailey's company, within an hour after taking its assigned position as reserve battalion between the main line and the coveted airport, was threatened on the right flank by the penetration of the enemy into a gap in the main line. In addition to repulsing this threat while steadily improving his own desperately held position. He used every weapon at his command to cover the forced withdrawal of the main line before a hammering assault by superior enemy forces. After rendering invaluable service to the battalion commander and stemming the retreat, reorganizing the troops and extending the reverse position to the left, major Bailey, despite a severe head wound, repeatedly led his troops in fierce hand-to-hand combat for a period of ten hours. His great personal valor, while exposed to constant and merciless enemy fire, and his indomitable fighting spirit inspired his troops to heights of heroic endeavor which enabled them to repulse the enemy and hold Henderson Field. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country, accredited to Illinois, awarded posthumously presented March 24, 1943 at the White House to Mrs Kenneth D Bailey by President Franklin D Roosevelt. Born October 21, 1910, pawnee County, oklahoma, died September 27, 1942, guadalcanal, solomon Island. Spring Hill Cemetery MH 16, tax 72, danville, illinois. Buried Location of metal Vermillion County War Museum, danville, illinois.
Speaker 1:Dylan Bailey. Two things here. One I've told this story on the podcast a number of times but for those of y'all who are new, when people used to ask about being in the marine corps, I would always say my wife and I were in the marine corps at such and such place or over these dates, and they would go oh, your wife was in too. And I would always make real clear no, she wasn't a Marine, but she was in just as much as I am or I was or I was. We forget or belittle perhaps that sacrifice of the wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, the men who go and die. It's a huge sacrifice to willingly know that you may lose your husband, your son, your brother, your father. It just needs to be a reminder there. And the other thing is this particular just because I had to learn Marine Corps history going into the Marine Corps, I'm a little bit familiar with this.
Speaker 1:And this was a really desperate situation to hold this airport, henderson Field on Guadalcanal, and it was not a sure thing. You know, a lot of times we like to look back, especially at World War II, I think romantically, like it was a. The outcome was preordained and it wasn't. The outcome was preordained and it wasn't. And in this particular, as in so many other engagements, it was a really close call. It was nip and tuck and they got down to the point where there simply wasn't anywhere else to fall back to. It was either hold the line or lose and die, and losing that airfield was going to be a huge setback at this point in the war and it's one of the points of Christianity and life that I probably don't talk about often enough on the podcast.
Speaker 1:But whatever situation you're going through, folks, because these people they didn't know, on a couple of these nights they had no idea whether relief was coming the next day or not. And it did come, but they didn't know that and the situation was desperate, like you're probably going to die tonight. Nobody's coming, there's no reinforcements and there's nowhere to fall back to. There's no strong position left. We're at the end of the line. I would imagine that quite a few of y'all listening to the podcast have some, some situation in your life that maybe feels like that or have had or will have, where you feel like your back's against the wall. There's no fallback position, there's nobody coming, no reinforcements are coming to rescue you. Whether it's financially, academically, your marriage, your relationship with your kids or your parents, drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, whatever it is you feel like you're at the end of the line, at the end of the line.
Speaker 1:Just remember this little story about Henderson Field. These men had nowhere to fall back to. There was nobody coming to rescue them as far as they knew, and the enemy was pressing them hard everywhere. They were dying, they were dying, they were injured. They were in the process, like this major. Kenneth Dylan Bailey had to know he was probably dying or going to and kept pushing.
Speaker 1:You have no idea what God has coming for you the next day. Maybe it's relief. Maybe it's relief, maybe it's rescue in this life, maybe it's not, but maybe your example will encourage others to fight their fight. And you know, because of your faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, that whenever your fight is actually over, you're going to get to go home to heaven Like the thief on the cross, where there will be no more tears or sadness or sorrow or pain or disfigurement or anything else. It's joy and hope and love, happiness and peace and comfort With God and Jesus Christ, his son and the Holy Spirit forever. Hold on one more day. Fight one more day. If you've got an addiction drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, food fight one more day. If your relationship with your kids is atrocious or your relationship with your parents is atrocious, fight one more time. If your marriage is horrible, falling apart, fight one more time. Do your job. You have no idea what your example might lead others to do.
Speaker 1:You read this Medal of Honor citation again about Kenneth Dillon Bailey, this major. His great personal valor, while exposed to constant and merciless enemy fire, and his indomitable fighting spirit, inspired his troops to heights of heroic endeavor which enabled them to repulse the enemy and hold Henderson Field. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country. Hold on for one more day, folks. Hold on for one more night, one more morning, one more afternoon. Fight one more time. All right, we'll move on.
Speaker 1:We're going to get back into well, actually, first a little bit of history of our day. We usually do a week on Christopher Columbus. It's in the fall around the time of Columbus Day because there's been so much revisionist history done by the left. We actually go back and read some of his journals and some other accounts of those early voyages, but there's nothing saying we can't read a little bit throughout the year too. A couple, couple quotes from columbus. Who can doubt that?
Speaker 1:This fire was not merely mine, but also the Holy Spirit, who encouraged me with a radiance of marvelous illumination from his sacred scriptures, urging me to press forward With a hand that could be felt. The Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible and he opened my will to desire to accomplish that project. And he opened my will to desire to accomplish that project. The Lord purposed that there should be something miraculous in this matter of the voyage to the Indies. It's not that Columbus was perfect, folks, nor are any of the rest of us, including the politicians that we elect today. And to expect perfection of anyone, including Mary Joseph or the disciples, expecting perfection out of anyone besides Jesus Christ, sets them up for eventual failure, and ourselves as well. For eventual failure, and ourselves as well.
Speaker 1:But the idea that Columbus came merely to rape and pillage and plunder and that spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ was not a main motivator for him just are not factually historically accurate. Also, the idea that the indigenous tribes that lived here, if you know anything about them, lived in this utopic perfection in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus is not historically accurate at all. Each year we read some of the commentary about some of the native tribes and the cannibalism that went on there, and it puts any modern horror movie to shame folks. It's pretty gruesome, kind of like the Fox's Book of the Martyrs. One more quote here about Columbus, by Samuel Elliott Morrison, who was a biographer this conviction that God destined him to be an instrument for spreading the faith was far more potent than the desire to win glory and wealth and honor here in this world, but that his desire to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ was at least as strong and likely much more. So.
Speaker 1:You know, and if you really folks, one of the things and I heard somebody say this, I can't remember who actually I want to say it was the comedian right, bill Maher, I think, is his name, and he was talking about the fact that we love to look back in time and judge people and events from hundreds of years ago based on modern societal morality, and point people and events from hundreds of years ago based on modern societal morality and point fingers and say, well, I would never have done that. And who does that sound like? If you are familiar with the Bible at all, right, it sounds like the Pharisees saying that, well, if I had lived in that day, I would never have murdered the prophets, right, I would never have murdered the prophets, right. And we like to look back and say, well, I would never have been as cruel as such and such at this time, which is absurdly arrogant because we aren't alive there. We didn't grow up with that mentality. We didn't grow up in that era. So, at any rate, a little Christopher Columbus in the middle of the year. We'll come back to him, though we usually do about a week on him In the fall Fox's Book of the Martyrs Persecutions in the 11th Century.
Speaker 1:Alphage, archbishop of Canterbury, was descended from a considerable family in Galatia Shire and received an education suitable to his illustrious birth. His parents were worthy Christians and Alphage seemed to inherit their virtues. The see of Winchester being vacant by the death of Ethelwold, dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, as primate of all England, consecrated Alfage to the vacant bishopric for the general satisfaction of all concerned in the diocese. Dunstan had an extraordinary veneration for Alphech and, when at the point of death, made it his ardent request to God that he might succeed him in the Sea of Canterbury, which accordingly happened, though not till about 18 years after Dunstan's death in 1006.
Speaker 1:That's a point that at least I need to focus on more often, folks. I've been trying to tell myself this more and more lately. Maybe some of y'all need to hear it too. God's timing is not our timing, and thank goodness for that, because I would have messed up a lot of things in my life and not waiting on God's timing. Folks, I did mess up a lot of things in my life, some pretty serious things that have had far-reaching consequences, and that timing it may not come in a week or a month or a year or five years or 10 years. It may take a couple decades, it may take three or four decades, like it did for Moses and some of the others in the Old Testament. If you're waiting, as I've heard people say or remark, you're in pretty good company If you're waiting on God, if you're waiting on God.
Speaker 1:After Alphage had governed the Sea of Canterbury for about four years, with great reputation to himself and benefit to his people, the Danes made an incursion into England and laid siege to Canterbury. When the design of attacking this city was known, many of the principal people made a flight from it and would have persuaded Alfred to follow their example, but he, like a good pastor, would not listen to such a proposal. While he was employed in insisting and encouraging the people, canterbury was taken by storm. The enemy poured into the town and destroyed all that came in their way by fire and sword. He had the courage to address the enemy and offer himself to their swords as more worthy of their rage than the people. He begged that they might be saved and that they would discharge their whole fury upon him. They accordingly seized him, tied his hands, insulted and abused him in a rude and barbarous manner and obliged him to remain on the spot until his church was burnt and the monks massacred.
Speaker 1:Then they decimated all the inhabitants, both ecclesiastics and laymen, leaving only every tenth person alive, so that they put 7,236 persons to death and left only four monks and 800 laymen alive, after which they confined the archbishop in a dungeon where they kept him close prisoner for several months. During his confinement, they proposed to him to redeem his liberty with a sum of 3,000 pounds and to persuade the king to purchase the departure out of the kingdom with a further sum of ten thousand pounds. As Alphage's circumstances would not allow him to satisfy the exorbitant demand, they bound him and put him to severe torments to oblige him to discover the treasure of the church upon which they assured him of his life and liberty, but the prelate piously persisted in refusing to give the pagans any account of it. They remanded him to prison again, confined him six days longer and then, taking him prisoner with them to Greenwich, brought him to trial there. He still remained inflexible with respect to the church treasure, but exhorted them to forsake their idolatry and embrace Christianity. This so greatly incensed the Danes that the soldiers dragged him out of the camp and beat him unmercifully. Danes that the soldiers dragged him out of the camp and beat him unmercifully. One of the soldiers who had been converted by him, knowing that his pains would be lingering as his death was determined on, actuated by a kind of barbarous compassion, cut off his head and thus put the finishing stroke to his martyrdom, april 19, ad 1012. This transaction happened on the very spot where the church at Greenwich which is dedicated to him now stands. After his death, his body was thrown into the Thames, but, being found the next day, it was buried in the Cathedral of St Paul's by the bishops of London and Lincoln, from whence it was, in 1023, removed to Canterbury by Ethelmoth, the archbishop of that province.
Speaker 1:Gerard of Venetian devoted himself to the service of God from his tender years, entered into a religious house for some time and then determined to visit the Holy Land. Going into Hungary, he became acquainted with Stephen, the king of that country, who made him bishop of Sennad Uvo and Peter, successors of Stephen. Stephen being deposed, andrew, son of Ladislaus, cousin German to Stephen, had then a tender of the crown made him upon condition that he would employ his authority in extirpating the Christian religion out of Hungary. The ambitious prince came into the proposal, but Gerard, being informed of his impious bargain, thought it his duty to remonstrate against the enormity of Andrew's crime and persuade him to withdraw his promise. In this view, he undertook to go to that prince, attended by three prelates, full of like zeal for religion. The new king was at Alba regardless, but as the four bishops were going to cross the Danube, they were stopped by a party of soldiers posted there. They bore an attack of a shower of stones patiently, while the soldiers beat them unmercifully and at length, dispatched them with lances. Their martyrdoms happened in the year 1045.
Speaker 1:Stanislaus, bishop of Rakow, was descended from an illustrious Polish family. The piety of his parents was equal to their opulence, and the latter they rendered subservient to all the purposes of charity and benevolence, of charity and benevolence. Stanislaus remained for some time undetermined whether he should embrace a monastic life or engage among the secular clergy. He was at length persuaded to the latter by Lambert Zula, bishop of Krakow, who gave him holy orders and made him a canon of his cathedral. Lambert died on November 25, 1071, when all concerned in the choice of a successor declared for Stanislaus and he succeeded to the prelacy.
Speaker 1:Bolesław the second king of Poland had by nature many good qualities, but, giving way to his passions, he ran into many enormities and at length he had the app to tell him of his faults when, taking a private opportunity, he freely displayed to him the enormities of his crimes. The king greatly exasperated at his repeated freedoms. At length, determined at any rate to get the better of a prelate who was so extremely faithful, hearing one day that the bishop was by himself in the better of a prelate who was so extremely faithful, hearing one day that the bishop was by himself in the chapel of St Michael at a small distance from the town, he dispatched some soldiers to murder him. The soldiers readily undertook the bloody task, but when they came into the presence of Stanislaus, the venerable aspect of the prelate struck them with such awe that they could not perform what they had promised. On their return, the king, finding that they had not obeyed his orders, stormed at them, violently snatched a dagger from one of them and ran furiously to the chapel where, finding Stanislaus at the altar, he plunged the weapon into his heart. The prelate immediately expired on the 8th of May AD 1079.
Speaker 1:What are we willing to sacrifice for folks, and how much are we willing to sacrifice our relative opulence, our safety, our liberties, all the ease of lifestyle that we have here in America? Are we willing to give that up so that future generations can have liberty, so that future generations have the ability to read the Bible, choose how to serve God and Jesus Christ? Or are we more concerned with comfort, with supposed security? You know Benjamin Franklin's famous quote about give up liberty to achieve security deserve? Neither Are we willing to risk our security, our safety, to secure liberty, and the only way to secure liberty is what To be where the Spirit of God is. So are we willing to spread the Spirit of God, of Jesus Christ, in order to spread liberty, because that's the only way it spreads? All right, we're going to get back into, mrs Warren, and I think, chapter three, yeah of history of the rise, progress and termination of the American Revolution.
Speaker 1:When the doors of the house were opened, the secretary, who had been long in waiting for admission, informed the house that the governor was in the chair and desired their attendance in the council chamber. They complied without hesitation but were received in a most ungracious manner. With much ill humor, the governor reprimanded them in the language of an angry pedagogue. With much ill humor, the governor reprimanded them in the language of an angry pedagogue. Instead of the manner becoming the first magistrate when addressing the representatives of a free people, he concluded his haranag haranage, I don't know by eroding the assembly which, within a few days, he had dissolved by proclamation in the meantime, by warm and virulent, virulent letters from the indiscreet governor, by others full of invictive, from the commissioners of the customs and by the secret influence of some who yet concealed themselves within the wizard of moderation who held the language of patriotism but trod in the footsteps of tyranny. Leave was obtained from administration to apply to the commander-in-chief of the king's troops, then, at New York, to send several regiments to Boston, as necessary as a necessary aid to civil government, which they requested is too weak to suppress the disorders of the times. It was urged that this step was absolutely necessary to enable the officers of the crown to carry into execution the laws of the Supreme Legislature the laws of the supreme legislature this phrase here who yet concealed themselves within the visard of moderation, who held the language of patriotism but trod on the footsteps of tyranny Folks. That's about all that moderation is today.
Speaker 1:Being a quote-unquote moderate that people try and portray as a virtue. It's not. All it means is you're still going along with the evil and the tyranny of the left, of that bucket of isms and an Islam that goes hand-in-glove with it. Right, you're still going along that evil path while pretending to be a patriot. There's not. Being a moderate isn't a virtue. In fact, that kind of straddling the fence, that kind of lukewarm attitude is, is really in some ways more damning. Actually, maybe in all, I don't know, but definitely in some ways more damning. Actually, maybe in all, I don't know, but definitely in some ways more damning than actually being on the left. And it is again that Christless conservatism, that socially liberal but physically conservative, that moderate stance so-called that's the greatest danger to our nation today, because it buys time for the left and for Islam.
Speaker 1:And you think, the people, they think that they're being intelligent, the people that claim to be moderates, they think that they're being reasonable, but all you're doing is buying time. You're giving an opening to evil, and evil's playing right along with you. They boast about you, they build you up, they talk about oh, this is what we need. We need these moderates. We can't have those crazy people way over on the conservative Christian side. We need these moderates that understand they're just placating you. They're playing you. They're playing to your vanity and conceit and arrogance so that they can buy a little bit more time. It's much like what the Japanese did going into Pearl Harbor in World War II. They talked about how much they desired peace, peace, peace, right, which sounds a lot like Patrick Henry and his speech, part of his speech in Liberty and Death, right, but there was no peace. The Japanese were already on a war footing. They were just buying time. It's the same thing that Christless conservatism, the moderates, the socially liberal, so-called fiscally conservative. That's. All you're doing is buying time for the people that want to destroy America and liberty, and that's why Christless conservatism is the greatest danger to our nation today. So they ordered up these troops from New York, right?
Speaker 1:A new pretext had been recently given to the malignant party to urge, with a show of plausibility, the immediate necessity of the military arm to quell the riotous proceedings of the town of Boston, to strengthen the hands of government and restore order and tranquility to the province. The seizure of a vessel belonging to a popular gentleman, john Hancock, esquire, afterwards governor of the Massachusetts, esquire, afterwards governor of the Massachusetts, under suspicion of a breach of the acts of trade, raised a sudden resentment among the citizens of Boston. The conduct of the owner was indeed reprehensible in permitting a part of the cargo to be unladen in a clandestine manner. But the mode of the seizure appeared like a design to raise a sudden ferment that might be improved, to corroborate the arguments for the necessity of standing troops to be stationed within the town. On a certain signal, a number of boats, manned and armed, rowed up to the wharf, cut the fasts of the suspected vessel, carried her off and placed her under the stern of a ship of war, as if apprehensive of a rescue. This was executed in the edge of the evening, when apprentices and the younger classes were usually in the streets. It had what was thought to be the desired effect. The inconsiderate gravel, unapprehensive of the snare and thoughtless of consequences, pelted some of the custom-house officers with brick bats, broke their windows, drew one of their boats before the door of the gentleman they thought injured and set it on fire, after which they dispersed without further mischief. This trivial disturbance was exaggerated until it wore the complexion of a riot of the first magnitude by the insinuations of the party and their malignant conduct. It was not strange that in England it was considered as a London mob collected in the streets of Boston with some formidable desperado at their head.
Speaker 1:After this fracas, the Custom House officers repaired immediately to Castle William, as did the Board of Commissioners. This fortress was about a league from the town of commissioners. This fortress was about a league from the town From thence. They expressed their apprehensions of personal danger in strong language. Fresh applications were made to General Gage to hasten on his forces from New York, assuring him that the lives of the officers of the crown were insecure and less placed beyond the reach of popular resentment by an immediate military aid. In consequence of these representations, several detachments from Halifax and two regiments lately from Ireland were directed to repair to Boston with all possible dispatch. One thing leads to another. You never know, folks, how those little events are going to add up and not seem little in the grand scheme of things Right. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation. Wherever you are listening, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.