The American Soul
The American Soul
Faith, Marriage, and National Revival: Lessons from Samuel Langdon
A spiritual crisis lies at the heart of America's deepest challenges. In this revealing episode, Jesse Cope explores the profound connection between our national identity, personal relationships, and spiritual foundations.
The modern struggle begins in our homes, where digital distractions and endless entertainment options compete fiercely for attention that should be directed toward God and family. "I struggle at night to pick up the Bible," Jesse confesses, acknowledging the daily battle many face against the magnetic pull of screens. This same pattern of neglect extends beyond our personal devotions into our marriages, where treating our spouse as "an appendage or accessory" eventually erodes the relationship beyond repair.
Drawing from Revelation's message to the church at Ephesus about leaving their "first love," Jesse reveals a powerful truth: "Remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first." The key insight isn't just acknowledging wrongdoing but actually changing behavior—"If you don't really change, then you're not really sorry."
This principle applies equally to our national condition. Quoting Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1935 statement commemorating the 400th anniversary of the English Bible, Jesse reminds listeners that America has prospered most when adhering to biblical principles and faltered when moving away from them. "Where we've been truest and most consistent in obeying God and Jesus Christ and the Bible, we've obtained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."
The latter half of the episode examines Harvard President Samuel Langdon's remarkable 1775 sermon to the Congress of Massachusetts Bay, which declared that liberty and Christian virtue are inseparable—a "package deal." This historical wisdom directly challenges today's notion of "values-neutral" institutions and the supposed middle ground in politics and morality.
What's the path forward? Jesse argues that only another Great Awakening, led by courageous spiritual leaders willing to speak truth from the pulpit, can restore America's foundations. Both our personal relationships and our national identity depend on genuine repentance and reformation—turning back to God not just in word but in deed.
Discover why the spiritual choices we make today will determine whether we preserve American liberty for generations to come. Subscribe now and join the movement to reclaim America's soul.
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 and whatever part of the day you're in. I sort of appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I know that you have other things calling out for your time and attention, so I appreciate you spending a little bit of it here. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it will give us all some extra tools for our toolbox and hopefully it will draw each of us and our nation closer back to God and Jesus Christ. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and the podcast, thank you so much. Very, very grateful for your prayers, father. Thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for this day that you've made. Help us to rejoice and be glad in it. Thank you for the time to record this podcast, father. Thank you for the people who listen to it. Be with them, be with their families. God, I'm blessed. Surround them with your angels. Protect them from evil of any kind, ease any pain, hurt, heartaches that they're having. Give them perseverance. Help us, father, to run the race all the way to the end. Give us the strength to do it, the wisdom to see how to and the courage to act on it. Be with the widow and the orphan here in the United States and around the world, father. Help us to comfort them, to care for them, the poor and the needy. Be with those who are suffering for the sake of following your Son Jesus Christ, in countries around the world. Help us to remember them, pray for them. Please, give them comfort and peace. Peace. Help them to feel your presence, draw them close to you, father. Help us to encourage those of us who live in places where we we can worship you, father and your Son Jesus Christ, to encourage that in others around us and to encourage our leaders to support those people in whatever countries they're in, and to put pressure on the leaders of those countries to protect them. We, with our military and law enforcement, our firefighters, our EMS, comfort them, keep them safe, bring them home safe to their families and God. My words here. Father, please, in your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God and Jesus Christ today? Have you made time to read the Bible? Do you appreciate it as a rare treasure or is it something that just sits on your table, that you look at every once in a while? Is it your priority when you get up in the morning, when you go to bed at night? I struggle, folks, folks, with the night, probably because I stay up too late watching stuff that I that isn't. Even if it's not necessarily inappropriate, it's stuff that's not adding any value. It's not making me a better Christian, father, husband, servant, employee, podcaster. It's definitely time that could be more better spent Right.
Speaker 1:I struggle at night to pick up the Bible again, read it for a little bit before I go to bed, and I think the real struggle, like so many of us have today, is just that the screens are so available, the distractions are so easy to get into and it is a fight and I know some of y'all know what I'm talking about in order not to just sit there and turn on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram or Facebook X, sports of all different varieties. Right, it's so easy just to push a button and sit there Reading your Bible. Praying takes a little bit of effort, reading something that actually makes you a better Christian, a better husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, right, brother, sister. That takes a little bit of effort. You got to put a little effort into it, into reading the Bible and prayer or reading a book that then makes you one of those things. But it's so important, folks, it's just like any habit. We need to need to work on those muscles, both the muscles that help us to actually read that stuff and look at it, and the muscles that we use to tell ourselves no, when we're thinking about picking up the remote control or our phone or iPad or computer screen or a video game controller. And then, if you're married, folks, does your spouse know it? The only way they're going to know it is if you act like it. It really does not matter what you say.
Speaker 1:I was listening to a friend of mine the other day, and their marriage is not the greatest, and they were talking about the fact that they've just kind of gotten to the point where they're not overly concerned about what their spouse wants to do. And it's a much longer conversation, folks. But the bottom line is if we treat our spouse as an appendage or as an accessory. If we're indifferent to them, at some point even the best of spouses are going to get tired of our actions and and they're not going to be really interested in what we want to do anymore, right, and so when we come, you know, we want, we want our spouse to be excited and interested in what we want to do. Well, that requires reciprocation, folks. It's just like any relationship.
Speaker 1:I saw a quote from a local pastor of ours, a man that I have pretty good opinion of. He said that in a sermon recently. He said the things that make life, those those huge moments in your life, the reason they're huge is because of the people, not the things, not even the location or the event itself. It's the people, and there is no bigger relationship except for God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. There's no relationship that even comes close to your spouse. Everything else pales in comparison to that relationship, or it should. So, at any rate, if you're married, does your spouse know it?
Speaker 1:Revelation, chapter 2. I think that's where we're at. I hope that's where we're at. That's where I'm going to read Message to Ephesus. Ephesus, the angel of the church in Ephesus, write, the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this I know your deeds, your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and that you cannot tolerate evil men. And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. But I have this against you that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. God, I hear, and again, this makes sense, right, Because our marriage is supposed to reflect the relationship between Christ and the church. But I hear in this not only a commentary about our relationship toward God and Jesus Christ, but our relationship toward our spouse. Remember from where you have fallen. This is verse 5, and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place.
Speaker 1:You know so often the marriage counselors that I follow. They talk about the fact that you have to keep pursuing your spouse after marriage. In fact, the really wise ones they'll tell you that you ought to put more effort into pleasing your spouse than you did into pleasing your boyfriend or girlfriend. You ought to put more effort into pursuing and chasing and satisfying your spouse. And then you did those things into your boyfriend or girlfriend. And really that goes back to the bank account analogy and it's true for our relationship with Christ, our faith and our relationship with our spouse. If you look at that the way you would look at a bank account that you're putting money into each day, right, the longer you have that bank account, the more money is in there and the more attention you're going to pay to it. You look up one day and there's a few hundred dollars, and then you look up and there's a few thousand. And then you look up and there's 10 or 15 or 20,000 or whatever, right, then maybe 40 or 50,000, 100,000, a half million, you get the idea.
Speaker 1:Message to Smyrna and to the angel of the church of Smyrna write the first and the last who was dead and has come to life says this I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. Father, give us the wisdom and the courage to persevere all the way until death. Bring us home safe to you, our souls home safe to you, please, for the sake of your son Jesus Christ. Amen.
Speaker 1:Message to Pergamum and to the angel of the church of Pergamum write the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name and did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. So you also have some who, in the same way, hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore, repent, or else I am coming to you quickly and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone, which no one knows, but he who receives it. You hear this twice here. Therefore, repent, or else I am coming to you quickly.
Speaker 1:The problem isn't when we fall short folks. We're going to fall short. The problem is when we refuse to repent, and that's true of us as individuals and of us as a nation. You know, in America, for example, and in a lot of the countries where I see people listening, we've legalized the murder of children via abortion and, as horrible as that is, the real problem is not the sin itself, it's our refusal to repent of that sin and turn back to God and seek his forgiveness humbly, to walk humbly before God, to love mercy, to seek justice. All of those commands demand that we abolish abortion. You can look at feminism the same way. The evil that feminism has done, destroying marriages and families, rivals, even the murder of tens of millions of unborn children, the just absolute scorched earth destruction that feminism has caused.
Speaker 1:And again, the problem isn't the sin itself. The problem is that we refuse to repent of the sin, we refuse to turn away from it, we embrace it and then we pretend we call what's blatantly evil good. And I'm not saying that the sin's not a problem, folks. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm just saying that the bigger problem maybe that is the better way to say it the bigger problem is that we refuse to turn away from it Because we all fall short. The Bible tells us that there's no one that's perfect, none of us, not the disciples, not Joseph, not Mary, not the thief on the cross, not anybody, not any pope or pastor or priest or bishop, cardinal. There's no single person that's ever existed outside of Jesus Christ. That's perfect. We all fall short. The real problem gets to be when we refuse to acknowledge that and then we're just lying Message to.
Speaker 1:I'm going to murder this Thyatria. You'd think I would know it. I've heard it so many times but I can't think of it right now. Excuse me. And to the angel of the church in Thyatria write the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet are like burnished bronze, says this I know your deeds and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.
Speaker 1:But I have this against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and she teaches and leads my bondservants astray, herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads my bond servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds, and I will kill her children with pestilence. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches the minds and the hearts and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. But I say to you the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching. But I say to you the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them, I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. I have to tell you this real quick, out of verse 25. Hold fast until I come.
Speaker 1:While I'm thinking about it, ulysses S Grant told us to hold fast to the truths of the Bible because they were the sheet anchor of our liberties. We haven't done that and that's why we're adrift. He who overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from my Father and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And you see this again. I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her immorality and, behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds. And then just that again. Folks. Just Wish I could think of a better way to say this.
Speaker 1:It's not the shocking thing, or it's not? It's not unusual that we fall into sin, folks. Where we make the situation horribly worse is is when we refuse to repent. Maybe this is, you know, going into a grocery store or a convenience store and robbing the place right, convenience store and robbing the place right, that's one thing. But then when the police come and tell you to stop and you run, that's a whole other set of problems. Right, the first is definitely a sin, but the second is what really makes life difficult makes life hard. Second is what really makes life difficult makes life hard as individuals, do we? Because I have been horrible at this at times in my life, too many times I'm not even comfortable thinking about the number of times I haven't done a very good job repenting. But when we do something wrong, when we sin, do we repent of it or do we rebel against God and cling to the sin? And as a nation, abortion, feminism.
Speaker 1:We're in the middle of pride month right now, right, which is just unbelievable that we celebrate. It's exactly the same as having a adultery month. I mean we should have one. If we're going to have a pride month, we might as well have an adultery month and, for that matter, we might as well have an idolatry month where we worship people and carved images, and I mean, you could have a we worship sports month. I guess we kind of worship sports all the time and entertainment, but we could have an official month called sports worship month, or movie, tv, youtube, social media worship month. That would be pretty much the same, folks. At least we'd be honest, though I mean that we worship so many things other than God Above God. Alright, I had something else, but I think that's good. All right, I had something else, but I think that's good, good enough.
Speaker 1:So I stumbled across something today. There was a post by Elon Musk, actually on X, and it was talking about. Excuse me, he reposted a thread by somebody talking about how great Western civilization has been to the world in secular terms improving quality of life, improving education and they were talking about the British Empire was one of them. Improving education, and they were talking about the British Empire was one of them. But the question that so many today that claim to be conservative, that claim to love liberty, refuse to acknowledge is why? Why has Western civilization spread better health care, improved conditions of living, improved learning, improved equity or equality, however you want to phrase it? Why have those things occurred, particularly America? Why have we been a city shining on a hill, a beacon of light? And you have to be honest enough If you really want to chase liberty folks, if you really want to spread liberty, you have to be honest enough to ask the question.
Speaker 1:I was talking to an extremely close friend of mine the other day and one of the things that the churches have done that's caused the most damage is when they refuse to let people ask questions. God is not afraid of our questions, it doesn't matter how tough they are. He's not scared of them. We might be scared of them, we might be scared of others' questions, but God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, it doesn't even faze them. And when we try and refuse to allow people to search through and figure that out on their own, that's when we really cause the problems.
Speaker 1:Right, you can look at the persecution of the European churches that led to the pilgrims and so many others coming to America. They had absolutely no freedom of conscience. The church demanded that they join, not follow Jesus Christ, but follow their denomination Right. The only ultimate truth that we should have out there is Scripture. Nothing should ever trump that. I'm getting kind of off in the weeds here, folks, but why has Western civilization, why has America in particular, done such a good job of spreading liberty over the decades and centuries? And FDR answered this question back in 1935, on October the 6th, and it's a great statement that he gave. We've read through it once. It's been a couple of years, and it was a statement on the 400th anniversary of the printing of the English Bible, which is fitting for a number of reasons.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to read a couple sentences out of this. We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. Its teaching, as has been widely suggested, is plowed into the very heart of the race, where we have been truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts. We have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity when it has been to us as the words of a book that is sealed. We have faltered in our way, lost our range finders and found our progress sacked. It is well that we observe this anniversary of the first publishing of our English Bible.
Speaker 1:The time is propitious to place a fresh emphasis upon its place and worth in the economy of our life as a people. As literature, as a book that contains a system of ethics, of moral and religious principles, it stands unique and alone. I commend its thoughtful and reverent reading to all our people. Its refining and elevating influence is indispensable to our most cherished hopes and ideals. Definitely need that today, folks. Right, you can see that clearly and that sums up the answer.
Speaker 1:That's the answer to this post is where we've been truest and most consistent in obeying God and Jesus Christ and the Bible, we've obtained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity. Where we've ignored it, where we've treated it as a dust collector or a paperweight, we've faltered in our way. We've lost our range finders. Right, we don't know right from wrong Range finders. There's a couple To me. When he says that I think of two different things. I think of left and right lateral limits on a range in the Marine Corps, we would go and shoot and there was something on the left side of the range and something on the right side of the range, typically, and you couldn't go past those. You didn't want to shoot outside of those bounds. And when we take away the Bible, we take away those left and right lateral limits, and he says and found our progress checked, we start to stumble, we start to decline.
Speaker 1:There is this idea, this centrist middle ground idea. Folks, it's complete nonsense. It doesn't exist. It's like I don't know, my brain's not thinking of an analogy right now. But you cannot sit in the middle, in this magical land of centrist middle ground, whatever political mire. Eventually you're going to drown. You're going to have to move and you do move. It's not a matter of have to. Even Every decision that we make as a nation, every decision we make as a, as an individual, either moves us a little closer to christ or a little closer to the devil, and that's it. And and so this idea that we, you know, know values, neutral politically values, neutral education values, neutral law enforcement values, neutral court system, it's nonsense. There's no such thing. It's just a matter of what the values are. Are the values moving us closer to God and Jesus Christ and good, moving us closer to God and Jesus Christ and good, or and these are the only two choices are our values moving us closer to the devil and chaos and evil. All right, we'll move on.
Speaker 1:We're going to get back into this sermon from Samuel Langdon, who was the president of Harvard, talking to the Congress of Massachusetts Bay in 1775, may of 1775. Government corrupted by vice and recoveredeousness, samuel Langdon, we'll just pick up where we left off and see how far, how close, we can get to finishing it. The judgments now come upon us are very heavy and distressing and have fallen with peculiar weight on our capital, whereon was standing the plighted honor, left the principal part of their substance, which is withheld by arbitrary orders, contrary to an express treaty, to be plundered by the army. Let me address you in the words of the prophet O Israel, return unto the Lord, thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity, hosea 14.1. My brethren, let us repent and implore the divine mercy, let us amend our ways and our doings, Reform everything which has been provoking to the Most High, and thus endeavor to obtain the gracious interpositions of providence for our deliverance and thus endeavor to obtain the gracious interpositions of providence for our deliverance.
Speaker 1:You can't really expect relief, folks, and it doesn't matter whether you're talking about your relationship with God, your relationship with your spouse, your parents, your children. You cannot expect a course correction if you don't truly repent of sins, of everything which has been provoking right. If you really want to strengthen your relationship with God, increase your faith, repair that relationship, repair that relationship with your spouse, strengthen that relationship with your parents or your children, you have to repent. And the only way you have true repentance is if you actually amend as Langdon says here our ways and our doings. It doesn't matter what you say. If you don't really change, then you're not really sorry. Change, then you're not really sorry. You can say that you're, and a lot of people do so. Many of us will say oh man, I'm really sorry, I did that, but then we do it again.
Speaker 1:No-transcript. As a nation, as individuals. If we want to fix our marriages and our families across the country, we have to actually change. If we want to fix our nation, we have to actually change and do what is right before God, before God, if true religion is revived by means of the public calamities and again prevails among us, if it appears in our religious assemblies, in the conduct of our civil affairs, in our armies, in our families, in all our businesses and conversation. We may hope for the direction and blessing of the Most High while we are using our best endeavors to preserve and restore the civil government of this colony and defend America from slavery. If we don't want to end up slaves, folks, to that bucket of isms, leftism, socialism, nazism, communism, fascism, islam, then we've got to get back to true religion before God, caring for the widow and the orphan and following those great commands of Jesus Christ, loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbors ourselves.
Speaker 1:And you see, this list he puts here. It's not just in our personal lives, it's in our civil affairs, in our public lives, our courts, our institutions, our armies, our families, our business, the way we talk, our conversations, our education of our children. It has to be complete, folks. There is no separation of God and state that ends in a positive manner. We can separate our state from God. It's going to end in disaster. It is ending disaster. It's why we're headed the way that we are.
Speaker 1:You can't section off parts of your nation and society and the people that say well, I want to enjoy these liberties too. The American dream, I want to. I want to. The American dream, ok, well, part of the American dream, the main part is following those principles of God and Jesus Christ as a nation. If you want to come here and you want to enjoy liberty, that's part of the price.
Speaker 1:We had a CEO in the Marine Corps that would go around with the Sergeant Major, so the CO, the commanding officer, he was the highest ranking officer in that unit, in the battalion, and our Sergeant Major was the highest ranking enlisted Marine in that battalion and he would say hey, we're a package deal. If you're going to get one of us, you're going to get one of us, you're going to get both of us. Anytime I'm going to come visit, he's going to come visit. Anytime he's going to go somewhere, I'm going to go somewhere. He always said that and, and they really did. They traveled together all the time, constantly, pretty much everywhere, with with few exceptions, and and that's like america.
Speaker 1:If you want liberty, you've got to have virtue. You've got to have virtue, you've got to have Christianity, you've got to have the principles of Christ. You can't separate them. It's a package deal, and so if you want to come here as a Buddhist or Hindu or Muslim or atheist or Jew or whatever else. You have to understand that in order to maintain that liberty you have to promote the principles of Christ and not just in one little area. Right, it's got to be, as Langdon says here civil affairs, armies, families, business, conversation, right, education, law enforcement across the board folks, law enforcement across the board folks. Otherwise we're going to go into slavery.
Speaker 1:Our late happy government is changed into the terrors of military execution. Our firm opposition to the establishment of an arbitrary system is called rebellion and we are to expect no mercy, but by yielding property and life at discretion. This we are resolved at all events not to do and therefore we have taken arms in our own defense and all the colonies are united in this great cause of liberty. But how shall we live while civil government is dissolved? What shall we do without counselors and judges? A state of absolute anarchy is dreadful. The mission to the tyranny of hundreds of imperious masters firmly embodied against us and united in the same cruel design of disposing of our substance and lives at their pleasure and making their own will, our law in cases whatever is the vilest slavery and worse than death. There are things that are worse than death, folks. Sesty Puller I've used his quote here One of our Marine Corps generals said that something along those lines. There are definitely things that are worse than death. A lot of things actually.
Speaker 1:Thanks be to God that he has given us, as men, natural rights, independent on all human laws whatever, and that these rights are recognized by the Grand Charter of British Liberties. By the law of nature, any body of people destitute of order and government may form themselves into a civil society according to their best prudence and so provide for their common safety and advantage. When one form is found by the majority not to answer the grand purpose in any tolerable degree, they may, by common consent, put an end to it and set up another. Only, as all such great changes are attended with difficulty and danger of confusion, they ought not to be attempted without urgent necessity, which will be determined always by the general voice of the wisest and best members of the community. By the general voice of the wisest and best members of the community, if the great servants of the public forget their duty, betray their trust and sell their country, or make war against the most valuable rights and privileges of the people. Reason and justice require that they should be discarded and others appointed in their room, without any regard to formal resignations of their forfeited power.
Speaker 1:I'm going to read that paragraph one more time. Folks, if the great servants of the public forget their duty, betray their trust and sell their country or make war against the most valuable rights and privileges of the people, reason and justice require that they should be discarded and others appointed in their room, without any regard to formal resignations of their forfeited power. It must be ascribed to some supernatural influence on the minds of the main body of the people through this extensive continent, that they have so universally adopted the method of managing the important matters necessary to preserve, among them, a free government, by corresponding committees and congresses consisting of the wisest and most disinterested patriots in America, interested patriots in America, chosen by the unbiased suffrages of the people, assembled for that purpose in their several towns, counties and provinces. So general agreement through so many provinces of so large a country and one mode of self-preservation is unexampled in any history, and the effect has exceeded our most sanguine expectations. Universal tumults and all the irregularities and violence of mobbish factions naturally arise when legal authority ceases. But how little of this has appeared in the midst of the late obstructions of civil government. Nothing more than what has often happened in Great Britain and Ireland in the face of the civil powers and all their strength, nothing more than what is frequently seen in the midst of the perfect regulations of the great city of London and, may I not add, nothing more than has been absolutely necessary to carry into execution the spirited resolutions of a people too sensible to deliver themselves up to oppression and slavery. The judgment and avarice of the Continental Assembly of Delegates have been as readily obeyed as if they were authentic acts of a long-established parliament, and in every colony, the votes of a Congress have had equal effect with the laws of great and general courts.
Speaker 1:Two things that pop in my head, folks, while we're reading this One, we need to remember that we have brought this on ourselves by rejecting God. And I'm talking primarily to those of us that claim to be patriots, because obviously those that claim the side of the left socialism, communism, nazism, fascism, islam they reject God outright, openly, blatantly. They admit it openly, blatantly. They admit it. In the case of Islam, they pretend to serve a God, but it's just an imposter, just like Buddhism, hinduism, right. So I'm not talking to them, but we, as people who claim to love America, and we're the ones that have brought this on ourselves because we've gone down paths that were opposed to God. And the other thing is, remember here that this is a sermon given by Langdon, given by a pastor who also happened to be the president of Harvard. We need this today. This is not apolitical, this is very political. We need pastors who are willing to stand up in the pulpit and tell the truth, because the only way, the only hope we have of fixing this nation is with a great awakening, is with a great awakening, and the only people that are really going to drive that train, as has happened in previous great awakenings, is the pulpit. That's where it's going to be driven from.
Speaker 1:It is now 10 months since this colony has been deprived of the benefit of that government, which was so long enjoyed by charter. They have had no general assembly for matters of legislation and the public revenue, the courts of justice have been shut up and almost the whole executive power has ceased to act. Yet order among the people has been remarkably preserved. Few crimes have been committed punishable by the judge. Even former contentions betwixt one neighbor and another have ceased, nor have fraud and rapine taken advantage of the imbecility of the civil powers.
Speaker 1:The necessary preparations for the defense of our liberties required not only the collected wisdom and strength of the colony, but an immediate, cheerful application of the wealth of individuals to the public service, in due proportion, or a taxation which depended on general consent. Where was the authority to vote, collect or receive the large sums required and make provision for the utmost extremities? A Congress succeeded to the honors of a General Assembly as soon as the latter was crushed by the hand of power. It gained all the confidence of the people. Wisdom and prudence secured all that the laws of the former Constitution could have given, and we now observe with astonishment an army of many thousands of well-disciplined troops, suddenly assembled and abundantly furnished with all necessary supplies, in defense of the liberties of America.
Speaker 1:But is it proper or safe for the colony to continue much longer in such imperfect order? Must it not appear rational and necessary to every man that understands the various movements requisite to good government that the many parts should be properly settled and every branch of the legislative and executive authority restored to that order and vigor on which the life and health of the body politic depend to the honorable gentleman now met in this new congress. As the fathers of the people, this weighty matter must be referred, who knows? But in the midst of all the distresses of the present war, to defeat the attempts of arbitrary power, stresses of the present war, to defeat the attempts of arbitrary power, god may, in mercy, restore us our judges as at the first and our counselors as at the beginning.
Speaker 1:On your wisdom, religion and public spirit, honored gentlemen, we depend To determine what may be done as to the important matter of reviving the form of government and settling all necessary affairs relating to it in the present critical state of things, that we may again have law and justice and avoid the danger of anarchy and confusion. May God be with you and, by the influences of his spirit, direct all your counsels and resolutions for the glory of his name and the safety and happiness of this colony. We have great reason to acknowledge with thankfulness the evident tokens of the Divine Presence with the former Congress that they were led to foresee present exigencies, genesis and make such effectual provision for them. It is our earnest prayer to the Father of Light that he would irradiate your minds, make all your way plain and grant you may be happy instruments of many and great blessings to the people by whom you are constituted, to New England and all the united colonies. Let us praise our God for the advantages already given us over the enemies of liberty, particularly that they have been so dispirited by repeated experience of the efficacy of our arms. Repeated experience of the efficacy of our arms, and that in the late action at Chelsea, when several hundreds of our soldiery, the greater part opened to the fire of so many cannons, swivels and muskets from a battery advantageously situated, from two armed cutters and many barges full of marines and from ships of the line and the harbor, not one man on our side was killed and but two or three wounded. When, by the best intelligence, a great number were killed and wounded on the other side and one of their cutters was taken and burnt, the other narrowly escaping with great damage, and burnt the other narrowly escaping with great damage.
Speaker 1:If God be for us, who can be against us? The enemy has reproached us for calling on his name and professing our trust in him. They have made a mock of our solemn, vast and every appearance of serious Christianity in the land. On this account, by way of contempt, they call us saints, quote-unquote, and that they themselves may keep at the greatest distance from this character. Their mouths are full of horrid blasphemies, cursing and bitterness, and vent all the rage of malice and barbarity. And may we not be confident that the Most High who regards these things will vindicate his own honor and plead our righteous cause against such enemies to his government as well as our liberties. Oh, may our camp be free from every accursed thing. May our land be purged from all its sins. May we be truly a holy people and all our towns cities of righteousness. Then the Lord will be our strength and refuge, a very present help in trouble, and we shall have no reason to be afraid.
Speaker 1:Though thousands of enemies set themselves against us round about, though all nature should be thrown into tumults and convulsions, he can command the stars in their courses to fight his battles and all the elements to wage war with his enemies. He can destroy them with innumerable plagues with his enemies. He can destroy them with innumerable plagues or send faintness into their hearts, so that the men of might shall not find their hands. In a variety of methods, he can work salvation for us, as he did for his people in ancient days and according to the many remarkable deliverances granted in former times to Great Britain and New England when popish machinations threatened both countries with civil and ecclesiastical tyranny. May the Lord hear us in this day of trouble, in the name of the God of Jacob, defend us, send us help from his sanctuary and strengthen us out of Zion. We will rejoice in his salvation and in the name of our we will rejoice in his salvation and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. Let us look to him to fulfill all our petitions.
Speaker 1:Romans 8.31, psalms 46.1, a couple of those there. Notice that he references the remarkable deliverances granted in former times to Great Britain and New England from when popish machinations threatened both countries with civil and ecclesiastical tyranny, talking about the tyranny coming out of the Roman Catholic Church that God saved both Great Britain and New England from at different times. May we truly be a holy people, folks in our towns, our cities of righteousness. May the Lord be our refuge and our strength, our very present help in time of trouble. He can save us in a number of different ways, just like he did Israel in ancient times, folks, but we have to turn back to him. We have to truly repent of the wrong that we've done and seek to follow him in all of our lives. It's a great sermon. We'll come back and read it again sometime.
Speaker 1:Samuel Langdon, president of Harbor, before the Congress of Massachusetts Bay, may of 1775. God bless you all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages if you're married. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages If you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, folks, we'll talk to y'all again real soon, looking forward to it.