By Pastor John WeaverOpen your Bibles to the Book of Numbers Chapter 1. Numbers Chapter 1 and we will read some verses there and then in Chapter 2 as well. Numbers Chapter 1:52 ? ?And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents every man by his own camp and every man by his own standard throughout their hosts.? Note that phrase, ?Every man by his own standard throughout their hosts.? Now look in Chapter 2:2. ?Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch his own standard or banner or flag with the ensign, banner or flag, of their fathers house far off about the Tabernacle of the Congregation shall they pitch. And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies; and Nahshon, the son of Amminadab shall be Captain of the Children of Judah.? Notice if you would please, in verse 10, ?On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their armies: and the captain of the children of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur.? Note on the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben. Look in verse 17, ?Then the tabernacle of the congregation shall set forward with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camp: as they encamp, so shall they set forward, every man in his place by their standards. On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their armies: and the captain of the sons of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of Ammihud.? Then verse 25, ?The standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by their armies. And the captain of the children of Dan shall be Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.? And then verse 31, ?And they that were numbered in the camp of Dan were an hundred thousand and fifty and seven thousand and six hundred. They shall go to hindmost with their standards.? Then verse 34, ?And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses so they pitched by their standards and so they set forward every one after their families according to the house of their fathers. [more]
Monthly Archives: April 2008
Southern Wisdom
“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
James Madison
Southern Wisdom
“Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be justified upon the basis that the States are Sovereign. There was a time when none denied it. I hope the time may come again, when a better comprehension of the theory of our Government, and the inalienable rights of the people of the States, will prevent any one from denying that each State is a Sovereign, and thus may reclaim the grants which it has made to any agent whomsoever.”
Jefferson Davis
“It means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy” – Gen. Patrick Clerburne
Being of Irish Descent I have a natural connection to my favorite Confederate General, Patrick Cleburne. His plan for the South to free all slaves beginning with those who served honorably in the Confederate Army and their families, if it would have been instituted immediately rather than toward the end of the war, would have redeemed and saved the Confederate States of America (CSA). As General Cleburne suggested the individual states already had the ability to do this, but making it a national agenda would have crushed the Union Army.
“Adequately to meet the causes which are now threatening ruin to our country, we propose, in addition to a modification of the President’s plans, that we retain in service for the war all troops now in service, and that we immediately commence training a large reserve of the most courageous of our slaves, and further that we guarantee freedom within a reasonable time to every slave in the South who shall remain true to the Confederacy in this war. As between the loss of independence and the loss of slavery, we assume that every patriot will freely give up the latter–give up the negro slave rather than be a slave himself. If we are correct in this assumption it only remains to show how this great national sacrifice is, in all human probabilities, to change the current of success and sweep the invader from our country.
Our country has already some friends in England and France, and there are strong motives to induce these nations to recognize and assist us, but they cannot assist us without helping slavery, and to do this would be in conflict with their policy for the last quarter of a century. England has paid hundreds of millions to emancipate her West India slaves and break up the slave trade. Could she now consistently spend her treasure to reinstate slavery in this country? But this barrier once removed, the sympathy and the interests of these and other nations will accord with our own, and we may expect from them both moral support and material aid. One thing is certain, as soon as the great sacrifice to independence is made and known in foreign countries there will be a complete change of front in our favor of the sympathies of the world. This measure will deprive the North of the moral and material aid which it now derives from the bitter prejudices with which foreigners view the institution, and its war, if continued, will henceforth be so despicable in their eyes that the source of recruiting will be dried up. It will leave the enemy’s negro army no motive to fight for, and will exhaust the source from which it has been recruited. The idea that it is their special mission to war against slavery has held growing sway over the Northern people for many years, and has at length ripened into an armed and bloody crusade against it. This baleful superstition has so far supplied them with a courage and constancy not their own. It is the most powerful and honestly entertained plank in their war platform. Knock this away and what is left? A bloody ambition for more territory, a pretended veneration for the Union, which one of their own most distinguished orators (Doctor Beecher in his Liverpool speech)openly avowed was only used as a stimulus to stir up the anti-slavery crusade, and lastly the poisonous and selfish interests which are the fungus growth of the war itself. Mankind may fancy it a great duty to destroy slavery, but what interest can mankind have in upholding this remainder of the Northern war platform? Their interests and feelings will be diametrically opposed to it. The measure we propose will strike dead all John Brown fanaticism, and will compel the enemy to draw off altogether or in the eyes of the world to swallow the Declaration of Independence without the sauce and disguise of philanthropy. This delusion of fanaticism at an end, thousands of Northern people will have leisure to look at home and to see the gulf of despotism into which they themselves are rushing.
The measure will at one blow strip the enemy of foreign sympathy and assistance, and transfer them to the South; it will dry up two of his three sources of recruiting; it will take from his negro army the only motive it could have to fight against the South, and will probably cause much of it to desert over to us; it will deprive his cause of the powerful stimulus of fanaticism, and will enable him to see the rock on which his so called friends are now piloting him” [more]
Southern Civilians Under Fire
2 November 2002
by Rev. Tim Manning, Sr.
“Generosity and fairness dictate that we forget the past with all of its real, perceived and imagined wrongs. We cannot change the past. We can only live for today. Each day is a fresh new day and can be lived without the blame, guilt and baggage of our yesterdays. In most respects the past is an unwanted burden. To be fair we must begin each day with a new and clean slate. We have too little time to be spinning our wheels over yesterdays ground. Yesterday is a cancelled check. We must live for today and look to tomorrow with great hope and confidence….” Does this sound good to you?
This is actually the approach of communists, socialists and social deconstructionists and unfortunately is the attitude most of our children have about studying and learning from history. Frederick Wilhelmson summed-up today’s attitudes with these words, “history is no longer a category of the consciousness.” Amnesia is now considered the chief quality of social and historical value and global significance. They say we cannot permit today’s problems and challenges to be muddled-up by yesterday’s experiences. “Who we are” is the sum total of our memories. My memory is me. To ignore my past is to not know or care who I am. This is a personal form of character and cultural homicide. For me to cooperate in this effort is suicide.
History is a rehearsal of our individual and communities past and past memories. M.E. Bradford wrote a wonderful book titled Remembering Who We Are. The title is not “Remembering Who We Were.” Remembering the past, remembering who we are is that essential element that makes life a continuum and what makes us capable of having a culture. A second benefit in remembering the past is that it supplies the material for the faculties we call reason and conscience. The better our memory of the past, the better is the possibility of a higher level of intelligence; that is, the ability to perceive things for what they are and to grasp their relationship in a proper perspective. Without reason and conscience there is no civilization. Man becomes like the animals making constant war on those around him the way the strong devour the weak. In that society might always makes right. What is right is defined by who survives and, of course, they are the ones remaining to write the history.
Intellectuality rests upon our power to recall, recollect, and associate things not present or things only suggested by what is present. Consciousness is largely memory. An attack on memory is an attack on the cognitive abilities, an attack on man’s mind in an effort to re-form his thinking3/4we call this “brainwashing.” [more]
