George Washington

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 30, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 25.

George Washington

GEORGE WASHINGTON is often called the "father of his country." Without doubt he was one of the foremost among the mighty men who laid the foundation of this great nation. And yet the materials out of which that foundation was built had been hewn out amid the sufferings and conflicts of many preceding generations. For centuries England had been a battle-ground for freedom. Patriots had struggled to wrest their liberties from the despotic grasp of men who claimed the "divine right" to be tyrants.

A little handful of men, led by Washington and a few kindred spirits, established a nation here where principles could be allowed to operate that were too revolutionary for the more conservative peoples that inhabited the Old World. But if these principles had not already been well worked out in England, Holland, and elsewhere, they could not have sprung up so suddenly here. Hence, under the guiding hand of a benign Providence, our liberties have come to us as a blessed inheritance. And the men who inherited this great wealth of freedom have so used the sacred legacy as to build up, on this western continent, one of the mightiest nations the world has ever seen—a nation that has been a blessing and a help to all the world.

Four days after the date of this paper is the time for the celebration of our national independence. This year it falls on the day set apart by Jehovah as the Sabbath of sacred rest. It would be well if all men could know the truly great and important things for which these two institutions stand—the Sabbath for its great spiritual freedom, and the fourth of July for its great principles of physical freedom and true personal liberty.