A young Scottish girl named Mary Mitchell Slessor was totally unaware of this barbaric custom when she volunteered to go to the largely unknown continent of Africa as a missionary. Mary was born on December 2, 1848, in Aberdeen, Scotland. Her parents, Robert and Mary Slessor, were of the lower strata of society. Mary’s father was a shoemaker. Her mother was a weaver. When Mary was eleven years old, the Slessor family moved to Dundee. Sadly, Mary’s father was addicted to alcohol. He died of pneumonia. The Slessor family lived in poverty. By the time that Mary was fourteen years old, she was working in a jute mill for twelve hours a day.

In spite of all these hardships, Mrs. Slessor kept her faith in God strong. She was a humble and earnest Christian and subscribed to a Presbyterian monthly magazine called the Missionary Record. Mary Slessor grew up following with great interest the explorations of Dr. David Livingstone in the jungles and savannahs of Africa. She was deeply interested in the progress of the Gospel in Africa. Two of Mary’s siblings, Robert and John, hoped to become missionaries one day. Both died before they could ever go to the field. As Mary read missionary books and articles, and prayed for the benighted souls in foreign lands, she wondered if she, a young girl, could ever venture to the dangerous lands where only the bold and brave could go.

As Mary reached her young twenties, she began working with girls and boys in the slums of Dundee, inviting them to services where they would hear the Gospel. She visited their homes, drank tea from dirty dishes, and shared with poor children the stories of Jesus and His love for sinners. She still spent twelve hours a day working in the textile mills, but she gave all the time that she could obeying the command of her Lord to serve and love others, doing to them as she might desire them to do unto her. One day in 1874, when Mary was twenty-six years old, the newspapers announced that the famous Scottish missionary, David Livinstone, had died on his knees in a remote part of Africa. Inspired by Livingstone’s life and testimony, Mary Slessor resolved that she would go to Africa and follow his example.

Mary set sail in 1878 on board the SS Ethiopia for West Africa. The young missionary woman was given an assignment by the mission leaders in the Calabar region to work among a superstitious and little-understood people group know as the Efik. Like many new missionaries, she was initially charmed by the exotic food, the new language, the delicious tropical fruits, the brilliant birds, and the exciting sights and sounds of a foreign land. But soon, darker realities set in.

Mary Slessor learned that the word “Efik” means “oppressors” and they were given this name because of their cruel and bloody ways. Suspected criminals were forced to drink poison to determine guilt. Twins were left outside to die because of the superstition that one of the two babies was a “devil child.” Witchcraft practiced by demon-possessed witchdoctors held the people in bondage to Satan and his devilish ways. Chiefs took many wives, and upon his death a wife was selected to die with the departed chief. Mary moved into a native hut and lived with the people. Some feared that the African chiefs would kill her, but she lived on and gradually earned the trust of the tribal people by her selfless deeds of kindness. She ate their food, played with their children, shared in the work, slept on beds full of insects, and never complained.

Malaria drove Mary Slessor back to Scotland to recuperate her strength. She told the stories of what she had seen in Africa, inspiring other young people to go to Africa also! Upon recovery of her health, she returned to the Efik people that she had come to love. Mary Slessor became an expert linguist, and could speak the native language as well as any villager. She loved her people, and they came to love her. Slowly, they began to give up their pagan ways, renounced witchcraft, and bowed to the authority of Jesus Christ.

Mary Slessor rescued many of the abandoned African twins, and raised them to successful adulthood. She founded a vocational school to teach practical skills to the native African people, a school called the Hope Waddell Training Institute, which still exists to this day! On one occasion when Mary Slessor rescued an abandoned pair of twins, a boy and a girl, the boy was already past the point of recovery. Mary took in the surviving girl and raised her as her own daughter. She called her Janie, and the little African girl had the opportunity to visit Scotland for a visit with her new “Mother.” Mary eventually adopted three other children in addition to Janie.

In 1888, Mary Slessor expanded her work northward to Okoyong. Missionaries had been killed by the savage natives of the area, but Mary Slessor went there without fear. Like her Lord Jesus she sought to do good to those who cursed her. Her life of loving service to the people broke down animosity and suspicion, and she earned the trust of the people.

Throughout her ministry in Africa, Mary Slessor suffered long and dangerous consequences from the malaria that she had initially contracted upon her arrival in Africa. Eventually, she could no longer walk over the slippery and muddy trails. African tribal people willingly pushed their “mother” from village to village as she went about doing good. Recognizing the wonderful things that she had sacrificially done for the people of Africa, the King of England conferred upon her the honor of the Silver Cross in the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in 1913.

When Mary Slessor was sixty-six years old, she suffered another return of the debilitating malarial fevers. Friends hoped she would recover, but she sank into unconsciousness in the grips of a high fever. Her last spoken words were a prayer in the Efik language: “O Abasi, sana mi yok,” O God, release me.” As a rooster crowed at the crack of dawn of January 13, 1915. Janie was at the side of her beloved “mother.” One of her African attendants said, “Day must be dawning.” It was. For Mary Slessor, who the people of Africa called “Everybody’s Mother” it was the dawn of her eternal day that would know no night.

Bibliography
Mary Slessor: Heroine of Calabar by Basil Miller

General William Howe lowered his spyglass in astonishment. He could not believe what he was seeing! Dorchester Heights, a rocky ridge overlooking Boston Harbor, was crowned with rebel artillery! Some of his admirals and captains had warned him that the position needed to be occupied, but Howe had shrugged off the threat. Washington and the rebels posed only limited danger because Washington and the rebels had no artillery. Until now. Howe is reported to have said to some of his staff officers, “These fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months.”

Washington’s chief of artillery was a twenty-five-year-old bookseller named Henry Knox. Knox was a direct descendant of one of the brothers of the Scottish Reformer, John Knox. Henry’s father, William Knox was an Ulster Scot who had immigrated from Derry to find a new life in Boston. He had become a shipbuilder, but had suffered financial loss and abandoned his family for the West Indies.

When word came that William Knox had died in the West Indies, Henry Knox had left school behind to become a clerk at a local bookstore in order to support his mother and siblings. Henry read all the books he could get his hands on, especially anything that had to do with history, military science, weaponry, engineering, and battlefield tactics. In a hunting accident, a shotgun went off accidentally that tore two fingers from his left hand. For the rest of his life, he wore a handkerchief tied around his left hand to conceal the missing fingers.

Henry was a decided patriot, and was witness to the “Boston Massacre.” He joined a local artillery militia company and gained hands-on experience in handling big guns. By the time he was twenty, Henry was able to open his own bookshop. He married one of the pretty girls who came into his shop to read. Lucy Flucker was the daughter of a prominent Bostonian Loyalist – her brother served in the British army. Lucy abandoned all to follow the destinies of her husband. When shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, Henry Knox knew that he must leave Boston behind or be arrested. He and Lucy slipped quietly out of town. Lucy had sewn Henry’s sword into her shawl to conceal it!

George Washington liked the stout young bookseller and was impressed by his expansive knowledge of tactics and engineering. Martha Washington took the pregnant Lucy under her wing. Henry Knox was a big man. During most of the war, he weighed over 250 pounds, sometimes approaching 300 pounds – even while on starvation rations. His booming voice and his massive bulk seemed to make him impervious to cold and bad weather of all sorts.

It was in the dead of winter of 75-76 that General Washington entrusted the young bookseller – who still did not have a commission, with the important mission of bringing heavy artillery from the captured Fort Ticonderoga to help relieve the siege of Boston. The story of the “noble train of artillery” has been told many times. Exactly 250 years ago, in January and February of 1776, Henry Knox performed the audacious feat of transporting 60 tons of cannon over 300 miles of lakes, rivers, mountains, and rugged trails to bring them to Boston.

The Lord providentially guided the expedition. He sent snow when Knox prayed for snow over which to pull the heavy sleds. For portions of the journey, the lakes needed to be open water. But to cross the Hudson River, Knox needed solid ice. He was undaunted even when one of the heavy guns broke through and went under. When lesser men would have left the gun behind, Henry Knox fetched it out of the frozen river.

Knox used horses as well as oxen to pull the heavy sleds that transported the cannon. Steep inclines up the Berkshire Mountains were long and grueling to men and beasts. But it was just as harrowing to get a 2,000 pound cannon safely down a snowy mountain when perched on a sled with runners. Knox was assisted by an experienced teamster named John Becker and his teenage son. By early February, the heavy cannon were moving into the camps of the American army at Cambridge. Under the devastating power of the American cannon, the British army under the command of General Howe decided that it was best to evacuate Boston.

The story of Knox’s subsequent contributions is just as fascinating as the story of his famous march with his “noble train of artillery.” Henry Knox earned Washington’s implicit trust and he kept it for the rest of the war. In the midst of discontent and rivalry among some of the officers of the Continental Army, Henry Knox was always loyal to Washington. Knox was at Washington’s side during the awful days at New York, when the Americans were harried and driven in shame and fear from post to post. Knox helped with the evacuation of  Long Island when the American army was ferried through the fog to safety.

Knox supervised the famous crossing of the Delaware River when the daring Americans broke up the Hessian Christmas Party in Trenton. Above the howl of the blizzard, the booming voice of Henry Knox instilled confidence into the hearts of the troops. It was the field artillery of Knox, planted to sweep King Street in Trenton, that compelled the Hessian commander to surrender. Knox was with Washington during the bitter days at Valley Forge. He was at his side at Brandywine and at Germantown. Knox caused some significant delay at Germantown by insisting on a bombardment of the Chew House. When others blamed Knox for holding up the advance, Washington’s trust in his artillery chief never wavered.

At the Battle of Monmouth, in 1778, General Washington commended Knox for the splendid way that he handled the artillery. Knox saw the need for well-trained officers, and while Baron von Steuben drilled the troops of the line, Henry Knox started a training school at Pluckemin, New Jersey for instruction in tactics, artillery, and engineering. The school became the foundation of West Point Military Academy. While many know Knox for his winter march, few recognize him as the Father of West Point. At the Siege of Yorktown, Knox stepped aside to allow Washington to light the touch hole of the opening guns at Yorktown.

When George Washington resigned his commission just after Christmas in 1783, Henry Knox became the senior officer of the victorious American Army. Knox helped to organize the Society of the Cincinnati for his brother officers and their widows. Knox served Washington again as Secretary of War. In this important post, he supervised the building of the United States Navy and also laid plans for the military school at West Point. He negotiated treaties with Indian tribes and supervised campaigns to secure the Northwest Territory.

Worn out by war and service to his country, Henry and Lucy Knox retired eventually to Maine and his spacious mansion called Montpelier. He raised cattle, built ships, made bricks, and traded real estate. Out of thirteen children, only three of the Knox children survived to adulthood. Diphtheria, smallpox, and other childhood diseases took their toll. Washington often wrote kind letters of encouragement to his friend at these times of sorrow.

Henry Knox died in 1806 after accidentally swallowing a chicken bone. After 250 years, Knox is remembered by towns, villages, and counties all across the country that bear his name. Fort Knox in Kentucky and Knoxville, Tennessee, are two of the most prominent places that honor his memory.

General Henry Knox serves as an example of a man who overcame enormous difficulties and kept on going. A self-educated orphan who never had formal military training became by sheer determination one of Washington’s most trusted generals. He broke a trail through the snow and calls us all to follow his “noble train.” May God help us all to persevere, persevere, and persevere.

Bibliography

Henry Knox’s Noble Train by William Hazelgrove
Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution by Mark Puls

Shackleton’s ad, “Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey” is legendary (and unfortunately mythical). But this advertisement for men to join Pilgrims is very real. In the introduction to the first printed sermon from New England, The Sin and Danger of Self-Love, by Robert Cushman, he described the men they were looking for to add to the Plymouth colony:

[M]en which … look after great riches, ease, pleasures, danties, and jollity in this world … I would not advise them to come there, for as yet the country will afford no such matters: but if there be any who are content to lay out their estates, spend their time, labours, and endeavours, for the benefit of them that shall come after, and in desire to further the gospel among those poor heathens, quietly contenting themselves with such hardship and difficulties, as by God’s providence shall fall upon them, being yet young, and in their strength, such men I would advise and encourage to go, for their ends cannot fail them.

We would like to invite you to join us on our history tour this year as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. From May 18 – 23 we will be touring Virginia and Pennsylvania, where many important events that shaped our country took place. We will consider the men and the ideas that won America our independence, as we go to the places where they lived, worked and fought. We will walk in the paths of men like George Washington and Patrick Henry that God used take the world from a place dominated by kings, to one where all-powerful monarchs are very rare. Some sites are off the beaten path, where we will learn the story of lesser known founding fathers, and we will also visit classics of the Revolutionary War, like Independence Hall and Yorktown Battlefield. It is only once or twice in a lifetime that a significant anniversary of the country happens, so join us as we remember the 250th birthday of our country and celebrate what God has done!

For more information, or to sign up, visit this page.

The unthinkable had happened! Englishmen were at war – with Englishmen. By the summer of 1644, the English Civil War was in full swing. Since the outbreak of hostilities in 1639, Royalist forces that supported King Charles I had swept the battlefield of all the various “rebels” that dared to resist Royal authority.

The roots of the conflict are varied and complicated, stretching all the way back to the signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215 and the attempts to combine elements of the British Isles including the Picts, the Scots, the Angles, and the Britons over the course of many centuries. By the early 17^th century, the power of the king and the power of the English Parliament had reached a definite loggerhead over the question of how power should be balanced between king and Parliament.

In the early months of war, the ragtag army of the Parliamentarians was beaten everywhere they fought. The common working Englishman was poorly armed, poorly equipped, and poorly led, no match at all for professional soldiers led by experienced officers.But a “new model army” was being built, slowly but surely. Forged in fire, they were emerging from each disaster on the battlefield with new lessons. Their commander was a cavalry officer named Oliver Cromwell. By the summer of 1644, Cromwell had molded his men into a body of horsemen that were disciplined, determined, brave, and obedient. They were called the “ironsides” in praise of their discipline and courage. “Old Ironsides” became one of Cromwell’s many nicknames. When another officer criticized Cromwell’s men for their “low birth,” Cromwell replied “If you choose godly honest men to be captains of horse, honest men will follow them . . . I would rather have a plain russet-coated captain who knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than that which you call a gentlemen and is nothing else.”

At the Battle of Marston Moor in July of 1644, Cromwell’s horsemen broke the ranks of the king’s cavalry and turned the tide of battle when they attacked the Royal infantry from the rear! This battle was a turning point in the war, and secured the northern parts of England for the Parliamentarians. A year later, in June of 1645, Oliver Cromwell led his forces to an even greater victory on the field of Naseby. Cromwell by this time had risen to command an entire wing of the Parliamentarian army and his men, known as the “New Model Army,” shattered the Royalist forces under the flamboyant Prince Rupert. Cromwell’s men coined the phrase “Praise be for Naseby” to thank God for the dramatic victory.

One of the significant outcomes of the battle was the capture of the king’s personal baggage which contained secret letters from Charles I to Roman Catholics in Ireland, soliciting an Irish Papist army to be raised and sent across the water to make war on Protestant England. This damning piece of evidence was one of the main reasons that the Parliament of England formally charged their king with high treason.

In a brief interlude in the Civil War, Cromwell asked for and received promises from Charles I, promises that were later broken. This shows that Cromwell was not out for personal ambition, but had a deep respect for the process of law. The king violated all his promises and continued scheming to make war against his own people. In a move that shocked all of Europe, the high court of England tried their own king for treason, indicting him as “a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of this nation.” For his crimes against his own people, the judgment of the court was that Charles Stuart “shall be put to death by the severing of his head from his body.”

The king was executed on January 30, 1649. Parliament declared England to be a Commonwealth. Various factions sought power, and England was plunged into more chaos and civil war for several years. Struggles in Ireland and Scotland, where a group of Royalists proclaimed the exiled son of the executed king, Charles II, as their sovereign, occupied years of bloody conflict. Finally, exhausted and frazzled by division, Parliament passed a new constitution known as the “Instrument of Government.”

Oliver Cromwell, the victorious general of the New Model Army, was asked to take the executive power of government under the title of “Lord Protector.” When he was sworn into office on December 16, 1653, he wore plain black clothes with no regalia of power. He considered himself the servant of the people under God’s authority.

Cromwell was a simple man with an intense love for righteousness. He recognized fully that perfection was only found in King Jesus. He acknowledged himself to be a man of many flaws, calling himself humbly a “chief of sinners.” He had a prominent wart on his chin and also on his forehead, and was considered ugly and plain. But he cared not for the opinions of man. He knew that he served a Perfect Christ Who was King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Oliver Cromwell had his roots among the lower gentry. His landholdings were small, and he did not have a college education. He married Elizabeth Bourchier, the daughter of a leather merchant, and under the blessing of heaven the couple had nine children. Cromwell had considered emigrating across the Atlantic to Connecticut, but God had other plans for Cromwell to serve the people of England. He never dreamed in his youth that he would one day be appointed as the chief magistrate of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Cromwell had many enemies, both at home and abroad. Some derided him as a religious fanatic. But Cromwell labored not to please man, but to please God. During his five year “Protectorate,” Oliver did much for the people of God, not only in England, but throughout Europe. He called together the body of divines known as the Westminster Assembly. He defended the Waldenses in the Piedmont, boldly threatening military action against those who persecuted his brothers and sisters in Christ. He promoted Puritan ministers and encouraged the printing of Godly literature. He reformed the judicial system in accordance with God’s Word.

When offered the crown in 1657, Cromwell turned it down, saying, “I would not seek to set up that which Providence hath destroyed and laid in the dust.” Cromwell set a pattern for a constitutional republic where elected representatives exercised limited power under the law of the land, a pattern which would be later followed, however imperfectly, in the British colonies that would later become the United States of America.

Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, died of a urinary infection at the age of 59 on September 3, 1658. The night of his death, a great storm swept over the British Isles. Many said that heaven itself was mourning the fall of a truly great man.

Among Cromwell’s dying words, uttered on his deathbed to his wife and children gathered around him, were these words of testimony, “The Lord hath filled me with as much assurance of His pardon, and His love, as my soul can hold . . . I think I am the poorest wretch that lives: but I love God; or rather am beloved of God . . . I am a conqueror, and more than a conqueror, through Christ that strengtheneth me!”

Bibliography
The Protector: A Vindication by J. H. Merle D’ Aubigne