By Warren Coe
Where We Came From
Thirty years ago I ran across an article whose source is lost and author unknown in which the message is more powerful today than when it was first written.
“When the French historian Guizot asked James Russell Lowell how long the American Republic would last, Lowell is reported to have said, ‘It will last as long as the ideals of its founders remain dominant.’
“Carl Sandburg expressed the same conviction in these lines:
‘When a society or civilization perishes,
One condition may always be found.
They (its people) forgot where they came from.
They lost sight of what brought them along.
The hard beginnings were forgotten and the struggles.
Unity and common understanding there had been
–enough to overcome rot and dissolution
–enough to break through their obstacles,
But eventually the mockers came, and the deniers were heard.
And the custom of greeting one another became, ‘What’s the use?’
And vision and hope faded.
And men whose forefathers would go anywhere holding nothing impossible in the genius of man
Joined the mockers and the deniers.
Not knowing the past, they lost sight of what brought them along.'”
Does this sound like the United States of America? May God shine His grace on us again.
Village Schools of the Bible 