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Museuming
Lois Swaney Shipp
Museum Curator The heart of the Declaration... Two
hundred thirty-four years ago on July 2, 1776, John Adams wrote a
letter to his wife, Abigail. He had been working on the Declaration of
Independence and was thrilled and elated over what God had wrought. In
the letter he says, “Generations of people will celebrate this day as a
Holy Day because of our new nation.” These patriots of yesteryear had
banded together and worked out a plan for our new nation that they had
created. During the Revolutionary War they
risked their lives and their fortunes to form a new nation. Of all the
signers of the Declaration, a big majority were ministers and believed
in God and Christian principles. George
Washington was a devout Christian and prayed aloud, several times a
day. Once, he tethered his horse in the woods and kneeled down to pray
on his knees. A Loyalist came by on his horse and, hearing the loud
voice, stopped to see who was praying so fervently. Then he listened to
the heartfelt rendering. Then the Loyalist
(loyal to England) went home and told his wife, “It’s useless! It’s
useless!” His wife asked him what he was talking about. He replied,
“God will listen to George Washington’s prayers because he is so
sincere and the new nation will win the war because of it!” And God has indeed blessed this new nation. In
the National Archives building today in Washington, there is a
rendering in stone on the floor of the building of the Ten
Commandments. They never dreamed anyone in our nation would try to mark
them out. In the heart of the Declaration of Independence are these words: “We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That
to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Read it twice to listen to the wording. Have
you ever visited a foreign nation? None of them are founded on
Christianity, and believe me, it is scary without the Lord. Remember
how God got angry with the Israelites because they wouldn’t mind him
and finally 10 of the tribes of Israel just disappeared from the face
of the earth? We don’t want that to happen to us. We want to stay in
God’s favor. It seems that somewhere in the Bible
there is a verse that tells of the end time when the sea will run red.
We thought it meant blood, but have they seen the oil spill on
television? Last week the Cochran clan visited
our museum. They were from all over the United States. Reeves Cochran
lives in Cleveland, Ohio, has been and still is with NASA. Mack
Cochran’s family were from North Carolina.  There
were a couple of twins from Oklahoma in last week. They were 55 years
old, still identical and still dressed identically. They said when they
were born, that their mother went into shock that it was twins, so the
nurses named them Mary and Martha. Tracy Harris was in as he’s moved
back to Red Banks after living in Nebraska for 30 years. The Crawley
girls, Kathy, Jackie and Melissa, children of Pep and Ruth, were here.
Wally Harris from Mt. Pleasant came in and brought us the cutest 1950
toy electric iron that was red hot because it had been in the car all
day and the heat index was 100+.
Come see us some
time, some place. We are your baby and we need you. Visit our
Mississippi shop for locally written books, souvenirs, Holly Springs
caps, T-shirts and lots more!
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