Sometime In the last quarter of the 19th century a sturdy young fellow living in a small village in the northern part of the Netherlands. decided at the age of eighteen that he would brave the rigors of an ocean crossing and emigrate to America as the land of promise. No wonder he wanted to leave. His life had been one of poverty so that at the early age of twelve he had been compelled to leave home and go to work for a farmer in the area. His entire fortune, precious as it was, was a thorough Christian training received from his parents, at church, and for a few years at a Christian school. When he finally found an older brother, who had preceded him to America, all he had was twenty-five cents left to his name.
But God and America were good to that enterprising young man of eighteen. Healthy and strong, he worked hard at whatever he could find to do. He liked it here and had no yearning ever to go back even for a visit to his fatherland where he had subsisted so much on turnips day after day that he never cared to see a turnip again. Forging ahead, he married a Christian young lady who had arrived in America earlier at the age of seven. The Lord blessed them with nine children and there was no question about it that all were to be trained in the Christian school. Their father had become a naturalized citizen, the children were born citizens of the U. S. A. All the nine children married and had families. Some became successful in business, one became a minister, and the youngest son became an attorney and rose to the honor of being elected as a Circuit Court judge in the city where his immigrant father had arrived with just twenty-five cents left in his pocket.
Hard work, the blessings of the Lord, and America with its boundless opportunities made amazing things possible. Church, the kingdom of God, and Christian living were always number one in the training these Christian parents gave their children. There was never a thought about America or the world owing them a living, and they knew full well that there is no substitute for hard work in order to survive. Yes, I knew those parents well because I was one of their children. Once again, even though they are now in that far better land, we their children rise up and call them blessed. And, with grateful hearts, we want to add: God bless America!
The upshot of all this? Well, musing on it, we crm only he humble. Receiving all those blessings through our Christian parents, from our gracious Lord, and in this land of boundless opportunities we so often merely took them all for granted and as a matter of course. How different things might have been. And so, my Bicentennial musings may well leave us now with a deep sense of unworthiness of all the countless blessings that our Christian immigrant parents and our 200-year old America have meant for us.
Some years ago, when my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the Netherlands we were asked by our minister host where we wanted to go. He was taken aback a bit when I told him that among other places, we wished to visit the out-of-the-way village of Ulrum on the North Sea in the Province of Groningen. My interest in going there was easily explained—it was Ulrum where my father had lived as a hoy. It was January when we made it to Ulrum, and the cold wind blowing off the North Sea seemed to go right through us. Someone may ask, but why go there in January? Because our visit there was tied up with a trip to our mission field in Nigeria and that was the best time to go to get around there on passable roads.
Ulrum was of special interest to us also because it was there, among other places, that the Secession (Afscheiding) of 1834 took place under the leadership of Dominie Hendrik De Cock. We appreciated the willingness of the local pastor to allow us to visit that historic church, and it was an interesting experience to mount the high pulpit in which the courageous De Cock had kept up his Reformed preaching until he and his faithful followers were finally driven out. Because my father and his parents belonged to the Afgescheidenen (Secessionists), he and the other children were taunted on the streets as Cocksianen. So, I can understand that he had no yearning to go hack even though the spirit must have changed to the better as time went on and also as the economy improved.
No such ridicule was experienced in America. Three times on Sunday our parents used to attend the Christian Reformed Church. As children we were expected to attend twice, morning and evening, hut going along with them also to the afternoon Dutch service was optional. We walked to church and back and never once was there any interference in our freedom of religion. Since then a lot of water has gone over the dam and now my Bicentennial musings remind me that it is going on fifty years ago that I might begin preaching the precious gospel that we first learned from our parents at home. During all that time in this “land of the free” never once was there anyone who sought to deprive me of my freedom to preach the whole counsel of God.
Freedom of religion is such a priceless blessing so easily taken for granted. We can hardly conceive of it ever being any different because we have never experienced open religious persecution. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago, has been trying to get us to realize how different things might be and how we ought to be on the alert, and we had better pay attention before it is too late.
While these observations were in the making, a pollster called to ask a lot of questions about my political preferences, voting habits, criticism I might have, and so on. Suppose that we were in Communist Russia or China, would that ever happen, and if it did, would we dare to open our mouths? Without any hesitation I expressed all my likes and dislikes and also voiced my criticism freely without a thought of coercion, repercussions, or the dreaded knock on the door at three o‘clock in the morning to be carried off to prison.
Think of it, during all our lives and for two hundred years now, this freedom has been found consistently within the borders of our land. How thankful, how thoroughly thankful we ought to be! Let’s not wait until this freedom is taken from us before we really praise God from whom all these blessings flow!
But hand in hand with privilege goes responsibility. In God’s providence we have been brought to America not only to receive hut also to give. We know what our nation has been like during our lifetime and for the past 200 years. The question is, what kind of an America will we leave for our children, and for their children if the Lord tarries?
No matter how milch dirt the news media may dredge up about him, the late President Kennedy was certainly not wrong when he once said that we are not to ask what am country can do for HS rather what we can do for our country. Our Lord puts it like this: we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Crime and corruption, dishonesty and graft, divorce and immorality are gnawing away at the vitals of American society, probably as never before. With the Psalmist we may say: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Ps. 11:3).
What can we do? There is no hope for America apart from the righteous in it. Think of it, if there had been only tell righteous persons left in Sodom, God would have spared the city for their sake. Of course, our President and our rulers in city, state, and nation have an awesome responsibility. But let’s face it: as Christians in this land we have a responsibility that is even greater. And our God will surely call as to account unless as Christians we are willing not only to die for our country but also to live so that doomsday may bc averted and our country may be spared.
What does America need so desperately? The gospel the Reformed faith, Christian witnessing, the example of godly living, honesty, truth, and the wholehearted Christian service of those who are willing to give themselves also to call our nation back to God and, under Him in as far as He may grant, to make a cosmos out of the chaos that threatens to engulf us and to spell the downfall of our nation.
As Christians let’s be humble!
As Christians let’s be grateful!
And, by all means, as Christians let’s also be responsible as citizens in this highly favored land.
May God bless America!