Lives used up in the fight for freedom for others

Today we are a nation divided, and a country united!  We are divided by ignorance of history, and by men who are set on making a name for themselves at the expense of everyone around them.  We are united by the civility of Jesus Christ, who transforms hate into love in the lives of individuals, and so into a nation that sends out the love of God.
   History does indeed matter, and knowledge, or lack thereof, will make or break a nation. That thought is not extreme, and this very issue of national destruction is found in a familiar Bible passage, which deals with a nation falling because history was forgotten.  Hosea 4:6,  ''My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'' That passage goes on to say that the people failed to remember their history, and failed to remember their God; He, the first Historian, repeatedly, repeatedly, told His people to set up memorials and tell the meaning of God's involvement among all peoples, to tell of His Wonders as He cared for His people, of the travels of His people wherever they went because He was always with them, even into captivity. God repeatedly told His people to tell their children, and tell the aliens among them of the history of God among His people. But the people forgot.
   Today we have asked Jesus Christ to leave our schools, to not let many of our public school children, across the nation, hear the name of Jesus Christ, nor to hear most of world and national history. Thank God for the exceptions, for those who still fear and honor Jesus Christ!
   One huge portion of history we have lost, and which now divides our nation, is the vast number of Americans who opposed slavery in the 1800's, and the large number of books, newspapers, and other publications. which entreated Americans, with great pleading and emotion, to end the immoral and hideous practice of slavery!  Far too many of the descendants of those enslaved in our nation during that disgraceful period of our history do not realize the huge numbers of Americans that were responsible for ending of slavery.
   One of the heroes of the enslaved American was Elijah Parish Lovejoy.

Elijah P. Lovejoy,
Editor Alton Observer,
 1802 - 1837.
A Martyr to Liberty.



"I have sworn eternal opposition to slavery, and by the blessing of God, I will never go back."

Elijah Parish Lovejoy was a Presbyterian minister,  and champion of freedom from slavery, and free speech, Elijah Lovejoy, lived but 35 years, and in that time he published a newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri, called the St. Louis Observer, where his print press was destroyed the first of four times, and in Alton, Illinois, where in his 35th year, drunken pro-slavery mobs destroyed Lovejoy's print press three more times, and he was killed at the destruction of his fourth press.

     ''I am threatened with violence and death because I dare to advocate, in any way, the cause of the oppressed. Under a deep sense of my obligations to my country, the Church and my God, I declare it to be my fixed purpose to submit to no such dictation. And I am prepared to abide the consequences.''

   These were no idle words, he was prepared, as many were, to use up his life for the gaining of freedom for others, and others who would seldom, if ever, have a chance to repay him for his dedicated work on the behalf of those he did not know, but from the kindness of Almighty God in his heart, to give all.
   He was called , ‘Champion of Freedom'.  His murder made clear that slavery could not be ended peaceably because slavery brought in too much money and too much free labor; unruly and lazy men worshiped at the altar of easy money. Indeed, the vast majority of slaveholders were men determined to have free labor and easy money on the broken backs of their fellow countrymen, who were the descendants of the African and the Irish, shipped like disposable merchandise to the American colonies.
   Many newspapers, books, and smaller publications, reached the heart of the American people  who then supported the civil war and the Emancipation Proclamation; and Elijah Parish Lovejoy's martyrdom was one of the events that gripped the heart of the people into action.
   After Elijah Lovejoy died, his brother, Owen Lovejoy, took his place along side the many other abolitionists who daily risked their lives to free the Americans enslaved.

Sources:
National Abolition hall of Fame and Museum
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship by Russell Freedman
Distilled History, 2013 award of the year's best personal blog by RFT
Wikipedia