John Chester preached a sermon on the week that president Andrew Garfield died. A forgotten president that could teach many of us what being a Christian in the world of leadership and politics should look like.
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00:00 --> 00:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Revived thoughts is a production of Revived Studios.
00:08 --> 00:11 [SPEAKER_02]: This is Troy Angel, and you're listening to Revived Thoughts.
00:16 --> 00:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Today, a great nation mourns around the coffin of its murdered president.
00:22 --> 00:26 [SPEAKER_00]: The Christian Sabbath is the very time to reflect on an event
00:31 --> 00:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Every episode will bring you a different voice from history and a swimmer in that they delivered.
00:36 --> 00:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Troy today, wait, we kind of have a unique setting here.
00:40 --> 00:43 [SPEAKER_01]: We're actually going to the death of President Garfield.
00:44 --> 00:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, President Garfield had been, he'd been President for about four months.
00:48 --> 00:59 [SPEAKER_01]: And he was at a railroad station in Washington, and there was an unstable person that was convinced that he would have a job of Garfield, had not won the presidency, and so he shot him twice.
01:00 --> 01:06 [SPEAKER_01]: And the doctor's stitched him up and got him back on his feet, but this was in an era before.
01:06 --> 01:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Modern medical technology was a thing, and so he ended up getting an infection, and it led to sepsis.
01:12 --> 01:16 [SPEAKER_01]: And then 80 days after he was shot, he would end up passing away.
01:17 --> 01:28 [SPEAKER_01]: and it was at this ceremony of life, celebration of life that our speaker of today's sermon, John Chester would give this following funeral sermon.
01:28 --> 01:34 [SPEAKER_01]: That's like the longest intro I've done, but I feel like that was a good, it would get you right into the action.
01:34 --> 01:35 [SPEAKER_01]: That's what I thought.
01:36 --> 01:43 [SPEAKER_02]: That's cool, who even knows about the life of James A. Garfield, but I thought we needed a rare and unique set of stage here for this one.
01:43 --> 01:45 [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe not rare, maybe a little bit more like that in the future.
01:46 --> 01:52 [SPEAKER_02]: Joel, we have some positive comments, Richard, around Spotify, said of our recent Jonathan Edwards' Ruth's Resolutions.
01:52 --> 01:55 [SPEAKER_02]: What a great evangelist experiment from Jonathan Edwards.
01:55 --> 01:59 [SPEAKER_02]: And the previous episode, John Huss on the Wheaton Tears and the same kind of vein.
01:59 --> 01:59 [SPEAKER_02]: Wonderful work, guys.
01:59 --> 02:00 [SPEAKER_02]: Keep them coming.
02:00 --> 02:02 [SPEAKER_02]: We will certainly try our best, Richard.
02:03 --> 02:05 [SPEAKER_02]: Brent also had a link to a YouTube song.
02:06 --> 02:08 [SPEAKER_02]: Listen this song along with the story of David Livingston.
02:08 --> 02:10 [SPEAKER_02]: It gets me your time on a rewind on David Livingston.
02:10 --> 02:19 [SPEAKER_02]: There is this YouTube channel out there doing like these interesting songs where they're taking like old David Livingston other things and telling their story through music.
02:20 --> 02:20 [SPEAKER_02]: It is actually quite cool.
02:21 --> 02:23 [SPEAKER_02]: The things we can do with AI out there are pretty interesting.
02:24 --> 02:28 [SPEAKER_02]: And so I recommend going to find that YouTube channel if you can.
02:29 --> 02:31 [SPEAKER_02]: This next name, boy.
02:32 --> 02:37 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, I don't know, I know you know, I'm gonna just say fresh.
02:37 --> 02:38 [SPEAKER_02]: I hope that's okay.
02:38 --> 02:39 [SPEAKER_02]: Fresh, fresh.
02:39 --> 02:40 [SPEAKER_02]: That might be your name.
02:40 --> 02:42 [SPEAKER_02]: It sounds, there's more to it than that.
02:42 --> 02:45 [SPEAKER_02]: A lot more letters after that, but I just, I don't want to get it to rock.
02:45 --> 02:47 [SPEAKER_01]: A fresh, fresh short of feeling.
02:47 --> 03:12 [SPEAKER_02]: I feel like, okay, sorry, Frascia, that is not a little more cool, I came across your podcast through your wife's, at least podcast, and I've been listening from the first episode and I love it, I've learned so much about the early church and the preachers, and this person was putting this in at T-Dawit Tomage, I did a little calculation, and they are about 17% or depending on which T-Dawit Tomage, it was 40% of the way through our catalog, I think it's more likely 17% a couple things,
03:15 --> 03:33 [SPEAKER_02]: because of where you're at, and you're probably not listening to the latest episodes, you might not get this response fresh for a few years, so we're looking forward to when you catch up if you're going through the, if you're going from first episode all the way through, it'll be a while, especially if you're at the S-17% mark, but that's still what I mean, that was seven years something episodes I've listened to, if it's that one.
03:34 --> 03:40 [SPEAKER_02]: And thank you, finally, to tell my wife, ha, a listener came from her show to my show, okay?
03:40 --> 03:42 [SPEAKER_02]: It's almost always going the other way over.
03:42 --> 03:44 [SPEAKER_02]: So many comments on Mars and missionaries.
03:44 --> 03:46 [SPEAKER_02]: I came from a five thoughts, I love Mars and missionaries.
03:46 --> 03:55 [SPEAKER_02]: It was just, I want you to love Mars and missionaries, but finally, after five years of Mars and missionaries, somebody finds for my thoughts through Mars and missionaries and also likes our show.
03:55 --> 04:01 [SPEAKER_02]: So we appreciate that, I finally got to tell my wife, ha, it happened, they do go the other way once in a while, as well.
04:02 --> 04:02 [SPEAKER_02]: So thank you.
04:03 --> 04:06 [SPEAKER_02]: Ellen over on Patreon says I listened to the on-hust, wow no wonder he was martyred.
04:07 --> 04:11 [SPEAKER_02]: He really laid out the truth, a tremendous message for today when lies are treated as a truth and truth is considered a lie.
04:12 --> 04:14 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for your work to share significant messages from the past.
04:14 --> 04:16 [SPEAKER_02]: Can't wait for that next pirate message neither can I.
04:17 --> 04:19 [SPEAKER_02]: It'll be a while, but it's it's ready.
04:19 --> 04:21 [SPEAKER_02]: It's just we've got a full schedule guys.
04:21 --> 04:24 [SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, y'all, y'all, man.
04:24 --> 04:25 [SPEAKER_02]: It was a great sermon.
04:25 --> 04:25 [SPEAKER_02]: I was so glad to do it.
04:26 --> 04:26 [SPEAKER_02]: I used it with my students.
04:27 --> 04:28 [SPEAKER_02]: They were blown away by a powerful
04:29 --> 04:50 [SPEAKER_01]: powerful sermon on false teaching and we've I feel like we've just had some great sermons on the show lately and that was just another one so now let's let's get to this one yeah uh this so this episode is we're gonna talk about two people John Chester is the person who preached the sermon that we're gonna listen to and so we're gonna talk a bit about Chester but he's preaching a sermon about
04:51 --> 05:09 [SPEAKER_01]: James Garfield and you know Garfield was the president for a very short period of time and he also has an interesting life so we're also kind of going to use it as an excuse to talk about Garfield quite a bit as well but let's start with John Chester he was born and Hudson New York in 18
05:10 --> 05:12 [SPEAKER_01]: 32 and he was a smart kid.
05:12 --> 05:16 [SPEAKER_01]: He graduated high school and went on to Princeton University in 1851.
05:17 --> 05:22 [SPEAKER_01]: He graduated with a medical degree and two years later began practicing medicine.
05:23 --> 05:24 [SPEAKER_01]: In 1859, he put his medical work down
05:27 --> 05:29 [SPEAKER_01]: and started working in ministry.
05:29 --> 05:42 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's unclear what prompted this change, but after five years of service at a church in New Jersey, he felt called to go form a church in Washington, D.C.
05:42 --> 05:51 [SPEAKER_01]: So one of those situations where he thought he would be a doctor and got his degree and was practicing and then just felt called in the ministry.
05:51 --> 05:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Now he's feeling called to go,
05:53 --> 05:59 [SPEAKER_01]: started New Church, playing a new church in Washington, DC, and it started in a school house.
05:59 --> 06:00 [SPEAKER_01]: They were using a school house as a building.
06:01 --> 06:13 [SPEAKER_01]: I had 17 members, but over the course of 30 years, his church would grow to eventually be 700 members, and he was the pastor there for that whole tenure for a 30-year stretch.
06:13 --> 06:15 [SPEAKER_01]: So what a what a life, what a legacy.
06:17 --> 06:42 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I will say, it's not the first time we've seen a doctor, we could become a pastor, we've seen it happen a few times, and I was recent actually we were had one of those, and I feel like doctor is not as common as lawyer, lawyers, more than numbers of them that come over to the pastoral field is quite high, but I would say doctors probably in the top three of professions that we see switch over and be in the by our standards and that becoming pastors.
06:43 --> 06:45 [SPEAKER_02]: Now, many Washington D.C. officials visited his church at one point.
06:46 --> 06:50 [SPEAKER_02]: The every single cabinet had at least one member or one of everybody was every single department.
06:50 --> 06:52 [SPEAKER_02]: Had at least one member attending his church.
06:52 --> 06:55 [SPEAKER_02]: President Grant was so involved in the two.
06:55 --> 06:57 [SPEAKER_02]: He wasn't a member, but he was so involved with the church.
06:57 --> 07:00 [SPEAKER_02]: He was there at the inaugurating and increasing of a new building.
07:01 --> 07:04 [SPEAKER_02]: When they had to fix the building or maybe they were building the new building.
07:04 --> 07:05 [SPEAKER_02]: It was a little unclear for me.
07:06 --> 07:07 [SPEAKER_02]: They needed a place to
07:08 --> 07:09 [SPEAKER_02]: do worship.
07:09 --> 07:18 [SPEAKER_02]: So they, they, they, the house of representatives, our Congress lent them the, I don't even know what you call it.
07:18 --> 07:19 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, they just called the House of Representatives.
07:19 --> 07:25 [SPEAKER_02]: That big building where, you know, the people do the voting and the Congressmen are all sitting in that that room was given to them to have church.
07:26 --> 07:37 [SPEAKER_02]: Two dates, the only time America's House of Reps have ever had representatives has ever held a regular communion or baptismal services was during the time where they were either building a new church or something for his church.
07:37 --> 07:39 [SPEAKER_02]: And so they allowed them to use that thing.
07:39 --> 07:41 [SPEAKER_02]: Which I mean, that's kind of cool.
07:41 --> 07:45 [SPEAKER_02]: I think that's pretty neat that our Congress was at one point housing in a church.
07:45 --> 07:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Kind of wish it still was, if I'm honest, but as a neat thing.
07:49 --> 07:51 [SPEAKER_02]: So there's a little historical tidbit there for John Chester.
07:52 --> 07:53 [SPEAKER_02]: He opened over, see all of this.
07:53 --> 07:55 [SPEAKER_02]: He was involved in it for the first 30 years.
07:55 --> 07:57 [SPEAKER_02]: So he was there during that time when it was in the house of the reps.
07:58 --> 08:01 [SPEAKER_02]: He also oversaw a house for people struggling with mental illness.
08:01 --> 08:07 [SPEAKER_02]: when America went to war with Spain, and in the Spanish-American War, he was a chaplain for the soldiers during that time.
08:07 --> 08:14 [SPEAKER_02]: He wrote books and helped to have pushed ideas for how to make education Christian, for Americans during that time.
08:14 --> 08:16 [SPEAKER_02]: He's involved in a lot of different things.
08:16 --> 08:21 [SPEAKER_02]: A very important and beloved man, and he gave this service on the life of Garfield, pretty early on.
08:22 --> 08:28 [SPEAKER_02]: Many government officials who were attending likely were a part of the Garfield administration, so I think how much that probably meant to them.
08:29 --> 08:32 [SPEAKER_02]: This is not the official funeral for Sermon for Garfield, that was held.
08:33 --> 08:44 [SPEAKER_02]: I believe over in Ohio at the time where he was from, but it was one of the biggest and most famous sermons that would end up being reprinted and published and sent around about this moment.
08:44 --> 08:50 [SPEAKER_02]: Again, he's deeply connected to the Garfield administration on this off, and in terms of having them at his church and whatnot.
08:51 --> 08:51 [SPEAKER_02]: So,
08:53 --> 08:59 [SPEAKER_02]: a pretty big thing here, Chester himself would die in 1910, so he kind of saw through that era.
08:59 --> 09:06 [SPEAKER_02]: Now I did wonder, I thought of myself, hey, this is a church in Washington DC, I wonder if it's still, it doesn't still exist.
09:06 --> 09:11 [SPEAKER_02]: I do that some from time to time, especially when they're like 1800s on, a lot of time these churches are still around, which is pretty cool.
09:12 --> 09:16 [SPEAKER_02]: I have churches in New York and in London, I would go visit if I remember there on a Sunday.
09:17 --> 09:18 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, name of the church was called
09:20 --> 09:26 [SPEAKER_02]: And then it was like Metropolitan Presbyterian Church, and there are a lot of capital hills and Presbyterian Church.
09:27 --> 09:28 [SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of these church names.
09:30 --> 09:33 [SPEAKER_02]: Even when I posted about this somewhere, someone said, oh, I think you mean capital hill about this.
09:33 --> 09:34 [SPEAKER_02]: I did not.
09:34 --> 09:35 [SPEAKER_02]: This was not that one.
09:36 --> 09:38 [SPEAKER_02]: Eventually, I did find the trail.
09:39 --> 09:46 [SPEAKER_02]: I was able to figure out, and with 100% confidence, that it merged with another church, and it did not good news.
09:46 --> 09:47 [SPEAKER_02]: The current pastor.
09:48 --> 10:00 [SPEAKER_02]: Rachel, she is currently running the church in her bio reads past her Rachel joined this community, this church is community in capital whole Presbyterian church community in August 2021 in the midst of the global pandemic.
10:00 --> 10:10 [SPEAKER_02]: Along with her deep knowledge of Zoom, she brings ten years in ministry experience, a love of Jesus having heard the call to ministry, Rachel left Los Angeles and her dream of being an extra in a hallmark movie.
10:10 --> 10:11 [SPEAKER_02]: and went to seminary in New Jersey.
10:11 --> 10:12 [SPEAKER_02]: She is a bisexual.
10:13 --> 10:15 [SPEAKER_02]: Cares deeply about making sure everyone feels welcome.
10:15 --> 10:23 [SPEAKER_02]: Now they are led by God, Rachel lives in Glover Park with her archivist husband, Adrian, their two daughters, her dog, Lady Bird, and Dianne houseplants.
10:24 --> 10:24 [SPEAKER_02]: So, um,
10:26 --> 10:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Seems like that church has gone and that probably pretty different direction from John Sisters Day if I had to guess it is crazy however the course of what 130 140 years yeah 140 years How let's get he died in 1910 he probably I think he retired right in the early 1900s so since he's left 120 years has passed
10:47 --> 10:48 [SPEAKER_01]: 120 years.
10:48 --> 10:55 [SPEAKER_01]: However, the course of 120 years, you're the church you left behind to go through so much of a dramatic.
10:55 --> 11:11 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the truth for a lot of, I mean, I would probably say the majority of churches that pastors let or you died out of in the Lady Tynon, or shall be 1900s are probably something that they would be horrified by.
11:12 --> 11:17 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, we've talked about this with the Spurgeon story of the downgrade controversy.
11:17 --> 11:25 [SPEAKER_02]: If you do not actively just re commit yourself to the Bible, every institution just slides out of it.
11:25 --> 11:27 [SPEAKER_02]: And it's just the way institutions go.
11:27 --> 11:28 [SPEAKER_02]: There's no stopping it.
11:28 --> 11:29 [SPEAKER_02]: I see it overseas.
11:29 --> 11:33 [SPEAKER_02]: We see it with agencies, the agencies that send people overseas.
11:33 --> 11:34 [SPEAKER_02]: I can watch.
11:35 --> 11:51 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, in real time almost where once really conservative trustworthy groups kind of fall off and then you see a new one spring up and then of course, you know, everyone's excited about the new one and then I'm sure 50 years from now the new one will, you know, it just it just seems to be something we see repeatedly happen.
11:53 --> 11:58 [SPEAKER_02]: We know what you'll, I've never thought about this, but we're going to put it down right now in the bylaws, if 120 years from now.
11:59 --> 12:20 [SPEAKER_02]: somebody tries to take over Roveye thoughts they cannot be a bisexual man who's bad with the houseplants I wonder I don't learn she's not allowed behind the mic put it can we put that in the bylaws somewhere chill and keep that from it didn't revive thoughts will not go through a downgrade controversy okay that we we don't allow it she she can't come in so revive time we're long enough to see itself become new
12:21 --> 12:24 [SPEAKER_02]: That's, we're gonna, oh no, that would be, that would be bad.
12:25 --> 12:27 [SPEAKER_02]: No, we just put it in the by-law so it can't happen.
12:27 --> 12:30 [SPEAKER_02]: So sorry, sorry, Pastor Rachel's great, great granddaughter.
12:31 --> 12:35 [SPEAKER_02]: She will have to find another podcast to take over because it won't be this one.
12:37 --> 12:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, let's let's shift and talk about Garfield.
12:40 --> 12:44 [SPEAKER_01]: James A. Garfield, not a world-famous president.
12:44 --> 12:56 [SPEAKER_01]: The second shortest presidency of all time due to the previously mentioned gunshot wounds and resulting infection, he was the president of America during the gilded age.
12:57 --> 13:02 [SPEAKER_01]: And so this was so cult because it looked prosperous and shiny on the outside.
13:02 --> 13:24 [SPEAKER_01]: uh... but america underneath had a lot of corruption in garfield himself uh... in part had been elected to help in some of that corruption and uh... he didn't really get a much time or chance to do so before being killed but he was born in eighteen thirty one and uh... my understanding he was the last president to be born in a log cabin yeah i mean
13:26 --> 13:50 [SPEAKER_02]: It was kind of interesting when somebody read that and I kind of verified it seems like he was the last one to be born in a log cabin I guess that's a thing like I suppose there was a time when a lot of people were born on the front tier with palaces or blogs by themselves And I guess there was a time when that just really stopped happening and Garfield is the last of the presidents Not the last person I think I think people were still living in a log cabin is quite a bit after one means the last of the
13:51 --> 14:06 [SPEAKER_02]: of the log cabin presidents that i'm aware of which it's kind of a weird benchmark to be like to put that on your uh... is a weird you're on your hat but but i guess we know that one about him okay so uh... born in Ohio and he was the youngest of five kids in his family
14:06 --> 14:20 [SPEAKER_01]: At the age of two, his family joined a church being led by the Stone Campbell movement, which was a restorationist movement, and we've covered this restorationist movement across different episodes of Revived Thoughts.
14:20 --> 14:26 [SPEAKER_01]: Our most recent mention of it is in the J. Impendleton episode that was titled Twisting the Scriptures.
14:27 --> 14:35 [SPEAKER_01]: That episode talks about how for many of the restorationists, it was more of an intellectual ascent to God than a life change.
14:35 --> 14:45 [SPEAKER_01]: You can listen to that up physically when you hear it more or that you like it, the structure of what that movement that President Garfield was growing up in and that was his culture.
14:46 --> 14:52 [SPEAKER_02]: Garfield's dad died not long after they joined the church, and again, he was only one or two in that happened.
14:52 --> 14:56 [SPEAKER_02]: His mom, despite the fact that they were pretty poor, worked very hard to provide for their family.
14:57 --> 14:59 [SPEAKER_02]: Garfield said he was his mom's favorite kid.
14:59 --> 15:04 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think I've ever had anybody on the show who was just like, I was mom's favorite.
15:05 --> 15:05 [SPEAKER_02]: But you know what?
15:05 --> 15:08 [SPEAKER_02]: He became a president, so maybe that maybe that's what it takes.
15:09 --> 15:31 [SPEAKER_02]: and he said he cited strongly with his mom very hardcore when it was mom got a new husband but the kind of turned out to be a bad guy and eventually they had to get a divorce and it was a big mess and this was so prevalent like he so didn't like this guy didn't like how he treated his mom and what the kind of bad guy he was and when he died in 18 this other guy this the worst guy died in 1880.
15:31 --> 15:38 [SPEAKER_02]: Carfield wrote down his diary that he had heard like some good news that jerk died so I mean this guy was to have been pretty rotten and he didn't like him.
15:39 --> 15:48 [SPEAKER_02]: his moment of huge impact on him later on a classmate wrote of him his whole life was religiously influenced by the seed which was planted by his mother's hand while he lived with her and the little log cabin in the wilderness.
15:48 --> 16:05 [SPEAKER_02]: And by the way we have little quotes and things like that about this guy because he's a president and he's not like one of these obscure pastors who lived a long ways wrote one book on theology and you know served his congregation well but there wasn't a lot going on you know in the 1600s like with when you're covering the death of a president
16:08 --> 16:18 [SPEAKER_02]: I, I probably outside of like a Charles Spurgeon or a John that I don't feel like I've ever had a part-down how many sources I had on him because again, you know, there are presidential libraries and congressional records to keep.
16:19 --> 16:21 [SPEAKER_02]: So we have a lot of information like that on this guy.
16:22 --> 16:24 [SPEAKER_02]: Have you no dad and mean very poor?
16:24 --> 16:26 [SPEAKER_02]: He said he was bullied a lot, which just said.
16:26 --> 16:30 [SPEAKER_02]: This may not have a pretty sensitive kid so he like to read books and kind of hide away from the world.
16:30 --> 16:36 [SPEAKER_02]: Access senior left home to get a job, but the only boat at the port in Cleveland that he kind of he went to the boat.
16:36 --> 16:37 [SPEAKER_02]: So I'll work as a sailor and they said no.
16:37 --> 16:38 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't want you.
16:39 --> 16:44 [SPEAKER_02]: So eventually he got a job as the overseer of meals in the canals around town.
16:44 --> 16:47 [SPEAKER_02]: So I guess these meals traveled next to the canals in the canals.
16:47 --> 16:49 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not quite sure and his job was to make
16:52 --> 16:55 [SPEAKER_02]: I probably not a very clean or pleasant job.
16:56 --> 17:10 [SPEAKER_02]: I would imagine eventually when he would run for president He would they would use this line like he's just like you he's he's even overseeing the mules in the canals kind of thing I he didn't have a job super long and he got kind of it was a miserable job for him and some of his family kind of said hey
17:11 --> 17:13 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, he got sick while working.
17:13 --> 17:15 [SPEAKER_02]: It was pretty hard work in his family.
17:15 --> 17:18 [SPEAKER_02]: People around in friends and we're like, well, go to school.
17:18 --> 17:19 [SPEAKER_02]: Just try going to school for a year.
17:19 --> 17:22 [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe you're more of a school guy than a, a work the canals kind of guy.
17:23 --> 17:27 [SPEAKER_02]: By the way, if you don't know much about Cleveland Ohio during this time, and why would you?
17:28 --> 17:34 [SPEAKER_02]: But if you'd want to know more about it, and our Christian or not show, Mark and I recently talk tackled.
17:34 --> 17:39 [SPEAKER_02]: When our second episode, we tackled the life of John D. Rockefeller, and he was alive at this time period.
17:39 --> 17:46 [SPEAKER_02]: He also was building his gigantic oil fortune and basically putting Cleveland on the map and making it.
17:46 --> 17:51 [SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, Garfield is working around the same time, pretty similar time period here of overlap.
17:51 --> 17:56 [SPEAKER_02]: So you'd a lot more information, and also you'd find out if John D. Rockefeller was a Christian or not.
17:57 --> 18:06 [SPEAKER_02]: So, back to him, if friend here convinced him to go to school, and he did, and he went to a school at a local seminary, and he loved it.
18:06 --> 18:07 [SPEAKER_02]: It was for him.
18:07 --> 18:11 [SPEAKER_02]: He said, I was a lament that I would, but he really did have a hard time with his life circumstances.
18:12 --> 18:13 [SPEAKER_02]: In his diary, he wrote about the situation.
18:13 --> 18:21 [SPEAKER_02]: I lament that I was born to poverty, and in this chaos of childhood, 17 years passed before I caught any kind of inspiration, which was him going to school, finally.
18:21 --> 18:26 [SPEAKER_02]: A precious 17 years, when a boy with a father and some money, might have become a lot better off.
18:26 --> 18:38 [SPEAKER_02]: And you know, a little sad story, they're like, yeah, you definitely can't hear the bitterness of life there, or I just, you know, if you had had, if his dad hadn't died, and he had a little bit more money, how much better what his life had been up into that point.
18:39 --> 18:43 [SPEAKER_01]: his mom begged him to go to church and so he started going.
18:43 --> 18:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Eventually he started going for himself and attending camp meetings in the area and he became a believer over this process and was baptized in an icy cold river in 1850.
18:55 --> 19:01 [SPEAKER_01]: And after learning that new Englanders had worked while attending college to quote work their way through.
19:02 --> 19:19 [SPEAKER_01]: He decided that he was going to do a similar thing, and so he worked his way through his Bible college experience there, and while at school, working, he also preached on a circuit in the surrounding area, and even at one point, he had a job teaching penmanship.
19:19 --> 19:24 [SPEAKER_01]: And it was a job that had previously been held by another future
19:25 --> 19:29 [SPEAKER_01]: president and his future vice president, Chester A Arthur.
19:30 --> 19:38 [SPEAKER_01]: So a little bit of, uh, he made friends back in the day and then brought him in to be his vice president and then Chester Arthur would go on to eventually be president himself.
19:39 --> 19:48 [SPEAKER_02]: Kind of weird to think that two presidents had the same, like imagine like, you know, the cashier at McDonald's at one point, two different presidents had that same position.
19:48 --> 19:48 [SPEAKER_02]: That's kind of like,
19:49 --> 20:14 [SPEAKER_02]: the same penmanship tutoring job at one point had two different people go through it who would go on to be presidents and then again it makes sense at some point they were running the same circles they became friends he becomes his vice president when he dies the other guy becomes president but it is just a such an obscure you know this isn't like the department of agriculture you know whatever some kind of job that that leads you to the presidency it's helping people right better and cursive it just happened to be the same post that they both went through.
20:15 --> 20:17 [SPEAKER_01]: You never know, you never know when it pays to have good friends, you know?
20:18 --> 20:34 [SPEAKER_01]: After this time, he began teaching at an old school and he married his college crush and got interested in politics because the abolitionist movement, it was the hot topic to be discussing at the moment and it got interested in politics.
20:35 --> 20:47 [SPEAKER_02]: So the whole country was swept up in what is called pleading Kansas, and it's been almost two episodes since I've mentioned that so you should go to Baytree on and go sign up and listen to the three hour episode I did on pleading Kansas.
20:48 --> 20:57 [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's quite good thing to learn a lot and you know, you give us a little more need to help support the show So we can keep making these great episodes, but also again, you'll hear in a great three hour podcast about
20:57 --> 20:59 [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I promise you, it's more interesting than it sounds.
21:00 --> 21:10 [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, all these people began to flock to the newly created Republican Party, which was founded partially to stop slavery from, I mean, actually wholly to stop slavery from entering Kansas.
21:11 --> 21:15 [SPEAKER_02]: And Garfield was one of these guys who was jumping into the help out the new Republican Party.
21:15 --> 21:20 [SPEAKER_02]: He came banned for candidates, he goes and gets his law license, because of course he do, that's what you do when you go into politics, you go into law.
21:21 --> 21:25 [SPEAKER_02]: At first, Scarfield, with a civil war breaks out, though, and it's kind of interrupts and changes plans.
21:25 --> 21:32 [SPEAKER_02]: So, at first, Scarfield ends up raising soldiers for an army to lead, and then eventually, he gets to the soldiers, but he does that using his Christian contacts.
21:32 --> 21:38 [SPEAKER_02]: He would preach at churches, and he'd use his old circuits and stuff to kind of get people riled up, and everyone knew him when he came.
21:38 --> 21:43 [SPEAKER_02]: He'd be like, we gotta go win this war, and defeat slavery, and the name of God, and people were all about it.
21:43 --> 21:45 [SPEAKER_02]: Again, bleeding cancels.
21:45 --> 21:48 [SPEAKER_02]: It's gonna tell you all about this, because this was a huge thing during that time.
21:49 --> 21:53 [SPEAKER_02]: Once he got there, they saw a war and they saw the really bad battles.
21:53 --> 21:57 [SPEAKER_02]: He was at the Battle of Shiloh, very bloody battle there.
21:58 --> 22:00 [SPEAKER_02]: He got sick not long after that and returned home.
22:01 --> 22:04 [SPEAKER_02]: And during that time, his friends were like, hey, we want you to run for office.
22:04 --> 22:07 [SPEAKER_02]: But he was like, I'm kind of focused on winning this war right now.
22:07 --> 22:09 [SPEAKER_02]: So I don't have time to campaign.
22:09 --> 22:10 [SPEAKER_02]: And they said, that's even better.
22:10 --> 22:11 [SPEAKER_02]: You'll look great on paper.
22:11 --> 22:15 [SPEAKER_02]: You didn't want to, you want to run, but you wouldn't, you wouldn't campaign because the war mattered more to you.
22:15 --> 22:17 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, we'll run with that basically.
22:17 --> 22:21 [SPEAKER_02]: So he kind of wins office without campaigning because his friends campaign for him.
22:23 --> 22:25 [SPEAKER_02]: This is where Garfield's life gets really messy.
22:25 --> 22:27 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to go into all the details.
22:28 --> 22:34 [SPEAKER_02]: If you want to read about 1860s Congress and politics power to you.
22:34 --> 22:36 [SPEAKER_02]: That sounds like fun for you.
22:36 --> 22:38 [SPEAKER_02]: Then you've got yourself quite a fun story.
22:38 --> 22:42 [SPEAKER_02]: Go over to that Garfield biography page and get in there and have a great time.
22:42 --> 22:43 [SPEAKER_02]: It's not for me.
22:43 --> 22:44 [SPEAKER_02]: Main thing is he was against slavery.
22:45 --> 22:46 [SPEAKER_02]: He really wanted to get America back.
22:46 --> 22:48 [SPEAKER_02]: or a stick with the American on the gold standard.
22:48 --> 22:50 [SPEAKER_02]: He really wanted to fix America's economy.
22:50 --> 22:51 [SPEAKER_02]: He thought that the finances were good.
22:52 --> 22:53 [SPEAKER_02]: Then the country would do well.
22:53 --> 23:00 [SPEAKER_02]: And he party which commits itself to paper money will go down a mid-general disaster and cover the curses covered with curses from a ruined people.
23:00 --> 23:07 [SPEAKER_02]: So for him, seeing how bad the civil war was to the economy, he really wanted to get America back on track and help the people get back up on their feet.
23:07 --> 23:11 [SPEAKER_02]: And he thought he had the economic ideas to do so.
23:20 --> 23:38 [SPEAKER_01]: The Garfield was not perfect, mostly, in terms of his marriage, and his own life, he did not have a very faithful relationship with his life as his life would unfold, as it went on in the midst of wars and such, he would be unfaithful to his wife.
23:38 --> 23:44 [SPEAKER_01]: He admitted to his wife early on in their marriage that he had cheated on her, and this seems to have occurred during the Civil War.
23:45 --> 23:59 [SPEAKER_01]: far from home when he wasn't able to attend church, he admitted to two different affairs during this time period, not to mention the overall grime of getting into politics.
23:59 --> 24:01 [SPEAKER_01]: Hard to do without becoming a little corrupt, right?
24:02 --> 24:12 [SPEAKER_01]: This obviously led to very difficult years in their marriage, but she told him that she would forgive him and work through it and in their later years.
24:13 --> 24:13 [SPEAKER_01]: All
24:16 --> 24:16 [SPEAKER_01]: they did.
24:16 --> 24:17 [SPEAKER_01]: They'd like it.
24:17 --> 24:22 [SPEAKER_01]: It seems like they had a wonderful strong marriage towards the end of their lives.
24:22 --> 24:27 [SPEAKER_01]: So one of those instances where they were able to heal from that.
24:28 --> 24:42 [SPEAKER_01]: And it seems that many think that the forgiveness that she showed to him when he knew he didn't deserve it kind of rekindled this new love for her that made him grow closer to her.
24:42 --> 24:43 [SPEAKER_01]: And closer to God,
24:45 --> 25:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Incident in his life that some people point to regarding the a stock and railroad scandal that he was clearly evolved up in Clearly involved in but no one seems to agree on the the amount the extent of his corruption or what he played in it But sounds like there was a lot of shady deals going on and he Was involved in it somehow But no one knows definitively it sounds like some hot gossip
25:12 --> 25:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Sounds like there was stuff going down, people knew he was involved, but he also became some how he became president.
25:19 --> 25:32 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's not, you know, it reminds me of I did a very two-part series on Woodrow Wilson, who also was an outwardly a Christian guy, preaching and teaching, and he also cheated on his wife, or,
25:33 --> 25:37 [SPEAKER_02]: Also, all evidence, probably there were people who would try to say, oh, you know, he never was never got physical.
25:38 --> 25:41 [SPEAKER_02]: He spent an eye in the month in like the Bahamas every year with her.
25:41 --> 25:43 [SPEAKER_02]: So it definitely, you know, anyway.
25:44 --> 25:49 [SPEAKER_02]: And many people, he, we, I did an episode on a Christian or not on Woodrow Wilson as well.
25:49 --> 25:52 [SPEAKER_02]: Very strong feelings about Christian about Woodrow Wilson.
25:52 --> 25:53 [SPEAKER_02]: I did it with how to script.
25:53 --> 25:54 [SPEAKER_02]: I could do it live.
25:54 --> 25:55 [SPEAKER_02]: I can tell that story inside out.
25:55 --> 25:58 [SPEAKER_02]: I also taught it to my students when we went over modern history.
25:58 --> 25:59 [SPEAKER_02]: A lot of thoughts on this guy.
26:00 --> 26:01 [SPEAKER_02]: And then to me, there's a huge difference.
26:02 --> 26:05 [SPEAKER_02]: Huge difference between Woodrow Wilson and James Garfield.
26:05 --> 26:07 [SPEAKER_02]: Both of them outwardly Christians preaching.
26:08 --> 26:10 [SPEAKER_02]: Both of them end up becoming president.
26:11 --> 26:13 [SPEAKER_02]: And both of them have affairs on their wives.
26:14 --> 26:18 [SPEAKER_02]: But the difference is, everybody in Garfield's wife, or life, sorry, thought he was a Christian.
26:19 --> 26:21 [SPEAKER_02]: Garfield came out and apologized to his wife.
26:21 --> 26:24 [SPEAKER_02]: He wasn't caught in a scandal, and he changed.
26:24 --> 26:30 [SPEAKER_02]: He genuinely repented and stayed faithful to his wife, and they seemed to really love each other by the end of their wife.
26:30 --> 26:39 [SPEAKER_02]: Their life, it was a mistake, a moment of sin, and for sure, evil, but it didn't become his defining characteristic.
26:39 --> 26:42 [SPEAKER_02]: He actually changed, whereas what you're Wilson,
26:43 --> 26:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, didn't seem to have the same kind of story and Garfield seems very humble.
26:49 --> 26:51 [SPEAKER_02]: He seems like a very chill guy.
26:51 --> 26:57 [SPEAKER_02]: People really, you know, when Woodrow Wilson died, he didn't see a lot of people talking about what a great Christian he was.
26:58 --> 26:59 [SPEAKER_02]: You definitely see that with Garfield.
27:00 --> 27:05 [SPEAKER_02]: His all of his old ministry partners, all of his old seminaries, they are weeping and mourning his passing.
27:06 --> 27:07 [SPEAKER_02]: We don't see that with Woodrow Wilson at all.
27:08 --> 27:16 [SPEAKER_02]: So I look, God knows the hearts as we say on our show Krishna or not, like we don't know for sure, but in the there's a big difference in the policies and actions and lives of these two.
27:16 --> 27:21 [SPEAKER_02]: And if I wish I kind of had known Garfield earlier in life, I could have used it.
27:21 --> 27:24 [SPEAKER_02]: He's a good foil to juxtapose Woodrow Wilson.
27:24 --> 27:26 [SPEAKER_02]: So because again, they have some similarities.
27:26 --> 27:29 [SPEAKER_02]: They have some moments of overlap, but I think it makes the contrast even
27:31 --> 27:32 [SPEAKER_02]: Alright, so there you go.
27:32 --> 27:35 [SPEAKER_02]: If you don't know what I'm talking about, and you're like, well, who the heck is Woodrow Wilson?
27:36 --> 27:37 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, let me tell you, you've got some catching up to do.
27:37 --> 27:39 [SPEAKER_02]: Covered a Christian or not, listen to that episode.
27:39 --> 27:43 [SPEAKER_02]: And then go back over to Revive Thoughts and listen to the part one and start two series of that.
27:43 --> 27:46 [SPEAKER_02]: And by the time you're done, you will not like that man at all.
27:47 --> 27:47 [SPEAKER_02]: I can guarantee it.
27:48 --> 27:52 [SPEAKER_02]: Eventually, he got the nomination for President Garfield here did.
27:52 --> 27:57 [SPEAKER_02]: He ran on reminding people the South Clause of Civil War, so don't vote for the Democrats who were doing all of that.
27:57 --> 28:00 [SPEAKER_02]: And he also voted to keep, he said, vote for me, I'll keep the government small.
28:00 --> 28:01 [SPEAKER_02]: He was pretty laws-a-fair.
28:02 --> 28:05 [SPEAKER_02]: He didn't want people to have the government to up in their business.
28:06 --> 28:09 [SPEAKER_02]: And many of the encroachments that were happening, he said, like, we're going to reverse course.
28:10 --> 28:12 [SPEAKER_02]: He wanted to fix the economy and let people do it.
28:12 --> 28:16 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, and at the time, a lot of politics was like the politicians were giving each other jobs.
28:17 --> 28:23 [SPEAKER_02]: and he promised like ham and in all this giving each other jobs business and political favors, I'm going to I want to put it into that because I don't agree with it.
28:24 --> 28:30 [SPEAKER_02]: On a spiritual side, many people though, one of the big parts of his campaign was they saw him as a Christian man running for office.
28:31 --> 28:31 [SPEAKER_02]: One letter could
28:32 --> 28:37 [SPEAKER_02]: congratulating him when he won, so I have been astonished at the hold that your candidacy took on the religious mind of the country.
28:38 --> 28:41 [SPEAKER_02]: It was the idea that finally we will have a religious man as our president.
28:41 --> 28:45 [SPEAKER_02]: It's a thought that as well the hearts of all of us who are following God.
28:45 --> 28:48 [SPEAKER_02]: In 1881, and there were several mini letters like that.
28:48 --> 28:48 [SPEAKER_02]: For people,
28:49 --> 28:58 [SPEAKER_02]: For Christians, Garfield was like the first time a really outspoken preaching style Christian was going to be an office and people were pretty excited to have that.
28:58 --> 29:01 [SPEAKER_02]: It's like finally we had this country, we can vote for the president.
29:01 --> 29:04 [SPEAKER_02]: Why haven't we been voting for Mormon like Garfield?
29:05 --> 29:12 [SPEAKER_02]: In 1881, when he was inaugurated, he had a special lunch with some friends, all of whom had gone to the same Christian school as him, and were now serving in government together.
29:12 --> 29:21 [SPEAKER_02]: They spent hours reminiscing about they had gone from those early days back in that seminary way back in the day, doing ministry together, going through the civil war days together.
29:21 --> 29:25 [SPEAKER_02]: And now they were all going to serve God and together in the government at the same time.
29:26 --> 29:28 [SPEAKER_02]: And I just, I don't know why that just, it just sounds cool.
29:28 --> 29:31 [SPEAKER_02]: Like maybe it's because I went to Bible College, I think it's some of the old friends there.
29:31 --> 29:35 [SPEAKER_02]: But imagine you're all serving ministry going through the civil war, going through all this stuff together.
29:36 --> 29:38 [SPEAKER_02]: And he's just become president.
29:38 --> 29:42 [SPEAKER_02]: And after the big inauguration, he goes and has like a lunch with his old friend.
29:42 --> 29:42 [SPEAKER_02]: So he's like, can you believe it?
29:43 --> 29:46 [SPEAKER_02]: We made it this far and some of those old friends are going into the government with him.
29:46 --> 29:47 [SPEAKER_02]: It's just kind of a cool thing.
29:47 --> 29:52 [SPEAKER_02]: You can see it's an epitice and maybe, but they were, they fought hard to get there and they were enjoying that lunch.
29:52 --> 29:54 [SPEAKER_02]: I bet it was a very special lunch, you know?
29:55 --> 30:01 [SPEAKER_02]: headlines begin to spring up because Garfield made it clear he was going to be going to church and he wanted his cabinet to go to church.
30:01 --> 30:18 [SPEAKER_02]: He pushed really hard like we're going to attend church as often as possible and it tells you the state of the country of the United States of America when an 1880 headlines are going out Garfield and cabinet people you know they're going to church on Sunday really tells you what people had not been doing or at least something's wrong there that's making headlines.
30:19 --> 30:20 [SPEAKER_02]: Complicate a man.
30:20 --> 30:22 [SPEAKER_02]: I learned a bunch of trivia about him.
30:22 --> 30:32 [SPEAKER_02]: So here's some random facts about car field and you're gonna be dropping these at your next party They're I can't even imagine the joy that will spring on their faces as you have some car field facts
30:34 --> 30:39 [SPEAKER_02]: He could write Latin in one hand and Greek in the other at the same time, while translating English.
30:40 --> 30:46 [SPEAKER_02]: So if you've spoken to him in English, he could translate it and write it down with both hands at the same time.
30:46 --> 30:47 [SPEAKER_02]: That's insane.
30:47 --> 30:48 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know how he did that.
30:49 --> 30:54 [SPEAKER_02]: He also on the side published the mathematical proof of the Pythagorean theorem, just for fun.
30:54 --> 30:59 [SPEAKER_02]: It's just in the middle of it all published the math book on the Pythagorean theorem.
31:04 --> 31:05 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what that is.
31:05 --> 31:06 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be there.
31:06 --> 31:08 [SPEAKER_02]: That's bigger than here is the A squared plus B squared.
31:08 --> 31:09 [SPEAKER_02]: You can see squared.
31:09 --> 31:11 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you remember that one?
31:11 --> 31:15 [SPEAKER_01]: I did the bare minimum math classes that I had to do to graduate.
31:16 --> 31:19 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, but certainly, you know, you've published a few books on it.
31:20 --> 31:21 [SPEAKER_02]: Eventually becomes president.
31:22 --> 31:22 [SPEAKER_02]: 2000 votes.
31:22 --> 31:23 [SPEAKER_02]: That's all it took.
31:23 --> 31:26 [SPEAKER_02]: That was the difference between him and the other candidate.
31:26 --> 31:28 [SPEAKER_02]: And 8.9 million vote cast elections.
31:28 --> 31:28 [SPEAKER_02]: So very narrow.
31:29 --> 31:30 [SPEAKER_02]: Very close election there.
31:31 --> 31:43 [SPEAKER_02]: He was a complicated man in many different areas and I someone's going to go ahead and say you didn't make this joke So I will go ahead and tell you he probably liked lasagna, but no, he's not an orange cat even though He keeps saying the name Garfield.
31:43 --> 31:48 [SPEAKER_02]: I know there's some some listener someone out there who's waiting for us to say that so we got it out of your way.
31:48 --> 31:48 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
31:48 --> 31:49 [SPEAKER_02]: All right
31:49 --> 31:54 [SPEAKER_02]: When he died, those same Christian friends from the inauguration lunch shared the following at his funeral event.
31:54 --> 31:57 [SPEAKER_02]: Back at that Christian school, they had a big morning of it for him.
31:57 --> 32:07 [SPEAKER_02]: And the memorial event, one of those friends from that inauguration lunch set, it is left to us to adjust ourselves to a life that no longer contains living with Garfield.
32:07 --> 32:09 [SPEAKER_02]: And he meant that in a good way, not like, oh, live here with Garfield.
32:09 --> 32:11 [SPEAKER_02]: He's like, we don't have a living Garfield anymore.
32:11 --> 32:16 [SPEAKER_02]: Another one of those guys said using words to describe it and the impact on their church and people.
32:17 --> 32:25 [SPEAKER_02]: Now that he has gone in a visionless flood, I feel like using the words to the disciples who came from them as, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the way.
32:26 --> 32:31 [SPEAKER_02]: One of the very sweet, what a very sweet, so, you know, that just connection from the old ministry friends all the way down to the end.
32:31 --> 32:33 [SPEAKER_02]: They're like, oh my gosh, he's gone.
32:33 --> 32:33 [SPEAKER_02]: I can't believe it.
32:34 --> 32:36 [SPEAKER_02]: And you can just hear the love they have for these guys.
32:36 --> 32:39 [SPEAKER_02]: You don't see this with Woodrow Wilson.
32:39 --> 32:44 [SPEAKER_02]: Now listen to the sermon to remember Garfield by that earlier Pastor John Chester.
33:01 --> 33:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Though he is dead, he still speaks.
33:05 --> 33:06 [SPEAKER_00]: He brews 11-4.
33:07 --> 33:12 [SPEAKER_00]: God has seen fit to visit our nation with a season of profound sorrow.
33:13 --> 33:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Today, a great nation mourns around the coffin of its murdered president.
33:19 --> 33:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Other nations look on from afar with the sympathy perhaps unmatched in all of history.
33:25 --> 33:30 [SPEAKER_00]: It would be impossible to turn our thoughts away from this overwhelming event, nor should we try.
33:31 --> 33:38 [SPEAKER_00]: The Christian Sabbath is the very time to reflect on an event through which God so clearly speaks to an entire nation.
33:39 --> 33:47 [SPEAKER_00]: The life of President Garfield offers so many important lessons that the word spoken of Abel can truly be applied to him.
33:47 --> 33:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Though he is dead, he still speaks.
33:51 --> 33:56 [SPEAKER_00]: These words were first spoken in connection with the earliest murder recorded in Scripture.
33:57 --> 34:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Able, while faithfully carrying out his duties, was struck down by a man whose heart was filled with evil and hatred.
34:06 --> 34:08 [SPEAKER_00]: So, too, our late President fell.
34:09 --> 34:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Able's name has been remembered with honor throughout history, and so the name of James A. Garfield will be remembered and cherished by generations to come.
34:19 --> 34:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Just as Abel's life continues to teach valuable lessons to those who follow him, so too were the life of our president continue to speak to future generations.
34:30 --> 34:45 [SPEAKER_00]: That life was so admirable, so devoted to meeting the needs of others, and so closely connected with religion, statesmanship, and education, that it is difficult to choose which of its many virtues to highlight.
34:46 --> 34:51 [SPEAKER_00]: I will, however, focus on three of the most outstanding features of his character.
34:52 --> 35:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Though he is dead, he still speaks to us about the possibilities available to every American young person through faith, integrity, and hard work.
35:03 --> 35:10 [SPEAKER_00]: He began life with none of the advantages of wealth, social standing, or influential connections.
35:10 --> 35:15 [SPEAKER_00]: The education he received was paid for by his own, hard-earned wages.
35:16 --> 35:22 [SPEAKER_00]: The influence he eventually gained came entirely through his own ability and character.
35:23 --> 35:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Yet, step by step, he rose until he reached the highest office in the nation, and the American people recognized him as a man of exceptional strength of character and remarkable intellectual ability.
35:37 --> 35:52 [SPEAKER_00]: There was, however, one priceless advantage he possessed in his youth, the influence and example of godly parents, or, more accurately, of a godly mother, since his father died when James was still an infant.
35:53 --> 36:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Anyone who carefully studies the life of President Garfield will find that the foundation of his greatness was laid in the religious training he received from his mother.
36:07 --> 36:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Every day, she instructed them from God's Word, as one of his biographers wrote, young Garfield lived in an atmosphere of religious thought.
36:18 --> 36:20 [SPEAKER_00]: But his parents did more than teach him.
36:20 --> 36:23 [SPEAKER_00]: They also set an example worthy of imitation.
36:23 --> 36:27 [SPEAKER_00]: His father carved a home out of the wilderness with his own axe.
36:28 --> 36:37 [SPEAKER_00]: His mother, spun the yarn, wove the cloth, prepared the family's simple meals, and even worked alongside her sons in the fields when necessary.
36:38 --> 36:48 [SPEAKER_00]: Together, their lives seemed to tell their son, James, if you want to become a good and great man, you must live rightly and work diligently.
36:49 --> 37:00 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that whatever this nation owes to James A. Garfield, it owes first to this kind of parental training, training built on two great principles, faith and hard work.
37:01 --> 37:08 [SPEAKER_00]: The results could be seen in his noble character, his commanding intellect, and his strong healthy constitution.
37:09 --> 37:21 [SPEAKER_00]: It is as though President Garfield, though dead, still speaks to every parent and child in this nation, saying, plants the truths of God's Word and your children's hearts while they are young.
37:22 --> 37:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Teach them that work is a necessary and honorable part of life.
37:26 --> 37:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Raise them to be self-reliant and they will grow into good and great men and women.
37:32 --> 37:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Could it be that one of God's purposes in allowing this death was to remind our nation of this very truth at such a crucial time?
37:42 --> 37:44 [SPEAKER_00]: We are rapidly becoming a wealthy nation.
37:44 --> 37:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Modern inventions continue to make life easier and reduce the need for physical labor.
37:50 --> 37:55 [SPEAKER_00]: public opinion and increasingly values intellectual work over manual labor.
37:56 --> 37:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, is too often treated as a mark of honor.
37:59 --> 38:02 [SPEAKER_00]: While poverty is regarded as something shameful.
38:03 --> 38:16 [SPEAKER_00]: Yet, in God's providence, the attention and admiration of the world have been drawn to a man who, in every meaningful sense, made himself a man who rose from working on a canal boat
38:19 --> 38:31 [SPEAKER_00]: through his life, he speaks to every young person, urging them to trust both God and the abilities God has given them if they desire to become men and women of noble character.
38:32 --> 38:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, he speaks not only through the example of his life, but also through his own words.
38:39 --> 38:44 [SPEAKER_00]: From the very nature of our government, the path to honorable distinction is open to everyone.
38:45 --> 38:49 [SPEAKER_00]: No position of honor is so high that the poorest boy cannot attain it.
38:49 --> 39:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Every American takes pride in the fact that many of the names we cherish most, names that stir our hearts whenever they are spoken, belonged to sons of poverty, who overcame obscurity and became shining stars in our nation's history.
39:06 --> 39:11 [SPEAKER_00]: As we remember President Garfield today, let us also remember this truth.
39:11 --> 39:23 [SPEAKER_00]: The character of our citizens and the stability of our nation's institutions depend upon an education that develops the whole person morally, intellectually, and physically.
39:24 --> 39:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Faith, integrity, and hard work are the foundation stones upon which true American character is built.
39:33 --> 39:43 [SPEAKER_00]: My prayer today is that every boy and girl will take to heart the lesson taught by our President's life and resolve to climb the ladder of success only by these steps.
39:44 --> 39:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Christian integrity and diligent labor.
39:48 --> 39:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Once again, though he is dead, he still speaks to us this time about our duty of patriotism.
39:57 --> 40:04 [SPEAKER_00]: President Garfield was always a patriot and never, in the truest sense of the word, merely a partisan.
40:05 --> 40:12 [SPEAKER_00]: It is partly because of this that people from every political persuasion now join together in mourning his death.
40:13 --> 40:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Even in Congress, some of his closest personal friends were men who disagreed with him politically.
40:19 --> 40:22 [SPEAKER_00]: His patriotism was guided by conscience.
40:23 --> 40:31 [SPEAKER_00]: His political convictions were not driven by personal ambition, but by a sincere belief that they reflected wisdom and justice.
40:32 --> 40:40 [SPEAKER_00]: From his first public service to his last, he consistently stood with loyalty against rebellion and freedom against slavery.
40:41 --> 40:45 [SPEAKER_00]: When the union was threatened, he enlisted to defend it.
40:45 --> 40:49 [SPEAKER_00]: and his military service remains one of the brightest chapters of his life.
40:50 --> 41:02 [SPEAKER_00]: His willingness to place his country's welfare above his own ambitions was beautifully demonstrated when he remained in the house of representatives, even though he could have been elected to the Senate.
41:03 --> 41:10 [SPEAKER_00]: He did so at the personal request of President Hayes, who believed Garfield could better serve the nation where he was.
41:11 --> 41:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Even when he was nominated for the presidency, Garfield protested the use of his name, believing that others were more deserving of the office.
41:20 --> 41:26 [SPEAKER_00]: He lived, and ultimately died, not for James A. Garfield, but for his country.
41:27 --> 41:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Surely, if there is ever a time when we need to hear this message, it is now.
41:33 --> 41:37 [SPEAKER_00]: For many years, the fires of political ambition have threatened to
41:41 --> 41:45 [SPEAKER_00]: The pursuit of public office has too often replaced genuine love of country.
41:47 --> 41:51 [SPEAKER_00]: Bitter political conflict has threatened the stability of our institutions.
41:52 --> 41:57 [SPEAKER_00]: Party hatred has resorted to increasingly shameful tactics to destroy opponents.
41:58 --> 42:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Reputations have been attacked, forged documents have been used to spread falsehoods,
42:08 --> 42:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Our late president was not spared these attacks, yet his character withstood every accusation.
42:16 --> 42:23 [SPEAKER_00]: And today the contempt of the nation rests upon those who created and spread those false charges.
42:24 --> 42:33 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank God that for the moment, the struggle for office and the bitterness of party politics stand humbled in the presence of our nation's great sorrow.
42:34 --> 42:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Yet I fear that once the scenes surrounding his death and burial have passed, those same forces may once again raise their serpent-like heads to wound and divide.
42:46 --> 42:49 [SPEAKER_00]: God forbid that this should happen.
42:50 --> 42:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Surely, if there was ever a time when our political leaders should lay aside partisan loyalties and become true patriots, it is now.
43:00 --> 43:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Not only the interests of the government, but the desires of the people themselves demanded.
43:05 --> 43:11 [SPEAKER_00]: They are weary of endless political battles over power and office, with a long
43:16 --> 43:20 [SPEAKER_00]: One of the noblest things to come from our president's final days is this.
43:21 --> 43:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Around his sick bed and around his coffin, the nation, whether it is north and south, east and west, it has joined, hands and united hearts.
43:33 --> 43:46 [SPEAKER_00]: even that most noble of Queens, Queen Victoria, has, as it were, reached across the ocean to lay upon his coffin, a tribute of respect for the dead and sympathy for the American people.
43:48 --> 44:03 [SPEAKER_00]: If England, whose defeat at Yorktown we are about to commemorate, if England, once our enemy, can join hands with us over President Garfield's coffin, then surely north and south east and west can do the same.
44:05 --> 44:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Let us say together, while remaining true to our own convictions, while faithfully supporting the principles we believe in.
44:14 --> 44:23 [SPEAKER_00]: And while working for the success of our own political party, let us unite in one common love and one common effort for the good of the whole nation.
44:25 --> 44:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Let us bury with our president, every sectional division and every bitterness of party spirit.
44:34 --> 44:40 [SPEAKER_00]: For even now, it is as though President Garfield still speaks to us through these words he
44:44 --> 44:48 [SPEAKER_00]: I look forward with joy and hope to the day when our brave people.
44:49 --> 45:07 [SPEAKER_00]: United in heart and in their love of freedom and peace will recognize that the darkness through which we have passed was only part of the stern but gracious discipline by which the great ruler of history has been leading us to a higher and noblur national life.
45:14 --> 45:18 [SPEAKER_00]: This time, bearing a noble witness to the truth of the Christian faith.
45:20 --> 45:23 [SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Garfield appears to have been a Christian from his youth.
45:24 --> 45:33 [SPEAKER_00]: At the age of 18, he joined the church, and from that time until his death, he remained a respected member of the church of the disciples.
45:33 --> 45:39 [SPEAKER_00]: He was never an ordained minister, although, in keeping with the practices of his church,
45:43 --> 45:46 [SPEAKER_00]: He was not what many would call a demonstrative Christian.
45:47 --> 45:51 [SPEAKER_00]: He preferred to express his faith more through his actions than through many words.
45:52 --> 46:04 [SPEAKER_00]: At President Garfield's funeral, his pastor Reverend Mr. Power gave clear and heartfelt testimony to Garfield's consistency, devotion, and faithful service as a Christian.
46:06 --> 46:10 [SPEAKER_00]: That address is still fresh in your minds, so I need not repeat it here.
46:11 --> 46:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, let me remind you of a few incidents from his life that reveal his constant dependence upon God.
46:18 --> 46:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Shortly after the assassination of President Lincoln, public emotions ran dangerously high.
46:25 --> 46:33 [SPEAKER_00]: An angry mob was surging through the streets of New York when Mr. Garfield appeared, waving a telegram in his hand.
46:34 --> 46:50 [SPEAKER_00]: The message announced that President Andrew Johnson had succeeded Lincoln, a development that much like the succession of our present President brought a sense of relief to the nation, then Garfield addressed the crowd.
46:50 --> 47:01 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a magnificent display of eloquence, but even more remarkable was his decision to calm and enraged people by directing their attention to God.
47:04 --> 47:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Fellow citizens, clouds and darkness around him, his prevailingistic, water and thick clouds of the sky, justice and righteousness are the foundation of his throne, mercy and truth go before him.
47:19 --> 47:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Fellow citizens, God reigns and the government in Washington still stands.
47:25 --> 47:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Those of you who heard President Garfields inaugural address will remember how he concluded it.
47:32 --> 47:40 [SPEAKER_00]: I will rely greatly upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress, and of those who share with me the responsibilities of governing.
47:41 --> 47:51 [SPEAKER_00]: Above all, to strengthen my efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and this great nation, I earnestly ask for the support and blessing of Almighty God.
47:53 --> 47:58 [SPEAKER_00]: When the nation read those words, money were thankful that we had a leader who governed in the fear of God.
47:59 --> 48:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Throughout his life, President Garfield showed a sincere desire to keep a clear conscience before God and man.
48:08 --> 48:16 [SPEAKER_00]: One of his most memorable statements, which deserves to be remembered by every public servant, beautifully illustrates this commitment.
48:17 --> 48:22 [SPEAKER_00]: I have represented a congressional district whose approval I greatly desired.
48:23 --> 48:28 [SPEAKER_00]: But there was one person's approval I desired even more, and his name was Garfield.
48:29 --> 48:34 [SPEAKER_00]: He is the one man I must sleep with, eat with, live with, and die with.
48:34 --> 48:38 [SPEAKER_00]: If I could not have his approval, I would have very poor company.
48:39 --> 48:42 [SPEAKER_00]: But what is this but the very teaching of scripture?
48:48 --> 48:54 [SPEAKER_00]: It is also fitting to remember with gratitude that no stain rested upon the private character of our late president.
48:55 --> 49:00 [SPEAKER_00]: While living in the White House, his family displayed the qualities of a truly Christian home.
49:01 --> 49:14 [SPEAKER_00]: He was a devoted son in his love for his mother, a devoted husband in his tender care for his wife, and a devoted father who raised his children with simplicity, honesty, and a strong work ethic.
49:15 --> 49:20 [SPEAKER_00]: The American people took pride in having a leader whose personal character was above reproach.
49:21 --> 49:30 [SPEAKER_00]: Even now, though he is dead, he still speaks to us about the importance of joining good character with public office.
49:31 --> 49:39 [SPEAKER_00]: He reminds us that those who govern should be men and women whose private lives reflect the same integrity they are expected to show in public service.
49:40 --> 49:44 [SPEAKER_00]: people who honor the responsibilities of both the home and the nation.
49:45 --> 50:02 [SPEAKER_00]: It is a comforting thought that at this moment in history, the two greatest nations in the world were led by rulers of exemplary private character, the United States by a man who was a model husband and father and great-britten by a woman who was a model wife and mother.
50:03 --> 50:12 [SPEAKER_00]: And thank God, we have every reason to believe that the man who has now become our president possesses these same noble qualities.
50:13 --> 50:22 [SPEAKER_00]: May this nation continue to present to the world a leader who was honored both for his personal character and for his integrity in office.
50:23 --> 50:27 [SPEAKER_00]: The great question before us today is this, will our nation?
50:29 --> 50:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Listen to the voice that still speaks to the memory of our departed president.
50:36 --> 50:40 [SPEAKER_00]: As a nation, we seem to stand at a decisive moment in our history.
50:41 --> 50:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Until now, we have steadily grown in strength, influence, and honor.
50:48 --> 50:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Will we continue to rise or will we turn back?
50:57 --> 51:07 [SPEAKER_00]: will we experience continued growth or fall into disintegration, will we choose unity and peace or division and conflict?
51:09 --> 51:15 [SPEAKER_00]: We must not forget that the answer to these questions depends in part upon every citizen.
51:16 --> 51:24 [SPEAKER_00]: In a representative government, those who govern inevitably reflect the character and conviction
51:26 --> 51:34 [SPEAKER_00]: This is, therefore, not only a solemn moment in our nation's history, but also in the life of every citizen.
51:36 --> 51:40 [SPEAKER_00]: One of our greatest duties at this hour is to seek God in prayer.
51:43 --> 51:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Today, we need to pray just as earnestly for our living president, as we recently prayed for our dying one.
51:52 --> 52:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Few leaders have ever been called to guide the nation during a time as solemn as that faced by our present new president.
52:01 --> 52:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Let the prayers, sympathy, and support of the entire nation be directed toward him.
52:06 --> 52:10 [SPEAKER_00]: Let members of every political party be like Aaron and her.
52:11 --> 52:16 [SPEAKER_00]: Holding up his hands while he bears the heavy responsibility of governing this great nation.
52:17 --> 52:23 [SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, let us strive to bring the lives of our people into closer obedience to God's law.
52:23 --> 52:28 [SPEAKER_00]: We must recognize that righteousness alone is the true foundation of a nation's greatness.
52:29 --> 52:33 [SPEAKER_00]: That righteousness is found in obedience to God's commands.
52:33 --> 52:36 [SPEAKER_00]: It stands against evil and seeks to restrain it.
52:37 --> 52:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Whether the criminal is an assassin who takes a person's life with deadly weapons, one who destroys lives and families by leading others into drunkenness, or one who undermines our civil liberties by stirring up bitter partisan conflict.
52:53 --> 53:02 [SPEAKER_00]: From the grave of our marted president comes a call for this nation to ensure that justice is carried out against those who commit evil.
53:03 --> 53:09 [SPEAKER_00]: Not the justice of an angry mob, but justice administered through the lawful process of the courts.
53:10 --> 53:24 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe this nation will continue to bear the stain of innocent blood, crying out to God as Abel's blood did, until the man who caused our president's death has been lawfully convicted and sentenced according to justice.
53:25 --> 53:35 [SPEAKER_00]: In just a few hours, the body of our late president will be laid to rest amid the quiet, profound and reverent morning of the civilized world.
53:36 --> 53:49 [SPEAKER_00]: In time, a monument of marble may be raised over his grave, but an even greater monument has already been built in his memory, one that will endure long after marble has crumbled into dust.
53:50 --> 53:53 [SPEAKER_00]: It is a monument made of countless living stones.
53:54 --> 54:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Each stone is the respect, love, and sympathy found in the hearts of millions of honorable people.
54:06 --> 54:21 [SPEAKER_00]: but the love that surrounds his memory will, in his own words spoken in memory of President Lincoln, endure until the last syllable of recorded time when the book of human history is closed and placed in the hands of the Almighty Judge.
54:23 --> 54:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Go to the grave in the fullness of your strength.
54:26 --> 54:32 [SPEAKER_00]: While your zeal and service are still at their height, a Christian never dies before God's appointed time.
54:33 --> 54:36 [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord alone determines the hour of His servant.
54:37 --> 54:46 [SPEAKER_00]: go to the grave, lay down your labor at midday, rest beside the harvest you have gathered for your work is finished.
54:47 --> 54:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Come in peace from the heat of battle.
54:50 --> 54:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Soldier, go home, your fight is one.
54:55 --> 54:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Go to the grave which faithfully keeps its trust,
55:03 --> 55:10 [SPEAKER_00]: their your body rests safely guarded until the day of judgment sleeping in Jesus.
55:11 --> 55:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Go to the grave for your Savior Himself lay there, embracing death before He rose in triumph, and all who have been redeemed must pass by that same narrow path into ever-lasting life beyond the heavens.
55:27 --> 55:42 [SPEAKER_00]: No, rather, take your place above, let your pure spirit be with the Lord, where faith has become sight, hope has become perfect love, and the written word is seen, face to face.
55:54 --> 55:59 [SPEAKER_02]: President Garfield, being passed away, very short administration, only a few months in office.
55:59 --> 56:00 [SPEAKER_02]: He wasn't, again, not a perfect man.
56:01 --> 56:10 [SPEAKER_02]: But I really do feel like, listening, looking at his funeral, a sermon, looking at, that was in his funeral, a sermon, looking at the sermon, remembering his life here, looking at what he was.
56:10 --> 56:14 [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's a good reminder of what Christian, what Christians should be looking for.
56:14 --> 56:16 [SPEAKER_02]: What, what do we, you know, politics is a big deal.
56:17 --> 56:19 [SPEAKER_02]: Everyone's always got lots of opinions and thoughts.
56:19 --> 56:23 [SPEAKER_02]: But one thing we should be aiming for is men like Garfield.
56:24 --> 56:32 [SPEAKER_02]: We had another one of these guys become presidents people that who's when they when they die The church is mourning because this person died.
56:32 --> 56:39 [SPEAKER_02]: How cool would it be again to see a president make his way to the top where headline scream out he Goes to church on Sunday.
56:40 --> 56:42 [SPEAKER_02]: How cool would it be to see something like this again?
56:42 --> 56:49 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I think that we've gotten so used to just the politicians that we have that may be seeing that you know Once a long time ago
56:50 --> 57:01 [SPEAKER_02]: this was it was surprising to the world that a Christian got his way a preaching Christian got his way to the White House and he was going to do some good died young but he was going to do some good the only he wasn't super old by the way.
57:01 --> 57:02 [SPEAKER_02]: I would be cool to see that kind of thing again.
57:03 --> 57:04 [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe maybe it will happen.
57:04 --> 57:12 [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe if Christians start looking forward getting involved and all that I'm not we're not a politics stock let me say if you maybe we could see another this happened again in our life.
57:12 --> 57:13 [SPEAKER_02]: I was very least.
57:14 --> 57:29 [SPEAKER_02]: We're told in Timothy to pray for Timothy chapter two prayer for our leaders and maybe if we start there and then maybe if we do our best and we pray about it and we we try to encourage the right people maybe you know maybe sometime we can say look church we know we're excited we're writing maybe we can have the same feelings.
57:30 --> 57:33 [SPEAKER_02]: for our future present that these guys had for Garfield.
57:33 --> 57:34 [SPEAKER_02]: That thing would be pretty cool.
57:35 --> 57:37 [SPEAKER_02]: I think a lot of us would be really blessed to see that again, maybe.
57:38 --> 57:40 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm sending it because out there's somebody's listening going, oh, that'll never happen.
57:40 --> 57:41 [SPEAKER_02]: I like to know what?
57:42 --> 57:51 [SPEAKER_02]: After the Civil War, people who didn't see it happening and yet a guy who would to church on Sundays and made headlines, if it happened, then I do think maybe it can happen again.
58:03 --> 58:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening to today's episode of Revive Foss.
58:08 --> 58:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Big thanks to Nick Garland for narrating this sermon on this episode of Revive Foss.
58:13 --> 58:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Big thanks Nick.
58:15 --> 58:20 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, if you enjoyed this episode, maybe it's a different perspective on politics and stuff like that than you're used to.
58:21 --> 58:26 [SPEAKER_02]: Send it to a friend, let somebody know, share what we do here at Oviathots and the much effort and work we put in.
58:27 --> 58:33 [SPEAKER_02]: It might be just a thing, so many needs to listen to to give them an outside the box perspective on what a president could be, what politics can be.
58:34 --> 58:35 [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's pretty interesting.
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58:52 --> 58:54 [SPEAKER_02]: This is Troy and Joel and this is Revive Thoughts.