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Chapter II
How America Became The Cradle For the Second
Coming of the Christ
Puritans Become Pilgrims
One of the least materialistic and therefore most persecuted
religious groups in England during the early 1600's was the Puritans. Why were
they called Puritans? They were called Puritans because they hoped to restore
Christianity to its "ancient purity." Because they sought to separate
themselves from the temptations of the world, some of them came to be called
"Separatists."
Hoping to find a place where they could worship without fear of
persecution, a group of Puritan Separatists took temporary refuge in Holland.
Among the Dutch the persecution was less, but these Puritans found themselves
still surrounded by secular pressures and temptations. After a short time,
perhaps a dozen years, they decided to move to the New World to America, the
vast land across the Atlantic Ocean journey of faith that would earn them the
name Pilgrims.
The Pilgrims Leave Holland
For the voyage back to England the Pilgrims purchased a small ship
named Speedwell. It is interesting to note that "Speedwell" is a common name
for the flower "Veronica" which is connected with the legends of St. Veronica,
who was believed to have wiped the face of Jesus on his way to the cross,
receiving the imprint of his face on her kerchief.
A "chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as
recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based
on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof" describes the
Pilgrim's departure from Holland on the first leg of their voyage:
So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which
had been their resting place for above eleven years, but they knew that they
were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things,
but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath
prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their
spirits.
When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all
things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed
after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their
leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with
friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of
true Christian love.
The next day they went on board, and their friends with them,
where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear
what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did
gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other's heart, that sundry
of the Dutch strangers that stood on the Key as spectators could not refrain
from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were
thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and
they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with the most fervent
prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many
tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave
to many of them.
The Pilgrim's tearful departure from
Holland
Farewell to England
The good ship Speedwell carried its passengers safely back to
England where they assembled in July of 1620 to make their final plans for the
daring venture. At the insistence of the financial backers of the voyage, the
Pilgrims were joined by other farmers and tradesmen, who also sought a better
life in America. A second ship, the Mayflower, was acquired and William
Bradford became the group's leader. When all was ready the Pilgrims boarded two
ships, but it quickly became obvious that the Speedwell was not seaworthy for
the longer trip to America. It leaked so badly it had to be abandoned, and its
passengers crowded onto the Mayflower.
On September 16th, 1620, the Mayflower, crammed with 102 Pilgrims
and other passengers seeking a new life in America, sailed from Plymouth,
England "into the pages of history."
The departure caused little stir. Great things often happen when
we do not realize it. One night angels sang over the Bethlehem hillsides and
only a few shepherds heard it and were led to the stable where Jesus was born.
Centuries later in 1775, when Paul Revere set out on his midnight ride, who
knew that "the fate of the nation was riding that night?" Just so, in 1620,
when the Mayflower pulled away from English shores, no one knew that a
new era was beginning.
The Crossing
The horrible overcrowding of the small Mayflower made the Atlantic
crossing a nightmare. Midway across the Atlantic the Mayflower was engulfed in
a storm that terribly threatened the vessel. Huge waves tossed the boat about,
heaving and writhing under shrieking, screaming winds that threatened to tear
the masts from the deck. Seasick passengers shivered below decks, wondering if
the gigantic waves would topple the ship.
"He who hesitates is lost," says the old adage. At this moment,
considering the trials they endured and those still ahead, the Pilgrims might
have been tempted to say, "He who hesitates is probably right." But the
Pilgrims did not hesitate. The Mayflower sailed on and the fate of a
nation, the destiny of untold millions yet unborn, sailed with them.
Land!
On November 19, 1620, a shout went up: "Land!" Everyone rushed on
deck. Barely visible many miles away a strip of shoreline could be seen. The
Pilgrims dropped to their knees and wept with joy, thanking God. After
sixty-six days and nights on the Atlantic, God had delivered them to the New
World.
Two days later the vessel reached Provincetown Bay in
Massachusetts. As the ship found its way to the vast bay and dropped anchor the
Pilgrims saw stretching before them a dark forbidding wall of forest.
As the icy winds of winter swept down from the north, the weary
voyagers discovered that the two-month voyage of rough seas and bitter winds
had taken them far north of their expected destination in the Virginia
colonies. They were far from home, with no one to greet them, no friendly house
to enter. As Nathaniel Morton's chronicle describes the scene:
Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before
them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to
entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to
seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the
winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and
fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown
coasts.
Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate
wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them
there were they knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save
upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of
any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with
a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets,
represented a wild and savage hew.
If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which
they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulch to separate them from all
civil parts of the world.
Some of the party wanted to continue south but they were
overruled; these visionary pioneers had an appointment with destiny and they
stood fast.
The Mayflower Compact
The 102 settlers aboard the Mayflower hold a rightly revered place
in the history of America. Before disembarking, before even setting foot on the
new land, these settlers blazed a new trail in participatory government, a
trail that would guide a new nation toward democracy.
On November 21, 1620, the Pilgrims and other colonists met in the
cabin of the ship and forty-one men signed an agreement that became known as
the Mayflower Compact. This was the earliest attempt at self-government
in the New World. (Because women had few legal rights in those days, only men
signed the Compact.) The forty-one signers, in eight sentences,
brought to flower the religious and political thinking of generations when they
agreed to elect men to rule over them whom they would, by consent, obey. This
was the first little step toward the Constitution of the United States of
America.
The Vision of the Pilgrims
Question: What vision guided the Pilgrims aboard the
Mayflower when 379 years ago they landed in America? What was it that
brought them to the shores of the New World?
Answer: Divine Love was preparing a place for the second
coming of the Christ.
The Pilgrims had a vision of hope, a vision of freedom. They hoped
to form a nation where the government would be established according to the
Scriptures.
They had endured much and had a fair understanding of how they
wished to apply their understanding of Scripture to many situations, including
civil government.
William Bradford, second governor of the Plymouth Colony, wrote in
his diary:
A great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good
foundation for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the Kingdom of
Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even
as steppingstones unto others for the performing of so great a work.
(William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation: 16061646 ed.
William T. Davis, p. 46)
Verily, they were a "stepping stone" to the
eventual founding in human consciousness of the second coming of the Christ,
when they drew up and signed the document today called the Mayflower
Compact.
Signing of the Mayflower Compact, 1620
Artist: Percy Moran
Courtesy of the
Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Mass.
Their Mayflower Compact, signed Nov. 21, 1620, before the
settlers even stepped ashore at Plymouth Rock, reads:
"In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are
underwritten....having undertaken for THE GLORY OF GOD AND ADVANCEMENT OF THE
CHRISTIAN FAITH...a Voyage to plant the first Colony....Do by these
Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and of one another,
covenant and combine ourselves into a civil body Politick....In Witness whereof
we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of
November...Anno Domini 1620."
The Mayflower Compact constituted the signers and their
families as a body politic. In eight short sentences it made a covenant with
God and each other to found a colony for His glory. The eventual outgrowth of
this little seed of Christian faith, called the Mayflower Compact, would
be the United States Constitution with laws that would ensure
liberty and freedom of religion for all.
These freedoms could only come about because God's
Constitution is always unfolding. The Mayflower Compact was one
step. Another would occur in 1787 when a good example of God's
Constitution would be given word--words which like the Bible's can do
no more for mortals "than can moonbeams to melt a river of ice" without the
spiritual background and spiritual trust in good.
Guided by the hand of infinite good, the Pilgrims were helping
prepare the needed spiritual background for the second coming of the Christ.
Even their seeming misfortunes were part of the plan of divine Mind. The
Pilgrims came to the new colonies to spread the gospel; by divine intervention
they were blown off course. Had they reached the destination
man willed for them they would never have enjoyed the
religious or civic liberty God had planned for them, since the Virginia colony
had its roots deep in the hierarchical, monarch-led Church of England. Had they
not been forced to face the wilderness relying only on each other they might
never have written the Mayflower Compact. An "indispensable step" would
have been lost.
The Pilgrims Land
Following the signing of the Mayflower Compact, the weary
voyagers sent out scouting parties along the coast, looking for a good place to
settle. On December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims reached Plymouth and on December 30
a boatload of Pilgrims climbed off the ship and stepped onto Plymouth soil.
Only curious Indians lurked in the woods. Snow swirled at the Pilgrims' feet,
and the land looked hostile and desolate as icy winds howled in the bare
trees.
The Pilgrims' first act in the New World was to give thanks.
William Bradford, describing the first landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth
that December, writes:
Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to
land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought
them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from the perils and
miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth.... What
could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and
wild men--and what multitudes there might be of them they knew not. The season
it was winter, sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms. What
could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His
grace?
Of the Pilgrims' landing Mary Baker Eddy writes:
On shores of solitude, at Plymouth Rock, they planted a
nation's heart,the rights of conscience, imperishable glory. No dream of
avarice or ambition broke their exalted purpose, theirs was the wish to reign
in hope's reality--the realm of Love. (Pul. 10:10)
When first the Pilgrims planted their feet on Plymouth Rock,
frozen ritual and creed should forever have melted away in the fire of love
which came down from heaven.
The Pilgrims came to establish a nation in true freedom, in
the rights of conscience. (Mis. 176:20)
Perhaps some readers of this book will remember memorizing (in
grade school) Felicia Heman's poem, regarding the Pilgrims' landing:
And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o'er,
When a band of exiles moored
their bark
On the wild New England shore
Aye, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod!
They have left unstained what there
they found
Freedom to worship God!
The Bitter First Winter
The settler's first winter in the New World was a saga of terrible
suffering. When the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth in December, many were sick.
The few able bodied among them had to build huts. Rowing from the Mayflower
to shore they had to wade the last few yards through frigid waters. In wet
wool and canvas clothing they labored on the frozen, snow covered ground from
dawn till dark, cutting trees for log huts. Gradually the Pilgrims moved from
the cold Mayflower into these even colder log huts.
Food was scarce. Nearly half of the Pilgrims, including their
first governor, John Carver, died of cold, disease or malnutrition. The other
half were so weakened by hunger they scarcely had the strength to bury the
dead. This must have stunned and demoralized at least some of these valiant
Pilgrims.
The Pilgrims also lived in terror of being attacked by the Indians
with whom they had not yet become friendly. They buried their dead at night so
the Indians wouldn't become aware of how few Pilgrims were left, as they feared
this might encourage the Indians to attack. (The Indians had ample reason to
hate Europeans, but that is another story.)
Samoset and Squanto
At last, in March of 1621, the Pilgrims' steadfast trust in God
was rewarded. An Indian named Samoset visited the
 Pilgrims. He had learned a few words of English from English sea
captains with whom he had traded goods, and had even sailed with them on their
ships.
Samoset brought the settlers an invaluable blessing; he introduced
them to Squanto, an Indian who had lived in England and understood the
newcomers' language and ways. Squanto took compassion on the settlers, even
though he himself once had been enslaved by their countrymen. He gave the
Pilgrims corn and helped them plant it. He taught the colonists how to grow
other crops, and how to hunt and fish.
Samoset befriends the Puritans
Survival was the major issue of that first year, but with
Squanto's help the Pilgrims hung on until the fall crops brought in a good
harvest.
The First Thanksgiving
In autumn of 1621, with another winter approaching, instead of
begging God for more blessing, the Pilgrims'
 profound
faith in God led Governor William Bradford to set aside a day for public
Thanksgiving in gratitude for the blessings already received. The Pilgrims were
heeding the many Bible references to the importance of "thanksgiving."
History tells us that Chief Massosoit was invited. He brought 60
braves, 5 dressed deer and a dozen wild turkeys. Even popcorn helped to
celebrate this first great Thanksgiving Day, which lasted three whole days, so
deep felt and abounding was their gratitude to God.
Squanto helped the Pilgrims survive their first grim years at
Plymouth Colony. His wonderful work with the Pilgrims brought a relationship of
peace and helpfulness between the settlers and the Indians that would last more
than fifty years.
Squanto shows Puritans how to plant
crops.
Seeking freedom of the spirit, the Pilgrims courageously carved a
home out of what must have seemed a fierce, ruthless, ferocious, unyielding,
relentless and forbidding territory, that the Bible (Rev. 12:6) calls
"the wilderness" that "the woman fled into," in fulfillment of prophecy.
(See S&H 565:29.)
The Mayflower brought a wonderful breed of human beings to
America. Longfellow in his poem about Miles Standish, writes, "God sifted out a
hundred and two seeds from the civilization of Europe to plant a new nation on
these shores."
What did they come for?
The Pilgrims came for one purpose--the propagation of the gospel.
The Mayflower's passengers were just middle-class people--unpretentious
tradesmen, farmers and laborers--but they were strong, rugged, and determined.
Far from home, put out in icy November with no houses, no food, and with the
specter of fearsome Indians and wild animals hiding in the woods, they
made it. No one should sneer at the rugged individualism that built
this country and the rugged way this country was founded.
The Pilgrims created a path for all to follow. Many years later
William Bradford said, "As one small candle may light a thousand, so the life
here kindled (in Plymouth) hath shown unto many, yea, in some sort, to our
whole nation." Thus did this sturdy remnant "on shores of solitude...plant a
nation's heart--the rights of conscience, imperishable glory...their's was the
wish to reign in hope's reality--the realm of Love."
The New England Federation
America is unique. It was divinely founded to make mankind ready
for the second coming of the Christ.
The Pilgrims were just one small settlement of many that would
spring up in America, drawn by the desire to worship according to the dictates
of their own conscience. The details of their faith and their understanding of
God, infinite good, varied, but each colony had a desire for "the furtherance
of so noble a work, which may by the providence of Almighty God hereafter tend
to the glory of His divine Majesty" (Documents of American History,
p.8).
The documents establishing the governments of these early
settlements always began in a manner showing their distinctive Christian
character, such as: "Forasmuch as it has pleased the Almighty God by the wise
disposition of His divine providence...to maintain and preserve the liberty and
purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus [Christ]...which according to the truth
of the said Gospel is now practiced among us..." (Ibid. "Fundamental Orders of
Connecticut," Jan. 14, 1639).
On May 19, 1643, several of the colonies decided to get together
and draw up a document they called The New England Federation.
What did these colonies all have in common? Most of the published
material coming out of early America spoke clearly of God, Christ Jesus, and
the Holy Spirit. Their basis was I Cor. 3:11:
"For other foundations can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ."
Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and
the same end and aim, namely: to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity, with peace....
These liberties didn't come all at once. Much was learned the hard
way. An example was the Pilgrims' experiment with communal farming, which
caused them to almost starve during the first two years.
Facing their third year of starvation, the elders of Plymouth
demanded the institution of a biblically based free enterprise system in order
to prevent the total destruction of their colony.
Governor Bradford tells us in his Diary that "this made all
hands very industrious, and gave far better content...."
This solution to poverty was another beacon pointing the way. In
Bradford's words: "As one small candle may light a thousand so the light
kindled here has shown unto many, yea, in some sort, to our whole nation"
(History of Plymouth Plantation).
That light did keep on shining, and the nation kept growing and
prospering. As Saint Francis of Assisi advised: "Start by doing what's
necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the
impossible."
By 1732 America was made up of thirteen colonies. During this
first century God had blessed the colonies beyond measure. Then like a slowly
dying fire the spiritual light and faith began to dim. By the mid 1700's what
had been a blazing light had become only a faint glow. Had prosperity made them
forget God? It took the breath of God's spirit to revive our national faith--to
cause an awakening.
AMERICA book
sections
Foreword *
I * II *
III * IV *
V * VI *
VII * VIII *
IX * X *
XI * XII *
XIII * Conclusion *
Bibliography
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