Several years ago I noticed some flying bugs on edge of the front window of our house. I couldn’t figure out where they’d come from; but each morning there they were as if they had taken up residence. That was enough to scare me into calling my friend the “bug guy”.
We’d been lucky, so to speak, in that we’d caught them right as they’d decided to attack our house rather than later on when they would have wreaked havoc. Even so, in a short time they had gotten inside two of the wall supports next to the window. Those boards were removed, replaced and a careful inspection of the surrounding wood determined they had gone no further. Termite bait stations were installed to protect from further infestations and have been maintained regularly since then.
We’d wanted to do some home improvements in the dining room; this was the trigger to set all that in motion. Our beautiful living area is the result of acting on a threat and then making those repairs necessary. I posted on this here , here and here .
Enough about home repairs; Aurora over at The Midnight Sun recently posted an article which should remind us that America should be more aware of the threat from within rather than being overly concerned by external forces; not to say that those external forces should be ignored or taken lightly, only to say that our own worst enemy may be waving an American Flag. ( some of those flags have 50 stars while others reportedly have as many as 57 )
These warnings were given 140 years ago. The fulfillment is now. We are living witnesses, unless we are blinded by our own complacency and the craftiness of evil men. No, those aren’t my words and I normally would have put quotation marks around them to alert you; but they sound exactly as if I had said them so I led you down the garden path for just a moment. I “borrowed” that line from a talk, Watchman, Warn the Wicked, given and recorded by Ezra Taft Benson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, in July of 1973, more than five years before I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
There were so many similarities to the information found in that talk by Elder Benson; sentiments which I attempt to share here in my blog as to make me wonder how much influence my having read such talks has had upon my thoughts and my writings.
In the crisis through which we are now passing, we have been fully warned. This has brought forth some criticism. There are some of us who do not want to hear the message. It embarrasses us. The things which are threatening our lives, our welfare, our freedoms are the very things some of us have been condoning. Many do not want to be disturbed as they continue to enjoy their comfortable complacency.
I did it again, that last line should also have quotation marks; but they are no different than what I’ve been spouting all this time so I will claim them as if I’d said them; is that plagiarism or simply acquiring that which if desirable?
“We live in an age of appeasement—the sacrificing of principle. Appeasement is not the answer. It is never the right answer.
One of these modern Church watchmen has given this sound warning:
“A milk-and-water allegiance kills; while a passionate devotion gives life and soul to any cause and its adherents. The troubles of the world may largely be laid at the doors of those who are neither hot nor cold; who always follow the line of least resistance; whose timid hearts flutter at taking sides for truth. As in the great Council in the heavens, so in the Church of Christ on earth, there can be no neutrality. We are, or we are not, on the side of the Lord. An unrelenting faith, contemptuous of all compromise, will lead the Church and every member of it, to triumph and the achievement of our high destiny.”
I have to wonder about the crop ( alternate spelling is optional ) of elected representatives going hither and yon promising anything that might get them one more vote rather than standing upright; a better example of milk and water allegiance you will never find. Each time we elect one of these termites they eat at our foundations, the structures which hold America above the rest of the world.
Make no mistake; the rest of the world would dearly love to watch America fail. Their contempt for our abundance and our way of life must leave a terrible bitterness each time they are forced to swallow such a pill. What is it that makes them envy us?
"The United States of America has been great because it has been free. It has been free because it has trusted in God and was founded upon the principles of freedom set forth in the word of God. This nation has a spiritual foundation. To me, this land has a prophetic history."
"In the year 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville, the famous French historian, came to our country at the request of the French government to study our penal institutions. He also made a close study of our political and social institutions. In less than ten years, de Tocqueville had become world-famous, as the result of the four-volume work that he wrote, entitled Democracy in America. Here is his own stirring explanation of the greatness of America:”
“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
My thanks to Elder Ezra Taft Benson, posthumously, for speaking the truth and for standing up for what is right. May we all be Watchmen willing to warn the wicked, willing to share the simple truths which make America the greatest nation on the face of the planet. We, as a nation and individually, are only strong through our obedience to the laws of Heaven. Our integrity and our character make us who we are, all the rest is window dressing.
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